New Star Wars RPG is out

By -

WARNING: This post is likely to be uninteresting to the non-RPG gaming folks among my readership.

The new edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying game is out. Here's a link to the list of preview pages WotC put up. I have it and have been reading through it. Many of us D&D players are poring over the system, because many of the changes that might be coming to the D&D system are being "test driven" in the Star Wars system. (Both systems are based on the same d20 mechanic.) Here are some highlights of the new system:
  • Skills have been simplified. Many have been combined. For example, Search, Spot, Listen, and Sense Motive are now all part of the Perception skill. Skill ranks have been eliminated: either you're trained in a skill or not. The skill focus feat has been boosted to +5, and feats are more available. Skill synergies and racial bonuses to skills have been eliminated. Generating a high-level character can now be done much more quickly, and "guessing" the skill check of a high-level character is much easier.
  • Combat has changed a good deal. Most of these changes are designed to speed things up. Swift actions have been incorporated into the core mechanics (of course). Characters no longer gain multiple attacks just for having a high base attack bonus. But characters get a bonus to damage equal to half character level. There are feats which grant multiple attacks, but all attacks end up being at the same attack bonus, rather than at the "descending by 5" pattern of previous editions.
  • Armor class and the reflex save have now been combined into "reflex defense". Saving throws have been eliminated: the attacker must now beat the "fortitude defense" or "will defense" of the target.
  • Hit points are back, but there's also a condition track that determines how functional a character is.
  • Critical hits are back to "natural 20 = auto hit and double damage". Some feats can change this, but there is no "confirming" a critical hit anymore.
  • Characters' starting hp are much higher: they get "triple maximum" hit points at first level.
They have a fun example of a combat from Return of the Jedi (the battle over Sarlacc pit) done in terms of the Star Wars game.

Mostly, I think these changes should help the game. Of course, not everything that works for a Star Wars game would work in Dungeons & Dragons, but it's good to see the game constantly evolving and getting better. I haven't seen any of these new changes in play. But perhaps at GenCon I'll have an opportunity to check out the new system.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snarking The Odyssey (with AD&D)

By -
Image
WARNING: Those of you who are accustomed to pithy political remarks here on Internal Monologue should brace yourselves for a major dose of gaming geekitude. Here's a link to one "Jamie R." who does a very snarky close reading of Homer's The Odyssey (HT: Mad Latinist via email). I've only read book 1, but it's pretty funny so far. An excerpt: Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men… Sooooo, he’s in charge, and everybody dies. Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero and his colossal failure. What? … for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever rea...
Read more

Where is 56th and Wabasha? "Meet Me in the Morning" Dylan Mystery Solved

By -
Image
Short version The lyric is not "Fifty-sixth and Wabasha", it is actually "Fifty-six and Wabasha", referring to the intersection of old Minnesota Highway 56 and Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. If you listen, you can hear Dylan sing "fifty-six", rather than "fifty-sixth", particularly on the take that was released as the B-side to "Duquesne Whistle". Minnesota Highway 56 no longer intersects Wabasha Street, but from 1963 to 1974 it did intersect Wabasha Street, at what is now (in Feb. 2021) the intersection of George Street and Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul, or possibly South Wabasha & Cesar Chavez.  Long Version "Meet Me in the Morning" is the first song on side two of Bob Dylan's celebrated 1975 album  Blood on the Tracks. In the opening lines of the song, according to the lyrics on Bob Dylan's official site (https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/meet-me-morning/), the narrator invites the listener to a rendez...
Read more

Victim or perpetrator? How about both!

By -
Remember in the movie Adaptation , the main character's brother has this idea for a screenplay called The Three? It's about a detective trying to track down a serial killer before he kills his next victim. Pretty standard, right? The twist is that the detective, serial killer, and victim, are all actually the same person . Whoa, dude. Fight Club 's got nothin' on that one. Well, this isn't quite that weird. But apparently, Utah legal authorities are somewhat perplexed by a situation in which a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old boyfriend are both simultaneously the perpetrators and victims of the same crime: having sex with each other (HT: Feministing ): Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The girl was put in this odd position be...
Read more