May the 4th be with you

So, in honor of May the 4th, and this recent awesome post on dragonsfoot.org: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=73871 I got to thinking about WEG Star Wars d6.

This system might be the perfect system to introduce to new roleplayers. A few reasons for this:
1: It is one of the simplest game systems there is. You have a few stats and skills, everything is just a few d6. You don't have to learn weird polyhedrals, just how many dice you throw!
2: It is a setting nearly everyone knows. While Tolkien fantasy is up there as well, I'm sure most people have a better familiarity with Star Wars. Plus, what if they don't understand your fantasy goblins? you can just easily make up whatever description of weird alien and it'll come across.
3: It is (or can be) fast paced and cinematic once you get it down. You want to slide across the hood of your land speeder while taking a shot at the storm trooper across the way? no problem. 2 actions, make each at -1 dice and boom your done.
4: Templates let you get into the game super quick. No need to walk through character creation except putting some dice down for skills. What skills do you think your character will use? the templates already have the common ones marked for that archetype.

Even for GMs, it is easy to come up with a creature on the fly. You don't need all the stats, put extra dice into whatever you think is relevant, describe it and go. There are things about 1e I love, and there are different things about the fan-made 2e REUP (revised, expanded, and updated, found here: http://d6holocron.com/downloads/gbooks.html) that I love. 1e is so simple there isn't even initiative. Whoever rolls highest on their first action or opposed action goes first. As a GM you don't even need to tell your player your roll. Say you rolled your opposed blaster shot first, but it missed, you could say it missed and was first and it won't affect anything. Just keep the narrative going and have actions happen where they make sense. REUP on the other hand, has the same core mechanics, but has so many extra ships, aliens, droids, etc... You can find nearly anything you want in REUP. I also really enjoy the Wild Die. At times it can slow down the game, but it is nice that it can really help you gain success with something you have a low stat in.

Another great thing, you don't need to use it just for Star Wars. It is easily converted to a generic Science Fantasy (heck you can get the free d6 space if you wanted), or even to normal fantasy. The cinematic rules can work well in any setting, just strip the Star Wars skin.

In honor of today, I had lulu make a set of the 1e rules in 4 saddle stitch booklets for my next face-to-face group. I can just hand the players a few copies of the players section that cost <$5 to have lulu make. I also ordered a new copy of REUP as well (with a different cover than my current copy). Honestly I'm jonesing to run some Star Wars d6. We were playing a campaign online, but my GM quit for some reason.

If you haven't given WEG Star Wars a shot, you really should! It is one of the best systems I've ever played. Sometimes it gets to be an insane amount of dice, but REUP has a nice chart to simplify any roll over 5d.

Here is my current WEG collection (yes that REUP is full color!):

You can find my group playing it in the following youtube playlist: Star Wars REUP one-shot and mini campaign.

Basic FantasyCampaign, Session 10, Nearly a TPK

So our 10th session was essentially a TPK if not for some DM Fiat.

Our thief was out this session, but the rest of the guys were eager to continue on, so we pressed forward! The group wanted to go back and check on Ergo and help him clear the cave. Their hope was to get the travelling priests help (aka the evil priest in b2). They went by, and the priest said he wasn't interested in going to Ergo's cave, but said he would meet them near the Caves of Chaos later after a lot of persistence from the PCs.

So the party went to check on Ergo, only to check the first den where they immediately met him. They found some scattered bones and rotting meats, but didn't find him, didn't look around anymore, and left thinking they'd check back again soon. On they went to the caves of chaos.

The PCs were pleasantly surprised that the travelling priest Chromula was there with his 2 acolytes. After greeting each other, they agreed to enter one of the caves (the goblin cave). They formed their marching order with the priest and his 2 acolytes in the back, lit up a torch and pressed on. After some careful searching, they ran across a band of Goblins on patrol in the caves. Suddenly the call "BREEYARK!" was made and the goblins got into position to attack the party. Soon another band came and attacked from the rear. The party was pinned in and desperately trying to fight the Goblins on their end while the Priest and the acolytes tried to sell the fight between them and the other Goblins. It wasn't long however before Chromula cast a Hold Person on one of the PCs and him and the acolytes broke through the Goblins and left. The PCs, brilliantly fighting, managed to over come the hoard of Goblins. They decided they should leave the caves, learning the true nature of Chromula and his silent lackeys.

On their way out they found Chromula laughing hysterically as his 2 acolytes raised their weapons. He warned the party to surrender or face his wrath. This is what you get for investigating the caves. The PCs swiftly took to action and charged the acolytes. Chromula decided he'd cast a silence 15' radius over the PCs and acolytes as he stepped back to prepare some more spells. Suddenly Sylwen and Eldor had succumbed to a hold person. Markas and Dongan shoved them aside and made quick work of the Acolytes. Try as they may, they could not overcome Chromula himself though. He continued to ask for their surrender as he slowly wore them down. Finally Dongan fell to his might and he started shouting to Markas, give up now and I'll spare you! Markas couldn't accept surrender being unsure of what would happen to his friends and fought until finally he had fallen to Chromula as well.

At this point, it was looking like a TPK, except that Plimble Mae had missed out and was in time. I came up with an idea though. Markas and Dongan were lost, but the Goblins kidnapped Eldor and Sylwen. They stole all of their gear and kept them for a month, trying to question and torture them. Eventually the kicked them out of the cave with nothing but some rags.

They finally made it back to the keep, unsure of what to do. They were out of money, so they both had to ask Corporal Oliver for some work. He offered to let them patrol with the guards, in return he'd give them a place to stay, feed them with the guards, and them them some short swords.

I've been busy with work, so we've been on hiatus, so we're all waiting to see what happens now. I'm just glad I was able to keep it from being a true TPK, but keep some hard consequences. My players know that I'm not holding back, but they also know I'm not out to kill them. They had a feeling the Chromula would do this, but didn't expect it to be as bad, or that their dice would fail them so.

NSFW: