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Post by weaselcreature on May 28, 2015 14:21:06 GMT -8
I was originally going to call this thread "Weaselcreature's Bill's Star Wars Mongooses Traveller" but thought better of it. Anyway, I am starting a Star Wars game and using Bill Roper 's MgT conversion, so instead of hijacking his threads anymore, I thought I'd post here. I posted my Armor conversion previously, and I just finished my Space Combat work. I tried to give it more of the dogfight feel Star Wars has as opposed to Traveller space combat, as well as converting standard SW weaponry and deflector shields. I shortened the ranges a LOT (but they're still not as short as some folks have calculated, using trigonometry and object pixel size going frame-by-frame in the movies) and also shortened the round time to the normal combat 6-second rounds. I don't expect there to be much space combat in my campaign, but it's Star Wars, so we'll see. Not only have I not tested any of this, I haven't played Traveller since the '80's, so we'll see how things go. CharGen is in a couple weeks, and I'll post what happens. [edit] Hyperspace travel. In traveller, a Jump-3 rated freighter is really good, but that means in 1 week, the freighter travels 3 parsecs. Each individual square in the Star Wars galaxy map is around 2,000 parsecs. Well, that won't work. My experimental fix: a ship has 3 options of hyperdrive; using the Traveller chart, see what the ship needs to get J-1, J-2, or J-3. J-1: cost as per book, equals Hyperdrive 2 (2 days per square) J-2: cost=2xbook, equals Hyperdrive 1 (1 day per square) J-3: cost=8xbook, equals ".5 past lightspeed" (.5 day per square); only available to ships under 300 tons Comparing to the charts in the book, getting a 200 ton ship from J-1 to J-6 is 6 times the cost. All Hyperdrives come with a x12 backup. Ships require 1/4 their tonnage in fuel, and this lasts as long as necessary for the story. Regarding my ship armaments, I need to think of some sort of negative for large ships firing at small ships (and vice versa), otherwise destroyers will be sniping X-Wings out at range, and that just doesn't happen in Star Wars.
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Post by Bill Roper on Jun 8, 2015 11:04:17 GMT -8
SUPER excited to see how this goes.
A note on the ship combat - the one issue I have is that the weapon damage isn't representative against standard weapons that players use. This could be hand-waved by saying it only compares against itself, but I would consider doing a straight multiplier to all elements (weapons and armor) to make those weapons seem huge.
The largest personal weapon damage comes in the form of the Missile Launchers which are either 8d6 Ultra AP or 9d6+5 AP, depending on the weapon. That means I would WAY rather has a portable missile launcher fire at a ship than a Proton Torpedo at 3d6. If you did a 5x calculation to all the weapons (and correspondingly with armor) the Laser Cannon would be on par with a Blaster Rifle. I think this would give you some interesting options in terms of players getting to a ship and being able to effectively open fire against ground troops (which seems like a realistic thing). What you don't want is a guy in cloth armor looking at a quad-mounted laser cannon array on a ship saying, "Eh, I can probably bounce that attack."
I LOVE the distance charts and jump mechanics. This is something I have been really thumb-nailing a lot and consider a weakness in my game. Also the fact that it taken 7 sessions to have the crew do anything in terms of dealing with threats in space (yes, get excited for Stork piloting rolls...) is kind of lame. I am looking forward to giving these a good going over and tossing some ideas back your way. This conversion is definitely one huge play test!
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 8, 2015 11:56:12 GMT -8
Oooh! Good point about the ship vs personal weapons. I hadn't really thought about the interaction there, just using their rules (converted) when it's ship to ship or person to person and not thinking about ship to person or anti-vehicle weapons!
The x5 option looks like it'll work, but we'd also have to apply the multiplier to the damage chart.
A laser cannon rolling 5 against an ARM 4 ship is 1 damage on the chart. A laser cannon rolling a 25 (5*5) vs an ARM 20 (4*5) ship is 5 damage on the chart.
