[starsiege] and WEG

[Gallowglacht]

Anyone else get a similar feel from starsiege and WEG Star Wars?

Skill bundles with specialisations, nova/force points, encouragement to try anything, that type of thing?

[moriarty777]

Gallowglacht wrote:
Anyone else get a similar feel from starsiege and WEG Star Wars?

Skill bundles with specialisations, nova/force points, encouragement to try anything, that type of thing?

Well, in terms of 'style' of play, the Siege Engine makes it very easy to play your game 'fast and loose'. Given that I have been a huge d6 fan (Star Wars / Space Opera), I had taken a good look at how to apply some of the features found in C&C to Star Wars and vice versa before Star Siege came out.

There are similarities overall, but there are a few differences as well which has me favoring the system put forth by the Star Wars d6 System compared to Starsiege. I prefer the 'scaling' in Star Wars d6 better in terms of vehicles and movement. However, StarSiege is a lot more versatile in many other ways and has more of a system in the construction of equipment and such.

I don't have a Sci-Fi game currently however, the next time I do, it will most likely be a StarSiege based one with a couple of house rules ... aka 'Campaign Modifications'. I've been thinking of running a 'Rocketship Empires - 1936 Campaign' using the Star Siege rules as a base for a while now.

M
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[cheeplives]

Gallowglacht wrote:
Anyone else get a similar feel from starsiege and WEG Star Wars?

Skill bundles with specialisations, nova/force points, encouragement to try anything, that type of thing?

D6 was a very influential system in the designer's upbringing, so it's understandable. My first RPG was Ghostbusters, which was the precursor to WEG's Star Wars... so take from that what you want.

But the actual meat of StarSIEGE was actually birthed out of a suggested C&C system back when the Troll Lords were having an open forum as to how C&C should work. I was trying to distill down to core concepts what it was that characters did in Fantasy games to give "class abilities"... then, by putting things on an even playing field, they could design more "balanced" classes and such or even allow for custom classes.

I took that approach when designing StarSIEGE... basically I looked at what I thought were the core "behaviors" I'd seen in most sci-fi games and tried to distill them down to their most basic elements... those became the Skill Bundles... then individual Specialties allowed for customization... now looking at it, I guess I can see a strong parallel to WEG's Attribute/Skill breakdown. I guess we'll call it "building on the shoulders of giants" and move on.
I'm sad to see that moriarty777 didn't like my scaling rules... I was always very disappointed in Star Wars' Scaling rules (you'll notice they change with every edition of the game, thus reinforcing my view that they never could quite get them right). I thought my scaling rules kept things as simple as possible while allowing for those outlandish moments for when you wanted to try to shoot down a death star with your pistol. I'll admit that cross scale encounters can be a bit of a chore, but you'd be hard pressed to find a game that allows for Superluminal scale travel and normal human scale travel that doesn't have some hiccoughs in execution of the two at the same time.
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[moriarty777]

cheeplives wrote:
I'm sad to see that moriarty777 didn't like my scaling rules... I was always very disappointed in Star Wars' Scaling rules (you'll notice they change with every edition of the game, thus reinforcing my view that they never could quite get them right). I thought my scaling rules kept things as simple as possible while allowing for those outlandish moments for when you wanted to try to shoot down a death star with your pistol. I'll admit that cross scale encounters can be a bit of a chore, but you'd be hard pressed to find a game that allows for Superluminal scale travel and normal human scale travel that doesn't have some hiccoughs in execution of the two at the same time.

Didn't exactly say I didn't like them.
I confess that I find I have a harder time wrapping my mind around the scaling rules in StarSiege compared to Star Wars d6 (2nd ed to be precise) though. That could simply be just being overtly familiar with them but I haven't had the luxury to play either in a while. That said, I've got some classic Traveller headed my way so, I'll be able to see how it's handled there. Maybe I'll find my happy medium somewhere.

M
_________________
"You face Death itself in the form of... 1d4 Tarrasques!"

Partner to Brave Halfling Publishing
http://www.arcanacreations.com