Echoes of the Multiverse

especially considering their size


WEG's version of Star Wars we played the hell out of. As we didn't bother that much with Jedi, I guess we didn't notice much of the issues surrounding them.

WEG's system did make it a painful process to start as Jedi. Given that your initial Control/Sense/Alter dice came out of the same pool at your basic six (eight?) Attributes... But once the experience points started to mount, anyone who had stuck it out became amazing.

Of course, WEG also introduced me to two of my favorite character archetypes for the setting that I have returned to again and again: the "quixotic jedi" who has no Force ability but so devotes himself to living like a Jedi Knight he deludes himself into thinking he does; and, the snarky protocol droid reprogrammed for espionage. I must have played some version of these two Archetypes a thousand times.

It was really fun seeing them both in Rogue One!

My biggest problem with Saga (besides having to leaf through 16 books for character options ) was that Force powers usage were only usable X times per encounter. Now I've never been a fan of spells/abilities/powers that recharge per encounter regardless, but it didn't really seem to fit depictions of the Force at all. Now I did like how they wrapped up the smaller abilities into a Use the Force skill and found that a nice way of handling "Force cantrips" if you will.

I can't remember who it was, but someone ran a M&M Star Wars the Old Republic game on the old boards and it seemed to work really well. Granted that whole campaign just seemed amazing regardless, to the point that I lurked in on it from beginning to end .

I don't mind per encounter abilities. Especially if they have a kind of recharge mechanic associated with them, which I think Saga did. That is, you could expend it, but take a combat action to gain it back.

Overall, however, it was just the game struggling with the Jedis as space gods problem. A problem that looms pretty large, especially since Saga was (for good reason) embracing all the EU material.

M&M would work fine for Star Wars. I'd have no objections to it. I might put it slightly behind Savage Worlds, if only b/c they share the same initials, but it's a near thing. M&M, especially with some of the 3rd party supplements that add some more fighty/shooty options (e.g., Metahuman Martial Arts, maybe?) is probably pretty doable. Although I'd have to think about how I'd want to handle equipment, etc., which would probably involve copious hand waving. But, hell, I converted Rifts to M&M so I have vast stores of handwavium available.

Not that I expect anyone to care, but hell it's a gaming forum and I'm already slacking off from work a bit, here's my own personal rankings on game adaptations.

Star Wars: Savage Worlds, M&M

Warhammer 40k: One Roll Engine (specifically Wild Talents), quick brutal combat with tons of customization.

Anything Anime-esque: M&M

L-Space wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:55 pm My biggest problem with Saga (besides having to leaf through 16 books for character options ) was that Force powers usage were only usable X times per encounter. Now I've never been a fan of spells/abilities/powers that recharge per encounter regardless, but it didn't really seem to fit depictions of the Force at all. Now I did like how they wrapped up the smaller abilities into a Use the Force skill and found that a nice way of handling "Force cantrips" if you will.

I can't remember who it was, but someone ran a M&M Star Wars the Old Republic game on the old boards and it seemed to work really well. Granted that whole campaign just seemed amazing regardless, to the point that I lurked in on it from beginning to end .

that was probably me it ran here and on the older boards

catsi563 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:35 pm that was probably me it ran here and on the older boards

Yep, that was it! I'm a huge Star Wars fan and found that campaign extremely well done!

I freely offer my Star Wars set of builds for any game someone plays. I'd offer to GM... but I'm horrendously inexperienced at such things, and I really don't know the world at all beyond what shows up in the movies.

I'm relatively new here but I am so pleasantly surprised to discover that the fans of one of my favorite RPGs are also fans of one of my other favorite RPGs settings and systems.

I'm inspired enough to begin working on a Star Wars WEG D6 game. Thank you all...

I absolutely love Star Wars RPGs (though Saga was my least favorite of the line).

Favorite Star Wars systems in order: WEG, M&M 2e (didn't run it in third), D20 (though class based games systems tend to turn me off), Saga (felt to much like PNP WoW).

I'm currently in possession of the pdfs (and have hard copies as well) of all the WEG, WOTC, And Saga editions. I've even got a conversion of BSG into WEG for a fun (to me at least) campaign I wanted to run.

Seeing this thread though makes me re-think my self-inflicted ban on running though...

As most seem to have little positive to say on FFG's Star Wars game, I thought I would add a few good words.

I have run and played in FFG's Star Wars system, and find the iconographic dice to be a very divisive aspect of the game. My group kept a visual explanation of the dice's symbols projected on a nearby television for quite some time before we were all comfortable with it. In this instance, the symbols allow for three distinct categories of information to be determined: a minor success/failure (called an advantage/threat), a success/failure, and an epic success/failure (called a triumph/despair). This allows a player to have succeeded at a particular task, while incurring some setbacks. Or possibly failing while still allowing an epic success (such as getting killed by Vader, but delaying him enough get the death star plans out of the scene). The system then allows the player to utilize these in a fairly cinematic way.

The system attempts to split itself into three 'genres' of play that boil down to: smugglers, military, or Jedi. Most of the games I played in involved an all or nothing with Jedi. This wasn't by any particular design, it was how we chose to play so I am afraid I cannot comment on how easily the different types mesh. (The few times we did, the balance felt good as most Jedi ended up as glass cannons.)

The games do tend towards the cinematic as a round may represent minutes of time and distances are in 'bands' of near, mid, far followed by planetary near, mid and far. This does mean there is a lot of hand-waving when it comes to 'who is close enough to my grenade'.

I will also mention that the developers worked closely with the WEG version, and have had deep communication with Disney on much of the lore and worlds. I believe everything within their books are canon to the Disney Star Wars universe. Also the podcast Order 66 is full of amazingly useful and helpful information.

There are some problems with the system, like most games. There are myriad races and equipment spread across all of their books. Many do not like the way ship force fields work, and there are many home-brews available. And, of course, balance (and power creep) is always an issue with a system released over so many books.


So, in summary: I find FFG's Star Wars system quite enjoyable and appreciate its cinematic flavor and focus.