Prospective Star Wars

[SpaceKhomeini]

@Jennkryst said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I don’t care about automated XP spends… I am a +request goblin who will power through xp jobs. What I need is the fancy FFG dice and like…

Sorry if I’m late to the party with this but you’re dead-set on the FFG edition?

I’ve played around with Saga a bit and while there are some balancing issues, it’s really easy to pick up.

I don’t have any familiarity with the FFG one, it might be a shitton better, I’m just curious.

[Third Eye]

@SpaceKhomeini
There’s an FFG Ares plug-in. https://github.com/AresMUSH/ares-ffg-plugin

Which is the big appeal of it if you wanna build in Ares.

[GF]

@Third-Eye I know there was a Star Wars game opening a few months ago that I looked at but never gelled with for personal reasons (the game seemed fine, I just didn’t fit into the community). I thought I had a record of it on my computer, but it’s gone.

[Jennkryst]

@SpaceKhomeini While I’m not dead-set on the FFG rules, they are definitely above the Saga Edition rules for me. I super dislike levels, and Saga Edition has them because its basically D&D 3.85. It does NOT have vancian magic, with like… spell-levels, so bonus points there.

For a pretty basic explanation of the FFG mechanics, here is a helpful comic! Sort of. (As mentioned, it is very basic.)

I started a whole thing explaining it more, but that can be discussed elsewhere. Whoops.

[oknow]

@Jennkryst I really like FFG. It’s the system I run TTRPG and I love the narrative system. Really promotes agency in players. As a Euro… FFG Ares based SW would be amazing.

Juuuust saying.

[Tez]

@Jennkryst said in Prospective Star Wars:

Once the thread-drifting is done, I will post my most controversial idea yet!

Is it about working Mummy into Star Wars? Because if not, you are betraying your brand.

[Jennkryst]

@Tez said in Prospective Star Wars:

@Jennkryst said in Prospective Star Wars:

Once the thread-drifting is done, I will post my most controversial idea yet!

Is it about working Mummy into Star Wars? Because if not, you are betraying your brand.

Joke’s on you, Star Wars already HAS Mummies!

ahem

So in all the Star Wars MUs that I’ve seen spring up, there have been a few Old Republic games, a few Clone Wars games, a few set during early empire, plenty during Original Trilogy and shortly after, and one, maybe two during the Sequels.

I only saw one set during the end of the Republic, and that was like a prelude to Clone Wars game. I’ve never seen a MU set during like… Phantom Menace, or slightly before.

So of course, my immediate, maybe controversial take is that we obviously need a game set during the boring, dull INTENSE buildup of trade embargoes and galactic taxation debates.

And everyone can have a little dark side cult on Naboo, as a treat.

[BloodAngel]

@Jennkryst FFG is my favorite star wars system. I would love a fresh new star wars game!

[Jennkryst]

I think the biggest drawback of TPM era is that you cannot punch all the space nazis to death, on account of how they don’t exist yet. So you’re not scratching the itch folks are going to get from Andor and, to a lesser degree, Mando.

There’s also the joke idea, not serious at all, with different grids for different eras, which is dumb because it divides the player base, but neat because it gives more options.

I dunno, I’m still working things out!

[Warma Sheen]

A new Star Wars game would be dope.

@Jennkryst said in Prospective Star Wars:

There’s also the joke idea, not serious at all, with different grids for different eras, which is dumb because it divides the player base, but neat because it gives more options.

It is not dumb at all. Just difficult to organize. That’s something you probably need a team for. That was an idea considered back in the day, but the logistics made it too chaotic for the people involved. Basically it was running three separate games in one shared MU.

[Faraday]

@Third-Eye said in Prospective Star Wars:

Which is the big appeal of it if you wanna build in Ares.

It probably wouldn’t work well for the vision described above with equipment objects, space, etc. The plugin is just the skill side, and Ares doesn’t work well for immersive code due to the scene system.

[Pavel]

@Jennkryst said in Prospective Star Wars:

I think the biggest drawback of TPM era is that you cannot punch all the space nazis to death, on account of how they don’t exist yet

Space British Empire, if you please. The Sith Empire(s) from the Old Republic era are more banally evil enough, with bonus moustache twirling, to fit the Nazi mould.

