WEG SW - Revised from the ground up?

[Obi-Jon-Kaliburr]

Hello There,

I've been away from SWRPG for about eleven years, and am getting back into things in rather a big way. I've been mainly running games with a greater emphasis on freeform gaming (streamlined rules, more freedom for the GM and players to effect rule-related decisions). I have been considering taking a look at WEG's rules and 'shaking' them up a bit, streamlining (making simpler and broader) and accelerating play, also to make the rules serve the gm and players a touch more. If the system works out, I will consider publishing a range of sourcebooks to support it, initially covering Episodes IV-VI. The books will be typeset and illustrated to a professional standard. I have ideas to make their presentation more GM friendly, and because I don't have financial restrictions on how often I publish, can rapidly get through a lot of material.

However, I don't know if my idea is welcome - or in fact necessary; is the existing SW rule system regarded around here as pretty near flawless, or good enough that a wholesale revision (a 'Special Edition' revision?) is hardly required? Are certain areas spotless, others untidy and others a mess? I think I could make some interesting contributions to the game, but hopefully other folk will be playing it, and so their opinions count the most.

TIA.

[Falcon79]

[Gry Sarth]

Oh now, I think such a daring project is more than welcome around here. As much as we love SW D6 we recognize its flaws and weaknesses, and a new take on things is always welcome.

The two areas where I feel the system falters a bit is in starship combat and Force use.

And if you need a hand with something, don't be afraid to ask. I have a bit of experience in making sourcebooks...
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Falcon79]

[Delkarnu]

I don't think too many people around here consider the D6 system flawless, and many parts are outdated. I have thought about doing a 3rd Edition myself lately, fixing and adding to alleviate some of my main issues.

1. With the prequel movies and all the books that came out after WEG lost the license, there are a lot of new things that don't fit well with the established ruleset. Check the threads dealing with new force powers, using two weapons, etc for things that have to be jury rigged to fit with the main ruleset.

2. Oversights in the books, for example, when creating droids, you split 25D between attributes, skills, and attachments. But the attachments do not list a cost in D for this, are they all 1D, 1 pip, etc.

3. Outdated sourcebooks. Most of the books came out before the second edition, and all but a few before revised and expanded, with very few re-releases to update the material. Example, Rebel field guide provides jury-rigging rules as another way to modify a weapon without spending CP to improve your items. R&E has rules for improving items, replacing the original system, but makes no mention of jury-rigging. Does jury-rigging no longer exist, and if it does, what decides if a player can make a good modification, or has to jury rig it?

4. Sprawling organization. WEG, like any other publisher, needed to sell as many copies of a book as possible, so the rulebook doesn't list all the force abilities so people will buy TotJ companion (one of the reasons why Gry's stat compilation books are so great is that I can look at all the ships for a given era without needing to dig through R&E, Scouts, FotR, P&P, PSG, etc) Redoing it all in PDFs, it can be organized into the easiest system, not the most cost effective.

5. Timeframes. WEG dealt with the original movie era almost exclusively (TotJ, and Thrawn as the main exceptions) so items do not have creation dates. IE, this ship was manufactured between these dates. Not available before that time, only available new near release, and only available used after that time. A new blaster that outperforms existing ones would be more expensive at first (and maybe hard to find if it was made for the Gov't only), more common later and creeping onto the black market, and then cheaper once a newer and better model is relesed.

6. I never felt that the Force Powers rules felt right to the movies. It usually requires a lot of GM house rules to make it feel right.

7. More detail on the knowledge and technical aspects of the rules. Better and more detail on repairing, modifying, engineering, etc.

8. maybe a new damage system. I've been using the hit score to determine hit location and localizing the damage. Ex, hit exceeds dodge by 3, it hits a limb, a killed result destroys the limb. The wound is reduced to the overall person by a level or two. The person suffers the penalty of being twice wounded or incapacitated until 'healed' for this result, but requires a prosthetic limb.

I will help out in any way I can on this project

[Obi-Jon-Kaliburr]

A complete rewrite and redesign would be necessary, I'm afraid, as I want to get away from the 'dry' nature of the traditional rulebook, and make it something fun to read. Hard to describe unless I show you exactly what I mean.... something with spunk, energy and humour (the same energy the 1970s' Marvel Star Wars comics project, but obviously not being comic book in format).

It's also more convenient to have the rules all in one place, one publication, rather than pamplets accompanying the existing rulebooks. My changes would permeate the entire system, my intent to make the rules simpler but more expansive at the same time, easy to adapt to changing circumstances in the SW mythos.

Thanks for the offers to help out! Much appreciated.

[Gry Sarth]

I wouldn't say the 2nd R&E book is dry. The way they used in-universe characters to explain the different aspects of the game was a very nice touch.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Falcon79]

[KierlanVass]

I would love to help with this - if this, of course, is something that you would want help with. I have never fully understood the current rules (more of my shortcomings than anything else) but could contribute ideas or playtest.

Feel free to PM me.

[Obi-Jon-Kaliburr]

Thank you all for the informative and enlightening feedback. Plenty of food for thought.

[Ankhanu]

I'll just quickly address this thread for now, I have to leave shortly... but I'll put in some opinions

[Delkarnu]

[Obi-Jon-Kaliburr]

Any rulebook project can be divided into smaller pdfs, each one concerned with a different subject (Character Creation, Character Combat, Vehicle Combat, The Force, etc). No problems about arranging that.

I'm absolutely not entertaining a mindset of altering any of the rules for the sake of it, which is why I returned so enthusiastically to WEG's SW. I mean, where would we start getting the D20 SW into a fit state, a respectful simulation of the SW action aesthetic? WEG SW is roleplaying heaven when compared.

I'm interested in revising some rules, replacing some, but rewording (not reworking) the rest for clarity, expecting 'the rest' to be approximately 70% of the existing rules.

[Grimace]

You're going to have to look out for the copyright enforcers if you're going to do something like this. Especially if you plan on creating book formats. Yeah, WEG doesn't own the rights for Star Wars, but LFL and WOTC now do, and they might take issue with something like this. Likewise, until D6 goes "Open" (as is planned) you basically don't have free use of the D6 system for publishing.

If you were simply planning on having this all be fan-work, freely available to whomever for no cost at all, then you'll have less problems. It's just your comments on the artwork made me think you were planning on maybe selling (for a low cost) this rework publication. If selling it wasn't your intention, then ignore my comments about the copyright goons (even though if things are done too fancy, you still might hear from some of them).

Best of luck with whatever work you do.

[Delkarnu]

Yeah, thats why I kept saying PDF, not book. The conversion PDFs can be made, because WEG doesn't worry about enforcing the D6 patents (and will be open-sourcing it soon), the content is the copyright of LucasArts, and they are usually really cool about fan-projects that are not commercial.

If you are actually talking of printing and selling books, you have a few issues. First, WotC will stop you, since they have publication rights to the SW games. Second, LucasArts will have to step in for the commercial use of their property. Third, you will most likely not be able to find anyone to print and bind the books, since they would also be sued for their participation. Lastly, the fan made stuff on this site would be threatened if too much attention is drawn to it. (we exist in a limbo of not having explicit permission to do some of this stuff, but not making any money so its not worth it for them to bother stopping it)