WEG Star Wars

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I remember high health aliens were able to eat blaster bolts, a little too easily. Like Wookkies.

As a solution to the 'Blaster-Proof Wookiee' (which also applies to other high STR species, like Barabels and Whipids) problem, I came up with the following house rule, which has solved it quite well for us:


Dazed Characters

Characters who are hit in combat, but who succeed on their Strength roll to resist damage, are considered to be dazed. A dazed character suffers a penalty of 1D to skill and attribute rolls until the end of their next action. A character hit multiple times in this fashion can be dazed twice (or more), but they are not “affected” beyond that. Being dazed does not count as being stunned, but it is cumulative with stunned results. It also does not apply to Brawling attacks where the defender’s Strength is double that of the attacker.
 
And I should also say that I love Thrash in a way (granted not in a "I would ever attempt to GM it" way) just because it is the product of such obvious pure unbridled enthusiasm by someone clearly a devoted fan of the fighting game genre. There are even flashes of brilliance, such that one might rightly describe it as the only extant "Streetfighter Heartbreaker"

Yeah, I have respect for any kind of dedicated attempt born out of love for a thing that way. It's interesting, because Ewen Cluney would go on to be known for very different kinds of games later. A decent amount of translated Japanese RPGs (ala "Golden Sky Stories"), and a mechanically much lighter style (like his Ghostbusters clone "Spooktacular"). I suppose the common thread with Thrash is his love of anime, even if the mechanical approach is a lot different from his later stuff.

As for Street Fighter, it's the main current campaign I'm playing in & I still believe it to be the best game White Wolf ever made. But that's exactly the kind of thing a guy who compiled a fan "20th Anniversary" edition of the game would say...
 
I am fan of the WEG D6 never could wrap my head around the new dice from FFG.

That being said lie casters in later editions of D&D force users at higher levels tend to be very powerful ad can dominate the campaign. WEG devs did not worse than nothing they both washed their hands and also gave piss poor advice on how to handle Force users. Their so called "solutions" I hesitate to really call them that was to punish the player if they used the Force too much or turn them to the Dark Side. Not done really in terms of mechanics to try and fix the situation just don't use Force powers all the time. Except the movies tend to show the opposite.

Still one of my favorite RPGs though I prefer REUP and disagree it is too bloated. It seems that way as they tried to make it as comprehensive a core book as possible.
 
Is the Rules Companion recommended for 1e? I would like to add a FEW more features, but not complicate the rules too much, if at all...
 
Is the Rules Companion recommended for 1e? I would like to add a FEW more features, but not complicate the rules too much, if at all...

Oh. It's the Companion. I've been calling it "Rules Upgrade" in my previous posts. Whoops. :crossed:

For what it's worth, I would not recommend it.

It adds some good things like more detailed scaling rules. It adds more explicit rules in the area of movement and iniative sequencing, IIRC.

A decent chunk of it is dedicated towards integration with the Star Warriors starfighter combat game, which isn't of much use now.

I think someone who wants the kinds of things in Companion for the RPG are better served by going ahead and looking at one of the several 2e options. I'm not sure if any of the rules implementations in Companion survived into 2e. I know the scaling rules in Companion were scrapped and replaced with a far better system in R&E. Pretty much, Companion consists of clunky patch rules which were replaced by more streamlined and useable rules later.
 
[ . . . ]
As for Street Fighter, it's the main current campaign I'm playing in & I still believe it to be the best game White Wolf ever made. But that's exactly the kind of thing a guy who compiled a fan "20th Anniversary" edition of the game would say...
You're in good company - I had more fun playing Street Fighter than any other White Wolf game.
 
I think if one finds 1e too light, it's best seeking out the Revised & Updated 2e (aka 3rd edition), which seems to be the most highly regarded after 1st edition. 2e (the book book with a picture of Vader on the cover) is the redheaded stepchild of the original line.
 
