Star Wars d6 (1st Ed) Newbie Help

[Water Bob]

Nono. Actually have all players decide, between adventure, how many CP they each contribute to the ship's pool. And the ship can only use that amount, and the player fill it up as needed between adventures.

Hmm. I like that, too.

Players shouldn't have to be regularly blowing CP's on saving the ship. I was in several campaigns that lasted years (real time) and only had to blow CP to save the ship a grand total of ONCE.

My Star Wars campaign lasted seven real years, playing twice a month, on average (ever other week), and the pilots blew through tons of CPs.

Different play styles, I guess.

[Cikomyr]

You can also potentially have certain player pay to pimp up parts of the ship. Sort of like a player manning a certain turret; he'll ask his "Starship contribution" to be spent on upgrading it to milspec.

There's many, many options open that makes everyone feel they participate in the overall success and survival of the ship. I personally always consider a ship like an extra character that develops on its own, but it shouldn't lead to a TPK

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The problem with a player pilot being expected to pour his CP into the ship is that in other situations he is not very useful. My smuggler is looking to double as a face. And the player who was thinking about a droid wants to play a tank now; something bulkier than a Wookie. Can't think of anything tougher than a Wookie, besides maybe a Herglic.

[Cikomyr]

The problem with a player pilot being expected to pour his CP into the ship is that in other situations he is not very useful. My smuggler is looking to double as a face. And the player who was thinking about a droid wants to play a tank now; something bulkier than a Wookie. Can't think of anything tougher than a Wookie, besides maybe a Herglic.

Basically that.

No one likes being the ****ing taxi driver.

[Mutazoia]

The problem with a player pilot being expected to pour his CP into the ship is that in other situations he is not very useful. My smuggler is looking to double as a face. And the player who was thinking about a droid wants to play a tank now; something bulkier than a Wookie. Can't think of anything tougher than a Wookie, besides maybe a Herglic.

You don't need to spend ALL of your CP on ship skills...but that IS the main focus of your character, so they should get first priority. Obviously when you are assigning your initial points you can spread them out and pick some "face" skills as well. In general a smuggler should have the majority of his CP in Starship Piloting, Starship Gunnery and Starship repair...that still leaves a few points to dump into Con (you have 7D to customize your template at the start, and no more than 2D can be put in any one skill) So if you put 2D in piloting, 2D in gunnery (for a respectable 5D+2) and 1D in shields, (for 4D+2) you have 2D to split among other skills. You can split each die into 3 pips (or +1's) to put into Con, Bargain, Blaster and Dodge. (A smuggler's Dex is 3D+1 so you only have to put in 2 pips to get to 4D)

As for tougher than a Wookie...there are a few races that qualify, but I wouldn't recommend them. You'll have to track down some of the Galaxy Guides that cover alien species to find them but if you are not careful they can be game breaking (Like the Defel...if you think the Wookie is blaster proof....) OR you can use the rules for creating your own "template" but to get a Strength higher than a Wookie, something is going to have to be a serious dump stat.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I am encouraging players to work with me to create a custom template. Already worked with one player to make his Ex-Republic Veteran (with additional PC stat dice allocated):

Dexterity- 2D (He was spry, but he's getting up there)
Knowledge- 3D (been around the galaxy, knows tactics quite a bit)
Mechanical- 2D (excuses range from 'everything worked differently in my day' to 'Eh, the clone troopers did all the mechanical stuff')
Perception- 4D (Command and Con, mostly)
Strength- 3D (tough old codger)
Technical- 4D (ALL the Demolitions)

[Water Bob]

I find that players usually prefer custom templates, but the given 1E Templates aren't bad at all. The min/max limits and each character getting the same number of dice make all the character templates, whether custom or otherwise, pretty balanced.

Some of the Alien races can be a bit unbalancing in that their limits are raised or lowered (like a Wookiee's STR), but this is OK as Aliens should be sometimes different from humans--even in Star Wars.

I had a player that played a Pa'lowick and had a great time with it. But, the character is quite weak for combat.

Spoiler

Show

One thing to remember, as I'm not sure that it's real clear in 1E D6 Star Wars is if you create a custom template that has Force Powers, those powers count as attributes even though they are called "Force Skills". IIRC, you can put a maximum of 1D in each of the three Force Skills, but each die you put into those reduces the amount you have for your other attributes. If you start with two Force Skills, then you have 2D less that you can put into your six regular stats.







You're bringing back memories! Man! I enjoyed the heck out of that game! We played mostly 2E R&E, but in hindsight, I think I like 1E the best of the three and a half editions.









Speaking of weak characters...

Man, we had a great time with some comic relief characters back during my D6 Star Wars campaigns. My longest campaign ran seven real years to play, and one of my players played a...oh heck, I forgot what they were called.

This dude look like a four-foot high squirrel that walked on its hind legs. Small, beedy eyes. Big buck teeth. Covered in short fur.

The species was known for bad eyesight, so this character (the player named him "Byrne") had a set of auto-telescoping goggles that he placed over a leather skull cap (that looked like a WWI flyer's hat). These eyepieces were constantly zooming in an out, like the telephoto lense of a digital camera. It created a hell of a scene that use to crack me up when the player would simulate the way the guy looked.

Byrne also had a stutter, and just a tad bit of a lisp. Probably a little bit of Tourettes, too.

When something would go wrong for the group in the game, we'd suddenly hear this high-pitched, "Phhhhuuuucccck!" The entire table would burst out laughing.

Man, those were the days. Loved that game.




Ah...found it. The species is called "Tynnan".

Picture this dude below. He's more of a chipmunk, now that I see the pic. Imagine the dude below (I always imagined Byrne to be a little chubbier, more of a pot belly), with a WWI leather flyers cap, those telescoping goggles, a lisp, a stutter, and a touch of Tourettes Syndome...

Spoiler

Show

Same campaign, but a little later on, a different player started playing this Squib. He's another short fellow, but IIRC, they're fearless and quite annoying.

The player would have this character go on these long rants, about anything. Curse words right and left. He sounded like a sterotypical Mexican momma-mia pouring out these waves of litany.

You probably had to be there, but, man, we would laugh so hard that tears came to our eyes when this guy got started.

The other thing the Squib would do was contantly pull out his blaster. He's pull it out of its holster, real quick, with a bright look on his face, then his eyebrows would drop. And, his trigger finger would come off the trigger, waving at his target, as if to say, "Watch it....I'm quick! I'll bow you away."

God, that used to crack me up during the game.

We'd all laugh until our sides burst.

The Squib did this all the time until he did it to the wrong customer. He ended up getting a big dark hole in his chest, pulling his weapon like that one too many times.

Quite a memorable character though.

A Squib...

Spoiler

Show

Here's some fan-made D6 Star Wars stuff for your gaming pleasure. It's nice, because all editions of D6 SW are pretty compatible with each other. You can mix and match supplements and adventures.

GALAXY GUIDE 15: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

STARSHIPS FOR STAR WARS

X-WING NET GUIDE

COMPUTER RULES AND EQUIPMENT SUPPLEMENT

Note that the format for these books is in 2E/2E R&E, but you can easily use them with 1E.

[Mutazoia]

I am encouraging players to work with me to create a custom template. Already worked with one player to make his Ex-Republic Veteran (with additional PC stat dice allocated):

Dexterity- 2D (He was spry, but he's getting up there)
Knowledge- 4D (been around the galaxy, knows tactics a lot
Mechanical- 1D (excuses range from 'everything worked differently in my day' to 'Eh, the clone troopers did all the mechanical stuff')
Perception- 4D (Command and Con)
Strength- 3D (tough old codger)
Technical- 4D (ALL the Demolitions)

Um....

First off...you can't have any stat less than 2D or more than 4D by RAW (except for force attributes which can be 1D or 2D), unless he's also doing a custom alien race (so min of 1D max of 5D, but I seriously recommend you don't allow this your first time out as it can break a game if you don't know what you are doing) so he's going to have to drop something and put one more die into Mechanical. Also encourage him to split die into pips. Designing a character like this is an attempt to min/max all of the default rolls and be really good at basically everything except piloting skills...and anything Dex related: With a 2D Dex he's going to be hitting about as well as your average Stormtrooper, and won't be able to dodge a stationary sandcrawler.

It's better to limit a custom template to no more than one or two attributes at 4D, as you have to seriously gimp other stat's do so (as you can see with your example).

I find that players usually prefer custom templates, but the given 1E Templates aren't bad at all. The min/max limits and each character getting the same number of dice make all the character templates, whether custom or otherwise, pretty balanced.

Some of the Alien races can be a bit unbalancing in that their limits are raised or lowered (like a Wookiee's STR), but this is OK as Aliens should be sometimes different from humans--even in Star Wars.

Every template...even the aliens in the Galaxy Guides have a total of 18 dice split between their attributes. Actually the ones in the Galaxy Guides have less but you add 1D to their attributes if you are using them as a player race (with a couple of exceptions).

[Water Bob]

First off...you can't have any stat less than 2D by RAW...

