So, I’ve been tinkering with a Star Wars hack of WiP to take over for FFGs Star Wars RPG, given that I don’t always have the time lately to deal with all the stats and balancing that comes along with a crunchier system. And I figured I would put the very early ideas out there and get some feedback!
This Hack changes the stats, as well as alters the Power Profile a bit. It does away (at least in this version of the idea) with Drive Books and replaces Achievements with Destiny, which are a cross between Bonds and Achievements, as well as a reward for rolling 6-, ala Dungeon World.
Overall its still pretty basic and early, but I’d be interested in getting some feedback. Its currently based off the results of running a single session of Star Wars in more or less vanilla WiP, which actually worked really well, but definitely revealed a few things to tweak (such as changing the idea of “Difficulty” for the Power Profile to the idea of “Risk”, as asking how difficult it was for certain things sometimes drew a confused look, but once I switched to framing it in terms of risk of things going wrong, everyone was much more comfortable with their Pushes.
Anyway, yes, enough rambling. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙂
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Not to distract from your own hack, but have you seen Star Wars World based on Apocalypse World? Do you have design thoughts in relation to it?
I glanced at Star Wars World a long time ago, but not recently and I don’t remember much of it. At the time FFGs Star Wars had my attention pretty solidly. What swings me towards hacking Worlds in Peril is the Condition system for damage, and the awesomely open power development system, which most other Apocalypse World games lack. I mean, I love Dungeon Worlds and Monster Hearts and such, but Worlds in Peril gets just the right amount of Fate Chocolate in with my AW Peanut Butter. 😛
Yeah, I think it could be a lot of fun! You’ll need to play around with Basic Moves a bit too though probably – at the very least instead of Fit In you’ll need something else for recovery. If you still want Bonds to be important you could still tie it into that.
It looks like the Powers Profile has Aspects instead of actions too, eh? I think that could be fun. Can players add more Aspects in via a move like Push, or is that it? I can see it getting a bit cumbersome, especially for the GM to remember so many Aspects if they’re added on, but a re-written Push move could also replace a good portion of advancement, which could be cool. If there was something like Drive Books along with Bonds, and a Push-type move you’d have all the advancement you’d ever need I think. Even in WiP I think that’s the heart.
You might want to tweak the Serve and Protect move into something a bit more forgiving, especially if you want to inspire more teamwork rather than tough choices. Most of the moves will probably need some tweaking though.
Are you planning on having Origin + Drive books, or just keeping it simple like you sample characters?
Anyway, I think it could be a lot of fun. It’s been awhile since I looked at Star Wars world, you might decide to check it out and just use their Basic Moves, or tweak a couple to fit with the new Powers Profile thing you’ve got going on. It’s based more of Apocalypse World, so it has a pretty different feel, and has Hx instead of Bonds and such, but there might be some inspiration there. Here’s the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/881e931z1qdawdk/Playbooks%20PG%2013.pdf
Kyle Simons Just an aside, I don’t have the link on hand, but there is actually a much more recent version of SWW! It’s pretty cool 🙂
Thanks for the comments! Kyle Simons
Basic Moves definitely need a few tweaks. The session I ran was combat, and Takedown worked pretty well as written, so I didn’t get into a lot with the moves just yet.
The aspects can potentially be added in via a Push, but that’ll definitely be more rare than adding them via Destiny. If someone is pulling something that makes sense that their character had in their past, but that they hadn’t thought in CharGen, then yeah, it’d be allowed. But if its something of an advancement of the character, then that’s where they’d spend Destiny ala Achievements to add it. The more standard stuff would still be added by Push.
As for Origin + Drive books, I’m not sure. I’m not sure if they’ll add enough to justify the time spent creating them in my group’s specific case. I tried to tie the idea of the Origin book in with the “Picked Up” and “Innate” power sets, so that its still a thought-out part of the character. And with Drive Books aren’t quite as necessary since I’ve hacked in a different system from Achievements to allow advancement. For their effect of driving roleplay though, that’s something I don’t have a direct replacement for, but I had been thinking of something ala Fate’s Compels using Destiny/Trouble.
