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Author Topic: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.  (Read 3509 times)

Ratman_tf

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #30 on: December 31, 2020, 12:55:01 PM »



trying to put up screenshot of how its done in 2e, it might be useful to you, bear with me.

eta
did 1e have combined actions rules? thats where a squad of say 9 stormtroopers attack as a single entity with a +1 pip per participant (3D in this example) that they can add to attack or damage roll however they see fit?

No. Combined actions were added in the Rules Companion, which was a kind of 1.5 edition.
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Ratman_tf

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #31 on: January 11, 2021, 01:33:03 AM »


Got to play this earlier today. I'll see if I can find someplace to host the file for the adventure for download, but in the meantime...
Premise is, the characters are prisoners of an Imperial Remnant faction, and being held in an asteroid detention center. While cooling their heels, an Astromech droid enters the detention hall and opens the cell doors. It plays a hologram informing them that the droid is a spy for New Republic Intelligence, and they're giving them the chance to escape if they return the droid and the information it carries to them.

So one of the players was my 9 year old nephew, and I wanted to be pretty lax with the rules, more focused on fun that getting every modifier correct.

First off, I dropped the declaration system for initiative pretty quick. It was too clunky and didn't flow well for me.
I wound up having the players declare actions and then resolve them right after declaring. I'm going to formalize this system later, but my intent is to have the sides roll off for initiative, and the winning side gets to decide who goes first. Multiple actions are decided when the character or NPC goes, and dice penalties for multiple actions accumulate from there.
IE a character's turn comes up, they declare a shot at a Stormtrooper, the Stormtrooper declares a dodge, or a shot back, or both a dodge and a shot at the -1D penalty for multiple actions.
If the character dodges later in the turn, they have the benefit of their first action at no penalty, and the dodge takes the -1D for multiple actions.

Nephew playing a wookie did a lot of brawling, and throwing Stormtroopers at other Stormtroopers. I was fine with this, as Wookies are pretty burly, and it was fun for him.

What happens when a character dodges, still gets hit, and then is prone? At the moment, I simply ruled that the prone bonus against ranged combat didn't apply until the end of the turn. Going forward, I'm going to rule that the prone condition overrides the dodge roll, since the character is no longer dodging but is fallen prone. This would not have changed the combat, since the dodger was a Stormtrooper seargent, and the character (my brother playing a Merc character) firing at him had spent a Force Point so he could roll a bunch of shots really well.

The wookie character did get hit by a Stormtrooper in melee combat, and since even a resisted damage roll means the character is knocked prone, he got knocked down. I like that, as Wookies are big and strong, but that shouldn't mean they can waltz through an adventure shrugging off any attacks.

We ended the session just before the starfighter combat part, since I had also brought an X-Box One for my nephew and he got distracted at that point. We'll pick the game back up there next time we play.

As the picture I linked suggests, I wanted to use miniatures, and that helped tremendously in deciding who could do what to who. Since playing 4th edition D&D, I'm really a fan of using miniatures even for games I usually haven't used them for in the past.

So it was fun. I'm probably going to look into bringing some 2nd ed rules into the game, but I'd like to keep it as 1st ed as I can. Probably start with the additional damage condition that rolling twice the strength versus the damage roll means no effect. And looking into if there's any rules on dual wielding blaster pistols.
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Ratman_tf

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #32 on: January 18, 2021, 03:55:44 PM »
I talk a lot about combat because Star Wars involves a lot of combat. The rules for skills seem just fine. Roll a bunch of dice and beat a target number. And non-combat interactions are pretty much the same no matter the system.

Looking ahead, I'm considering the scaling system.

In 1e, scaling in dirt simple. You roll just 1d6 for damage against vehicles, or 2d6 if you have a big repeating blaster. Vehicles double their damage code against character scale targets.
But the Companion has a different system, and introduces a bunch of different scales.
Character - Speeder - Walker - Starfighter - Capital Ship - Death Star
And a "dice cap" system, where if you roll higher than a set number, the dice is discarded. Affects damage, attack and hull/strength rolls depending on what's being compared.
Ex. A character shooting at a walker discards any damage dice that roll higher than a 2. This means fewer dice will actually be counted, and the ones that do are low rolls.
This... isn't bad, but it's really clunky.
The walker attacks back, and it's attack roll has a dice cap of 4. So it's harder for the walker to score a hit on a character.
Etc.

