Advice on Running d6 Star Wars

[cheshire]

I've been disappointed with the way that smuggling goes in the supplements. Yeah, there are a few things mentioned here and there, and it's scattered all over the adventure journals. IIRC Tramp Freighters has a little bit about it, you can find some useful information sprinkled here and there in Platt's Starport Guide, and a number of other supplements. They do have a dedicated book to smuggling, Platt's Smugglers Guide. Though it's hard to snag that for any less than $25 on eBay. Even that book is filled with references to other books and supplements. I can't speak fully on how good the supplement is, since I just recently purchased it on eBay, and I haven't been able to read through it entirely.

So, the good news is, if you want something on smuggling, it's mentioned almost ANYWHERE. The bad thing is, it's hard to get a lot of specifics on how to run a smuggling campaign.
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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.

[Fallon Kell]

[DougRed4]

Coming in really late to this discussion, I know, but one solid piece of advice for any d6 GM would be to make sure your PCs have Dodge. Combat can be pretty deadly if they're not able to get out of the way of deadly blaster fire!

Overall, I agree with what most have said here. Keep things fast and moving quickly, which will go a long way in giving you that "Star Wars", cinematic feel. Don't hesitate to just go with what feels right, rather than spending time flipping through books. Just pick a TN and go for it. The longer/more you GM the game the better your feel will be, and I'm sure your PCs will understand while you're going through that learning curve.

With newer characters, I tend to use the lower numbers in the Difficulty range (for example, when it's Moderate they only have to hit an "11"), and as they advance I up it. So when the PCs are pretty experienced they have to roll a "15" to beat any Moderate task.

[Fallon Kell]

[DougRed4]

That's really good to hear.

I'm one of the main posters on two V&V forums, and just a couple of days ago on one of them I was able to be the one to tell a newcomer - who apologized for gravedigging a thread - that we actually encourage such a thing there. As he responded, some sites can be persnickety about such a thing.

[borithan]

Thanks for the advice.

We are now into our 5th adventure, after about 12 sessions of gameplay. Seems to be going ok. Players are a crew of a small frieghter (which their pilot managed to fly into the mass shadow of a planet. They survived, but they don't have a ship at the moment) who had been doing a bit of running around in the Minos Cluster shortly before the events of the first film. They have picked up a (more than) slightly mad Jedi Master, who had been stranded alone on a planet about 40 years, since the Clone Wars (which were nothing like the ones shown in the films... my canon now just includes the original films and that EU stuff I like, and I totally rewrote the pre-films era to make more sense in my head. A bit closer to the stuff hinted at in the Thrawn novels and the stuff the RPG suggested).

The force users are just starting to take off, which has me slightly worried, at least the flagrant way one of the players is using the abilities, but I have various ways to slap him down if I really need to.

[garhkal]

Just start having inquisitors start chasing those flagrant force users.. That will quell them.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

And of course there's always ysalamiri, too!

[CRMcNeill]

I've been working on an alternate rule concept for in-game Force use that, IMO, is a better representation of what we see in the films. It isn't complete by any means, but it may provide you with some ideas.

1) The Disturbance in the Force alternate rule (as used by Sparks and posted by garhkal) create a framework for throwing elite, Jedi-hunting baddies at PCs, especially in the Classic era. Basically, every time the PCs roll too high on a Force skill, it creates a tremor in the Force that is detected by the Empire, who then send hunters out to investigate.

2) Based off a concept in Zahn's Hand of Thrawn duology, I am playing with the idea of the aforementioned disturbances increase the difficulty for Sense skills (in essence, disturbances distort the Force around the Force user and make it more difficult for him to sense things through the Force).

3) In combination with #2, I am also going with the philosophical approach for Jedi in that, out of respect for the Force and all life, they work to minimize their "footprint" in the Force by only using it actively when absolutely necessary, and doing their best to avoid creating disturbances in the Force. Thus, by minimizing their active use of the Force, a Jedi gains deeper understanding of the Force. In game terms, this would be represented by CP awards, so that a Jedi who minimizes his use of the Force would receive more CPs (and thus advance his skills faster) than a character who uses TK to open doors and turn on light switches rather than opening them by hand.

Something that occurred to me while writing #3 is that perhaps there is room under the Force skill grouping for additional skills representing doctrinal training. A Force user trained in the doctrine of a specific group would have advantages in that his training provides him with a conceptual framework within which to build his understanding of the Force.

Just as a basic concept, lets say (A)Lore represents a Force user's understanding of the various doctrines of Force usage. Lore specializations would focus on specific doctrinal teachings (Jedi, Sith, etc) and would be applicable as a dice pool bonus to Force skill usage. However, when a character abandons one doctrine in favor of another (such as a Sith turning to the Light), as they are no longer using the tenets of that particular doctrine (the former Sith would no longer be using his negative emotions to fuel his Force powers, and would have to start from scratch to learn the doctrine of his new beliefs).

Obviously, it's a bare bones concept that I'm typing up on my phone, and I'm sure there are issues I haven't considered, but I think there is something to it.

Thoughts?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

Nice idea on the doctrinal training.. but i might limit it to more specific fields...

such as the cadence like training given in Fragments from the Rim.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[Darth_Hilarious]

The hardest part of Gm'ing I have always ofund to be is to keep your characters and equipment in the era you are running your adventure. IE you arent going to have TIE Defenders and Interceptors in an adventure set during the clone wars no matter how loud your players whine.




I've been playing various RPG's since BEFORE episode IV was released cause I remember the docking port scene in a slightly different setting. " Come out Solo we have you surrounded!" "If thats the case fat man you're facing the wrong way!"

ps...... Rancors don't eat clowns because they taste funny.

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

[Rollenspiel]

In '77 there weren't too many: OD&D (or just the Monster Manual of AD&D), "Classic" Traveller, Metamorphosis Alpha, Bunnies and Burrows.