A brand new D6 supplement... Galaxy Guide: The Old Republic

[Mojomoe]

For the last few months, I've been working on something very exciting for you guys, and now that I'm 95% complete, I'm very proud to announce it here for the first time!

Coming very soon: Galaxy Guide 16: The Old Republic!

What is it, you ask? Well, it's a 330+ page sourcebook for the Old Republic game from Bioware. More than simply a book of stats, it functions as an entire campaign guide for adventuring in that era, from recent history to galactic politics to adventure hooks and advice on running a villainous Sith campaign.

It's BIIIIG.

And as I'm winding down and putting the finishing touches on this massive tome, I wanted to open up to feedback and ask the question: what would you want out of the Old Republic guide book? As I've been writing material, I've quickly discovered that the developers are generating content faster than I can stat it - meaning this book will never contain all that's out there (though it can come close!). To that end, I wanted to make sure I was hitting all the touchstones that people will be needing or wanting.

At this time I'd also like to take open calls for beta testers or proofreaders. I'll warn up front that there's a LOT of material, but it's my hope that when it hits it's the new gold standard of accuracy and consistency for fan reference of this era.

I also wanted to touch on a bit of my motivation: I remember a time when new supplements for D6 were hitting the shelves with regularity, and it's been a bummer that there's been nothing new of late regarding official publications. This is my love letter to a brilliant game that we can celebrate as both alive and flourishing today!

[CRMcNeill]

Looking forward to it.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[cheshire]

Whoa. That sounds like an impressive undertaking. That's so incredibly awesome. I've often been curious about the game, and would love to see some stats reflecting the setting.

Now, I've got a few projects on my docket right now. I'm finishing up an article for Wild Space Magazine (the more or less unofficial ezine of Shooting Womprats). And I'm moving some areas of my D6 Jr project from Alpha to Beta. But I'm interested in your production schedule.

I'm really happy to look over Force mechanics, which is really kind of my area of expertise from all of the conversion and stat books. And I can do some limited proofing. Your timeline would determine how much I would be able to commit.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[DirkCorman]

is there lots of nice artwork? and creating characters from era?

I'll be happy to proof-read too

[Mojomoe]

There's a metric ton of artwork! Including a bunch of custom image editing to put the layout on par with at least the D20 books.

And by designing characters for the era, do you mean templates, or perhaps character generation guidelines? And thanks for the offer to proofread!

Cheshire, I'm looking at a release on the order of weeks, but it depends when work is done. I'm curious to chat with you about The Force for TOR - amazingly, with everything I've researched about TOR, I've found no relevant new force powers. Everything in the game is achievable, within reason, by the powers that already exist. This leaves me to potentially leave the Force out, unless I'd want to include all available powers (ala TOTJ), or include a section on Force lore and in-universe fiction. Thoughts? What would the community want? So far my approach was this: you can run a game in TOR with only the Galaxy Guide and the 2ERE rule book, keeping everything self-contained.

[Luwingo_Spince]

As I'm in the layout portion of my source book that is being handled by klhaviation. My part is pretty much done. Leaving me with some time before I tackle the next project. I would be glad to be a proofreader.

[Bulldogzeta]

I'm looking forward to it.

There is one thing that has bothered me. The general usage of the term "Old Republic" seems include anything before the prequel events (though I've seen a few references that include the clone wars period). That would be roughly a 20,000 year period.

So...

I'm curious what time period is included in your supplement. Thanks for your hard work.
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Never tell me the odds!

[Mojomoe]

Glad to answer!

The timeline of the game is roughly 3,600 BBY. However, BBY is of course no longer relevant, so the new unit adopted is ATC (After the Treaty of Coruscant), an event that marks the beginning of the Great Galactic War and Sith Cold War (the period in which the game takes place).

To this end, the entire book is written assuming no knowledge of the Skywalker or Clone Wars era, and is instead intended to function s a standalone.

You're roght that the "Old Republic" era spans nearly 25,000 years. As such, a supplement covering that would be nearly incomprehensible, considering there are hundreds of stats just for this era. The Guide describes an era roughly between the Jedi Civil War (Knight of the Old Republic) and the demise of the Sith Empire. There's an entire chapter dedicated to recent history narrated by the Jedi Master Gnost-Dural.

As a point to stay internally consistent, all tech in this era takes its cues from the excellent KOTOR D20 conversion from our own Rancor Pit folks, do those two books can be seen as a kind of companion set. I've addressed the issue of hyper speed multipliers, for instance, with detailed tables of travel times based on the navigation instrumentation of the era, during which the navicomputer was only 300 years old (having been invented after the Mandalorian Wars).

[cheshire]

[Mojomoe]

Cheshire - I agree. In a lot of ways, the Old Republic just found fancy/pretty ways to do the same basic stuff. Isn't Awe and Crushing Darkness just "hit them with dark energy?" I can't recall which power that is, but it does exist.

One interesting note is the Force-Walking ability, the dark side power of binding the souls of dead Sith to you. But that one also exists, though I can't recall the name either. I think the addition is with something called Force-Walking Sickness, in which you lose yourself to the power.

Beyond that the only thing I've noted is a specific character's demonstrable ability to use Force Wind (a dark power) without gaining a DSP, but that's a one-off.

Cheshire, perhaps something that would be useful to players would be a list of Force powers and what they were called in that era? Sort of correlating game abilities to D6 powers, the fiction being that during this era they taught the power as Awe and Crushing Darkness. Sounds like you've already done a cursory look, is that something that would be useful?

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ETA - ah, it seems I've misunderstood somewhat. You mean the separate abilities of "Awe," and "Crushing Darkness." Yes, those both seem somewhat old hat.

[Forceally]

I created my own d6 sourcebook about the various powers that have been seen in the novels and comics, but haven't been stated by WEG or WotC and then later converted to d6 in these forums. It's the Force Compendium. I believe I listed some of the powers that have debuted in TOR game. I also believe it can be downloaded. If you can't find it, let me know. I need to do some major format editing and recreate the opening page since I switched from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice. However, I still have the PDF version of it on my computer. It's out of date by a few powers, though.

[Mojomoe]

Forceally - that sounds awesome! I'd love to see what you've got; I checked this thread (http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4139&start=15&sid=f5c7aed327a3d2a559c7c7e195e5f39d) but the link appeared broken. Do you have a working link?

[Forceally]

No I don't have a working link. I do have a copy of it in PDF format. If you can PM your e-mail, I can send it to you. I do recall dealing with the Voss healing ritual and maybe that spirit binding power you were asking about.

[Mojomoe]

Forceally- PM sent. Thanks!

Everyone else: PMs sent with draft V06, take a look and send me your thoughts! Or post them here for discussion, there's a LOT to talk about I'm sure .

[Voltron64]