The fan created expanded edition has a sliding dice scale, you add or subtract the dice difference between scales.

None of them particularly appeal to me. The Rules Companion dice cap system is the closest to 1st edition, so I'll probably just use that and wish that WEG had come up with a simpler system when comparing different scales.

I'm also pulling in the 2d ed rule that rolling Str x2 greater than the damage roll means the attack has no effect.

Might get a chance to play this weekend. If we do, we'll finish up the intro adventure, and then move on to delivering the droid to NR Intelligence, and then open up the campaign and make it a little less linear.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2021, 04:09:07 PM by Ratman_tf »
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HappyDaze

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #33 on: January 18, 2021, 06:19:34 PM »
I talk a lot about combat because Star Wars involves a lot of combat. The rules for skills seem just fine. Roll a bunch of dice and beat a target number. And non-combat interactions are pretty much the same no matter the system.

Looking ahead, I'm considering the scaling system.

In 1e, scaling in dirt simple. You roll just 1d6 for damage against vehicles, or 2d6 if you have a big repeating blaster. Vehicles double their damage code against character scale targets.
But the Companion has a different system, and introduces a bunch of different scales.
Character - Speeder - Walker - Starfighter - Capital Ship - Death Star
And a "dice cap" system, where if you roll higher than a set number, the dice is discarded. Affects damage, attack and hull/strength rolls depending on what's being compared.
Ex. A character shooting at a walker discards any damage dice that roll higher than a 2. This means fewer dice will actually be counted, and the ones that do are low rolls.
This... isn't bad, but it's really clunky.
The walker attacks back, and it's attack roll has a dice cap of 4. So it's harder for the walker to score a hit on a character.
Etc.

The fan created expanded edition has a sliding dice scale, you add or subtract the dice difference between scales.

None of them particularly appeal to me. The Rules Companion dice cap system is the closest to 1st edition, so I'll probably just use that and wish that WEG had come up with a simpler system when comparing different scales.

I'm also pulling in the 2d ed rule that rolling Str x2 greater than the damage roll means the attack has no effect.

Might get a chance to play this weekend. If we do, we'll finish up the intro adventure, and then move on to delivering the droid to NR Intelligence, and then open up the campaign and make it a little less linear.
Scale dice modifiers replaced die caps starting with 2e. It's not a fan created system. It actually works really well in play.

Spinachcat

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #34 on: January 18, 2021, 07:16:20 PM »
In light of how worthless and imbecilic Star Wars has become, my best suggestion for a SW game is to recreate the setting as your own, either via alternate history or locations far from the movies (both time & space).

Here's something I've been mulling over for any future SW campaign: using the original Marvel comics from 1977 up to the release of Empire Strikes Back as canon. AKA, what did the old school Marvel guys imagine would be the future storylines based on the original film?

They are all online too:
http://readallcomics.com/star-wars-v1-001/

Another option is the 1988 Dark Horse Star Wars
http://readallcomics.com/star-wars-dark-horse-comics-001/

THIS is a recent find for me. It is THE STAR WARS, aka the comic version of George Lucas' original script for the movie that differs significantly from the 1977 film.
http://readallcomics.com/category/the-star-wars/

If I were to do a SW campaign, I'd personally love to do something based on TSW, and having the comics would allow me to show pics of everything in the game. The hurdle would be the player expectations. SW means different things to different people so the players would need to be shaken down in advance so we're all on the same page.


Make them actually use small unit tactics. A 'squad' of 9 stormtroopers will have one with a support weapon like a repeating blaster or grenade launcher or mortar. Have them use covering fire. Make full use of their communications so that they work as a unit. Allow them to have a sniper providing covering fire. Use grenades. Have a scout trooper with speeder bike providing support.

I ran WEG D6 1e RAW and I had no trouble with the troopers because of this aspect. Also, remember those com units call in more troopers and more support vehicles. Star Destroyers aren't just orbital. They can hover OVER the area and provide support.

The players LOVE to one shot or two shot troopers - and that fits the movies perfectly - but even Han and Chewie ran when outnumbered. Players faced with small unit tactics AND a stream of support units will become smarter about combat. No need to change any stats.

