playing as a nobody

[MacRauri]

Digging through my old stuff I found a stack of character sheets from my high school days. Most of the characters were pretty standard, but I did find this little gem:

Toebo Ratlas

Dex 2D+2 Pickpocket 5D Blaster 3D Brawling Parry 3D Melee Parry 3D Dodge 3D
Know 2D Business : Jassum Design 3D Bureaucracy : Gran Council 5D Languages 3D+1 : Gran 5D (F) Culture: Gran 4D
Mech 1D
Perc 2D+1 Con 3D Sneak 3D Meditation 3D
Str 3D Brawling 3D+1 : Martial Arts 4D+2 (Martial Block) Lifting 3D+1 Stamina 3D+1
Tech 1D+1

One of the first things you’ll notice is that the attributes are well below PC levels. I think my friends and I were bored so we decided to try playing “normal guys” and see what the Star Wars Universe felt like through the eyes of someone who... sucks. In our first adventure we had a run in with the law and I’m pretty sure we got the crap kicked out of us by two stormtroopers. They’re actually really good when you only have 12D attribute dice!

On the back of the sheet it has some notes of the adventures. Evidently the first session was so much fun that we decided to continue playing “the normal guys”. The GM fastforwarded 6 years for us to get out of prison. Looks like my character spent the time learning Gran and found a job at the Gran Embassy. There is a list of equipment. Oh the memories

Title: Grand High Gran Interpreter (9 bucks an hour)

Credits 650
Green Umbrella
Raincoat
ID (ex-convict)
5 Clothes
Drivers license
***** Items Toebo is no longer in possesion of *****
2 Champagne
39th story (apartment?)
Bag of salt
****
Black Polyester Tie
Black Polyester Jacket
Modrul Musk Cologne
7 wine coolers
5 cases of bottled water
orange truck
answering machine
Nice 1 story, 2 bedroom house (nice side of town)
Enrolled in kick @$$ dojo
9x8 pseudo persian tapestry
buddha buddy pewter
Language checks (well versed in obscenities)
Abyssen 1

....hmmm, I am alarmed and disturbed by some of the things on this list. You should see the things that didn't make the list! ...no you shouldn't



Ooo! I found my friends character sheet too. It looks like he spent his time in jail a bit differently

PFC Dextros Pheniphinos

Dex 2D Running 3D+1 Dancing 2D+2 Throw 3D+2 Blaster 5D : Carbine 6D Dodge 4D
Know 2D Streetwise 3D+2 Survival : Urban 2D+1 Tactics : Squad Tactics 7D
Mech 2D+1 Repulsor Lift Ops 3D+1 : Landspeeder 4D+1 : Paradrop 3D+1
Perc 2D+2 Persuasion : vs Planetary Gov’t 3D+2 (I really have no idea)
Str 2D+1 Stamina 3D+1 Brawling 3D+2
Tech 1D Demolitions 2D+2

Awards: Airborn Patch, Combat Badge, PFC promotion, Commi Commendation
500 credits
Carbine 5D+1
Carbine (sort of) 5D

Wow. Just wow. These characters were TERRIBLE. And I wanted to share them with you all. Has anyone else ever tried playing a group of characters with only 12D attributes? You have to be really bored to do it, but it was a fun time.

[Fallon Kell]

I haven't, but most of my NPCs (good and evil) have 18D attributes and more than a few high-level skills... It keeps my player from growing a big head.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[vanir]

Yeah I think most of us run along Fallon's thinking there, but I respect and understand the "back to bones RP" approach and looking at it in different ways.

SWRPG has developed so much, the whole SWU with it since WEG first started off with 1 book for the whole game, that the original 1e guidelines of "heroic PCs in a galaxy of regular people" can no longer provide an interactive or comprehensive gameplay experience.

If you GM with the basic 12d commoners and just a handful of 18d figures, then most of your gaming will be exhausted fairly quickly without even leaving the starting planet, and then the same basic conclusion will just be replayed over and over at each new location, it's boring.

What you want to do is use the 12d base as say the average administrator, a stormtrooper or security forces new recruit, things like that. A stormtrooper sergeant might be 15d base. A stormtrooper officer might be 18d base. An ambitious administrator embarking a political career might be 15d base, etc.

So that way PCs are still heroic, but the challenges of the galaxy at large become more proportionate with the implications and environment of individual missions/adventures.

[garhkal]

How many skill dice did you assign them>
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[MacRauri]

I can't remember if we went with 7D skills or argued that that should be dropped to 4D. I think there was also a debate on how many character points we should start with and whether or not we should even be allowed to start with a force point. The original idea may have even been that through a series of "call to arms" adventures our characters become awakened unlocking their true heroic destiny (full 18D attributes). Clearly this never happened as we enjoyed playing crap characters too much and used our character points to raise a bunch of useless skills. Although my friend does have a surprising high blaster and dodge. I don't think they were anywhere near that high during the first adventure when we got taken to town by 2 stormtroopers.

[Bren]