Troll Lord Games

Oh my...what a nice system!

I just picked up a rather large lot of it (set me back about $150, but worth it in my opinion) and while I've looked at the system before, it was only in a "cursory glance through the pages" kind of perusal. Now that I have some stuff for it (picked up the 2nd ed. Revised and Expanded core book plus over 20 hard and soft bounds) and have actually sat down with it and started reading the rules, I have to say it's pretty nice. I'd like to get others opinions on it - Thoughts/opinions/anecdotes? Pros? Cons? What it does well? What it does poorly? Things I need to house rule?

Thanks!

The only thing I remember is that Jawa Jedi or Wookie Jedi are badass. Then, I got rid of the game and haven't looked back mostly because the players know and expect far too much of the "canon universe" to exist to let me really play it how I'd want to... at least, when they knew it was a Star Wars game.

I seem to recall there being some fundamental similarities to a lot of other games... dice pools? Maybe I have the wrong edition or some other game stuck in my head.

Don't forget they made free, Star Wars free, versions of the rules to download. So if you have a shortage of the books you can at least give them "core" rules on PDF.

I cut my teeth on d6 star wars. It is am amazing game. However, $150 for a free game is a bit much. However, having said that, the free stuff D6 fantasy, adventure and space aren't "star wars." For anyone interested in the free stuff go to drive thru rpg and search D6. you can download the PDF's for $0! It is one of the best additions to OGL. I would argue it is the best addition to OGL ever! I guess it isn't true OGL just public domain, but still, amazing game, amazing system and super fun!

But to answer you question, the game is very simple: assign your stats, select a few skills and you're set. No classes (in the traditional sense), no Level, no XP, no feats, no polyhedral dice, and no HP. The wild die mechanic is super fun. It allows for "exploding dice" as is common in L5R. Nothing beats exploding damage! I remember attacking a dark jedi (generally not advised) and rolled a 6 on my wild die damage. This allows you to roll another d6 and add that to your damage. Well the second roll came up as a 6 as well, thus I rolled a 3rd die!

The DJ's dmg resist roll didn't even come close to blocking my damage. The difference was 15 which brought him from fully healthy to mortally wounded and unconscious. That was it, the end of round 1. My partners and I bandaged up the DJ and hauled him back to our enclave for questioning

On the flip side, I was defending a cruiser from a group of pirates that had boarded the ship and despite my best lightsaber skills a roll of 1 on my wild die to deflect a blaster shot combined with a damage roll similar to the one I just described dropped me from healthy to mortally wounded in a single fight. I spent the next few game days in an under equipped medical bay dancing between life and death. Thankfully there was enough supplies on hand to keep me alive until we reached Sullust where I was able to get some time in a bacta tank.

The game is very fun, and very exciting. You really cant stand "toe to toe" with thugs like a high leveled C&C character just because you have loads of HP. Regardless of your characters skill level a single shot could drop you from hale to dead. It makes you think twice before drawing your blaster.

Now in regards to the free D6 stuff. I highly recommend downloading them. Before making everything free, the creators made a few changes to the system which clarified a lot of issues. For example single fire, semi-auto and full auto weapons. There is a mechanical difference (no pun intended) and that difference is not explained in star wars D6.

Passive, active, and full defense is introduced. This is a great addition to their game and despite the extra reading simplified the game a lot. I also recommend NOT using the melee combat rules explained in Star Wars D6 and instead use the rules explained in D6 open instead. It is easier and more streamlined. The melee combat rules in star wars aren't hard to grasp but they are different than the ranged combat rules and I never liked them. Especially when you use the rules from the other D6 material. It was a great change. Basically the rules in D6 open are the same 99.999% the same just with some updates that made the game even easier to learn and play.

Lastly, for those who cant live without HP (pun intended), they added rules for deriving HP values for your characters if you REALLY want them. Half the game's appeal (at least to me) is the lack of HP.

And to make a long story seem endless......have fun!

$7 a book for 20 books is a steal, as Star Wars d6 is highly regarded by the role playing community and desired by Star Wars collectors as well.

