This site looks really well put together, organized and fun. But before I posted a character for acceptance, I just had a couple questions/comments.

I noticed that someone brought up the d6 and d20 dice systems for RPGs earlier, and was wondering if utilizing a system such as that was tossed out. I've RPed under the d6 system for Star Wars for a while and I have several of the rulebooks from the system. Anyways, dice systems are a good way to solve ability disputes between characters, but there are drawbacks. For instance, I've noticed that characters' actions advance with the guidance of Ayanna and Kalin, what would normally be the Gamemasters in a SWRPG dice-based game. However, with so many characters and so many individual storylines/planets to keep up with, a traditional dice-based system would require a lot of extra nit-picky commitment by the GMs to detail any Non-playable characters, locations, battles, etc. In other words, the liberty that characters can display with NPC characters or events would be stripped greatly, in my opinion. For me, it was just strange to see player characters influence the actions of other characters without GM discretion. I might be speaking Greek with all my RPG nerdspeak, but bear with me.

Basically, what I'm trying to get at is a bit of praise for the mods and administrators on here for what is obviously a huge amount of time invested in so many player characters and so many different storylines. Utilizing a dice-based system could work for this board, but it wouldn't allow the freedom for the text-based RPing and would greatly slow character development. So, kudos.

Oh, and a question.

I was just wondering, and don't spoil it for me. But do you, Kalin and Ayanna, have some overarching plot/storyline for all/some of the player characters involved, or will their interactions be entirely up to them?
Just wondering, because in the current time era, various factions are bound to butt heads on a galactic scale, especially with events from ANH approaching. Any board-wide scale battles in the future?

Thanks again, hope my first post was decent.

Indeed what the system is on the forum, is what you could call a Gamemasters in a SWRPG dice-based game. But really we were unaware of that. When me and Ayanna started this forum we knew we would play all the main characters to guide the members, but we knew as members would improve and the forum would get more members these characters would be spread out to mods we would choose for using this role. Lewy for example has been a bounty hunter for a long time so we thought he earned to guide the bounty hunters and take the role of Boba Fett who guides them. Next to that he can think up any NPC's he wants to if that helps him to guide members.

We thought such a system would work, cause in actuallity me and Ayanna don't have much experience in RPG, though since we started this forum this has increased of course, but I don't think we can call ourselves 'experienced rpg players'. So we thought up this system ourselves unaware it had a name. We use the same system on another RPG forum we created. But there things are less strict and the roles are more spread out to mods than here. I don't even know how a system as proposed (the dice system) would work. Indeed it interests me as you said it would solve ability disputes between characters, cause so far we didn't really have disputes. But you said it takes a bit of freedom away, then that is a downside...that is the one of the main rules we made to ourselves. To allow as much freedom to the members as possible. We want to be creative and write in this rpg as writing stories.

No we don't really have a main storyline for all members to follow. We think it is best that members follow their own storyline. It allows them more freedom and that is really what we want, though we are considering of moving time and not just sticking to this time, so that there could happen dramatic changes such as the exploding of Alderaan, though that would be in the far future. Battles are really still waiting...we want them to happen, but so far we don't have much members who are stormtroopers or rebels...or even Jedi or Sith. I hope this answers your questions, if you have more just ask.

Kalin

Well, the dice-based system resolves conflicts through rolling dice to represent whatever skill you're trying to use. In the SWRPG dice-based game by West End Games, any skill you possess or seek to use, be it firing a blaster, flying a starfighter, or conning an Imperial customs agent, has a certain number of dice associated with it, according to how far you've progressed that certain skill. Let's say I want to fire a blaster at a womprat. Now, first of all I'd look up my skill, and let's say that it's "5D." I'd roll 5 dice whose sum represents my shot. Now, the GM comes in to represent basically all the elements outside a player's character. The GM, to determine whether I hit the womprat or not, decides on a difficulty number based on circumstances surrounding the shot. Let's say I'm 20 yards away, but in the middle of a sandstorm. Therefore the difficulty increases. So, whatever number the GM decides with, if my dice roll beat that number, then I successfully shot the womprat. So, in this way, nearly everything that would come up in a dispute can be solved through your representative skillsets and dice roll totals. It could work, in forums like this, but you've got to keep in mind that EVERYTHING is dependent upon how the GM sets it up. The GM is the storyteller and has a basic plot and outline of events that will happen. However, player actions often cause the best laid plans to go awry, so a bit of flexibility and backup plans are usually crucial. Hope that helps explain the dice-based RPG system a bit more. Oh, and if you ever need anything else, I've got a boatload of West End Games SWRPG books with pictures, stats, etc. Anything I can do to help.

We're not really for anything that would take away the freedoms of members, or complicate things more than necessary. A lot of members want to simply write stories based in the RPGs, and enjoy just that. But this system does seem to complicate things, though don't get me wrong, it sounds interesting, but we're not sure if it's really needed.

