Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Star Wars Saga Edition Kotor Creation

After an explosive failure of a Shadowrun game (no seriously one bad roll and a PC exploded against a poorly equipped biker gang following the absolute humiliation of being pulverized and robbed by the same gang in a published introductory adventure) we decided to run a different game.  A few games were proposed with Legend of the 5 Rings and Star Wars being the top contenders.  Choosing to have something a little more familiar to lick their wounds with the players chose Star Wars.  The Saga edition is one of my absolute favorite rule sets, it combines the Keep It Sweet and Simple design approach with an incredibly flexible character and multiclass system.  Well as flexible as d20 will ever be without throwing the baby out with the bathwater for point buy silliness.

I'm currently playing through Kotor II with the restored content modification and really enjoying the depth of story Obsidian (formerly Black Isle) created.  I liked it so much that I decided to take a few cues from it.  Here's the primer I had for character creation:

This is StarWars, you are an important person or someone with a great destiny.  You do not play second fiddle to some named character nor do you preoccupy yourself with the banal life of a nerf herder.  Your character will either have taken part in some great act in history, such as the strike team that took down Darth Revan, a general or legend of the Mandalorian wars, an assasination of a major political player, etc. etc.  Otherwise you will have some great destiny ahead of you, such as restoring balance to the force, reinvigorating the republic (or perhaps Sith empire), or the restoration of a world destroyed in the many wars this galaxy has recently had to face.

That being said it's assumed that you are all good to some degree, you may have had a nasty past in either of the wars but at the moment you are repentant or at the very least stuck at a crossroads in your moral outlook.  If you are dead set on playing a Sith that is fine and you could easily start out as a Revanist Dark Jedi.  However, there will be no baby eating or outright socio/psychopathy from the get go, if you do your character instantly becomes a villain and you can roll up another one.  If you want to be a Sith your going to have to work for it, your going to have to fall and it's going to have to have meaning.

Each character starts with a trait relevant to their backstory.  A scoundrel may have a danger sense while a veteran would have increased starting hit points.  A demolitions expert can stop her allies from setting off mines and a grey jedi can use limited dark side powers without accruing mass amounts of dark side points.
Additionally depending on the first talent tree you select you will be receiving a bonus feat or ability.

After character creation we ended up with

A Khill Dark Jedi - Former apprentice of Revan and Malek who fought in the Mandalorian Wars.  After the end of the Jedi Civil War he returned to Korriban with many of his comrades.  After the predictable infighting a trio of Sith Lords emerged however, none of them espoused the same principles nor commanded the loyalty that Revan once had.  He and a few others planned a mutiny but when the vocal dissidents starting mysteriously disappearing he and the remaining Revanists took the remaining Capital ship and fled.  The story picks up with him sensing a void in the force as the rest of his crew is annihilated and transformed into force 'zombies' by a certain masked Sith Lord.

A Selkath Noble (Force Sensitive) - Creator of the Order of Shasa he is the Selkath most gifted in the force.  He spends his time in the underwater research lab searching for any more signs of the Progenitor that Revan supposedly encountered on his trip to Manaan.  When the story starts he rescues the downed sinking space craft and escape pod as the Manaan capital is orbitally bombarded, destroying a portion of the underwater lab and cutting off escape.

A Zabrak Pilot - A veteran of the Mandalorian wars he has had his share of war and took to hiding during the Jedi Civil War to avoid another enlistment.  That didn't stop him from taking part in it, rather than fighting he would transport civilians out of combat zones and bring medical supplies to the needy.  The story begins with him exiting hyperspace at Manaan to pick up a Kolto shipment only fight a Sith Capital ship opening fire and downing his spacecraft.

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