Star Wars Saga RP

[Sahaar]

Can someone give me a crash-course on the SWSRPG? I'd really love to learn how to play. Is it possible?

[TheCountAlucard]

It's a very fun game; I've played in one game, and ran another.

What tabletop games are you familiar with? Might make it easier, having a basis for comparison...

[Binks]

Have you ever played D&D 4e? I've heard it's a lot like that (the exact phrase I heard was "4e beta test").

Saga is a fairly simple set of rules and fairly close to D&D (though pretty different from 3.5 at least, again I've never played 4e so I only know what I've heard). It's got the standard skills/feats stuff and uses talents to handle class abilities (so you can choose what your class is good at). Multiclassing is easy, force powers are handled similar to sorcerer casting (you have a library of force powers, but you can pick multiple copies of the same spell and your limit is that you can only cast each power as many times as you have it in your library).

It's, at its core, a fairly standard d20 system, so if you're familiar with that you should at least be able to struggle through it. It uses defense rather than saving throws (so you have a fortitude and will defense) which cuts down opposed rolls quite a bit (they're pretty rare, except for stealth and deception you rarely see an opposed check rolled).

Obviously it would be useful to know what experience you have with P&P games to help find comparisons. You might also want to look into picking up the core rulebook if you're really interested in it. Amazon has it on sale for $25 since wizards is discontinuing the line (no problem though, other than a NJO sourcebook there's not really anything missing from the line) so it's not super expensive to just pick up the core rulebook and learn from that.

[Sahaar]

I'm good with DnD 3.5/4e, is that good? I used a character generator to make This guy:

http://www.pathguy.com/starwars.htm

I may (read: probably) get the Core rulebook, but I just want to know the basics in case I want to play a PbP game here.

Edit: can someone give me info on Starting money and damage for blaster rifle/pistol and cost for rounds for said guns?

[Katana_Geldar]

Starting money is determined by your class and a dice roll.

As for guns....where does one begin?

EDIT: The best way is to get the actual Core Rulebook, rather quickly probably as Wizards is ending the line.

[Sahaar]

Why is Wizards ending the produciton of the core books?

[NEO|Phyte]

They're not renewing their license with Lucasarts.

[Sahaar]

Oh, phew. I thought I was screwed <:P

[Mando Knight]

They're not renewing their license with Lucasarts.

It's actually LucasBooks, I believe. Still a subsidiary company of George Lucas's self-made conglomerate...

[Katana_Geldar]

LucasBooks and LucasArts are subsidiaries of LucasFilm, as far as I am aware LucasArts is the computer games and before it was just LucasFilm Games.

And that's ALL the books, Sahaar, the next one, The Unknown Regions, will be the last. There are a few already out of print, I think.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen a three-piece set of Core, Starships and Threats as they're the essentials, but it's not to be. And if you are buying books, even second hand, they're the ones you should get in that order.

[Superglucose]

I know a group at my local gaming club is playing a Saga game but it's full

No fair!

[KillianHawkeye]

It's more similar to D&D 3.5 than it is to D&D 4. The only things it shares with D&D 4 are the skill system and static defense scores. The rest is basically 3.5 in space.

[Katana_Geldar]

The skill system in Star Wars Saga works so much better than 4e and makes a lot more sense. Galaxy of Intrigue also describes Skill Challenges much better than either of the DMGs.

The number of skills you have is based on your class AND your intelligence modifier, so if you up your Int you can get more skills. And there's a bellcurve between the number of skilled trained in a class and the amount of "beef" on a character. The soldier starts with a base of two, and the Squishy Noble has six.

I tried to apply this same logic to 4E and can't make head or tail of it.

[Mando Knight]

LPersonally, I would have liked to have seen a three-piece set of Core, Starships and Threats as they're the essentials, but it's not to be. And if you are buying books, even second hand, they're the ones you should get in that order.

Not sure on Core, but Starships and Threats are definitely out of print and running for 3, 4, 6 times as much as their original list price.

[Katana_Geldar]

Wow, have no idea why they just don't do a reprint as a last hurrah.

[AstralFire]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120487

[Siegel]

www.d20radio.com look for Order 66

[Sahaar]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120487

OMG THANKS YOU

[KillianHawkeye]

Wow, have no idea why they just don't do a reprint as a last hurrah.

Because that would cost them money, and it's a big risk for them if they can't sell them all (or at least that's how they see it). After all, they did cite the economic downturn as the reason for not continuing the SWRPG line.