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View Full Version : Rogue Trader to Star Wars Conversion help



MachFarcon
2011-11-11, 04:33 PM
Recently a member of my core gaming group expressed interest in trying a star wars campaign again (Last time...let's just say that one member will not be allowed to play in this one).

After some thought, it was agreed upon to use the D100/Rogue Trader system and rules.

I looked at the two universes, and most things can be a simple name change. However, as a huge SW fan, I know that there are a vast number of more weapons and items then RT. It is set just after KOTORII; so I was going to shoot for the items of that era.

That being said, I have a few questions that I hope the playground can help with:
1. Races
A. What should the various bonus/deductions be? I.E. +2BS and -2WS? Or should it depend on race? I'm shooting for the various main races + Mandalorians.
B. Any feat/item restrictions?
2. Weapons and Items
A. There are many different makers of items, armor, and weapons. Should I include just the more popular ones? Or just hand them a list OOG?
B. Would the current RT currency system work?

3. The Force
A. As we have had many discussions on the nature of the force, it would seem logical to use the psyker charts and powers. Renaming them of course. But since force powers don't open holes to the warp, it would probably make them quite overpowered. Other then nurfing the damage, what other options do I have?
B. Since it's not possible to cast force powers all day, should I use the RT doubles rule? If so, what should happen? Lose powers for X or something worse?
4. Combat
A.How would lightsaber deflection work? Would a force user get more parry/dodge for ranged attacks?
B.Would slug weapons have a higher PEN rating then bolters?
C. Lightsabers treated like power weapons with higher PEN?
5. Spacecraft
A. Since spaceflight is a lot easier in SW then in 40K, should the skill changes be easier?
B.How would shields work? Absorb X damage?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Mando Knight
2011-11-11, 04:59 PM
...
...Couldn't you just use SAGA?

1.) On Races. Mandalorians are not a race, they are a culture, particularly if you're setting it after the Great Sith War, when a large number of the Taung (the founding race of the culture) died to Jedi blades.
This is because, like usual (:smallannoyed:), the Mandalore of the time (the Indomitable) was manipulated by the Sith into fighting for the wrong side. Depending on how you rule KotOR II went, Canderous Ordo, Mandalore the Preserver, may actually be on the Republic's side this time. This is in fact canon.
2.) On items. Go by type, not by actual model. A blaster pistol is treated as this item, a big, bad pistol like Han packs is that item, this over here is what you'll use if you want a rifle, and so forth.

3.) On the Force. The Force > all in nearly all versions of Star Wars RPGs. However, almost all of the direct-damage-dealing Force powers are very heavily Dark Sided. Most Light Siders stick to defensive and buff-type powers. But, yes. You should be able to adapt the psyker system to resemble use of the Force.

4.) On Combat (particularly lightsabers). The deflect-lasers-thing that lightsabers do is a relatively passive Force ability. SAGA emulates this by having the player roll a Use the Force check to determine if he deflects the bolt. Also, lightsabers ignore an item's resistance to damage, unless it's made from a special material such as beskar, cortosis, or Phriik.

5.) On Starships. Space travel is ridiculously reliable in Star Wars. Unless the hyperdrive is broken or you're trying to jump without good navicomputer data (it's broken, you're just jumping blindly, etc.), you should just be able to get there. A skill check might be warranted if you want to get there faster (cutting closer to dangerous gravity fields, etc.), but in general hyperspace travel is a matter of when, not if. As for shields, they typically either use staged penetration or full ablation. The former has the shields absorb most of the damage, let the rest through, and then degrade slightly, making it so the shields stay up for a good part of the battle but then collapse after sustained fire. The latter just acts as an extra buffer of HP, and when it runs out the shields collapse. Shields also usually regenerate in Star Wars.

Edward Eldritch
2012-11-20, 07:37 PM
I'm currently working on creating a star wars (Old Republic era) using the rulesets from Black Crusade & Rogue Trader. BC since there's been some streamlining and RT for ship & war rules.
If you're interested, I'll gladly share it once I'm done, which might still take a while, and it might not end up being your thing, since what I need and thus am doing is pretty force-user centric.

1.
It really depends on which species you want to use and what part of their uniqueness you want expressed in game mechanics. Something to consider while pondering that, is that you also need to decide whether there'll be a process similiar to the Origin path. Or what you want to do instead, if at all.

If you end up deciding for something akin to the Origin path, you don't need to put anything nature/peace related into the Ithorian race kit, since they might as well pick it up from choices along the Origin path. This also makes it easy to play the Ithorian pirate who never grew up in the kind of life most of them would be expected to have grown up in.
If extensive enough, you might end up assigning one or two traits to every species, just to underline the flavour that species has for you.

If on the other hand, you chuck out the Origin path, without putting something in it's stead, you'd probably want to go through every species' archetype and pick out the parts that you consider "typical" of them.


2.
A.
I'd just assemble a list of items/equipment that needs rules, but wouldn't bother doing a lot of customization according to manufacturers. Unless you've got a few ideas you'd like to plug in, if so, go for it :D

B.
Only if you'd want to handwave (saving lots of time) things. The currency system of RT is built on the premise of being filthy rich beyond description. I'd chuck it out and just use a Credits based system.

3.
A.
Keep in mind that I'm very fond of keeping the Force on top powerwise, so take my advice here with a grain of salt. It's pretty easy to convert a lot of powers found in movies and literature or converting some of the Psyker powers outright. But yeah, there isn't anything to plug in, instead of Psychic Phenomena (which you have to chuck out). So yeah, Force will end up kind of more powerful than Psykers in W40k, but I think that's less of a problem than one might think at first.

In an age in which force rituals and sith sorcery can pretty much do anything, it's easy to arrange for your scoundrel/smuggler/whatever to get his hands on something that makes him a bit resistant to such things, or maybe just allows him to shoot Force Lightning out of a sceptre (obviously while poisoning his mind with feverish dreams of power!).

It's also easy to just pile on Fate on them, to represent their subconscious connection to the Force. Or maybe they're just ridiculously lucky.
Fate is pretty powerful, and could easily be used to tip the powerscale back whichever way you need.

B.
Actually, except for force rituals and other, almost ritualistic powers of the Force, there's little but exhaustion stopping Force-users from spamming powers. I'd consider sticking to the doubles rule, but would just put the power on some kind of cooldown (can't use it for x rounds) or make it fail (maybe even spectacularly) in that instant.

4.
A.
What we're going with so far, is allowing Force-users to parry shots if they have the right kind of weapon equipped, giving them (Force Rating) x 2 additional reactions each round, though these can only be used for this purpose. We also have a talent that allows you to make one parry roll for all shots in one round, though it should be have fitting prerequisites, which I'm still working on.

B.
Difficult issue. Many different interpretations.
My version: Blaster weapons are highly inaccurate compared to nowadays shooties, but slugs don't make much of a dent in full Star Wars army-armor. So blasters, which often remind me of muskets in their accuracy and the way armies are marched up against each other, are the only real option in actual warfare, with similiarly powerful weapons also viable.

Slugs are pretty useless, except against unarmored foes, which most people are, since everybody's using blasters, against which armors don't help much.

How you want to handle slughthowers vs lightsabers is really your tea.
The only things we've made unparryable are sonics and some shotgunlike slugthrowers and flamers, but you might want to stick to that too, since parrying most shots fired at you, is kind of what makes lightsabers so cool, just as the exceptions make the prepared bounty hunter more impressive.

C.
I simply made Lightsabers Warp Weapons, with Cortosis and to a lesser degree mandalorian iron working like the wards of the god-emperor would, allowing armor made from those materials to reduce damage considerably or even completely.

5.
Still mulling this one over myself, no specific idea yet on how to handle it exactly, will post when I've made up my mind.