It isn't, really, but it does help. The main problem I see is that the d6 system is no longer freely available and a lot of people only know D20(unfortunately, because D20 is pretty much out of date). Personally, I like the fixation on storyline over stats and as long as all players are reasonable about it, it'll work out fine(f.ex., if your char just can't survive a certain situation, then letting him die and making a new one is reasonable. Godmoding and getting whiney about it isn't. If a player has a huge problem with that, I´d say go play Shadowrun 4 with gritty rules: One shot=dead. Then you'll be a lot more detached about character death ;)). When player numbers increase, you'll have a couple of cases where things get out of hand and personal. Having a set of rules to fall back on helps a lot there, but ultimately, it's your choice. All I'm saying is that I don't mind either way :-)

Well we do have rules on it, thankfully there hasn't been an issue concerning member's being unreasonable, it seems so far they've been aware of what is expected. God modding has never happened luckily, some members do tend to loose inspiration which sometimes causes them to loose interest in the forum. But yeah, we like our members to be very creative and independent, so we can't help that this happens. But if we used a more complex system, it would only make things more difficult I think.

Plus Ayanna and I find it difficult to grasp the idea you mentioned as working well, for us at least. We already attend to so much on this forum, but we also have 'real lives' lol Personally, we could even loose interest ourselves if we put this into the forum. I don't myself see myself, or her, as RPG players, I see us as writers, that is what I like about this type of system, and that's why we came up with it. We didn't realise there were other systems like this, or that they even were categorized lol We just sat down and said okay, let's do this.

Hey. Sorry about the bump here, but I thought I'd shoot in some viewpoints:

First of all, it's a common misinterpretation that adding so-called dice rules takes away freedom for the players. The style of the campaign determines how much freedom the players are given, and not whatever conflict resolution system you are using.

I know this because I've played in and ran/run games using "standard" dice rpg rules in forums for a few years now. Some campaigns have been action filled and high paced, calling for rolls every so often, but others have been less bound to dice. In both cases, the players themselves have freely chosen and played out their actions. The more rule-bound games naturally calls for dice rolls for most tasks that needs a certain result, while the more liberal essentially are free-form games that calls for dice rolls in critical situations (i.e. hacking an Imperial database, fights, daring starship maneuvers etc).

Thus, saying that adding a dice system reduces freedom is inaccurate. The game should still become what any gamemasters/moderators and players makes it. Most sites have some sort of plotline or storyline to either play through, around or draw threads from. This one doesn't, but as I understand it that's on purpose.

[[I'd like to suggest adding certain events to happen and draw in various characters - i.e. the moderators might suddenly draw a smuggler's ship out of Hyperspace and have it docked to an ISD for inspection... A nearby Rebel patrol/fleet could get the smuggler's distress call, or he might have to con his way out. Or possible Force Sensitives or undercover agents or spies might suddenly be the target of Imperial/Opposing agents. Or one could make global (err... Galactic?) rulings, saying that this and that planet is under martial law, that and that product is reduced or increased in sales value, etc.]]

But the question about whether it's worth it in this case still remains? Personally I like having those rules to fall back on and use that a developed system offers, but you wouldn't need them in all cases. I have only been on this forum for like 2 hours or something, so I couldn't really come up with any very "educated" suggestions, but for the time being, something as detailed as D6 or d20 isn't needed.

But what are the d6 and d20 systems?

Hold me if I'm wrong here, but as good as everyone who sees the word roleplayinggame or rpg and knows what it's about if they're on a site like this. Thus, I assume most have heard of Dungeons & Dragons - the very first rpg system (Gary Gygax, one of D&D's inventors passed away this week, btw. May he RIP). D&D provided people with the opportunity to take on a role and play through daring adventures ran by a Dungeon Master, following a set of rules. This was done in your standard Tolkien Fantasy type of setting. Years later, a rule set was created by West End Games on licence from Lucas ltd. They made two versions of the still popular D6 Star Wars rpg rules system. It's been explained above, but I'd like to point out that you can customize you character pretty much with the system (probably too much!), but it's definitively what people like about it (me included). Eventually, WEG lost its licence, which in turn was bought up by Wizards of the Coast (Magic the Gathering++), which in turn is owned by Hasbro. WotC also have the D&D rights.

A new ruleset of both D&D and Star Wars rpg was soon on the market. Both used the so called "d20 system". A system centered around the 20-sided die as opposed to WEG's use of numerous 6-sided dice. The concept behind the d20 system (which actually's only evolved from the original D&D system) is that whenever you're doing a task that needs a resolution, you roll a d20 and add whatever modifier you have in that task (for example, if you got a +5 Jump modifier, you roll a d20 and adds 5 to the result. The higher, the better). Every task has a difficulty (set by the gamemaster, as with the D6 system). In addition, the d20 system also utilized, back then, Defense or Armor Class which was a set number (according to your class [that is profession], equipment, etc) that defined how difficult it was to hit you in combat. You also had various saving throw modifiers that you used when avoiding certain hazards and Force powers.