I'm not sure how AP works, but that 9d6+5 AP missile would do average 20 damage (or 4 damage on the chart, with the multiplier used) which would be an effective anti-ship rocket, but the proton torpedo would still be better (average of 35 damage (or 7 on the chart)).
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 10, 2015 7:29:45 GMT -8
Yesterday I ordered (and received; thanks Amazon same-day delivery!) some Star Wars minis. My son saw them immediately: "Are those figures?" Yes, but they're for my dice game. Do you want to play a dice game with the figures with me? "YESYESYES!" And there we have it: a 3 v 3 combat. The little guy rolled boxcars FOUR TIMES! Decimated me! I can't wait until he's older! (and yes, that's his preferred state of clothing. It took my wife a few shots to get one on the decent side)
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thegrimace
Initiate Douchebag
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Post by thegrimace on Jun 10, 2015 9:05:11 GMT -8
I'm sure there's other (better) ways of doing things, but iirc the old West End Star Wars (d6) that I played back in middle school had some decent thoughts on combat scaling. There were 3-4 scales of things: Personal Vehicle (i.e. land speeder) Fighter (this may have been the same as vehicle-level) Capital Ship For each scale there was a damage multiplier (like what you're already talking about) but also the reverse in terms of targeting modifiers. On further review it was apparently: Character - N/A Speeder - 2D Walker - 4D Starfighter - 6D Capital - 12D Death Star - 24D In WEG:SW the modifiers were -X dice from the roll, while for Mongoose Traveller it would probably be closer to -X. For hit rolls you'd apply the difference between the two scales as a bonus if you're the smaller guy, and/or a penalty if you're the bigger guy. For damage tolls you'd apply the difference between the two scales as a bonus to your damage reduction if you're the bigger guy, and a penalty if you're the smaller. So for example (if you just used these numbers without any further modification): Your character with a missile launcher firing against a Tie fighter would get a +6 to hit it, but the tie fighter would get a +6 to its DR against the normal 9d6+5 damage roll. if that doesn't have the desired effect, possibly make the damage side more of a multiplier, or 2x the bonus or somesuch. www.rancorpit.com/swrules.shtml#scale
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 15, 2015 7:42:43 GMT -8
We did character creation last Friday, and had fun, as well as some interesting developments. The characters are to be part of an Imperial SpecOps undercover unit hunting Rebel cells/operations. Everyone's 1st Career had to be Imperial Military, Agent or Scout (which would put them in Military as well), then they were approached by a Secret Service officer and told their performance had been noted and they've been flagged for this new program. They could choose to continue in the military for now, or be discharged (getting them officially out of Imperial service) and seek other Careers in order to gain skills to help them operate among civilians and contacts that could aid them when called to duty. After all Careers were complete, they were called back for their (un)official assignment. I let the players roll 3d6 drop the lowest for 3 stats, and 2d6 for the other 3 (and place them freely). My wife (playing a male character) Storked all her 3d6drop rolls (nothing higher than 6). After his 1st Career of Army Support, he opted to leave the military and go into Dancing (to make contacts in the field), but failed his survival roll and ended up with an enemy (the enemy thinks the character exposed his illegal stim ring, and sent thugs to beat him, making the scandal worse, a la Tanya Harding). This put him on the path of Hitchhiker in an attempt to keep a low profile to not be beat up more. He didn't do so hot in two terms as a Hitchhiker, but ended up with a Social 11 (equal to a knight); the fame of his part in the scandal! Now, my wife hasn't listened to the actual play of Bill Roper 's game, so it was a funny surprise when she mentioned that she totally pictured this character as Steve Buscemi! (for those who don't listen to the AP podcast, stork also plays his character with a Buscemi influence). On to my group's main min-maxer. He's a programmer, and likes the numbers and is fully aware of his min-maxing approach. He is, however, also a great role-player. A few weeks ago, he contacted me about wanting to play someone Force Sensitive and asked how that works. I told