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rs2excelsior
2017-11-10, 02:10 AM
Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone had experience with the West End Games Star Wars d6 RPG. I've never actually played it, though I was planning on running a campaign which got cancelled due to IRL obligations. I did like the system--seemed like it was fairly rules-heavy and the math might get bogged down in combat (I've played the WEG board game Star Warriors which uses a similar difficulty system, and sometimes the number crunching is a bit much) but it seemed like it'd capture the feel of Star Wars pretty well. What experiences do y'all have with running/playing this system?

Related question, do you have other recommendations for a good Star Wars (or Star Wars-esque sci fi) RPG? d20 Star Wars (saga edition, I think it is) isn't bad, I've played that some. I don't think the class/level based system is the best for Star Wars, though.

Sparx MacGyver
2017-11-10, 04:22 AM
d6 Star Wars is awesome! Although it's been a long while since I've played or even cracked my books open, to be honest. It is kinda mathy, but it's pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it.

I used to use open d6 line for all my own homebrew settings. Now I've switched to Savage Worlds for a variety of reasons.

Saga is great, and in my opinion the best of the D20 Star wars.

Mark Hall has a good classless varient for Saga, actually 2, I believe.

There's also this:
So, some things to note. I changed a number of things. Obviously, levels are entirely gone. Instead, defenses are 10+Defense+Ability+Misc (+armor for Ref). Skills were changed to be skill ranks, as you buy them. However, I did think about just changing it to buying a skill, rather than a rank. It works fine as written though, so I'll take criticism either way.

Sorry for the formatting, I'm trying to figure out these tables.

Effective Level
The first and most important thing to understand about the classless system is that it does away with the concept of “levels” as they are normally understood in the Core Rules. However, because so much depends upon levels (balance of encounters, appropriate treasures, etc.) it is important to know about how powerful a classless character is. This rating is called the character’s effective level and represents the character level that a classless character’s power is about equal to. Simply enough, it can be expressed by the character level that would have been obtained by a character who had earned the same number of experience points (XP) as the character; thus, a classless character who has earned 6,000 XP has an effective level of 4, just as a character created under the Core Rules who had earned 6,000 XP would be 4th level.

In the classless system, players need to track two XP amounts; the first amount is the “total XP earned” through adventuring as this controls the character’s effective level.The second amount is the “unspent XP” total; i.e., the “total XP earned” less the amount spent for purchasing abilities (per the rules presented here). The “spent XP” is unavailable to the character for ability purchase. This is not entirely unlike the “class and level” system where a first level character “spends” 1,000 XP to advance to 2nd level and gain the appropriate abilities; the character can no longer tap into that 1,000 XP for other purposes; it is, in effect, “spent.” The classless system simply breaks down the spending to a much more “granular” level, allowing characters to buy things a little at a time, rather than make the character wait to enjoy one large purchase in a “set of abilities” achieved by advancing in level.

This system, of course, leads to more “instant gratification” as characters are able to incrementally improve each adventure session (or more often, depending upon the tastes of the GM); rather than wait multiple sessions to accrue enough XP to advance in level, after each session, the characters will be able to improve slightly to reflect their growing competence. This also means that characters are more fluid - and requires a lot of bookwork on the part of the GM unless he trusts his players to handle the math themselves. Still, properly handled, the excitement of improvement can be seen after every session – and after all, that’s one of the incentives to play role-playing games – to see your character improve. It won’t be as dramatic an improvement as when the character “leveled up” in the Core System – but it will be more frequent.

This also means that the GM must be a little more fluid; a 4th level character with 6,000 XP remains the same when he has 9,999 XP; by contrast, a character in the classless system with 9,999 XP has considerably more power than a character with 6,000 XP. Gradations and shadings of level become more important, so the GM must understand that not all “effectively 4th level characters” are created equal! Some (at the 6,000 XP mark) are closer to 3rd “level” characters in ability while others (at the 9,999 XP mark) are closer to 5th level characters. GMs must be prepared to handle characters that are constantly improving – what stymied a character last session may be easily handled this session by a new ability that has been added, even if the GM awarded only a few hundred XP last session! It keeps everyone on their toes, but I hope the flexibility and constant sense of accomplishment makes it worthwhile.

Character Generation Classless System
Since the classless method relies on spending XP to gain abilities, and normally first-level characters begin play with 0 XP, the question probably quickly arises, “how do we generate characters to begin with?” The answer is simple: characters begin play with 1,500 “generation points” with which to spend acquiring their initial abilities; these are spent just as XP are normally spent to acquire abilities. Any unspent “generation points” when the character begins play are lost, so it behooves those using this system to spend as many generation points as possible. It should be noted that the “average” build for a core class at first level is a touch over 2000 XP; however, the 1500 figure is given because while under the core system, a character sees no improvement at all until he hits 1000 accrued XP, under this system, a character can improve almost immediately; thus while a “starting character” is slightly weaker, a character “halfway to second level” is roughly the same.

