[size]System and Setting[/size]
I will be using the Bulldogs! rules system for this campaign (Trouble level), with a few additions/modifications from the Starblazer system that I will detail in the next post. It's a system that uses the FATE mechanics, much like Spirit of the Century and Starblazers. Before we begin, let me introduce a few discussions regarding the system.
Frank's brought up the flaws of the Refresh economy, as well the three problems the system doesn't handle well; Wall-Flowers, Attention Whores, & Favoritism.
Favoritism and Wall-Flowers are difficult problems to overcome, especially as my S.O. actually is going to be one of the players. The primary solutions to these issues is to move away from rules-lite systems entirely, which the sacrifice is currently not worth. The thing I can do about "DM's Girlfriend" syndrome is to be aware of such and make an active effort to watch my behavior. Wall-Flowers I'm hoping to mitigate with a house-rule I'm going to instate to handle the Attention Whores and Refresh rules at the same time.
What I'm going to create is a communal FATE pool. Whenever a player is compelled, the earned FATE point goes toward a pot that any player can choose to draw upon as if it were their own. Therefore, the player whose foibles bring down consequences upon the party does not subsequently gain the monopoly in the ability to control the narrative to handle the consequences. What this ideally does is also provide the Wall-Flowers a resource to use FATE points without having to interject to gain them; which I am aware is not ideal, but it's at least a gentle nudge so they do not face undue resistance.
Next, I will raise the Refresh of every player to 12 and instate mandatory character creation to buy abilities and stunts until their Refresh becomes 6; no more, no less. Some characters will be wizards or own spaceships, while others will have iron will and steely gazes. I cannot think of a concept that would truly be expected to have less stunts than others without that player asking to be an NPC, which isn't what the system is about.
Setting
It's the year 3502 BBY, two decades since the crushing defeat of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Desolous. The shadow of the Sith Empire over the galaxy at large is considered no more a threat than pirates. While there remain planets under the dominion, any available military is spent maintaining what planets remain under their sway.
The Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Collude, is rife with paranoia and fear of assassination. Effectively leaderless due to Collude's priority of surviving over governing, the Dark Council grip of control is nearly total.
The Force
While in Bulldogs, psychic powers are placed under the umbrella of a single skill, I feel that this game would be lessened by doing that. In a narrative, magic is inherently greater than the mundane. Mundane actions are burdened and circumscribed by our own personal experiences, while any limitations with magic must be explicitly pointed out. Even outside of that, open-ended systems mean that a broad, general skill is superior to a narrow, specific one. You can simply do more and different things with Engineering and Psychic than you can with Artillery; and being able to do more means you have greater narrative control, which is not a desirable outcome.
So as to prevent the Force from being all empowering, the Psychic skill shall be removed, and more narrow skills are added to be selected based on the character's aspects. This means you need something like "Peace is a lie. Through strength, I gain power" to be able to choose Sith focused skills.
The options below are available to all who take the Jedi Aspect; taking a Sith aspect will do largely the same thing, switching out Empathic for Exude Energy [Lightning stunt], and other Force Traditions (or even aspects that incorporate specialized training) would give different options.
Base Jedi Skills
Empathic Talent [Skill] Can sense emotions without direct contact. Spend Fate point to roll vs target's Resolve. Each shift allows a Yes/No question about the target.
Mind Control [Skill] Affect a number of minions equal to shifts generated. If a leader is present, must overcome the leader's Resolve skill. Can be used to cause the minion to ignore the character, allow them to pass, or leave. It cannot cause them to kill themselves. Spending a Fate point will 'win over' the minions to join and attach for the duration of the scene.
Dominate [Dark Side, Mind Control, Stunt] Control named foe, spending Fate point to use skill vs Resolve, targeting Composure track. During attack, target at -3 to physically act against controller. If target taken out, they are under complete control, the dominator at -1 to all actions to maintain concentration; which is lost if they take any consequences. Releasing control leaves the target with no composure stress and Major mental consequence.
Mental Shield [Mind Control, Stunt] Negates -3 penalty while attacked with Dominate. Can also use Mind Control in a blocking maneuver.
Telekinesis [Skill] Gives same attribute as Might, but at a distance. Number of shifts generated is the number of exchanges the item can be carried before rolling again. Zero gravity lowers difficulty one level.
Feather Touch [Telekinesis, Stunt] Allow delicate handling of objects, such as turning a key, typing, or writing.
Move Self [Telekinesis, Stunt] Can target self, allowing use of the Fly skill. Defaults to Mediocre
Move Heavy Loads [Telekinesis, Stunt] Weight-based difficulties reduced by two steps.
Telepathy [Skill] Use Rapport, Empathy, Deceit at a distance; Telepathy rank acting as a restriction (if Telepathy < Skill, skill at -1). Friendly communication is difficulty equal to number of zones plus intervening barriers.
Sixth Sense [Alertness, Stunt] Fate point for +4 Alertness check when making one or versus a known opponent's Stealth
Jump [Athletics, Stunt] +2 Athletics to jump
Regeneration [Endurance, Stunt] Treat healing times as three time periods faster for consequences. Pay a Fate point in a scene to start regenerating, regaining 1 stress per round so long as they remain stationery and are not attacked
Control Energy [Dark Side, Skill] Rank also determines damage value, requires a stunt for the energy's form. Range is same zone.
Force Lightning [Control Energy, Stunt] Can send a stream of lightning against a target in the same zone. On a hit, the character can spend a Fate point to add the 'Electrocuted' aspect or a minor consequence. Armour provides no defence to stress caused.
Absorb Energy Weapons [Control Energy, Stunt] May make a block against energy weapons, rolling Athletics and Control Energy, using the greater total of the two for the blocking attempt. May also use Absorb Energy instead of Athletics for general defence. Alternatively, for a FATE point, absorb up to 4 points of Stress from one attack as a passive defence.
Absorb Energy [Control Energy, Stunt] Able to heal self by drawing energy from the environment. Able to heal 1 stress with mediocre difficulty providing there is working technology at hand (which will malfunction for the round) or in the same zone as a source of strong energy ambiance.
Absorb Energy [Control Energy, Stunt] Use in place of Fists attack to damage powered targets (batteries, robots, energy beings, etc). On a hit, causes Stress on the powered target or can spend a Fate point to place an aspect of "Running out of Juice."
Force Momentum [Telekinesis, Stunt] When using a Fate point to increase a physical effect, the bonus is +3 rather than +2.
Buried Presence [Stealth, Stunt] The character can not only hide their alignment to the Force or even their sensitivity to the Force, the bonus from Sixth Sense doesn't apply for purposes of detecting them in general.
Shifting [Stealth, Stunt] Enhances In Plain Sight stunt to permit moving up to a slow creep
Force Resistance [Racial, -2] Like the Yinchorri and Toydarians, you are immune to mental manipulation from the Force
Equipment
A kind of necessary feature to describe, since any Star Wars campaign will have someone choose Sith or Jedi who wields one or more laser swords.
Lightsaber (Damage 4, Deflect, Superb Cost, Energy) Can use weapon skill to defend against projectile attacks. Melee weapons, unless energy or specially noted, cannot block a lightsaber. Epic (+7) for a pair of sabers. Note, energy weapons are unhindered by armor, but can be blocked by energy shields.
An elegant weapon [Weapon, Stunt] If Spin obtained on defense, make an immediate ranged attack against another target using Lightsabre skill and Range of 1 zone. Damage is equal to deflected attack.
Following a standard closer to Starblazer Adventures, you start with 15 items equal to your Resources or less in cost, purchasing items above your Resources requires a Resources check. Failing will result in you not being able to roll again during character creation, though as in the regular system, you can choose to get it anyway with a number (equal to how much you failed by) of negative aspects that I can tag for free once per session each.
Group Purchases - If desired, you may forgo one or more of your starting item options to increase another's Resources by +1 for a single purchase. You cannot do a group effort for Resource purchases like this again, only during character creation.
Sith Tremor Sword (Damage 4, Great Cost) No real extra cost other than being capable of blocking lightsabers.
Discblade (Damage 2/3 shields/0 armor, Range 1, Fair Cost)
Starships
Hyperspace Travel Operations roll required, against Mediocre difficulty. The time required is a few minutes if navigation data is 1 year old or less, one hour otherwise. Failure requires a second check to notice the error before making the jump to hyperspace, failing the second check means the ship will exit hyperspace at a random point along the route and take 1 consequence. Modifiers include:
- Using nav computer (+1)
- No nav computer (-2)
- No Holonet access (-1)
- Deep Core
- Colonies
- Inner Rim
- Expansion Region
- Mid Rim
- Outer Rim
- Unknown Regions
- +1 - x4
- +2 - x3
- +3 - x2
- +4 - x1
- +5 - x0.5
Cost, creation, and maintenance are going to be different, and higher, by a bunch. Here are a few examples for purchasing...
Basic Scale 3 Ships [Shuttles, fighters, small freighters, etc] 3 separate Epic (+7) purchases, making it Advanced adds another purchase
Basic Scale 4 Ships [Medium freighters, patrol ships, gunboats] 3 separate Legendary (+8) purchases, making it Advanced adds another required purchase
Maintenance is required each month, and is going to be either Fantastic (+6) or Legendary depending on whether it's Scale 3 or 4 size ship. If you failed one or more times, you can still purchase the ship on credit, which raises the price for maintenance by one level per failed check to represent loan payments (loan lasts for a year). Failing a maintenance check bestows the "Disrepair" aspect onto the ship and forces a cumulative -1 to all skill checks until it gets proper maintenance, while also increasing the duration of the loan repayments by another year (assuming it's on credit); failing 3 cumulative maintenance checks for a loaned ship results in repossession as appropriate for the organization you got the loan from.