him it's possible, but it's still a random occurrence, with very low probability. He opted to try and climb the Naval Officer's ladder, starting as a Pilot. Well, holy shit, if on his first Career he didn't roll and get Life Event, then rolled boxcars and get Force Sensitivity! Down the path of the Sith he went! He didn't do too hot in several terms, making it to Rank 3, with an enemy, an injury, and failing to assassinate a rebel leader. My minor min-maxer (also a good RPer), also opted to leave the military, failed his qualification roll for his next Career and ended up as a Wanderer Thug. He opted to stay as a Thug for 3 or 4 terms and ended with 8 Contacts! The way I'm doing contacts for this undercover group is allowing them to keep some open, so during the course of play, if the party follows a lead to, say Dantooine, a player can opt to pipe up and say "Hey, my character met a black marker blaster trader on Dantooine! I'm sure he can help us!" Now I have 8 of those possibilities just from ONE player! My other two players are a 5-term Stormtrooper who ranked up a couple times as an officer before being injured and forced to leave the military (a perfect opportunity to be off the military list and re-enter in the undercover unit), and an Agent who was quite successful (Trust rank 3), who also got injured which made it an opportunity to get him off the record as well; he will be leader of the unit. All in all, it was a fun night with the room plastered with Imperial propaganda posters, and everyone seems pretty excited about the way the party formed and made good connections.
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 15, 2015 13:07:18 GMT -8
Oh yeah...forgot to add: while my wife's character was a Hitchhiker, she rolled a 42 for event! The listed event didn't reflect a Hitchhiker and 42 (and everyone at the table agreed), so after much thought and talking it over with another player, I let her roll for Force Sensitivity: BOXCARS! (-2 for 2 previous careers). She has as much Force Strength as the Sith, only knows 1 power, but she's keeping her ability hidden right now. That should lead to some fun stuff when it's discovered!
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Post by lowkeyoh on Jun 15, 2015 13:20:06 GMT -8
Sounds super rad! This is one of the reasons I love Traveller character generation and Bill's conversion so damn much.
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Post by Bill Roper on Jun 23, 2015 8:49:38 GMT -8
GREAT call on putting something special in for Hitchhiker Life Event 42! All in all it sounds like a fabulous character ten session!
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Post by weaselcreature on Jul 13, 2015 7:31:58 GMT -8
The Big Reveal We had our first session a couple nights ago. For reference, this campaign idea came to me while listening to the backlog; Stu Venable was mentioning how he doesn't like games in an existing story/setting, as that story has already been told and Star Wars specifically came up. So I had an idea about completely changing canon right away, but for proper impact I needed to have the PCs not know where they were, and I couldn't think of how to do that. Then I heard Bill Roper 's game where Brash was in carbonite...OF COURSE! So at the end of CharGen, the team went through some training and as a final physical and mental test all of them were frozen in carbonite. They awoke in a recovery room on an obviously Imperial base/ship, disoriented and blind. As they slowly recovered, they checked out their immediate surroundings, and just as they were about to be released, there was a klaxon with an accompanied PA announcement regarding a prison break, with at least 2 escapees, armed and dangerous, heading in their general direction; the Doctor seeing to the PCs was scared, and locked the door, saying they'd be safe in here. The PCs hacked the door open and headed out (all except Boosh Eh'myi, who stayed back due to not being good in combat). The party followed the sound of blaster fire and came upon some Stormtroopers trying to get a door open (the party was immediately paranoid, for some reason thinking the Troopers were the escapees in stolen armor; but that was quickly straightened out), and the party went to help, with the Sith cutting a hole in the door with her saber. On the other side was a chasm with a retracted bridge, and they just saw 2 humanoids land on the other side, one of them detaching the line for his grapple from his utility belt. "...mother fucker." was the reply from the guy who saw that. Yup, the party was soon chasing