House Rule: Farfallans (Half-Bothans) for Star Wars d20 Saga

Who's still thinking about Star Wars? I am, and having recently picked up a well-loved copy of the Saga Edition Core Rulebook, I'm thinking I'll probably run it instead of d20 Revised. (Half skill ranks... ugh...) Luckily my fixation on fauns (faunxation?) can be quickly remedied by the fact that this little-seen species shows up in the works formerly known as the Expanded Universe; this is my take on making them playable. Enjoy!

Star Wars Miniatures By Species, Episode V

Follow-up to this post, and it only took me two months! Must be something I ate.

Anyway, same deal as last time, except I'll be covering the playable alien species included in The Star Wars Sourcebook. The overall list is rather similar to that in the later d20 rules, though obviously it doesn't have any species that were invented for the prequels; a few omissions are a bit strange, though. But nowhere near as strange as what the W.O.T.C. decided to do with some of their miniatures...

Quick and dirty diagram I made for one of my friends. As cool
as that Darth Talon mini is, no way am I paying $90 for it.

Star Wars Miniatures, By Species

So, a little project I've been working on today. I'm a huge, huge fan of the old WOTC Star Wars Miniatures, not only as a collector and an RPG nerd, but as someone who's grown to like the Miniatures Game with which all of these are compatible.

Everyone knows that one of the coolest things about Star Wars is the almost infinite variety of alien species. The minis do a pretty good job of this, with even a few of the old Expanded Universe types getting a figure here and there - although some of them really got the short end of the stick, as we'll see later. But finding them is not always easy when they use a character's name instead of the species name, hence my little project.

This is gonna be a list of all the WOTC minis of each species, as I'm able to find them. For now, I'll just be listing the three alien species from the core rules of the old D6 RPG: Ewoks, Mon Calamari, and Wookiees. Future posts should (should) contain more.

(shamelessly stolen from here, don't blast me Syd)

But how will I know the good side from the bad?

Over several months of contemplating Star Wars and the two older RPGs thereof (don't have anything like the money to even touch the FFG trilogy of tomes), I've continued to find my mind split right down the middle. I own the core books for both the West End Games D6 version (the original one), and the Wizards of the Coast d20 version (revised). My miniatures habit has continued to swell like Val Kilmer's ego once did, and I'll briefly put some notes in bullet points.

• The Star Wars Miniatures game based on the d20 rules is pretty good. Relatively fast to play, and the abundance of characters in the Fringe faction means that I might be able to adapt the rules for three sides instead of just two (living with two other nerds, one wants to include them when possible). The very small number of New Republic minis that aren't Luke or Han's kids is a bit disappointing, but there are still some gems out there.
• Thirdly, as much as I like the core of the d20 System for combat skirmishes, the roleplaying games based on it are just too much. Not running Star Wars d20 unless at least one of my potential players makes a massive commitment to mastering the rules - in exchange for which, I might be persuaded to make a similar effort for her Starfinder campaign. Quid Go Pro, and all that.
• Next, the D6 version has some peculiarities. Part of this is my own unfamiliarity with things that aren't D&D or D&D-based, but some of the rules are a bit confusingly worded and structured. Perhaps the 2nd edition resolves some of these issues, but I'm reluctant to drop more cash on that core book without trying this one in more detail.
• Sixth and lastly, this White Star game that everyone's been talking about (or was a few years ago, back before the Renaissance turned into the Old School Ragnarok). It's pretty cool! Rules-lite enough for me, but maybe a bit too rules-lite in places - especially where starships are concerned. Still might pick it up at some point, though.
• And in conclusion, I nabbed the Star Munchkin RPG at my game store. Might actually be persuaded to give this a shot if I find the right group - who I might have to sew together from HackMaster 4e and Halberd players.

Games I Will Never Run

Here's a short list of games that I will never DM/GM, for any number of reasons.

AD&D 1st Edition - Confusingly organized, even more so than 2e. I do like the tone of 1e much more, though, so there's a slight possibility that I might run it with a heavy dose of house rules to remove some of the dumber things (like alignment languages, material components, and the massive mess that is the unarmed combat system). I recently met someone who loves DMing it, though, so I wouldn't mind being on board as a player.
 
