Different ways to create alien characters

[Starbeard]

I see three basic ways to handle alien characters in WEG Star Wars.

1. There's the "Template" method, where each alien species is its own template. Each member of the species has 12D spread the same way across the attributes, and you get 6D to build up your character.

2. Then there's the "Second Edition Custom" method, where each alien species has a profile, with min/max attribute codes, and number of attribute dice to spread around (almost always 12D for NPCs/18D for PCs). You can divvy up the attribute dice however you like, as long as you stays within the min/max limits.

3. Then there's the First Edition, "Core Book Only Custom" method, where you simply throw your 18D wherever you like and say what you are. Want to be a wookiee? Give yourself 5D or more in Strength and call yourself a wookiee. Have only 2D Strength but still want to call yourself a wookiee? Sure, but with scores like that you must be a sickly or adolescent wookiee.


Which methods do you prefer? Have you run into pros and cons for any of them?


When I started I pretty much only used the second method, since that's basically the default for 2nd edition. Over the years though, as I cooled off on collecting and organizing massive lists of alien stats, I moved to the first method, where an Ewok is always an Ewok unless it's a PC, and now I've even started to take a liking to the idea of harkening back to the freewheeling "Hammerhead and Weird Girl" era of Star Wars aliens, and going with method 3. Ditch the templates, let players put their dice wherever they want, and then have them describe physically what their alien looks like.

[garhkal]

For me, its a mix of 1 and 2. Keep within the racial min-maxes, but as long as you match up to the template you wish. So let's say a template has a 4d dex, 3d per, 3d str but 4d tech. And the race you were thinking of, caps at 3d+1 tech, you couldn't take that race with that template.
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[Telsij]

Even though I mostly post 2nd Edition formatting for Alien species, that is mostly done to provide widest reach, so that it fits with what (I assume) most do or use.

In practice though, at times I do find Min/Max attribute ranges constrictive (and def see the appeal in option #3), and when creating new species or statting new canon/legends species that don't have official WEG stats, I try to keep the range as wide as possible.

For official species, often I'll stat out a specific character of that species first and then reverse-engineer/extrapolate from there, based on ranges presented in various source material, as I'm sure a lot of folks also do, while trying not to fall into the WEG trap of "all members of species X are thus," eg: all Chiss are calcualting sods, etc.

EDIT: The first edition method is the most "fun" however, and it was only recently (and far too belatedly) that I learned/realized/remembered the static die code examples for various species in 1E were meant to be built up in the method you describe.

[Starbeard]

Interesting points. It took us a long time to figure out Method 1, partly because for years we misinterpreted Method 2. In the Revised rulebook's alien chapter, where it says always lists 12D as the attribute dice for the species, we thought that meant that's all you get. So a human PC gets 18D, and an alien PC only gets 12D. Since the alien generic templates all have 12D anyway, we thought that was just what you get.

[Telsij]

[Whill]

[Starbeard]

That's true about first edition, even in the core book it has both alien templates and still allows for you to build your own alien characters. The Sourcebook sometimes provides both options within the same species description.

I do like that you still give 18D to all starting PCs, regardless of species.