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Hey everyone, I am getting back into GM'ing the Star Wars RPG (WOTC version) , and i already know what the adventure(s)/campaign will be, but my big question is- should i just make some pre-made characters for the younger/newer guys who will play? knowing that it will probably take them a while to even figure out any of the Sw character creation guidelines, and know what they want to be,etc. I am not trying to suggest that they are dumb, and dont know how to roll for an attack with a lightsaber or blaster, but just to save time, and any frustration,and getting the adventure going,so maybe making the pre-made characters might help? i had an idea that mabye i could just leave the details like the name,species,gender,hair/eye/skin color,up to them,but leave all the abilities,skills,damage/attack stuff,etc for me to do. But then again, some species and/or classes have +'S and -'s, for certain abilities or skills,etc, so maybe i could factor that in after i make the premade characters?

They will be all 1st level characters, so it wont be that hard to make them, and the templates i am going off,are from the wotc star wars rpg book from 2000, it is a KotOR campaign/adventure, so i will have to break the bad news to the guys that they wont be able to fight alongside Han Solo, or Luke Skywalker, or Obi-Wan, or any other well known Sw character not from the Kotor/Old Republic era, but they will be able to fight alongside or against Carth,Mandalorian merc's,etc,and even Darth Revan .....whose stats i found while looking around online, but i dont think they will like getting nailed by a lightsaber that deals 7d8 (+1d8 vitality) damage.... but thats only if they attack him, or the story twists to where they try and go against him, anyways, would making the pre-made characters be a good idea? then after deciding on a race with the younger or newer guys, i could help them factor in the necessary +'s or -'s for the abilities,skills,etc.
would this be do-able?

For the players that you think need to have their characters made for them I would talk to them and get an idea of what type of character they want to play and then you build characters around that. That way they have some input on it, but you don't have to bog down the start of the game unnecessarily.

I will do that, and I have been trying to, but havent always gotten an answer, but i will try more, since i wont be doing the adventure til i can get a good idea of what people want to be, like maybe mainly jedi/force users, or gun-slingers like a merc or something so then i can tune the kotor adventure to what they choose, if i should start the party in a different setting,etc

I'd say make up the character for them and use those until they get the hang of the rules in a few games. If you really want to give them some choice, ask them their preferences and make up 2-3 different "packages" for each character based around a theme (like a lightsaber specialized jedi versus a power focused jedi) that give some variety to skills/feats/gear.

I agree, sort of like giving them a choice of playing a soldier that might be more of a commando,or elite soldier,with a more specialized weapon and the other just a more common or regular soldier with a basic blaster rifle and grenades, or a scoundrel who might be more of a stealth y,and unseen person, and the other be more of a con-artist or more focused on trickery and bluffing,or just more outright and known for messing with people? Or something like that? I get what you mean with giving them a package, and it would be better than giving them the opportunity of copying any template in the books, that might just be too OP, like when i let my friend use Jango Fett's character template to play as, during a 1st level ccampaign......

Ok.......... also, is there an even easier way of doing combat with the wotc sw rpg? like an easier to learn order of operations for how it gets done,etc?

Keep in mind WotC did something like 3 versions (1st, 2nd, Saga) with some impoirtant differences.

Combat is a d20 variant, so basic 'combat loop' is:
1. Determine initiative for everyone
2. Activate each character in descending order
a. Character may move/take actions as described in rules.
b. other characters are pretty much frozen other than attack of opportunity or a few other 'reaction' abiltiies that are generally rare.
3. Go to step 2 (initiative is per-encounter).

it's an RPG, so as long as the GM is flexible and fair, combat issues can be worked around.

Saga edition looked to have some neat ideas, like making the Jedi powers much more fun and playable. (in 1st and 2nd, using powers caused minor damage to the quick-healing HP resource (can't remember the name) so Jedi tended to get worn out if they pushed things.Saga, to my understanding, moved to something more like 4th edition's "Per-Encounter' power rules, with the gimmick that a Jedi could 'give in to the hate' and refresh all powers for a dark side point.

ok, that works, but would the wotc sw rpg book from 2000 be 1st edition? or 2nd edition?, because isnt the book with the darth vader design on the cover, the saga book? Because i have the wotc sw rpg book from 2000

Looks like original edition in 2000, Revised in 2002, and then Saga in 2007.

Jedi and Attacks of Opportunity were a bit wonky in the editions I was familiar with (original and revised) but the system works reasonably well.

Ok, thanks, also, which comes first for taking damage-
the vitality or defense? i believe it was vitality that got points taken off from it when the character is dealt damage right?

 orkkiller21 wrote:
Ok, thanks, also, which comes first for taking damage-
the vitality or defense? i believe it was vitality that got points taken off from it when the character is dealt damage right?

I'd have to check the rules, but generally the bigger pool is eaten away first... but that pool is easy to recover. I think in the version I played a short rest restored all or most of it.

ok, thanks!, and also, what might be a good way to start out the new players in the old republic era? i thought that just laying it down that NONE of the characters they usually know about like Han Solo, or Mace Windu, will not be around, would be not as cool to them, but a cool old republic intro might be better, or i'll come up with something of the sort. i am planning on maybe just starting them out with a few of the adventures and parts of the kotor 1 video game storyline, so they can get a feel for some stuff, then brAnch out with some mandalorian stuff or things pertaining to the story of Darth Revan. would that work?

Sure... I recommend avoiding big-name canon characters because they tend to overshadow the player characters. ("I'm level 5 and can Force Jump 40 feet then stab people!"... "I'm Darth Reven, have Plot Immunity, and have access to a fleet.")

For example, a SW RPG I ran had a setup that the party was Firefly-esque 'neutrals' with no ties to the Rebels or the Empire, set during the 'original trilogy' era. Ship-thieves, but ones that probably wouldn't kill without provocation.

They got a patron-type who gave off tons of clues to being a Jedi... Old man, fondness for earth-colored robes, tendency to speak knowingly in metaphors, no one seemed to pay any attention to his weirdness. They do what he asks, they're stealing a ship from Cloud City (which had recently suffered a crackdown... Rumors were that scary imperial mo-fo Darth Vader had even come by, and everyone was on edge because the Empire had taken over.) and there's the big, classic Star Wars scene where they're about to take off, pursued by Stormtroopers.

Old man does what's expected. Says he'll hold them off, not to wait up, grabs a lightsaberfrom under his robes, and stands ready to take ont he approaching stormtroopers when...

...He's cut down by dozens of blaster shots. He bought them time, but not particularly well, and with his own life. Turns out he wasn't a Jedi, just some rich old treasure-hunter. The ship was part of a grand plan to pay back some old debts he had to his old buddies, and he drafted the Player Characters by offering them a massive reward for helping a fix a few things he had messed up in his life.

The eventual end of the campaign would've been the PCs getting a 'massive' reward, but one they couldn't really use... An automated semi-sentient arms factory. So they'd be in a moral dilemma of trying to sell it or fence the output (unlikely on the scale they were dealing at.) or giving it to the Rebellion (or Empire) for favors and a good reputation.

But, yeah., avoid powerful NPCs overshadowing the PCs. The group did have some force-sensitives and did get a Jedi 'teacher' that was a blind, half-crippled former Jedi... Enough that she was effectively 'dead' but could, in some small way, act as a teacher.

Ah Balance, posts like that make me wish I was playing in your campaigns.

 Manchu wrote:
Ah Balance, posts like that make me wish I was playing in your campaigns.

I am far from the best GM, but I do think I have some good ideas at times. The stuff I rant about here is, admittedly, the ideal I strive for and occasionally obtain.

A friend for mine is a much better GM, and a few of my thoughts on the subject are definitely derived from him.

ok, so i could just start out with something like-

" You are woken up by a loud blast, and thrown from your sleep-couch. You see Republic troops running back and forth firing their blasters at Sith troopers who have invaded the Republic frigate, and are trying to seize it. You hear a scratchy voice out of the damaged intercom system that sounds like a message for any survivors to head to the escape pod bay, to escape the ship which will most likely be blown to shreds in a very short amount of time." And then from there, they would fight their way to the escape pod bay, and find out parts of the storyline as they do so. Then, after that, they will continue throught the story,etc,etc., would that work well?

My group is trying to decide on what vehicle to go with at the start, and one of the important questions is how they are going to transport a fighter ship, as one of the characters is a fighter pilot. I'm reading up on it but all I can find is a cargo hold number and another spot somewhere about attaching snub fighters to hard points. How do I figure out what the cargo rating translates to in terms of ship carrying, if it can at all?

Not sure but ... what kind of fighter does the pilot own? Many have on-board hyperdrives.

 Manchu wrote:
Not sure but ... what kind of fighter does the pilot own? Many have on-board hyperdrives.

None atm, but they are trying to plan ahead. I am letting them choose from the list given in the core rulebook for new groups: Firespray 31 Class Patrol, yt-1300, and the Wayfarer Medium Class Freighter.

Neither the Firespray nor the YT-1300 can hold a fighter, for sure.

Seems like a Wayfarer can do.

Yeah, with the YT-1300 they would have to attach it to a hard point on the exterior. It says the "Encumbrance Capacity" for the Wayfarer is 850, but I can't find what exactly that translates into.