I think if one finds 1e too light, it's best seeking out the Revised & Updated 2e (aka 3rd edition), which seems to be the most highly regarded after 1st edition. 2e (the book book with a picture of Vader on the cover) is the redheaded stepchild of the original line.

I don't know much about the 2e vader head cover book. I never bought it. I remember flipping through it in a store ages ago, but don't recall anything about it other than a general feeling of blandness. I don't know why I felt that or recall any specifics, but it definitely felt lesser than the original 1e book. Plus, around the same time they were doing the Imperial Sourcebook and Rebel Sourcebook which very much felt like they were simply splitting out the material of the original Sourcebook so they could sell two books instead of one. I definitely got a vibe around that time that they were trying to create more mandatory minimum sorts of products.

I picked up R&E in the late 90s. It's a very slick book. I don't know if it was here that we talked about it before or if it was on another forum... but someone described it as R&E feeling very much like late 90s Expanded Universe rather than Star Wars based on the movies. That's a sentiment I agree with. Every chapter begins with some non-movie character NPC explaining stuff in-universe, and it really takes me out of the Star Wars space and reminds me that it's not the same. There's also a lot of comic style art rather than movie stills. This was another element that made me think of the Expanded Universe 90s era comics rather than the real Star Wars of the movies.

Some like the Expanded Universe. I really don't. So R&E is a very strange book for me. It's extremely slick, but whenever I look at it, I'm completely alienated from it's presentation of Star Wars. And that's before I even get to the rules, which I can understand the things expanded, but I don't really agree with the expansion in those areas.
 
I never thought 7D was enough for starting characters. It should be at least 10D, maybe even 14D for somewhat experienced characters who’ve maybe been from “one side of the galaxy to the other” once or twice.
If I ever run anything using Mini-Six, I will almost certainly give starting characters more than the suggested 7d for skills, maybe somewhere between 10d and 13d. Especially since you have to use skill dice to pay for any perks for your character.
 
I think if one finds 1e too light, it's best seeking out the Revised & Updated 2e (aka 3rd edition), which seems to be the most highly regarded after 1st edition. 2e (the book book with a picture of Vader on the cover) is the redheaded stepchild of the original line.
In my instance, I don't find it too light. I just want to know if there's anything beneficial from other books, sources whatever, that improve the game at all. For example: other armors, alternate ways to handle spaceships etc... Example: if my son wants to be a Mandalorian, any good tips to handle that in 1e?

edit: I'm fully capable of winging it, I'm just making conversation here
 
In my instance, I don't find it too light. I just want to know if there's anything beneficial from other books, sources whatever, that improve the game at all. For example: other armors, alternate ways to handle spaceships etc... Example: if my son wants to be a Mandalorian, any good tips to handle that in 1e?

edit: I'm fully capable of winging it, I'm just making conversation here

Well, if you would actually like a light-for-the-80s hexgrid starfighter combat game, there's Star Warriors which, via the Rules Companion, is meant to be integrated into 1e as an alternate starship combat resolution system.

I revisited Star Warriors not too long ago, and I think it has aged relatively well. I'm still not sure I'd actually dive into the full Advanced rules and their 30 degree facing rules, but I think the Basic game is better than what X-Wing Miniatures 1e became in the latter days.
 
In WEG 1e Star Wars , the way to create a Mandalorian character is to write "Mandalorian" on the character sheet.

I exaggerate of course, but not by much. The difference between most templates is +2 pips here, -1D there and some flavour in the equipment list. There is a Bounty Hunter template which is basically based on Boba Fett. It lists "Jet Pack" in its equipment list. As far as I remember there are no specifc rules for jet packs. And that's OK because we all know what Jet Packs do.

To me that attitude is what makes WEG Star Wars great and it works well with the llimited of granulariy of the D6 mechanic. The natural impluse to further quantify, measure and finesly define things which crept in with additional expansions and editions, I find does not really suit the core D6 mechanic.
 
Got it! I’ll just wing it then, as use “aspects” or “tags” from other rules-light, narrative rpgs to keep track of things behind the screen.
 
