Inspired by another thread and would like some help

By Jareth Valar, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

OK, in another thread someone was asking about using Star Wars for a Cyberpunk game and that got me wanting to look into Shadows of the Beanstalk so I picked up a copy. So far I really like what I see. Now for the "need help with" and relating to Star Wars.

I really like the way cybernetics are handled in Beanstalk (no cap but Strain Thresh reduces with each implant) and was wanting to implement that in my game if possible (yes, I know all things are possible in my game, but...). Now, in Genesys, gaining Strain can be a bit more problematic than in Star Wars, so I think the Strain Threshold reduction would need to be adjusted to 2 or possibly 3.

Droids would not reduce Strain Threshold and Gank would reduce the cost.

Thoughts?

Rather than reduced cost for Gank maybe they get so many "free" cybernetics before having to take strain.

12 hours ago, MrTInce said:

Rather than reduced cost for Gank maybe they get so many "free" cybernetics before having to take strain.

That works as well. I have no-one playing a Gank (2 Humans, 1 Twi'lek and a Droid) but I want to keep their racial focus on augments fair.

So, no suggestions on cost or anything else? Bueller....Bueller...😉

Cost of strain threshold loss should stay the same. In shadow of the beanstalk there is no magic rules which are a big factor in the strain economy of genesys. So cybernetics and g-mods are there for that. In Star Wars you have the Force and many talents that cause strain, so I'd say keeping the cost the same should work.

1 hour ago, GroggyGolem said:

Cost of strain threshold loss should stay the same. In shadow of the beanstalk there is no magic rules which are a big factor in the strain economy of genesys. So cybernetics and g-mods are there for that. In Star Wars you have the Force and many talents that cause strain, so I'd say keeping the cost the same should work.

Fair enough. Thanks for the input.

What about the Gank? Any thoughts there? Also, I think keeping things as they are with Bioroids and cybernetics for Droids is OK. Any thoughts there?

18 minutes ago, Jareth Valar said:

Fair enough. Thanks for the input.

What about the Gank? Any thoughts there? Also, I think keeping things as they are with Bioroids and cybernetics for Droids is OK. Any thoughts there?

I mean if you're using the rules from Shadow of the Beanstalk, you could use the cyborg archetype for the Gank, if you want to keep it simple.

What exactly do you mean by the bioroid/droid comments?

13 minutes ago, GroggyGolem said:

I mean if you're using the rules from Shadow of the Beanstalk, you could use the cyborg archetype for the Gank, if you want to keep it simple.

What exactly do you mean by the bioroid/droid comments?

Bioroids do not reduce SS Threshold for installing cybernetics. Since Bioroids are Beanstalks version of droids (more or less), the same should go for Droids I'm thinking. Perhaps?

As for the Cyborg/Gank. Perfect fit for one of their racial abilities, thanks (still going through the book). Now, how to consider the other where hey can have more cybernetics than anyone else, other than droids of course.

I've been rolling a similar notion (porting over how SotB handles cybernetics) myself, so here's my two bits...

Like others have said, keeping the strain threshold penalty for cybernetics the same is probably your best approach. Yes, there are some specializations and species that can get a very high strain threshold quite easily, but with Genesys it's not all that hard to do something similar, selecting a species with a higher-than-average beginning strain threshold and then taking Grit every chance they get (which may even wind up cheaper in terms of XP since you don't have to fret about purchasing additional specs like you do in Star Wars)

With the Ganks, I'd say a simple conversion of their species ability to have two additional cybernetics is that they just get to ignore the first two points of strain threshold reduction from cybernetics. So if a Gank PC starts play with three pieces of cybernetics, then they'd only drop their strain threshold by one instead of by three the way a non-Gank PC would.

For droids, apply a similar rule in that for the first six cybernetics they install, there's no strain threshold penalty, but once they get the seventh cybernetic installed, then they start reducing their strain threshold.

Whatever option you go with, let us know how it turns out in your games.

Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking on this.

As for your suggestions, those are probably the simplest/easiest options. Which is probably what I'm going to bring to my table.

Thanks for the input.

22 minutes ago, Jareth Valar said:

Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking on this.

As for your suggestions, those are probably the simplest/easiest options. Which is probably what I'm going to bring to my table.

Thanks for the input.

Over the years, I've found that the simplest solutions are usually the best ones when it comes to introducing house rules to a game. Less chance of inadvertently breaking something in the process, and easier to remove if it turns out not to work as intended.

2 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

Over the years, I've found that the simplest solutions are usually the best ones when it comes to introducing house rules to a game. Less chance of inadvertently breaking something in the process, and easier to remove if it turns out not to work as intended.

Too true. K.I.S.S. is a thing for a reason.

Any other things anyone else ported over from Genesys? We added Brace for Impact and something I've been doing for years now is official in Genesys...requiring an Average Mechanics roll to add an attachment (maybe a couple of others, but my brain is elsewhere at the moment). That make me smile when I read that.

I ported motivations, vehicle rules, social encounter rules from Genesys to my star wars game. Also changed the "detect deception" skill from discipline to vigilance like in genesys.