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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 13:39:32 GMT -6
I'm going to pose this question to you all out there as I don't have the time to search every post on this website to see if someone had already thought/talked about this already. Basically I'm inviting any tips/links/ideas for running a Star Wars game using OD&D rules, just swapping weapons/armour/monsters for setting specific material. The basic premise is I want to keep it dead simple and really focus on the setting and not so much the rules as I am already familiar with OD&D. I thought of using West End Games Star Wars Sourcebook and maybe some of the supplementary books if they have good setting/world information. I like that it's probably the first RPG sourcebook for Star Wars ever created. Does anyone know of any other sourcebooks for Star Wars? I remember seeing a coffee table sized star wars book when I was a kid and it had all sorts of Aliens and tech, and space ships, and it talked about all of them in detail, but it it wasn't an RPG sourcebook. Anybody ever seen that? How would you run gun rules? Laser pistols ignoring AC? How much damage would a Light Saber do vs. a Plasma Cannon? Maybe treat a plasma cannon as a catapult ala Chainmail. I can't wait to see the look on my players faces the first time a Star Destroyer drops down from the sky onto their world Just trying to get some ideas flowing here...
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Post by Falconer on Nov 19, 2018 1:30:22 GMT -6
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Post by Falconer on Nov 19, 2018 1:54:39 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2018 9:06:53 GMT -6
Yeah that book looks like the one I might have picked up a long time ago. I'll check out those links as well. When I get to running an adventure in space I'll put a play report up on here. Thanks guys.
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Post by tkdco2 on Nov 21, 2018 4:34:53 GMT -6
Also look for the City of the Gods module. That module had D&D versions of laser weapons, grenades, and lightsabers.
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 21, 2018 21:28:51 GMT -6
Argh. Answer typed up twice, lost twice. I ran an OD&D Star Wars campaign in the 1970's and I will try to type up some thoughts a third time. Probably tomorrow. 
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 21, 2018 21:52:21 GMT -6
Finarvyn’s Thoughts on OD&D Star Wars I ran an OD&D Star Wars campaign in the 1970’s, mostly before ESB came out. I know that I have notes somewhere but I also wanted to throw together my recollections and a few additions to show how I did it. First of all, my OD&D philosophy has always been one of minimalistic prep so that the story takes the center stage and the rules are just along for the ride. If someone wants to track down Star Wars sourcebooks and “do it right” that’s okay (and maybe they will share) but for me a set of simple guidelines ususally does the trick. CLASSES: I based my Jedi class on the cleric template, sort of a fighter-spellcaster, but I used Magic-user spells in place of the cleric ones. Soldiers and pilots were based on the Fighting Man. Smugglers and gamblers were thieves. Tech types would be a lot like a Magic user, but without spells. (Droids counted as tech types unless they were battle droids.) SKILLS: I didn’t use them. I asssumed that most folks had a clue about how to pilot a ship, but a pilot could do it better. If I needed a skill, I would do a stat check. If I thought it fit the class it would be a d20 roll under the stat. If I felt it was not a class thing I used a d20 roll under 1/2 the stat. (For example, a pilot character with DEX 14 piloting an X-wing though a tricky maneuver would succeed on a 1-13 on a d20 roll, but a solider with DEX 14 trying the same thing would succeed on a 1-6 on a d20 roll.) Soldiers were good at tactics, pilots flying stuff, smugglers had contacts, gamblers gambled, tech guys could fix things or hack computers or other misc stuff. I didn’t bother with more complex skills and just reacted as situations arose. WEAPONS AND ARMOR: Most civilians had access to laser pistol (1d6) or laser rifle (1d8). Miltary types had blaster pistol (1d8) or blaster carbine (1d10). Jedi could have a light saber (2d12). Most folks would have no armor or maybe leather (no chainmail) so I allowed DEX to modify AC. Stormtrooper plastic armor was lightweight but acted like platemail. Sith armor was platemail +2. Shields could happen but hardly anyone actually used them. LEVELS: My OD&D philosophy has always been that a “super hero” represents a lone hero. If a character was part of a group he was probably more like a “hero.” Heroes who travel in pairs are in between “hero” and “super hero.” Sidekick characters might be a couple of levels below this. The numbers I quote below are general guidelines, and the DM can decide to lift or lower a character by a level or so based on personal opinion. Thus… L2 = ANH Luke L4 = ESB Luke, Lando Calrissian (sidekick), Princess Leia, Artoo and Threepio (sidekick pair) L6 = ROTJ Luke, Han and Chewie (pair) L8 = Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader L10 = Emperor Palpatine, Yoda L13 = John Carter (couldn’t resist a Warriors of Mars reference)  ALIENS AND MONSTERS: Basic guardsmen 1+1 HD, Stormtroopers 2 HD, Elite Stormtroopers 3 to 4 HD. Otherwise, look for an OD&D similarity. (For example, Gammorean guards might be like ogres. Jawa like hobbits. The Rancor maybe a small dragon?) Other than that, make stuff up! 
