Star Wars: Light of the Cauldron

Totem · 04-10-2015, 12:14 PM

Star Wars: Light of the Cauldron

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It is a time of relative peace in the galaxy. The GALACTIC REPUBLIC is celebrating a time of prosperity three hundred years before the troubles of the Empire and the Death Star. But even in this prosperous time,
In the Aurelan Sub-Sector, word has reached the Jedi Enclave on Kobiwal of an auction of ancient artefacts. The background of these artefacts is unclear, but rumour has it that some of them may be related to the Jedi or Sith Orders. Master Torkuran has commissioned the Jedi Investigator Jorge Garner to look into this matter, and the Investigator in turn has requested the assistance of others.
Those others now assemble on Kobiwal...

Game Notes
Genre: Star Wars
Activities Planned: Jedi Stuff (diplomacy, investigation, maybe some fighting)
Supplement materials: GURPS Basic Set will be the only requirement. Previous experience with Star Wars RPG materials will assist with providing equipment. GURPS Space, and Spaceships may be of some use. GURPS Powers will be of use for modifiers for equipment and abilities.
Plot: There will be an ongoing plot (or several lines of plot in fact). Given the role that players will be taking on, they will not be expected to keep track of the major plotlines, but situational plot-awareness will be important (decisions will be made based on player/ character understanding of the situation).
Power Level: Players have 200+50 points available. Additional points will be awarded at the end of missions based on degree of success and role playing.
House Rules: See notes below.
Style: This game will be held to a reasonably serious level. While there will be dark and gritty moments for the most part it will be aiming for a realistic level of seriousness; there will be moments of humour as well as dark ones. While players will be endangered this is intended to be ultimately survivable.
Status: Closed due to lack of interest

Characters
Players have 200 points, plus 50 points in disadvantages (including quirks). This limits includes a professional template. Racial templates do not count against this limit and can be player-produced or GM-provided for a number of major species from Star Wars; the GM reserves the right to modify player created racial templates within reason.

Basic is the common language of Star Wars (any time you hear them speaking English in the films, they're speaking Basic). After the Republic has been around for thirty thousand years, Basic has become widespread. On top of this there are multiple trade languages. Players can take Basic and a Trade Language (Hutt, Core, Mid-Rim, Outer-Rim) for free.

Players take on the role of Jedi Knights, or other individuals associated with the Order such as Antaran Rangers, bounty hunters, pilots, etc, during a period roughly three hundred years before the Battle of Yavin and the rise of the Empire. The Jedi Knight template is below. Jedi Knights are deemed to be competent, but not of sufficient level to officially train a padawan.

Dark Siders are not permitted as player characters. Any player falling to the Dark Side (Dark Side Points >= WILL-4) will be declared an NPC. Redemption of such characters may form a secondary plot arc should it occur.

Grey Jedi (Force users trained as Jedi but only peripherally associated with the Order) are permitted but take the Grey Jedi template below rather than the Jedi Knight Template. Read the section below regarding the Light Side and Dark Side before choosing this.

Players may take up to 3 LSP or DSP as part of their starting character sheet (see below).

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There is a lot of emphasis on Jedi and the Force in these rules. There is no requirement for players to take on the role of Jedi; there is emphasis on them because most of the rules are new. Whatever happens, you are working for the Jedi Order, but beyond that your role is your own choice.

Some useful notes about skills, character ideas, and abilities:
• Pilot/ Starfighter pilot: an NPC pilot and ship will be provided. If you wreck it, you have to replace it. If players wish to own their own ship then this is fine and it can replace the GM provided one if you can afford it. There is not currently any starfighter action planned; bringing one along opens up options, but players will need to co-ordinate such things as ensuring that there is somewhere suitable to store the starfighter if the pilot wants to travel with everyone else between systems (the GM provided ship has space for one such fighter).
• The Pilot skill has the following specialisations (replacing the default GURPS ones): Light/ Medium/ Heavy Aircraft, Starfighter, Light/ Medium/ Heavy Transport, Medium/ Heavy Warship.
• History, Geography, Hidden Lore, Area Knowledge, Current Affairs, etc, all include most of the following specialisations: Jedi Order, Sith, Republic, Aurelan Sub-Sector (this is the two hundred star area that the campaign will initially be based in).
• Players should consider the Player Paranoia post for any character and the Jedi Code if playing a Jedi of any kind.

