pakman
Commander
Joined: 20 Jul 2021
Posts: 462
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 Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| jtanzer wrote: | I know this is a little late, however pakman said something interesting.
| pakman wrote: | I think there are a lot more relevant things to gameplay than a sector generator?
I mean - this would not even hit my top 10 gaps for house rules.
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I'm curious as to what your top 10 gaps for house rules are. I know you mentioned random encounter generation was something you are interested in, however you didn't give any specifics otherwise. Would you care to elaborate on your desires?
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Not going to list out all the rules - as that is a lot of work - but I will give a top 10 of the things that drove the changes.
(edit: Ok, more than 10 - but the first group were all force related....).
Just a note - this is a result of playing d6 for a very long time, and many other systems - and reading over hundreds of house rules posts both from boards in the day...(used to be very active on swrpg.net) and here.
So many of these may sound familiar;
In no particular order;
1) Force as an attribute, with controls sense and alter as skills. Keeps it consistent and easy to understand.
2) Power scaling in force powers. Beginning force users are almost inept, while higher level ones are incredibly powerful. Now beginning force users can do (weak) things, but more skilled are powerful but GREATLY reduced. (the entire bottom end got easier - but everything has the power level adjusted).
3) Merging/consolidation of many redundant force powers. There were many overlaps, and the path to get to a specific power almost required a powerpoint chart with all the dependencies. I merged, simplified, make mechanics more consistent, then grouped them into hierarchical lists to make them easier for players to understand.
4) single roll force powers - besides making the force system more simplified and better power scaled - all powers are one skill roll. This is usually the one that thematically fits the best, with sometimes the others becoming requirements. So if an old power had Sense as its highest check - the new check was Sense based. If it had Alter as well, alter became a requirement to learn the power. But you only had to roll once. The DL of the sense check was adjusted appropriately.
5) Revised costs to force powers. There were no real checks on force powers in the original rules other than needing to hide from the empire, and the dark side point system. While not too bad - a lot has changed in star wars in the last 40 years. Hiding from the empire only works in about 20years of tens of thousands of star wars history - and many find the dark side point system does not match their desires or perceptions on how it should work in a modern star wars game. We reworked the dark side system to a wider range (Call it the Virtue/Conflict system 1- 100) and made it more narrative and role playing based with light mechanics. Also added in a Stress and Fatigue system for many powers...
6) Expand the Exhaustion; Added Stress and Fatigue. Several force powers and a few actions generate Stress. Each point of stress requires a Stamina check against the stress level (1 Stress = DL1:Very Easy Stamina Check, 2 Stress is a DL2: Easy Stamina check...). When fail a stress check, Increase Fatigue +1pip, and reset stress to zero (so accumulated stress catches up). Fatigue Pips when they hit whole die increments, are a penalty to all actions. Hit enough Fatigue as your Exhaustion = unconscious (similar to raw). Each hour of rest (or a stim shot) reduces Fatigue 1pip. Easy peasy.
7) Restructuring and making consistent conditions and terms. Stunned is now "shaken" and stun is defined more as a temporary type of damage. Tons of minor tweaks on using terms. Like have a "Distracted" condition - so that did not have to write "they are at a -1D penalty ..." now, someone is "Distracted" etc. This again helps with consistency in the rules. Also reduces the confusion on wait...so am I stunned or am I stunned?
8) Reduced the 100+ skills to about 50. Some were merged, some made specializations, others were thrown out. Did not go fewer however - as still wanted more opportunities for player character differentiation in skill areas. Many were common you see here- merging the melee attack and parry skills, consolidating repair skills to the type of tech (Repair- Mechanics, Repair-Tech, Repair-weapons). Droid programming is a specialization of Computer Use, Merged Airspeeders into Pilot, and anything that follows the ground into "Vehicle Ops" with specific types as specializations etc.
9) Character Points. between adventures characters get "Experience Points" (XP) to spend on advancement. All get the same amount. Also keep track of overall lifetime XP, as this combined with the number of times awarded - is a great way to track party progress and strength. Six advances and 74 points makes tells you that the most someone could have gained in a main skill is +2D (six improvements at +1pip each). helps with building NPCS. etc.
