So, my gaming group recently started a Star Wars Campain, using the Saga Edition ruleset, using my own homebrew campaign setting. For basics: It's set 1,000 years after the New Jedi Order books (which I actually liked, shut up), ignores all post-NJO Legends canon, with the idea that about 300 years after the "Vong Wars" the GFFA just crumbled, in a kind of delayed reaction. The Imperial Remnant the Jedi Order stepped in independently to try and prevent the collapse, wound up working together more often than not, and when the dust cleared, there was a Second Galactic Empire propped up by an established and respected Jedi Order. Basically, it's an excuse to have a kitchen sink setting in Star Wars. You want Imperial Star Destroyers? We got 'em! You want Jedi? We got 'em! You want stormtroopers and clone troopers and AT-ATs? We got 'em!

Anyway, after getting a new job a bit ago, I finally bit the bullet and bought Force and Destiny, and I've been liking what I'm reading so far. Haven't even finished the book yet, nevermind actually talked to my group about potentially switching systems, but I figured I'd get the ball rolling as a thought experiment if nothing else. Basically, I'm wondering if people a bit more familiar with the FFG system could give me some pointers on converting my homebrew setting from Saga.

The whole thing can be found here . Warning, it's REALLY long.

This is a slightly more complete version. Haven't updated the .pdf in a long time, I guess.

Erik! I remember you from the old WotC forums.

What, exactly, are you looking for help with?

• One thing I can say right off the bat is that the idea of a "CL" is just not present in this system. To get a good idea of power level, it requires just a bit of experience with the system.
  • To go further on that, a conspicuous difference between the older d20 systems and the newer narrative system is the dearth of "stats" for important NPCs. We get general stats for pirates, Jedi, officers, shipwrights, etc; but Luke Skywalker (for example) isn't statted up anywhere. Darth Vader and Lando Calrissian are present in adventures, but where Darth Vader shows up it's basically like the penultimate scene in Rogue One: he's a death blender with no mention of a wound/strain threshold. And where Lando's stats are written up, it's clearly done for the specific adventure, and the text basically calls out that this is just one way to represent Lando, and isn't meant to be definitive.
  • So with that in mind, consider who might be the "important," "godlike," or "demigod-like" characters in your setting (if any) and consider whether they actually need stats. Like, whether stats would actually be good for the game.
• Another thing is the noticeable lack of " Knowle dge skill DCs" in this current system for info on star systems, etc. So while we have the concept of "the more successes you get on your knowledge check, the better your information is," it's just different because there's the whole dual-axes thing with Advantage/Threat playing into it, as well as the considerations of low success against a high difficulty vs. high degree of success against a low difficulty. Again, this is something that is generally done by feel.
• But as for generalities, we already have a general measure of task difficulty in d20: Easy (DC 10), Average (DC 15), Hard (DC 20), etc. These mesh pretty well with the Difficulty ratings (Easy, Average, Hard, Daunting, Formidable) for this current system—with the exception of the Impossible difficulty.

Ah, good to see an old forumite!

Yeah, I was noticing "important" character stats were absent in F&D, and I actually remember talking to my players about stats and such in Saga, and bringing up the old "How did Level 9 Luke beat Level 20 Darth Vader" headscratcher from the old boards, and basically told them my take: Vader wasn't level 20 when Luke fought him, he was level 11 or 12. High enough to be a considerable threat to level 9 Luke, but not a necessarily insurmountable challenge. It's only because we've now followed Anakin through the Prequels up to RotJ that we feel he needs to be level 20. To calibrate "The Big Threat" to the characters, you calibrate them to their level. Vader might have been level 5 or 6 when the PCs were level 1, because that's all he'd need to be an "insurmountable" threat. By ESB, maybe Luke's level 4 or 5 and Vader is level 6, 7, or 8. A really tough fight which Luke is almost certain to lose, but not instant death.

But I digress. I may stat up important NPCs just because (and to give me some more familiarity with the system itself), but yeah, the PCs shouldn't be lightsaber fighting Master Sanda Skywalker anytime soon (or ever, really, unless things really go off-script) so exactly how awesome she is with the lightsaber isn't really necessary at the moment. Mostly I'm looking to convert things like Species (I noticed a pretty good "Species Menagerie" around here, I think I'll be using that for existing species unless it's really flawed) and gear. . . not sure how much the gear needs converting, the FFG system doesn't seem to provide a lot of granularity, so it may not be necessary. Just slap new model numbers on existing stats and call it good. (I work on the theory that Star Wars has basically hit the technological plateau: they literally can't make things intrinsically better, because everything's pretty much as efficient as it can get within the bounds of the laws of physics, so "advancement" in technology is really just making things bigger/smaller, with commensurate increases/decreases in power. The Death Star is basically the exact same tech Han Solo has strapped to his hip, just orders of magnitude bigger.)

The new feats and talents for the old book just won't work in the new system, and you can't just "plug in" new abilities, have to design a whole new specialization (or even career) to access them, and I don't think I'm that qualified to start modding the system at that level yet, so I may just let all that go. Plus, the new system seems "user-friendly" enough you don't really need to account for every possible thing a PC might ever want to do ever and categorize it as a Feat or Talent.

