The dysfunctional group.

[RC]

After having managed to scrounge up three players aside from myself, and a GM that, while having been a GM before, have never done a Star Wars campaign, we're all looking for some advice. I know there's a lot of experienced people here in the Rancor Pit who are passionate about the game, and any advice to share would be very appreciated, for all the players or the GM himself.

The four misfits we have so far consists of:

Togruta Jedi Apprentice
Twi'lek Scoundre / Want-to-be Smuggler
Togruta Bounty Hunter (The two Togruta are sisters, expect jealousy and rivalry between the two.)
Human Mercenary with lots of muscle and half a brain.

The first session will take place this Saturday, so we can still change things around depending on what advice we get.

So far we'll be starting with the standard amount of Attribute points, and six skill dice. Everyone aside from the Jedi apprentice have been allowed to purchase gear for 10,000 credits worth.

This game will also begin 2-3 years prior to The Clone Wars.

P.S I apologize if this seems cluttered and unprofessional, I had to write it in a hurry. Also forgot to mention we'll be using the WEG 2nd edition core rulebook.

[Fallon Kell]

My only advice is for the GM to read a lot of fun Star Wars in his off-time. I recommend the X-wing novels by Stackpole and Allston.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[RC]

[cheshire]

They collectively have 10,000, or they each have 10,000? If it is collectively, is it intended to pull together to purchase the ship?
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[RC]

[shootingwomprats]

Wow on the 10,000 each. That's crazy. Your GM would be much better off just handing out equipment that makes sense for the character to have and then give you no more than say, 1,000-2,500 credits to spend on additional stuff.

The biggest thing about SWD6 to remember is that it is NOT D&D. It is more about the story and how the players, well, play. You do not gain experience based on the number of bad guys you blow away nor is it about how much stuff you can loot off bodies and sell in town.

Something that should be stressed is your characters are heroes. They work together to achieve the goal. Emphasis should be put on group dynamics and telling a good story. Forget meta-mechanics, exactly how friggin far you are from your target and so on. Narrate what you want to do and let the GM tell you what skill and roll your dice.

Above all have fun!
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[RC]

Thanks for the feedback, shootingwomprats. I'll pass this on to the GM and hopefully it'll help settle his nerves. I think we'll cut the credits down and let the GM decide what gear everyone starts with instead.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm listening to your podcast as I write this, loving it so far. Kudos for making it.

[shootingwomprats]

Thanks RC. Hopefully you find something in the podcast useful.
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[DougRed4]

I've GMd regularly for over thirty years with a number of different games, so I think I'm pretty good at it. And my players seem to generally enjoy my games, too. That said, with Star Wars (one of my all-time loves) I found that I was continually discovering little things I could do to improve my game (over the couple of years my current campaign has been going). Here's a few pieces of advice:

- Above all else, remember that you're there to have fun. Keep that in mind as you race along through a (hopefully fast-paced) adventure. Just a reminder that the GM isn't there as an adversary, but more as a facilitator of fun. You don't want to be so permissive that the players succeed at everything (eliminating the thrills and challenges), but you also don't want the players getting frustrated by feeling incompetent.

- Keep things moving. Star Wars has pulp roots, so it should be like an Indiana Jones movie, moreso than a plodding intellectual exercise. For example, I love Star Trek, too, but this game is not that. Don't spend lots of time with heady moral quandaries or angsty dilemmas. Keep the action rolling along whenever possible, more like a roller coaster ride.

- Just about every session or two should have a chase, if possible.

- Every major storyarc should have an encounter with a creature. I realized this part-way in to my current campaign, after we'd gone a long time without a creature as an adversary. Think about the movies. Was there a film without a critter as an opponent/adversary?

- The story is called Star WARS. So there should be regular conflict of some kind. Encourage all PCs to take the Dodge skill, as it's pretty essential to staying alive.

- That said (lots of combat), don't fall into the mistake of only having the PCs move from one combat encounter to the next. Sprinkle in plenty of other challenges and allow other skills to be used, like Bargain or Search. Exciting dramatic scenes can also be done with non-combat skills.

- If possible (and if your PCs are amenable), balance things between ground and space. Every movie has some thrilling space battles, too, so encourage at least one member of the group to be a pilot (which also helps the PCs get from planet to planet).

- Don't be afraid to have things move at the "speed of plot", rather than devolve into number crunching. One time I made the mistake of letting too much of a session be about figuring out how much the players were making with a cargo run. Like the rules encourage, don't get bogged down in details like this. When possible, swiftly pick a Difficulty Number and have the player roll to see if they succeed or fail. Then move on.

- Keep skill rolls for things that really matter, for the most part. Occasionally you can have rolls that utilize skills that happen during downtime (Survival, Repair, etc.), but as a general rule (for all RPGs), to keep the action moving, allow your characters to succeed at what they're good at, especially when there's not much risk or no drama to be had with a failure.

- Put on John Williams soundtracks in the background, to enhance the mood.

- Encourage sweeping vistas and diverse landscapes. In the movies we went from desert worlds to swamps to snowy icescapes to forests.

- Have awe-inspiring wonders of technology, too. Things like Death Stars or the Vohai Unirail or near-bottomless chasms or massive reactors. As with the landscapes, you're not limited by travel or budget, so conjure up a world of majesty and wonder!

- Have droids be somewhat ubiquitous, at least in the background (to capture that 'Star Wars feel'.

