My House Rules

[Kytross]

Starting Gear

The concept here is to create a list of starting gear for players to choose from. Looking through all the gear available is often overwhelming even for experienced players. This is the basic gear, with enough variations to give you variety. I made up some of these items. More advanced gear is earned as you play the game.

I use a system to allocate starting gear based off the bonuses the gear gives you, not the cost listed in the books. The costs in the books can vary wildly. There are blasters that have nearly identical stats that can vary in cost by double or triple the cheapest blaster’s cost. Using a set amount of starting credits caused me more problems than it solved.

I give my players 10D in skill bonuses to spend on starting gear. For every 1D they don’t spend I give them 1000 credits. For every +1 pip they don’t spend I give them 300 credits. I find this is a fair way to distribute gear to starting players.

Examples:

Weapons cost what their damage does. A 4D blaster costs 4D, a 5D blaster costs 5D.

Weapons that have a strength component in their damage code cost what the bonus damage is. A Strength +1D weapon costs 1D, a Strength +3D weapon costs 3D.

Gear that enhances the entire skill costs 1D for +1D. Gear that only enhances part of a skill costs 1/2D for +1D.


Brawling Weapons

Brass Knuckles - Str +1D Brawling damage

Stun Gauntlets
Str +1D Stun Brawling damage - 20 charges - 10 per hand
Str +2D Stun Brawling damage - 10 charges - 5 per hand
Str +3D Stun Brawling damage - 4 charges - 2 per hand

Stun gauntlets look like any other gloves and can be worn for daily use without arousing suspicion


Melee Weapons - Short Range - Less than one meter/yard, 3 feet, only slightly more than brawling range

Utility knife - Str Damage

A Utility Knife is a pocket knife with no more than a 2 inch blade. It can be used in combat to change your skill from brawling to melee combat with no added damage bonus

Pocket Stunner - Str +2D Stun damage

Combat Knife - Str +1D Damage Max: 6D

Vibroblade - Str +3D Damage Max: 6D


Melee Weapons - Medium Range - 1-2 meters/yards, 3-6 feet

Club/Baton - Str +1d to Str +2D Damage Max: 6D

Stun baton - Str +3D Stun damage

Sword - Str +1D Damage Max: 6D

Vibro Sword - Str +3D Damage Max: 6D

Vibro Ax - Str +3D Damage Max:7D


Melee Weapons - Long Range - 2-4 meters/yards, 6-12 feet

Whip - Str +1D Damage, Fire Rate 2, No Melee Parry, 4 meters/yards, concealable

Shock Whip - Str +2D Stun Damage, Fire Rate 2, No Melee Parry, 4 meters/yards, concealable

Spear - Str +1D Damage, Max: 6D, 2-3 meters/yards

Great Axe - Str +2D Damage, Max: 6D, 2-3 meters/yards

Vibro Halbred - Str +3D Damage, Max: 6D, 2-3 meters/yards

Vibro Great Axe - Str +3D Damage, Max: 7D, 2-3 meters/yards


Lightsabers

Standard Lightsaber - 5D Energy Damage

Variable Length Lightsaber - 4D Energy Damage - The blade has three settings, 3 inch, 3 feet, 3 yards

Stun Lightsaber - 4D Energy damage - Can be set on stun

Double Bladed Lightsaber - 4D Energy Damage


Blasters

Blaster Pistol
4D Damage
Ammo 100
Range 3-10/30/100

Sporting Blaster Pistol
3D Damage
Ammo 50
Range 3-10/30/120

Hold-out Blaster Pistol
3D Damage
Ammo 10
Range 3-4/8/12
Hold-out blasters are small and easily concealable. +1D to your Hide skill when secreting a hold-out blaster on your person

Heavy Blaster Pistol
5D Damage
Ammo 25
Range 3-7/25/50

Blaster Carbine - Basically a blaster rifle without a stock and with a pistol grip. Can be fired at short range, one-handed, with no penalty. Much more practical to carry than a blaster rifle
5D Damage
Ammo 100
Range 3-25/50/200