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 21, 2018 22:06:42 GMT -6
Oh, yeah … SHIPS are from U&WA only spaceships instead of aquatic. "Ten thousand! I could almost buy my own ship for that!" Basically, we have small and large merchant ships that you can buy. You can't buy a Star Destroyer and you can't buy a Death Star. 
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 29, 2018 16:15:41 GMT -6
Finarvyn, do you run games online at all, like on Roll20 or Google Hangouts? If you do, I think it'd be really swell if you put together a session of OD&D Star Wars like you ran in the 70s. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see it in action!
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Post by Finarvyn on Dec 1, 2018 6:39:10 GMT -6
Finarvyn, do you run games online at all, like on Roll20 or Google Hangouts? Nope. Never even played through those outlets. If I was to run something online, it would probably be here (and not before the Spring at the earliest as I am statistician for three high school basketball teams and my time is limited during the season). I don't think that my OD&D Star Wars was that special. The big thing was that I ran it before ESB came out, so my initial inspirations came from the early sources (movie, novelization, Brian Daly's Han Solo books, that kind of thing) and a lot of things that I had to make up. And I ran this game a lot like my regular OD&D campaigns, where the details aren't as important as the action.
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Post by murquhart72 on Dec 8, 2018 15:16:06 GMT -6
I'd go even simpler than Finarvyn: For source, the WEG Star Wars Sourcebook would work great, but my only REAL source would be the films themselves, and everything else being made up by the Referee! Character Building: Fighting-Man for all characters but Jedi/Sith, Force-Users would be Magic-Users; Or maybe Clerics could be Jedi and Anti-Clerics could be Sith? Law/Chaos would become the Light/Dark Side of the Force. The various races could easily be done on a case by case basis. I agree with Finarvyn on level comparisons. Equipping: Blasters can simply be added to the equipment lists. As weapons to a die of damage, the only real difference being rifles having longer range than pistols (heavy weapons maybe doing +1 to 2 dice in damage). Having a stun option that knocks out on a failed Saving Throw. Lightsabers doing 2 dice damage with automatic scarring or even dismemberment on any hit that doesn't kill. Armor: use AC 7 for most (vests, etc.), AC 5 for Mandalorian-style armors and AC 3 for full-plate style Stormtrooper stuff. Use the numbers in between to tweak. Bacta tanks that work like infused healing potions/spells. Droids would be hirelings/henchmen that can be purchased outright instead of salaried and equipped at will. I think things like vehicles and starships should be more set-pieces or subjective plot devices; though again, I like Finarvyn's approach as well. There's definitely a difference between capital ship combat and smaller vessels, but then again, does there need to be? Never been too much a fan of scaling in RPGs. When it comes to any setting you want to use for D&D, just keep it simple. Use what you know about the setting, what you're comfortable with from the "rules", and just play the game! To get the original author's take on this, re-read the section titled "Scope" from the Men & Magic booklet 
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Post by thegreyelf on Dec 13, 2018 16:55:05 GMT -6
Finarvyn’s Thoughts on OD&D Star Wars I ran an OD&D Star Wars campaign in the 1970’s, mostly before ESB came out. I know that I have notes somewhere but I also wanted to throw together my recollections and a few additions to show how I did it. First of all, my OD&D philosophy has always been one of minimalistic prep so that the story takes the center stage and the rules are just along for the ride. If someone wants to track down Star Wars sourcebooks and “do it right” that’s okay (and maybe they will share) but for me a set of simple guidelines ususally does the trick. CLASSES: I based my Jedi class on the cleric template, sort of a fighter-spellcaster, but I used Magic-user spells in place of the cleric ones. Soldiers and pilots were based on the Fighting Man. Smugglers and gamblers were thieves. Tech types would be a lot like a Magic user, but without spells. (Droids