And yeah, I’ll definitely find a newer link for Star Wars World and take a look.
Thanks again!
Added the Basic Moves to the sheet, as well as Highlighting, because I totally forgot about that until I took a look at the Star Wars World stuff, but I think that’ll be a nice addition with a tweak, that instead of highlighting stats, you’re highlighting something from the Ability Summary.
Most of the Basic Moves didn’t seem like they needed much tweaking. I gave Defend (Serve & Protect) the ability to deal a Condition, much like Dungeon World’s can deal damage, and then added a new move, called Reveal, which is like Push but for Abilities (Aspects/Power sets), and is a bit more dangerous.
What’s not mentioned yet is that Bonds are still fully in tact in the system. I just hadn’t listed them because it was pretty much straight out of WiP.
Still thinking about how to tweak Burnout. The 3 Crits thing might not always make sense, so on a 10+ you’ll probably get a mix of Crits and Trouble. And then 6- would be “Dead or Captured”. That just leaves tweaking the Last Chance move a bit.
Alfred Rudzki Oh nice, I haven’t looked at it in a long time, obviously. I really dig Star Worlds though – it’s really pretty and a lot more simple: https://sentientgames.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/star-worlds-v2dot1.pdf
Scott Arnone Nice, sounds good! Yeah, it really depends on how much customization and fiddly bits you want. If it were me I’d probably be pretty lazy and just lift stuff out of the FFG version wholesale. Maybe do away with Origins and just have Jobs or Classes or whatever they’re called. I haven’t looked at the game too much, not sure if their skill trees would transfer over well to moves or not, or if you’d even need it, but it’d probably be good inspiration and save you a bunch of time instead of coming up with your own stuff.
Looks like you need to figure out how you’re going to have the Fit In move work, or how you’re going to deal with healing. Maybe just use Fit In as a move to resolve any bonds? Like when you have any resolved Bonds… could be the trigger. That way players can still use stimpacks and bacta tanks and such.
Another update (including a linked Table of Contents and the Special Moves). What I’m currently thinking of for Fit In, which is in this update, are 3 different Moves: “Life on the Edge” “Life in the Service” and “Life within the Force” depending on how things go. Life on the Edge and Life in the Service operate similarly, healing Conditions based on how little Trouble you have and increasing Bonds, while Life within the Force heals you based on how many Light Side points you have, but doesn’t help your Bonds any. Both all 3 of them allow you to bleed off Trouble, giving them a reason to be used even if things like stim packs are still usable to take care of Conditions during play.
As for the Moves stuff, its definitely a thought about looking at the FFG one, but I know that looking at Star Wars World, there was very little there that I thought needed to be their own moves when you’ve got the great power system from WiP.
One more update. Important bits are the section on Bonds, Credits, and a new Basic Move called Travel.
Bonds work in the opposite manner to WiP. Everyone starts with a Bond of 1 to either Empire, Rebels, or Scum, they start with 1 to each other PC, and then they get 6 additional points to distribute however they want. But then they can choose to take negative points, which can be used to just negate some off those initially given points, with the catch that at least ONE Bond has to be negative when they’re all spent. Taking the negative points is how they earn the extra starting Abilities.
Credits are sort of a gauge. Your wealth is in 1 of 6 categories, and depending on the category, certain things will just be acquirable, while others will cause you to drop one. So, someone Poor could manage to eat and that’s about it, while someone whose Comfortable could pick up a new blaster in town without having to worry about it. But if they need to make some expensive Starship repairs? Well, that’s going to set them back a bit.
And lastly, Travel is a basic move inspired by the indie japanese RPG Ryuutama. Its a roll that encompasses everything from space travel to a chase across rooftops. It interjects some risk into every trip, and makes the galaxy feel just a little more alive. After all, sure, you just need to head from the Spaceport to the local junk dealers, but you’re in a crowded city, so there’s always the potential to see something interesting.
Scott Arnone Sounds cool!