Some of the later alien templates (and this might be in 2E/2E R&E) definitely have 1D in some attributes.

Every template...even the aliens in the Galaxy Guides have a total of 18 dice split between their attributes.

Note that I was speaking of the min/max levels of an attribute. Yes, the total dice are the same, but Wookiees can put more in to STR.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Right, forgot about that rule. I'll inform the player and adjust the posted stats. He was going to use skills to augment the lagging scores; and, since this guy was a normal soldier, a low dex score like stormtroopers seems appropriate.

[Water Bob]

Right, forgot about that rule. I'll inform the player and adjust the posted stats. He was going to use skills to augment the lagging scores; and, since this guy was a normal soldier, a low dex score like stormtroopers seems appropriate.

Stormtroopers are reduced because of their armor.

[Mutazoia]

Some of the later alien templates (and this might be in 2E/2E R&E) definitely have 1D in some attributes.




Note that I was speaking of the min/max levels of an attribute. Yes, the total dice are the same, but Wookiees can put more in to STR.

When you create a custom race as part of your template you CAN go down to 1D or up to 5D, but 1D is pretty incompetent...with 1D you can't drive a speeder except in open desert where you can't hit anything, and then you can't go very fast and only in a straight line (or slow turns).

Generally I advise new GM's to avoid the custom template rules their first time out as you can come up with some unbalanced templates (either over or under powered) if your not careful.

The only alien listed in 1e is the Wookie, at least in the core book. Galaxy Guide 4 has some additional races in it. They have stat's listed as low as 1D, but those are for NPC aliens. If you play them as a PC you add 1D to each attribute, making them all have no less than 2D (or more than 5D) in any given stat.

Stormtroopers are reduced because of their armor.

Stormtroopers have a 2D Dex, reduced to 1D due to armor. So the republic veteran with a 2D Dex will shoot slightly better than a stormtrooper in armor. Not much to be proud of.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Right. Story-wise, this guy HAD better dex, but was wearing armor. Now hes older and not wearing armor.

[Water Bob]

The only alien listed in 1e is the Wookie, at least in the core book.

I think there was the alien student of the force, too.

[Thrudd]

The problem with a player pilot being expected to pour his CP into the ship is that in other situations he is not very useful. My smuggler is looking to double as a face. And the player who was thinking about a droid wants to play a tank now; something bulkier than a Wookie. Can't think of anything tougher than a Wookie, besides maybe a Herglic.

Whipids are tougher than Wookies, if I remember right. Gamorreans are as strong or stronger than Wookies, too, if I recall correctly. The late 2e book "Alien Encounters" had a couple hundred species from all the various galaxy guides gathered into one book, it was really handy.

I would advise against letting them play anything with more than 4d STR. I did this once, allowing a player to create a custom droid with 5d str, and the characters are very hard to hurt, and can chop vehicles in half with a vibro-axe. Only the wild die from 2e helped get some damage through, in conjunction with my very lucky rolls as a GM (conversely, as a player in any game my rolls tend to be horrible).
If you won't outright ban Str more then 4d, you can threaten them with Vehicle and Starship scale weapons on a regular basis, or other really strong opponents with melee weapons. When a player is basically invulnerable to most enemies' blaster fire, it makes for much less tense combat and can lead to the tendency to solve all problems with an axe.

[Mutazoia]

I think there was the alien student of the force, too.

Yup...forgot about that one. Still, it doesn't have any stat below 2D.

Whipids are tougher than Wookies, if I remember right. Gamorreans are as strong or stronger than Wookies, too, if I recall correctly. The late 2e book "Alien Encounters" had a couple hundred species from all the various galaxy guides gathered into one book, it was really handy.

I would advise against letting them play anything with more than 4d STR. I did this once, allowing a player to create a custom droid with 5d str, and the characters are very hard to hurt, and can chop vehicles in half with a vibro-axe. Only the wild die from 2e helped get some damage through, in conjunction with my very lucky rolls as a GM (conversely, as a player in any game my rolls tend to be horrible).
If you won't outright ban Str more then 4d, you can threaten them with Vehicle and Starship scale weapons on a regular basis, or other really strong opponents with melee weapons. When a player is basically invulnerable to most enemies' blaster fire, it makes for much less tense combat and can lead to the tendency to solve all problems with an axe.

A normal blaster pistol does 4D damage. A heavy blaster pistol and blaster rifles do 5D damage. So a character with a 5D Str has a pretty good chance of shrugging off most blaster fire. Heavy weapons (e-web repeating blasters and such) will pose a threat to him, but they also have a good chance of mowing down the rest of the group with ease.

