Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game
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So, yeah. I recently opened a game...but it was a bit of a second choice theme, and it's eating at me.
I'm very seriously considering learning enough to forgo Aresmush, and set up a Pennmush game using Dahan's D6.
Theme is simple enough. Extremely early Rebel cell set in a backwater system during the years prior to A New Hope. No Force, no playable FCs...just grimy and hard scrabble opposition.
Probably no space trucking.
Empire would be the primary NPC baddie essentially, with room for a PC criminal org to backstop the rebel rp. The idea is that the gameworld is not static, adherence to canon isn't really super important, and players would have a huge hand in guiding the story. Eventually, the universe very likely
would open up to cover more territory.Any interest out there for something like that, or thoughts?
PS: If anyone remotely competent with code is interested...hit me up.
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Yes, please.
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I'm curious. Why not use Ares with FS3?
I guess I can get the desire for D6, it is a system I enjoy, but yeah, curiosity got the better of me.
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@Rucket Because I couldn't think of a great way to make different species feel all that different with FS3. I used FS3 for a Wing Commander game, and it was great at that...I just don't think it fits SW all that well.
And I'm a dinosaur that is trying to recapture some nostalgic magic, I think.
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Yeah FS3 wouldn't work well for wookies and stuff. It's good for regular humans.
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I recommend WEG's d6 system for Star Wars. It's easier to get the hang of than d20 is, which should make it easier for someone to get their character made and out of CG.
"Just leave me alone. I'm not myself. I'm falling apart, and I don't want you here." - ― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
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@TiredEwok That's the system I have in mind. I just had been looking at Dahan's code for D6 from SW1 and 2 prior to writing the post.
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Yes please
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+1 vote
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I'm down!
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I love the era, and I think it's a good one. I'm very interested (although I'm not a huge fan of WEG, I suppose it would be better without Force-users).
I will put forward three issues with what you've proposed, and a couple of ideas on how to balance them out (just unsolicited advice and I won't feel bad if you totally ignore the suggestions).
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There is a significant portion of Star Wars players who just want to play Jedi, and won't join any game that doesn't have Force Users. I see two solutions to this, either just accept that you won't get those players (my suggestion) or allow minor Force abilities (which I think will just frustrate the players who want to be Jedi).
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A ton of players want to play Han Solo before he joined the Rebellion, and just want to be independent smugglers. My solution: keep the theme tight, require people to app in as actual members of the cell, and hold them to it.
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You will have some players who want to play Rogue One, and some who will want to play The Force Unleashed. One group will want the entire Rebel Fleet to be beaten up by two Star Destroyers and a defense base, and the other group will want to have fleet engagements when they aren't trying to board Star Destroyers with 40 of their closest friends and take them over. I strongly suggest picking which of those two extremes (or more likely, which point in between them) you want to play, be very up-front about it, and enforce it ruthlessly and equally.
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Got that SWU nostalgia bug, huh? As the kids say, I know them feels.
I tried to get a game going with a very similar theme a while back, but at the time there didn't seem to be a lot of interest, and the project was largely abandoned. That said, it's a theme I'd love to play in again. PennMUSH, D6, Rebellion era, NPC Empire? I'm into it.
The following is purely my opinion, take it with a grain of salt or ignore it completely.
WEG does not do the Force mechanics well. There are arguments on both sides of this, but WEG, especially on a MUSH, tends to be very unbalanced when it comes to the Force. Not as big an issue in a Rebellion-era game where there are practically no active Jedi, but still a concern, because...
As said, people want to play Jedi. It's one of the biggest draws of the SW theme. Flatly stating "No Force" is going to shoot you in the foot, in my opinion. Maybe you start off with no Jedi, but work toward introducing them through plot machinations. In both Canon and Legends, there were active Jedi during the early years of the Rebellion, but they were a) rare, b) either smart or short-lived.
SW games also don't tend to do well if there's no space system. Players like their stuff; coded ships, weapons, armor, etcetera, even if it's basic. A space system that gets the player from planet A to planet B without much in the way of frills is probably enough, and weapons/armor/equipment that gives the player some stats to reference will make them happier than just saying "just roleplay it".
Not sure if it needs to be said, but in my experience, limiting a SW game to a single planet is like signing its death certificate before it takes its first breath. You might get away with a somewhat isolated sector in the Outer Rim (Brak Sector? Minos Cluster?), but I've always found that players want familiar planets like Tatooine, Corellia, and Coruscant.
The smartest thing you can do is make the Empire an NPC faction. One of the biggest struggles I've seen in SW MUSHes is the balance between the Rebellion "losing" and the Empire "winning", (which is patently ridiculous, but that's another story); the Imperials always complain when the Rebellion wins, because it's "unrealistic", or the Rebels always complain when the Empire wins because "we're supposed to be the good guys". To say nothing of the fact that managing a PC Imperial faction is a logistical nightmare.
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Anyway, that's my three cents on the subject. If you want to discuss further, send me a message. If this gets off the ground, I'll definitely give it a shot.
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@seraphim73 said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:
I love the era, and I think it's a good one. I'm very interested (although I'm not a huge fan of WEG, I suppose it would be better without Force-users).
I will put forward three issues with what you've proposed, and a couple of ideas on how to balance them out (just unsolicited advice and I won't feel bad if you totally ignore the suggestions).
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There is a significant portion of Star Wars players who just want to play Jedi, and won't join any game that doesn't have Force Users. I see two solutions to this, either just accept that you won't get those players (my suggestion) or allow minor Force abilities (which I think will just frustrate the players who want to be Jedi).
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A ton of players want to play Han Solo before he joined the Rebellion, and just want to be independent smugglers. My solution: keep the theme tight, require people to app in as actual members of the cell, and hold them to it.
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You will have some players who want to play Rogue One, and some who will want to play The Force Unleashed. One group will want the entire Rebel Fleet to be beaten up by two Star Destroyers and a defense base, and the other group will want to have fleet engagements when they aren't trying to board Star Destroyers with 40 of their closest friends and take them over. I strongly suggest picking which of those two extremes (or more likely, which point in between them) you want to play, be very up-front about it, and enforce it ruthlessly and equally.
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Yes, I'm aware I'm probably going to not get some folks because I'm not allowing The Force, but that's ok. You can't please everyone.
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Absolutely. The Rebel cell is going to be what drives the game, and everything really needs to feed that. I do think there might be room for a small criminal element because friends in low places is fun for storytelling, but not on initial roll out.
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Aye. That is definitely the line that needs walking. I'm very much in the middle of that. Certainly more toward Rogue One's side of the aisle, though.
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Star Wars as a whole has a big fanbase, and people like it for all kinds of different reasons.
While certainly the Jedi and smugglers are a big draw for many, there are definitely those who are more drawn in by the rebels. And yes, the SW TTRPGs are very gear-oriented and the SW MUs are traditionally code-heavy, but there are plenty of SW discord RPs and Storium games and such with no code/gear/etc. whatsoever.
I think the trap many games fall into is trying to appeal to everybody in order to maximize audience. It's okay to have a smaller game, as long as you can get a passionate group of players and keep them entertained.
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@jphuygh This is a very well thought out post, and I definitely appreciate it.
And, yeah this absolutely is SW: Uprising nostalgia.
A lot of it boils down to my own limitations, though. Coded space and econ can be great, but I'm simply not capable of providing it. Same with item objects, as Ares doesn't have support for coded objects to my (limited) knowledge.
I have some ideas about keeping track of physical assets though, and providing stats for gear.
The Force really probably isn't going to happen. Unless it's dealing with some NPC for a bit. I'm open to evolving as time goes on, but I'm really not a huge fan of one or two people getting to play an awesome role with very limited slots.
And the scale is the scale for a reason. I don't expect a huge number of players, so starting with one system is more about providing an objective to drive RP...break the cell's teeth on a small garrison, find other like-minded cells and move forward. I'm not about a static experience...I fully expect a nice campaign that sees the galaxy start to open up.
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@faraday Give me a dozen good players over two dozen space truckers any day...
And I say that as someone who enjoys space trucking at times...but I think that drive to watch numbers go up and acquire all the assets might be a hidden pitfall for a small game. I don't particularly want a game of have and have nots.
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@theznar said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:
The Force really probably isn't going to happen. Unless it's dealing with some NPC for a bit. I'm open to evolving as time goes on, but I'm really not a huge fan of one or two people getting to play an awesome role with very limited slots.
Just out of curiosity, why limit Force slots that way at all? People love to play Jedi, but that's not the only reason to Star Wars by a very long shot. I'm sure you'd see a pretty diverse cast regardless. Maybe limit Force Users to one per account if you really wanted to maintain some sense of proportion, but otherwise just say the number of non-FU NPCs is simply higher and PCs are the exception.
Not that Force PCs would be a dealbreaker for me personally either way, I love the idea of playing a plucky cell against the Empire. Star Wars: Rebels has given me such a hankering for it
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@theznar said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:
The Force really probably isn't going to happen. Unless it's dealing with some NPC for a bit. I'm open to evolving as time goes on, but I'm really not a huge fan of one or two people getting to play an awesome role with very limited slots.
You can always go the route Star Wars Galaxies started on: make players have to work to become Jedi, instead of automatically starting as one. The setting you're works well for that.
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@wizz I'm limiting FS(as in not having them) for the entirely selfish reason that I'm not interested in dealing with that aspect. It's just not something I'm looking to run.
I'm all about that plucky little cell of insurgents and their struggle to become something more. I'm not going to require it, but I'm personally interested in the concept of characters just being normal folks forced into resisting tyranny, and learning as they go.
Some progress has been made, there's now a domain purchased and a mush running. This game is no longer theoretical, at least.
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@runescryer said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:
@theznar said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:
The Force really probably isn't going to happen. Unless it's dealing with some NPC for a bit. I'm open to evolving as time goes on, but I'm really not a huge fan of one or two people getting to play an awesome role with very limited slots.
You can always go the route Star Wars Galaxies started on: make players have to work to become Jedi, instead of automatically starting as one. The setting you're works well for that.
Primarily, because I'm a dinosaur that thinks FS characters became way too common in the franchise, and just aren't all that interesting.
Secondarily, because whenever I saw that 'work for it criteria' on a game...the perception was that slots just went to staffers and their buds. Not that I believe I'd do that, nor do I have many buds in the hobby after a fairly long time away...but it's just not a look that I love.
