I mean, you'd need to file off some serial numbers to avoid infringement actions from FFG, but Starships and Spacemen is totally an old school Trek rpg that does that. Howcome there's no Star Wars equivalent?
Does Star Wars d6 ReUp count?
Go look up the d6 Holocron website. You will find your answer there.
Quote from: Krimson;914146Does Star Wars d6 ReUp count?
I honestly have no idea.
I'm now going to google this Holocron site.
2 issues.
First: It's a licensing issue. You can circumvent it a little, but you have to keep it for personal use.
Second: there was only three systems (that I know of) and they were completely different, and all of them are still somewhat active.
Yeah Holocron will take care of you if you decide not to go FFG.
Prepare to drink deeply from the Fire-Hydrant of Joy.
Oh, and if you love the d6 Star Wars, drop on by the Rancor Pit and read those forums. Holy shit is that a motherlode of good material.
I played D6 Star Wars for literal decades and it predates the Old Expanded Universe started in the 90s.
Quote from: D-503;914144Howcome there's no Star Wars equivalent?
There is: White Star (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/148169).
I have yet to check it out, but I like the idea and there's even decent support (third party, even) shaping up.
Quote from: The Butcher;914174There is: White Star (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/148169).
I have yet to check it out, but I like the idea and there's even decent support (third party, even) shaping up.
I second this. White Star is the old school Star War game. I will mention that the D6 mechanics are under the OGL. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20447/D6-Space?it=1
Star Wars Galactic Adventures.
http://wizardawn.and-mag.com/game_swga.php
Indeed, Timmy Zahn was given WEG books by Lucasfilm to make his Heir to the Empire trilogy.
Quote from: CTPhipps;914219Indeed, Timmy Zahn was given WEG books by Lucasfilm to make his Heir to the Empire trilogy.
I unknowingly ran into him once upon a time at a mountain lodge in California. I saw the WEG SW Sourcebook on top his pile of other stuff... asked him if he played and he told me no, he was writing a SW book. I asked his name but had never heard of him before.
Quote from: Simlasa;914230I unknowingly ran into him once upon a time at a mountain lodge in California. I saw the WEG SW Sourcebook on top his pile of other stuff... asked him if he played and he told me no, he was writing a SW book. I asked his name but had never heard of him before.
That's hilarious. :)
Notably, Zahn got a lot of praise for the fact he invented so many starships and kept them and their capacities consistent. Zahn, each time, explained, "No, I got them from the tabletop RPG which helpfully provided them to all us beginning SW authors."
This one seems really easy to me: just get the original WEG Star Wars materials. It is as old school as anyone could reasonably ask for (1987 publication date), it is at least as good as anything anyone else has ever put out for the setting, there is a massive amount of material available, and it is widely and cheaply available from second hand book sellers.
If you really want to go super old school, I always thought you could do a good Classic Traveller Star Wars game. All the major elements of the setting are covered by the core game, including psionic powers that may as well be The Force. I don't think you would have to change much of anything other than the default assumptions about how FTL travel works.
Quote from: Larsdangly;914289If you really want to go super old school, I always thought you could do a good Classic Traveller Star Wars game. All the major elements of the setting are covered by the core game, including psionic powers that may as well be The Force. I don't think you would have to change much of anything other than the default assumptions about how FTL travel works.
True. Mongoose Traveller 1e, too, can do it mostly out of the core rulebook (except maybe rules for droids, and Dark Side corruption). There's even a "Psi-Warrior" career in the Psionics chapter, that should do nicely as a Jedi.
Just speed up FTL jumps considerably and you shouldbe good to go.
Also, at least until recently, the owners of the Star Trek IP were a lot less zealous than the owners of the Star Wars IP when it comes to infringement.
You'll recall FASA got into trouble over their Battle Droids game almost immediately (perhaps just when they were releasing ads for it). Which in a way is a good thing, BattleTech sounds better than Battle Droids
Any thoughts on the White Star RPG?
There is a Star Wars supplement for RuneQuest 6 done by the designers that doesn't officially exist.
I'm not that impressed with White Star. It feels like a Star Wars mod I would have made over the course of afternoon from D&D when I was 12. I guess that could be fun, but I don't know that it is worth spending money on. If I wanted D&D Star Wars, I would start with Stars Without Number and use the Stellar Heroes rules, and reskin Psychics.
From everything I've seen, White Star is certainly the closest thing to OSR Star Wars.
Quote from: RPGPundit;915320From everything I've seen, White Star is certainly the closest thing to OSR Star Wars.
By that logic, Stars Without Number is OSR Traveller. The only problem is that your personal definition implies that OSR must mean that it uses D&D rules.
My comment on White Star would be that I forgot I owned a copy. It doesn't scream "play me". It's very bare bones, though to be fair it claims to be nothing else and that is what some want.
I do dislike that it reskins D&D spells to make Jedi powers. It's something I really dislike in old school sf games that do it. I've seen it done with superpowers too and it just feels like the kludge it is.
I think the reason why there's no "Old School" Star Wars games is because of the IP Licensing issues. Star Wars has always been a tightly controlled license, its copyright owners much more zealous in their enforcement than the owners of Star Trek, and I assume it has only gotten worse with Disney now at the helm of Star Wars.