Ratman_tf

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #35 on: January 18, 2021, 08:11:36 PM »
In light of how worthless and imbecilic Star Wars has become, my best suggestion for a SW game is to recreate the setting as your own, either via alternate history or locations far from the movies (both time & space).

I set this current campaign in the Mandalorian time frame. Because I like The Mandalorian, and there's a lot of stuff being explored by the series that I can use as inspiration.

I've never had a problem with the lore interferring with my games in any setting based on a non-game IP. I just carve out a corner of the setting for my own thing, and keep all the cool stuff from the IP and ignore the stuff I don't like.

Quote

THIS is a recent find for me. It is THE STAR WARS, aka the comic version of George Lucas' original script for the movie that differs significantly from the 1977 film.
http://readallcomics.com/category/the-star-wars/

Yeah, I put that on my Amazon wish list, which means I'll probably never get around to actually buying it.  :-

The pre-movie scripts are a fun place to mine ideas. But there's some goofiness too. Rebel boy scouts riding around on rocket pogo sticks...
« Last Edit: January 18, 2021, 08:15:41 PM by Ratman_tf »
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Ratman_tf

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #36 on: January 18, 2021, 08:19:14 PM »
Scale dice modifiers replaced die caps starting with 2e. It's not a fan created system. It actually works really well in play.

I have a copy of the 2nd edition rules, (the blue book) and it still has the dice cap system. Was it later in 2nd edition that they changed it?
« Last Edit: January 18, 2021, 08:21:15 PM by Ratman_tf »
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Slipshot762

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #37 on: January 19, 2021, 03:07:51 AM »
I further revise the 2e revised scale rules, making it (w/o opening my treasure chest and checking binder) something like:

character 0D (meat scale)

light vehicle 3D (swoops, bikes, unarmored land speeders)

standard vehicle 5D (combat speeders & light tanks)

heavy vehicle 8D (walkers, heavy tanks, starfighters, space transports)

Frigate 12D (light capitol ships & large freighters)

Cruiser 16D (ship o' the line, ISD, MonCal cruisers)

Dreadnought 20D (heavy battleships, SSD, Eclipse)

Death Star 30D (planetary scaled objects)

Larger scale gets the scale dice difference to resist or inflict damage wrt to the smaller scale object, while the smaller scale object gets same bonus to hit and to dodge.

so snowspeeder on hoth at 5D scale (attacking 8D scale walkers) would get (8D-5D=3D) 3D to hit and dodge vs walkers, but walkers get 3D to soak and as extra damage if they hit.

I've used the scale systems from both 2e and 2e revised (and the one from D6 space/adventure/fantasy) which is a whole number rather than a die code; I feel that 2e revised is the better mechanism (with the whole number of D6 space being just as good mechanically) but its default groupings were not fine enough for my tastes, especially the lumping of all capitol scale vessels into one scale group.

While touching the topic of scale this is the scale breakdown I think I'm going with for converting D20 stuff into D6 fantasy:

Fine      -4D / +12 Dodge/-12 Soak
Diminutive   -3D / +9 Dodge/-9 Soak
Tiny      -2D / +6 Dodge/-6 Soak
Small      -1D / +3 Dodge/-3 Soak
Medium      0 / Baseline for all Dodge/Soak adjustments
Large      +1D / -3 Dodge/+3 Soak
Huge      +2D / -6 Dodge/+6 Soak
Gargantuan   +3D / -9 Dodge/+9 Soak
Colossal   +4D / -12 Dodge/+12 Soak
so a halfling (-1D) vs Giant (+2D) would get 3D to hit or dodge; while the giant gets 3D to damage or to resist the halflings damage.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2021, 03:19:28 AM by Slipshot762 »

HappyDaze

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Re: D6 Star Wars, making an adventure.
« Reply #38 on: January 19, 2021, 05:55:02 AM »
Scale dice modifiers replaced die caps starting with 2e. It's not a fan created system. It actually works really well in play.

I have a copy of the 2nd edition rules, (the blue book) and it still has the dice cap system. Was it later in 2nd edition that they changed it?
I know it was in 2e Revised & Expanded, but I thought it started with the first 2e. I haven't looked at the first 2e book in well over 25 years though, so I can't say for sure.