Creating a new ref manual - contents and organization?

[pakman]

The Situation

To make a long story short about to start a new d6 based Star Wars campaign.

My co-gm and I have been playing SWRPG of various flavors, and we are going with a somewhat heavily extended version of 2.5 (with added in content from various other sources and updated to reflect content in the last 20+ years.).

As we have house rules all over the place, including upgrading many things to newer version of D6 content (d6 space, opend6, etc.) we have decided to just put together a new book.
(I have writing and document experience in putting together manuals in the day job etc. - so not too big a pain).

THIS post is not about the rules changes themselves (I will make other posts about that) but this is about what content should go in, and how it should be organized.

Also, while I love and appreciate the work the REUP team did - and think the content consolidation was awesome - it did not change any of the things in the base game which we consider problematic.
Which is fair - as that was not their goal.

The Audience

My players all know what role-playing games are, etc. They are all fairly familiar with Star Wars and can all read Wookiepedia for certain story parts (i.e. I only need stats on races, not their fluff in most of the time, etc.).
I won't be including tons of lore or sections of the galaxy or anything like that (we have a campaign website, and a reference list).

Manual Organization
The Ask to any Experienced SWRPG d6 Players out there.

I have a few questions for some other gamer's out there - on some specific sections - both on inclusion and on order.

While I overall love the old 2.5 D6, I found it terribly organized - I felt like I was always skipping back and forth for things.
So we are trying to organize this better....

Here are some specific questions - (with numbers to make responses easier).

1) Does the book need the solo adventure to walk experienced gamers through how to play?
2) Would you keep all the "Hi, I am an NPC and I am going to explain this section to you" type content?
3) Would you do "how the game works" i.e. the basics, before OR after character creation?
4) Would you have a PLAYER section and GM section?
5) What would you CUT OUT of the 2.5 version of the game? (Revised and expanded).
6) What was not really clear in 2.5 that needs better explanation?
7) Would you put the list of races in the back? or the front near character creation?
8) Would you put the equipment and gear up front? or the back?
9) Where in the rules would you put force powers?

Thank you for your input. Again, this post is about organization of content.
_________________
SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[Whill]

That's a lot!

[pakman]

[pakman]

Follow up;

My house rules are coming along well - 90% of the force rules are done, and I am working on other organization (yes will, I need to post up my force powers as advanced skills...).


However, my next question;

How would you sequence/change the ORDER of the rules in the book?

in other words, the organization.
Many have made comments about the book bring poorly organized, so I am curious as to what they would change.

For Reference, here is the rough layout of REUP;

1 - INTRO
* SOLO ADVENTURE
* PLAYER HANDOUT (How the game works)
2 - Characters
* Template and Char Creation
* Background options, etc.
3 - ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS
* Including skill difficulties
* Including Improving equipment
4 - GM Tips
5 - THE RULES
* Actions, Die Codes, Force Points etc.
6 - Combat/Injuries/Healing
7 - MOVEMENT - Char and Vehicles
8 - SPACE TRAVEL AND COMBAT
9 - Battles
10 - THE FORCE - and force powers
11- Running Adventures
12 - Designing Adventures
13 - SAMPLE ADVENTURE
14 - THE GALAXY (about the setting).
15 - NPCs
16 - ALIENS
17 - CREATURES
18 - EQUIPMENT and GEAR
19 - DROIDS (reference)
20 - VEHICLES (reference)
21 - SPACESHIPS (reference).
22 - PLANETS (reference).
Reference Tables
Character Templates
"

For example, I am considering placing the force powers section BEFORE all the stuff on space travel and vehicle combat, as using force powers feels more character related than what a character does.

Those kinds of changes.

Also, what would you drop? (I am taking out 99% of the galaxy and lore stuff - for example - as those can vary by campaign).

Thanks in advance.
_________________
SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[garhkal]

[Grimace]

[pakman]

Thank you for your comments folks - I sincerely appreciate them and those who take the time (I know most people are pretty busy).

My house rules book is coming along well - (almost done with my force powers as advanced skills section).

Now, I want to ask a few more on rules sequencing - how would you order things in a rulebook? (even most folks who love d6 think it could be organized better).

Here are some sections in alphabetical order - what sequence would you put them in the rules?

Attributes & Skills (would you separate?)
Big Battles (or merge?)
Equipment (armor, weapons, gear, lists of ships, vehicles, etc.).
Character Advancement (or put in skill section?)
Character customization (templates, etc.).
Character Templates (sample of a bunch - or would just have a table?).
Character quick start (with minor equipment).
Cybernetics (or put in another section).
Droids (or put in another section).
Force and Force Powers
Glossary of terms (beginning or end?)
Movement (or merge into 'the rules' section).
Opponents (npcs, beasts, etc.) or would you merge?
Rules (combat, healing, rounds, etc.)
Sample Adventure (if you had one).
Space Combat
Space travel (or would you skip it)
Species
Vehicle combat (or combine with space combat)


What order would you put them in?
_________________
SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[Ziz]

[pakman]

Hello my fellow gamers....

Update on my rules.

They reached a point stable and complete enough a long while ago - although not very pretty....(many rules were in lists by topic in massive spreadsheets).

My group has been playing them almost two years!
Of course, with some tweaking along the way, and some things a bit .....flexible. (slowly refined and formatted over time - about 120 pages are done enough to print into a book for my group....).

My goal is for it to be a fully stand alone book, so that is why so much stuff.

Anyway - I have been working for a long time on refining and cleaning up the rules - and formatting for print etc. - and wanted to ask the community for additional thoughts on organization.

