I would love some feedback on my latest house rules. I'm running two campaigns with them currently and they seem to be working well, but they are both full of new players so we haven't gotten very deep yet. Some of these are blatantly stolen and adapted from other brilliant minds (Thanks to anyone who inspired me).

a= advantage

t= threat

Sb= setback

b= boost

s= success

Tr= Triumph

De=Despair

d= difficulty

GENERAL

There will be no in-fighting, back stabbing, or doing anything to intentionally hinder another player character’s progress. Roleplaying an argument or difference of opinion is encouraged, and friendly duels are allowed, but no actual fighting.

A PC may convert aaa into s if the roll is already successful, and provided it causes damage if in a combat situation.

A PC may spend a Destiny Point after a roll to convert aaaaa into s .

A PC may spend a Destiny Point (with GM permission) to introduce a beneficial fact or circumstance into the current situation.

A PC may spend 2 Destiny Points to force a reroll on a lethal critical hit.

When a player rolls TrTrTr +, he/she will spontaneously gain a rank in a relevant skill chosen by the GM.

Any player who brings a Star Wars prop/toy or who wears a piece of Star Wars clothing will be granted a chip that can be turned into the GM at any point during that session to add bb to any one roll.

Charge (New Combat Action): Instead of advancing more carefully you charge straight at the enemy. Engage with a target in short range and make a combat check attack against them. The attacker upgrades the difficulty of the check by one. In addition, if the attacker's check generates De or ttt it can be spent by the defender to allow the defender to make a combat check against the attacker as an out of turn incidental before the initial attack is resolved.

Skill Checks Using Tools: Any Skill checks that require tools (Mechanics, Computers, Medicine, etc.) take a number of combat rounds to complete equal to the number of d .

Assist Maneuver: Any General Skill checks that use the Intellect characteristic (Astrogation, Mechanics, Computers, Medicine, etc.) may only be aided by another character if the assisting character is also trained in that skill.

Binary understanding: Any non-droid character with at least one rank in Mechanics or Computers understands the Binary language spoked by droids and other machines, though they are unable to speak it themselves. Any droid character may understand and speak Binary by default, without needing to be trained in Mechanics or Computers.

Blast Weapon Quality: If the attack is successful and Blast activates, each character (friend or foe) within Short Range of the original target suffers wounds equal to the weapon's Blast rating (plus an additional wound per Success as usual). Targets that have cover from the original target are not affected but all engaged targets are affected without concern for cover.

Vehicular Combat Initiative: The pilot or co-pilot of a vehicle may elect to use Piloting (Space) or Piloting (Planetary) as appropriate to make an initiative check.

THE FORCE

To become Force sensitive in Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion, PC’s may spend XP to take only one of the universal trees Force Sensitive Exile, Force Sensitive Emergent, or Padawan Survivor. Any of these tress will grant a Force Rating of 1. The player may spend XP to purchase Force Powers as long as they meet the minimum Fore Rating requirements. In order to take any of the Specializations from Force & Destiny they must find a NPC with a Force Rating of 2 or higher and formal training to teach them in game.

When a PC uses a force power, talent, or anything else that requires them to roll or commit a Force die, the GM will give them a Force Crystal Token. If they used a Light Side Point they will get a blue token, if they used any Dark Side Points they will receive a red token. If they used an equal number of Light and Dark side points, they will receive a purple token. When they next activate a force power, talent, or anything else that requires a Force die, they take strain equal to the number of tokens they possess minus their Force Rating (minimum of 1 strain). At the end of the encounter, the GM will collect all Force Crystal tokens and keep track of the colors used, which will affect the morality of the characters.

COMPANIONS

Companion animals, droids, or sentients will be played as NPCs, each with unique quirks and personalities. A companion will mostly follow the orders of their “master” but others giving commands may require Leadership, Survival, or Computers checks.

The “master” may spend one maneuver, per Rival/Nemesis or per minion group, to direct the companion in performing one action and one maneuver. If the player doesn't directly control them, the GM will, based on the last order of their “master” or whatever is appropriate, sometimes doing nothing. Leadership, Survival, or Computers checks may be involved if the PC asks the "companion" to do something that has a good chance of leading to serious harm for that companion or something that goes against its normal behavior.

Companions gain 5 XP for any session in which they participate in at least one encounter. At the end of each encounter, their “master” may make a hard Leadership, Survival, or Computers check (as appropriate to their type) in order to teach/program the companion, which grants it 5 additional XP upon success. With GM permission, and after procuring the right instructional materials/programs, the “master” may teach their companion a new specialization, up to the number of specializations of their “master”.

A companion may evolve from a Minion to a Rival to a Nemesis, with GM permission, once they reach certain XP Thresholds.

Droid companions have a Positive and Negative Trait rolled from the Droid Personality Traits table in Special Modification P. 83.

OPPONENTS

A Nemesis or any NPC with Adversary 2+ can choose to take a full second activation (resetting skills & talents) at the end of the initiative order.

Minion groups with at least 2 members gain the Autofire quality on their weapons. If they already have it, then the normal difficulty upgrade is cancelled.