Blaster Rifle - Must be fired two-handed, impossible to hide without taking it apart.
5D Damage
Ammo 100
Range 3-30/100/300


Bowcasters

Bowcasters, used almost exclusively by Wookiees, fire a metal projectile infused with plasma, it explodes on contact, doing damage to the entire area. I use half the range of a grenade for area damage. Bowcasters do 4D damage, plus the damage of the projectile. The more expensive the projectile the more damage it adds. Bowcasters have a strength requirement of 4D to handle the recoil.

Bowcasters cost 4D

+1D projectiles cost 1D for 100 rounds
+2D projectiles cost 2D for 100 rounds.

Grenades

There are three kinds of grenades: Explosive, Stun and Ion. You have to choose what kind of grenade you want. When purchasing grenades at character creation it goes as follows:

5D Damage - 3 Grenades
4D Damage - 4 Grenades
3D Damage - 5Grenades


Armor

1D of Armor costs 1D

2D Physical, 1D energy, -1D Dex costs 1D+1

2D Physical, 1D energy costs 2D


Shields

Physical shield 2D-4D Damage resist - A successful easy melee parry blocks any incoming attack, treat as cover.

Ray Shield - 5D damage resist against energy damage only. A successful easy melee parry blocks any incoming attack, treat as cover. Cost 3D


Camo

+1D to Sneak costs 1D

+2D to sneak in a specific environment costs 1D


Scanner

+1D to +2D to Search


Climbing Gear

All climbing gear costs half the bonus to the skill. Climbing gear only adds to climbing rolls, not to jumping rolls.


Med Packs

First Aid Kit - +1D to +2D to your First Aid Roll

Doctor’s Bag - +1D to +2D to (A) Medicine

Bacta Shot - Disposable hypodermic that will stabilize someone who is mortally wounded with a very easy First Aid roll. 5 shots for 1D.


Utility Gear

All Utility Gear costs one pip.

Glow Rod (Space Flashlight)
Underwater Breather
Magnetic Oxygen Field - Stay alive in the vacuum of space for 1 hour
Survival Pack - +1D to Survival Skill
Upgraded Comlink - Headset, Extended distance, Etc
Transliterator
Macrobinoculars
Infra-red Goggles, no magnification
Handcuffs, 5D strength
Extra blaster mags, two for one pip


Free Gear

Everyone starts with a basic comlink, a datapad and a utility knife. These items give you no stat bonuses.

Unless you’re from a primitive planet, then work something out with the GM. The one time this came up I gave the player an additional 1D in gear dice to spend.


Repair Tools

You can buy a set of tools for each specific repair skill. +1D to +2D. Talk to your GM, he may allow some toolkits to overlap.

For example, he may allow Starship Repair tools to give you a bonus to Starship weapons repair rolls, or repulsorlift repair rolls. That’s up to the individual GM.


Security

“Lockpicks” cost half the dice code. They can only be used to beat physical and electronic security systems. +2D cost 1D

Security tools that can be used for both setting up and defeating security systems cost 1D per +1D like all other skills


Computers

1D of Power costs 1D

1D of Memory costs 1D

You have 10D of starting dice to spend on equipment, you can use all of it on a computer.


Spikes

1D of Power costs 1D. You get 3 Spikes at that power level

Example: You pay 4D, You get 3 Spikes, each at 4D Power

[Naaman]

Cool idea. Do you have a system for a starting vehicle or ship?

[Kytross]

[Kytross]

This is a quick guide for players on how to improve their gear.

There are three ways to improve your gear: Modifying, Jury Rigging, and Engineering.

Modifying Gear allows you to improve your gear or ship with the appropriate repair skill. You can increase almost any stat, on any piece of gear, by +1 at a time, up to 5 times. Speed stats can only be improved 4 times. This is the most common way to improve gear.

