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[1E] Falconer’s Newbie Questions
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KageRyu
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Though a bit rusty, I have GMed in Star Wars for decades (up until about 2008/9) from it's initial previewing at conventions...so I will weigh in a bit.

Rules Versions
I still use mostly the First Edition rules and used them the majority of my campaigning. I did adopt some things from the Rules Companion and some things from Second Edition (I liked the advanced skills idea). I have never been completely happy with the force, and I do have a collection of house rules where I took the best elements from the 2 editions and the companion, and some of my own ideas - which I was trying to convert to a digital document for sharing but never seem to get finished. I have even used and brought in material from other D6 games that I liked for my rules set. So it is really a matter of personal GM style. I would suggest at least reading through the Rules Companion to know what is there - you are not obligated to use it, but some of it is handy.

Planets System
I have used the planet generation system you described often. It can work in general for a Star Wars feel game. However, if you have played other space based games, or are more familiar with the actual logistics of the population of Earth even, it tends to develop glaring issues. I had eventually sat down and created my own system drawing on the existing system, as well as ideas and materials from GURPS Space, Traveller, Palladium Aliens Unlimited, and a game called Universe (and a few notes from the old Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader book). The biggest issue with the Planet System I feel is the suggested population ranges for each type of world - AIRC they are very low (rule book not handy but I recall them being about 1/10th to 1/100th of what I felt they should be...i.e. a Homeworld of a Space Faring species should number in the billions on average, unless some story element is in play such as dying race or ravaged by war). Though, the planet system was intentionally kept small and simple to keep with the free flow and faster style of a Star Wars game.

Ships
I have a fairly large collection of vessels I let players choose from, from official D6 sources, net books, and fan materials. Over in this thread http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1229 you can find a Starship Stats book (just the stats - none of the story or background fluff) that may be handy for helping pick ships. Most of the times, however, I have had players simply choose the classic YT1200 style, or the similar ships. I once had a player base a design on a Ghtroc 720, we downloaded maps and schematics. Usually I will let the players choose a base hull, and then modify it using materials in the various Galaxy Guides and other sources that are D6 compatible - then I will calculate the total cost and the valuation as suggested by the GG6, and this is what the player starts off owing to some loan shark or criminal world type guy...I give them chances to pay it off, but they almost always fail and on come the bounty hunters at some point. Last game I ran, the players were in Hoc for about 1.8 million (that's with the 300% markup of the loan shark...the running joke was "Man, you coulda bought a used Corellian Corvette for that"). I will let more than one character split the debt, of course (Pilot and Wookie first mate for example).
There also was, at one time, a net fan-made PDF of KOTOR era with a lot of starships - while some of the stats were off, it was still a useful resource if you can track it down. Had a lot of Tramp Freighter sized ships.

I hope some of this helps.
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Falconer
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Really appreciate the replies, guys. The meatier and more opinionated, the better! Smile

Some nitpicky questions; please don’t be offended; just trying to learn:

DB 2.0 wrote:
Picking Templates is best for Novice players or for those who are guests at the table, modifying for if your short on time or if you have players who squeeze you for lots of gear or if your group is new to the game, in my opinion the best option if you as a GM are simpatico with your players is to build characters from scratch once you get the hang of the game.

I’m trying to grok the “squeeze you for lots of gear” problem. I would be inclined to give a character a starting allowance of credits based on their social status, and let them spend it as they see fit. Is that not how it works, and if so, why not?

garhkal wrote:
If you DO allow them to custom build their characters, try to avoid the 'maxing out attribute' angle

Why is that? In AD&D, characters with dramatic strengths and weaknesses (also contrasting with other characters) are seen as a positive. Is it just that in the Star Wars system, characters can get too ridiculously extreme (for the genre)?

KageRyu wrote:
I would suggest at least reading through the Rules Companion to know what is there - you are not obligated to use it, but some of it is handy.

I’m sure of that. If you would like to share specific likes/dislikes of yours, that would be appreciated.

KageRyu wrote:
the planet system was intentionally kept small and simple to keep with the free flow and faster style of a Star Wars game.