EQUIPMENT

Attachments: Unmodded item attachments may be freely added/removed from an item. They can be transferred to any appropriate item. Once an attachment has been successfully modded, it is now bound to that specific item and may not be removed without destroying the attachment. If a triumph or despair is rolled when modding an attachment then the GM will create a unique “named” item, which may have additional properties.

BUYING AND SELLING (Pg. 149 CRB)

Obligation: The PC always has the option to use Obligation as a resource in order to acquire an item or find a buyer for an item he wishes to sell (At the GM’s discretion). The point to credit amount is determined by the situation and the GM.

Buying: Non-restricted items with rarity 5 or less are always available. The PCs can pay the listed price OR attempt to Negotiate a better deal. If Negotiating, use the Negotiation skill rules (pg. 114 CRB). The PC may choose not to buy the item once a price is determined, but the price will be locked in for that location, unless the PC turns to the Black Market.

When attempting to purchase restricted items on the Black Market or items with a rarity of 6 or more, the item may not be available. The GM adds rarity modifiers due to where the item is being purchased as defined in Table 5-2 (pg. 150 CRB). The PC group may make one attempt to locate the item legally with Negotiate or illegally with Streetwise, using the difficulty found on Table 5-1 (pg. 150 CRB). Before making the Negotiation or Streetwise check, they may try buying information to find a vendor at a cost of 50 credits per b . If the PC fails to find a legal item using Negotiation, they may make a Black Market attempt using Streetwise at a cost of 100 credits. Once the item has been found, PCs can pay the listed price OR attempt to Negotiate a better deal as above.

Selling: Non-restricted items with a rarity 5 or less can always be sold for one-quarter the listed price OR the PCs may attempt to Negotiate a better deal. If Negotiating, the PC makes an opposed Negotiation check vs the NPC vendor’s Negotiation or Cool. Use the rules for Selling (pg. 150 CRB).

When attempting to sell restricted items on the Black Market or items with a rarity of 6 or more, a buyer may not be available. The GM adds rarity modifiers due to where the item is being sold as defined in Table 5-2 (pg. 150 CRB). The PC group may make one attempt to locate a legal buyer with Negotiate or illegal buyer with Streetwise, using the difficulty found on Table 5-1 (pg. 150 CRB). Before making the Negotiation or Streetwise check, they may try buying information to find a vendor at a cost of 50 credits per b . If the PC fails to find a legal buyer using Negotiation, they may make a Black Market attempt using Streetwise at a cost of 100 credits. If a buyer has been found, PCs can sell the item for one-quarter the listed price OR attempt to Negotiate a better deal as above.

STARSHIPS

Starship Shields: This completely replaces the first paragraph of the rules for Defense found in CRB p.226. If the ship does not have shields, then use the normal rules for defenses.

Defense reflects a ship or vehicle's ability to completely deflect or reduce the damage of incoming attacks or collisions through use of deflector shields, point defense systems, raw speed, or other, more esoteric technologies. This is a crucial protective system, the first line of defense for the majority of space- going vessels and even some ground vehicles. Each point of Defense in a defense zone grants a certain number of Soak Points based on the silhouette of the ship. Soak Points are consumed first to subtract from any incoming damage suffered, followed by a reduction due to armor, with any remaining damage points being applied to the hull as normal. When all the Soak Points in a defense zone have been consumed the shields are considered to be down. Shields that are down provide no protection.

Example: A TIE fighter is shooting at a YT1300 (Silhouette 4) with 1 Defense point (10 Soak Points) in the rear arc. The attack does 9 points of damage, which consumes and subtracts 9 of the 10 Soak Points for the rear defense zone. The shields holds but has only 1 Soak Point remaining.

The next round the TIE hits again for 9 more damage. The 1 remaining Soak Point is consumed to reduce the damage to 8, which is then reduced further by the armor of 3, leaving 5 points of hull damage. With all Soak Points consumed, the rear shield is now down!

At the end of an encounter, or a time deemed appropriate by the GM, all Soak Points are regenerated to full for functional shields.

The Defensive Driving Talent or any other character-generated game effect that adds to Defense will simply add a setback die per point of Defense added. Any effect that specifically affects shields will instead add additional Soak Points based on the silhouette of the craft being piloted. The Soak Points added should be consumed before the normal Soak Points for the defensive zone. Each round, these soak points are reset to their full value at the start of the character’s turn. These Soak Points may never be regenerated by player actions.

The Angle Deflector Shields maneuver transfers any Soak Points remaining in a defense zone to the new defense zone, up to a max of one Defense point’s worth of Soak Points based on silhouette. Example: A YT-1300’s front and rear defense zones have 1 point of Defense each. The ship was recently hit and the rear shield consumed 5 Soak Points of damage, leaving it with 5 Soak Points remaining. The co-pilot uses the Angle Deflector Shields maneuver to transfer the 1 point of rear Defense to the front zone. The front zone receives the 5 Soak Points from the rear zone, which is added to the 10 Soak Points it had, for a total of 15 Soak Points available.

Repair Shields (New Crew Action): By performing a Hard ( ddd ) Mechanics check the engineer restores one point of Defense to a shield that is down. Upon success, the ship suffers system strain equal to its silhouette. Each advantage reduces the system strain by 1 to a minimum of 2. Shields destroyed by a critical hit cannot be repaired with this action.

Redirect Power (New Crew Maneuver): Using this maneuver, a crewmember with access to the shield controls reallocates power between Engines and Shields choosing one of the following options:

Power to Shields- Reduce top speed of the vehicle by 1 until the end of the encounter and restore 1 point of Defense to a defense zone where the shields are down. If the vehicle was traveling at top speed its speed is reduced to the new top speed value.

Power to Engines- Increase top speed of the vehicle by 1 until the end of the encounter and remove 1 full point of Defense from a defense zone where the shields are not down. This may only be performed once per encounter.

Group Weapons (New Crew Maneuver): Using this maneuver, a crewmember with access to weapon firing controls may temporarily group weapons of a similar type (Beams, Blaster/Laser Cannons, Turbolasers, Ordnance, etc.) to fire together. Choose one weapon as the primary system; the rest of the weapons grouped are secondary weapons and may not be fired on their own. Secondary weapons must be able to cover the firing arc of the primary weapon. The next combat check with the primary weapon will upgrade the ability dice a number of times equal to the number of secondary weapon entries plus the total of all linked values for secondary weapons with the Linked Quality. For this attack, the range of the primary weapon used in the attack is reduced to the shortest range of all grouped weapons. Weapons grouped in this manner are considered to have fired in the attack, using any ammo or other pertinent rules. Only the weapon characteristics and qualities of the primary weapon are used in this attack, unless the GM says otherwise.

Nimble Ships: Add the following to the rules for Handling in CRB p. 224. When firing at a vehicle that is traveling at speed 1 or higher and not performing Evasive Maneuvers add Sb equal to the difference between its handling rating (if positive) and the handling rating (if positive) of the firing ship, up to a maximum of the target’s current speed. Successful use of the Gain the Advantage Action negates the Sb imposed (if any) from Nimble Ships.

Powering up the ship: Base time to start a starship that has been completely powered down is 2x the silhouette. To go faster, a player may take a Quickstart Ship Action and make an Average: Piloting (space) check. Each success reduces the time required by 1 round to a minimum of 1 round. A Triumph lets you fire it up in a single round. A GM can spend Threat to cause system strain, representing damage from all the safety features bypassed or the ship grinding against things while lifting off. A Despair means something is wrong.

Hyperspace Calculations: Calculations in non-threatening situations are an automatic success. Calculations can be started as a Pilot Action or an Action by whomever is Astrogating (co-pilot, astromech droid, etc.) The base number of rounds is equal to the silhouette of the largest ship. On a failure, you may try again the next round. See Astrogation Rules From Action Sheet for difficulty, modifiers, and results.

One of the reasons that Astromech Droids are so valuable is that they can store a number of pre-calculated Jumps in their head, and if you're activating one of those pre-calculated Jumps, then once you've double checked the co-ordinates with a quick Astrogation Check (assuming you succeed) then you can just go without any need for waiting.

Visual Range: The Maximum range that a vehicle can be seen by the naked eye in planetary scale is based on the silhouette; 2 or less Close, 3-4 Short, 5-6 Medium, 7 or more Long.

Attachments & Accessories: All Starship attachments and Starship Accessories from Cartol’s Emporium (pg. 48-50) are legal for play. If an item duplicates an official source, the official source is the one used.

Sensors: The maximum range of sensors that can be installed on a vehicle is based on the silhouette ; 1 Close, 2 Short, 3-4 Medium, 5-6 Long, 7+ Extreme.

Hyperdrive Modification: You can replace the hyperdrive on a ship or add one, provided there are enough HP available.

Refitting: Cargo space can be converted into vehicle Hard Points as per the following table, up to a maximum of 4 HP gained.

Modification Time: Modifications take a number of days equal to the HP being modified x (2 for silhouette 3; 5 for silhouette 4, 50 for silhouette 5) divided by number of persons doing the work.

Repairs: PCs can either have their ship repaired by a facility or attempt to do it themselves.

Option A: Each point of hull trauma can be automatically repaired by a facility for a base cost of 500cr.

Option B: Each point of hull trauma can be self-repaired for a base cost of 250cr for materials and requires a Mechanics check as follows.

· This may be split into several checks, as the difficulty can change based on successful repairs.

· Failure destroys the materials.

In either case, you can (although do not have to) attempt to make the repairs more efficient by making an Efficiency Check (either a Negotiate, Streetwise, or Mechanics check).

· If one or more players Aid the check, then use the highest value combination from any of the three skills to determine the dice pool.

· Each s reduces the cost by 5%.

· Each a can restore a point of system strain or reduce repair time by 5%.

· Each t inflicts a point of system strain or increases repair time by 5%.

· Each Tr repairs a critical hit, reduces costs by 20%, or reduces the repair time by 50%.

· The GM may spend a De to inflict a critical hit on this ship or interrupt the repairs with an encounter.

EXTRA LOOT

To thoroughly search a body/container for non-obvious loot, roll a Daunting ( dddd ) Perception or Skullduggery Check see if loot is present.

· One other character may Assist on searching a body or container. If searching a room or larger space multiple people may assist as per normal rules.

· For each Tr result on the die, roll once on the Rare Items Table (Even if not successful).

· If successful, roll once on the Common Items Table, plus an additional time per ss beyond the first.

· If Unsuccessful, advantage and threat are ignored.

· The GM may spend tt to require minor repairs a looted item before proper use (as if it were a weapon), with each additional tt increasing the magnitude of repairs needed by one step. (See Table 5-4 on Pg. 159 of the Core Rulebook.)

· A body/container cannot be searched more than once.

Another fun way for the GM to use Triumphs is to have the characters find some extra loot as a by-product of their actions. When player rolls a Tr on any check that might warrant the possibility of finding some loot, roll one Proficiency Die.

· A Destiny Point may be spent to add bb to the roll.

· For each Tr result, roll once on the Rare Items Table.

· For each s and/or a , roll once on the Common Items Table.

· Examples of checks possibly warranting loot:

o Piloting (Planetary)- the landspeeder dislodges a partially buried wreck.

o Perception- the character notices a secret latch in the floor.

o Skullduggery/Computers/Mechanics/Combat checks- the character’s actions open a secret compartment nearby.

fg

4 hours ago, ianinak said:

GENERAL

A PC may convert aaa into s if the roll is already successful, and provided it causes damage if in a combat situation.

A PC may spend a Destiny Point after a roll to convert aaaaa into s .

When a player rolls TrTrTr +, he/she will spontaneously gain a rank in a relevant skill chosen by the GM.

Didn't read very far as I'm sorry but these are really, really out of place. The split between advantage and success is what drives creativity in this system. Letting players ditch advantage (especially in interesting 'failed with huge advantage' rolls) is a really bad idea, and removes the No, but... and Yes, and... from the game. Triple triumph is so uncommon you don't even really need to have a specific rule for it, and giving one PC free XP for it that the others don't get is also a bad idea because it breaks party parity.

The idea of a complicated loot table with its own special loot rules is completely at odds with the rest of the system as well. That's for OSR systems, not more fast-paced rules-lighter modern systems. Like, getting random items from Triumphs etc. is great- I love my Sci-Fi Searches deck from LoreSmyth. But a heavyweight mechanical system encouraging PCs to loot the bodies after every encounter is just completely out of place.

More power to you if your players like this kind of super-crunchy old-school gameplay with lots of edge-cases but if they do you should probably be playing Traveller.

I did read through all of these, but more than specific comments, I am struck by how these house rules turn the game into more of a looter-shooter / crunchy-combat game than in its original design. I suspect, @ianinak , that this is what you wanted. If so, and if you have players who want that, then I suspect this is a good set of rules. Like @Talkie Toaster , I wonder why you aren't playing another game that is designed this way from the ground up and reskinning it. I might think that you'd really like FRAGGED EMPIRE or ELITE DANGEROUS RPG or STAR WARS SAGA EDITION or even SHADOWRUN 5e for that.

And it's worth noting that these are a LOT of house rules. The FFG core books are already quite long. I'm paraphrasing the hosts of SYSTEM MASTERY PODCAST here, but: there is a point at which your pile of house rules is so large that you may as well get it over with and write your own heartbreaker (and then you could end up on their podcast!). I personally think this pile is large enough.

More specifically:

- Letting folks trade dice pool results for other results directly undermines the encouragement to create surprising, non-linear stories that lies at the core of this system, and I'd ditch it.

- Encouraging folks to use "physreps" is always fun, but your wording on that rule could be much simpler.

- If folks who get mega-Triumphs get rewarded for their good rolls in ways that will make them roll more mega-Triumphs, then rich keep getting richer and everyone should min-max until the internet runs out of yellow dice. This would make me sad.

- Having non-combat checks take even longer, in combat, really, REALLY screws over non-combat characters. If you only eliminate one house rule from this whole list, make it this one.

- You have such a different take on vehicle combat that you should probably just make every dogfight be a game of X-WING on another table and be done with it.

- Loot tables? Star Wars heroes don't loot corpses for 10 blaster pistols they can sell for 25% base value at the magic item shop when the come back from the dungeon. Can you toss these rules or replace them with once-per-encounter tables full of flavorful items, like the weird and random Omega Tech item deck in GAMMA WORLD? Or maybe just play a game of IMPERIAL ASSAULT?

I clearly want to play a different game from you. But if you want to have fun playing this way, I truly think you'd have more fun playing a game that embraces combat crunchiness, min-maxing, looting, and vehicle tactics, none of which are inherent strengths of the game system you started with.

What the others said.

I just want to add this:

Quote

To become Force sensitive in Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion, PC’s may spend XP to take only one of the universal trees Force Sensitive Exile, Force Sensitive Emergent, or Padawan Survivor. Any of these tress will grant a Force Rating of 1. The player may spend XP to purchase Force Powers as long as they meet the minimum Fore Rating requirements. In order to take any of the Specializations from Force & Destiny they must find a NPC with a Force Rating of 2 or higher and formal training to teach them in game.

The Force & Destiny specialisations are not meant to represent characters that have received one lick of training.

7 hours ago, ianinak said:

I would love some feedback on my latest house rules.

With one exception (below), I have to agree with the other comments so far. I admire your zeal, and if it works for you and your table then great, but I think you're missing the point of using these particular RPG rules.

Something to strongly consider: I have been running this game off and on since 2013, and the last time I cracked a rule book in-game is probably 2016. I can count on one hand the number of times I cracked it in total. You just don't need it. Assuming two things: that you understand how the dice work and you only ask for rolls when you have an idea for all possible outcomes; and, your players know their PCs and understand their Talents...then you can run this game with just the dice and the character sheets. So all you've done here is add an extra layer of choices that can potentially bog down the game, as the player weigh choices and everyone else waits for that one guy who can't decide whether he wants to trigger a crit or get an extra point of damage...

8 hours ago, ianinak said:

Starship Shields: This completely replaces the first paragraph of the rules for Defense found in CRB p.226. If the ship does not have shields, then use the normal rules for defenses.

These I like (with a few tweaks of my own), and I like the scale chart for the Soak amounts. Consider it stolen 🙂

I have to agree that swapping advantages for successes is not a good idea. I have toyed with the reverse (turning success into advantage), and it worked well. It has its own limitations, but was done at the request of my players, who kept rolling high levels of success, but not enough advantage to activate their weapon qualities.

5 minutes ago, Edgookin said:

I have to agree that swapping advantages for successes is not a good idea. I have toyed with the reverse (turning success into advantage), and it worked well. It has its own limitations, but was done at the request of my players, who kept rolling high levels of success, but not enough advantage to activate their weapon qualities.

I actually have a houserule for my in-person game that on a roll of 0 net success/failure and 7+ Advantage, you can spend 4 Advantage to get a success. This was to fix the occasional issues of having rolls so unbalanced they don't know what to do with all the Advantage. The reason for 7(or more)-4 is that it still gives them 3+ Advantage to spend.

Thank you for the feedback everyone. Please keep it coming! You have definitely given me some things to think about. That was a lot more negative than I was expecting... Suggesting that I don't know how to play or should play other systems isn't super helpful. Specific feedback on the rules, even "Don't use this one" is helpful. Constructive criticism please! I'm trying to improve things and move forward, not pack up and go away.

To give a little background and explanation for these, I've been running the game since Beta and this is my 5th campaign that has lasted at least a year and a half. I'm not new to the system and have seen a lot of different players and playstyles. That being said I did play Saga before this, and D&D/Pathfinder/3.6/5th ed/Shadowrun/White wolf before this system came out. That is not to say that I know everything, but there are likely some residual tendencies from those systems floating around my brain, lol. I'm also a game designer for my career so I'm always looking for ways to tweak and improve things, often coming up with fun rules when there isn't one to cover a situation or "fix" something that seems unbalanced or not fun. It gets my creative juices going but it can lead to overcomplication, so sometimes hearing that I should KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is helpful. I have definitely received that message loud and clear in the feedback so far.

Some of my players prefer more crunchy rules and some do not. I'm trying to find the right balance between making stuff up on the fly vs what do the rules suggest for a situation like this. I don't want this to be so rules heavy as to turn into Shadowrun which has a rule for seemingly EVERYTHING and slows to a crawl every 2 minutes while we look up an obscure rule.

(Breaking up longer post into bite-sized chunks to avoid TLDR syndrome).

I LOOOOOOOVE the narrative dice in FFG Star Wars. They on their own are the reason that I continue to play over other systems. It has been a challenge in every campaign I have run to get my players to think creatively and use them for more than "I pass a boost" or "I crit". I often ask the whole group what interesting things we can do with them and get blank looks or "I don't know" responses. I always encourage them to be creative and help me define the world around them based on what they imagine might be in it. I am a HUGE fan of "Yes, but..." with player suggestions for the imaginitive things they want to do. There are times, as P47 mentions where a player rolls so many advantages that none of us have any idea what to do with them. I have heard (and agree) that a triumph is roughly equal to 5 advantages so some of my stuff is based on that. The rule of trading 5 advantages comes up maybe once a game and my players are ALWAYS happy to have it. I have seen SO MANY times where the group only needs once success in combat or in another roll and get 4+ advantages. This leads to complaining and "I was so close- why do I have so many dice if I can NEVER get at least one success?" This rule combats that and is a fan favorite in my games. The rule about trading 3 advantages (on an existing success) for another success is a new one for me and the person I took it from said that it sped up combat and other fights a lot. Combat does take a long time and I see this as a net positive. At least, that was my theory... I could be wrong. As for the three triumph roll, I have seen that happen exactly 3 times in all my campaigns. It does not happen often, as others have said. When it does the group, as a whole, loves that person becoming stronger in another area that is related and often not something they have any ranks in. Nobody feels that it isn't fair or the rich get richer since it is NEVER on the same skill that was used. If anything, it helps add some diversity to the skills.

As for space combat, I do think the official system needs improvement. Shields have almost no net effect and rarely stop you from being hit which goes against everything I know of Star Wars. Ships have a lot of weapons, as they should, but a pilot can only fire ONE each round (looking at you, B-wing). Supposedly badass ships with multiple weapons become much weaker and single linked weapons own everything. Many of the crew in a freight do nothing if they aren't flying or in a turret. The new crew actions and maneuvers give them something to do to directly affect their situation in fun thematic ways from Star Wars movies and video games of yesteryear (X-wing Alliance). Ships with high handling die just as easily as ships with low handling so why bother having it? Thus the Nimble ships rule so TIE fighters/A-wings are actually viable.

The loot tables were borrowed and modified by another fantastic GM on these forums. I removed lots of uninspiring items and replaced them with things that sounded cool and might encourage players to seek out cool new things in expansion books. Like the game, buy the books! I also added direct credit stick amounts if GMs and players don't want to mess around with keeping track of loot and random items. Now that I reflect on this more, the PCs rarely use (or even remember) the cool things they find so maybe this system isn't needed after all. Your Feedback is helpful! I might be stuck in the mindset of kill something and Pathfinder the body, which I rarely see anyone do in the movies unless they want something specific like a keycard or data cylinder. Is the game still as fun for players without the loot reward? My searching a room system was an attempt to add something interesting and random to pregen missions with a whole map and enemy base but NOTHING to find from exploration that improves a player character. If players want to explore I like to reward them with something otherwise they stop exploring and just b-line/zerg straight to the target. How do other GMs deal with this?

Please keep it coming!

I want to be sure I understand the feedback so I am listing it below. Please clarify/expand if I misinterpret something.

Talkie Toaster-

• Don't trade advantages for successes.
• Random Triumph loot Good, but the system for searching bodies/rooms/places unnecessary.

BrickSteelHead-

• Don't trade advantages for successes.
• Too many house rules- pare them back a bit.
• Too much looter-shooter.
• Toys/props wording could be improved. Constructive Suggestion?
• Tools checks requiring extra time slows things down and screws over specialists. (This is a new one I'm considering trying and I think I may agree with you).
• Vehicle combat is more dogfight and less narrative. Is this good or bad? It seems like in the official rules one or two lucky/unlucky vehicle rounds can severely affect the game and is VERY unbalanced IMHO- Strong ships get owned by much weaker ones.
• Loot rules unnecessary. Perhaps replace them with once per encounter loot.

MicheldeBruyn-

• Agree with other feedback.
• Force and Destiny specializations don't represent any formal training. What are you suggesting here- Allow any tree from any book with no restrictions or something else? Also, I disagree that they don't have a lick of training. I assume starting padawans have grown up in the Jedi temple and have been receiving training (Lightsaber at least in most trees and Force Rating) since they were taken from their parents at a young age. In my game, I encourage players to branch out into Force sensitivity, but I don't want them to spontaneously know how to use a lightsaber or become shuyo masters without training. Plus it gives me narrative characters who can train them and add to the story.

Whafrog-

• Agree with other feedback.
• Don't need most of the rules in the Core Rule Books. All you need is dice and character sheets. Not sure I agree with this, but I'd like to understand more. Do you have any recorded sessions of yours I could listen to to see how many rules come into play vs on the fly stuff? I'm always interested in how other people do things.
• Adding more player choice bogs the game down.
• Starship shields are a good change.

Edgookin-

• Don't trade advantages for successes.
• Maybe trade successes for advantages.

P47-Thunderbolt-

• Has similar rule for trading advantage for success but requiring more advantage to trigger AND requiring players spend some advantage narratively.

59 minutes ago, ianinak said:

Force and Destiny specializations don't represent any formal training. What are you suggesting here- Allow any tree from any book with no restrictions or something else? Also, I disagree that they don't have a lick of training. I assume starting padawans have grown up in the Jedi temple and have been receiving training (Lightsaber at least in most trees and Force Rating) since they were taken from their parents at a young age. In my game, I encourage players to branch out into Force sensitivity, but I don't want them to spontaneously know how to use a lightsaber or become shuyo masters without training. Plus it gives me narrative characters who can train them and add to the story.

Force And Destiny careers don't represent trained Jedi. They're regular people living during the time of the Empire, who have never known the Jedi, and discover they are Force-sensitive.

Unlike other Star Wars RPGs, this game doesn't do the 'linear fighters, quadratic Jedi' thing. A Force user with 1000 XP is normally not going to be significantly more powerful than a Bounty Hunter with 1000 XP. So making the Force-user jump through extra hoops strikes me as unfair.

54 minutes ago, ianinak said:

Don't need most of the rules in the Core Rule Books. All you need is dice and character sheets. Not sure I agree with this, but I'd like to understand more.

I don't record my sessions, so I can't help you there. And I was perhaps exaggerating slightly, so here's my full list of tools at the table:

• big bowl of dice in the middle of the table
• little bowls for each player: these are used on a turn-by-turn basis to track benefits or setbacks, eg: if one player passes a boost to another, player 2 will put a blue die in their bowl to remind them to use it on their next roll. After their turn this is cleaned out, though we sometimes keep things in there that are encounter-scope, eg: setback from a failed Fear check
• PC sheets. I used to use OggDude's generator so the players would have their talent descriptions (I've since written my own). I have the players make notes so all their weapon dice pools are on their sheets. Basically, I don't want them having to flip through books to count up all their boosts or upgrades every time they roll to shoot, it should be on the sheet. Same with every other skill pool.
• GM screen. This only has two purposes: to hide my maps and "decision dice" (usually a pair of d10s) when they come up with the unexpected; and for the crit charts.
• Adversary decks. Handy if I need a quick profile.
• Rory's story cubes. If my decision dice can't spur ideas, these will.
• My own maps and notes about what I hope the session achieves, resolution points, possible branches etc. No more than 1/2 a page for that, the other half has a list of random names if I need to invent an NPC or something.
• I don't have my own dice, I roll everything openly.

That's it. The rules are near the table, but nobody needs them. So here's my brutally honest take on it: if you need to open the rulebook, have piles of charts to look through to make decisions, then you really don't understand how the dice scale, and most importantly, how you can use them in context to wing it -- in a consistent manner -- in any situation. I'll go further: if you're looking up charts and rules, you're not telling a story and whatever narrative flow you might have had going is destroyed.

That's probably coming off as rude, so sorry if it does, but that's not my intent. It's more like "ex-smoker" enthusiasm 🙂 After literal decades of gaming sessions with everyone poring through books and lists and charts and sitting around waiting for the legal team to arrive at a "judgement", being able to run the game without all that crap is a total liberation. I can actually tell a story now, and don't have to worry about the game mechanics derailing the rise in tension to a climax.

But, of course, that might not be for everybody.

1 hour ago, ianinak said:

Force and Destiny specializations don't represent any formal training. What are you suggesting here- Allow any tree from any book with no restrictions or something else? Also, I disagree that they don't have a lick of training.

I don't have a problem with your Force Sensitive starting choices. The trees you chose have a certain flavour more geared to informal seat-of-the-pants FS PCs. I've always viewed the F&D careers as more suitable "second" choices that need a mentor to pursue, mostly because they have such a narrow scope. Nobody is going to learn the "Hawk Bat Swoop" on their own...and the Consular Healer is just ridiculously constrained. In fact, now the the Padawan and Knight are available (which do a pretty good job imho of encapsulating a minimum of their abilities), I'd view one of the F&D specs as a pre-requisite for Master...that's the only place they make sense in a hierarchy.

A new one to add.

The Empire is actively hunting all Force users that come to their attention, and they have done a great job of reducing general public knowledge of the Force to a “hokey religion”. For any encounter with surviving witnesses where a Force Power or Lightsaber is used the GM will roll a Force Die. A Light side result means that witnesses did not know or believe what they saw and waved it away as a random oddity/lucky chance/fluke. Double Light side means that a witness is a knowledgable Force ally; the group will remove 5 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as the witness obscures/debunks the extraordinary event to others and/or the witness may react in a friendly fashion. A Dark side result means that witnesses did not know or believe what they saw and reported this extraordinary event to people close to them; the group will gain 5 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as word gets around. Double Dark means that a witness is a knowledgeable Force enemy; the group will gain 10-20 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as they are reported to local authorities and/or the witness may react in a hostile fashion.

This is based on stuff in this video and comments.

1 hour ago, ianinak said:

A new one to add.

The Empire is actively hunting all Force users that come to their attention, and they have done a great job of reducing general public knowledge of the Force to a “hokey religion”. For any encounter with surviving witnesses where a Force Power or Lightsaber is used the GM will roll a Force Die. A Light side result means that witnesses did not know or believe what they saw and waved it away as a random oddity/lucky chance/fluke. Double Light side means that a witness is a knowledgable Force ally; the group will remove 5 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as the witness obscures/debunks the extraordinary event to others and/or the witness may react in a friendly fashion. A Dark side result means that witnesses did not know or believe what they saw and reported this extraordinary event to people close to them; the group will gain 5 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as word gets around. Double Dark means that a witness is a knowledgeable Force enemy; the group will gain 10-20 points of Inquisitorus Obligation as they are reported to local authorities and/or the witness may react in a hostile fashion.

Some weird distribution going on here.

While a negative over all reaction is more common than a positive/neutral one, knowledgeable Force allies outnumber knowledgeable Force enemies by 3 to 1.

Yeah, I didn’t make the dice symbol faces, but I’m trying to use them to represent the will of the Force. In this case, two Dark Side is a lot more impactful (and dangerous) than two Light Side. Two Dark Side is basically the equivalent of a despair. At least, that was my thinking.

23 hours ago, ianinak said:

The Empire is actively hunting all Force users that come to their attention, and they have done a great job of reducing general public knowledge of the Force to a “hokey religion”. For any encounter with surviving witnesses where a Force Power or Lightsaber is used the GM will roll a Force Die.

Why not use Triumph/Despair/Advantage/Disadvantage for this? This sort of thing is exactly what they're for.

1 hour ago, Talkie Toaster said:

Why not use Triumph/Despair/Advantage/Disadvantage for this? This sort of thing is exactly what they're for.

Because then I would be rolling several dice that represent the players and opponents instead of one die that literally represents the Force. Rolling Some for good things and some for bad things complicates things and is more math. Plus the symbols would cancel each other out (except for triumph and despair) leading to potential washes. Null / blank / wash results are basically good things, and not actually neutral, since Force Sensitives don't want to be noticed or reported.

1 hour ago, Talkie Toaster said:

Why not use Triumph/Despair/Advantage/Disadvantage for this? This sort of thing is exactly what they're for.

So true, and what I love about the system. There is no need to come up with all these uber-codified mechanics (that someone then has to remember, or remember to check) when instead you can just use the narrative dice in context to achieve the same thing.

2 minutes ago, ianinak said:

Because then I would be rolling several dice that represent the players and opponents instead of one die that literally represents the Force.