If it were $150 for one book, you'd have a valid point about the price.

tuche

Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear before about what I got...

Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded
Dark Empire Sourcebook
Imperial Sourcebook, 2nd Edition
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, 2nd Ed.
The Jedi Academy Sourcebook
Tales of the Jedi Companion
Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook, Special Ed.
The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook
Gamemaster Screen, Revised
Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races
Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments From the Rim
Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens - Enemies and Allies
Creatures of the Galaxy
Heroes & Rogues
Platt's Starport Guide
Fantastic Technology: Droids
Imperial Entanglements (for Miniatures Battles)
Instant Adventures
Platt's Smugglers Guide
Pirates & Privateers
Fantastic Technology: Personal Gear
Stock Ships
Alien Encounters

This is what I received for $150. I was rather proud, honestly.

Anyway, can't wait to hear more opinions!

After reading your purchase list... I am jealous. I only had the core rule book. Good buy. I didn't know they made a Shadows of the empire source book. That's awesome! As far as House rules go, I don't think it is worth it. The only thing worth house ruling (if that is what you want to call it) is how often you hand out character points. Generally as with any RPG you hand those kinds of things out at the end of an adventure or gaming night. However, since character points double as "luck points" I tell my crew when we play that we will treat it like an economy. The more they use their points to do cool stuff, such as catching a grenade thrown at them by a stromtrooper so they can throw it back, the more willing I will be to hand out bonus character points mid-adventure.

The game is so open and versatile I never saw a reason to house rule anything.

Star Wars d6 was the 3rd system I ever played, behind AD&D and Beyond the Supernatural, so like jdiz, I feel I cut my teeth on it too.

I loved the game, both as a player and a GM. Now, to counter Serl's comment about the universe cannon, we always made it perfectly clear that we would never be involved in the "movie" type games or directly impact the "heroes". That said, they were involved in getting the Death Star plans from the spies to an unknown noble female contact, scouting an ice planet for a rebel base, running guns to a cloud city and smuggling key people off it, etc etc etc.

As for quirks in the system, if I remember correctly, there were some odd things with light saber and force use - I can't remember exactly what it was, 15+ years makes it a bit hazy.

Free star wars game ... I'll have to look it up!!

Well, my d6 Star Wars books are a bit more modest.

Star Wars 2d Edition, Revised and Expanded, aka Super Mondo
Star Wars Sourcebook, 1st Edition
Imperial Sourcebook, 2d Edition
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, 2d Edition
Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook (not the Special Edition)
Death Star Technical Manual (1st Edition)

I also have the starship conversions from 1st Edition to 2nd, so I can continue to use the 1st Edition Sourcebook. I personally feel none of the sourcebooks that came afterward truly could replace this book.

For the record, I believe d6 Space is NOT Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. I have a copy of d6 Space but haven't really looked at it to confirm this, but I don't believe there are any force powers in it.

Mini-Six is a nice intro to the system:

http://www.antipaladingames.com/p/mini-six.html

traveller is correct about the force being absent from d6 space. However, the system is the same (by which I mean it uses d6). Thought it does not have the force it does have metaphysics which is similar. However, you can dump the metaphysic section of d6 space, replace it with chapter 9 of the 2nd ed revised and expanded star wars core rules book and viola! D6 star wars.

A few changes I really thought were great for d6 space which should be used in star wars. d6 space has a generic pilot skill under the mechanical attribute. Star wars breaks this down into capital ship pilot, space transport, star fighter pilot, vehicle operation, and repulsor lift operation. For simplicity sake I personally prefer the d6 space approach of a generic Pilot skill.

The other change which (it was an addition and not a change) I love was adding the Know-How skill. It is literally a catch all skill for those times when you want to do something but you cant find a skill that covers it. I highly recommend using this skill in your star wars games. Of course if you are going to allow it as a GM you have to be on your toes. You don't want a power gamer to stack every point they have into know how and claim they can do anything.