Converting Existing Characters
Rather than worrying about exactly how many XP an existing character “should” have spent acquiring his abilities, it is easiest to simply give existing characters converted to the Buy the Numbers system all of the abilities they currently possess. Any XP above and beyond the amount required for the character to advance to his current level should be converted to “unspent XP,” and the character should advance from that point forward by spending XP. This means that the character may be slightly more or less powerful than a character of his effective level created under this system, but over time, the differences quickly become so small as to be negligible.

Notes about classless Spending
All bonuses, options, and other “abilities” purchased by characters by spending XP in the classless system overlap (do not stack) unless otherwise noted. It should also be noted that the “classless” system requires that two separate tallies of XP be kept for each character; the first tally is simply the total XP earned by the character - it is this total that determines the character’s effective level (as described above). The second tally is “unspent XP” – this is the total XP earned by the character minus any expenditures that have been made in order to purchase abilities, bonuses, or to create magic items, and so forth; in other words, it is the amount the character has available to use improving himself.

Hit Dice
The XP Cost for Hit Dice is relatively straightforward; the cost to purchase a Hit Die is simply equal to the value on the table below multiplied by the character’s new Hit Dice total. The exception is the first Hit Die; the cost for the first Hit Die is doubled (because the character automatically gains full hit points from his first Hit Die and need not roll). A character is not required to take the same “size” Hit Die with each purchase. Thus, a character might choose to spend 280 XP to take a d12 as his first hit die (12 hit points), then take a d8 as his second hit die at a cost of 200 XP (100 XP times 2 total Hit Dice), and a d10 as his third hit die at a cost of 360 XP (120 XP times 3 total Hit Dice) for a total cost of 840 XP. Hit Dice in the classless system are used in lieu of character level when determining the effects and consequences of specific effects. Hit points granted by Hit Dice purchased DO stack.

Constitution bonuses apply to each Hit Die as usual; note that this gives some incentive to characters with high Constitution scores to purchase multiple smaller Hit Dice. This incentive is offset slightly by the fact that larger Hit Dice offer a slight “per hit point” discount on average; the average d4 has a base cost of 60 XP and yields 2.5 hit points, for an average base cost of 24 XP per hit point, while a d12 has a base cost of 140 XP and yields 6.5 hit points, for an average base cost of 21.5 XP per hit point.

Consequences of this method: It should be noted immediately that it is “less expensive” in the long run to take larger Hit Dice before taking smaller Hit Dice; for example, compare the cost of taking a d12 as a first hit die (280 XP), with a d10 as the second Hit Die (240 XP) and a d8 as the third hit die (300 XP); the total is 720 XP, considerably less than the total of taking a d12, then a d8, then a d10. This is offset by the fact that a character will have to accumulate and expend more experience points “up front” to take the larger Hit Dice, leaving him with fewer hit points and more vulnerable to affects until he is able to purchase the larger hit die, as well as being offset by the potential benefits that purchasing multiple smaller Hit Dice offer to characters with high Constitution scores.


Hit Die XP Cost First HD
D4 60 120
D6 80 160
D8 100 200
D10 120 240
D12 140 280



Hit Dice - Variants
1.) Buying hit points instead of Hit Dice is also possible; characters are required pay 160 XP up front to start with 6 hit points. Each subsequent hit point purchased costs 25 XP times the total number of (purchased) hit points it brings the character to (i.e., ignore Constitution bonuses), thus the next hit point (the 7th) costs 175 XP. Constitution bonuses should accrue with every 6 hit points under this method, and a character’s effective Hit Dice total is equal to the number of purchased hit points divided by 6 (round down). This makes accruing Hit Dice and hit points move slightly slower than the normal model by removing the ability to choose Hit Die size and thereby removing the ability of a high-Constitution-score character to leverage the advantage offered by using smaller Hit Dice.

