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chrek
2009-10-21, 12:58 PM
I've been working on a new classless game system for a while.

This came about from playing in a game world where it wasn't out of the question for a 3.5 wizard to stumble across a fast hero wielding to 9mm, or a Jedi.

For the most part I've been able to make this work both in-story and mechanically. I've always known the star wars rules would need to be re-written, though since to my experience it's not hard for a Jedi to out damage a evocation specialist wizard on single or double targets at higher levels.

My problem is that I would like to be able to publish these rules at some point without worrying about legal repercussions. This basically means that if I want to use Jedi I need to come up with my own story for them. That's where I'm hung up.

Every time I work out something like a story I either diverge more than I want to from the feel of the Jedi, or it's just obviously stolen. I wondered if anyone here had any ideas on a way to approach this, or perhaps an idea on what I could use for a background.

My big hang up points are that I want Jedi to be mostly martial, using some kind of either supernatural, or hypernatural (just outside of physics) blade. While I like the idea of it being energy based, I'm not stuck on it.

I'm also a big fan of the saber duels from the prequels. To my mind this is the part of being a Jedi I want to preserve. The ability to use a supernatural source of power to do seemingly impossible physical feats.

While I like the idea of them being basically removed from the world at large, emotionally, this is again an idea I'm not stuck on. I do like the idea of them being regimented in some form.

As you can see, I have lots of my own ideas, I just don't feel like I can make them flow together into a coherent background without it feeling stolen, or contrived.


Also, completely unrelated and much easier to answer: What in the world does PEACH stand for? I can't find a definition anywhere.

AstralFire
2009-10-21, 01:03 PM
Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly = PEACH.

If your only concern is legal trouble, you should be able to get by fine with 'martial warrior who generates an energy melee weapon and has psychic powers.' WotC (Soulknife) and Yu Yu Hakusho (Kuwabara Kazuma) both have.

If you want them to feel a little less plagiarized, de-emphasize the spirituality and usages of telekinesis and telepathy in favor of other magic abilities, such as localized time acceleration and heat ignition.

charl
2009-10-21, 01:09 PM
The idea of a martial warrior with supernatural powers isn't really owned by or unique to StarWars. As long as you don't use any copyrighted names you'll be fine.

chrek
2009-10-21, 05:10 PM
Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly = PEACH.

If your only concern is legal trouble, you should be able to get by fine with 'martial warrior who generates an energy melee weapon and has psychic powers.' WotC (Soulknife) and Yu Yu Hakusho (Kuwabara Kazuma) both have.

If you want them to feel a little less plagiarized, de-emphasize the spirituality and usages of telekinesis and telepathy in favor of other magic abilities, such as localized time acceleration and heat ignition.

I do like the ideas of the localized time acceleration and heat generation.

Actually this gives me some ideas to work from. Thank both of your for your quick replies.

To anyone else that feels like posting, and quick clarification: My concern isn't *just* the legal issues, but also still having the feeling of being inspired by Jedi without feeling like it's just a Jedi ripoff.

Oh, and THANK YOU for the PEACH clarification...it's been driving me crazy...