As should be clear by now, I’m really digging on Star Wars Saga Edition. A lot of the rules changes are really slick, and I think that D&D would benefit from them. Some people are saying that Saga Edition is the herald of 4th Edition D&D, and that a lot of the rules changes are indicative of what’s going to be in that game. If that’s the case, then it’s going to be very, very good. However, I can’t wait that long to start using these rules in D&D. The problem is, I don’t really have the time or inclination to rework the whole system, and there are quite a few supplements that I’d like to be able to use after modifying the system. So, I’ve created a short, three-page document presenting some rules modifications for D&D, strongly influenced by Saga Edition. I’ve left a lot of stuff alone; skills, feats, classes (for the most part) are pretty much the same. What I’ve changed are broadly applicable rules rather than specific ones. Anyway, enjoy.

D&D Rules Modifications

Just a few things, in no particular order:

1. I’ve been fiddling around with making characters in Star Wars Saga Edition, and it’s very easy, quick, and satisfying. Things like picking skills and such take a lot less time than they used to (or do in other d20 games), and the talent-and-feat-based class system allows for a lot of customization. So far I’ve created a dark side Jedi, a failed Jedi-turned-bounty hunter, and a combat droid with two extra arms that serve as blaster mounts. It was all pretty darned easy. The only complaint that I have is that the official character sheet doesn’t have space for enough information. As such, I created my own (available in PDF and MS Word formats). It’s pretty plain-looking, but it’s more functional than the official sheet. If anyone would care to fancy it up some with graphics and such, I’d gladly host it on my site.

2. I just got my review copy of HeroCard: Orc Wars in the mail today. I’ve played it once already (the introductory scenario, “The Prisoners”), and it was fun, though I don’t think the introductory scenario is a good indicator of what the game’s going to be like, as it removes a number of the more interesting rules and systems. I plan on playing it some more over the next few days, and I’ll have a review up soon. I do not have the Ranger or Sorceress expansion decks, so I’ll be reviewing it strictly as a two-player game. If TableStar decides to send me the expansion decks sometime in the future, I’ll post a second review, treating it as a multiplayer game.

3. I’m moving soon. We got an offer on our house, and we hope to make an offer on a house soon. So we’ll probably be moving soon. Exciting, but nerve-wracking, too.

Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition has gotten me more excited than many other RPG products that have come out in the past, and that excitement reached a fever pitch while I was reading it. For those who don’t want to read this whole review, let it be known: this review is primarily positive. If you like role-playing, and you like Star Wars, go out and buy this book. I’ve already geeked out about the book a little bit, so I’m going to go through the book in more depth now, chapter by chapter, and tell you what works and what doesn’t, as well as my overall impressions.

Foreword, Introduction, and Chapter 1
I’m rolling these three segments of the book into a single one because, quite honestly, they’re the least heavy on actual content. The Foreword discusses the whys of the Saga Edition, and is pretty interesting. The introduction is a bit more useful. Aside from containing the whole “What is a Roleplaying Game?” section that every Wizards game contains, as well as explanations about those funny dice and the core mechanics of the game, the introduction contains a nice example of play as well as an outline of the character creation process. This starts out standard enough for a d20 game: generate ability scores, choose your species, choose your class, assign your ability scores, etc., but this is the section where some of the changes to the system first become apparent. Wait, a 1st-level soldier gets 30 hit points? Reflex defense? Fortitude defense? Damage threshold? What do they mean by ‘trained skill’? There’s not a lot of hard crunch in this chapter, but there are a lot of tantalizing hints about what’s to come. Chapter 1: Abilities is similar. Most of it is familiar; the same six abilities that existed in previous editions (or in D&D, for that matter) exist in this game. Again, though, we see hints of what’s to come.

Chapter 2: Species
Don’t want to be a human? Fine; there are sixteen additional species to choose from (though to be fair, one of them is Ewok). They’re the same sixteen species that were in the Revised Edition, but they’ve been updated to suit the new rules system. Many of the species, for example, gain access to conditional bonus feats, feats that they only get if a certain skill is trained. Also common are species abilities that allow skill re-rolls. These re-rolls are not limited other than you can only make one re-roll per skill check, and you usually have to take the newer result, even if it’s worse. Some species have special abilties, such as the Gungan’s ability to hold his breath or the Ithorian’s ability to bellow for a cone of sonic damage, or the trandoshan’s ability to re-grow lost limbs. Most species also have ability score modifiers (only the Human and the Zabrak do not).

Chapter 3: Classes
I was most excited to see these, and I was not disappointed. There are now only five base classes (called heroic classes in this game): Jedi, noble, scoundrel, scout, and soldier. Each of these classes gains access to four talent trees, and each class gains a talent from one of these trees every odd-numbered level. Talents are a lot like feats, except that they’re restricted to specific classes and tend to be, maybe, a little bit more potent. The classes also get bonus feats, chosen from class lists, on each even-numbered level.

