Launched a new campaign last night and other gaming updates

It feels like forever since I’ve updated my blog, and I’ve had so much to talk about here but haven’t had the time. So last night I launched a new campaign on Roll20.net, and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a Star Wars game set in the new films’ era, right after Last Jedi, and using a modified version of the WEG d6 system. While i love that system for its cinematic SW feel, there are aspects of it that feel very clunky to me. I took these things from the excellent Mini-Six version of d6 and altered them a bit.

If d6 Star Wars is your jam, check out these changes I made, you may want to lift them.

Static defenses. Combat in d6 can be an exercise in over-rolling dice. By RAW, if I’m shooting at a stormtrooper, my difficulty is measured by my distance to the trooper. That number can then be modified if the trooper decides to Dodge, or Full Dodge, creating situations where now the GM has to keep track of different individual difficulty numbers for each trooper depending on how they chose to react to the attacks. Temper that with the fact that if I’m taking two shots at a trooper, I need to wait until everyone else has taken their first action before the turn comes back to me to take my second shot (we’re still in the same round of combat). It’s a bit of a clunky mess, realized after years of gaming innovation! So here’s what I did. First, everyone has a static defense (the difficulty number needed to hit). It’s determined by:

Dodge Defense: Dodge x 3 + pips + cover (situational).

So a Stormtrooper would have a Dodge Defense of 13 (4d+1 Dodge + cover). If we’re using D&D terms, this is essentially their Armor Class.

The distances would then modify my blaster shot to hit the stormtrooper (or anyone else) like this:

• Point Blank/ Hand-to-Hand +10,
• Short Range +5
• Medium Range -5
• Long Range -10

So if I have a 4d+2 in blaster, and I’m attacking a Stormtrooper at short range who has 1/4 coverage, it may go like this:

Roll my attack and get a 16. I’d add a +5 because of the range, for a total hit of 21. Great! His regular defense is a 13, and his 1/4 cover (+1D to his defense) modified it to a 17. I still hit! At Medium range I would have totally missed with an 11. It would have taken me a Character Point or two to hit the trooper.

In d6 determining how damaged you are after a shot required another set of rolls. Weapon Damage dice vs. Strength. That’s two more rolls! A static Soak Defense will take care of half that process. The target shouldn’t have to roll. Soak is determined by:

Soak: Strength x 3 + pip + armor

So our stormtrooper (2d STR) has a Soak of 8 vs. blasters and 10 vs. physical damage (their armor grants a 1d vs. physical damage, so I’m taking the avg. and rounding up).

If my 4d damage blaster pistol hits him for an average of 14, I beat his soak by 6, meaning I’ve now left him Wounded. If he wanted to spend a Character Point to add to his soak, he could–a CP would let you add a 1d to Soak.

Is it perfect? Probably not. But neither was d6 as written. It’s still super fun though.

All At Once. Combat rounds in d6 are a bit clunky too. Players first declare how many actions they are taking in a round, and apply a cumulative -1d for each action. So if I’m firing twice at a Stormtrooper, my first roll is at my full 4d+2 in blaster, but my second shot is at 3d+2. Doing more things in the 5 seconds (!) that a round lasts is hard! The game has players take their first action, then goes around the table and lets everyone else take their first actin before coming around back so that everyone could take their second action. It is CLUNKY. And those 5 seconds can feel like an eternity. So I am just letting everyone take all their actions on their turn. Done. 3 shots? Pew Pew Pew. Done, next. That’s a lot more cinematic.

Perks and Complications. This is straight up lifted from Mini-Six, and adds a bit of flavor to characters. Since d6 is classless, Perks can make a character stand out. In exchange for Skill Dice at character creation, players can buy Perks. I wrote some SW specific ones, and the ones in the Mini-Six book apply as well. Here’s some of what I wrote:

I Shot First (2): Once per session you make sure you have the upper hand. Double your Dexterity roll for Initiative.

Watch This! (2): Once per session you show off what you can do behind the controls. Your skills let you double any Repulsorlift Ops. or Starship Piloting roll.

Slice Into Anything (1): You can slice into any system… well, almost… Once per session you can re-roll any Computer Programming/Repair or Security roll and take the highest roll.

So not too game breaking, but just enough to make a character stand out a bit from the rest. One is Slightly faster than everyone, or a really good pilot when needed, or a heck of a slicer at just the right time.

Complications are story driven, and grant you Character POints when they show up:

Just A Kid: You’re still wet behind the ears. The first time per session a 1 is rolled on the Wild Die for any of the following skills, it is considered an automatic failure. However, each time a CP is earned in this way you mark out one letter in the phrase “Just a Kid”. When all 8 letters are crossed out, you’re no longer seen as just a kid and this goes away.

• Blasters
• Hide/Sneak
• Streetwise
• Survival
• Starship Gunnery
• Starship Piloting
• Bargain
• Deception

Death Mark: You’re on a crime lord or bounty hunter’s hit list. What did you do? Who is it? Earn 1 CP bonus per session when this complication rears its ugly head.

Like My Father Before Me: Your name and family legacy has some sort of historical importance in the galaxy. Too bad that’s not always a good thing. Earn a CP when the GM uses your name against you.

Scoundrel:  You live by your own rules. Earn a CP when your attempts at lying, cheating, or stealing get you in trouble.

Well see how it goes. I am excited for the campaign, it’s set in the new era, just right after The Last Jedi. I created some graphics for Roll20, to use as a bit of flavor for the players, check these out:

 

 

 

 

On the D&D side, I’ve also been running a bi-weekly Tomb of Annihilation game at home, and it’s going great. Right now the PCs are 6th level, and are exploring the Lost City of Omu. The hex crawl was a bit of a challenge to run, but I did some things to make it easier. I pre-rolled all the random encounters ahead of time, and had printouts of all the areas ready to go in my DM’s binder just in case.  It helps to be prepared since you never go where the players are going to go next!

And for The Lost City of Omu I went ahead and bought artist Mike Schley’s map and had it printed out as a 18×24 poster at Office Depot for $13. It really does add to the experience, and the detail on it makes the city easier to run.

 

We are having a lot of fun with the puzzles in the shrines and I’m looking forward to running the actual tomb. More to come on that!

And finally, I’d me remiss if I didn’t point out that another gaming related thing I’ve been doing is my NewbieDM.com Minicast. The podcast was something I did back in my 4e blogging days, and now I’ve relaunched it as part of the Don’t Split the Podcast Network of gaming podcasts, and I’m having a lot of fun. Go check it out. Subscribe on itunes and leave it a review!

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If you would like to support NewbieDM.com, perhaps you’d consider visiting Amazon.com for your next rpg related purchase. Check out the following products:

D&D: Tomb of Annihilation

D&D Tomb of Annihilation Dice

Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated

Tales from the Yawning Portal