Even if they can't officially manage an attached fighter there's nothing to say the PCs can't get hold of a modified ship that can

with said modifications being as unreliable as your story demands,
is it reliable,
does it need uncommon parts to keep it going,
does it need occasional servicing by a mythical expert mechanic,
are the rebellion or even the empire interested in how it's done

etc

 orkkiller21 wrote:
ok, so i could just start out with something like-

" You are woken up by a loud blast, and thrown from your sleep-couch. You see Republic troops running back and forth firing their blasters at Sith troopers who have invaded the Republic frigate, and are trying to seize it. You hear a scratchy voice out of the damaged intercom system that sounds like a message for any survivors to head to the escape pod bay, to escape the ship which will most likely be blown to shreds in a very short amount of time." And then from there, they would fight their way to the escape pod bay, and find out parts of the storyline as they do so. Then, after that, they will continue throught the story,etc,etc., would that work well?

That sounds pretty cool! Only minus I can see is it's a bit derivative of KotoR1, but if you're going to take inspiration from a game, take it from a good one.

Lots of directions you could go with this.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
"Logistics" like this tends to be the kind of thing that comes up once in a campaign. Once solved, it's no big deal. The root question is why do they want a micro-carrier?

SW seems to generally be fine with the idea that fighter pilots can do short trips in a fighter. PCs, as a rule of thumb, aren't too concerned with comfort unless it gives them pluses. Do they need the pilot for stuff on the main ship, like as a copilot or mechanic? Is it just so he can talk and use shipboard facilities like medical care?

However, this is Star Wars and wacky ship designs are completely in-chaarcter so a ship modified with a Parasite Fighter mount would definitely fit the setting.

If you want to get into mechanics for it, it could consume a bunch of cargo capacity (Turns a Millennium Falcon-esque YT-1300 from a light freighter to little more than a mobile home with some 'small package' capacity) and have some other drawbacks. Maybe it takes a couple combat rounds to launch the attached fighter (and more to dock). If it's 2 rounds to launch (assuming the pilot is ready to go, maybe say 3 if he needs to abandon a station in the parent ship's cockpit) that minimizes a lot of potential abuses as 2-3 turns is a Big Deal to be out of combat. A 5 or 10 turn requirement to dock (maybe allow a piloting check to shave this time down) would have serious effects at well. If the fighter pilot gets critically injured, with this delay he could die while trying to dock. Similarly, if he's the only one that can fix the hyperdrive or whatever, that's a huge delay for a ship under fire.

To be honest, if you want to enforce delays like that, I'd probably minimize the cargo capacity loss, especially if it's explicitly 'outside' the main ship and uses a hardpoint or replaces a weapon.

Another minus would be if it's model-specific or requires a modified fighter. If it only works with the Headhunter (for example) that would limit utility as it means an upgrade is going to be difficult. OTOH, Headhunters seem to be common in-setting and are basically the ancestor of the X-Wing with the features stripped out.

A final concern is to make sure you and the players are on the same page as to the game style. I'm assuming you want to do
ship combat since you've got a Fighter Pilot, so this stuff does matter. If the ship is basically just a vehicle to get from point A to point B, fudging things is certainly not a big deal.

Well the first session went relatively well. Character creation was over pretty quickly and one of the players bought the beginners box on a whim so I ran them through that adventure on the fly. The mechanic and the droid hid in a closet during a fight with the pig guys in which the Bothan Bounty Hunter went on a kill streak and the Wookie Marauder was throwing tables and chairs at them.

At the spaceport the Mechanic sliced the computer with no failures, two successes, and five advantage so I gave him free run of the computer system which he used to pull a Die Hard 2 on an Imperial Shuttle that was coming in to land, setting the ground level a hundred feet above what it was. Needles to say when the Empire figures out who did it, and they didn't cover their tracks at all, they will be in quite some trouble.

The Force Exile kept getting advantage all night but not succeeding in his roles. The one success he got was on a roll to be able to read the thoughts of the junk dealer when the Trandoshan Politco was negotiating for a maguffin.

We stopped right before the space combat, as everyone was trying to get on the ship before the door closed, leaving some armed Hutt thugs shooting at them, closing the scene with one tossing a thermal grenade at the entry as it was closing.

yeah...... i did base it off the first mission of kotor 1, i havent played it for a long time, and i wouldf like to have the campaign/ adventure sort of follow it in a way, but not copy it exactly, just certain parts that would add flavor, etc to the story.

 Ahtman wrote:
For the players that you think need to have their characters made for them I would talk to them and get an idea of what type of character they want to play and then you build characters around that. That way they have some input on it, but you don't have to bog down the start of the game unnecessarily.

That would be preferred. If you can't get a straight answer, then make up a handful and give them a choice.