Hi Everyone,

I have found a website with the ten pre-made WOTC Star Wars rpg campaign "Dawn of Defiance" and I am trying to convert the first adventure, The Traitor's Gambit , over to the system used by FFG. Has anyone done this before, and if so, can you provide me any tips? Some friends of mine will me meeting over the weekend to build characters from Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny to play in this campaign. Thanks for your help!

There are a few threads floating around of people who have done just that. My group started Dawn of Defiance (DoD) using the original Saga rules. We abandoned it somewhere around Chapter 4, tried briefly switching to the FFG system to alleviate some of the wonky encounter balance issues, and decided to just scrap it and start from scratch.

How experienced are you with encounter design and the FFG system? The answer will definitely impact your enjoyment. When I did the conversion for Chapter 5, I pulled out the core concept for each of the encounters that I wanted to use, arranged the encounters into a flow chart to create the illusion of choice, and plugged in minions as appropriate. We ran through that chapter in a few hours with low-XP, moderately equipped PCs, so I went with small Minion groups of two or three versus 4 PCs and that worked fairly well. Tossing in a Rival once in a while provided a good challenge, but the Nemesis at the end nearly wiped them out. I had to adjust some of the encounters on the fly, removing or adding a Minion group, and I made sure that there were some one-roll-resolution encounters and skill challenges.

You'll probably find DoD a mixed bag. The early chapters are decent, but the quality of the writing and the encounter balance suffers in later chapters. I don't want to give too much away, but...

Part of the problem with the encounters is an artifact of the level-based D&D system that the Saga rules derived from. 16th-level stormtroopers are patently ridiculous, but necessary to challenge high-level Saga/D&D PCs. The FFG system alleviates that to some extent; you can ignore the level attributes for an NPC and plug in an appropriate stat-block, based on your determination of Minion, Rival, or Nemesis status. The Adversary decks will definitely help you in that regard. There are (at least) two other issues that you'll have to deal with:

1. DoD is very much an on-the-rails sort of adventure. There are a few spots where a little deviation is permitted, but for the most part the adventure is very linear. If you & your players are used to more sandbox-style adventuring, you may not like the adjustment.
2. The Saga ruleset that DoD was written for, like the Dungeons & Dragons rules that it was derived from, is all about killing stuff for fun and profit. The primary method for earning XP is through combat victory, so all of the DoD chapters are far more combat-heavy than most FFG Star Wars adventures. Since the two systems use somewhat different mechanics for rest, healing, and recovery, you may need to tone down the amount of combat or make adjustments to the timeline.

I enjoyed playing Chapters 1-4 using the Saga rules, and I imagine it would be equally entertaining using the FFG rules. I ran Chapter 5 in this system (since it feels like a side-quest, we created new characters just for that mission) and liked it, but I found little of interest or worth in the later chapters. I think if you mined them for inspiration, you could probably still have a good time, but I don't think the conversion will be quite as simple as you're hoping. Best of luck to you.

I found in running the game (for D6, several years ago) that every chapter needed work to some extent or another and some chapters needed extensive overhauling. Like for example, the main Bad Guy has several encounters with the players and he proves to be unkillable each and every time. Sorry, that's a load of crap - you can probably get away with "Nobody could have survived that!" once, but not three times like the Game As Written has you do. Start doing that and you'll piss off your players in very short order.

So what I did was have a huge showdown with The Bad Guy in chapter 5 in an underground volcano chasm, on this bridge over a yawning abyss, so when they did "kill him" I made it theatrical and over the top, him toppling over the edge into the blackness below - a very huge signpost that we're not done with his story. And then when the Commander does his Face Heel Turn in a couple of chapters later, Bad Guy shows up to help with the extraction. The players get a glimpses of him, but there's no actual combat for them to get frustrated over.

At the same time as the Commander's extraction, I had Bad Guy kidnap the PC Jedi's student. This raises the stakes on a personal level in the short term and lets me twist the knife in the long term. Because the next "No, you cant kill him" fight several chapters later, I didn't have Bad Guy show up. Instead, he had his brand new, brainwashed student fight the former master, all the while gloating from vidscreens on the wall. Doing this keeps Bad Guy in the players minds, but keeps him out of harms way without annoying the players.

Also, the chapters on Courscant I extensively rewrote. The Game As Written has them blow up the inquisitor tower and then slink back to their bolt holes to recover, regroup and plan a way off the planet. This is garbage. After a major terrorist action that took at a major Imperial facility, the Empire would drop the hammer on them SO hard. So you need to keep the pressure up - no time to think, no time to recover. Just run. Friends turn their backs on you (or turn up dead), enemies hunt you at every turn, resources dry up and the players need to be **** resourceful to get away. This needs to be exciting and tense, not leasurly and methodical.

I had more that I did, but those notes are long, long gone. But that was the major points that I recall.

On 3/30/2017 at 10:30 PM, SFC Snuffy said:

There are a few threads floating around of people who have done just that. My group started Dawn of Defiance (DoD) using the original Saga rules. We abandoned it somewhere around Chapter 4, tried briefly switching to the FFG system to alleviate some of the wonky encounter balance issues, and decided to just scrap it and start from scratch.