[Roz]

The Old Republic era is what would make me actually pay attention to consider a game. It seems ripe, given how you don’t have to worry about all the restrictions around Force users and such.

[Livia]

@Roz said in Prospective Star Wars:

The Old Republic era is what would make me actually pay attention to consider a game. It seems ripe, given how you don’t have to worry about all the restrictions around Force users and such.

Saaaaaame.

[Jennkryst]

@Faraday said in Prospective Star Wars:

@Third-Eye said in Prospective Star Wars:

Which is the big appeal of it if you wanna build in Ares.

It probably wouldn’t work well for the vision described above with equipment objects, space, etc. The plugin is just the skill side, and Ares doesn’t work well for immersive code due to the scene system.

Equipment could be notes on the character, where it says what objects you got and various rules for them - though that makes like… lending someone a blaster tricksy. I am very much not saying each item should be an individual object with it’s own special code. The biggest reason I don’t simply say ‘handwave whatever gear’ is because there are several different gear-modification specialists, whose whole thing is making things fancy. Like this is fine:

Ships can be… le sigh… just normal rooms that we can move the exit to different planets (this hurts. So much.) But also maybe a voucher explaining it’s stats, too.

Or is that still too immersive?

@Roz said in Prospective Star Wars:

The Old Republic era is what would make me actually pay attention to consider a game. It seems ripe, given how you don’t have to worry about all the restrictions around Force users and such.

A possibility, though Old Republic is about as tricksy as the Clone Wars, with needing to thread the needle with the Mandalorian War and Jedi Civil War and all TOR stuff.

MAYBE SOMETHING NEW FOR EVERYONE?!? The New Sith Wars lasted from 2000 BBY-1000 BBY, and the last century was the Republic Dark Age, which ended with the Ruusan Reformation and the Sith going into Rule of Two mode.

But that doesn’t have the INTENSE TRADE EMBARGOES, so is it actually worth it?

[SpaceKhomeini]

What I ended up doing with my abortive game that I of course will never get around to properly running was just like, “welp, there’s an rebellion and an empire but none of the stuff went down like it did in the movies or eu material or canon. Oh also, none of those characters exist either, ya got an all new cast.”

This is course produces its own problems, but it allowed me to throw out all the stuff from the setting I didn’t like while still managing to keep it instantly recognizable. The plus side: I made an ensemble of fun NPCs.

Someday I’m really gonna have to roll out Per’dita the Hutt, Dowager Queen of the Maw somewhere because she’s just too fucking cool and way too much fun.

[Faraday]

@Jennkryst said in Prospective Star Wars:

Or is that still too immersive?

Well, the thing is - with the Ares scene system and web-based RP, a chunk of scenes (possibly a large chunk, depending on your players) are going to take place in what amounts to off-grid temprooms.

This (old reenacted) scene takes place on a beach on Caprica. If the characters got into a shuttle and flew back to the Battlestar, they’d just pose it. The scene window wouldn’t really change (other than maybe a “So-and-so has changed the location to Shuttlecraft” message if someone bothered to adjust the scene location). It’s a different mindset, with an emphasis on scenes, not rooms.

How would you incorporate coded spaceships into that experience? I don’t think you could, practically.

A gear list is easy enough to add, though you’d have to add screens to view/manage it on web too. The larger question is what you want the gear to DO. While you certainly could code up an in-depth combat system that leverages whatever stat modifiers “Gas Vent IV” conveys, it would be an immense amount of work, especially when you factor in the web portal. And then if you have a detailed gear system, you probably need a detailed economy system so folks have money for gear… which is more code, and more wrinkles.

I’m not saying it absolutely can’t be done. Just that Ares is probably not the best fit for a crunchy, immersive space game. You might have a better experience with Evennia or Rhost.

[Roz]

Oh, I just realized this was in the forum feedback section. Maybe it could go to Helping Hands?

[Tez]

@Roz THANKS. I’LL DO THAT.

[Jennkryst]

@Roz said in Prospective Star Wars:

Oh, I just realized this was in the forum feedback section. Maybe it could go to Helping Hands?

Uh… whoops. My bad, I thought I changed the group. Or maybe fat thumbs picked the wrong one.