PDA

View Full Version : Star Wars d20 RPG



Orsen
2011-04-14, 04:24 PM
Hi,
I'm new to the forum so I hope I'm posting this in the right place.
My friends and I who play DnD bought a used Star Wars d20 RPG rule book. It's got all the rules you need to play but to be frank, the classes just aren't that great. It was published by Wizards in 2002 and isn't the newest edition of the game. Anyone play this and have some good home brew or other suggestions to make the base classes a little more distinct or the game better in any way?

Kylarra
2011-04-14, 07:30 PM
Sadly you picked the bad edition of the lot. I would honestly suggest just going for Saga Edition if you want a decent D20 star wars system (or go back to SpaceD6/WEG's Revised and expanded D6 system).

Vknight
2011-04-14, 09:08 PM
Yeah Saga Edition is good sadly you'll have to buy the main players book online

Orsen
2011-04-15, 10:53 AM
That's too bad. I just picked it up for cheap at a hobby shop recently, maybe I'll search e-bay for saga. Thanks for the help.

Ozreth
2011-04-16, 07:49 PM
Definitely get Saga. The core book can still be found in many game shops and even some Barnes and Nobles. But ya, online is your best bet as it will be cheapest and easiest to find. Just click and wait for it to show up :)

Seatbelt
2011-04-16, 10:26 PM
That said if you can house rule some of the stupidness away there is fun to be had with SW D20. One of my favorite campaigns came out of that rule set.

Mutazoia
2011-04-16, 10:45 PM
Sadly you picked the bad edition of the lot. I would honestly suggest just going for Saga Edition if you want a decent D20 star wars system (or go back to SpaceD6/WEG's Revised and expanded D6 system).

Actually I wasn't very impressed with the Saga edition. It's been a few years since I played so don't ask me to come up with any specifics but I do remember their being gaping holes in the rules on some subjects.

Viszla
2011-04-19, 09:48 PM
Actually I wasn't very impressed with the Saga edition. It's been a few years since I played so don't ask me to come up with any specifics but I do remember their being gaping holes in the rules on some subjects.

Indeed there are. However, a quick look at the errata is usually enough to fix that, and if not, then look to the GM for a house ruling. I'm in a SE campaign right now, and all of us are having great fun with it.:smallsmile:

Kiero
2011-04-20, 05:22 AM
SWD20 is easily the worst of the three licensed Star Wars RPGs. There's a reason it was going cheap.

Binks
2011-04-20, 11:30 PM
Actually I wasn't very impressed with the Saga edition. It's been a few years since I played so don't ask me to come up with any specifics but I do remember their being gaping holes in the rules on some subjects.

Personally I was surprised how few gaping holes there are in the rules. Sure there are a couple of exploits (oh Jedi Master sniping enemies with a Miniture Proton Torpedo launcher, don't ever leave me :P) and such but on the whole it's a remarkably well balanced system. There are problems, like Jedi being too easy to break at early levels (though that tends to balance out at later levels. Hmm, logarithmic jedi, linear everything else?) but overall it's a very enjoyable system.

I'm currently running 1 game in it, have finished another campaign (all-jedi), have played in 2 that fizzled (first one simply ran its course, no ending was ever planned, second had a player leave for other reasons) and am playing in another right now.

It's a lot of fun, and it is a lot better than Revised Edition (hey jedi, cast from HP k? is just messed up). It's run its course (not in print anymore since they lost the license) but that also means the number of books you can get is finite (but avoid looking at the KOTOR or Starships of the Galaxy books first. Those had...limited printings...)

Solaris
2011-04-23, 11:08 AM
It's a lot of fun, and it is a lot better than Revised Edition (hey jedi, cast from HP k? is just messed up). It's run its course (not in print anymore since they lost the license) but that also means the number of books you can get is finite (but avoid looking at the KOTOR or Starships of the Galaxy books first. Those had...limited printings...)

I happen to like the WP/VP and cast from VP mechanics.
Unfortunately, it's the only thing I liked about the way they did the Force in that game. I wound up porting that over to SWSE and making my own hybrid, but I certainly had no problems playing the Star Wars d20 game.

Mando Knight
2011-04-28, 07:49 PM
Sure there are a couple of exploits (oh Jedi Master sniping enemies with a Miniture Proton Torpedo launcher, don't ever leave me :P)

...Jedi Master sniping with a mini PTL doesn't strike you as being innately broken?

Most exploits I've seen are generally in condition track exploits. It's fairly easy to get attacks to knock an enemy two, three steps down the condition track. At that point, you win and they can't do a thing about it. You can get a starfighter squadron to cripple an enemy capital ship with just a few shield-piercing hit. Of course, by the time you can do that reliably, you're pretty much Rogue Squadron anyway, so there's some justification...

Katana_Geldar
2011-04-28, 07:55 PM
My main problem with Saga is Skill Focus (only takeable every 5th level in my games) and space battles (which I do not use maps for).

Jedi...yeah, they tend to be scene stealers by their very nature. New people in my group are not allowed to play Jedi.

Mutazoia
2011-04-28, 08:11 PM
Well the Jedi templates in D20 weren't that bad. I've played them and didn't manage to steal the scene at all...I've GM'd and had Jedi and didn't have any balance issues. Its when you start letting people playing Luke clones that you start having balance issues. (by then your rolling 30D6 so you probably should have started a new campaign by now)

Forged Fury
2011-04-28, 08:11 PM
They lost me when they abandoned the Tech Specialist. I loved that class!

Katana_Geldar
2011-04-28, 09:04 PM
Wasn't tech specialist in errata?

Mutazoia
2011-04-28, 09:07 PM
Wasn't tech specialist in errata?

It wasn't in any of the core books. Not that I can recall anyway

Katana_Geldar
2011-04-28, 09:43 PM
Is IS in errata on the main site, but I haven't seen it. It might be a Prestige Class.

Mando Knight
2011-04-28, 09:55 PM
Saga's Tech Specialist is a feat, first introduced in a free web enhancement, then published in Starships. In addition to that feat (which is a fantastic feat for gear-dependent characters, by the way), there have since been several prestige classes dedicated to different kinds of techs, as well as additional support for the Scoundrel's Outlaw Tech talent tree. Also the Superior Tech and Starship Designer feats, which are advancements of the Tech Specialist feat.

Darcross
2020-03-11, 05:17 PM
I have a question about the star wars revised edition: i am playing a tech specialist droid crafter and i got a droid i want to upgrade with skills and feats. In the book it only says reprogramming which allows me to change the ranks or feats it already has. How can i upgrade the ranks (putting more ranks in a sense) or add feats to the droid i have?

LibraryOgre
2020-03-11, 05:25 PM
SWD20 is easily the worst of the three licensed Star Wars RPGs. There's a reason it was going cheap.

Four... WEG (which had two and a half editions), d20, SAGA, FFG.

That said, you can find a lot of resources for SWd6 out there.

Beleriphon
2020-03-11, 06:06 PM
...Jedi Master sniping with a mini PTL doesn't strike you as being innately broken?

Most exploits I've seen are generally in condition track exploits. It's fairly easy to get attacks to knock an enemy two, three steps down the condition track. At that point, you win and they can't do a thing about it. You can get a starfighter squadron to cripple an enemy capital ship with just a few shield-piercing hit. Of course, by the time you can do that reliably, you're pretty much Rogue Squadron anyway, so there's some justification...

The default X-wing pilots can't do that, so you're right. If you have a player group at the point that you reasonably think a Star Destroyer is a level appropriate challenge, then yes they are Rogue Squadron.

On space battles with maps: keep in mind that starfighters generally have to enter the square of something to attack it reliably, and dogfights take place in one square regardless of how many starfighters are involved. S,o the only reason to use squares in space combat is when capital ships need to slug it out, and even then they're hardly necessary.

fallensaviour
2020-03-12, 02:12 AM
the biggest exploit i remember from saga was the force sensitive crime lord what with like 10 levels of a talent each level

AvatarVecna
2020-03-13, 12:56 AM
Saga's got a couple problems, but on the whole it does alright. And if I'm wanting to play a system that gets around my problems with Saga, I can run Shadowrun in a SW universe.

DeTess
2020-03-13, 05:23 AM
I'd just like to point out that, though this thread probably wasn't started in a galaxy far, far away, it was started a long time ago.

AvatarVecna
2020-03-13, 05:37 AM
I'd just like to point out that, though this thread probably wasn't started in a galaxy far, far away, it was started a long time ago.

The mod's the first one to respond after the necro. Honestly given that and something I saw yesterday, I'm inclined to think that they're either not checking for necro, whatever automatic systems flag necro have been turned off temporarily due to the huge gap in forum availability the past few months, or those systems are still on but there's just so much stuff that would technically be necro that it's just all getting ignored no matter how old the thread is.

LibraryOgre
2020-03-13, 12:41 PM
The Mod Ogre: TBH, I screwed up, and this one shoulda died; I am personally very bad about checking for necros. The current amnesty is for things started since November, and will end with April.