Base Attack Bonus
The following chart shows the XP cost to obtain the listed value of Base Attack Bonus. There are two values to the right of each base save value; the first figure (“XP Cost”) is the cost to move from the previous bonus value to the listed bonus value (i.e,. to increment by one to the listed value); the second figure (“Total XP Cost”) is the cost to move from a value of +0 to the listed bonus value.
BAB XP Cost Total XP cost
+1 150 150
+2 300 450
+3 450 900
+4 600 1,500
+5 750 2,250
+6 900 3,150
+7 1,050 4,200
+8 1,200 5,400
+9 1,350 6,750
+10 1,500 8,250
+11 1,650 9,900
+12 1,800 11,700
+13 1,950 13,650
+14 2,100 15,750
+15 2,250 18,000
+16 2,400 20,400
+17 2,550 22,950
+18 2,700 25,650
+19 2,850 28,500
+20 3,000 31,500

The XP Cost for a base attack bonus past 20 is 150 XP times the character’s new base attack bonus (e.g., moving from BAB +20 to BAB +21 requires 21 x 150 XP or 3150 XP).

Base Attack Bonus – Variants
1.) The GM may allow (but not require) players to purchase “melee BAB” and “ranged BAB” instead of “general BAB.” If this is allowed, the cost to purchase one or the other should be 2/3 the cost listed on the table above. The option to purchase a general BAB is still available in this instance; since general BAB and melee/ranged BAB do not stack, it is generally to a player’s advantage to purchase general BAB unless he wishes to specialize solely in one type of combat, as purchasing both separately will cost 133% of purchasing “general BAB” points and purchasing both one type of BAB and general BAB will cost 166% of purchasing “general BAB” points. A character with 5,000 XP to spend in this manner might choose to spend 4,500 XP to gain a +9 bonus to ranged attacks, neglecting his “melee BAB” entirely or perhaps raising it to a mere +2 (since he would not have sufficient XP to purchase more at 2/3 cost). This option allows players the freedom to specialize if they so desire, but imposes a “cost” along with that.

2.) The GM may require (as opposed to allow) players to purchase “melee BAB” and “ranged BAB” instead of “general BAB.” In this instance, the cost to purchase each should be ½ the cost listed in the table above. A character with 5,000 XP to spend in this manner might choose a “balanced progression” and have a +7 BAB in both melee and ranged attacks or might opt for a less balanced progression such as +9 ranged BAB and +6 melee BAB. It must be noted that this option leads to slightly more high-powered characters, especially among those who specialize in a single mode of combat, as specialization is not as significantly penalized as it is with option #1 above.

3.) With either of the variants described above, the GM may choose to limit the impact of specialization in one type of combat by requiring that all BAB values (e.g., “ranged BAB” and “melee BAB” and “general BAB”) must remain within some margin of each other – either a fixed margin (i.e., within 3 points of each other) or a ratio/percentage (i.e., the lower score must be at least ¾ of the higher score with exceptions for very low values such as when one score is +1 and the other is +0).

Defenses (Each)
The following chart shows the cost to obtain defense bonuses in a single defense category (i.e., Fortitude, Reflex, or Will). Bonuses are purchased in each category separately. As with Base Attack Bonus, there are two values to the right of each base save value; the first figure (“XP Cost”) is the cost to move from the previous bonus value to the listed bonus value (i.e,. to increment by one to the listed value); the second figure (“Total XP Cost”) is the cost to move from a value of 0 to the listed defense bonus.

Base Defense XP Cost Total XP cost
+1 50 50
+2 200 250
+3 450 700
+4 800 1,500
+5 1,250 2,750
+6 1,800 4,550
+7 2,450 7,000
+8 3,200 10,200
+9 4,050 14,250
+10 5,000 19,250
+11 6,050 25,300
+12 7,200 32,500
+13 8,450 40,950
+14 9,800 50,750
+15 11,250 62,000

For adding more points to the Base Defense, the XP Cost is 50 XP times the new Base Defense squared (for example, the XP Cost to move from +15 to +16 is 16^2 times 50 XP or 12,800 XP).

Feats/Talents (Each)
One of the most commonly used methods of customizing characters in the Core Rules is the use of Feats. However, since most characters can only gain a few Feats over the course of their careers, the ability to harness Feats to gain special abilities can be somewhat stymied – or at least delayed a bit. In this system, however, any Feat from any source can be purchased (provided the prerequisites for the Feat are met, of course).

The XP Cost to purchase Feats is listed on the table below. Note that bonus Feats due to race (e.g., a human’s Bonus Feat) are NOT considered when determining how many Feats a character has for the purposes of this table. As with previous tables, the “XP Cost” entry denotes the XP Cost a character must
pay for just one Feat; the “Total XP Cost” entry denotes the Cost for obtaining that number of Feats assuming he has 0 total Feats to start with (i.e., a character with 5 Feats must spend 1,500 XP to gain his 6th Feat, while a character with 0 Feats who wishes to gain 6 Feats must spend 3,550 XP).