counted as tech types unless they were battle droids.) SKILLS: I didn’t use them. I asssumed that most folks had a clue about how to pilot a ship, but a pilot could do it better. If I needed a skill, I would do a stat check. If I thought it fit the class it would be a d20 roll under the stat. If I felt it was not a class thing I used a d20 roll under 1/2 the stat. (For example, a pilot character with DEX 14 piloting an X-wing though a tricky maneuver would succeed on a 1-13 on a d20 roll, but a solider with DEX 14 trying the same thing would succeed on a 1-6 on a d20 roll.) Soldiers were good at tactics, pilots flying stuff, smugglers had contacts, gamblers gambled, tech guys could fix things or hack computers or other misc stuff. I didn’t bother with more complex skills and just reacted as situations arose. WEAPONS AND ARMOR: Most civilians had access to laser pistol (1d6) or laser rifle (1d8). Miltary types had blaster pistol (1d8) or blaster carbine (1d10). Jedi could have a light saber (2d12). Most folks would have no armor or maybe leather (no chainmail) so I allowed DEX to modify AC. Stormtrooper plastic armor was lightweight but acted like platemail. Sith armor was platemail +2. Shields could happen but hardly anyone actually used them. LEVELS: My OD&D philosophy has always been that a “super hero” represents a lone hero. If a character was part of a group he was probably more like a “hero.” Heroes who travel in pairs are in between “hero” and “super hero.” Sidekick characters might be a couple of levels below this. The numbers I quote below are general guidelines, and the DM can decide to lift or lower a character by a level or so based on personal opinion. Thus… L2 = ANH Luke L4 = ESB Luke, Lando Calrissian (sidekick), Princess Leia, Artoo and Threepio (sidekick pair) L6 = ROTJ Luke, Han and Chewie (pair) L8 = Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader L10 = Emperor Palpatine, Yoda L13 = John Carter (couldn’t resist a Warriors of Mars reference)  ALIENS AND MONSTERS: Basic guardsmen 1+1 HD, Stormtroopers 2 HD, Elite Stormtroopers 3 to 4 HD. Otherwise, look for an OD&D similarity. (For example, Gammorean guards might be like ogres. Jawa like hobbits. The Rancor maybe a small dragon?) Other than that, make stuff up!  Interesting take, Finarvyn. Were it me, to cover how rare Jedi are supposed to be and hew closer to the nature of their powers, I'd make them psionics, as in Eldritch Wizardry. The DM would need to make some allowance, then, for players who want to play a Jedi to actually BE psionic, beyond the random roll of the dice chance. But I think the OD&D psionics system allows for mimicking Jedi very well. Handling the Dark Side would be done via racking up "Dark Side Points." Jedi begin Lawful. Any time a Jedi PC acts in anger, fear, or aggression, they gain a Dark Side Point. Once you gain a number of DSPs equal to half your Wisdom score, you slide to Neutral and are a gray Jedi and the Dark Side is constantly whispering in your ear, trying to seduce you. When DSPs equal your Wisdom score, you become Chaotic and are a Dark Jedi or Sith. Before you turn Chaotic, you can call upon the Dark Side to grant you a d6 you can add to any roll (damage, save, attack, or check), but gain 2 Dark Side points for doing so. If you are neutral, you can call upon the Dark Side to give you 2d6, keeping the higher of the two. You still gain 2 DSPs for calling upon the Dark Side in this way. This benefit disappears after you slide over to chaos--the Dark Side has corrupted you and is no longer seductive. After falling, you suffer a severe penalty to any beneficial or healing powers, but a bonus to aggressive, damaging, or pain delivering powers. I don't have the psionic rules in front of me to suggest specific bonuses and penalties. That's just off the top of my head. Other than that, my only comment is that 2d12 seems very high for damage, even for a lightsaber. I'd be more inclined to go with 1d12 or 2d6, which is still a lot of damage for OD&D. 2d6 will give you a higher average damage roll, but I like the symmetry of 1d12. If I used 2d12, I'd call it 2d12, keeping the higher of the two dice, not totalling them. Come to think of it, a good way to treat lightsabers would be as a variation on vorpal blades. On a roll of natural 20, they decap like a vorpal sword, but on a roll of 18 or 19, they hack off a limb. They deal 1d12 damage otherwise.