How experienced are you with encounter design and the FFG system? The answer will definitely impact your enjoyment. When I did the conversion for Chapter 5, I pulled out the core concept for each of the encounters that I wanted to use, arranged the encounters into a flow chart to create the illusion of choice, and plugged in minions as appropriate. We ran through that chapter in a few hours with low-XP, moderately equipped PCs, so I went with small Minion groups of two or three versus 4 PCs and that worked fairly well. Tossing in a Rival once in a while provided a good challenge, but the Nemesis at the end nearly wiped them out. I had to adjust some of the encounters on the fly, removing or adding a Minion group, and I made sure that there were some one-roll-resolution encounters and skill challenges.

You'll probably find DoD a mixed bag. The early chapters are decent, but the quality of the writing and the encounter balance suffers in later chapters. I don't want to give too much away, but...

...the final encounter is a poorly-realized space battle that is nearly impossible for groups not optimized for starship combat.

Part of the problem with the encounters is an artifact of the level-based D&D system that the Saga rules derived from. 16th-level stormtroopers are patently ridiculous, but necessary to challenge high-level Saga/D&D PCs. The FFG system alleviates that to some extent; you can ignore the level attributes for an NPC and plug in an appropriate stat-block, based on your determination of Minion, Rival, or Nemesis status. The Adversary decks will definitely help you in that regard. There are (at least) two other issues that you'll have to deal with:

1. DoD is very much an on-the-rails sort of adventure. There are a few spots where a little deviation is permitted, but for the most part the adventure is very linear. If you & your players are used to more sandbox-style adventuring, you may not like the adjustment.
2. The Saga ruleset that DoD was written for, like the Dungeons & Dragons rules that it was derived from, is all about killing stuff for fun and profit. The primary method for earning XP is through combat victory, so all of the DoD chapters are far more combat-heavy than most FFG Star Wars adventures. Since the two systems use somewhat different mechanics for rest, healing, and recovery, you may need to tone down the amount of combat or make adjustments to the timeline.

I enjoyed playing Chapters 1-4 using the Saga rules, and I imagine it would be equally entertaining using the FFG rules. I ran Chapter 5 in this system (since it feels like a side-quest, we created new characters just for that mission) and liked it, but I found little of interest or worth in the later chapters. I think if you mined them for inspiration, you could probably still have a good time, but I don't think the conversion will be quite as simple as you're hoping. Best of luck to you.

Thank you for your remarks. Right now I am making adjustments to the first games, The Traditor's Gambit. This is my first time running an FFG Star Wars game, although I have played D&D 5th Edition for a few years now. I wanted to use a premade campaign for various reasons: 1. I am new to GMing and 2. my work schedule gets crazy at times and I wanted something semi-fast to modify for my play group. I have noticed, like you mentioned, that DoD is a very hack and slash type setting so I am working to tone that down and work in some actual role playing situations.

I recommend you start with a published adventure or two before undertaking something like a conversion. For whichever flavor (AoR, EotE, or F&D) of setting you choose the Beginner Box, its corresponding downloadable companion adventure, the adventure from the back of the core rulebook, and the adventure in the GM Screen can all be combined with very little work into a mini-campaign. Depending on how long your sessions are and how easily distracted your group is, you could probably get through those 4 adventures in six sessions, give or take a bit.

Going this route gives you a little more time to see what a "professionally published" adventure looks like in this system, which will give you a better grasp on scaling encounters, pacing, risk & reward, etc. It also allows your players to ease into the ruleset gradually (if they're new) and try different classes, Specializations, and races without too much worry about being "stuck" with something sub-optimal.

That's just my suggestion, of course. Best of luck to you!

1 hour ago, SFC Snuffy said:

I recommend you start with a published adventure or two before undertaking something like a conversion. For whichever flavor (AoR, EotE, or F&D) of setting you choose the Beginner Box, its corresponding downloadable companion adventure, the adventure from the back of the core rulebook, and the adventure in the GM Screen can all be combined with very little work into a mini-campaign.

Second this very much. If your players haven't played before, they won't know what value some talents have and will probably end up making decisions about their character progression they will come to regret. At minimum run a beginner box (EotE or AoR are better than the F&D one) and the free PDF followup. That's about 3-5 sessions of play, and after that your players will be able to make characters with confidence.

Thank you for your comments. I will look into the free pdfs.

I converted The Fell Star from the Scum and Villainy supplement of the Saga Edition, and I must say I was surprized how boring those adventures from Saga are - one hack and slay encounter after another with nothing really interesting inbetween. But the adventure has a very interesting location with many opportunities (I added a ship yard facility, so the players could modify their ship) for the future, so I modifide it extensively.

All that said I also advise aiming for the starter set adventures, especially the one from EotE, and the follow-up download. As a final note, if you have experienced players you need to add something more here and there to the beginner game from the set, because it is really written for total beginners. For experienced players the story is a bit to thin. (For example: I added a Twilek mother and child who want/must flee the planet urgently and who approached the players to give a bit more incentive for the players to follow the lines of the adventure. And it coincided with the follow-up adventure, as they also had ties to the resistance on Ryloth.)

All that said, I like all the adventures FFG has published so far (all have to be tweaked a bit to fit your groups needs, of course), and if I ever run out of those there are so many excellent fan made ones that I will not be forced to convert a saga adventure again. Thank the Force.

Here are some xml adaptions to be used with OggDude's generator. And here is a diary of my groups adventures so far. I've run The Traitor's Gambit and A Wretched Hive so far.

On 4/4/2017 at 2:56 PM, mouthymerc said:

Here are some xml adaptions to be used with OggDude's generator. And here is a diary of my groups adventures so far. I've run The Traitor's Gambit and A Wretched Hive so far.

Thank you, Mouthymerc. I enjoyed reading through your gaming diary.