The 2e Vader blue book is my favorite of the three. I like the combat rules in that version the best. The only thing that might be better in R&E is the scaling rules.
 
I think if one finds 1e too light, it's best seeking out the Revised & Updated 2e (aka 3rd edition), which seems to be the most highly regarded after 1st edition. 2e (the book book with a picture of Vader on the cover) is the redheaded stepchild of the original line.

Personally when I run 1st ed that is what I do. basically the Wild Die, perception based initiative, the variable difficulty levels and scaling rules sort it out. Plus it has rules for using Ion cannons, which were sorely lacking in 1st ed until the Companion came out (really it is about the only over site the two first books had).
 
The 2e Vader blue book is my favorite of the three. I like the combat rules in that version the best. The only thing that might be better in R&E is the scaling rules.
That was my first Star Wars rpg. I loved that book. Was that the one where attacks were against a set difficulty or the defender's roll, whichever was higher? Because I stole that rule for L5R and I was sure it came from there.
 
I love the D6 system, and like many people Star Wars was my first exposure to it.

I either go with 1st ed with a few house rules (just bits of later editions) or the Revised and Expanded edition. The great thing about it is you really don't need that much stuff and it is super easy to create material for.

Honestly if you are using 1st ed you just need the two books that FFG reprinted. There are other useful books (especially the Imperial and Rebel sourcebooks, and especially Galaxy Guides 4 and 6). As it has been said just grab a few rules from the later core books to fill in any holes you find. The only bits I think that you really want to do is use variable difficulty (just use the levels as a range, ie Easy is 6-10 rather than a fixed value of 10) and I personally love the wild die (one die is a different color to ID it, if it comes up a 6 it explodes, and keeps doing it you keep rolling 6's. A 1 can either be a complication or ignored if it makes no sense). Bang your done :smile:

Even Revised and Expanded is pretty much complete. I personally add in the Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook, Special Edition (for ALL the stats, aliens, vehicles, NPCs - everything you could want) and Tales of the Jedi Companion (puts all the force powers in one place, plus it gives you the background on one of teh greatest Star Wars comic series ever). If you have the three of these you are good.
 
The 2e Vader blue book is my favorite of the three. I like the combat rules in that version the best. The only thing that might be better in R&E is the scaling rules.

Yeah the scaling rules in it were a bit wacky. It also has some of tech best art of the books.
 
The Force in RPGs is something of a niggle for me.

I like it, it is one of the defining Star Wars concerts, after all. But why does it need to much cruft?

I mean, what do we see Jedi actually do on screen? The mind trick. Telekinesis and a sort of telepathy. Clairvoyance and Prediction of the future. Defending against blasters with lightsabers. Big jumps and fancy acrobatics.

Anything else?

I'm looking to severely prune the Force Powers down to things you actually see Jedi do on screen and not it just being space wizard magic spells.
 
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parrying blaster bolts with hands (Vader in ESB)

it MAY be possible that Kenobi is using some kind of stealth power as he wanders the halls of the Death Star to get to and from the tractor beam. He's cautious, but he's just walking out in the open without any disguise. And there is indication in the background the hallways he's wandering through do have traffic.

The one big Leap made by Luke in the Carbon Chamber seems like more than a simple leap. It seems like a leap combined with super speed. It actually has more in common with that scene where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon super speed away from the Destroyer Droids in the prequels than it does with a simple superhuman leap.

Uhm... Being able to "let go" and hit the exhaust port? In game terms that's probably just Force Point use, but it could also be a potential example of Sense and possibly Control use.
 
parrying blaster bolts with hands (Vader in ESB)

it MAY be possible that Kenobi is using some kind of stealth power as he wanders the halls of the Death Star to get to and from the tractor beam. He's cautious, but he's just walking out in the open without any disguise. And there is indication in the background the hallways he's wandering through do have traffic.

