Possibly Stupid Thought: SW6

It turns out that SWSE isn't actually a great fit for Star Wars. It's not the game, as such, that's the problem, but rather the level-based nature of it - it turns out that characters start way too weak, end up way too powerful, and very quickly flip between the two. There's actually a fairly short period when they resemble the characters seen in the films terribly well.

So, how about this:

1. Characters are created a 6th level, per the normal rules.
2. Each session, characters gain either one additional feat or one additional talent, alternating after each session. These can be selected from any feats or talents for which the character qualifies, as normal.
3. Instead of selecting a new talent (but not feat), a character can instead choose to "buy in" to a Prestige Class. Before doing so, he must meet all the feat/talent/species/etc restrictions for joining the class (but not level, BAB, or similar). The character adds the talent trees available to the Prestige Class to those he has access to from his 'regular' classes. In effect, he's trading immediate power for a greater breadth of power later on.

And that's it.

Basically, what this means is that characters start of in the "sweet spot" for the game, and they then remain there, permanently. They're not too fragile, but neither are they so powerful that they can laugh off blaster bolts (as happens later). And yet they do gain in power, albeit slowly (and without escalating the numbers).

As far as I can see, this works pretty well for all characters in the films, except for Luke and Anakin, who are the only two who gain large amounts of power as the films go on. But since those two basically break the paradigm anyway, causing all sorts of problems from an RPG perspective, I'm not sure that's a huge problem.

(Incidentally, the above is somewhat based on the old "E6" materials for D&D 3.5e, hence the name.)

Roll the End Credits

My "Star Wars: Imperial Fist" campaign came to an end last night, somewhat earlier than expected. Fortunately, it ended on a really good last session, making for a rather satisfactory resolution to what had been, ultimately, a somewhat disappointing campaign.

So, briefly, some wash-up:

What Went Well

• Despite everything, I do think the campaign had a fairly strong concept. I don't think I'd run this campaign again, as I'm inclined to think it probably works better as a one-shot, but it wasn't bad.
• The use of the 4e-style stat-blocks was a success, and made for much easier preparation work. That said, I think they're probably still a bit over-powered - SWSE characters just aren't as powerful as 4e ones. Likewise, the switch to a character-based "healing value" was a good one.
• Some of the action scenes were pretty good.
• The character of Gooti, in particular, was a highlight. The notion of a made Jawa with a jetpack and an explosives fetish was totally bizarre, but in a good way.
• The last session made for a very satisfying end for the campaign.

What Didn't Go Well

• The big issue was the stability of the player group - we started with a group that was about the right size, but with one player who just couldn't make the commitment, then we added another player, and then lost one, ending with three regular players but a different set than we started. That hurt.
• The campaign had some significant teething problems when the PCs were totally mismatched to the first adventure. Ah well.
• Disney decided to gut the Expanded Universe canon. This shouldn't really have impacted on the campaign, but it did.
• The combination of the above really gutted my enthusiasm for the campaign.

Lessons Learned

• Don't over-plan the campaign! I was probably locked into too specific an idea of how it would be before the start, meaning that when the PCs didn't quite mesh with my pre-conceived ideas I got quite disheartened. More flexibility on my part would probably help this - that, or being clear up-front that it's an "adventure path" campaign rather than a "sandbox" would do it.
• Watch out for the group being spread too thin. At present we have something like 4 campaigns going at once. This is great for the group as a whole, but it means we don't really have bandwidth for another campaign starting up. Better to wait for one to end, thus freeing up players, or to wait for new members to join the group. Or, perhaps more suitable, is to put out feelers, and if not enough people attend the start session to give the thing a miss for the time being.

What Would Have Happened

For all that I talk about the campaign being over-planned, the outlined plot was always somewhat nebulous. The original theme for the campaign was going to be "divided loyalties", with both PCs and NPCs shown to have conflicting loyalties - to the Empire, to their team-mates, to their crime boss, and so on. At one point, I intended to have an inquisition on the Restorer, probably just after it was revealed that one PC was himself Force-sensitive.

