EnderAndrew

Lightsaber colors aren't huge with me. I still picture red as being the "bad-guy" color, but they're not big sticking points with me. I didn't mind KOTOR having other colors, especially considering the time-period.

I don't think the book is all that necessary. I think I can teach the system fairly well. And where as you need to refer to tables and charts in D&D, you don't really need such things in Star Wars so much. And if I did want to refer to the tables and charts, I've got them online, or heck I own the books. If you want to play a Hapan, I am willing to make an exception here and there for someone having one extra die in attributes. It's not huge. However, Nohgri have 4 extra dice in attributes which is huge.

I've heard geeks having pissing contests claiming to have 250 IQ's and the like. Most tests don't even give scores about 140-150 for adults. Some tests max at 150, but then give bonuses to people under certain ages. Also, I think the "smartest" woman in the world has a 212 IQ or something like that.

I started out quite liberal a few years back. A few conservative views have crept in over the years. I'm somewhat mixed now.

I really liked the footage as well. Is it just me, or do the saber blades look longer in the footage and sceenshots than in KOTOR:1?

Let me explain basic mechanics a little. Let's say you're being chased by a Bounty Hunter, and you duck behind some cargo. You want to shoot the Bounty Hunter with your blaster. In this case, you've got a pretty good shot at a clear ambush, and having suprise. If surprise wasn't a factor, we would roll Perception for initiative. My house rule is that you declare backwards, so the person with the lowest roll declares first, and the person with the highest roll goes first. You declare you want to shoot the Bounty Hunter with your Blaster. You have 6D in Blaster. After all the declarations, when it's your turn, you roll your 6D. I give you a target number of 15 to hit a target at medium range. Now, when you roll, you have one dice that is a different color than other dice (or rolled seperately in a dice roller program). This is the wild die. If you roll a 6 on this die, you get to reroll it and add it to the total. If you get a 1, you get a complication. We'll get into those later. Complications do not necessarily mean automatic failures, not does rolling a 6 equate to automatic success. You still have to roll higher than the difficulty number. Now, on 6 dice, you'll average around 18, so you've got a pretty good shot of hitting the person. Let's say you have a very important dice roll, and you don't make it. Let's say this dice roll is to soak damage, and you don't want to die for instance. You can spend a few character points to roll additional dice. These character points are permanently spent. These character points are basically the "experience" you get at the end of a session. You can use these to augment dice rolls, or to raise your skills and attributes through training. It's up to you whether you want to save character points to train, or spend them freely on dice rolls. You also start with either 1 or 2 Force Points depending on whether or not you are a Force User. If you spend a Force Point, you get to double your dice-pool for that round. At the end of the session, I may award Force Points back, and additional Force Points depending on how they were used. The rule of thumb is this. If you are a non-Force User, you have to use the Power in dramatic fashion to get it back. The more dramatic, the higher chance you'll also receive an additional point back. Let's say your a freighter pilot, and at the crux of a story, you spend a Force Point on a piloting roll to evade capture from Imperials by darting through asteroids. That's a dramatic use. Spending a Force Point to a gambling roll to get money for booze and hookers is not dramatic use. But hey, that's up to you. If you're a Force User, you start with two, but the rules are tougher. You have to use the Force Point "heroically" to get the Force Point back with another. If you spend the Force Point saving your own skin, it's gone. You can play a grey, and you can play a non-Jedi Force adept if you so desire. However, not having a mentor to teach you really sucks. The rules don't really support playing Dark Jedi, and I don't really have a desire to run a Dark Jedi campaign. If you do evil deeds, or use the Force to hurt people needlessly, you get Dark Side points. Each point increases your chances of succumbing to the Dark Side. Each time you get a point, you roll a dice. You have to roll higher than your number of Dark Side points, or fall to the Dark Side. You can attone, and get ride of DS points.

Yep. However, I usually just use a stock move rate for a species. I don't know why they give variables. Humans and most humanoids move at 10, which is 10 meters in a full combat round.

Are you possibly interested in playing?

This will give you an example of what various dice ratings equate to. Let's say you max an attribute, and put 4D in it. (Some aliens can be higher). Let's say you put the maximum in a skill to start, and start with 6D in a skill. And then let's say you specialize in that skill. You could have 7D at character creation, making you quite skilled. However, that would also leave your character fairly weak in other areas. 1D Below Human average for an attribute. 2D Human average for an attribute and many skills. 3D Average level of training for a Human. 4D Professional level of training for a Human. 5D Above average expertise. 6D Considered about the best in a city or geographic area. 1 in 100,000 people will have training to this skill level. 7D Among the best on the continent. About 1 in 10,000,000 people will have training to this skill level. 8D Among the best on a planet. About 1 in 100,000,000 people will have training to this skill level. 9D One of the best of several systems in the immediate area. About 1 in a billion people have a skill at this level. 10D One of the best in a sector. 12D One of the best in a region. 14D+ Among the best in the galaxy.