Feat
Purchased XP Cost Total XP Cost
1st 50 50
2nd 100 150
3rd 300 450
4th 600 1,050
5th 1,000 2,050
6th 1,500 3,550
7th 2,100 5,650
8th 2,800 8,450
9th 3,600 12,050
10th 4,500 16,550
11th 5,500 22,050
12th 6,600 28,650
13th 7,800 36,450
14th 9,100 45,550
15th 10,500 56,050
16th 12,000 68,050
17th 13,600 81,650
18th 15,300 96,950
19th 17,100 114,050
20th 19,000 133,050

For feats beyond the 20th feat, the XP Cost to purchase the Feat is 50 XP times the number of the Feat times one less than the number of the Feat (e.g., the 21st Feat has an XP Cost of 50 XP times 21 times 20 or 21,000 XP); alternatively, add 100 XP times the number of the character’s total current Feats to the cost of the last Feat the character purchased to find the cost of his next Feat (e.g., a character with 20 Feats paid 19,000 XP for the 20th Feat; the 21st Feat costs him 20 x 100 XP plus 19,000 XP or 21,000 XP).

For the sake of simplicity, both Talents and Feats use this same method and rules.They are separate, so feats only count towards purchasing a new feat, and talents only count towards purchasing new talents. Otherwise, it works exactly the same, including pricing.

Skill Ranks
Skills, which are tied to a character’s Intelligence score in the core rules, are partially tied to a character’s Intelligence score under the rules presented here. Humans should use the column that represents one Intelligence category greater than their actual Intelligence to represent their racial ability of gaining one extra skill at creation (other races that receive bonus skills as a racial ability should use the column that represents one Intelligence category greater than their actual level for each bonus skill provided by their race).

Skills usually have a 1/2 level associated with them. That’s been changed to ranks as below.

Int
Score 0-1 2-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20+
Skills
Base XP
Cost
20 18 16 14 12 10 9 8 7 6 5


The XP Cost to purchase a pair of skill ranks (they are always purchased in pairs) is equal to the character’s total number of skill rank pairs (note: that’s half the total of the character’s skill ranks, not simply half the total skill ranks in a given skill) after the purchase times the Base Cost listed on the table above. Thus, a character of average (10-11) intelligence would have to spend 10 XP to gain their first two skill ranks (10 times 1 skill rank pair), an additional 20 XP to gain their next two skill ranks (10 times 2 pairs) and so on. A character of average intelligence with 98 total skill ranks (and thus, 49 pairs) would have to spend 500 XP gain his 50th pair of skill ranks. It should be noted that there are no “cross-class” or “class” skills in the classless system.

Skill Ranks - Variants
1.) “Easier to Learn, Harder to Master” - For a game that places a greater emphasis on a lot of different skills, or for those who feel that it’s easier to gain the “basic knowledge” represented by the first rank of a skill than it is to gain the “advanced knowledge” represented by the fifteenth rank of a skill, the GM may wish to rule that characters should multiply 1.5 times the base cost for pairs on the table above by the total number of skill points in a given skill, instead counting pairs of total skill ranks. Under this method, for instance, the first rank in any skill would cost a character with average intelligence 15 XP (1.5 times the base price times the total skill ranks in that skill). The second rank in any skill would cost the character 30 XP, the third rank would cost 45 XP, and so on. Thus, a character could spend 150 XP gaining one rank in each of ten skills. He could spend his next 150 XP gaining a second rank in each of five skills, and so on. Using this method makes it “cheaper” than normal to acquire lots of skills with a few ranks in each, but more expensive to specialize in a given set of skills.

2.) Tying ranks to Hit Dice – For those GMs who like the “ceiling” that a character’s ranks in a certain skill can never exceed a certain amount, simply add the rule that a character may not purchase more ranks in a single skill than his Hit Dice plus three; this will slow somewhat the development of the “all skills all the time” character. Alternatively, the GM might prefer that you can only have a number of skill points equal to your Hit Dice in a given skill.

Attribute Increases
Normally, characters are allowed to add one to any two single attribute point at each level that is divisible by four (i.e., level 4, 8, 12 etc.) Since the classless system does not have levels, attribute increases may be purchased directly, with each increase requiring a progressively higher XP cost. Each attribute increase purchased raises one attribute (Strength, Intelligence, etc.) by one (which attribute is increased is the choice of the player). Note that this tracks all attribute increases, not just increases in an individual attribute; for example, purchasing the first attribute increase – regardless of the attribute – has an XP Cost of 400 XP. Purchasing a second attribute increase – regardless of whether this increase is applied to the same
attribute or a different attribute – has a cost of 800 XP.

