Quick and Dirty Star Wars Hack

[admiralducksauce]

I've been working on something similar and my "Force Sensitive" is just a re-arrangement of the 'Guide my Hand' power.

'Faith Manages' becomes 'Feel the Force'.  For a Fate Point, the character can always let their actions be guided by the force -- they can either replace their skill with a Discipline roll for ANY test (including combat, we all remember the torpedoes from the first movie) or use it to modify the skill (to make it useful to non-Jedi that are sensitive).

The second usage 'Spiritual Guidance' becomes 'Guided by the Force' and allows a character to show up when convenient.  This can also be used with meditation (skip a scene + Discipline check) to get hazy visions of possible futures.  NOTE:  I've also used the later for story 'nudges', giving out a FATE point to temporarily take control of the character (as per the exposition trapping of Lore) and give them a vision when I want to nudge them in a direction.  I don't use it often. 

I like this a lot, especially "Feel the Force". It fits as a stepping-stone power nicely into the movies as well, since Luke accomplishes this before we see him really do anything else with the Force.

[wolff96]

I thought I'd just go ahead and publish the rest of my hack, since it's not terribly long.
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Alter [2 or 3 refresh] – This is the ranged Incite Emotion ability.  It can be used for distractions (Jedi Mind Trick or Random Noise).  Additionally, it can be used to distract or disorient a bit (as a mental attack) or to make the Jedi uninteresting (as a Manuver).  It can also be used for darker abilities (crushing someone’s mind over time). Though that’s obviously a dark side power…

Since this one seemed a little weak, I also put Jedi Healing Trances here.  The Jedi (or another willing character) can be put into a trance.  This always justifies starting healing.  For an additional refresh, the trance uses the Out of Combat ability of Inhuman Recovery, making all consequences come back one step faster.  Regardless, using a Jedi Healing Trance *always* requires missing at least one scene.

External Control [2 refresh] – This is the external abilities power of the Force.  It covers virtually any telekinetic control, from moving small objects to lifting X-Wings out of swamps.  It functions as Channeling (Spirit).  Any kind of opposed or direct force duel falls here – Discipline vs. Discipline. It hasn’t come up yet, but it’s the power I would use to model Yoda’s absorption of Palpatine’s Force Lightning.  Lightsaber Throwing is a special trapping, allowing a lightsaber to be thrown and pulled back with a Weapons or Lore check. 

Internal Control [Variable, Minimum 2] – This is for the enhancement tricks Jedi get up to in the movies.  It works as per Modular Abilities on YS177, though it always costs a Fate point to activate and lasts for one Scene, so I lowered the +2 initial cost of Modular powers to a +1.  I allow Strength, Toughness, and Speed powers, but not Recovery.  I allow Minor Abilities with justification.  I do not allow any abilities above Supernatural.  These abilities never have a catch refund (Ysalamiri are not well enough known).

Lightsaber [2 refresh]

• Item of Power (NOTE: Lightsabers CAN be destroyed, unlike normal Items of Power)
• Always a Weapon 3
• Plasma Blade – Bypasses any armor the target might be wearing.  When held against a surface, it ignores any Hardness of the substance.
• Relic of a Lost Age – Gives a +2 to Social Interaction checks to anyone that respects/remembers the Jedi. The same as Penalty versus those who hate/fear the Jedi.
• Loud and Bright: When the Blade is ignited, it gives a -2 to any stealth-related check.

If the wielder has the “Force Sensitive” Power, it has the following additional properties:

• Give a +1 to Skill (Weapons/Lore) to Wield the Lightsaber in combat
• Combat Anticipation: A lightsaber can be used with either Weapon or Lore skill.
• Dazzling Defense: A Force User can use a Lightsaber to defend against Ranged Weapons.  If the Force User succeeds by a minimum of 1 shift on defense, the attack is deflected against an opponent of their choice (at the same attack value as the original roll, not the defense).

I allow something odd when it comes to the Dark Side…  The Dark Side is fast, easy, seductive.  So not only can you get bonuses to rolls by accepting Compels, you can actually “Give in to your Hatred” and actually get temporary refresh for powers. (This wouldn’t work for just any group, I know, but my players are good about not abusing the rules just because they can.)