Luke and Leia in the corridors of the Death Star; and they caught the 2 Rebels, which led to the capture of Han and Chewie as well as the 2 Droids...which led to the destruction of Yavin IV, crushing the rebellion. So that was my prologue, setting the stage for an Empire dealing with an insurgent/guerilla rebellion, as opposed to full war, and the party being a Spec-Ops unit to hunt down these groups. I decided to record the session (although I didn't tell anyone); I just propped my iPhone on the window sill behind me and I was surprised with how well the sound came out. Nothing like the Jackers actual plays, but still pretty damn clear, including my 4-year old asking for oatmeal, my wife using the food processor at one point, and the next door neighbors coming home with their 4-year old. I used the somewhat broken official Star Wars crawl creator and here's the text from it: Episode IV.II It has been 6 months since the destruction of the rebel's base on Yavin IV and the execution of its traitorous leaders. Since that time, order has been restored throughout most of the galaxy and the Empire has prospered. While fear of the DEATH STAR has driven remaining rebels into hiding, there has been an increase in terrorist activity and guerrilla tactics by those sympathetic to the traitors' cause. The Empire has formed a Special Operations unit designed to sniff out and neutralize terrorist cells and operations disrupting the peace and harming its civilians. A unit to strengthen the established order…
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
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Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
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Post by D.T. Pints on Jul 13, 2015 8:26:43 GMT -8
NOOOOO! Not the precious Star Wars Canon!! This game sounds truly fantastic weaselcreature. It will be interesting to see how your players delve into being "The Bad Guys" my Edge of the Empire game started with them as Scum and Villains but they all appear to have a distinct attraction to becoming Rebel Scum. In attempt to make the Star Wars universe a bit more morally grey I've created the "Sons And Daughters of Alderaan: SaDoA" a militant organization that will stop and nothing to achieve vengeance for the destruction of the planet. A rebellion without some sort of moral temperance can be an ugly thing indeed. I look forward to hearing how the next session goes. Feel free to post an actual play! Cheers, Curt. (D.T. Pints) (Mrs.)
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Post by weaselcreature on Jul 13, 2015 9:07:09 GMT -8
If folks are interested in actually hearing my recording, I'd be happy to put it up...somewhere. Never done anything like that before. Or I could just email the file, I suppose.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Jul 13, 2015 9:36:28 GMT -8
I post mine on Youtube for ease of access (the online games) not the Star Wars game. But, yeah just take the audio file and put it into Google Drive or some such.
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Post by weaselcreature on Jul 13, 2015 14:21:48 GMT -8
Character breakdown:
Boosh Em'yii (aka Dentar Thur): Started in Imperial Army support, then went into the entertainment industry and before his big break, was accused as ratting out an old Sargeant, so he went into hiding as a hitchiker. -Saved Jor during the Battle of Naboo -Helped Striker with a heist
Striker Reed: started as Imperial Infantry. Attempted to get work as a bounty hunter, but ended up as a thug...and liked it (gaining 8 contacts!). -Helped Aethir uncover a Rebel cell
Aethir: Imperial Pilot who discovered her Force Powers. Joined the ranks of the Sith and slowly advanced, gaining friends and enemies on the way. -Was a regular pilot for Enkar before her Force Powers were discovered
Enkar: Imperial Agent. Stayed a good, trusted agent before being wounded. He was brought back into the agency off the record to lead the rag-tag team.
Jor: Imperial Stormtrooper. Very determined and skilled, and advanced to Platoon Commander before being injured. The injury was used as a reason to leave the military and join the covert unit.
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Post by Forresst on Jul 13, 2015 14:35:20 GMT -8
(and yes, that's his preferred state of clothing. It took my wife a few shots to get one on the decent side) Slightly off-topic, but as a non-parent I am actually really curious: are all little kids nudists, or just 75% of the ones age 2-6 that I've met?
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