Attribute
Increase XP Cost Total XP Cost
1st 400 400
2nd 800 1,200
3rd 1,200 2,400
4th 1,600 4,000
5th 2,000 6,000

For attribute increases beyond the 5th, continue to add 400 XP to the cost of each increase (i.e., the 6th increase costs 2,400 XP, the 7th increase costs 2,800 XP, etc.).

Attribute Increases - Variants
1.) Separated Attribute Tracking – Instead of tracking total attribute increases to determine XP cost to raise an attribute by one point, track total attribute increases to that attribute only. If this method is used, it is recommended that all XP costs given be increased to 150% of the listed amount. For instance, normally, the first time a character raises an attribute (say, Dexterity) under the classless system, it costs 400 XP. The second time a character raises an attribute (whether Dexterity or another attribute, such as Charisma), it costs 800 XP to do so. The third increase (Dexterity, Charisma, or something else, like Wisdom) it costs 1,200 XP and so on. Using this variant, the first time a character raises his Dexterity, it costs 600 XP. The second time he raises his Dexterity, it costs 1,200 XP. However, should the character decide to raise his Charisma for the first time, it costs only 600 XP, regardless of the number of Dexterity increases he has purchased. This method allows character to raise several attributes more cheaply than the standard method; however, raising a single attribute by a large amount is more expensive.

2.) The Law of Diminishing Returns –
Instead of using the XP Cost listed on the table above, the character must pay half of the listed XP Cost for the attribute raise times his current attribute bonus for the attribute he wishes to raise (minimum of one; a character without an attribute bonus or with a penalty pays half the listed cost). All other calculations are the same; for example, a character who wished to purchase his fourth attribute increase would pay 800 XP (half of the 1,600 listed) times his current attribute modifier; if his attribute modifier were +3 (from a score of 17), it would require 2,400 XP to make the raise; however, if his attribute modifier were –2 or 0, he would pay just 800 XP (remember, the multiplier cannot be lower than 1). This method makes it slightly cheaper to raise ability scores to “average” levels – and even slightly above average levels - but harder to raise a score to extraordinary levels. It makes it easier for characters’ weaknesses to be shored up, but makes it harder for them to achieve truly exceptional scores in any particular area.

3.) Separated Attribute Tracking and the Law of Diminishing Returns – This simply combines both methods shown above; the cost to raise an attribute is 300 XP times the number of the attribute increase (i.e., the first attribute increase is 300 XP times 1, the second attribute increase is 300 XP times 2 and so on) times the character’s current attribute modifier (minimum of one) to the attribute in question (each attribute is tracked separately). Since separated attribute tracking makes it easier to raise several scores by a small amount than raise a single score by a large amount, and “Law of Diminishing Returns” variant makes it easier to improve weak scores than strong, the net result of this variant is that weaknesses can quickly be shored up (well, quickly relative to normal methods) but obtaining a single exceptional score is even more difficult to do than with either of the above methods alone (or with the normal method).

Proficiencies
Weapon and armor proficiency may be purchased at any time; however, it is cheapest to purchase during character generation, as its cost is based upon“effective character level.” Characters may purchase weapon and armor proficiencies during initial (i.e., first-level) character creation with the following costs. Note that some proficiencies have prerequisites; a character may not select a proficiency for which he does not meet the prerequisites.



Proficiency Prerequisites XP Cost
Simple None 50
Pistols None 75
Rifles None 75
Heavy None 75
Lightsabers None 100
Advanced Melee 80
Exotic, Single Weapon BaB +1 100
Light Armor None 50
Medium Armor Armor Proficiency (light) 50
Heavy Armor Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium) 50



A character that wishes to purchase proficiencies after character creation may do so through purchase of the appropriate Feat or may acquire the proficiencies through direct XP expenditure if unwilling to make the purchase via Feat. If the character is to acquire proficiencies through direct XP expenditure, the character must pay the XP Cost times the effective level of the character squared (i.e., acquiring proficiencies “later in life” quickly becomes very expensive). Thus, a character with 8,000 XP (effectively a 4th level character) who wishes to purchase proficiency with shields must pay 4 squared (or 16) times 25 XP (a total of 400 XP) to acquire that proficiency.

Examples:

Stormtrooper
Stormtrooper CL 1
Medium Human
Dark Side 1
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +9
Languages Basic
Defenses Ref 17 (flat-footed 16). Fort 13, Will 11
hp 10; Threshold 13
Speed 6 squares
Melee unarmed +1 (1d4+ 1)
Ranged blaster rifle +1 (3d8) or
Ranged frag grenade +1 (4d6, 2-square burst)
Base Atk +2; Grp +3
Atk Options autofire (blaster rifle)
Special Actions Coordinated Attack
Abilities Str 12, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Feats Armor Proficiency (light). Coordinated Attack, Weapon Focus (blaster rifles). Weapon Proficiency (pistols, rifles, simple weapons)
Skills Endurance +7, Perception +9
Possessions stormtrooper armor (+6 armor, +2 equipment). blaster rifle, frag grenade, utility belt with medpac


Defenses
Defenses have been changed to 10+def bonus+armor+ability+misc.

