New Star Wars RPG Core Rulebook Coming!

Sorry for the big quote, but I'd likve to reply to all of it.

It's true that some feats and skills were slightly redundant, but never in my experience was that a problem at all. (for the record, my experience includes playing three SW campaigns and gamemastering three, all under the current system)

As for the Jedi levels issue, it's not true that Jedi couldn't multiclass well. For one thing, there's all the Jedi prestige classes from the Power of the Jedi sourcebook and the corebook, and fighting-type prestige classes like Master Duelist work wonderfully with a Jedi's abilities. I know, those are prestige classes, but I don't see the purpose of the type of extreme "character building" that some people like to do. It seems to me that someone who creates a Jedi guardian/scoundrel/soldier/bounty hunter character is doing so because they are a pure power gamer and are only concerned with becoming as powerful as possible in as many areas as possible.

I do agree that it makes sense for a character that starts as a Jedi or gains Force-user levels should be able to use the Force well, but that can easily be solved under the new system by a little GM tweaking. Just say that once a character gains a few Force-user levels, all Force skills become class skills for that character from now on. As for NPC's being able to do things the Heroes could never do, that was solved with the Heroic Qualities idea. In fact, I think that almost all the problems that you might have encountered with the corebook are addressed in at least one of the many sourcebooks available. Which reminds me, the new Saga Edition will make all of these interesting sourcebooks unsuable, what a waste!

 

Well, there's a difference between having differentiation and people abusing it.

For instance, I am currently playing a Jedi Weapon Master (JG/JWM/JM) who is now 12th level and, through 8-9 full sessions of play, has not yet killed a sentient being (droids he doesn't care about). Attempting to talk first, turn Dark Jedi back to the Light, strategic use of Improved Disarm, etc.

Just because you CAN do a thing doesn't mean you SHOULD do a thing.

 

Good point.
One player started with the Rodian Pacifist template and received Jedi training. He would use TK to eject the power-packs from blasters on both sides.
"Now that your blasters won't work, perhaps we could all discuss our issues in a civilized fashion."
All the players started carrying melee weapons. He would also deactivate lightsabers in mid-combat (usually both sides).
Stormtrooper armor is good, but wasn't good enough.

Between adventures, he would remove vital components from ships' lasers and disassemble them. This made evading TIE fighters a lot more... interesting.
The party started having to buy all kinds of spare parts and hide them so they could install them when the Rodian wasn't around. They also started using Duct Tape to hold their powerpacks in, and trying a variety of other workarounds.

As soon as they worked out a solution to one tactic, the Rodian would employ another.

Everyone hated that Rodian.
I thought he was funny as hell. But, I was the GM...

 

No offense, but that sounds really...lame. I mean, the player is essentially handicapping the other players and preventing them from enjoying the benefits of their characters. I'm guessing they were playing Jedi, soldiers, smugglers, etc.? Characters built to shoot blasters and wield lightsabers? That kind of breaks the social contract of the game, with one player exerting his will over the other players at all times. Not to mention that pacifists and Star Wars don't exactly go together in my book. I know Yoda said "Wars not make one great," but he still trains Luke to kick ass and take names; he just teaches him that fighting should be for defensive purposes, and a last resort.

dp4m's example, on the other hand, sounds more reasonable. In fact, it sounds more like how a Jedi should view the galaxy, wanting to peacefully resolve the situation but not restricted from taking violent action when absolutely necessary. Plus, I notice that he said he hasn't "killed" any living beings, not that he hasn't injured them, and I think that's a more interesting and fun distinction. He's also made no mention of sabotaging his fellow players' and reducing their effectiveness, which I think retains the fun of the game for everyone. And at least he's gotten to carve up some battle droids. I mean, it's called Star WARS, not Star Stories.

If I had a player in my campaign that was making the game less fun for the other players, I believe I would ask him to stop.

 

Yep, the newly deployed ARCs thought my character was a panzy-ass so I demolished a couple of squads of Battle Droid and Hailfires for them.

They also think I'm insane for wielding a glowrod and no armor, but meh...

 

I can see your point.
But everyone was having fun at the time, plus finding clever things to work around the pacifist.

Also remember, the pacifist could only disarm one or two people per round. So, in the true spirit of balance, he would proportionately disarm both sides. 12 stormtroopers, 4 party members ==> round 1, disarm 2 stormtroopers. Round 2, disarm one trooper & try to disarm one party member. Stormtroopers are easy, and aren't expecting it. PCs became harder and harder, and were actively resisting. Suddenly not having to worry about a couple of people shooting you can be a big advantage.

 

I'm not talking about prestige classes, I'm talking about core classes.

No, they don't. See below.

In my experience, power gamers figure out pretty quickly that excessive multiclassing is a really good way to do a lot of things badly. In general, multiclassing is something that better players tend to do to get the right blend of abilities to fit their character concept.

In any case, WOTC should not build the rules around the assumption that my players are powergamers.

That's not tweaking. That's already in the RCR. Once you take Alter, Sense, or Control, all Alter, Sense, or Control based skills are always class skills for you.