Of course, one could do an OSR style Star Wars game, but it'd have to be for personal use only. I've been working on an "old-school" remake of Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition but given the copyright, I can only use it for personal use.
Quote from: Doc Sammy;915763I think the reason why there's no "Old School" Star Wars games is because of the IP Licensing issues. Star Wars has always been a tightly controlled license, its copyright owners much more zealous in their enforcement than the owners of Star Trek, and I assume it has only gotten worse with Disney now at the helm of Star Wars.
This right here. Really Starwars with the serial numbers filed off just isn't the same. It's just generic SF. Kind of like all the movies that came out after Starwars trying to grab some of that magic/market. Some are ok, but just are not the same awesome.
Quote from: Doc Sammy;915763I think the reason why there's no "Old School" Star Wars games is because of the IP Licensing issues. Star Wars has always been a tightly controlled license, its copyright owners much more zealous in their enforcement than the owners of Star Trek, and I assume it has only gotten worse with Disney now at the helm of Star Wars.
Of course, one could do an OSR style Star Wars game, but it'd have to be for personal use only. I've been working on an "old-school" remake of Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition but given the copyright, I can only use it for personal use.
That's pretty much what I said. As long as you don't sell or put it out on the 'net, you can have a Star Wars game, but outside of having an official license, you're never going to be able to put it out for others to use. They like to protect the license.
Classic Traveller will do just fine. A Light Saber has the range and handling characteristics of a broad sword and the damage and penetration characteristics of a laser rifle. A laser pistol has the range and handling characteristics of an auto pistol with the damage and penetration of a laser carbine. One might ask why one would use a laser carbine but the main reasons are ammo capacity and range. At TL 13 laser pistols, carbines, and rifles have integral power cells with ammunition and weight equivalent to their slug throwing cousins.
Now vehicles need a touch of adjustment. The main issue is that they don't fit into the starship combat or personal combat damage paradigm. We'll assume their armor is combat armor equivalent though some soft vehicles might count as mesh. Either way we'll assume that the bonus to hit them due to target size cancels out with the penalty to penetrate their armor due to their heavier structure. If you dislike armor making things harder to hit, the modifiers work fairly well as weapon verses armor type damage resistance. At this point we just need hit points and a movement rate to hit modifier for vehicles with a trajectory that crosses the attacker's field of vision. Let's make it -1 from 100 to 300kph, -2 from 300 to 1000, -3 from 1000 to 3000 and so forth.
Ship movement needs some tweaking. Jumps are in Parsecs per hour but the fuel is sufficient for a month of operations. We'll ignore vectors, everyone did it anyhow, if your maneuver drive is slower your ship is slower and can't escape. From the starting line each ship moves its maneuver rating per turn with weapons other than missiles falling out of range at ten range bands. It's hard to outrun a missile. I'd also like to suggest reducing the damaged drive's letter code so a 1000 dTon cruiser can soak more damage than a 10 dTon Skiff. Ship to ship weapons are mainly equivalent to a tank gun. I think we'll put it at 2d6 x 10 and missiles at 1d6 x 2d6 x 10. Lasers penetrate as laser rifles, missiles as rifles, and sand casters as shot guns. It's a bit rough but what's more old school than a bit of roughness around the edges. Star Destroyers and Death Stars are terrain features not ships.
For vehicle hit points I think their volumetric hydrogen displacement tonnage already provides a size code. Let's just multiply that by a convenient number like ten and call it a day. The lack of vehicle damage rules in CT's core has always really bothered me.
Force fields play a major role in Star Wars. I think they roughly double the ship's hit points from the side covered and aren't affected by weapon type penetration modifiers. Angling them moves them around. I could probably make an argument for a to hit penalty against properly angled deflector shields. It Almost sounds like they're turret mounted. It's probably safe to assume that Sand Casters are replaced with force field turrets at TL 13. I know, Black Globes are TL16 but bear with me. The physics of the Star Wars universe simple make it easier to build force fields. Based on the predominance of ground vehicles like ATAT walkers I would also hazard that Antigravity is TL13 in the Star Wars universe.
Droids are essentially small autonomous vehicles with skills. I think I'd go with two or three skills at 6 and a UPP by type. Most droids are solid enough to count as having mesh armor. Battle droids have combat armor.
Astromech 48FAA0 Electronics - 6, Mechanic - 6, Engineer - 6
Etiquette 44A880 1000s of Languages, Steward -6
Power A4F550 Electronics - 3
Battle Droid 66A550 Laser Carbine -1, Grav Bike -1, Grav Tank -1
Juggernaut Droid B6A440 Laser Pistol -2
Destroyer Droid B79330 Laser Pistol -2, 28 Point Force Field
I think those are the major issues. The Jedi Knights are dead but I think a force wielding culture and training method might map best to Law Enforcement though one might see Rogue and Scout as viable options. Treat it as though the character was tested before their first term so PSI = 2d6 if they roll an 11 or 12 the Jedi or Sith will want to train them.
There is an old school style game that tries to do Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. It feels a bit flat. Yes, the "Starknights" are obviously Jedi, but they feel like Jedi knockoffs.
I would probably just play Machinations of the Space Princess if I wanted the feel of Star Wars and old school D&D.
Space Opera. Not exactly the most accessible game, but it's definitely old school (1980), and it definitely supports Star Wars.
Traveller is old-school, but yes, SWN is kind of like OSR-traveller.