Last Friday, I got to have my first session ever of Star Wars RPG: Saga edition.
Cool.
Of course, there were a few odd little things about how I ran it. First of all, I’m not actually really familiar with the rules yet. Trying to figure out Saga really gave me a glimpse of how a lot of the world deals with RPGs – they don’t. Too many rules! And this is from the perspective of a rules-lawyer type of gamer, who knows D&D 3.5e (the basis of a lot of Saga) backwards. 4e is going to be a challenge. I must be getting old. Hey, I’m only three months away from my 35th birthday!
Second, I was the only one with the rules. I *hate* running games like that. I can do it with Amber, because the rules really don’t count. It’s all in my head, and the heads of the players. With Saga, the players have several abilities and skills, and it’d be nice for them to be able to look up what they’re doing.
Third, I was running an old WEG d6 Star Wars adventure – Riders of the Maelstrom. This is a really fun adventure – I played it back in the day, then bought it, and this is the second time I’ve run it, although the first time with the d20 System. (The first time, I used the Star Warriors add-on to run the big space battle, meaning we finished the session at about 5am!)
Stats? Well, most of the initial foes were Stormtroopers, so they’re in the Saga rulebook. A lot of the rest I just fudged greatly. 🙂
One bonus of being in the Rebellion era is that we didn’t have a Jedi – the Jedi needs the rulebook the most of the PCs, so I was very happy to dodge that bullet. Instead, we had a Scoundrel, a Soldier, a Noble and a… whatever the other class is. Scout! That’s it, Scout!
The initial scene was a chase through a jungle-top village, with vines, stormtroopers, and repulsor-powered hang-gliders! Cool! Unfortunately, the d20 System doesn’t really handle chases well. It really, really doesn’t. The absolute best system for chases I’ve ever seen is James Bond 007 by Victory Games. Great, great system. Saga doesn’t have that yet.
Consider a James Bond chase: you have people running, riding vehicles, and firing guns. In Star Wars (and D&D) that firing guns bit doesn’t happen. Why? Consider the actions you can take:
* Move twice, or
* Move once and fire.
Now, you’re in a chase scene. What do you think you choose? If you stop to fire, you don’t have a chance of catching up. So, I cheerfully ignored that option. People could run away *and fire* every round. Oh, -5 penalty for running and firing, but it gave that dynamic feel to the chase. No minis either. I own some SW ones, but I need to find them first.
Also, one big difference between d6 Star Wars and Saga: Stormtroopers are scary to low-level PCs. In our 3-year d6 SW campaign of my youth, the catchcry was “Only Imperial Stormtroopers are that precise!” because they never, ever hit anything. Love the Second Wind ability – I just wish some of the PCs would use it. Look, in Star Wars, if you get below half-hp, you’re about to die! So Mat’s PC got KOed. Luckily Sarah’s noble was really wealthy and was running around with a Medical Kit and some medipacs (a lot to lug around, but she’s eccentrically wealthy, I guess!) So she got Mat up and running again.
Second Wind? Great ability. Can’t wait to see it in 4e. Should you be able to use a Force Point to trigger it in Saga, in addition to the 1/day and feat bonuses?
After that, there was roleplaying and investigation. I love that the adventure has secrets, and the players were smart enough to find them.
Oh, another thing: d6 Star Wars had everything in terms of Difficulty Numbers. An “Easy” Computer check meant you had to roll a 10. A “Moderate” Repair check was rolling a 20. Using those skill checks transposed into Saga edition? Easy and fun. 🙂