So a friend of mine is interested in running some star wars games, but wants to do something non-d20 if possible and we're looking towards the old West End Games d6 stuff, that I have heard from a few people were awesome. So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?
I second the thought of awesome goodness.
If you plan to pick up the main book, then look for the "second edition, revised and expanded".
It's the one with the Millennium Falcon on the cover.
Starwars WEG info
Starwars (WEG) Fansite
So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?
I loved it until I realized that, "If you ain't a Jedi, you ain't nothin'."
Jedi's (even failed) are first tier characters. The rest are supporting cast.
If you can mitigate the above, you should have a blast.
So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?I loved it until I realized that, "If you ain't a Jedi, you ain't nothin'."
Jedi's (even failed) are first tier characters. The rest are supporting cast.
If you can mitigate the above, you should have a blast.
The effort it takes to become a Jedi is supposed to be hard to accomodate the fact they're supposed to be near extinct, thats unless you're planning to run a sith which is what I keep hearing from the Star Wars d20 games I've seen.
A few years back when they released the d20 revised version I chose to play a clone trooper when everyone else chose a jedi so I don't see it as that bad since if you were playing the game properly any non-jedi should have skills so great that it makes any Jedi look pointless.
I'm not kidding, I played in a game where I chose a non-jedi in a group of Jedi assuming it was a starting game under d6 rules unfortunately the guy running it forgot that a starting game of Star Wars assumes you're using the same rules for all characters and the common theme seems to forget that detail.
Annoys the hell out of me, to be honest. The longest running Star Wars d6 character I have is force sensitive and I made a big deal about NOT wanting to be a Jedi, the rest of the party decided that my point of view wasn't important even though I was still running the character.
The main jedi in my group was not force sensitive and had to become such and then learn all of the force skills with only one mentor during the part of the game I ran and i made a point of not letting him learn Alter since he had dark side points not that they paid any attention about that either.
Needless to say he subsequently learned the skill when he gmed the game and I had to be forced to turn my character into a Jedi and taught by Yoda, in other words the guy who then ran it decided he wanted to run his version of Star Wars namely Luke turned to the darkside in the empire strikes back...
I wish you all the best and hope you have a blast playing this!
Its a lot of fun the Jedi are very powerful but its a great game
Honestly, I prefer the Saga Edition rules, but the WEG one had a lot of cool adventures. I particularly liked "Planet of the Mists," and ran a conversion of "Scavenger Hunt" in my Saga game with great success.
-The Gneech
So overwhelming like for the most part? I have the d20 stuff except for Saga, and while I kind of like it it's just too D&D feeling for me. We have been talking about making the setting from scratch using Mutants and Masterminds though, that would definately put all characters at an equal balance as far as overall strength (we're thinking prepackages as the only "restriction" )
So overwhelming like for the most part? I have the d20 stuff except for Saga, and while I kind of like it it's just too D&D feeling for me. We have been talking about making the setting from scratch using Mutants and Masterminds though, that would definately put all characters at an equal balance as far as overall strength (we're thinking prepackages as the only "restriction" )
Yes, Def. overwhelming. D6 might be the best _role-playing_ system I've ever seen. The lack of classes gets rid of the desire to level up, and focuses on story telling.
Just don't expect to do much starship combat - the rules for that are far, far too dice intensive.
But for character scale - even with jedi (where the systen again gets clunky with the number of dice) - it rocks. I just wish I could get my current group to give it a shot.
I doubt jedi and the like will be much of an issue as the idea being pitched is rise of the empire to rbellion era. Not alot of Jedi still around, and mostly I think it will be alot of Bounty Hunter Fett wanabees and a squad of Han Solo impersonators. Personally I'm looking to play a Diplomat type who maybe branches out... or a droid (Think HK 47, but programmed to not kill :P)
Chello!
Of course, the GM doesn't have to allow Jedi characters in his game...the DarkStryder campaign setting had one force sensitive character in the group and recommended highly that the GM not allow any others (for metagame plot reasons, true, but still...)
Tony
When I played in that we had three characters each, I played the lt with the replacement arm, the bountyhunter woman and a character we all got to create ourselves, in my case it was a force sensitive pilot however there was so many players that the poor guy running it got overworked as we had air support in one sequence where it was supposed to behard and there one too many railroad sequences so it ended before we even got through the first scenario book well that and the fact it was overwhelming for the gm to run.
So we played the sample scenerio in the core book (revised 2nd) and as we all got a feel for the rules I gotta say, OUCH! This game is lethal at the very least. But man was it fun, I played a HUman Scumbag (err scoundrel :P) and we had a human noble, an ithorian force sensitive noble, a Junk protocal/combat droid, and a medical droid and mo0st of us ended up unconcious, and the medical droid was blown to smithereens... We won the day but OUCH. Going to be fun to play but man, sometimes the force just ups and f*%$s ya for no good reason :P
So a friend of mine is interested in running some star wars games, but wants to do something non-d20 if possible and we're looking towards the old West End Games d6 stuff, that I have heard from a few people were awesome. So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?
Aaaaaaaahhh... that takes me back. That's the first RPG system I ever learned, and I loved it. I read that book to pieces, in fact. I was so glad to find a copy of the 2nd edition at a used book sale, and some time soon might actually run a game or three using it.
So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?I loved it until I realized that, "If you ain't a Jedi, you ain't nothin'."
Jedi's (even failed) are first tier characters. The rest are supporting cast.
If you can mitigate the above, you should have a blast.
Very good system, I had 3 editons in the end, I think the 3rd edition was the best (had a blue cover with Vader in the middle). Sadly though the statement above is true, Jedi are WWAAAAYYYY too powerful. walking around anyone shoots at the group , the Jedi rebounds the shot, 20 stormstormtroopers shoot at the group...the Jedi rebounds the shot!!! You see where this is going.
If mods could be applied to 20 people shooting at the same Jedi then it would be a good game, well worth it.
I did run 4 campaigns in the setting and the PC's really enjoyed it but limit Jedi to one per group.
Very good system, I had 3 editons in the end, I think the 3rd edition was the best (had a blue cover with Vader in the middle). Sadly though the statement above is true, Jedi are WWAAAAYYYY too powerful. walking around anyone shoots at the group , the Jedi rebounds the shot, 20 stormstormtroopers shoot at the group...the Jedi rebounds the shot!!! You see where this is going.If mods could be applied to 20 people shooting at the same Jedi then it would be a good game, well worth it.
I did run 4 campaigns in the setting and the PC's really enjoyed it but limit Jedi to one per group.
To me, that possibility quickly explained why Boba Fett had a flame thrower.
By the way, I think storm-storm troopers should be the new name for elite storm troopers.
:)
Very good system, I had 3 editons in the end, I think the 3rd edition was the best (had a blue cover with Vader in the middle). Sadly though the statement above is true, Jedi are WWAAAAYYYY too powerful. walking around anyone shoots at the group , the Jedi rebounds the shot, 20 stormstormtroopers shoot at the group...the Jedi rebounds the shot!!! You see where this is going.If mods could be applied to 20 people shooting at the same Jedi then it would be a good game, well worth it.
I did run 4 campaigns in the setting and the PC's really enjoyed it but limit Jedi to one per group.
To me, that possibility quickly explained why Boba Fett had a flame thrower.
** spoiler omitted **
I read somewhere Fett had a force resistant net thing( not guessing it's like a fishermans net but more an electronic mesh creator. and a force restraining cell in his ship.
But the flamethrower makes sense.....parry that you damn Jedi!!!!..hehe.
I haven't yet seen a STAR WARS system I really liked and captured the feel of the movies, but the d6 system comes closest. The D20 version was a bit of a mess and felt like D&D with Rancors, which wasn't really to the group's liking. I like the D20 rules, but they just didn't fit STAR WARS.
D6's main problem is that the number of dice you roll as your character gets more powerful becomes fairly ridiculous, and even a simple combat can involve large amounts of dice-rolling. That said, because the underlying mechanics are extremely simple, it's also a very easy system to modify and house-rule as you go along.
Yes, d6 is super-awesome, it really takes away alot of the focus on "levels" and encourages getting into the setting. To respond to some things others have written:
D6's main problem is that the number of dice you roll as your character gets more powerful becomes fairly ridiculous, and even a simple combat can involve large amounts of dice-rolling. That said, because the underlying mechanics are extremely simple, it's also a very easy system to modify and house-rule as you go along.
That last line can't be stressed enough. :-)
But an easy (and obvious) way our group used to alleviate "lots of dice rolling" is to choose a "cut off" that is the maximum number of dice you want to be rolling, let's say 4 or 5. Any dice beyond that are simply converted to their average result, i.e. 3.5 (round how you wish). Instead of huge numbers of dice (at "high level"), you have 4D+15 or something like that, while not statistically being different than the rules-as-written.I loved it until I realized that, "If you ain't a Jedi, you ain't nothin'."
Jedi's (even failed) are first tier characters. The rest are supporting cast.
If you can mitigate the above, you should have a blast.
Right. But in the movies, were Jedis "equivalent" to non-Jedi's abilities? Of course not.
But there's plenty of ways to approach this, the easiest being not having any Jedis in the PC group to "outshine" non-Jedi PCs, and saving Jedi for NPCs. Another way is being strict with the Jedi training rules, and if the Jedi PC seems to be "outshining" the others, don't allow them access to a trainer until the others seem to have 'caught up'. Extending that, you could even have the NPC Jedi Trainer themselves (i.e. you as GM) CHOOSE the powers the PC Jedi will learn from them, which keeps things under more control.And if you really want, changing the "power level" of the Force Abilities is easy enough by simply modifing the DCs for Force Powers, to make them more difficult over-all (OR, approach it from the other end and increase the cost to improve the Force Skills) I think the system as-is is fine, you just want to be conscious of the fact that the Force is not an 'equivalent option' ala most RPG and Computer RPGs, but is awesome, supernatural power beyond the ken of normal men (or sentients).
Walking around anyone shoots at the group , the Jedi rebounds the shot, 20 stormstormtroopers shoot at the group...the Jedi rebounds the shot!!! You see where this is going.
If mods could be applied to 20 people shooting at the same Jedi then it would be a good game, well worth it.
Well, if a Jedi wants to deflect 20 Blaster Shots, that is 20 Actions, meaning they will be taking a -19 DIE penalty to ALL their actions for the round (assuming they have at least 20DIE to attempt that in the first place. even Darth Vader doesn't have Force Skills that high). I don't see a problem with the rules in this particular example.
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I run a starwars d6 now and love it. It as always been my favorite system for Star Wars as it captures the feel. There is something to remember though. The "feel" of a star wars game is different from many other games. The characters breeze through some things. The fun is mostly in the RP rather than the rolling. That is why it is not that easy to kill in the game. It only gets dangerous when going up against certain types on NPC, but that is also the feel of the movie. Sure there was lots of shooting, but were han and luke in any real danger in most situations? The d6 rule move this along nicely. Getting shot, very possible, killing you, not likely unless a few things go wrong.
As for the Jedi issue, yea Jedi are pretty tough, but there are balancing factors. A Jedi's force skills don't have an attribute, so they start at 1D. That means unless a Jedi can get those points up he isn't doing much, but "getting feelings". Also that is three skill, plus the skill point to get new powers. To keep up on Jedi training he has to pretty much forgo everything else. While Jedi I good, they aren't really a lot more powerful, they are just a lot more flashier. A good hero can dodge just as good as a Jedi can redirect, better even as dodge work for all attacks in the round. of course bouncing the bolt back at the firing person looks a heck of a lot cooler than dropping below the seat or the airspeeder.
The WEG StarWars D6 version had many good points and a couple of cautionary points.
The mechanics were quick, captured the theatrics of the movies, and made sense in the context of the gaming world ("galaxy").
Characters are easy to produce for PCs, and NPCs could be reduced down to a few relavent statistics.
As stated by others, Force using characters (Jedis in particular) could dominate the action. Based on dividing Force powers into three broad categories, it took more effort than most other skill areas to work up to a high level though.
I kind of think of it as the mage versus the thief in the first few versions of D&D. The mage started off slowly, but if you stuck with it then the mage kicked everything elses hindquarters by level 17 or so.
If the whole party started off by rolling up 17th level characters then you missed the fun of nurturing the PCs up through the ranks and much of the party bonding that could occur.
Same thing with the Jedi in D6. Remember that D6 came out when there were only the first three movies. Jedi were extremely rare. We only really know of one by the end of the first three movies. If you give someone a Jedi then it is essentially giving that player a legendary hero.
That brings up one of the cautionary points.
D6 StarWars works well for a while, but, after about 10-12 sessions with a usual amount of experience, your characters are likely to be demigods, and it will be difficult to challenge the PCs with regular game mechanics under non-psychotic circumstances.
If you are planning a campaign that is going to last 15 or more sessions then you might want to be stingier with the points at the end of the session.
I have read in several forums over the years that most campaigns last an average of 6-8 sessions. If that is the case for you then D6 will work great.
Hope that helps!
In service,
Rich
This was my absolutely favorite gaming system ever. I ran a campaign for almost two years with the same characters, and I had to get very creative as a GM to keep them in check after a while. The one jedi in the party eventually became very powerful... so I had to use tricks like ysalimari or Teras Kasi/Mandalorian fighters (house rules, basically could resist the force with certain skills). Also, Our wookie got so strong stormtroopers basically needed artillery to even have a chance of hurting him.
We had a lot of fun roleplaying, though, and sometimes would play for hours without rolling any dice at all. Each character had weaknesses, and if I needed to take someone down a notch I would just put them in a situation where they had no skills (the wookie, for example, was a terrible pilot so anytime we were in space he would be quaking in his boots). I did have to finally place a max on certain attributes (9D strength/body just got ridiculous...when you can legitimately consider holding a thermal detonator in your hand and surviving something has to stop) which players grumbled about initially but they could understand and it kept encounters more fun.
Once you get used to deciding, as a GM, how difficult any kind of action should be the sky is the limit... I actually had a jedi character pretty much spontaneously come up with a raise dead spell by combining a few abilities and spending loads of character points and a force point. I did it all live and was completely transparent with my players consent and even so the jedi needed something like a roll of 55 to pull it off. I think the wild die rolled three times. The raised character was horribly scarred, but we got another 6 months of play out of it hahaha! Good times.