Equipment is purchased at TL8 prices; tech levels in Star Wars are all over the place, and so TL8 is used as the campaign standard. For most equipment this won't make a difference and TL9 or TL10 sensor packages or medpacs (for instance) can be purchased at their base price rather than a TL modified price.

Blaster weapons are created as follows:
• Take a normal TL6-8 weapon from GURPS Basic or High Tech
• Reduce RoF by 50% (round up, minimum 1)
• Increase damage by 1d and change damage type to burning
• Double magazine size
• Increase cost by 25%
• Come up with a suitable name

For armour:
• Take normal TL6-8 armour
• Reduce weight by 10% (round down)
• Increase DR by 25%
• Increase cost by 10%

Lightsabres use the following template: Damage 8d(100); Reach 1, 2; Parry 0; Cost illegal, variable; Weight 2; ST 3. A Jedi automatically gets a +1 to their skill when using a Lightsabre that they produced themselves. A lightsabre can be used to parry attacks, including blaster fire using normal rules for parrying; a lightsabre-parry technique is available which defaults to 0 and is Hard. Melee Weapon (Lightsabre) is a DX/A skill which defaults to other sword skills at -5.

House Rules
Knowing what you are doing
There are several areas where GURPS rules assume that an ability confers full understanding of what is going on and how it works. Two major areas that I have noted this are healing and mind-affecting/ reading.

Healing is not something simple, and even the most powerful Jedi healer can only heal what they understand. Anyone wanting to use such abilities will require some kind of First Aid, Surgery, or Biology related skill in order to diagnose what has happened and determine how to repair the damage. Success will otherwise be based on a default roll.

Mind-affecting/ reading is not something simple, even through the Force. People rarely, if ever, think coherent thoughts, and have their own symbology and iconography attached to such thoughts. Any use of Sense/ Mind, Communicate/ Mind, or Control/ Mind should not be expected to work miracles; think about the films: when Darth Vader says "so, you have a twin sister," he doesn't actually indicate that he knows who it is or anything like that. That level of sense-impression/ intuition is the limit that reading will work at without some kind of mindlink.

Damage
How damage is handled in GURPS is somewhat ambiguous sometimes. As with healing, it is largely assumed that unless specifically targeted such damage is generic in nature and can be fixed generically.

For the purposes of this game minor damage (1-2 HP) will be treated as such. More serious damage will be treated based on the type, position, and severity of the damage, potentially leading to additional issues in the forms of temporary disadvantages. For instance 2d of damage from a high-speed projectile might penetrate and go straight out the back of a character, leaving only a small hole but tearing up internal organs in the process; improper treatment could lead to the character having the Increased Life Support disadvantage (for a dialysis machine or similar), or a pacemaker (presenting an Electrical disadvantage) depending on where the damage occurred.

Healing/ Regeneration
More for regeneration than normal healing; regeneration lets you heal quickly not correctly. Barring some kind of invulnerable skeleton which forces your flesh to conform to the correct shape, your body will heal in the fastest possible time, to the shape that it currently has. If that means that a bone doesn't reset itself correctly, then you'll be stuck with Lame (for a leg) or low DX (limited to a hand/ arm) or Difficulty Breathing (for a lung that heals with a rib puncturing it) or similar. A First Aid/ Surgery roll will ensure that things are back in the correct place as best your TL is able. Similarly nerves will reconnect themselves, but not necessarily in the correct place (I know of someone who had surgery on his cheek and the nerves leading to his saliva glands reconnected themselves to his sweat glands instead). Likewise, internal damage will heal as best it is able; depending on the position and type of damage, internal organs may heal partially or incompletely.

Totem · 04-10-2015, 12:15 PM

Aurelan Sub-Sector
General Notes
The Aurelan Sub-Sector is a cluster of 200+ stars, the Diamondback Nebula, and the Cauldron, all situated an unhelpful distance beyond the end of the Corellian Trade Spine. With twenty known worlds capable of supporting Human life it should be a major part of the Outer Rim. There are some problems however.

Navigation Issues
Navigating around the Aurelan Sub-Sector is tricky due to anomalous mass shadows spread throughout the sub-sector. Efforts have been made to map these, but generally the charts that are available for showing the fastest routes are old enough to be unreliable. Anyone attempting to navigate around the sub-sector as if it is a conventional trade line does so at a -5 to their Hyperdrive skill. Relying on outdated maps can add up to a further -3. On the other hand regular navigation checks can keep penalties to a minimum.

The edge of the Republic
Aurelan isn't actually part of the Republic. The Jedi Order maintains an enclave on Kobiwal, but otherwise their presence, and authority, is limited to whatever the local government feels is appropriate. This also means that the effort expended on a variety of public services (such as navigation beacons) has to be funded locally rather than from Coruscant.

Habitation
With 200+ stars to choose from, there should be plenty of planets around. Unfortunately the number of known habitable worlds is relatively low. Over the millenia there have been a large number of orbital stations, drift colonies and the like put together, giving 175+ habitable places.

The Cauldron
The Cauldron is a denser cluster of stars on the spinward side of the sub-sector. With even greater gravitational anomalies presenting navigational hazards, this area is barely surveyed at all, and the exact number of worlds within it hasn't yet been uncovered. The Cauldron's light is a defining astronomical event across the sub-sector, being visible and easily distinguished.

Jedi and the Force
Jedi Knight Template [64]
Duty (The Force, The Order, The Republic, includes the Jedi Code) [-20]
Force Sensitivity 0 [5]
Legal Powers (Jedi; International, covert investigations, relative impunity) [15]
Legal Immunity (strict code of conduct) [5]
Patron (Jedi Order; Extremely Powerful Organisation 25, Sometimes x1) [25]
Rank (Jedi Knight) [10]
Moral Guidance (+3 on meditation rolls to remove DSP) [3]
One point in each of the following skills: Lightsabre DX/A, Expert Skill (Lightsabre) IQ/A*, Law (Republic), Philosophy (Jedi), Meditation [5]
Eight points to be spent on Verb Force skills [8]
Eight points to be spent on Noun Force skills [8]

Grey Jedi [25]
Duty (The Force, reduced version of the Code for those not following it entirely) [-10]
Force Sensitivity 0 [5]
Patron (Jedi Order; Extremely Powerful Organisation 25, Quite Rarely x1/2) [13]
One point in each of the following skills: Lightsabre DX/A, Expert Skill (Lightsabre) IQ/A*, Law (Republic), Philosophy (Jedi), Meditation [5]
Six points to be spent on Verb Force skills [6]
Six points to be spent on Noun Force skills [6]

* Expert Skill (Lightsabre) includes relevant aspects of Armoury, Engineer, and Electronic Repairs relating to designing and building only a lightsabre of modern design (though does include variants such as dual-phase and lightstaffs).

The Force
The Force works using modified rules for Syntactic Magic. Any skill roll is therefore: IQ + Force Sensitivity + Alignment modifier + skill modifier; two rolls are required to produce an effect: the verb and noun.
The verb skills (all IQ/VH and defaulting to -6) are as follows:
• Communicate
• Control
• Create
• Heal
• Move
• Protect
• Sense
• Strengthen
• Weaken
The noun skills (likewise) are as follows:
• Animal
• Energy
• Force
• Inanimate
• Mind
• Plant
• Self

Force Sensitivity
This behaves much as Magery does, costing 5 points for the first level and 10 points per level after that.

Sample Force Powers:
This list uses names based on assorted Star Wars games, and may not reflect precisely what is shown in the films or what is eventually used in a specific situation in the game.
• Move Object {Move/ (Animal/ Inanimate/ Plant)}
• Jump {Move/ Self}
• Jedi Mind Trick {Control/ Mind}
• Enhance Ability {Strengthen/ Self}
• Stealth {Weaken/ Force}
• Farseeing {Sense/ Force}

Specific powers (Jump, Throw, Heal Self, etc) can be bought up as Hard techniques; these techniques apply to both skill rolls made to use that specific power. More general abilities cannot be bought as techniques; Enhance Strength (boosting ST by 1 per 2 points of success) would be acceptable technique, but Enhance Ability (a general technique for enhancing any Primary Stat) is not.

Light Side, Dark Side
The Force has a Light Side and a Dark Side. Drawing on either side causes that side to draw on you to some degree, making further uses easier on some level. Representing this in-game we have Light Side Points (LSP) and Dark Side Points (DSP). Both are worth 0 points as they have advantages and disadvantages.

Light Side Points are awarded for heroic acts or significant moral choices made towards the Light Side. Dark Side Points are given when the player commits an unsuitable act; any use of a Dark Side power (such as lightning {Create/ Energy} or Grip {Weaken/ Animal}) or significant moral choice made towards the Dark Side triggers a roll against (WILL + LSP - DSP). Failure earns one DSP or removes one LSP. The total target being rolled against cannot exceed 14.

A player cannot have LSP and DSP at the same time: a heroic act will cancel one DSP unless there are none. Likewise using a Dark Side power will reduce the number of LSP before it grants DSP.

LSP and DSP are both used in skill rolls for Force Powers: any Dark Side power automatically counts the number of DSP as a bonus or LSP as a penalty to both rolls, while attempting to heal someone is aided by LSP and hindered by DSP (unless the situation warrants otherwise). Not all uses of Force Powers count as Light Side and Dark Side.

LSP and DSP are also used when checking Reactions to or from other Force Users based on sensing through the Force, counting as a bonus to their alignment and a penalty against their alignment.

Meditation
When a character has earned DSP, they may take time to consider their actions and determine why they did what they did. This consideration will take the form of a period of meditation and consultation with those who the character deems to be appropriate to offer moral guidance. The process takes 8 hours per DSP, during which the character may undertake light, non-strenuous activity such as basic exercises or cooking a light meal. At the end of the 8 hours, a meditation roll is made. Jedi (or other groups with an established training order and experience of bringing people back from the Dark Side) can gain a +3 on the meditation roll with the Moral Guidance advantage. Success clears a single DSP. Critical success clears two DSP (and may grant one LSP if there was only one DSP to clear). Failure has no effect. Critical failure means that the character got sufficiently confused with their reasoning that they have made things worse and gain another DSP.

Talosian · 04-11-2015, 12:55 AM

I am interested in playing, but I do have some questions (especially about the Force).

I admit that I'm a bit surprised to see a magic system used instead of the Psionic Powers system (since that really does cover things quite nicely). Would it be correct to assume that this is tied to your intended treatment of the Force? (Meaning: More like the mystical tone of the originals than the "scientific" treatment of the prequels.)

As for the technical bits of the syntactic magic system, it's a bit strange (in Star Wars) to have telekinetic movement split by target, though this shouldn't matter much (assuming that things like force push could also be accomplished with Create Energy). I assume that inappropriate uses/results (Create Animal, for starters, as well as durations on lifted objects...) are by default prohibited from general use? What is the Cost/Casting Time of Self? (If using Move Self for Force Jump, then casting time would presumably be fairly low...) I assume that Energy Reserve is allowed and encouraged?

Does Engineer (Lightsaber) still have Mathematics (Applied) as a prerequisite? I'm guessing that there's some form of exemption here, as I never had the impression that Jedi were all math majors XD

I wanted to clarify the intent of this quote: "Players have 150 points, plus 50 points in disadvantages. This limits includes racial templates and professional template." I'm pretty sure that the intent was to make it clear that the Jedi templates have to be included within the point cost, but on first reading it seemed like it might be saying that template disadvantages counted against the disadvantage limit (which might be appropriate if restrictive for Jedi templates, but would be extremely problematic for racial templates like the Keldor that have to deal with a major Dependency or some such).

Also, it occurred to me that swapping Patron for Rank might allow for a more specific and detailed accounting of the support provided by the Jedi Order (basically, it looked like an excellent opportunity to use Social Engineering: Pulling Rank).

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In terms of what I'm thinking, I'm currently looking at running a Miraluka force user (a member of the Luka Sene, and specifically a Sene Seeker). The Luka Sene are generally pretty academic and reserved, and the Sene Seekers are generally only tasked with hunting down Luka Sene members, so some explanation would be required. There are a couple possibilities:

1: Luka Sene members are quite independent, so my character could be accompanying/working with the Jedi team of his/her own volition.*

2: If appropriate, there could also be rumors of Luka Sene related artefacts (or the Luka Sene could have an academic interest in the artefacts regardless).*

*I could also play up the academic angle and make my character an expert in Jedi/Sith artefacts or some such to make either of these more plausible.

So, character related questions:

Foremost, what's your take on a racial template for the Miraluka? I've got some material from the unofficial GURPS Star Wars netbook that I've tweaked to be more accurate:

Spoiler:

Second, I'm looking at what would be appropriate for a Luka Sene template. Currently looking at a lower level of Patron (15 points, at a guess), a Duty (Sene Seeker would be Extremely Hazardous, but the exact frequency is questionable), and Moral Guidance ("The Luka Sene disapproved of the dark side and served as guiders and guardians to protect Miralukans from falling to the dark side."). The frequency of the Duty would depend a great deal on the exact nature of the character's involvement with the rest of the team (aka, is it part of the Duty or not).

(I'm also toying with some other character possibilities, to which end I'm curious if Gunslinger is permitted, and wanted to confirm that droids are on the table.)

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EDIT: Naturally, I forgot a question. How strongly are you committed to Light Side/Dark Side powers setup? This has always bothered me a bit, but I can accept that using force lightning on a living creature would have more effect on LS/DS standing than using a lightning gun. Essentially, the main question I have here is how context sensitive/absolute it is in your mind. Would using force lightning on a droid count? Would using force lightning on a circuit breaker to shut off the power count? And so on.
EDIT 2: Wouldn't it make sense to add a Code of Honor to the Jedi template? It might be clearer and more natural than rolling the Code and such into the Duty.
EDIT 3: Since Blasters are based on TL8 weapons, would armor be based on TL8 armor? (EDIT 3b: What would you base hard armors on?)
EDIT 4: Are quirks counted in the -50 point disadvantage limit?
EDIT 5: It occurs to me that Engineer (Lightsaber) would probably (by RAW at least) have to be complemented by Armoury (Lightsaber).
EDIT 6: How are you handling languages? Virtually every species has its own, so there's relatively little chance that an individual alien/near-human's language will be important.
EDIT 7: In exploring other concepts, and in concert with the previous question about Gunslinger, are Trained by a Master and Weapon Master permitted?
EDIT 8: For guns that use a skill other than Pistol or Rifle, should new and matching Beam Weapons specialties be used?
EDIT 9: Sene Seeker has evolved in a more academic direction (aka, not a Sene Seeker) to try and manage points, and is thus more likely to have had a lot of interaction with the Jedi Order. Would Savoir-Faire (Jedi) be acceptable, or would a pre-existing Savoir-Faire encompass the Jedi Order?

Totem · 04-11-2015, 05:52 AM

Okay big post... Too big. Two replies.

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