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Post by Finarvyn on Dec 13, 2018 21:54:26 GMT -6
Nice thoughts, but I've never liked OD&D psionics very well.  Otherwise, I think you have some great points. 
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Post by thegreyelf on Dec 14, 2018 10:52:33 GMT -6
Nice thoughts, but I've never liked OD&D psionics very well.  Otherwise, I think you have some great points.  I used to feel the same way, but I sat down and gave them a really good, in-depth read (it took several, in fact), and I think they're surprisingly elegant and easy to use, if a bit haphazardly presented. They're also very uniquely science-fiction feeling, which is why while they don't fit in a traditional D&D game as well, they work great to represent Force powers in a Star Wars game.
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 14, 2018 15:28:18 GMT -6
You can also treat a lightsaber as a sword of sharpness.
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Post by thegreyelf on Dec 14, 2018 16:54:21 GMT -6
You can also treat a lightsaber as a sword of sharpness. Yeah, that's essentially what I did, I just spelled it out. Sword of Sharpness would be 18 severs a limb, 19-20 cuts off a head. I went 18-19 severs a limb, 20 cuts off a head.
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Post by thegreyelf on Dec 30, 2018 7:03:06 GMT -6
d**n it all, this has been tugging at the back of my brain since I found the thread. I think I'm going to have to do it. It shouldn't take more than a few pages, I don't think...
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Post by thegreyelf on Dec 30, 2018 9:28:42 GMT -6
Okay, this is far from complete, but it's a start. When it's fully done I'll be hosting it on my website, but for now, enjoy, noting that I'm still doing a LOT of tweaking and touchup work, and it still needs part 3, which is going to include vehicle rules. As it stands, character classes, Force rules, and lightsabers are fairly complete, if a little rough still. There's no art, no layout, no covers or any of that yet. It's very much a WiP. I am trying hard to keep the approach here well within the OD&D paradigm--that is, there's no new character classes, the Force is handled using a modified version of the exising psionics system, lightsabers are treated like magic items, etc. www.dropbox.com/s/sdweo7d37yeqmvm/OD%26D%20Supplement%20IX%20-%20Star%20Wars.pdf?dl=0EDIT: The project has been completed and can be found at www.grey-elf.com/supplement_ix_star_wars.pdf
It took more than a few pages. 40, to be exact. About 11,500 words.
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Post by countingwizard on Sept 9, 2019 14:10:50 GMT -6
I think it is important to note that in order to make a Star Wars setting feel like (let alone work well with) OD&D, we should consider preserving a few very important gameplay mechanics:
1. Treasure. OD&D requires that some sort of object be sought after to obtain a direct reward of experience.
2. Dungeons. OD&D requires novel environments to explore, map, and interact with. At a bare minimum, just a single level.
3. Combat agency. OD&D requires that each character be able to feel agency in combat. Whether that is from spell-use, an attack roll, or some other non-combat action or complex adjudicated action.
