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Aardon24689
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Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 64
Location: Indiana
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 Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject: Using Star Wars Miniatures and Maps with a D6 RPg |
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From what I've seen on the forum there are not many fans of the Star Wars Miniatures games. I must confess that my friends and I do play it, but very casually. We're not intent on making perfect squads or total game perfection. Its just fun to mess around with. Now that I'm starting a new campaign I'd like to incorporate the RPG closely with the Minis. Origionally I was going to use the D20 system but I saw the light and decided to stick with D6. I'm still thinking the miniatures and maps would work well together. One thing I like is there are many fan made maps available so I can mix it up and there are a lot of cutouts so I can put together my own map as needed for an adventure.
I don't have a lot of the details worked out. I thought I'd see if anyone else is doing the same thing I could base off of before I went and did everything myself. Each square is 2 meters so movement and measurements for weapons is easy. Its been years since I've played so I'm going through the rulebook again now. After i get the basics down again I'll post some initial ideas to get some feedback and do some play testing. |
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Aardon24689
Sub-Lieutenant
Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 64
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Before this gets to far. Is this the right section for me to post this in? I debated is a bit. None of the sections seemed a perfect fit so I figured it was closest to being a GM tool. I could also see it being a house rule or belonging under the Gamemaster section. |
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Gry Sarth
Jedi
Joined: 25 May 2004
Posts: 5304
Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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This is a fine section to post this. It would fit either here or under House Rules...
There a bit of a miniature discussion going on at the "Starfighter Combat" thread under "official rules". A long time ago, WEG released the Star Warriors game, which was a somewhat-rpg-compatible space combat system using a hex board and ship counters. I'm trying to incorporate it into my RPG game, but bringing it as much as possible into the RPG system.
WEG also created a normal ground battle miniature game, you should have a look into it if you want to play a D6 miniature Star Wars game.
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Ankhanu
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 3089
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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I find grids and minis invaluable tools while playing. You don't need to use any miniatures rule sets, but just having the maps and minis there helps keep track of who's where and when.
I had my map grid laminated (about $10) and use dry erase markers to draw new maps as needed. It's quick and easy and helps the game a lot, I think. |
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Gry Sarth
Jedi
Joined: 25 May 2004
Posts: 5304
Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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My only gripe with using boards and minis is that it can turn the RPG game into a miniature game. It's happened to our group a few times, people stop thiking "in-character" and just concentrate on the moves on the board.
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vong
Jedi
Joined: 30 Aug 2006
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Location: Ottawa, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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yea, thats true. personally i dont do boards for combats. i sometimes draw the surroundings at the start of combat, but other then that i dont worry about movement. give them distance at long range, but other then that if they say they want to go there, i let them know itll take about htis long to get there and such, so they can get into the combat more, immerse them into the game more. so i worry about 90% of the numbers and try to make it as smooth for them as possible.
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Krayt
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Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Posts: 729
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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I've done boards for combat with a 1 square = 5 meters scale on foot. Actually, my group almost always uses boards, and we never had any trouble with it. The WotC minis are really super because of the huge variety of characters availible and the maps are made already.
Unless it's just a small skirmish or 1 on 1, boards are great.
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ebertran
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 202
Location: Miami, FL
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Hopefully by the end of this week, I will be posting a PDF I've designed with counters for use with a grid. 1 inch counters, for ships, character types, thugs, stormtroopers, etc... It's coming out pretty cool, for being my first pdf, I hope people will find it useful. |
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Aardon24689
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Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 64
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Gry Sarth wrote: | | My only gripe with using boards and minis is that it can turn the RPG game into a miniature game. It's happened to our group a few times, people stop thiking "in-character" and just concentrate on the moves on the board. |
I can see that being an issue. It would really only be used for combat and keeping track of locations. One thing I like about the idea is it fills in the surrounding for me. In the past when PCing there was never a lot of surrounding to visualize. The maps fill that in. It would give the characters things to hide behind that they can see without having to describe everything to them. Also a lot of the things on the map have absolutely no effect in the regular miniature game but could become a live object in the RPG. I think it would enhance the feel of actually being there. Right now I'm thinking a few maps will be standard for them. Places they will be comfortible with and may even alter as time goes on and they have influence over it. (IE the swoop dealer in the corner of town rips them off and then when they to get him back he takes off and new shop is there next time they enter town) I'm also thinking I would make paper tiles to cover areas they haven't been to yet on new maps. There is a great imperial base map someone made where I could cover the rooms and they have to devise a plan to search for something before the guards are alerted and show up. Just something overly simple off the top of my head.
Gry, I've actually jumped in on the Starfighter Combat thread. I have Star Warriors but ironically I'm going the other way there and am looking at the Dualing Fighters Combat Variant. I've played with this group long enough that I think I have a feel for what they will like and won't. I it were just me I'd be using your Star Warriors conversion and detailing all the space battles, but none of the other players are into that. But they did seem to enjoy using figure miniatures when we used them for a couple of White Wolf sessions. It was fun to be able to point to a door and say, we're going in there instead of trying to repeat what the GM had just detailed from his hidden map.
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Aardon24689
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Joined: 26 Nov 2006
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Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Krayt wrote: | I've done boards for combat with a 1 square = 5 meters scale on foot. Actually, my group almost always uses boards, and we never had any trouble with it. The WotC minis are really super because of the huge variety of characters availible and the maps are made already.
Unless it's just a small skirmish or 1 on 1, boards are great. |
With 1 square = 5 meters doesn't that mean base movement is only 2 squares? That seems afully big to me. I was thinking 1 square would equal 2 meters. Otherwise the office I'm sitting in right now would technically be less that 1 square inch on board and only one person would fit. I also don't think I could use the miniatures maps people have created then. In the D20 system its defenitally 1 square = 2 meters. I could see 1 = 5 for a much larger setting like the middle of the desert where there is a lot of open space. For for places like that I likely wouldn't bother with the map or measurements at all. I might still use the miniatures for relative position though.
I'm planning on doing that for the space combat. The miniatures will be there so show relative position and number of forces, but it won't be tied to a grid for counting movement or distance. I'm thinking somethine like "You've made it to space and calcuated the hyperspace jump. Unfortunatly the navicomputer is telling you need to get to here (point to the other side of the map) in to make the jump cleanly." The player can see that between them and the point they need to get to there are 4 TIE fighters. They then get to decide what to do. Race it and hope you don't take damage to your hyperdrive before you get there. Take out the TIEs then jump. Calculate a jump to somewhere else. Go back to the planet... I guess its the same options you get however you role play it. The characters can just see what is out there. It also saves some fights like " I thought they were coming at us from the port side. They is why I set our shields on the left. I would have done it differently if I understood they were coming straight at us."
Ok, so i got a bit off topic and probably should have put that part in the Starships section but that is what I'm thinking for starship maps and minis. It the character scale I haven't nailed down yet.
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Krayt
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Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Posts: 729
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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Well, true. We usually make our own maps on copy paper.
And for stacking, the character who got there first is the mini on the board, every one else is just a counter. Making small maps is just simpler for us due to lack of materials (We're cheap).When we do use pre-made maps, we usually just assume WotC was right and average humans move 6, and special moves for other creatures.
For starship combat, we use counters and pictures, at least until starships comes out, and we may not switch to that because of the cost. Anyway, minis are grand, but only good for combat. We tried ALWAYS using minis once... REALLY BAD IDEA!!! I had to draw a map for evey room, ran out of copy paper, and that ended really poorly. 
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Aardon24689
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Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 64
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Krayt wrote: | Well, true. We usually make our own maps on copy paper.
And for stacking, the character who got there first is the mini on the board, every one else is just a counter. Making small maps is just simpler for us due to lack of materials (We're cheap).When we do use pre-made maps, we usually just assume WotC was right and average humans move 6, and special moves for other creatures.
For starship combat, we use counters and pictures, at least until starships comes out, and we may not switch to that because of the cost. Anyway, minis are grand, but only good for combat. We tried ALWAYS using minis once... REALLY BAD IDEA!!! I had to draw a map for evey room, ran out of copy paper, and that ended really poorly. |
I'm cheap too, I just have access to cheap printing supplies.
For move I think I'll use the D6 rules so a standard human can move 10 meters = 5 squares. Moving diagonal costs 2 for the first move 1 for the second then two again. Taken from several sources. If they have an odd move you halve that and round down for squares but for diagonal moves they get to use 1 move for the first square instead of a 2. So with an 11 you could move forward the same but one sideways if you want too. At a 12 move it would be a straight 6 squares with the even numbers diagonal role. It sounds complicated but I think it would be very intuitive. Haven't tested it yet but I think it should work out well.
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14168
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:23 am Post subject: |
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| Gry Sarth wrote: | | My only gripe with using boards and minis is that it can turn the RPG game into a miniature game. It's happened to our group a few times, people stop thiking "in-character" and just concentrate on the moves on the board. |
While i do agree, sometimes using minis makes it seem more of a board game. The easiest way i have seen to nip it in the butt, is to remind them all that a round is 6 seconds, and with all that is going on, guestimating distances is not exact... so i usually go with rough drawings of what is what.
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Darth_Kjeran
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 60
Location: Overton, TX USA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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Chello!
've always used minis and mats. I find the star Wars minis great for me...I have whole squads of stormies ready to unleash on my players...MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
If you really want a good visual feel and have money to blow, try this:
http://www.dwarvenforge.com/store/home.php?cat=270
Tony
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Aardon24689
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Joined: 26 Nov 2006
Posts: 64
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Like I said above. I'm cheap. What I have found I like is here http://www.swminiatures.com/ They have a lot of printouts and instructions for making 3D models out of paper. I figure I'll save them for a really special adventure and make a giant 3D adventure on my pool table. One issue I will still have to work through is that I would like to cover over most of the maps until the caracters can see that section and that would be more difficult to do with a 3D map.
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