With Rise of the Separatists finally here I'm looking at running what else but a Clone Wars era game. Shocking stuff. Early on, the book talks about Knight-level Heroic-level play and additional XP/Credits... so far, so par for the course.

Later on in the Equipment section it talks about how Clone Troopers can cash in 1000cr to get their standard loadout, whilst Jedi can cash in 2500cr for a lightsaber.

So a starting group in a Clone Wars campaign has to drop Duty/Morality to unlock their starting kit. I'm just wondering then if the default campaign the book was written for is Heroic-level Play? I'm not saying that this is a good or bad thing, but I'm interested in hearing peoples opinions. Since I'm working with a new group of players I had just intended to go with the default starting, but this has made me wonder if for a typical Clone Wars campaign I'm meant to give them a boost to begin with.

I believe they chose those specific values precisely so you could use exchange Duty/Obligation to start with those packages.

If it was only intended for Heroic level play, then there really isn't much of a need to give them a discounted deal.

Just my Two Credits' Worth.

My take is that PCs who raised in very specific environments should have their gear given to them in a way that more narrative. Obviously, this is a very homebrew sort of solution, but here’s how I let PCs get gear in my game: (Note that my game featured a mix of PCs at high and low levels of XP)

Options for PCs at Base Starting XP:

• Heavy Robes, Jedi Utility Belt, Basic Lightsaber
• Phase I Clone Trooper Armor with built-in electrobinoculars, comlink, utility belt, and coolant system, DC-15 Rifle, 2 EMP Grenades, M8 Combat Knife
• CF-9 Flight Suit, DC-17 Pistol, comlink, tool kit, datapad
• 2,000 credits worth of gear

Options for High-Level (+250 XP) PCs:

• Jedi Commander Armor, Jedi Utility Belt, Basic Lightsaber
• Heavy Robes, Jedi Utility Belt, Lightsaber with crystal of choice
• Heavy Robes, Jedi Utility Belt, EotE Lightsaber
• Phase I ARC Trooper Armor with built-in electrobinoculars, comlink, utility belt, and coolant system and attachment of choice, DC-15 or DC-15A Rifle, 3 EMP Grenades, 2 Armor Piercing Grenades, M8 Combat Knife
• Phase I Clone Trooper Armor with built-in electrobinoculars, comlink, utility belt, and coolant system, Z-6 Rotary Cannon, DC-17 Pistol, 2 EMP Grenades, M8 Combat Knife
• Phase I Clone Trooper Armor with built-in electrobinoculars, comlink, utility belt, and coolant system, Jetpack, DC-15 Rifle, 2 EMP Grenades, M8 Combat Knife
• Any loadout from Index 1 with an additional 1,000 credits worth of gear
• 5,000 credits worth of gear

Personally, I feel the Clone Wars setting works best at Heroic Level play, and that's what I'm doing with my current Clone Wars game.

That said, the ability to exchange 2500 cr for starting gear as a Jedi, or 1000 cr for a Clone, seems a good way to get the ball rolling at starting XP instead of Heroic level play. So theoretically, it should work fine for both. The biggest concern for me is that players tend to dump racial XP into Attributes instead of Talents and Force Powers, so a Jedi player at starting XP probably won't have many Jedi-like abilities, if any. If you were to limit them to only raising one, maybe two, attributes by one with starting XP, this could encourage them to spend more of their XP on Talents/Powers to correct this.

A bit off, but not that much. I just got the book and ran over the new careers. The knight spec states if you choose it as a starter spec, you can learn 2 for free. Great, standard jedi spec. However you need to have FR2 to choose it. How does a starter character has FR2 to choose it as a starting spec?

22 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

A bit off, but not that much. I just got the book and ran over the new careers. The knight spec states if you choose it as a starter spec, you can learn 2 for free. Great, standard jedi spec. However you need to have FR2 to choose it. How does a starter character has FR2 to choose it as a starting spec?

Yeah, I don't see that working, as there is no way to get FR2 without taking a different spec that grants FR1, and buying into it. Besides, it doesn't really make sense to be a Knight before a Padawan. It would make more sense to take Padawan, then spend 45XP to get FR2 if you wanted to race to get the Knight spec.

6 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Yeah, I don't see that working, as there is no way to get FR2 without taking a different spec that grants FR1, and buying into it. Besides, it doesn't really make sense to be a Knight before a Padawan. It would make more sense to take Padawan, then spend 45XP to get FR2 if you wanted to race to get the Knight spec.

That seems the logical step, but still, they literally state that you get 2 of those skills when you choose it as a starting spec. But I assume it's either a mistake (copy-pasted) or there is a way to get it as a starting spec

12 hours ago, salamar_dree said:

I believe they chose those specific values precisely so you could use exchange Duty/Obligation to start with those packages.

If it was only intended for Heroic level play, then there really isn't much of a need to give them a discounted deal.

Just my Two Credits' Worth.

Pretty much this.

Side note to the OP, one thing to remember is that the TV series and movies follow the "superstars" of the franchise, who are well and truly exceptional individuals. Heroic Level play is given as an option for groups that want to start out as those superstars, and while it doesn't outright say so, is intended more for groups that have some level of experience with the system. Looking at some of the various stat blocks for droid adversaries, they look to be skewed more towards starting characters, with the only real difference between starting and Heroic Level combat encounters being the number of minions you pack into a minion group.

You can very easily start a Clone Wars era campaign with regular starting characters, and then let Clone Soldiers and Jedi "unlock" their starting kit as described in the book, trading off Duty (for Clone Soldiers) and Morality bonus (for Jedi) as appropriate. Meanwhile, the other PCs (assuming not everyone's either a Clone or a Jedi) get their starting gear as normal. The one tweak I'd make personally is that if a PC wanted to start out with a F&D career and using one of the LS Form specs as their starting spec, I'd allow them to get a basic lightsaber at the same discounted cost as the Jedi career allows.

Are the Jedi and clone starting bundles exclusive to baseline starting characters, or can heroic 150 xp starters get them, too?

3 minutes ago, Stan Fresh said:

Are the Jedi and clone starting bundles exclusive to baseline starting characters, or can heroic 150 xp starters get them, too?

The book doesn't specify one way or the other, so it's up to GMs to decide precisely what "starting" means in terms of the characters.

Personally, I see it a starting character as having no additional XP or credits beyond what they'd get under standard character creation. Heroic/Knight Level PCs to me don't count as purely "starting" characters due to having the additional XP and credits well beyond what is normally allotted for freshly made characters.

Of course, with the 9000 credits' worth of gear and that the book changed the price of a basic lightsaber down to 8000 credits, it's entirely possibly for a starting Jedi or Clone Trooper to use that 9K allowance to get all the same gear with plenty of credits left over. So to my view, it doesn't seem the intent that Heroic/Knight Level PCs would have the same option for discounted gear as a standard starting character would.