4. Combat simplicity. OD&D requires that combat be resolved quickly with relatively simple rules so that a single combat encounter doesn't take up the entire adventure session.
5. Survivorship. OD&D allows for the possibility of surviving a combat encounter even if your team loses the battle. Some team members should be able to escape and survive according to their round to round actions. A combat fail state should not indicate the automatic death of everyone in the group.
6. Base & Safety. OD&D usually puts the base at a distance from the dungeon, so that a Wilderness Adventure (travel) must take place to reach or return from the dungeon.
7. Cooperation. OD&D is a game played with other people working in cooperation with each other. Each person (and their character) contributes something to the party. Sometimes it's just a way to mitigate damage so that someone else besides you dies, other times its contributing magical items and combat prowess, and other times its utility spells, spells to address overwhelming odds, and creative thinking.
So, in order to preserve the basic game loop and premise, I think a good Star Wars game should:
1. Include objects to be sought after for experience within unmapped dangerous areas.
2. Have classes that are all capable of combat.
3. Have ship combats where all players can contribute an action from round to round, and where losing a combat encounter does not result in the automatic death of everyone on the ship.
4. Have ship combat and personal combat rules that are still just as simple, quick, and straight forward as OD&D.
5. Have classes and items that contribute to the party in different and novel ways.
6. Have bases and areas of safety that can be reached with just as much ease and in-game effort as a wilderness adventure.
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Post by countingwizard on Jan 3, 2020 10:56:49 GMT -6
Touching back on this idea, I would also say that an OD&D Star Wars experience should focus more on something like treasure hunters, bounty hunters, or space adventurers within the Star Wars setting, rather than trying to run characters through a planned storyline. Star Wars OD&D should feel like a wild west space adventure game.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 16:21:06 GMT -6
I was about to suggest that, myself. If we want to approach the Star Wars galaxy from the paradigm of OD&D adventurers, we have to imagine archetypes that embody those values.
Go out into the wilderness, into dangerous dungeons. Retrieve treasure, for which one also achieves XP and the possibility of leveling up to become more efficient and gaining even more treasure and xp, creating a feedback loop.
Thankfully, A Galaxy Far, Far Away is a Space Opera setting as opposed to hard science fiction, meaning there are very many habitable planets dotted with ancient ruins, very many asteroid belts laden with rare materials (and giant ship-swallowing space worms!), many space-stations and cruisers to rob..er...unburden of their Spice or Imperial Credits. Rumors of ancient Sith or Jedi holocrons or tomes of knowledge that can be sold on the black market to the highest bidder.
And like in OD&D, if you approach someone's stronghold you may be shaken down or extorted in some way. (Jabba's Palace comes to mind. There are supposedly many criminal syndicates in the Galaxy, and if you're in an area controlled by the Rebels or Empire they have their own ways of cramping your style, be it taxation and vehicle search or being detained for "knowing too much", having discovered the hidden rebel base on Dantooine, etc.)
If you really think about it, Sword and Sorcery and Space Opera contain almost all the same thematic elements and you could pretty easily just reskin almost every mechanic from OD&D and make it work alright in Star Wars. You'd need to retool the aerial and ship combat into space combat but other than that, the stuff when your feet is on solid ground is essentially the same, just with lasers and vehicles.
So, my concept would be a big sandbox in space. A "star crawl" campaign. You don't need no stinking motivation. You're scoundrels who wanna get rich. You know 1d6 rumors from the local cantina and most of them are about profitable things in dangerous places. Nobody got rich moisture farming or nerf-herding, and all that galactic civil war stuff is for suckers. Might as well take that spice-running job for the Hutts. What's the worst that could happen?