The d20 system uses classes to define your character's role much the same way you got professions here. You also got skills and feats, representing things such as jumping and piloting etc, or special trainings like two-weapon fighting and other abilities, respectively.

Nowadays, however, you can find an even newer version of the SW rpg in store - the Saga Edition rules. It doesn't have saving throws, only static defenses, but is fairly similar in concept - with a few notable changes: It is MUCH simpler, and it's easier to customize your character now than the earlier d20 version.

Personally, after playing with all of these versions, I'm recommending the Saga Edition warmly, with the D6 coming second. Saga Edition has the advantage of being updated, both in terms of contents and in rpg style. You may not be able to say that your character has 1D+1 in cooking in Saga, but all the other options and rules weight up for any slightly less detailed customization options. Things not noted through character stats could be included as roleplaying flavour, of course (like cooking skills).


Hope that rather long explanation helps some. And to anyone still with me (hopefully at least the admins are), here's something:

If you need a slightly more defined, yet not overtly complicated system, you should just develop what you got. I'm thinking very simple lines here. You have ranks in skills ranging from 1-3 as far as I've read so far, right? Or is it just the Force Powers? Here's a suggestion for a slightly more detailed system (use as base or inspiration) :

Add three traits:

- Physical
- Mental
- Social

Those traits are pretty general, but allows you to cover things like jumping and singing a simple song by looking at just one score (Physical and Social, respectively). You could have these traits range within any values you want. If 1-3 is fine, then it's fine (though a more detailed system would probably enjoy a slightly larger range - like 1-5, either for traits or skills or both). One should probably be given X points (say 5) to place out as one pleases, minimum 1 point in each - resulting in 1-1-3 or 1-2-2 characters, which is fine because training in your traits should be pretty hard.

Then you have X numbers of skills and/or profession ranks ranging from 1-3 (?) or something. These should be specialized or complex. I.e. one could cover jumping with Physical and simple singing with social, but making acrobatic leaps or entertaining an audience with your singing would probably mean you'd need an Acrobatics skill, or an Entertainment (singing) skill or be a member of the Entertainer profession.

Then there's the question of how to use these numbers. There are several ways of doing this:

1. Each number represents a die, and any skills/profession ranks stacks with your traits. So, if you have Acrobatics 2 and Physical 2, you would toss 4 dice (let's stick to normal 6-sided for this variant). Then you could do the WEG D6 variant and say that the results adds up, or you could go for my suggestion with this variant: You pick the die with the highest result and that's what you get. Uncontested tasks could have a set difficulty of 5 or 6, while contested tasks would simply be the highest results (or second, third, fourth, etc in case of ties). A rule could be made that favorable equipment, positions or situations adds +1 to your final result, while unfavorable situations means a -1 penalty.

2. Each number represents a modifier, and the traits and skills/ranks are still stacking. Then you would roll one 6-sided die and add all your modifiers. Higher result wins. Uncontested tasks would be rolled versus two or three dice - or maybe one die +3, not sure (for example, you have a total modifier of +4 and rolls a die, getting a total of 7. The challenge rolls two dice, and gets a 2 and a 4, a total of 6. You beat it - success!). Equipment/situation, etc should still count - but instead of a penalty to you on unfavorable situations, the challenge would get a bonus.

3. A mix. Either the traits or the skills/ranks represents dice (I'm leaning towards the traits being the dice), and the other represents bonus modifiers. The principles remains the same. If you have Physical 2, you have 2 dice when rolling physical tasks, adding whatever bonuses you might have (like, for instance 2 in the Acrobatics example above). I think like this approach the best because it seems to mix chance with skill in a pretty balanced way


Then, if you're daring, add Special Trainings: Abilities one can buy or train for in between or during training, job, education, adventuring or whatever. This would be a list of abilities that gives you small bonuses in specific tasks, like "Exceptional Strength: You are very strong. You get a +1 bonus on any Physical check involving lifting, pushing, draging or breaking objects" or something.



Hope some of my ramblings can be used, if nothing else then for inspiration!

Thank you for your time :)


PS: There's a very fine border between being a writer and roleplayer when you're playing in rpg forums, so I wouldn't say one excludes the other ;)

Well we've based the dice-based system before for this forum, but now we've played it by the rules of a pure text-based system so long. I don't think we want to change that, until it's really necessary. We do appreciate the effort you have made in your post.

Of course. I agree that it's easier to stick with what's worked so far. No use changing a winning team, and all that ;)

i agree

Wow, this is an old thread :D

lol, a very old thread :D