GURPS (any edition) - I tried to figure out the 4th edition "GURPS Lite" document. I still haven't. I'm not a big fan of point-buy systems in general, and this one is just way too fiddly for my tastes. I would probably not play this one either.
 
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - I love this book (not surprising, since I loved the movie), and the Tri-Stat system is a bit less complex than GURPS in terms of point-buy. I'd imagine that in play it's pretty fast and simple, but the problem is that I have zero ideas for a modern-day crime game. I certainly wouldn't mind playing it, if someone else had ideas.

The World of Darkness - The system isn't too bad, and my brief experience playing Mage: The Awakening would help me get a handle on things, but I only have one story idea. I'd hate to make everyone make human characters for a mini-campaign, but if players would be up for it, I might be convinced. I wouldn't mind playing, either.

Star Wars (any post-WEG version) - I don't know nearly enough about the universe to make for a satisfying game for the players. My entire experience with the franchise is the movies, some of the video games, and a couple of kiddie novels I read as a youngling. I obviously wouldn't mind playing, considering I already have and had a blast.

Pathfinder (the full edition) - Nope. Way, way too much crunch. Wouldn't mind playing, but I will never upgrade to the non-Beginner Box edition as a GM.

You might notice that D&D 4th Edition isn't there. To be honest, if I had the time or the desire, I wouldn't mind DMing 4e, but I doubt that most of my players would want to put themselves through that. HackMaster 4e is also not there, because as much as I would want to run it (and endure all of the rules arguing and struggles thereof), it's based on the AD&D engine that two of my players hate so much, and few others would want to struggle with the rules.

Clumsy and Random

So, a little over a week ago, I was a participant in a Star Wars Roleplaying Game session (the d20 one, not the current game with the extra-weird dice). It had been forever since I played or ran a d20 System game, so it took a little while for me to get up to speed. Nonetheless, I was able to make my character, a Jedi Knight named Titus Crom, and fun was had by all.

Titus came into the story in the middle of a prison break occurring in a massive Imperial skyscraper; the details that the GM told me about this time period in the Old Republic implied that I had been arrested for being (rather obviously) a Jedi Knight. I was freed, and joined a newly-freed smuggler and another Jedi who was making his way through the complex. They stayed in touch with their allies (four other player characters working on getting into the building from the top down) via com-link, and I was brought up to speed on the Jedi's mission: Defeat the Sith Apprentice on the very top floor of the building.

We made our way through, and right before our fight with the Sith Apprentice, the GM rolled a d20 for some reason that slips my mind now. It was a natural 1. He racked his brain for a bit, and then announced to us:

"The Sith Apprentice loses his connection to the Force."

Wow. Not what we were expecting, but considering that it was now a battle between two Jedi Knights in top form, and a single crippled Sith Apprentice, we figured that this should be an easy fight.

It was not. D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder may be obsessed with balancing everything so that the players won't have too tough a time with their enemies, but SWRPG is very, very tough. For this reason, the GM had instituted a rule that, after all racial and other modifiers were applied, any 9s that were rolled for ability scores became 10s. So Titus has exactly average Strength and Dexterity - not high enough to take any of the lightsaber combat feats - with only slightly above-average Constitution and Intelligence, but a 14 Wisdom and a 17 Charisma.

Two Jedi against one disabled Sith, and I still came within one blow of dying.

Of course, once a bunch of guards showed up, I was able to effortlessly sweep them down using Force Slam, and pin a straggler to the wall and interrogate him from halfway across the room. My total bonus to Use the Force is +14, on a twenty-sided die.

I have hung out with this group once more since then, and hopefully the fruits of that more relaxed session will make good blog material. For now, I'll leave off with a few observations:

• The GM was excellent; aside from a few notes on his cell phone, he was able to give us descriptions of everything from memory and/or improvisation.
• Star Wars and the d20 System are a nearly perfect match.
• That said, I still really want to try White Star.