So a Jedi could dip into the Dark Side and temporarily get the ability to do Force Lightning.  Or make himself strong enough to overcome a foe.  Or one without external control could Force Choke a foe.  Or could activate their External Control abilities without needing a Fate point.

Such uses not only provide a compel but ALSO push the character towards the Darkside (using the Lawbreaker rules).  It changes one of the characters Aspects in sync with the level of Lawbreaker..  So a character is Touched, Tainted, or Seduced by the Darkside. 

[Tedronai]

I've been working on something similar and my "Force Sensitive" is just a re-arrangement of the 'Guide my Hand' power.

'Faith Manages' becomes 'Feel the Force'.  For a Fate Point, the character can always let their actions be guided by the force -- they can either replace their skill with a Discipline roll for ANY test (including combat, we all remember the torpedoes from the first movie) or use it to modify the skill (to make it useful to non-Jedi that are sensitive).

Just a note: when Modifying would be beneficial, 'replacing' is never less beneficial.

[Edrac]

I really like what has come up here and for a custom hack it all feels really good.

I have realized though that I want to tryt to use as much "stock" Dresden Rules as possible, as I'll be running this at my FLGS and want to help them move some of their stock (My FLGS primarily sells Shadowrun and D&D and I want to broaden some people's horizons ).

With that said, I have decided to basically do the following name changes for my Force powers:

Force sensitivity works like Guide My Hand (thanks for pointing out that awesome comparison guys. It never even crossed my mind to look there)

Alter is Incite emotion with the at range option.

Control is Channeling

Sense is The Sight maybe with psychometry or cassandra's tears thrown in.

Lightsabers are an item of power

I'm looking at adapting the Hunger track for force sensitive characters as a "dark side" track. With Lawbreaker modeling more permenent corruption. (Maybe take the renamed lawbreaker as an extreme consequence of the darkside track, but with mechanical benefits?)

Model various Species traits after existing "supernatural" powers (Kiffar gaining Psychometry, or Wookiees gaining inhuman strength for example) and have non special power Species gain the bonus fate points of pure mortals (unless force sensitive)

[DFJunkie]

I'd strongly recommend adopting the minion rules from SotC.  Storm Troopers drop like flies while being fairly harmless in less than company strength.  The rules should reflect that.

[ways and means]

Storm Troopers are each expert marksmen who trained at the same place that Han learned to fight (Obi Wan even praised their superior marksmanship in the original film). They just can't fire in once in a group because of the inverse ninjustsu rule.

[DFJunkie]

Also, all Imperial facilities should probably have aspects like “Terrifying Drops and Guillotine Doors,” or maybe “Unconscionable Lack Of Railings.”

[Becq]

While I love the invocation of the "Inverse Ninja Law" to explain Stormtroopers, I think that the real answer is this:

Stormtroopers have a reputation for being exceptional soldiers -- but this is only a reputation.

I don't recall any evidence from the movies that leads to the conclusion that they are more than mooks in armor.  In the opening scenes of Ep.4, they finally manage to overcome the crew of a small, barely armed, lightly defended diplomatic vessel, largely through application of the overbearing rule.  Ok, Ben Kenobi makes the comment about the blasts being "too accurate for Sand People", but the Jawa transport looked like Swiss cheese, to me (and I also recall the Sand People snipers hitting a speeding pod racer in Ep.1).

Can anyone point out an occurance in the movies where Storm Troopers achieved any degree of results based on quality rather than quantity?

So my theory is that at one time, the Storm Trooper's predescessors were an extraordinarily elite fighting force.  You might have to go back to the Clone Wars to see that, though, and they've been riding the reputation ever since.

[Mr. Death]

Well, part of the problem is that two of the biggest sequences we see the Stormtroopers in action are on the Death Star in A New Hope, and in Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back...sequences where they were letting someone escape or just herding someone to someplace specific.

You want to see the Stormtroopers living up to their reputation, look at the Battle of Hoth. Yes, numbers played a part, but there's a reason that the rebels are running for their lives.

[DFJunkie]

You want to see the Stormtroopers living up to their reputation, look at the Battle of Hoth. Yes, numbers played a part, but there's a reason that the rebels are running for their lives.

Yep, because the Rebels were minions too, just crappier.

In the Fate games that have minion rules, they're generally rated from Average (+1) to Good (+3,) and have a number of stress boxes equal to their bonus.  Instead of acting as individuals minions form groups with one action, but receive a bonus to that action based on the number in the group; 1-2 get +1, 3-5 get +2, 6-9 get +3, and 10+ get +4.  If you rate Storm Troopers at Good, that means a squad of 10 acts at Epic (+7), which is pretty terrifying.

[wolff96]

One of my favorite inside jokes is from "Star Wars: Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight".  Your character is exactly as good as the player at aiming and shooting...  until you get your hands on a Stormtrooper Rifle.  Great rate of fire, HORRIBLY inaccurate weapon.

I like to think that Stormtrooper weapons are made by the lowest bidder, just like most current military hardware. 

Regardless, I use the minion rules from Spirit of the Century, which were already mentioned by DFJunkie.  They work great for Stormtroopers (though I typically use STs at Fair, with Imperial Troops at Average, and Royal Guardsmen and other elite forces at Good).

[Edrac]

So I finally got to run my hack this past thirsday. Overall it went pretty well.
My players are as follows:
A Rattataki Mandalorian Mercenary
A Trandoshan ex-mandalorian bounty hunter
A Human force sensitive smuggler
A Chiss Assassin
And a Gungan Mercenary

The 2 mandalorian characters ended up missing the first play session

I started them off in a very Firefly fashion, scavanging. Spicifically they were scavanging the dead hulks of clone wars vessels orbiting the site of a major battle.

Everything is going fine untill an Imperial Interdictor cruiser jumps into the system. I compell the smugglar's "wanted by the empire" aspect. I tell him that he needs to cut and run, ASAP. He refused and paid me off, he wanted to attempt to hide in the debris field. He tells the Gungan and the Chiss to man the turrets of their YT-2400 named the Spacer's Wife. The interdictor launches fighters 2 squadrens of TIE/n (base TIE Fighters) and 1 squadron of TIE/b (TIE Bombers) to sweep the field.

The Spacer's Wife blazes to life and looks like it's going to try to escape, I hand out a fate point as the TIE squadrons all converge on the ship and the comm squaks to life with "Corellian Transport Spacer's Wife, this is the Imperial Interdictor Asp. Ower down your engined and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of your vessel." I compell the 2 on the guns to open up by compelling the chiss's trouble of "hot headed", and the Gungan's trouble of "unconceiled hatred for the empire", they both accept and open fire on the fighters.

I now treat the conflict like a cat and mouse game. And I'm rolling the TIE's as 3 swarms at +2 blasters and pilot. The Spacer's Wife takes a big hit from the concussion missiles launched by the bombers and the pilot marks down "rear shield down" as a consequence on his ship's sheet ( I treat the ship almost as a separate character. It has some skils on its own from the rudamentary onboard droid brain that does the hyper jump calculations and diagnostics. It also has a shields, hull, and components stress track. Hull is untouched untill shields are down, and components are for Ion weapon damage. Ion weapons do nopt damage a ship, they simpley overload the systems and disable the vessel)

A few more rolls later and the pilot loses the fighters in the field, he them cuts all power but life support and goes dark while clamped to the side of a derelict ship.

They take this time to inspect what they found on their scavanging. They had brought aboard what they discover are priceless artifacts from various worlds ravaged by the clone wars that ended 16 years ago. As the smugglar goes to open the last crate he gets a vision. (I use the rules for the sight for this vision and him interperating it correctly. He also has basically the sight which I have renamed Sense, it's a force ability.) He sees the spinning disk of the galaxy as a darkness begins to engulf it. One pin prick of light winks out. The drkness spreads until it covers all of the known galaxy. Then a few points of brilliant blue light erupt from the darkness and begin to push back the darkness.

As he opens that last crate they find it's filled with holocrons, both Jedi and Sith. And a single lightsaber. He tries to activate it but it doesn't ignite.

The chiss then rolls contacts to see if he knows someone to offload this stuff on for as many credits as they could get. He brings up an uncle that deals in fine art and I propose he is on Chandrilla a world near the core of the galaxy.

They get there and dock without an issue. As they're making their way through the spaceport bazzar they hear a large spaceship break atmosphere and make its way to the spaceport as a storm begins to roll in.

They meet up with the uncle and they all add an aspect to their sheets "a deal with the art dealer" after they've negotiated an acceptable deal.

On their way back to their ship to begin offloading their cargo they narrowly avoid running into an Imperial patrol questioning shop owners and civilians. They also notice a lot of police speeder traffic over the spaceport.

As they ponder a good way to get back to their ship they are jumped from behind and dragged through a shop atall and into a warehouse. I compelled them each in various ways to either fight the m off of them or go with the flow depending on aspects.

Eventually they come face to face with the beings that jumped them. After some exposition it is revealed that they are a group of resistance fighters, and their leader wants to speek to the 3 players. They agree to follow them through a network of tunnels leading under the spaceport and out of the city into the rural areas surrounding the city.

They come to a small farm with a crop ready for harvest. They are lead to a large rickety looking toolshed as they open the door it is revealed to be reinforced unside and insulated and all around them are viewscreens and computer systems buzzing as a handfull of beings are monitoring the systems. They are introduced to the resistance cell leader, a human female, and the Senator of the Planet. She wished to make a deal. (Some of the players had worked with resistance cells in the past) She wishes to hire the crew as freelance privateers ans smugglars if they accept she will assist in getting their ship off planet and out of impound.

They accept and I tell them all to jot down "on call for the Chandrilla Resistance" as an aspect on their sheets.


Overall they all seem to be having a blast, and the players are grasping the concept of manuvers and aspects pretty well. We play every thursday, so I'll update as our sessions go on.

[Manifest]

This sounds really fun, NOW I'm gonna have to run it.  On a side note have you looked at Bulldogs!, it's a Fate Sci-fi  RPG (http://galileogames.com/bulldogs-fate/).  I was considering running a Star Wars game by combining Bulldogs! (for the aliens and ship mechanic) and DFRPG (mostly to handle the Force as Spirit). 

I also have a few more questions (sorry to be a bother) but did you give your PCs any Powers to represent their alien heritage or did you handle it with Aspects.  What power levels did you start out as.

I actually just ran an Avatar: The Last Airbender game on Saturday using DFRPG rules.  All the benders took Channeling and a couple of stunts (we started at Feet in the Water).  We played during the 100 year war while Aang was asleep, we had an airbender looking for the Avatar, a firebender guerrilla fighter, an earthbender who was the last survivor of his village, and one Kyoshi warrior who was the airbender's bodyguard.  I pre-made their characters so I balanced all of them out.  We had a blast playing it but I think I essentially made the Fire Nation soldiers into Stormtroopers because they were being slaughter left and right.

Please keep me updated on your game

[Edrac]

The power level my players started at was whichever one gived 7 refresh and 25 skill points.

As for racials, some had racials. The trandoshan has 1 natural armor due to his thick scaly skin. The gungan is able to breath underwater (no real mechanical benefit, just a statement on his sheet. But he'll never have to roll endurance to swim for long distances.) The Rattataki has an aspect that portrays his race's penchant for fighting and combat, and the Chiss has a stunt that gives a +4to endurance in cold environments and basically low-light vision (the Chiss homeworld is a frozen wastland. Their cities are underground). The Chiss also has as his trouble "rarely seen species" as Chiss are xenophobic of other races in general, and It is rare to find one outside of the Chiss Ascendancy in the Unknown Regions ( a large swathe of space that hasn't been mapped by the galaxy at large)

I would look up that billdogs game, but I'm running this as an event of sorts at my local comic/game store. So I wanted to be as baseline Dresden as possable so people tho like the game system can get the book there.

[HumAnnoyd]

I would look up that billdogs game, but I'm running this as an event of sorts at my local comic/game store. So I wanted to be as baseline Dresden as possable so people tho like the game system can get the book there.

I highly recommend giving it a look.  It is an excellent version of FATE tailored for space opera and high action.  Perfect for Star Wars or say Mass Effect (which is what I am working on right now).