10)Hero Dice; similar to character points - the party gets each session, a number of dice based on players present. These are spent like the old character points. Players can earn more for great ideas, good role playing or contributing to the fun of the adventure. These expire at the end of the session - so we see a lot of heroic stuff at the climax of a session.
11) NPC tiers. Many systems do this - but have three tiers of NPCs. Mooks, Extras, etc - the nameless characters who you don't even need all their attributes. They become combat ineffective at 1 wound. Named Npcs - anyone with more interaction or challenge - the stormtrooper sgt, the officer in the detention center etc. They might have a stat block, and some extra skills, but that it. They are out of combat after taking two wounds. Bosses, rivals etc. Full stat block, full npc - has same number of wounds as PC's, background options, and hero dice for a villain.
12) Distinct and defined rules for players helping players. Either with the same skill (no rolls required if trained) or a different skill (requires a roll). Players have to justify how a different skill is relevant to the situation. There is a cap on the max bonus.
13)Rules for hindering foes; From kicking stand in the face, knocking over crates or shooting the steam conduit above their head - or even a scathing insult or suggestion their employer is not paying them enough to die... Rules on ways for non-combat characters to hinder an enemy. Basically the player describes what they want to do, what skill might help, and the gm assigns a difficulty. Depending on the roll - the target becomes distracted or some other roleplaying result.
14) Brawling; Simplified; Strikes, Throws, Improvised weapons. (boxing is a type of strike - we are not running a melee combat simulator - so I merged a lot of stuff). Did define a couple of specific actions - for example, Can Kick to knock someone back uses Strikes, and Grappling uses throws. These specializations are also used in the Martial Arts advanced skills.
15) More options for non-force users; New advanced skill trees that give access to related groups of techniques. Inspired by the martial arts concepts in late 2.5, and later versions and notes on d6. There are about 10 of them. The idea is to give more skillful characters more options than "oh, my blaster went from 8D to 8D+1". Way to many to list here.
16) Revised Background Options; a background option system with simplified consistent mechanics, but open narrative options. Reduces min maxing and make them more balanced and fun. The player comes up with either a specific skill, or circumstance, and up to three times a session the player gets a bonus in that situation if the gm agrees it makes sense. From "Action Hero" to "Flyboy" to "Tracker Extraordinaire" - this has worked out really well.
17) Specializations add to base skill, but are limited to +2D. This was done for simplicity and streamlining.
18) Revised rules on attack types. Burst Fire is -1D to hit +1D Damage, only few weapons have a burst mode fire type and limits. Auto Fire is a full round action with an auto bonus, but can target adjacent foes - each adjacent foe consumes the auto fire bonus.
19) Split up Movement; Did not like the "your entire turn move in one action step". Now have; Half move - a free action, take only once. Move - normal, take only once. Dash - normal move, taken if you already took a Move, and Full round move (Sprint) uses athletics to determine how many moves in a round.
20) Added a Wait Action (Free action, character does nothing) and a Ready Action (if X happens I get to do Y action as a Reaction). yes, many gm's already did this - but put into the rules. There are only 5 actions steps in a round - and if someone waits too long, they just miss out. The wait action is also useful in speeding up game play - an indecisive player and the gm can say "Do you want to just wait..." which the player often agrees - and we move on.
Ok, that is enough for now - have more minor ones - like more options on using two weapons, more distinct options on called shots, etc. Using "Strength Damage" which is used in later systems and popular here...etc.
Yes, many of these things can be done "on the fly" or and many folks here do similar things. I put them into the pot, tried to make their interconnections consistent, and attempt to write them up in an easy to understand way (this ironically - is one of the hardest parts).
not included here were revisions to starship combat, tweaking scale, simplistic way for target speed to matter, very simplified encumberance (pips and dice - similar to ghostbusters d6), simplifying and making droids more consistent, streamlining species, a story based system for character backgrounds, events & contacts (just made a post on SWD6 Facebook group about it)
Oh, and, actually on my list (the Advances & lifetime XP are an input to this one ) and some structure around creating balanced encounters and random encounters...
All of this is why I went from just a "house rules" document, to just calling it a new version.
Be well my friends, and may the dice be with you.
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SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon.... |
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