I did put a whole lot of work into the Organizations, since I just loved that system from Saga, but it's not present here (I didn't really expect it to be). Is there any way to put something like it in without wrecking things, or should I just let that part slide?

I'll have to pour over the ship rules again and see what's there, and how I want to stat up the new ships, but maybe some assistance with that.

As a last, while the setting is usually independent from the rules, are there any mechanics that are kind of "unique" to the Rebellion-vs.-Empire era in the FFG system that I should change/replace to represent a different era? I kind of don't think so, but want to make sure.

So basically, species, gear, ships, and maybe Organizations/Anything I Haven't Thought Of.

To answer you last question first, the "unique" setting mechanic that fits particularly well within the Galactic Civil War is the Duty mechanic (from Age of Rebellion, specifically for agents of the Rebellion). Obligation (EotE) and Morality also fit well into the mix, but Duty is something that works really well if you have an organization like the Rebel Alliance.

With Organizations, it really just depends on what kind of a role you want them to have in your game. It would be fairly easy to port the "power struggle" rules over. There are rules for mass combat that are influenced by what organizations are taking part in the battle, and these rules could be reskinned for pretty much any other "mass action" (like large group debates, or economic moves, or blockades, or behind-the-scenes/clandestine power struggles).

I agree about letting the feats and talents go; there are enough careers and specializations that you really don't need to homebrew anything. But should you ever come up with ideas for separate talents, it's easy enough to incorporate them into your game as one-off talents players can just earn/purchase, that aren't attached to any specialization.

Regarding ships and gear, yeah, I would absolutely just reskin what already exists. Re-skin as much as possible. That way it's going to be a lot more likely to work well for you

Yeah, coming up with all those Saga stats took a LONG time. I might make some equipment one-off special: like the new Stormtrooper blaster pistol not having the "3 Threat to run empty" rule, but only having one or two hardpoints (since it's already almost as efficient as it's possible for a blaster pistol to be). And the Yammkaller having an ability for the player to "reload" it with a Survival check, or negate future "Out of Ammo" Despair with an Advantage and/or Triumph on a Survival check, or something like that.

I kind of want to mod the ships, though. A lot of them are unique to this setting, and ones based on older designs (like Imperial-III and IV Star Destroyers, Venator-II Star Destroyers, etc.) might, not likely but might, get sent up against their older counterparts.

Well, after fooling around with OggDude's character generator, I've made a few important NPCs, so I submit the first. . . Master Sanda Skywalker, current leader of the Jedi Order, Head of the Jedi Council, basically this setting's Yoda.

Sanda Skywalker

Species: Human

Career: Guardian

Specializations: Soresu Defender, Sage, Starfighter Ace, Niman Disciple, Seer

Characteristics: Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 5, Cunning 2, Willpower 3, Presence 3

Stats: Wound 18, Strain 24, Soak 3, Melee Defense 2, Ranged Defense 2, Force Rating 7

Skills: Astrogation 2, Cool 2, Discipline 3, Leadership 5, Mechanics 2, Negotiation 3, Piloting - Planetary 4, Piloting - Space 4, Resilience 1, Vigilance 2, Gunnery 2, Lightsaber 5, Education 1, Lore 2

Talents: Balance, Center of Being 1 (Improved), Confidence 3, Dedication 3, Defensive Circle, Defensive Stance 2, Defensive Training 2, Draw Closer, Exhaust Port, Force Assault, Force Rating 6, Forewarning 1, Grit 10, Intuitive Evasion 1, Intuitive Strike, Keen Eyed 1, Knowledge Specialization 2, Natural Mystic, Natural Negotiator, Niman Technique, Nobody's Fool 1, Parry 7 (Improved, Supreme), Preemptive Avoidance, Rapid Reaction 1, Reflect 6 (Improved), Researcher 1, Sense Advantage, Sense Emotions, Skilled Jockey 1, Solid Repairs 2, Soresu Technique, Strategic Form, Sun Djem, The Force Is My Ally, Touch of Fate, Toughened 3, Uncanny Reactions

Force Powers: Enhance, Foresee (Control 3, Strength 2, Magnitude 2, Range 1, Duration 2), Heal/Harm (Magnitude 2), Influence (Range 1, Magnitude 1, Control 2), Misdirect, Move (Magnitude 2, Strength 2, Range, Control 1), Seek (Magnitude 4, Control 1, Strength 2, Mastery), Sense (Control 3, Duration 1, Range 3, Magnitude 3, Strength 1), Battle Meditation (Magnitude, Range), Bind (Range 1, Magnitude 1, Strength 1, Control 1), Protect/Unleash (Range 3, Strength 4, Control 3, Magnitude 2, Duration 1, Mastery)

Gear: Sanda's Lightsaber (Breach 1, Sunder, Defensive 2, Deflection 2, Superior, Lorrdian Gem, Damage 8, Crit 2), Concealing Robes, Jedi Utility Belt.

XP: 2,570

As a rule-of-thumb (more like a guideline), Jedi Knights have about 500 XP, Masters 1,000, and Council Members 2,000.