The problem is not the skill points (well, actually, the Force skills system was a HUGE problem before which is fixed now). It's the feats and prestige classes that require you to have a certain number of Force levels or Jedi levels before you can take them. It's impossible for a padawan to make progress towards becoming a Jedi Knight or a knight to make progress towards becoming a master if they deviate from the very narrow skillset the Jedi classes offer, and it's impossible for someone who's had a previous career prior to becoming a Jedi to become a Jedi Knight in a reasonable timeframe.

 

Good news: New stuff up at wotc's site.

Bad news: According to barnes and noble, the release date has been pushed back to june 5th.

 

I disagree slightly.

To be a Master, you only needed like See Force (6 ranks) and then like 20 ranks of other Force skills, so if you were a Guardian, simply taking BM/EA each level would cover it and you could spend all of your other skill points elsewhere.

Or you could just not use INT as your dump stat and get more skills.

 

I'm just reading Sarlaac now.

Impressed, so far.

E_S

 

Starship Combat Preview is up, as stats for A Jawa and Lando.

 

W00t!

 

What?! I thought it was supposed to come out on June 5th, not today... (and Amazon lists it so) Well, good for you, in any case.

EDIT: checked it at that site, and it's listed as June 5th as well.

 

I'm cursing a blue streak right now.

 

I'm predicting a slew of complaints until everyone gets a copy. This will be followed by 1-4 days of relative quiet while everyone digests the book, and perhaps even playtests it. This will be followed by a stream of arguments with themes like "This is the best improvement ever" and "This is the most gawdawful crap"...

Just like last time...




and the time before that...

Good luck to all, and may the dice roll in your favor

 

Well I got Sacrifice a week early. If this comes in early, all the better.

Sacrifice took 3 days to get here, so I should have this in my hands by Monday.

(Not to rub it in, or anything )

 

jackass



Nice one buddy, enjoy Sacrifice unless you've already read it, in which case, add a question mark, as for the sourcebook, I just hope you like it, if it's a bunch of crap you ain't gonna be proud about getting it early huh?

 

I predict my players to love it. They (we) are d20 fanatics but miss the D6 simplicity.

 

I now hold in my hands the Saga Edition. Wow.

Okay, first impressions: it looks like a coffee table book of Star Wars at first glance, but the art style and layout is very clean, and well organized. What artwork that isn't from the RCRB is a live action still from the movies or production photos. It includes a game map which is attached by preforation, so I'm a little hesitant to pull it out, because it'll probably rip knowing my luck. There are the same number of starting species, but there's a handful more of them in the back. Not nearly as many stats in the Character Archetypes section as I'd like, but at least they're organized by faction.

Iterative attacks do still exist in the form of feats. For example a 6th level Soldier could take double attack (when his BAB is at +6 which is a prereq for the feat) then can take Triple Attack at 11th level (+11 BAB), so while a high level character doesn't get quite as many attacks in the old system, you can still attack multiple times.

Yoda's stats have a +29/+29/+29 lightsaber attack. 'Nuff said.

There's no longer any Dark Side Marauder/Devotee PrC's, but Force Adept and Force Disciple with talent trees that compensate for that. The Jedi Knight/Jedi Master PrC talent trees apparently make up for quite a bit of the stuff found on PotJ sourcebook. Oh, and Sith Apprentice and Sith Lord PrC's are included!

Destiny is an optional mechanic that the GM decides whether to include at the beginning of the campaign. Destiny points let you do all sorts of crazy stuff like auto-crit.

Weapon proficiencies are much more succinct. The Weapon group Pistols seems to cover any small hand-help weapon from blaster pistol to slugthrower pistol. Rifles covers Blaster Rifles, Slug Rifles and Bowcaster, etc.

Well, these are my first impressions after a very short hour with this book. Amazing...

 

I hate D20 games, but I am still gonna take a look at this new book.

 

Prereq's for Jedi Knight PrC, specifically do not list having Jedi levels, however, under SPecial it says you "Must be a member of the Jedi tradition (see pg. 104), however they do say that BAB must be +7, so it would be impossible to take this PrC before 7th level.

Page 104 says: Any character with the Force Sensitivity feat can become a member of the Jedi tradition by being accepted as an apprentice by a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master.

With that being said, you can probably create a Soldier 6/Jedi 1/Jedi Knight 1, without too much problem.

Unfortunately only 1 example of stats is given for any character. Anakin Skywalker's stats are only given as of Episode IV (as Darth Vader, of course) Obi-Wan is the Episode III Obi Luke Skywalker is RotJ Luke, so presumable all characters are listed at their peak (not counting the EU sources).

Luke's level breakdown: Scout 1/Jedi 7/Ace pilot 2/Jedi Knight 1. (Another interesting note is that Han has levels in the gungslinger PrC)

Yoda's are Jedi 7/Jedi Knight 7/Jedi Master 5

Also very interesting of Palpatine's stats: noble 6/ Jedi 1/Sith apprentice/Sith Lord 5

I can see using the Jedi class as that's a base class that would allow easier access to some required powers for the Sith apprentice PrC, or maybe the writers know something we don't...

 

Jedi is now the generic Force-using class.