The Chapter Order as it exists today;

Introduction
New player Quick Start
Core Rules
Characters (for more detailed than the quick start).
Attributes and Skills.
The Force
The Rules (more extensive than core rules).
Movement and Chases (more extensive than core rules).
Combat and Injury (more extensive than Core rules).
Equipment and Weapons
Vehicle and Starship Combat
Game Mastering Star Wars
< Er....aliens beasts and stuff here?
< Where is my galaxy section?

Most of the rules are done (with a few tweaking still going on - like a few advanced skills, and refining starship movement and weapons) but a lot still needs to be edited, reduced - and organized...

Note on Progress
I am have a few more things I want to clean up then will work on figuring out the best way to manage getting help with proofreading, playtesting and other feedback.

Of course -not exactly sure HOW I am going to do that - but that specific topic...will be another post.

MORE ON ORGANIZATION
Overall the org of my rules is based on multiple D6 products, and some insights from other systems over the years... a lot of work has gone into it, but a few things I am on the fence about...

- a few specific questions;

1 - Glossary of Key Terms.
I have a "key terms" section - kind of like a glossary. it is 3 pages.
I have it at the end of the Introduction section - should it be in an appendix?
Maybe only like the top 10 terms/concepts in the intro before the new character quick start, and the rest in the back?

2 - Full Character Creation Chapter?
If it is possible to create characters with the Quick Start and a template - does the Characters section with a more full version need to be chapter 3, or should be it "Advanced Character Creation" later in the book?

3 - Should movement rules be in "THE RULES"?
The Rules section is similar to the one in REUP - how to use skills, opposed checks, dice pools, scenes, social confrontation, round by round etc.

If it is not too long - is movement worth of its own chapter- or just part of the rules?

4 - Playable Races and Droid Rules
Do they go in the full Character Creation? or in their own chapter.
Right now leaning on a chart in Character Creation - and possibly placing a playable races section .....somewhere?

5 - Initiative and round by Round.
It is in my "the rules section" as that section talks about the transitions from Scenes to Rounds. Part of me feels it should be in Combat....but not ALL rounds and skill checks lead to shooting... am I overthinking this one?

6 - Vehicle and Spaceship Movement?
Should Vehicle and Spaceship movement be in the Movement chapter in their own section - or the first part of the Vehicle/Spaceship combat chapter?

7 - Where do I put ...the galaxy stuff.
Stuff like sublight travel, Hypertravel feels like it might work in the movement chapter - especially if I call it "Movement and Travel".
But I still need a home for - how the holonet works, Trade and Space encounters, types of spaceports, planet stuff etc.
If it does not fit anywhere else - could also put it with how the game is different in the various eras (old republic, etc.) and call that chapter "The Star Wars Galaxy...". your thoughts?


SO - my fellow GM's and players - your thoughts on my questions above?
_________________
SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[raithyn]

I knew you had a full rework but this is a lot! It looks like you have it really well documented too.

I own quite a few rule books for different systems. Most (but certainly not all) of those I've even run at least once. This is all my opinion based on that and should be given the little weight it deserves.

1. Long lists of terms that don't fully make sense yet can make a rulebook seem more intimidating than it really is. I'd recommend a glossary. Any fundamental terms can also be listed up front and/or defined in each relevant section. That way they're worked into the sections that someone will reference at the table and in an easy-to-find list.

2. Please put all character creation (advanced rules, races, droids, etc.) in once place, no matter where it ends up. One of the worst parts of using the 30th Anniversary print (almost identical to the original 1e rulebook but I started late) was having to flip back and forth over and over to understand what are ultimately simple concepts that I can summarize in two or three sentences that isn't actually summarized in any one place by the authors. If you find yourself repeatedly referencing other sections outside the Intro, Quick Start, and Core Rules, there's probably a better way to organize the information.

3. My preference is a dry, technical rules reference (see the rules of the board game Root) to flip through at the table. All the fluff showing someone how to adjudicate specific examples is nice for educational purposes but horrible reference material. Given the books I've seen so far, I may be out of step with most D6 players on that front.

4. Character Creation. I like tables and charts. They're great ways to condense information. In all fairness, I also like simplicity so I tend to cut out a lot of the species and droid character creation rules for the one shots I run. When I'm at a point where I can run a longer campaign, those will be more relevant.

5. At least provide the top-line transition rules in THE RULES. If there are more situational rules, those might fit better under COMBAT but there's different scales of transitions as well. My players need to be put in rounds just so everyone gets a chance to act against the clock on an important task other than shooting at things fairly regularly. That keeps the loudest, fastest thinking person from claiming the spotlight every scene.

6. I think this depends on how your movement rules work. Most systems I've seen it makes sense to directly compare them to character movement. If everything changes (like characters having meter measurements and starships using range bands in 1e) then it may make more sense to discuss them separately.

7. Most of the galaxy stuff fits under what I picture when you write GAME MASTERING STAR WARS. Maybe I'm off base there. Hypertravel probably goes with spaceship movement but everything else seems like it's specific to the setting versus core rules that can apply to any sci-fi game. Running different eras, how to make the game feel like Star Wars, encounter tables, etc. all seem to fit into the specific section much better.

Having NPC/droid/beast stat blocks as appendices makes sense and seems to be the most common approach across different systems. There's lots of ways to sort such things, almost all of which have pros and cons. D6 stat blocks are almost superfluous in my limited experience. This is one of the easiest systems I own for a GM to just make up NPC stats on the fly even for key antagonists.

The only sections that seems a bit odd are putting MOVEMENT AND CHASES before COMBAT AND INJURY. I assume the two can be highly interrelated but that's possibly covered well enough in the CORE RULES or THE RULES sections that your ordering makes perfect sense.