What changed was we took level and class out of the equation, as we aren’t using either. The ‘class bonus’ was switched to the defense bonus bought with EXP, while level was removed entirely, and so now that bonus is entirely armor or nothing at all.

Skills
Like defenses, we removed the character level aspect, and reworked it. In a sense you are buying “ranks” or “levels”, however, outside of purchasing improvement to a skill, this bears no other use. For now.

Trooper costs
1st level (1,100):
d10 Hit Die (240),
6 skill ranks (210),
+1 to BAB (150),
+1 to Saves (150),
Simple Weapons proficiency (50),
Pistol Weapons proficiency (75),
Rifle Weapons proficiency (75),
Light Armor Proficiency (50),
First feat (50)
First Talent (50)

There is 400 xp remaining in this build, so you have just a little more wiggle room to up him a bit. Perhaps another hit die or BaB?

Rancor
Rancor CL 11
Huge beast
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +9
Defenses Ref 20 (flat-footed 20), Fort 20, Will 13
hp 264; fast healing 5; Threshold 30
Speed 8 squares
Melee 2 claws +11* (1d8+20) or
Melee bite +11* (2d6+20)
Fighting Space 3x 3; Reach 2 squares
Base Atk +9; Grp +27
Atk Options Cleave, Crush, Pin, Power Attack
Abilities Str 26, Dex 9, Con 23, Int 2, Wis 7, Cha 15
Special Qualities fast healing 5
Feats Cleave, Crush, Pin, Power Attack, Toughness
Skills Perception +9
Fast Healing 5-A rancor automatically regains 5 hit points every round
at the end of its turn, up to its normal maximum, until it is killed.
* Includes 6 points of Power Attack

Rancor costs
12th level (26,518): (66,000)
d12x40 Hit Die (7,560),
6 skill ranks (108),
+9 to BAB (6,750),
+5(will - 2,750) +6 (Ref - 2,750), +5 (Fort - 2,750) to defenses(12,500),
Fast Healing 5 (1,800),
Five Feats (2,050)

At level 12 this guy has 66,000 xp, and I've spent less than half to rebuild him.



Math might be a slight bit off, as well as the table formatting, but I think you get the gist of it. The idea is to spend XP to gain new stuff. The overall idea was altered from some book for D&D 3.5, so probably needs a bit of work, but I found it works pretty well over all. Especially when paired with the SAM (Skill Attack Modifier). The only part I'm not super happy with is Skills, but at first I had it so you just bought a skill, but that seems a waste. Going back to a "rank" system might be a bit much, but I'm open to ideas.

I'm not going to be super useful for D6 stuff right now, not without some refresher courses, if I can find the box ,my books are buried away in the closet in. But i would also suggest Savage Worlds. It's a great system for Star Wars as well. Here's a link to a Star Wars rule set for it. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Puqhyh74IWeDVZb1RXNXJXeGc/view?usp=sharing) Allegedly by Jerrod "Savage Daddy" Gunning, I hold no claim to that, just what I was told. But of all the homebrew's, I like this one the best.

Royce
2017-11-10, 04:39 AM
Well it might be mathy but it’s simple math. It’s a great version of Star Wars. There is a lot of freedom when creating a character, since you pick what you want. You’re not stuck in a class. I’m playing an Umbaran gambler who is a crack shot,can talk his way into out of any thing, bet it all and win , and knows some force powers to keep him alive in a fight. There are a lot of PDFs that are free on the web full of material for D6. Sky’s the limit in this game.

LibraryOgre
2017-11-10, 05:45 AM
I'm a big fan of d6 Star Wars. My prefered edition is 2e Revised and Expanded, but I also know some people who are really passionate about 1e.

As mentioned, I do have a classless variant for SAGA, as well as a levelless variant. (http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/search/label/SAGA)But SAGA books are expensive these days and, tbh, I prefer d6.

hifidelity2
2017-11-10, 08:17 AM
I use the D6 version for my Star wars

I don't think its that "mathy"- give them a difficulty and all they have to do is add D6's

I think it simulates the films well and allows the PCs to be hero's

Knaight
2017-11-10, 03:16 PM
I'm more familiar with d6 Space than d6 Starwars, but it's a direct descendant by virtue of being essentially the same game with the IP specific material stripped out. It's a fairly solid stat and skill system, with a few mildly annoying quirks to the dice system (the effects of ones and sixes on the special die tend to add nothing but irritation) and some of the usual document design problems that plague RPGs. It's also available for free from Drivethru RPG, although only in a bundle with the other d6 games due to the release of a new version and the replacement of the old one on the site.

rs2excelsior
2017-11-11, 07:21 PM
Awesome, thanks for the replies, everyone!


