Work on the Star Wars setting!

I think this project has been good to force myself to learn a lot about the mechanics of the system in a short amount of time. Normally I’m very much a ‘learn by doing’ kind of person, but this time, since I don’t have a group that regularly plays this, I had to do it the other way. Like studying for a test, except in a way where I’ll actually retain the knowledge after the test.

Things I learned (in general) while doing the project:

1. I enjoy learning a new system.
2. It is exceedingly important to understand how the mechanics behind a system work to be able to contextualize story telling.
3. Lightsabers are just awesome. Genuinely.
4. There is a huge difference in writing for Legends Canon and Disney Canon - I didn’t really notice this until I started digging much deeper into the differences between the two.
5. Character Creation using the Star Wars system is really enjoyable and flexible.
6. Constantly re-examining the project scope is great for not making you feel like it gets insurmountable if you fall behind.
7. Adjust. Adjust. Adjust. Be flexible with your project!

Things I learned (specifically for this system) during this project:

1. Narrative dice are awesome.
2. The biggest complexity, really, is the equipment system. This was surprising to me, since I can’t think of a single system off the top of my head where that’s the case.
3. There’s an incredibly rich customization depth. There’s thousands of ways to build a character.
4. This system, more so than most others I’ve played, requires either a tremendous amount of preparation, or an incredible talent at improvisation.
5. The game is set up into scenes, very much like a movie. It’s really cool for pacing.
6. I cannot wait to try this out.

In short, I think this system will suit what I want: A system more flexible in its success/failure states than D&D or Shadowrun etc., LIGHTSABER GOES SWOOSH, a huge wealth of lore to tap, relatively friendly to new players and tremendous depth for veterans, using some of my knowledge from some of my favorite games (KOTOR 1 & 2) in a productive way.

Well, I did it! After altering the scope of the project in Week 4 to preparing a one shot, I think I’m at the point where I’m happy with what I’ve done. Now its just dotting my i’s and crossing my T’s, and writing up a recruitment post!

And while this is the end of the project formally, I will continue working on this for the next few months.

So, in Week 3 I created a total of 4 characters and have started to fully appreciate that system. I think I’m confident in walking people through every step except the Equipment… which I neglected on all 4 characters to look into.

So this week I’m going to do some one-shot prep, as well as look into equipment…

I created my first character today! Together with TriScorp.

I mean technically it’s not the first, but it’s the first one, from scratch, without additional guidance. So that’s cool. So, what I realized is that there are a few notes I should make for myself for when I take players through this. I think it’s also best if I do character creation individually with people, and then have Session 0 as more ‘mechanics’ introduction than character creation stuff.

Probably the most ‘complicated’ stuff, will be equipment and explaining how the dice work. That and for people who know nothing about it, just general introduction into things like the races (of which there is quite a few). Furthermore there is a lot of opportunity cost that needs to be considered when creating a mechanically sound character, which is things I will need to brief people on.

All together, while (for me) relatively intuitive, I think it could be overwhelming to new players to go through this for the first time, so I think I need to prepare for a lot more guidance, especially since I’m starting as a DM in the system as well.

But, in the end, I made some quick notes, and am going to go through it a few more times then learn how the dice works… essentially doing it in the reverse order from what I initially intended.

The past few days have been a bit weird, in that something that should have made me very happy, instead did the opposite - Allow me to explain.

Alright, so, while I was working on researching how the combat system worked (reading through the rulebook, asking a friend for some input etc.) I came across something that, at the time, made me very happy: A cheat sheet! It listed what the dice were, went through dice results, other systems etc. Basically it did an amazing job at providing a quick-reference for when I would start running the system. Fantastic right?

Well… Basically, what I have been doing up to this point, is working through the rulebook, copying and rewriting sections of it into something easier to understand for myself and hopefully future players. I was doing a bit more than the cheat sheet, for example, I listed what the skills could be used for as well as die results and how to interpret them (which is all the cheat sheet did).

What this caused, at the end of the day was me losing the motivation to move on. I mean I had the cheat sheet, did I really need to do the additional work? Why did I do all the work when that existed? Isn’t that why I was doing it in the first place. It caused me to question myself, and why I didn’t look it up before getting started. It felt like I’d wasted a lot of time and effort. It took me days to realize that… well… No. I hadn’t. I was working through the material at my own pace, learning at my own pace etc. But yeah, that’s why I continued that today, albeit timidly. And thus we find ourselves here.

Week 3 Fatigue is hard.

Alright, dove a little bit into the Lightsaber hole, for working on my own skill for my game. The first draft can be found here (feedback welcome if anyone is familiar with the system).

Took a while to think about, but I think, since I’m setting it in the Old Republic era, where Lightsabers, Jedi and Sith are far more common, it is warranted.

Whelp, I have finished writing up all of the different skills - minus the combat skills. Going to take a break now while I figure out how I want to do the combat skills, which I will be giving their own separate document, since it pertains to a different part of the game, a different system of sorts.

As a result of starting to work on my Week 2 stuff I need to make the following changes: Basically, I gotta split up the Combat Skills (Brawl through Ranged(Light)) into its own separate document, only taking note of specific stuff that isn’t in the combat chapter.

And I may just skip over that depending on how complicated it ends up being. Also might move forward the initial drafts of the Lightsaber knowledge skills. I think I should work on that before I introduce my brain to Combat rules.

Also means finally diving into my much beloved rabbit hole of Lightsabers, Lightsaber Crystals, Lightsaber Fighting styles, etc.

Finally finished the Week 1 goal! It took a while, it was kind of boring, but at the same time I learned a lot about various situations that might come up that skills can be used for. I won’t write that list but… Yeah, there was a lot of learning happening :D

Project Changelog: Week 3 Goal changed from:

Learn the steps of character creation. Work on fleshing out the start of the Campaign, which will be an introduction to mechanics, and letting players get to know their characters.

To:

Learn about the Dice system, how ‘Opposition’ works, and the steps of Character Creation.

Week 4 Goal changed from:

Refresh the steps of character creation - Go more in depth. Work on the players Ship! (It had more text, but I forgot to save it before changing :D!)

To:

Refresh the steps of character creation - Go more in depth. Work on fleshing out the start of the campaign. This will be an introduction to mechanics, setting, and allow players to test and get to know their own characters.

So. Today is the first official day of the project, and I realized something when I started working on the “Discipline” skill - Which is the first skill I came across which can be used to really ‘oppose’ certain checks. When I got to the last part of “what can this skill be used for?” in the book it had the following passage:

Discipline is often used to oppose another’s actions - thus, the roll is made by the opposing player - so it may not always be possible to generate an extra [Success]. In situations in which an extra [Success] can be earned, one may be spent to downgrade (I didn’t know what this part meant) a [Red Dice] to a [Purple Dice] on the characters next action.

And so now, one of the things I will do before moving on, is creating a quick reference document for myself, copying what each dice is from this page.

That new document now exists here. The first page is literally just copy-pasted notes from the wiki page, everything after that is me making notes for things I need to explain to myself and my players later. I am hoping to structure this in an easy to understand (for myself and hopefully others) way.

Before the project fully kicks off: This is where I am at right now. It’s the skills I have done ‘summaries’ for for myself so far, as well as the first draft of the Lightsaber (Intellect) skill.