And, yes! Space battles that feel like the battle in the 1977 movie. Turrets that can be manned by individual players, be they rogue ex-Jedi, smugglers, droids, aliens or bounty hunters.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2021 21:06:58 GMT -6
I was writing some rules using my OD&D house rules (that I've posted earlier) as a base for a Star Wars ruleset. I could not playtest them yet, so I was not willing to share it so soon, but since I just saw this post and people did write their own rules as well, I think I can share it now and maybe give (and receive) some ideas. Summing up I've wrote some rules on parrying and deflecting blaster shoots. The Fighter and the Cleric sum their HD on their Defense (subtracting AC in this case as it's OD&D), I've wrote some musings about using Spells as Force Powers, and I've drafted a Ship system for Space Combat. It was fun to think about those and to write, but as I've said I didn't playtest them. I plan to do soon. I still need to think more about the "Save to use Force" thing and to finish the reasoning about the Spells. The Ship and Space Combat certainly need more thought on it. And I think the "To Hit and Armour" section might have sounded confuse and need better wording. The document is far from finished. Apart from that, I'm excited to test it. Maybe it might contain some useful ideas if someone else would try to use OD&D for it. It's based not only on the OT but on comics and the clone wars animation as well. You can reach it here (ad astra folder).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2021 21:46:57 GMT -6
I think it is important to note that in order to make a Star Wars setting feel like (let alone work well with) OD&D, we should consider preserving a few very important gameplay mechanics:
Those were very good considerations. Let me comment on them a bit. I think this is easy for a scoundrel party, but for a "Jedi oriented" group could work as well. There is always some jedi holocrons to be found or rescued out there. Depending on the "time period / era" we could have some adventures on "encountering potential jedis / padawans" on random planets. As @ampleframework have said, there is a lot of ancient ruins out there, but I think that Ships could make good "ship crawls" as well. Like when they were rescuing prisoners on The Mandalorian. A lot of corridors, a lot of rooms... You'll not have things to loot (probably), but certainly there will be the same "what we will find in this room" feeling. It could work nicely! Some city crawls could do nice gaming sessions as well. Coruscant can be a very a dangerous place. I think that OD&D combat is very nice to simulate the Star Wars feel... A lot of troopers and droids die with one hit, just like we have deadly combat on the earlier editions as well. Yeah, I guess they were being captured now and them in the movies, so is something to consider. Maybe if all of them got captured together, some extra characters might be created in a special session to free the old characters? Or they might be sold as slaves, or be throw in a remote planet to work as slaves, so we can have some adventures on top of this as well. I think the survivability can be harsh in Star Wars. A shot in a Spaceship cabin and everyone dies without oxygen. I think this can be a problem in the Star Wars Setting because of the faster than light travel / jump. But considering they're exploring a planet, then we can emulate the same wilderness adventure feel. A local city or village being the base, the cantina as a Inn... Another "problem" is the communication. They can be sectors away and communicate without any delay, this speed things up quite a bit comparing with, say, a Traveller game. I think this is a good example of use for the "Background" idea, not all characters will know how to pilot. Instead of assuming that everyone can do that, the background of a character can help to define some of these "roles". Technology can be a huge aid though, specially droids... If a character (or party) don't know how to pilot, they can hire a droid henchmen for this.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2022 13:16:48 GMT -6
I've placed this thread in the bacta tank for healing and resuscitation. It ties in with my other thread about using only the first novelization (or movie) as the basis for an OD&D Star Wars campaign. Where do we currently stand on using 3lbb rules in a Galaxy Far, Far Away? Would you guys find it necessary to write up whole new classes, races, combat mechanics, ship mechanics, technology mechanics, etc. or would you focus on the setting and sort of wing it as situations arise? I lean more towards the latter the deeper I go into my gaming hobby, especially over the past five or six years. Especially after having discussions online with some of the OG Blackmoor players and participating in the FKR server for a while, I've practiced both running and playing in more or less freeform RP and wargames scenarios, and I'm convinced that I would be best served by utilizing some of the core combat tables from OD&D, perhaps the Psionics rules for Jedi, and my own enthusiasm for the original Star Wars story (farmboy Luke blows up the Death Star and gets the girl!) to run a serviceable campaign, which I intend to sometime down the road. My fantasy game is going well right now, but it's on the table for later, definitely.
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