Originally, the central mystery of the campaign was going to reveal that the Emperor was himself a Force-user, explaining some of the odder events in the background, but also leading to the Imperial Fist team suddenly having to go underground as their superiors decided to take them out for knowing too much.

At the same time, I was working towards revealing a genuine Jedi plot to assassinate Daala and Tarkin by bombing the Restorer, with the PCs thus scrambling to stop them. I wasn't entirely sure whether this should happen before or after they had to go underground; the latter being more interesting, but harder to pull off.

After the campaign was refocused, all of that disappeared. Instead, the intent was going to be that the party had to spend some considerably time tracking the Dracul through various means, such as through the Tibanna gas, tracking Delurin's former aide, investigating the disappearance of IF2, and so on. In this case, it would be up to the players to plan their approach in a fairly "sandbox-y" way. Obviously, all of that also went by the wayside when Malik's player dropped out and I decided to bring it to the close.

One last thing: early on I also had the notion that I would drop in a mysterious prophecy to the PCs... and would never explain it. My intent was to then run another Star Wars campaign in a few years, set after the Legacy era (about 200 years post-RotJ), probably called "Twilight of the Force", and reveal the meaning of the prophecy then. Obviously, that never happened. "Twilight of the Force" might yet happen at some point, but I don't currently have any plans in that direction, especially given what's currently happening with the canon.

Burnt Out

So, I've been on holiday for the past two weeks, during which I've given barely a thought to gaming. I've not even updated the character sheets or done any prep work for the game tomorrow, which probably wasn't the best idea ever.

I've been feeling something of a malaise as regards gaming for some time now, and most particularly for the past month. Basically, I'm burnt out. I've felt this way before, and it inevitably passes, but for the moment it just sucks. As far as I can tell, there are two main reasons:

• The current campaign just isn't what I'd hoped for. Such is life - sometimes, things just don't work. But when a player dropped out recently, that was a massive hammer-blow to my remaining enthusiasm for the campaign.
• The edition-change sucks. During the changeover to 4e I felt something similar, in that D&D has just left me behind, but this time it's somehow worse - not only does 5e leave me cold (and increasingly so as time goes on), but the lack of solid information is a constant irritant. It really shouldn't get to me, but it does.

One thing I have been thinking about over the past two weeks is a general de-stressing and de-cluttering of my life. I'll probably post something on that on the other blog in a while, but as far as RPGs are concerned, what that means is:

Campaigns

"Star Wars: Imperial Fist" is now rapidly heading to its end. There are three sessions now scheduled to come to that end, but I'm actually wondering if I can bring that forward - could we cover everything in one or, more likely, two sessions?

After that, I have no plans to start up a new campaign. "Black Crusade: Hand of Corruption" is off the list (as with everything else "Black Crusade" related), and it hasn't been replaced by anything. At some point, I may have a great idea for a campaign, and then it will be time to start building again, but for now, it's time to take a long break.

One-shots

I've also dropped my commitment to one of the two scheduled one-shot games for this year (September, to be precise). The annual "Christmas Game" remains scheduled, and I do still plan to run it, but the other is under reconsideration.

My intention here is to run one-shots (or three-shot weeknight games) as inspiration strikes for the next little while. However, my intention is also to avoid any long-term commitments - if I have an idea then I'll set it up, schedule the sessions, and run the game pretty much right away. This structure of planning one-shots a year in advance is unhelpful.

Playing

This is unchanged. I hope to play in the occasional game on the occasional weekend, with a specific hope to complete the current "Numenera" arc, and perhaps play some more "Gumshoe" is that becomes available. But I won't be joining a regular campaign, for the same reason I won't be starting one of my own - for now, I'm looking to de-clutter.

Nutshell, and this blog

Nutshell is basically dead. Every so often I tinker with a few bits and pieces, but the whole is probably never coming together. I bet that's a shock. (It's also not really a change so much as the reality of the thing.)

I'll keep this blog going on a fairly irregular basis - if I have something to post then I'll post it. Most likely, though, the next flurry of activity will come when I get an idea for a one-shot that I want to prep. That, or the updates of the crew of Betty to the "Firefly RPG" when that releases.