You wouldn't be rolling anything. It would stem from the result of the player's actions when *they* roll the dice. This is one reason you can be liberal with setbacks and difficulty upgrades.

I have found that there is a lot going on with combat already and plenty of things to have to remember. I know that I would likely forget about something mysterious (What did that Triumph/Despair do off screen?) that happened in round 2 of the 5 round combat. My players and I barely remember to heal strain half the time at the end of combat. This proposed mechanic basically adds a simple thing at the end of combat (or social situation) where I roll 1 die and everyone knows what it means, which adds to the group's reputation / risk factor.

It seems there is a lot of resistance to changing things or adding anything to the rules system. While I appreciate (and take note of) the comments that basically say don't change things, I would also love constructive feedback on how to improve proposed systems if they seem outwardly broken/confusing. Just because you have been doing this for years and may have glossed over shortfalls or gotten used to things does not mean that cannot be improved. It's a fine line and I understand that somethings don't need to be "fixed". I'm trying to make the best game possible for my players in two concurrent campaigns here. Your help and thoughts are super appreciated!

19 hours ago, ianinak said:

Because then I would be rolling several dice that represent the players and opponents instead of one die that literally represents the Force. Rolling Some for good things and some for bad things complicates things and is more math. Plus the symbols would cancel each other out (except for triumph and despair) leading to potential washes. Null / blank / wash results are basically good things, and not actually neutral, since Force Sensitives don't want to be noticed or reported.

Er, no, you wouldn't. If a PC rolls a Despair on a check whilst using a Force power whilst there's bystanders around, then oh no! Someone reports them to the Inquisitorius. Or if they roll a bunch of Advantage, maybe a player wants to spend them to have a friendly NPC tell them a shortcut away from the pursuing Stormtroopers. It just feels like you're adding mechanics because you don't like the open-ended nature of the narrative dice system, which is pretty much the whole point of this system.

20 hours ago, ianinak said:

It seems there is a lot of resistance to changing things or adding anything to the rules system.

Lol, you haven't seen me talk about stim packs or the Move power or space combat...or myriad other things ...discussions that are going on right now in other threads. Plenty in the system that is modifiable.

I think in this case you're mistaking "resistance to change" for a sense that your concrete lists are maybe misapplied in the context of this ruleset. I find the narrative dice work best when they facilitate riffing in the context of the story, and they work less well the more specifics you have to remember. Your changes seem to focus on nailing things down, making it less flexible. But the game is filled with things that aren't nailed down (range bands come to mind immediately) and so it's a bit like watching someone play whack-a-mole.

I actually like the Force Die idea, and use it myself for some other things,* mostly related to luck (it is excellent for that because of the pip dispersal).

Spending Triumph/Despair on force power checks is one way to do it, another way is to flip a DP one way or the other to posit that there is someone beneficial vs. someone who is detrimental.

If I may make the case for the Force Die, player skill and the difficulty of the circumstance no longer plays into how/when/where someone observes them, for good or for ill. It is left entirely up to the dodecahedron of fate. And a double-light result doesn't have to be someone who knows a lot about the force, but someone who is willing to aid and abet them (related to their use of the force, of course). It's not like you'll find a Force scholar on every other street corner.

I think it is a good way of judging "audience participation" in any environment, but in reaction to a Force check I think it is especially thematic.

*As an example: Vynocks kidnapped three of a PC's "babies" (her very adorable and child-like droids), and fled down some of four tunnels. After failing Survival and Perception checks, the group decided to split up and just take a chance. So I have them each roll a Force die. With a Light pip, the PC finds one of the babies. With two Light pips, she finds two of the babies. With a dark pip, she doesn't find any of them, and with double-dark, she has an encounter with... something.
(if they'd rolled four Light pips total, we'd simply have spillover and nothing would happen with the remaining pip)

On 5/29/2020 at 1:22 AM, ianinak said:

Hyperspace Calculations: Calculations in non-threatening situations are an automatic success. Calculations can be started as a Pilot Action or an Action by whomever is Astrogating (co-pilot, astromech droid, etc.) The base number of rounds is equal to the silhouette of the largest ship. On a failure, you may try again the next round. See Astrogation Rules From Action Sheet for difficulty, modifiers, and results.

One of the reasons that Astromech Droids are so valuable is that they can store a number of pre-calculated Jumps in their head, and if you're activating one of those pre-calculated Jumps, then once you've double checked the co-ordinates with a quick Astrogation Check (assuming you succeed) then you can just go without any need for waiting.

I disagree with this. I think that for many of your houserules, you drag out the amount of time it takes to do things way too long. Base 6 rounds to warm up a starfighter? Rounds=difficulty for non-combat checks? Especially if the character performing the task is just going to be performing that task the whole time and can't do anything else.

For Astrogating, I make it one round to calculate. So with eight initiative slots, if you were to start calculating on the third, you would be ready to jump on the third slot of the next round. Each additional success moves up the slot by one, Threat can be spent to move the slot back by one. On a failed check, you have to retry the calculation. In a situation where you really need to skip, it's at least Average, probably Hard to get those calculations done.

While on the subject of hyperspace houserules, here's a topic where hyperspace travel times were discussed in-depth. I built a hyperspace travel times calculator, and the thread contains much of my reasoning: