Designing my first character; advice needed

[ninja42]

Hi there!

Ive now found a place where they still play SWd6, and next weekend I will finally get to field test my very first d6 PC! While this is fantastic, I have a few questions that I need answered before I go ahead and flesh out my creation with a background story and physical descriptions and such, and I hope that you guys (and possibly gals) can spare the time to help a newbie on his way.

My character: Jowbukk, wookie bounty hunter

Dexterity: 3D. Melee combat, melee parry, brawling parry +2D, Dodge +2D, Blaster, Bowcaster, Grenade.
Perception: 2D+1. Sneak, hide, search, command.
Knowledge 1D+2: Alien species, languages.
Strength 6D: Climbing(+2D)/jumping, lifting, stamina, brawling +2D.
Technical 3D: Space transports +1D, sensors, starshil shields, starship gunnery.
Mechanical 2D: First aid, security, space transports repair, bowcaster repair.

Equipment: Blast vest, blast helm, modified bowcaster (6D), 20 bolts, 3PO protocol droid (npc), 500 credits.

I dont *have* to be a bounty hunter, I just figured that it was a very plausible occupation for a formerly enslaved wookie living in Mos Eisly, which is just what my character is. However:

1) Ive been hearing some things about wookies being considers a 'munckin species' because of their high strength, is that true? I would rather not start out as 'that guy' who annoys the rest of the gaming table with his broken character.

2) On second thought, non-force user melee seems seriously weak, even though a strong wookie appears to be able to deal good damage. Does non-force users meassure up to force users in this game? And does MY wookie in picticular seem like a survivable chap and a contributing party member?

3) I know hat a dark side force user will be involved in the campaign at some point, and I am unsure of how I can pose a threat to him. If I strike him, and he uses his lightsaber to parry, I´ll take a million d6 damage to my arms, and if he strikes me, I can do nothing to prevent getting fried. And likewise I cant shoot him with a blaster, or I´ll get the bolt myself, and if I lob a grenade or a bowcaster bolt at him he´ll just fling it away with telekinesis. Possibly back into my face.

4) I would like to use a bowcaster as that weapon seems fluffy for a wookie, but the weapon itself seems seriously weak. Would it be fair to suggest that I start out with a modified bowcaster that dealt 6D damage? It seems logical that the greater strength that my character can put into pulling back the bowstring would make the weapon more lethal, but then again I dont know the rules that well, and a 6D bowcaster might have some unfair advantages that Im not seeing.

Feel free to comment anything, any advice will be most helpful.

[Rerun941]

First, let me say, congratulations on finding a SW d6 group. I can't seem to convince anyone near me to play it.

As to your character... There is absolutely nothing "wrong" with your character. However, I tend to go the opposite route. Think of a story/background first and then work on the stats.

1) There are no munchkin characters, only munchkin players The skills you've chosen look to be very combat heavy. Most of the SWd6 games I've played in there is more to it than combat. You might find yourself getting bored in space combat scenes or more puzzle solving ones. Perhaps your Wookiee is more of a "detective" bounty hunter rather than a brute-force one. (Though, that might be tough to pull off with Wookiee's low Per stat). As an alternative, it has been shown that Wookiees are quite technically competent. Perhaps your Wookiee is a "trap" or "gadget" based bounty hunter. For more ideas, check out Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters, if you have access to it.

2) Force-users in SWd6 tend to start out very weak, but once they get enough powers/dice, they become quite formidable. It'll be up to your GM to balance any Jedi's progression and make sure it doesn't overpower the game. Wookiees are powerful in hand-to-hand combat, but most combat (at least that I've played) are blaster shootouts. You may find that by the time you move into punching range, all your targets are dead.

3) Starting characters tend to be pretty weak, so don't worry about how you're going to take down a Dark Jedi just yet.

4) If you look at a standard blaster pistol, it's damage is 4D, It only seems weak because you have 6D Str while the rest of the galaxy has around 3-4D Str. LOL If I were GM, I'd allow a "Heavy" Bowcaster that does 5D damage, (equivalent to a Heavy Blaster Pistol). But 6D would be too much, in my mind.
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Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"

[Ankhanu]

The character looks good, but, like Rerun said, with a character so focues on physical combat, you will find it lacking in most situations... but being limited can be fun in and of itself (weaknesses better define a character than strengths do).

As for the bowcaster; that's up to the GM really. There are a couple threads on the messageboard concerning the lack of damage on bowcasters; it's pretty well agreed that they were written poorly by WEG. But, you should be careful changing stats and thereby changing how things work in the game.
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[ninja42]

I know that I have a lot of combat skills, but personally I think that the rules force me to do it that way. Using a weapon such as a grenade is a combat skill, and so is melee combat and melee parry... thats just three skills that due to their utter simplicity shouldnt be skills at all, and their mere existance forces me to take them, as I simply cant imagine anyone not being proficient in these things. I dont plan to ever use melee combat though, so I may as well clean the skill list op a little.

I will not make a wookie invstigator, as I find it unlikely that a wookie will want to investigate much with his low perception and knowledge stats and the ever present wookie/basic language barrier, and as wilderness skills are quite hard to get for a wookie I think that I will abandon the bounty hunter idea. Perhaps Jobukk is a wookie smuggler instead? My guess is that the empire does not allow wookies to become freighter pilots in the first place, and if you have to hide yourself from the empire while flying around, you might as well carry a cargo worth hiding too, right?

Dexterity: 2D+2. Brawling parry, Dodge +2D, Blaster, Bowcaster +1D, Grenade.
Perception: 2D+1. Sneak, hide, search, command, con (honestly, would you enspect a wookie to lie?).
Knowledge 1D: Alien species, languages, survival.
Strength 6D: Climbing(+2D)/jumping, lifting, stamina, brawling +2D.
Technical 3D: Space transports +2D, sensors, starship shields, starship gunnery, astrogation.
Mechanical 3D: First aid, security, space transports repair, starship weapons repair, droid repair, bowcaster repair.

About the bowcaster, Im going to keep suggesting the GM to allow a 6D damage code. After all, though it may be 1D more than a blaster rifle, it still has the range of a blaster pistol, 6% of the ammo capacity, and it is just as big. If I am not allowed a 6D bowcaster, I think I´ll invest in a Flechette Launcher or a Light Repeating Blaster instead, or a similar weapon that is large and unwieldy for smaller characters to carry around.

[Doomhead]

Using the rules presented in Cracken's Rebel Field Guide you can Jury Rig the Bowcaster to do up to 3D more Damage.


"Improving Existing Abilities The most common way to jury-rig an item is
to improve one of its existing die codes. For example,
a blaster can be rigged for better damage
or an airspeeder can be rigged for more speed.
This kind of improvement only enhances a tool's
die code (for example, a blaster can only
improve the damage code this way, while a
capital ship turbolaser could have fire control or
damage increased).
An item can be made better by 1D, 2D, or
3D. Thus, a sporting blaster's damage can be
improved from 3D+1 to 4D+1, 5D+1, or 6D+1.
The maneuverability of an Aratech 74-Z
Military Speeder Bike can be improved from 3D+2 to
4D+2, 5D+2, or 6D+2.
Jury-rigging requires a successful technology
roll. The difficulty is determined by the degree
of improvement."

Kubasik, Christopher. 1991. Cracken's Rebel Field Guide, p. 2-3. Honesdale PA: West End Game.


You can also use the rules that deal with the consequences of using jury rigged equipment.