So what do you guys feel about doing different eras with d6? I mean, to me it obviously is built with the Rebellion era (and perhaps a little after that) in mind. I know it's not limited to that, but that was the extent of the universe at the time (more or less). In fact, I know they've converted practically all the Saga Edition books over to d6, plus some RCR, and there some fan-made stuff, too. I was wondering if anyone had played it outside the Rebellion era or could speculate (at least) on how it's hold up and/or "feel" in a different era. To me, it feels gritty, which falls in line with the Rebellion era...being a less civilized age and all.

There is no problem using d6 star wars in different eras, especially since the system is designed to be used in multiple genres. The hard part comes when you try using naboo fighters when there are no official stats for them. However, there are enough ships available in the star wars universe so you can pick an existing one and reskin it to be a naboo fighter.

There is a scale in the core book that describes what each skill level represents. IE 3d6 = average person skill level, 4d6 = professional level, etc. You can apply this to your star ship creation as well. The Naboo fighter was quite agile so maybe it has a maneuverability between 4d6 and 5d6. It sported a set of fire-linked laser canons as well, conveniently so does the A-wing listed in the core rule book (i think that is also about 4 or 5d6). The X-wing has a proton torpedo launcher (like the naboo fighter), and all you would need to do from there is determine hull and shield codes.

In my opinion D6 has a much easier time simulating the star wars than d20 ever did and I played every edition of star wars d20. Saga came close, but I still felt like I was playing dungeons and lightsabers as opposed to star wars. Long story longer, d6 star wars will fill your star wars need in any era. There are also lots of unofficial material you can draw upon too if you were looking for something like a Legacy era cortosis gauntlet.

It's been a long time since I even looked in my d6 Star Wars books, but I would say that it should play rather well in the Rise of the Empire era. It probably would work just as well in the Old Republic era or the New Jedi Order era, but if playing in the days of the Old Republic, I would give the Jedi and the Sith a greater variety in powers compared to later eras.

For example, in SWKotOR II: The Sith Lords, Kreia (gray Jedi Master, former Sith Lord and the teacher of Captain Ersatz) talks to Captain Ersatz on Korriban about Tulak Hord, mentioning him as "the best duelist of the ancient Sith Lords". When essentially told by Captain Ersatz that Old Republic Jedi were no slouches, Kreia proceeds to tell Captain Ersatz, "If you were to face an ancient Sith Lord in combat, you would learn that we are as children playing with toys compared to the prowess of the old masters."

Traveller has a point, but I would argue that all the info you need is in the core book and the tales of the jedi source book. The quote referred to by Traveller from KotoR, one could mechanically argue, is the die code of an old sith lord's sense and control skills. The force power lightsaber combat allows a jedi to add his sense skill to his lightsaber skill and his control dice are added to damage. It is my stand that Kreia was referring to their skill in the power lightsaber combat (which could be 9d6 or higher) as opposed to the characters from KotoR who may have had skill levels of 5d6 while fellows in the rebellion era would have been lucky to possess a 3d6 skill level in sense and alter.

However, on the reverse side, adding a few powers like force push wouldn't be a horrid idea. Nevertheless, one could just roll their telekinesis power (an alter skill) and treat it as a long range punch dealing damage equal to your str attribute (another option would be to use telekinesis as a pure force skill rolling Alter for both atk and dmg). There are lots of possibilities and with the flexibleness offered in the d6 system, the possibilities are endless.

Treebore wrote:Don't forget they made free, Star Wars free, versions of the rules to download. So if you have a shortage of the books you can at least give them "core" rules on PDF.

Do you have a link for this? I search for it but nada.

I imagine this might help.

serleran wrote:I imagine this might help.

Naw, I was looking for Star Wars D6 rule book as per above comment. But, I do appreciate the link.

The "Star Wars free" literally means it is free of Star Wars. Not that it is a free Star Wars version.

As tree mentioned, it is d6 open (which you can download from drive thru rpg) but it is not star wars. It is the same system used in the d6 star wars rpg but to avoid licensing law suits, d6 open was made generically. If you want official star wars by WEG's you will have to win it via ebay or try and find one on amazon