Also keep in mind that when a character uses a force point, he doubles all his dice codes for one round. So a character with 3 stats at 4D suddenly has 3 stats at 8D. A Bounty Hunter with a 4D dex and a 6D blaster skill will, for one round, have an 8D dex and 12D blaster skill....I've cleared an entire room of pirates in a single round using a force point with a 6D blaster skill (taking 2 shots at each pirate using a heavy blaster pistol). But I still had to work up to that for a few sessions rather than starting there.

[skyth]

I've always allowed players to do limited upgrades with just money as opposed to character points to their ships. Basically, only adding stock items though (adding shields or weapons). If you wanted to improve something past stock, you had to use CP's.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I've always allowed players to do limited upgrades with just money as opposed to character points to their ships. Basically, only adding stock items though (adding shields or weapons). If you wanted to improve something past stock, you had to use CP's.

I didnt know players COULD upgrade ships with CPs.

Speaking of CPs, I am lousy with handing out wealth/XP. I'm thinking the starting quest to get the group together will be the smuggler with most of the party running a standard smuggling run to Corellia, when they are attacked by pirates. The bounty hunter player is pursuing a bounty on the lead pirate's head. I want this to be the initial CP/credit boost the players get; how much should this be?

[Mutazoia]

I didnt know players COULD upgrade ships with CPs.

Speaking of CPs, I am lousy with handing out wealth/XP. I'm thinking the starting quest to get the group together will be the smuggler with most of the party running a standard smuggling run to Corellia, when they are attacked by pirates. The bounty hunter player is pursuing a bounty on the lead pirate's head. I want this to be the initial CP/credit boost the players get; how much should this be?

The Star Wars Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters has a credit price list for various starship upgrades. Initially you used CP's to improve your ship in exactly the same way (and formula) as your skills. (If you are already using the D6 holocron you should be able to find that Galaxy Guide there.) (You can also use points to improve your gear...Han Solo's heavy blaster pistol does 8D damage, for example.) GG6 also has rules for trading, which your smuggler is going to have to do from time to time if he want's to keep the crime lord off his back....

The Core book suggests no less than 3 and no more than 10 points per adventure, depending on the difficulty level. Obviously you don't want to be awarding 10 points every adventure...your characters will power up very quickly and you'll have to keep raising the stakes to keep them interested (Take on a new Death Star all by my self in an X-wing? *yawn*) Generally about 4 or 5 points per adventure would be a good average.

Also be careful of what you hand out in the way of loot/credits. I once had a GM that let us capture a freighter full of medpacks. He then let us sell them for list price in the book....we instantly had several million credits. The game pretty much fizzled out after that. Usually I would give out a total of 500 - 600 credits per adventure and let the group split that as they may.

As for your first adventure...if you are not familiar with the system, running the beginning adventure in the back of the Core book is a good idea. It will run you and your players through situations that illustrate the various types of rolls you'll be making through out the campaign, as well as tying the group together. It's set around the time period of episode 4, but if your campaign is taking place earlier it's easy enough to say the Stormtroopers are Clones. Also, Tatooine Manhunt is a good early adventure. At any rate looking through some of the old published adventures should give you a good idea on how to scale point/credit rewards.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I looked over Tatooine Manhunt. It looks really fun, and I can see it incorporated into my campaign. Not as an early game, however; my game picks up at least 1 year before the Battle of Yavin.

[hifidelity2]

My 1st Post in these Forums – and its a couple of questions

I am running after a long absence Star Wars – 2nd Ed R&R – but this thread seems to cover all the d6 variants

1st Question

Improving Ships

I have always done cash to improve ships rather than CP’s. In order to control the improving the ship too much I have done

- Specific Items needed to improve beyond a certain level – finding them can be an adventure
- increase chance of breakdowns
- Time taken to fit (Months for some increases)

I guess then I could allow the use of CPs to remove any 1 of the above e.g. a specific power converter just “happens” to be in the local shipyard when needed etc, slots into place in a few hours etc

Thoughts?



2nd Question

Skilled Jedi – deflecting bolts

Under the rules (as I read it) 1 dodge allows you to dodge ALL incoming shots

Is this the same for deflecting bolts ? – using your LightSabre skill. Given that this is your Skill plus your Sense power it makes hitting a Jedi impossible
However if its 1 roll / bolt (and so 1 extra -1D / roll) they cannot parry / deflect anything above a couple of shots

How have other people managed this ?



Cheers for the help

[hifidelity2]

Just a bump post as this has dropped waaay down the board

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: Closed for Necromancy.