- And always remember that this is a game. You're all there to have fun, so keep things hopping along and encourage everyone to get into character and have a blast!
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[RC]

Thank you very much for the large list, Doug. Everything is very welcome. I was wondering what everyone thought about character development and so forth? This campaign will be text based over D20, and personally I was hoping to get really down into that particular aspect of Roleplay.

[Ral_Brelt]

As a shameless plug to our Monday group and Lurker's faithful writing, I'd suggest reading the Monday night game thread in the adventures section. Characters have developed through play in it.

For char ideas and development on your own and as a group, as stated Star Wars is pulp based...which means larger than life can work. In Ep 4, everyone knew Han was a roguish hero fairly quickly. Use that. A joker works well too, better with a straight man anchor. The idyllic hero is a good baseline, as is the grizzled vet. You might want to offer up short back stories for the gm, things he can pluck threads on somewhere down the line to make the party jump.

As to growing your char mechanically, make note of the skills you use in a given session. When it comes time to spend CPs, weigh those skills more heavily as recipients of increasing as it makes sense. Make heroic choices. That doesn't mean charging a squad of stormies every time they show up though. A heroic choice can be something beyond the wheelhouse of your char...like a primary non combatant drawing fire by lobbing shots at baddies to provide time for his team to get to the ship. Or the honesty locked char trying to spin a web of lies to save innocents cause the party 'face' can't help or isn't there.

[lurker]

RB, thanks, glad you mentioned it as an example. That said, if you use it as a reference, take it with a grain of salt … My thread is 'Harris' story' as such it is one sided and misses - or brushes over - key parts of the game that other characters had that Harris 'didn't know or see' though I did. With that, you might miss some of the elements that keep it fun and exciting for the other players.

Now, I would advise that you talk to your players and get a feel for what kind of game they want. If they are all military mindset kind of guys they may prefer a military set up as a basis of the game, and like being tied closely in with the Rebellion. If they want to be less combat kind of guys, but still like the idea of being a critical part of the Rebellion, they will like a different flavor of the game. If they want the feel of just trying to survive in a big dark galaxy ran by the Empire, then they may not like a military or Rebel elements of the game - but will still have friction with the empire. I guess what I'm saying is that for everyone to have fun you may need to bend one way or another so that your group has fun (this includes you as the GM, you should enjoy it as much as they do)

*** after reading that it may sound like an argument against what others here have said about the general SW being pulpy, but I don't mean it as such. The game still needs those fast and loose elements and larger than life epic moments. If not SW isn't SW any more. You may just need to flavor your pulp a little one way or another.

Also, I agree with RB on 'growing' the characters mechanically. Remember, on the first game the characters -despite being 'heroes' are still fairly weak. So make the bad guys fit that. Also, the players my want to start out with 'delusions of grandeur' and think that right out the gate they can stand toe to toe with the greatest bounty hunter, a legion of storm troopers, and hack every security system they find. All of which will end very badly …

After that, start to nudge the characters to build into a good heroic team. A key there is team, everyone needs their niche, but no one can be a 1 or 2 skill wonder. Looking at Harris, I started out as a 'combat medic' so I had fair combat skills and good medic skills at start. However, I knew I wasn't at the level to stand up and fight toe to toe against the first few main bad guys (shoot and run a way was the main plan for the first adventures). Then in each game I note which skills I needed to have Harris use through the game, especially the skills I have no points in, and then I plan out what skills the team will need in the future. I put about half of my CP into those skills. Then I try and set aside 4-6 CPs to save for those heroic moments - where I always roll more than my fair share of 1s - and need to bump my roll up a bit. Finally, if I have any left over, I put them into what I want for fun. As an example, Harris got stuck 2 games in a row needing to BS his and the teams way though a couple of encounters (which ended badly despite my best efforts). However, I didn't have any points in con, so for 2 to 3 games I put CPs into that. At the same time, I noticed that the team didn't have a ship gunner, so I slowly put CPs in there. And now in this last game I was able to step up and make some good shots on the TIEs that were attacking us. Finally, as a military member of the Rebellion, I've added a few points into command, and I was a little low in my STR so I saved for 4 games until I got enough CP to raise my str by 1 pip (up to a 3 D). All the while making sure I start each adventure with at least 6 - 8 CPs for the 'Harris' moments.

If you help your players to have that mindset as they grow their character, everyone will tend to have more fun.
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"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

[RC]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I can say we did our first session today and had a blast, even if our characters turned out to be a bunch of inept morons with no sense of direction. Can't wait for next week.

Last question I have: How many CP do you receive/give on average?

[Tupteq]

[DougRed4]

I know there was a thread on here about this before, but I can't seem to find it (this one has some info).

I use what's recommended in the rules, which I've compiled into my own document (based on the RAW, p. 160-161 of 2R&E):

Awarding Character Points – Star Wars d6

3-15 Character Points per Adventure (Part)

The average Adventure spans two nights of gaming, or 4 to 5 fairly long Chapters

How did the players/characters do? (Well: 6-8, Poorly: 3-4)
• Solved puzzles
• Came up with great solutions
• Made sure everyone had fun

How did each individual player do? (2-3)
• Very clever
• Went out of their way to make the game fun

Did they cooperate? (2-4)
• Worked well as a team
• 0 if the players argued

Did they play in character? (Well: 6-8, Poorly: 3-4)
• Roleplayed well
• 0 if they didn’t roleplay at all

Did everyone have fun? (3-4)
• All? (including the GM?)
• 0 if difficult or not trying to get into the spirit of things

Based on these numbers, my characters end up easily getting 15 CP at the end of every adventure/part (or two decently long sessions), provided their character was there/participated the whole time.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green