The one big Leap made by Luke in the Carbon Chamber seems like more than a simple leap. It seems like a leap combined with super speed. It actually has more in common with that scene where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon super speed away from the Destroyer Droids in the prequels than it does with a simple superhuman leap.

Uhm... Being able to "let go" and hit the exhaust port? In game terms that's probably just Force Point use, but it could also be a potential example of Sense and possibly Control use.
Good catches.

But I want to get away from Sense, Control and Alter. Apart from the eating dice aspect, I'm quite keen on the idea of stripping back to the essentials. And reflecting what gets seen on screen.

Like the way Obi Wan does something to make chatting Stormtroopers look hw other way. It doesn't need a full blown power to describe that. It could be a subtle apocation of the Mind Trick. Or knocking something over with telekinesis. Either way, as my guitar mentor used to say, less is more.
 
The Fkrce in RPGs is something of a niggle for me.

I kicked it, it is one of the defining Star Wars concerts, after all. But why does it need to much cruft?

I mean, what do we see Jedi actually do on screen? The mind trick. Telekinesis and a sort of telepathy. Clairvoyance and Prediction of the future. Defending against blasters with lightsabers. Big jumps and fancy acrobatics.

Anything else?

I'm looking to severely prune the Force Powers down to things you actually see Jedi do on screen and not it just being space wizard magic spells.
So nothing from the Extended Universe of stuff then? Fair enough. What you've described is pretty much it.
 
Got it! I’ll just wing it then, as use “aspects” or “tags” from other rules-light, narrative rpgs to keep track of things behind the screen.

In a sense those extra, descriptive bits on the character sheet like "Physical Description", "Character Quote" and in WEG Star Wars the template name are "aspects", in the modern, Fate-like sense. They are important facts about the character that everyone around the table deems to be true. I'd argue that blank space left to draw a character portrait in older character sheets was also an aspect (and much respect to the original Over The Edge rules for making drawing a character portrait a mandatory step of character generation).

They were a form so soft-mechanic, in that while they aren't backed by hard rules, they set a marker which both players and GMs should generally respect and build on. One should not underestimate the power and flexibility of soft-mechanics.

Fate seekes to turn this type of informal, soft-mechanic into a hard mechanic. Over the different editions of Fate starting from Fate 2.0, the specific implementation of the hard-rule part has changed significantly, but the core drive to turn the informal, soft-mechanic into a reliable hard mechanic remains.

The point being, whether you just "wing it" or borrow aspect-like mechanic from another system, these are just two different approaches to meet the same end.
 
So nothing from the Extended Universe of stuff then? Fair enough. What you've described is pretty much it.
The EU, or what I read of it, was at best not that great. And at worst, pretty pants. I mean, what Force abilities from there add to Jedi mystique?

I mean, Yoda had being able to watch the galaxy from his hut as his major ability. The Emperor could see the future and manipulate events to suit his desires. That's the real high level stuff right there. All the lightsaber twirling and so on was just the prelude to that level of internal power, going by the OT.
 
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Got it! I’ll just wing it then, as use “aspects” or “tags” from other rules-light, narrative rpgs to keep track of things behind the screen.
I hear this claim made for FATE on a semi-regular basis, but the FATE Core rulebook is 300-odd pages long[1], and actually designing usable aspects tends to take a bit of practice. Although FATE isn't terribly complex I'm not convinced that it's actually rules-lite.
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1 - although appreciably more verbose than it really needed to be.
 
Obi-Wan also was able to use illusory noises, such as when he used the Krayt dragon call and the clinking that the Stormtroopers heard on the Death Star.

You could say that Luke’s projection across the galaxy in The Last Jedi was the ultimate illusory use with a DC of like 40.
 
I hear this claim made for FATE on a semi-regular basis, but the FATE Core rulebook is 300-odd pages long[1], and actually designing usable aspects tends to take a bit of practice. Although FATE isn't terribly complex I'm not convinced that it's actually rules-lite.
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1 - although appreciably more verbose than it really needed to be.

Okay, I’m getting a lot of flack for this comment.

What I meant was allowing the players some leeway in terms of what they can and cannot do based on what they have written about themselves on their character sheets.

Eg, instead of getting the Mandalorian player to intricately note down the stats of each and every weapon and armor feature, instead just wing it, and let them do things when it seems plausible (flamethrower, shoot a grappling rope, fly etc). There may not be any stats for any of those things in the game, but I should use my knowledge of the franchise, and my own DM skills, to house rule those things only when they come up.

Personally, I would prefer a LITTLE bit more detail than that to work with (roughly how much damage shoulda wrist-mounted flame thrower do, and how much fire damage per round?), but that’s the message that I’m getting here. To not add too much crunch.
 
Okay, I’m getting a lot of flack for this comment.

What I meant was allowing the players some leeway in terms of what they can and cannot do based on what they have written about themselves on their character sheets.

Eg, instead of getting the Mandalorian player to intricately note down the stats of each and every weapon and armor feature, instead just wing it, and let them do things when it seems plausible (flamethrower, shoot a grappling rope, fly etc). There may not be any stats for any of those things in the game, but I should use my knowledge of the franchise, and my own DM skills, to house rule those things only when they come up.

Personally, I would prefer a LITTLE bit more detail than that to work with (roughly how much damage shoulda wrist-mounted flame thrower do, and how much fire damage per round?), but that’s the message that I’m getting here. To not add too much crunch.

Sorry, no flack intended. I used exaggeration to highlite what I regard one of the strengths of WEG Star Wars 1st edition as a stand alone ruleset. The kind of details in you example are all there, spread across the vast number of supplements released for WEG Star Wars and that worked for lots and lots of players for many years.
 
Obi-Wan also was able to use illusory noises, such as when he used the Krayt dragon call and the clinking that the Stormtroopers heard on the Death Star.

You could say that Luke’s projection across the galaxy in The Last Jedi was the ultimate illusory use with a DC of like 40.
That's a variation on mind control.
 
That's a variation on mind control.

I don't think so.

I somehow had forgotten about the animal cry Kenobi does to scare the sandpeople. At the time, I only remembered the thing with the two stormtroopers in the tractor beam shaft. With that latter one, it's unclear what he does. Is there an actual noise caused before the click of the trooper's comm? Is it a mental trick? Is it using telekinesis to make a noise in the background? Is it "force ventriloquism"?

But the animal cry earlier in the movie is definitely something audible. R2 hears it. The scene is more or less from R2's perspective. So there was a real sound, and it wasn't just a mind trick directed at the sandpeople.
 
I don't think so.

I somehow had forgotten about the animal cry Kenobi does to scare the sandpeople. At the time, I only remembered the thing with the two stormtroopers in the tractor beam shaft. With that latter one, it's unclear what he does. Is there an actual noise caused before the click of the trooper's comm? Is it a mental trick? Is it using telekinesis to make a noise in the background? Is it "force ventriloquism"?

But the animal cry earlier in the movie is definitely something audible. R2 hears it. The scene is more or less from R2's perspective. So there was a real sound, and it wasn't just a mind trick directed at the sandpeople.
Given that sound is vibration, it seems to me that if the Force lets you move things with your mind, you can also use it so make sounds.
 
Luke projected himself but he kissed Leia on the forehead before he walked out to face Kylo. I’m not really sure if she knew he wasn’t fully there or not. He also left a copy of Han’s dice that faded away after Kylo picked them up.

Yoda in ghostly form was able tap Luke on the forehead with his cane and rain lighting down from the sky, which gives credence to Kenobi’s line about being “more powerful than you can possibly imagine” if he dies. It appears that even if you project your spirit or essence across space and time you can still physically manipulate things on the other end to a certain degree.
 
Luke projected himself but he kissed Leia on the forehead before he walked out to face Kylo. I’m not really sure if she knew he wasn’t fully there or not. He also left a copy of Han’s dice that faded away after Kylo picked them up.

Yoda in ghostly form was able tap Luke on the forehead with his cane and rain lighting down from the sky, which gives credence to Kenobi’s line about being “more powerful than you can possibly imagine” if he dies. It appears that even if you project your spirit or essence across space and time you can still physically manipulate things on the other end to a certain degree.
Yes, well, those actually break the 'laws' of the setting. Of course, this is also the same movie series that had the Force heal people and RESURRECT THE DEAD! Which begs the question: Why didn't Anakin use it? He was allegedly the strongest force user of the time.

If you're going to allow what clearly amounts to badly written fanfiction, the Force can now do EVERYTHING.

So let's ignore anything after 1983, like WEG did.
 
When was Anakin going to bring back somebody from the dead? He was a Padawan when his mother died and instead of thinking about healing her he had a fit of rage instead. He couldn’t heal Padme either because, again, he was in a fit of rage. The only time I could see where it could be questioned is when Qui-Gon got lanced and Obi-Wan didn’t know what to do.
 
When was Anakin going to bring back somebody from the dead? He was a Padawan when his mother died and instead of thinking about healing her he had a fit of rage instead. He couldn’t heal Padme either because, again, he was in a fit of rage. The only time I could see where it could be questioned is when Qui-Gon got lanced and Obi-Wan didn’t know what to do.

I think a better case would be why didn't Yoda or Kenobi use the force to help Padme as she was dying in childbirth?

But it's my personal view that once Vader choked her, he created a connection he never severed. He effectively grabbed her with the force and never released his grip. And as he was dying, he kept squeezing, desperately consuming her lifeforce due to his own fear of death. That's why the droids don't understand why she's dying. That's why when Vader wakes up he says, "but I felt her." That's why Yoda and Kenobi exchange those knowing glances. That's why jedi are to avoid personal connections and why they must "let go" of such things. Anakin couldn't let go, and crushed Padme's soul, just like he went on to crush the windpipes of so many others.
 
I always thought that Palapatine was siphoning Padmes life away to keep Anakin alive so that he could mold him into his perfect apprentice.
 
So there's a neat rule in the 1e Rules Companion around upgrading weapons and armor. Each incremental advance takes time, credits and XP. You can increase weapon damage, armor defence or reduce the reduction to Dex from Armor. I like this, and I could see this extrapolated to other stuff, other kinds of improvements (like reducing the size of some equipment).

That little rule in the RC is what I was looking for.
 
So there's a neat rule in the 1e Rules Companion around upgrading weapons and armor. Each incremental advance takes time, credits and XP. You can increase weapon damage, armor defence or reduce the reduction to Dex from Armor. I like this, and I could see this extrapolated to other stuff, other kinds of improvements (like reducing the size of some equipment).

That little rule in the RC is what I was looking for.

I would use those rules but with limits. Like increasing pistol damage up to two pips only, reducing around penalties by the same, etc.
 
When was Anakin going to bring back somebody from the dead? He was a Padawan when his mother died and instead of thinking about healing her he had a fit of rage instead. He couldn’t heal Padme either because, again, he was in a fit of rage. The only time I could see where it could be questioned is when Qui-Gon got lanced and Obi-Wan didn’t know what to do.
So? Rey did it, and she wasn't ever trained in that ability. If she could do, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that Anakin, the alleged Chosen One would have as well. And yes, why didn't Kenobi do it? It's like the most powerful ability in the entire universe!
 
So? Rey did it, and she wasn't ever trained in that ability. If she could do, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that Anakin, the alleged Chosen One would have as well. And yes, why didn't Kenobi do it? It's like the most powerful ability in the entire universe!


I mean, I think that requires an after-the-fact rationalization, I don't think there was any intended continuity going on. The sequels reminded me of the scene at the end of Superman II, where he just starts pulling new powers out of his butt because...reasons (cellophane expanding S-symbol, multiplication, teleportation). It all came across as very "and then this happens" style of writing.
 
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