"Equipment Failure
Jury-rigged equipment has a chance of failure.
The more a piece of equipment is pushed past its
original design specifications, the greater the
chance of failure. When someone is using a juryrigged
piece of equipment, he should roll the
extra dice gained from the jury-rigging after the
dice he would normally roll (alternately, use
different colored dice for the normal roll and the
jury-rigged dice).
For example, a blaster with a base damage of
4D and a jury-rigged additional damage of 1D
would roll the four dice and then the bonus one
die separately.
If any of the bonus dice come up as a one (1),
the jury-rigged device has been pushed beyond
its limitations and may break down. Roll on the
Jury-Rig Breakdown Table.
The bonus dice must always be rolled when
the jury-rigged device is used. Therefore, there
is always a risk of failure. Bonus dice are never
lost as a result of multiple actions in the same
round."

Kubasik, Christopher. 1991. Cracken's Rebel Field Guide, p. 4. Honesdale PA: West End Game.
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[Sabre]

You're putting the cart before the horse drawing up stats before you know who your character is, how they got to be that person and what is their goal in life.

Your character should be fun for you to play and if being strong in a fight is what is fun for you, your character should do fine.

I can't say I know your GM or their style, but in games I have run and played in, entire sessions go by without a fight where characters are tested on their wits (which this character lacks) ability to interact with other sentients (which you would be behind on out of the gate as a wookie incapable of speaking basic--an obstacle I as GM would expect a player to both portray and overcome--even if you didn't have a knowledge score of 1D+2 with no extra dice in alien species, planetary systems, cultures, streetwise, or languages). I see you've attempted to compensate for this with a protocol droid as an inventory piece. The GM may have their own ideas on your introducing an NPC to the game.

For story factors, it is very common for wookies to be slaves (in the Rebellion era) and good for you for reading up on that (if you did), but to me the leap from slave to bounty hunter seems strange. Why would someone who had their freedom taken from them turn around and take up a profession where he takes freedom from others? Something to write about in your background, I guess. While you're at it, include the part where you escaped enslavement without aid (if someone did help you, wouldn't you owe them a life-debt? Or maybe you do owe a life-debt. Maybe to another player? Maybe to some unknown NPC who you are now searching for so you can fulfill this debt? Maybe the whole bounty hunting thing is a front to gain access to information and resources for your search for the one you owe your life to and you actually help your targets fake their deaths and escape?)

You're very focused on things that matter in CRPGs, that (again, not knowing your GM, I can't be certain on this) don't really matter in a tabletop setting. Melee characters, the power of force users vs non force users, the damage code of weapons, having 'vulnerabilities' as a character... No character is invincible. Search the archive for threads on what GMs do to players who try for this goal; you're more likely to annoy your fellow players (especially if you constantly talk about how strong and invincible your character is compared to theirs) and your GM (whether they're a combat monster and view you as a challenge to out-stat or a rounded GM who views you as a one-dimensional obstacle rather that constant contribution).
As for the big baddie Dark Jedi, don't worry about him at the start of the game. You'll have all game to build up to fighting him and you will do so with the help of the whole party (multi-action penalties stack up fast) and in the D6 system, a player always has the chance to react (unless you have a 'killer-gm', but I won't go there).

To summarize: You have chosen a very difficult character to play well as for your first time out for a couple reasons:

First, your character is an alien with a communication impairment, although you seem somewhat familiar with the social conditions of wookies in the galaxy, so kudos on that.
And last, your character is combat-heavy. Without knowing what this game is about or if your GM does anything non-combat, maybe this isn't so bad, but if the story strays from fighting (or you end up in space) your character will be a fish out of water and for beginners it can be difficult to stay focused on the game.

Suggestion: Try something simpler and more familiar and a little more rounded. I think you'll have more fun.

[DarthMortis]

Am I missing something, because his character added 9D to his skills, and I thought it was only 7?
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"I believe the Jedi are weak so they give up their emotions. I believe the Sith are weak so they give up to their emotions. I lay somewhere in the middle, not afraid to keep my emotions, but afraid to lose myself in them." - Daroth Mortanis

[Rerun941]

[DarthMortis]

Ah alright, thank you. I thought I was missing something. I've never played a Wookiee before, so I don't really know what they get. But isn't the climbing/jumping bonus only when they have their claws extended?
_________________
"I believe the Jedi are weak so they give up their emotions. I believe the Sith are weak so they give up to their emotions. I lay somewhere in the middle, not afraid to keep my emotions, but afraid to lose myself in them." - Daroth Mortanis

[shnar]

Don't forget to Specialize. As much as I don't like that rule (I'm a 1st Ed person), if you want to maximize your starting character, particularly in useful Bounty Hunter like skills, save one of your Dice and specialize in 3 skills that are useful (like Bowcaster, Dodge and Brawling).

This will give you 8D in brawling (!), 6D in Dodge/Bowcaster. Talk about a powerful character.

Also, do wookies get 6D in STR? I thought they only got 5D. Oh, and if your GM allows you to spend Pips instead of Dice, then you can spread a few things around for a more well rounded Bounty Hunter. But if you just want the uber-fighter, do this:

Skills:
+2D Bowcaster
+2D Dodge
+2D Brawling
Specialize:
+1D Bowcaster
+1D Dodge
+1D Brawling

-shnar

[ninja42]

I made my own template with this character, using the wookie as my bace species. Perhaps its a 2nd edition thing, I woudnt know.

The specializations you suggest dosent make much sense, as they count as seperate skills. The bowcaster specialization seems wierd because the skill only covers that one weapon to start with, but if it is allowed it seems like a solid idea. Dodge however, dosent look as hot, because it would require me to either improve Dodge and Dodge: Blasters (s) seperately, which would be expensive CP wise, or only improve one and leave my character vulnerable to the other kind of attacks. Brawling may also be a good idea to improve, though I kind of want to be good at both grappling and hitting stuff.

And as for building the character with combat in mind, well, I do that because the guy who is going to run this game is my usual dungeons and dragons DM, and because I know that fighting in his games is usually lethal and frequent, and on top of that d6 combat seems a lot more lethal than d20 combat. An average gaming session usually kills about half the characters in the party, and I for one would rather have a character that is a little too combat focused rather than a character that dosent survive his first session.

Me owing a life debt to another character from the party sounds like a solid plan. In fact, I have already made arrangements with a guy who is making a rebel commando type character, who will have rescued my character from a forced labour camp on Dantooine in which he grew up. At the start of the campaign, I will have been taught some basic millitary skills and been taught to operate a starship at the hidden rebel base, but I have still not learned anything about other the outside worlds.

New template:

Type: Freed wookie slave

Dexterity: 3D. Brawling parry, Dodge +2D, Blaster +2D, Grenades.
Perception: 2D+1. Sneak, hide, search, con.
Knowledge 1D: Alien species, languages, planetary systems, survival.
Strength 6D: Climbing(+2D)/jumping, lifting, stamina, brawling +2D.
Technical 3D: Space transports +1D, sensors, astrogation, starship shields, starship gunnery.
Mechanical 2D+2: First aid, security, space transports repair, starship weapons repair, droid repair, blaster repair.

Starting equipment: Blast vest, blast helm, heavy blaster pistolpower pack x4, fragmentation grenades x5, backpack, 500 credits.

For the first few sessions I will pour points into his knowledge skills, and roleplay him as a character who have grown up totally cut off from the outside world.

[shnar]

[Jedi Schrute]

I don't have a problem with most specializations...just Dodge: Blasters and such. I don't see how you can dodge a blaster bolt better than you could dodge a bullet. To me it's a PC cop out to specialize in dodge energy weapons or whatever, just doesn't make sense.

[Orgaloth]

[Rerun941]

The Wookiee template in the Main 2nd ed R&E rulebook or Wookiee First Mate template from the R&E GM Screen are good Wookiee templates. I couldn't get past the part where I basically have to bark, growl and roar at the gaming table all night.

If you want a nice melee combat heavy character, I recommend the Coynites from Planets of the Galaxy III. They have some nice story factors, too. They're basically the Klingons of Star Wars.
_________________
Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"