Sorry. I should have explained that. Humans and most aliens have 12 attribute dice. (Player characters get 6 more dice since they aren't standard, they are heroes.) The racial minimums and maximums for humans is 1D to 4D, respectively. Let's take a Mon Calimari as an example. They have: Mon Calamari Attribute Dice: 12D (as a player character, it would be 18 dice) DEXTERITY 1D/3D+1 KNOWLEDGE 1D/4D MECHANICAL 1D+1/3D+1 PERCEPTION 1D/3D STRENGTH 1D/3D TECHNICAL 1D+1/4D So, the minimum a Mon Calimari can have in Technical is 1D+1 as opposed to 1D for a Human. And their maximums also change. Mon Calimari also have special racial features. Special Abilities: Moist Environments: In moist environments, Mon Calamari receive a +1D bonus for all Dexterity, Perception, and Strength tasks. Dry Environments: In dry environments, Mon Calamari receive a -1D penalty for all Dexterity, Perception, and Strength tasks. Amphibious: Mon Calamari can breathe both air and water and can withstand the extreme pressures of the ocean depths. Story Factors: Enslavement: Most Mon Calamari not directly allied with the Rebel Alliance are enslaved by the Empire, and the Empire has placed a high priority on the capture of any "free" Mon Calamari. If you so desire, you can make up your alien species so long as they are balanced. You will notice that certain aliens get more attribute dice, or fewer attribute dice than others. I highly encourage everyone to play a species that has 12 (18) dice in the spirit of equity.

That's one of the things I'm looking forward to in Episode 3. It's about time Chewie started ripping limbs off.

I may check out the book. I have no intention of running a Buffy game, but I like checking out new rules-systems.

That doesn't have to be the case. However, because of the simplicity of the rules, they had no rules for fair distribution of equipment. If a player got to start with a spaceship, they were encouraged to start in debt, or have some trade-off for the ship. If you want to start with a ship, come up with a good story, and we'll work from there.

I hope the tattoo artist is named Fell.

Navritalova? To quote Hooper X from Chasing Amy, "Hey, gay-straight-bi-whatever, ugly is still ugly."

The movies only had blue, green and red up until Mace Windu got the only purple blade. It was supposed to be special. There was no yellow in the movies.

The West End rules never really changed much. I probably run the same rules you are familiar with. The old templates still work. 1st Edition changed a bit going into 2nd edition, but 2nd edition revised featured some really minor tweaks.

How wants to play an online Star Wars RPG? I've got some of the details in this thread... Star Wars RPG I wanted to move the conversation to a more appropriate area.

If people want to get a jump-start on character creation, they can grab a character sheet and fill out the top portion. What is your name? What species are you? What planet are you from? What are your objectives and goals in life? What do you look like? What is your background? Etc. Etc. Some of this may depend upon setting. Do you guys have a preference for setting? Do you prefer an all-Jedi party, a no-Jedi party, a mixed party? I do allow non-Jedi Force Adepts, but there are penalties for not having a teacher/mentor.

There are no feats. Now, aside from Attributes and Skills, Force users get Force Powers. I should note right now, that the rules for Force users aren't entirely fair. Force users are more powerful than non-Force users. That's just the Star Wars universe. However, playing a Force User means worrying about Dark Side points, being a constant target, and me expecting more out of you as a player. This is a very different system. It's much simpler. You want to do something. So, you declare an action. I set a difficulty number, and tell you to role dice. If you hit the difficulty number, you succeed. You can ATTEMPT any action in the world you want. You don't need feats. Now, you may be incredibly unlikely to succeed, but that's another story. There are home-brew rules for Advantages/Disadvantages. I haven't read over any of those rules recently, but here's a site. Advantages and Disadvantages Those reflect background and other factors, such as allies, wealth, assets, good healing rates, charm, cybernetics, etc. If people really want to use those rules, I can implement them. I briefly glanced the home-brewed rules, and it said everyone automatically got so many points to spend on advantages. I'd have to consider that.