I'm not going to be super useful for D6 stuff right now, not without some refresher courses, if I can find the box ,my books are buried away in the closet in. But i would also suggest Savage Worlds. It's a great system for Star Wars as well. Here's a link to a Star Wars rule set for it. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Puqhyh74IWeDVZb1RXNXJXeGc/view?usp=sharing) Allegedly by Jerrod "Savage Daddy" Gunning, I hold no claim to that, just what I was told. But of all the homebrew's, I like this one the best.

Savage Worlds is another system that's intrigued me. Unfortunately (aside from the test drive rules) it doesn't seem to be as easily available as d6 Star Wars, and I'm not sure I can justify buying books for an RPG system right now when I don't really have a group to play with. Hopefully I'll get a chance to give both a spin at some point.


Well it might be mathy but it’s simple math.

Fair. Like I said, I played Star Warriors, where the difficulty numbers came from adding up all the values from the actions you did, and where gunnery difficulties had a whole slew of modifiers you had to check. Not difficult, but fiddly and at times it could take a while. This does seem simpler, due to the presence of a GM who can pick the difficulty numbers.


I'm more familiar with d6 Space than d6 Starwars, but it's a direct descendant by virtue of being essentially the same game with the IP specific material stripped out. It's a fairly solid stat and skill system, with a few mildly annoying quirks to the dice system (the effects of ones and sixes on the special die tend to add nothing but irritation) and some of the usual document design problems that plague RPGs. It's also available for free from Drivethru RPG, although only in a bundle with the other d6 games due to the release of a new version and the replacement of the old one on the site.

Might check those out too. Can't argue with the price :smallbiggrin:

A couple of other questions:

1) Are there supplements for eras other than Galactic Civil War/New Republic? Anything for the Clone Wars, or the Old Republic, for example? I'd probably start out with Galactic Civil War anyway, but it'd be nice to have some room to expand.
2) How well does it handle starfighter/starship combat? Am I better off using Star Warriors for the starfighters, or just stick with the base rules?

Sparx MacGyver
2017-11-11, 07:46 PM
Savage Worlds is another system that's intrigued me. Unfortunately (aside from the test drive rules) it doesn't seem to be as easily available as d6 Star Wars, and I'm not sure I can justify buying books for an RPG system right now when I don't really have a group to play with. Hopefully I'll get a chance to give both a spin at some point.

$10 is worth the core book, and it's all you'll ever need (though the companions are certainly nice bits to add to the toolbox that is Savage Worlds).




A couple of other questions:

1) Are there supplements for eras other than Galactic Civil War/New Republic? Anything for the Clone Wars, or the Old Republic, for example? I'd probably start out with Galactic Civil War anyway, but it'd be nice to have some room to expand.
2) How well does it handle starfighter/starship combat? Am I better off using Star Warriors for the starfighters, or just stick with the base rules?

Sadly, no. At least not officially, although to be fair a blaster pistol is a blaster pistol in any era. I'd say go with the base rules to learn them first. At least you'll know for certain if ya don't like them.

Mutazoia
2017-11-14, 05:40 AM
Fair. Like I said, I played Star Warriors, where the difficulty numbers came from adding up all the values from the actions you did, and where gunnery difficulties had a whole slew of modifiers you had to check. Not difficult, but fiddly and at times it could take a while. This does seem simpler, due to the presence of a GM who can pick the difficulty numbers.

Star Warriors was a far crunchier version that was created for people who wanted more of a strategy/tactical style game, just for starship combat. It CAN be used, quite easily, with the RPG, but you don't have to. Like the rest of the game, the GM can always just assign target numbers to hit, modified by reaction skill rolls of the targets, and go from there.


A couple of other questions:

1) Are there supplements for eras other than Galactic Civil War/New Republic? Anything for the Clone Wars, or the Old Republic, for example? I'd probably start out with Galactic Civil War anyway, but it'd be nice to have some room to expand.
2) How well does it handle starfighter/starship combat? Am I better off using Star Warriors for the starfighters, or just stick with the base rules?