First you have to gather the appropriate resources, that takes money or questing. Next, you have to make the difficulty with your repair roll. Do yourself a favor and take double the time to use an extra 1D on the roll. With a successful roll you have improved your gear with no complications.

Modifying can be used to add an accessory to an item. For instance, adding a scope to a blaster.

The Modification rules can be found in the 2R&E core book in the skill section under technical skills.


Jury Rigging is modifying an item without the cash. You can jury rig it to improve a stat more than +1 pip, In fact, when you jury rig something the stat improves by +1D, +2D, or +3D. You have to roll a separate die for each jury rigged stat increase. If you roll a 1, 2, or 3 on any of those jury rig dice, you are going to have some sort of malfunction with the item.

You can also jury rig your item to do something else entirely, like using blaster mags as impromptu explosives.

Jury Rigging requires little in the way of cash, but your gear will always gain complications. If your lucky, it will malfunction on you after a few uses. If you're not lucky, it will explode.

Why jury rig at all then? It's cheap. You may not have the cash to modify something. It's fast. You can do it on the fly. It offers large stat increases.
It's necessary. There are stormtroopers at the door and you don't have a grenade, but as they're cutting through the door you tape 4 blaster mags together, set them to explode and toss it at the door then run out the back.

The rules for Jury Rigging are covered in Cracken's Rebel Field Guide, and a succinct summary in Galladium's Fantastic Technology. You use the appropriate repair skill to jury rig.


Engineering is redesigning the item. Instead of improving the speed of your starship, you want to replace the engines with something faster. That's not a repair roll, that's an advanced skill, Engineering. Or to put it game terms, Engineering increases the base stats of your gear. Once the base stats are increased by an engineer, your character can modify them from there with their repair roles.

Engineering is it's own skill. You cannot make an engineering roll without the skill. It's the difference between modifying a blaster, and redesigning a blaster. Or, for a real life example, you would need the engineering skill to put a corvette's V-8 engine in a motorcycle.

Engineering is an advanced skill, meaning it costs twice as much in character points to advance, and there are prerequisites before you can take it. As an Advanced skill it can be used to improve applicable repair roles. If one of my players had the requisite skills and wanted to learn (A) Engineering, then I would either make them quest to find a teacher, go to school between adventures, or take a correspondence course through the holonet.

Chances are you are not playing an engineer, nor is it likely that there's an engineer in your group. You will likely have to seek one out, like a quest. Finding an engineer may be a goal for your group.

The rules for Engineering are covered in Hideouts & Strongholds.

[Kytross]

Droid Player Characters

Forget the official droid creation rules. They're unbalanced. Here's the 'species' info for player droids.

Droids
Attribute Dice: 12D
DEXTERITY 2D/4D
KNOWLEDGE 1D/5D
MECHANICAL 2D/4D
PERCEPTION 2D/4D
STRENGTH 2D/4D
TECHNICAL 1D/5D
Move: 10/12

Special Abilities:
- Droids do not eat or breathe.
- They can function in space without a suit.
- Droids cannot heal, they must be repaired. Even after being 'killed' droids can be repaired.
- Attachments & Upgrades - Droids can integrate technology that organic beings would use as equipment.
- Player droids cannot use skillware to upgrade their skills.

Story Factors: Droids are seen as property and less than 1% of 1% of droids are not owned; manumitted or freed. During and after the Clone Wars, many people do not like droids and will not use them or tolerate them.


Considering the first post on this thread, my player characters get 10D of gear dice. This is the same for my droid characters, though generally they use attachments instead of equipment.

Generally speaking, I will allow databases for languages and value.

I allow droids a maximum of 5D in Knowledge and Technical. Most droids are built to help their masters in these fields. Additionally, I feel this does not unbalance the game. If you disagree, I suggest keeping those attributes at 2D/4D.

[Kytross]

Communication in the Star Wars Universe

Comlinks and Datapads

Datapads are basically tablets, like an Ipad or a large smart phone. There is no paper in Star Wars, people use datapads for everything. There are also datapads that are locked, like ship titles. Datapads can connect to a wi-fi network.

Comlinks are a combination radio transciever, phone, and wi-fi hub. Comlinks can be used to hook up to a planetary network, like on Coruscant or Corellia, or make calls when there is no network, like on Tattooine or large parts of Naboo. Comlinks can connect to a local network and then create a wi-fi hub for your datapad.


Planetary Communication

Planetary and low orbit communication is done at the speed of light. Radio waves, optical fibers, microwave bursts, all of this is done at the speed of light, basically instantaneous for the distances involved.

Planets may have networks to hook up to with your comlink for phone or internet style communication. A planet, especially on the core worlds, may allow you access to the holonet through your datapad.


Hyperwave Communication

Communication at the speed of hyperspace travel, faster than light. All starships have a hyperwave transceiver for in system communications and emergency communications from across the galaxy. Hyperwaves are fast, but not as fast as the holonet.


The Holonet

Strange or Quantum entanglement is instantaneous, irregardless of distance. You split a photon, and keep each half of the photon in the two places you want to communicate. For instance, you can set up instantaneous communication between Tattooine and Coruscant with a single strange entanglement. Setting up one of these connections is very expensive.

Millions of these lines are set up on what are called hub worlds. A hub world has communicators set up to thousands of other worlds. Hub worlds connect to each other. So if you are on Tattooine and want to talk to someone on Naboo, you may have to go through four or five hub worlds because there is not a direct connection. This is still close to instantaneous. This is how the holonet works, what it really is. Every system in the Republic connected instantaneously.

Most ships do not have the holonet. They can connect to the holonet in whatever system they're in.

Imperial Navy ships are the exception, their capital ships have the holonet.

[Kytross]

Miscellaneous

Here are the rules I have changed. The little ones that don't need their own post.

- Melee Combat and Melee Parry are combined into one skill under Dexterity.

- Brawling Combat and Brawling Parry are combined into one skill under Strength.

- Space Transports and Starfighter Piloting are combined under one skill: Starship Piloting.

- I have been using a homebrewed skill called 'Spot,' under Perception, for initiative and to notice things. In my next game I am going to change this. I will keep Spot to notice things for spot checks. Someone on here suggested using Tactics to determine initiative. I am going to try that out.

- I've tried a number of different rules for (A) Martial Arts. I don't like any of them. Here's what I'm going to try next. For every 1D in (A) Martial Arts, you can add 1D to your brawling damage roll. You can also add in your (A) Martial Arts skill to your Brawling and Melee skill checks. We'll see how that works.

[Kytross]

The Old Republic didn't have much of a Navy. Police, Law Enforcement, works a different way depending on what books you read. Here's my take.

The Jedi

The Jedi can go anywhere in the Republic and get help from the local system and sector governments. Unfortunately, there are only about 1,000 Jedi in the order at any given time. in regards to law enforcement, Jedi tend to deal with the bigger threats; space pirates that threaten multiple sectors and criminal organizations.


The Imperial Navy

During the Empire the Navy was expanded exponentially and took the place of the Jedi. Piracy and smuggling under the Empire was slammed down hard by the Navy.


Bounty Hunters

Bounty Hunters are licensed to go anywhere in the Republic and later, in the Empire. The best bounty hunters in the galaxy handle the threats outside the Sector Ranger's jurisdiction, the threats that are too small for the Jedi to handle.

Bounties in the Republic are posted by legitimate governments for crimes committed. Bounties in the Empire are the same, though how legitimate you consider those crimes may depend on your political views. Bounties can be posted at the Galactic level, the Sector level or the Planetary level.

Bounties from Hutt Space can be posted by anyone for any reason. The Republic's bounty hunting license does not cover Hutt bounties. In other words, Bounty Hunters are not authorized to chase a Hutt Bounty in Republic space. The best hunters don't let that stop them.


Sector Rangers

Sector Governments are given a stipend from the Republic to run their Sector Rangers. These are legitimate Lawmen who have the authority to fight crime across their sector of space. Sector Rangers have no authority outside of their sector.

Sector Governments can make arrangements with other Sector Governments to allow their Sector rangers to pursue criminals across sector boundaries.


CorSec

CorSec, or Corellian Security are the Sector Rangers of the Corellian Sector. CorSec is the best Sector Rangers in the galaxy. Corellia has agreements with nearly every sector from the Core worlds to the Expansion Region, with agreements along the major hyperspace lanes in the Mid Rim and Outer Rim.

CorSec gets these agreements by being the best, at politics. Their Sector Fleet is one of the largest in the galaxy. Their capital ships aren't particularly large, most are corvettes or gunships, but there's a lot of them. When a sector needs help with a particular group of pirates, and the Jedi can't help, they call in CorSec. CorSec is more than happy to help. Three Corellian Gunships is enough to destroy even the largest pirate fleets. In turn, CorSec would appreciate it if your Sector Government to give them authority to pursue criminals into their sector.

Practical Quid Pro Quo.

You can't hide from CorSec.


Planetary Police

Every planet has local police. They generally have a picket ship or two used to discourage pirates and enforce customs.

[Naaman]

The tactics for initiative was my idea.

As for martial arts, I know how you feel. I once read a homebrew version of the skill that I liked a lot, even if it was very generic. Your martial arts dice add to your brawling dice, and for each D you have in martial arts, you get a +1 bonus on damage rolls with brawling attacks (instead of +1D). This can be good or bad, depending on how fast your characters gain skills (how many CP you award at the end of play). If characters are able to gain 3D or 4D in martial arts, this could be pretty good (only about +1D in damage), but if they are only gaining 1D in the skill every 6 or 8 months of real time, then it may feel like the skill has no real benefit.

You might try allowing for martial arts to immediately add +1D to brawling damage, and then, for each full D increase, it adds another +1 (for games where character progression is slower). Just some thoughts.

Another question: do double bladed lightsabers cost 4D of equipment dice? How do you run those in your games?

[Kytross]

[Naaman]

Yeah, D6 is really hard on Jedi. It's kinda frustrating at times.

[Kytross]

The way I see it right now is that before the Clone Wars, a Jedi with only starting character dice is approximately 13 years old. They have just been chosen as a padawan and are ready to begin their apprenticeship to a Jedi Knight.

When I see the skill levels of the Jedi in the movies it seems obvious to me that they are very advanced characters.

[Whill]

I like it, Kytross. This has been a good read. Thanks for sharing, and please keep it coming.

[Naaman]

[Kytross]

Thanks Whill. I've gotten better at game design, especially after doing that quick and dirty Star Trek design back in 2016, and then working on the Fantasy D6 system I almost finished. Working out a good Magic system has stumped me for awhile now. I have the basics in place, but the details are elusive.

Naaman, as Whill recently pointed out to me in another thread pg 28 of 2E R&E states that you can improve your starting characters force skills with your character dice. The first 1D of control, sense and alter come from your attribute dice, you can improve them by using up to +2D of your skill dice, allowing a maximum of 3D in your force skills. If you bring up all three force skills to 3D, you will have one skill die left over. I have been working on what that character would be like, theoretically on this thread.

Naaman, the game wasn't built for characters to start as Jedi Knights. If we bumped it to 16 skill dice at character creation, and allowed characters to increase a skill by +3D, up from the normal +2D, I could create a decent Jedi Knight character, fresh from the trials. That's 9 skill dice spent on the force skills, bringing all three to 4D, and 7 skill dice spent on regular skills.

But that's starting with advanced characters. Like Whill said, the game is built to start small and work your way up. When your players, or your character, becomes a Jedi Knight, they will know they earned it.