[RPG]: [Actual Play Week] Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition Core Rulebook, reviewed by gridlock (5/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13666.phtml

Andrew Brehaut's Summary:

The saga edition is an attractive product that is fun, fast to play and really captures the spirit of the Star Wars movies.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Pig with Pen]

Thanks for the nice review!

I see you rated the Substance of the game at 4 and mentioned that it supported the genre assumptions quite well. I would like to read more about this, especially with regards to firefights. The movies are quite short on examples of people getting hit and staying in action. From the (briefly skimmed ) play report on your website I take one of the characters was at least wounded once and I wonder how this played out.

Thank you again.

[gridlock]

Thanks for responding.

I gave the game a 4 for substance because while it is good, i feel it is missing a small number of important things for players new to d20, particularly more examples, a more comprehensive index, and a glossary.

With regard to firefights, each character has a 'condition track' that measures how beaten they are (in addition to HP). As you progress down the condition track from Normal to Helpless you collect penalties. This models wounds accumulating and deemphasizes HP as being the key measure of physical wellbeing. The most common way to move down the condition track is if you receive more hit points in a single attack than your damage threshold (fortitude defence + size modifier). These penalties go none,-1,-2,-5,-10 and incapacitated so you can quickly get functionally removed from combat while still being above 0 hit points.

Two other small features of the system that we found affected the firefights are
the rule called 'second wind', and the use of force points to improve rolls. If you fall below half your hit points you can take a second wind and heal either 1/4 your HP or your Cons score (whichever is greater). This is limited to once per day.

By using a force point you can roll a bonus D6 (increases at a couple of level break points) on attack, skill and ability rolls. These rules mean that combat is fairly quick, getting a hit can be very significant and that the heros have enough of an edge to replicate activities seen in the movies.

I hope that helps answer your questions

[Jmacq1]

As far as the lack of supplements: There's a sourcebook that's been completed since November of last year, but has been continually pushed back due to the delay of the multimedia tie-in it's attached to: "The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide."

Upcoming is a "Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide" which is due in August, and the "Galaxy Tiles" were recently released (though if you eschew usage of miniatures in your game it's less useful). I think there's a Gamemaster Screen upcoming, as well.

But anyway, I've yet to really playtest the system (my gaming group is hung up on more medieval fantasy settings and I'm the only real Star Wars fan in the bunch), but I've liked what I've seen so far. Nice review all-around.

[crimfan]

Originally Posted by Pig with Pen

Thanks for the nice review!

I see you rated the Substance of the game at 4 and mentioned that it supported the genre assumptions quite well. I would like to read more about this, especially with regards to firefights. The movies are quite short on examples of people getting hit and staying in action. From the (briefly skimmed ) play report on your website I take one of the characters was at least wounded once and I wonder how this played out.

IMO---and I've been playing in a Saga game since last August, so it's not an uninformed O ---Saga does a pretty good job.

Of course, the players and GM can ruin things by being overly literal and stingy about allowing things and it's necessary to make sure there are plenty of opportunities for Star Wars feel to appear, but it works pretty well. The more streamlined skill system is nice. There are a few nits I have with Saga so far:

(1) Why, oh why, are Jump, Swim and Climb separate skills?

(2) Recovery should be on a "per session" or "scene" basis, not time-based. Lots of more drama-oriented games would benefit from this. It's not hard to implement, but it really helps.

(3) More Force powers. One of the players has a Jedi and there are some missing powers that would really fit his character's idiom well.

(4) More talent trees!

I'm REALLY looking forward to the KOTOR book... that's by far my favorite Star Wars era.

Crimfan