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New Yet More Experienced Characters
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Bobknob
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:27 pm    Post subject: New Yet More Experienced Characters Reply with quote

I was wondering what would be the best way to let my players start with a more seasoned group of characters. It is an Old Republic Jedi game and they should at least be at a level that they can travel and enforce law without the accompaniment of a master. This is my first time really GMing anything for a group. Should I just let them start with a few more Ds in Attributes and Skills? Should they create their characters normally and then add in a large amount of Character Points? If either of those, how many of each? Any other tips?
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Whill
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:38 pm    Post subject: Re: New Yet More Experienced Characters Reply with quote

Bobknob wrote:
I was wondering what would be the best way to let my players start with a more seasoned group of characters. It is an Old Republic Jedi game and they should at least be at a level that they can travel and enforce law without the accompaniment of a master... Should I just let them start with a few more Ds in Attributes and Skills? Should they create their characters normally and then add in a large amount of Character Points? If either of those, how many of each? Any other tips?

Welcome to the Pit! If there are seasoned Force PCs, I would consider giving all the PCs 3D more in attributes for starters.

I wouldn't give bonus CPs that just have to be meticulously spent per character advancement rules. For simplicity's sake, I would just give them bonus skill dice to allocate. However...

Bobknob wrote:
This is my first time really GMing anything for a group.

Not to burst your bubble, but if this is your first time GMing anything for a group, I would strongly advise not starting with a seasoned group of characters. It would be best for everyone if you just started at the beginning.

That's just my two credits worth. Best wishes with your game regardless, and if you have any questions we're here for you.
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shootingwomprats
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:01 pm    Post subject: Re: New Yet More Experienced Characters Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
Not to burst your bubble, but if this is your first time GMing anything for a group, I would strongly advise not starting with a seasoned group of characters. It would be best for everyone if you just started at the beginning.


I agree with Whill. Seasoned characters and adding in Force rules on top of it all? That sounds to me like a recipe for disaster. If you bound and determined to try to make it work here are some quick suggestions.

Allow them to build their attributes per the rules. I would strongly encourage just allocating 18D and making sure they stick to the min/max rules.

As opposed to 7D in skill picks I would give them 12D with no skill greater than 6D+2 to start with. I would also keep them to no more than three specializations (again, I would strongly suggest skipping these).

If they are all going to be Force Users you can give them 7D to place into Force skills, with no more than 5D in a single skill.

At this point its a matter of picking a decent set of skills for the players. You will want to figure out exactly what to give them. They will probably at a minimum want lightsaber combat, telekinesis, Force push, enhance attribute, concentration, accelerate healing, burst of speed, control pain, resist stun, up the walls, danger sense, life detection, magnify senses, sense Force and force jump.

Hope that helps.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lets just suggest a bunch of force powers that arent even the rules!!!! Very Happy
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 3:16 am    Post subject: Re: New Yet More Experienced Characters Reply with quote

Whill wrote:

Bobknob wrote:
This is my first time really GMing anything for a group.

Not to burst your bubble, but if this is your first time GMing anything for a group, I would strongly advise not starting with a seasoned group of characters. It would be best for everyone if you just started at the beginning.

That's just my two credits worth. Best wishes with your game regardless, and if you have any questions we're here for you.


I agree. With such a new group, i wouldn't overwhelm them with higher PC's starting out.. Start them fresh, as even at 18d/7d they are still better than normal thugs they would find (12-15d/6d)..
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Tinman
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 3:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The nearest I've done to this is given a handful of characters a few extra dice which could only be used for skill specializations. Essentially this was to compensate for certain experienced characters needing to know how to do specific things to fill story roles. In other words, I was making particular requests in terms of character creation, and offered a bit of a booster to compensate for that.
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Bobknob
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you all for your help! I will consider all you said. I still have a few weeks until the start of the game.
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Bobknob
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hear what you guys are saying, but my group really wants to start out with a few extra skills and Force Powers. I am the new guy to the group so I want to make them happy.

I gave them 3D extra so they can get a few Force Skills. What would be the best way to give them Force Powers? One for the first D and then one for every pip after that?
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you want them more advanced, go ahead and give them one per pip (so 3 for the first D).

Be prepared for force powers to be a major gamble at early levels: I've found that things don't really start getting consistent until around 4D in a force skill.

If you just want to jump into the action, you may consider just starting them with 3D-5D in each of their force skills.

Although in such a case, Id recommend 1 power per D (its how I run mine) in order too prevent their lists of powers from being all the same (this helps characters to stick to a cconcept when choosinng powers... if powers are gained too rapidly they end up knowing every power very quickly).

So one guy could be a healer, one could focus on "awareness" powers, one could focus on more combat oriented powers.... etc...
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cheshire
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Every year I would run a "winter campaign" to introduce new players to Star Wars D6. One year I decided to do a force-centric campaign. Note that these campaigns were no more than five adventures long -- just enough to get the feel for the scenario, and play out a few adventures, and experience a bit of the Star Wars flavor.

In the course of my winter campaigns, the Force-centric was the hardest. I gave all the characters a bit of an extra bump in the Force skills. The group consisted of one seasoned player, two that had never RP'ed before, and two that had done one of my winter campaigns. So a decent mix. But everyone had the hardest time remembering their Force power rules. They hadn't spent the time and player experience in developing a taste of how their power worked and how to build on it, or what it was built from.

This was fresh off a community project where I spent six months living and breathing the Force powers rules, and it was even a challenge for me. So, just be aware that you may be spending a fair bit of game time helping people get their sea legs. Much more so than if they'd grown into their characters rather than having built them.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are just looking to increase starting Force ability, you could convert the existing Jedi templates over to a Force attribute, ala the Metaphysics attribute of D6 Space. We've discussed it here in the past.

Basically, it treats Force sensitivity like any other attribute, except that any non-FS character would have a 0D in that attribute yet still be able to function normally. Rather than having to use three attribute dice at character creation to have 1D each in Control, Sense and Alter, the characters would start with a Force of 3D, with Control, Sense and Alter as skills under it.
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Bobknob
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That seems really neat. I will talk to my group about it.
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dph
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 10:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with most here that a first time GM (with any RPG) or a game with forts time players should keep it very vanilla for their first time. Don't start breaking the rules and home brewing, just play it straight!


I keep track of the XP my players earn and if someone creates a new character (like after a death) or a new player joins, I take an average of all the players and give them 2 thirds of that in bonus XP to spend (as they would for standard characters advancement.

Just look at how much XP you typically hand out a session(s) and use that as a guide.
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