Advice for STAR WARS campaign

[SID]

Hey there, I’m about to launch a STAR WARS inspired campaign, powered by GURPS. I have experience with dungeon fantasy in GURPS and STAR WARS in d20. My plot is pretty much ready, and I have a good idea of what to do.

Since I plan to play the game with members of this community and I need some advice on the technical stuff, I'd like to hear your ideas regarding:

1. The stuff would you’d like to see (e.g. More sand-worlds! More ewoks!), and

2. Your opinion/recommendation on the setting’s scaffolding (this is the technical stuff):

• The story will take place some years (50+) after the newest trilogy, in a galaxy far, far away.
• Characters will be 250 CP.

Main books:

• Basic set
• Martial arts
• Power-ups
• Ultra-tech
• Psi campaigns and related books (for the force)
• Space combat will be resolved using/adapting GURPS Action pursuits

I won’t be debating your ideas or opinions, so feel free leave your thoughts.

[JulianLW]

Check out Mailanka's Psi-Wars wiki. He's developed a Star Wars inspired game that's really worth checking out, based on 250-point characters and (mostly) Action mechanics. There are lots of pages on worlds, starships, robots, races, character types, powers, force swords, etc.

[Polkageist]

I was going to worry on the point of including Jedi in with regular joes, but at the 250pt level, they're probably neophyte(ish) Jedi with a somewhat limited Force-power skillset. I would include 'Powers' as well as it has a lot of stuff in it that can define 'Force' as a power source, what is and isn't available, and all the things like that.

[Phantasm]

I'd treat the Force as Sorcery. There's a 250 point DF Sorcerer template in one of the Pyramids that could be adapted for a TL7-11 SW game.

When I ran my last 400 pt Star Wars game, treating the Force in a manner similar to Psionic Powers, the players said the Force users felt under-powered while the non-Force-using types felt overpowered. YMMV.

[khorboth]

The biggest style decision (in my opinion) is about how deadly everything is.

Consider the original trilogy. We hear that stormtroopers are scary, but PCs have plot armor. So, everyone is basically fine. Good triumphs. Stormtroopers are faceless goons with paper armor who couldn't hit the broadside of a sandcrawler.

By contrast, in The Mandalorian, one AT-ST is a big deal. Armor works. Stormtroopers are elite badasses. And people die.

You need to make some decisions *before play starts* about which you want and be explicit with your players.

[Rolando]

Nitpicking and sideline, but in the Mandalorian storm troopers are still lousy goons, most of the time, and with paper thin armor (toy plastic armor at least).

Now more on topic, I like the old west vibe in star wars. more Mandalorian than the big picture conflicts (movies and animated series), but military sci fi is also a good one with players as resitance fighters or imperial soldiers/pilots (but I don't really know what is going on after the last trilogy, so maybe this will be space mercs).

A team of bounty hunters is also a good way of showing the universe and having a bit of everything.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by SID

[LIST][*]The story will take place some years (50+) after the newest trilogy, in a galaxy far, far away. [*]Characters will be 250 CP.

At 250 pts the thing to watch out for is characters with small but sneaky and smart builds v. not-so-clever builds.

A character with 20pts in TK isn't going to levitate any starfighters but if has 20 pts of Peentrating Vision he's goign to reach through a lot of barriers and open the door controls on the other side or loosen the wires inside a lot of droids. He'll still have 210 pts to spend on non-Force abilities too.

A character with 100pts of TK still isn't going to levitate a lot of weight or do many sneaky things but will be 60ts less competent in non-Force stuff than the first character.

You're going to want to supervise Force builds very closely, probably going for only small but smart builds.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by SID

1. The stuff would you’d like to see (e.g. More sand-worlds! More ewoks!)

I recommend leaning into the established lore and at the very least have a look at one of the official galaxy maps. The players will likely want to at least know the places from the entire series are still there and possible to visit. But there are billions of stars and the vast majority are unexplored, so you could easily fit in anything you want to. And just going sightseeing on the planets already explored in the movies could easily grow boring.

You'll also want to prepare several races, just so players (and NPCs) can be more quickly put together. Even if they're just +1/-1 to a pair of stats, the large variety of species in the galaxy is one of the core features of the franchise.

The story will take place some years (50+) after the newest trilogy, in a galaxy far, far away.

The timeframe leaves a lot of options open, few of the characters from the movies will be alive by this point and just about anything could have happened politically. This can be both good and bad. The good part is that you can basically make up anything and it could fit. The bad part is that the changes can easily mess with player expectations.

In the minds of your players is it really Star Wars if there are no Stormtroopers, TIE Fighters, X-Wings, Imperial Star Destroyers, a Republic/Rebellion or an evil Empire?

If the group are really into the lore, you could possibly get away with not including any of those things. But if they haven't followed much/any of the Extended Universe stuff, elements like those are probably going to be expected.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

I recommend leaning into the established lore and at the very least have a look at one of the official galaxy maps(...)

I second this one; I would also stress there are other "ways of the force", not only Jedi's & Sith's.