Assuming my high school textbooks had any accurary, countries like Sweeden have far higher taxes. Taxes are also higher in Canada than the US. But they have socialized health care, etc. Bill Gates never gave a penny away until it was financially necessary for him to have charity contributions for tax deductions. Then he donated Microsoft software and computers to kids. He didn't give food or shelter to the homeless. He doesn't believe in it. Certain people choose to be generous when they are wealthy, are others do not. On the flipside of Gates is someone like Rockefeller, or Omaha's own Warren Buffet. And I'm not aware of any country in the world really more capitalist than the US. I know capitalism is common in the world these days, but could you point out an example for me? I'm confused. How does socialism lead to have and have nots, when we all have the same? And I'm not advocating strict socialism here either. I think the only time strict socialism really worked out was briefly under Marshall Tito in what was Yugoslavia. Socialism was a perfect compromise to keep at bay the racial hatred that plagued the short-lived country. Rarely in world history were those lands united peacibly, and when they were, they quickly fell apart. Under Tito, resources and land were allocated equally amongst the varying ethnic groups to keep people from warring or screaming favortism. With his death, so fell apart the nation. I digress. I think pure socialism is bad, because it fails to encourage people to succeed or innovate. Capitalism is also based upon competition and specialization. People forget these things. The United States problem is we insist on staying in certain global markets where we fail, and are creating a deficit. The United States needs to continue to focus on markets where we specialize and excel, such as intellectual properties and entertainment. I think our socialistic programs that we blend in with capitalist should work together, nor against each other. Our socialistic programs should work towards fixing problems, and bringing people back into the work place. We should target the problems that keep people from working, and focus on a strong workforce.

The term smart isn't entirely accurate, and thusly I put it into quotations. Most people equate IQ tests = measuring how smart you are When a baby is born, it has no sense of permanence. When it's mother is out of line of sight, the mother ceases to exist. As the child grows older, it grasps more logic concepts. Theorhetically, an IQ test measures our ability to grasp certain concepts given our age.

West End went out of business a while back. That's why Wizards of the Coasts has the Star Wars license now. The two links I gave you will give you character sheets, skill lists, force powers, etc. I think they have equipment lists there as well. I have two copies of the rule books still, despite losing many over the years. Gaming stores and Ebay might be able to find you one if you really want the book in your hands. Character creation is a little wierd, but the rules are quite simple. You have six attributes. Each attribute and skill has a rating. But instead of having a static number like 5 or 15 for the rating, you have a dice rating. For instance your Dexterity may be 4D or 3D+1 With the latter rating, you would roll 3 dice, and add 1 to the result. Here is where the rules get a little wierd and trip people up. Each dice breaks down to 3 pips. Since a 6 sided dice equates to an average roll of around 3, you have 3 pips to a dice. If you increase a rating from 3D, it goes to 3D+1, then to 3D+2, then to 4D (then to 4D+1, 4D+2, 5D, etc.) When you roll your Dexterity, you just roll that many six-sided dice. (Or in our case, we'll have an online dice roller which makes things even simpler.) Now, let's say you have a Dexterity skill of Blasters. Your skills start at a rating equal to your attribute, and let's say in this instance that you have 4D in Dexterity. If you put a dice into Blasters, you have 5D in Blasters. During character creation, you grab a character sheet off the web. You get 18 dice to distribute amongst your six attributes. You can break the dice down to pips if you so desire. Then you get to put 9 dice into skills (once again, you can choose to put 1 dice into 9 skills, or break them down to pips to distribute across more skills if you so desire). You can not put more than 2D into any skill at character creation. Now, if you attempt to do something unskilled, you have fewer dice to roll (you roll your attribute straight up) and the difficulty is higher. So there is some benefit to taking a bunch of skills at low levels, but you may want to have just a few skills at high levels. Then you choose three specializations. Let's say you have a Blaster skill of 5D and you want to specialize in a specific type of blasters, like the Blastec DL-44 Heavy Blaster, or a Blaster Rifle. You create a new skill under Blasters, called Blaster Rifle, and it starts out 1 dice above whatever the base skill was. So you'd have 6D in Blaster Rifles or whatever. From here on our, those are two independent skills. If you work in general Blaster skills and improve that, it doesn't improve your specialization, or vice versa. After choosing 3 specializations, you're basically done unless you play a Force user, and then you need to move onto Force Powers. There are no hard and fast rules for starting equipment. That's GM discretion. I think the best thing to do would be to hop into a chat room some night, when you guys have the skill lists and character sheets infront of you. If you have specific questions, I can answer them at that time. The Rancor Pit website also has rules for playing Aliens, etc.

I agree. I find it odd how often people knock on console RPGs as being dumbed-down, when most console RPG final bosses have required more skill and strategy than CRPG bosses I've fought.

Well, I only have two players so far, so you'd be the third. You're more than welcome to play. I strive for three-to-six players. When we get a group, we need to decide on a time-period and setting. It would also help if I knew what kind of game would wanted to play. I'm normally a big fan of either three time periods. In the middle of the Thrawn trilogy, right before Empire Strikes Back, or during the KOTOR time period.