1) There are supplements for the Phantom Menace and Attack of the clones....although they are "unofficial" supplements. At least someone else has done a lot of the work for you. Die code wise, there isn't really a lot of info you need. As someone else already said, an Old Republic era blaster pistol, mechanically speaking, is no different from a Rebellion era blaster pistol. And the great thing about running a campaign in the Old Republic era, is that you don't have to worry about the "Star Wars" experts who have memorized a ton of (useless and non canon) EU data fussing over some minor detail of your campaign. I ran a long term campaign that involved the start of the first Sith War (when the Jedi hadn't heard of the Sith).
2) As I said above, you can use the Star Warriors rules for ship to ship combat if you want to (I usually only used it for battles involving more that 4 or 5 ships and/or when the PC's wanted to fly through an asteroid field), but the standard RPG rules are up to the task by themselves. We had fun and exciting starship battles just fine before WEG released Star Warriors.

Corsair14
2017-11-14, 10:11 AM
Since my post was deleted since I inadvertently posted a site I wasn't aware was illegal since its well known and should have gotten a C&D if it was a long time ago, I'll reiterate. There was an official hardback sourcebook for Knights of the Old Republic from WEG its out there and was pretty good from what I recall. There was also a second sourcebook that's too good not to be official, even though I never saw it back in the day, for the Dark Side which goes into heavy detail on the Sith lords of old and their history along with rules for then and now and new powers. Very good read.

rs2excelsior
2017-11-14, 12:41 PM
Sadly, no. At least not officially, although to be fair a blaster pistol is a blaster pistol in any era. I'd say go with the base rules to learn them first. At least you'll know for certain if ya don't like them.


1) There are supplements for the Phantom Menace and Attack of the clones....although they are "unofficial" supplements. At least someone else has done a lot of the work for you. Die code wise, there isn't really a lot of info you need. As someone else already said, an Old Republic era blaster pistol, mechanically speaking, is no different from a Rebellion era blaster pistol. And the great thing about running a campaign in the Old Republic era, is that you don't have to worry about the "Star Wars" experts who have memorized a ton of (useless and non canon) EU data fussing over some minor detail of your campaign. I ran a long term campaign that involved the start of the first Sith War (when the Jedi hadn't heard of the Sith).
2) As I said above, you can use the Star Warriors rules for ship to ship combat if you want to (I usually only used it for battles involving more that 4 or 5 ships and/or when the PC's wanted to fly through an asteroid field), but the standard RPG rules are up to the task by themselves. We had fun and exciting starship battles just fine before WEG released Star Warriors.

Fair enough. I did run across an Old Republic sourcebook (no idea if it's official, I think it might have been converted from another RPG?) that's got a nifty modifier for vehicles from different eras fighting one another. A first campaign I did run would almost certainly be in the Galactic Civil War, since I'm not super familiar with the old republic, but it's an interesting era and I think it's got some opportunities for an RPG. And there's a wealth of information out there about the setting and history.


Since my post was deleted since I inadvertently posted a site I wasn't aware was illegal since its well known and should have gotten a C&D if it was a long time ago, I'll reiterate. There was an official hardback sourcebook for Knights of the Old Republic from WEG its out there and was pretty good from what I recall. There was also a second sourcebook that's too good not to be official, even though I never saw it back in the day, for the Dark Side which goes into heavy detail on the Sith lords of old and their history along with rules for then and now and new powers. Very good read.

I'll just say I was already familiar with the site you had referenced and leave it at that. :smallwink:

EDIT: I picked up the free bundle of d6 Fantasy, d6 Adventure, and d6 Space from DriveThruRPG. Been looking over d6 Space a bit. There are some things I like quite a bit, should be pretty easy to port the Star Wars stuff back in or set up a custom setting.

And another question: what are people's impressions on the Wound system? In principle, I like it quite a bit. HP has never really set well with me, and this seems to be a rather realistic alternative--but also seems like it has the potential to be fairly lethal.

Knaight
2017-11-14, 03:25 PM
And another question: what are people's impressions on the Wound system? In principle, I like it quite a bit. HP has never really set well with me, and this seems to be a rather realistic alternative--but also seems like it has the potential to be fairly lethal.

It works just fine, and I prefer it over HP (although HP systems where the HP doesn't go up dramatically don't bug me at all).

Mutazoia
2017-11-15, 01:44 AM
I'll just say I was already familiar with the site you had referenced and leave it at that. :smallwink:

I find it funny that a mod has referenced that information in the past, and it has passed muster.


And another question: what are people's impressions on the Wound system? In principle, I like it quite a bit. HP has never really set well with me, and this seems to be a rather realistic alternative--but also seems like it has the potential to be fairly lethal.

The wound system actually isn't all that lethal, as even incapacitated characters aren't actually dead...just K.O.'d until revived with a medpak.