That works for me. It seems idiomatic to me that most planets have 2-3 sites of note (all conveniently quite near the site where you crash-landed), and then it’s off to another planet for a change of scenery!

New question: How do you handle timekeeping in the campaign? From what I saw, the R&E core book, addresses this cursorily. I guess I can scrap together more info from Wookieepedia, but a single document would be nice—a magazine article or a fan work or something, designed for the gamemaster, perhaps? I’m looking for the names of the months, all laid out in order with the fete weeks and holidays; maybe noting some observances specific to Alderaan, Tatooine, and Kazhyyk; suggested rate of time passage between sessions; that sort of thing. Even the Wookieepedia information seems sparse, considering how many different RPGs there have been by now, plus video games and encyclopedias.

New question: I’m thinking of going through my books and pencilling in imperial units (miles, tons, etc.) to replace the metric (kilometers, metric tons, etc). I know the metric system seems scientific/spacey/futuristic, but I can’t help disliking it because metric units are relative to the planet earth (not part of the GFFW), whereas the imperial units are relative to the human being (part of the GFFW). Am I crazy?
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Falconer
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another question: What percentage of PCs in your campaigns are human vs. alien vs. droid, would you say? Do you have a canon of playable alien races, or it a matter of the player requesting one (or creating a new one)? Same question for droid models.
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cynanbloodbane
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My current campaign is within my goal for PCs, of human dominant yet all inclusive.
50% Human (1 force sensitive)
20% Alien
30% Droid

As long as humans outnumber any other single race (droids included as a single race) it feels like Star Wars to me.

Now if you want to do a Mon Cal centric campaign or whatever, that's fine, but it limits you a bit on starting adventure, but it can be done. Humans are damn near everywhere in the SWU, it is easier to run a Human centric, or even a droid centric campaign with a logical start point. Just my preference though, go with whatever will keep your players interest.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:

garhkal wrote:
If you DO allow them to custom build their characters, try to avoid the 'maxing out attribute' angle

Why is that? In AD&D, characters with dramatic strengths and weaknesses (also contrasting with other characters) are seen as a positive. Is it just that in the Star Wars system, characters can get too ridiculously extreme (for the genre)?


In a word. Yes. Having seen someone taking a Hapan and using the 'wookie first mate' template with 1 pip leway on str, you can see a 5d str human (well human looking) being able to go toe to toe with even royal guards with little fear.
Or as mentioned a verpine technician, starting out with rolling 7d for practically all tech skills (ave 24.5 roll, so unless a heroic roll is needed they can pretty much succeed on most any roll they try).

Falconer wrote:
Another question: What percentage of PCs in your campaigns are human vs. alien vs. droid, would you say? Do you have a canon of playable alien races, or it a matter of the player requesting one (or creating a new one)? Same question for droid models.


In the last home campaign i ran (Rise of the empire time frame prior to a new hope), the group of 6 pcs were 2 humans, one R5 droid, one Trandoshan, a Weequay and a near human (Wrronian).
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Whill
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:
Really appreciate the replies, guys. The meatier and more opinionated, the better! Smile

Some nitpicky questions; please don’t be offended; just trying to learn...

New question: I’m thinking of going through my books and pencilling in imperial units (miles, tons, etc.) to replace the metric (kilometers, metric tons, etc). I know the metric system seems scientific/spacey/futuristic, but I can’t help disliking it because metric units are relative to the planet earth (not part of the GFFW), whereas the imperial units are relative to the human being (part of the GFFW). Am I crazy?

Maybe a bit touched (I kid!). Humans, imperial measures and the metric system are all equally of Earth. But as unrealistic as it is that a galaxy far away could still have humans nearly-identical to Earth humans, the SW galaxy also has the metric system. It's film canon. "The target area is only two meters wide." Even rustic outer rim planets like Tatooine had the metric system. "We used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home and they're not much bigger than two meters."

I admit I don't understand yours, or anyone's dislike for the metric system. We primarily use a Base 10 number system (which also exists in SW). Therefore a system of measurement based on factors of 10 is much more logical for any Base-10-using civilization to use, whether they exist on Earth or another galaxy far away. You may think I'm crazy, but IMO imperial/customary measures are stupid. I support full metrification of our stubborn, backwards nation.

So much that I also forbid customary measures to be used in-character in my SW game. Character Height is measured in meters or centimeters. There is no Weight on my character sheets - There is a Mass field measured in kilograms. To calculate weight we use the mass and local gravity. I do however have measurement conversion charts handy for the players unfamiliar with the metric system to aid in perspective.

But of course it is your Star Wars universe, so as GM you should do whatever you want for your game.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:13 pm    Post subject: Re: calendar Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:
New question: How do you handle timekeeping in the campaign? From what I saw, the R&E core book, addresses this cursorily. I guess I can scrap together more info from Wookieepedia, but a single document would be nice—a magazine article or a fan work or something, designed for the gamemaster, perhaps? I’m looking for the names of the months, all laid out in order with the fete weeks and holidays; maybe noting some observances specific to Alderaan, Tatooine, and Kazhyyk; suggested rate of time passage between sessions; that sort of thing. Even the Wookieepedia information seems sparse, considering how many different RPGs there have been by now, plus video games and encyclopedias.

I vaguely use the 10-month calendar established by WEG in 1992. As far as I know Wookieepedia is up-to-date, and the names of the months and non-month holidays have never been determined by the EU for the Galactic Standard Calendar. However the names and placement of the non-month festival weeks have been established.

The Tapani calendar is supposed to have been based on the Galactic Standard one, but keeping traditional local month, festival week and holiday names. To "retro-engineer" the Galactic Standard Calendar, it would be reasonable to assume that the placement of the non-month holidays somewhat matches Tapani's. Or put them where you want.

As far as what to name the months and non-month holidays, that's up to you. Not feeling creative? Just name the ten months March through December for starters. For simplicity's sake you could just call everything by its numerical designation ("F1" for Fete Week 1, etc.). You could even go as far as saying that the Empire officially stopped using the old Coruscant names for everything in an effort to stamp out Republic culture, replacing it with cold numbers. "Make sure your Imperial taxes are paid by Month 4, citizen!"
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DB 2.0
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:
Really appreciate the replies, guys. The meatier and more opinionated, the better! Smile

Some nitpicky questions; please don’t be offended; just trying to learn:

DB 2.0 wrote:
Picking Templates is best for Novice players or for those who are guests at the table, modifying for if your short on time or if you have players who squeeze you for lots of gear or if your group is new to the game, in my opinion the best option if you as a GM are simpatico with your players is to build characters from scratch once you get the hang of the game.

I’m trying to grok the “squeeze you for lots of gear” problem. I would be inclined to give a character a starting allowance of credits based on their social status, and let them spend it as they see fit. Is that not how it works, and if so, why not?


few Templates/Characters Need lots of gear, but players will want it any way, EG a Smuggler I ran a few years back, he wanted a Blaster, a Holdout Blaster Vibro blade, a Knife for them to find, a Knife to keep, Blast Vest, Armoured Vest, Ship, Lots of Ship Tools, a R2 to help fix the ship and a 3P0 to help with , passengers and was trying to deicide between a Landspeeder or a Speeder Bike and lots of little odds an ends that where likely on his ship but for the sake of plot I may have needed him not to have.

Most characters should start with half a dozen things including a wardrobe, Weapon, their Cool and/or big ticket item (Droid, Vehicle or ship), Occupational Item (Tool kit, Flight Helmet ect.) and a few odds and ends.
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KageRyu
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Timekeeping
The Galaxy is so large in a Star Wars setting, with so many interwoven and varrying cultures, that their would literally be a dictionary sizen list of names of months and days of the week if you delve into this much detail. There is, to my knowledge, very little published information on any form of Month names or times and dates.

That being said...
I generally assign and Imperial Standard that all imperial worlds, Garrisons, Ships, outposts, and personnel follow. This Time/Date system is based on Corruscant Local (the throneworld of the Emperor). I general keep it simple, and do not worry about month names, and use conventional weekday names, and just reference approximate season and time of day for the most part. Somewhere in my archives I have names of months for a Star Wars campaign, but can not remember if I gleaned them somewhere or just made them up (I will simply fill in blanks with my own material when needed). Only once did it become important, in a campaign focusing around a somewhat archeological adventure design where a riddle of a long dead culture involved specific months of it's calendar (one of those "take the Staff to the Temple on the 3rd of September and the sunlight at noon will light the way" type things) - and the players had to figure out the equivalent Imperial time and date.

I also envision the Imperials could like use a more military, numerological dating system, where there are no months or days by name any more, just numbers...

Independently I keep campaign time of how many days, weeks, months have passed since the campaign started.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 3:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:

I’m trying to grok the “squeeze you for lots of gear” problem. I would be inclined to give a character a starting allowance of credits based on their social status, and let them spend it as they see fit. Is that not how it works, and if so, why not?


Then you need to figure out
A) what social standing groups are there.
B) is it randomly rolled for or picked by players.
If picked can they all be royalty?
C) what cash value each rank gives.

You also need to look to established templates. Some by nature have lots of starting gear, while others don't start with much. So how would you figure what everyone starts with. Just giving everyone the same "Cash value" amount is not really doing any justice to those of certain 'professions' over others.
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KageRyu
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Equipment
There are a few ways to handle this- Some of the other suggestions here work. I usually let starting players spend their initial credits on Equipment if they wish before the adventure starts. This allows them to start with some gear, but less spending cash. I have also been known to listen to reasonable requests from players for equipment, and decide on a case by case basis if I felt a particular character could or should have said item. It is generally easier to handle arbitrating requests for templates than custom characters, but some guidelines I use are:
• Is the item reasonably described as "Everyman" that most anyone has? (Chronometers, some base clothes, lighter, etc...)
• Does the item fit with the character's described occupation or role? (A mechanic having a multi-tool, or a Bounty Hunter having a couple sets of binders)
• Is the item particularly valuable or would it provide an edge (Droid, Starship, Blaster, power armor)?
• When all else fails - can the player give me a good justification why they should have such item that I accept?

Alternatively, in some settings I created lists of Everyman Gear that all players could start with, and various specialized Social Status and Occupational Gear that went to specific character types.

This is also a good place to look at the Wealth rules from D6 space...those are very useful if you want a game mechanic to handle Income, starting money, and savings that are specific to the D6 system.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One HR i use, is i allow any template to start with a ship, but they are indebted to someone. Whether a parent (like some kids these days get loans or co-signing from dad to get a car), a Bank, a loan shark or some other org.
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Falconer
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for all the replies, as always. Much food for thought!

Any homebrew Calendar documents you’ve made would be greatly appreciated—I don’t care if it’s non-canon.
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KageRyu
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Falconer wrote:

KageRyu wrote:
I would suggest at least reading through the Rules Companion to know what is there - you are not obligated to use it, but some of it is handy.

I’m sure of that. If you would like to share specific likes/dislikes of yours, that would be appreciated.

I went back and glanced over the Companion again to remind myself which rules in it I liked and which rules I was last using were from elsewhere or house modifications. The rules I liked that were as presented were the rules regarding Haste actions (sacrificing skill dice to increase initiative for speed drawing and such) and the expanded capital ship combat rules. I felt that while the expanded rules for capital ship combat could slow things down, capital ships should be impressive and a battle with one should be dramatic. There were other rules I liked the concept of, but felt needed more work (and created my own extrapolations of from the Companion and other sources).

I also liked the rules for modifying equipment in general, but made some house modifications of my own.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What timeframe do you set your games in? The rulebook suggests post Ep.IV, which I like, but I’m curious what is popular.

And what is your approach to canon? Do you try to fit within the established timeline? Do you pick your starting point and create a divergent timeline from thenceforth? Is it just “your” Star Wars and it doesn’t have to agree in ANY details with any canon source?
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