Some of the biggest changes, though, come in what you don’t see in the class tables. Base attack bonus is there, but there are no iterative attacks listed. Class skills are there, but you get a certain number of trained skills (more on that later) instead of getting skill points. Saves are conspicuously absent from the table; instead, each character has three ‘defenses’ (Fortitude, Reflex, and Will). These defenses are calculated with the following forumla: 10 + heroic level (total number of levels in heroic and prestige classes) + ability modifier (Con, Dex, or Wis) + class bonus + any other bonuses. So, each of your defenses has a bonus equal to your level added to it, but it also has a static class modifier. Scouts, for example, get a +2 to Reflex Defense and a +1 to Fortitude Defense, while Jedi get a +1 to all three. Also of note are the facts that you get triple hit points at first level (maximized, as usual), and you increase two ability scores every four levels instead of one.

Further, multiclassing no longer carries any kind of XP penalty. You don’t get full benefit for your first level in a new class, though. Each class has a list of three to five starting feats (generally proficiency feats, though sometimes not). You don’t get all of these if you multiclass into a new class, but you do get to choose one of them. You also do not get maximized, tripled hit points for multiclassing into a new class, and of course you don’t get that class’s starting credits. Other than that, it’s free multiclassing. The system doesn’t penalize characters for branching out, but it also doesn’t encourage cherry-picking by granting three or four new feats for a single level.

Chapter 4: Skills
Skills have been re-vamped considerably. The list of skills has been slimmed down, and several skills have been rolled into broader skills (like Spot, Listen, Search, Appraise, and Sense Motive being rolled into Perception). Further, all of your skills more-or-less level up with you. Every skill’s bonus is equal to half your heroic level plus the key ability modifier, plus 5 if you’ve chosen it as a trained skill. Some skills (like Mechanics) cannot be used untrained, while others can be used freely untrained. Many can be used in some ways untrained, but becoming trained in a skill grants you more abilities with it.

The first part of the chapter goes over the basics of skill use, including familiar mechanics like taking 10 and 20 and circumstance modifiers, but also covering new things like skill re-rolls. Because many skills have been combined, synergy bonuses are gone. The bulk of the chapter is taken up by individual skill descriptions (there are nineteen skills in all, including Knowledge, which is broken down into seven sub-skills). The chapter lays out what you can do with each skill in plain, easy-to-understand language, and specifically calls out what you can and can’t do without training, as well as when you need special equipment to perform actions with a skill.

Of note is the Use the Force skill. The skill can be used untrained, but requires the Force Sensitivity feat (which, in turn, makes it a class skill for anyone with the feat). However, if you’re trained you get access to some very cool abilities, like the ability to enter a recuperative trance and the power to move light objects with your mind, as well as the ability to use force powers (more on that later). Also of note is the fact that, with certain talents, Jedi can use the Use the Force skill in place of other skills, like Perception, Persuasion, or Initiative (that’s right, Initiative is now a skill).

Chapter 5: Feats
There are some familiar feats here, but there are a lot of new ones, too, and many old feats have changed. Virtually all of the feats are potentially useful. Even feats like Skill Focus, which I never really considered getting before, now grants a +5 bonus, which is notable. In addition, the Skill Training feat allows you to select another class skill as a trained skill.

Fighting with two weapons has been simplified. You now suffer a -10 penalty when doing so (to all attacks), but you can reduce or even negate this penalty with a chain off three Dual Weapon Mastery feats. And remember when I said that iterative attacks were gone? They’ve been replaced by the Double Attack and Triple Attack feats, which add additional attacks at the cost of accuracy. Rules like the bantha rush and grappling have been converted into feats, and there are several feats that allow you to add to your defenses or increase the number of damage dice you roll.

Chapter 6: The Force
This chapter discusses Force points (a lot like action points in d20 Modern), which allow you to improve skill rolls and also power many Jedi abilities, as well as the Dark Side, Force powers, and other Force abilities.

Force powers, gained by the Force Training feat, allow you single-use Force abilities that tend to be pretty potent. Each requires a Use the Force roll, and most of them have tiered effects, with higher rolls granting bigger benefits. Some are called out as Dark Side powers, while others are called out as Light Side powers. While these are single-use abilities, they are limited per encounter rather than per day. This seems to be a theme in the game; I only found a handful of per-day abilities in the whole book.

There are also Force talents, which any Force Sensitive character can select from when he gains a talent from a class. This is where Control, Sense, and Alter went; along with Dark Side, they are each talent trees in the new game. Force techniques, usable by Jedi Knights and other Force-using prestige classes, improve the way your Use the Force skill works, or even your ability to use Force points. Force secrets, usable by Jedi Masters and other, really powerful, prestige classes are like meta-magic feats for Force powers.

There’s also a discussion of various Force-using traditions, such as the Jensaarai or the Witches of Dathomir, along with accompanying talent trees for characters who want to belong to those groups.

Chapter 7: Heroic Characteristics
This chapter talks about height, weight, personality, and other such things, but it also discusses a new mechanic: destiny. If you so choose, your character can have a destiny. When you move towards that destiny, you gain short-term benefits, while when you move away from it you suffer short-term penalties. If you fulfill your destiny, you gain permanent benefits. You also get a destiny point at every level, which you can use to do things like automatically score a critical hit or act out of turn, effectively breaking the rules for a round. The section discusses specific, example destinies that you can give your character, as well as what happens when a destined character dies (with specific, mechanical effects).

Chapter 8: Equipment
Though simpler than in previous editions, this chapter contains pretty much what you’d expect. It talks about money, commodities, restricted items, and the black market, then dives right into weapons. Weapons tend to do a lot of damage in this game, probably to facilitate quicker more tense and exciting combats. A standard blaster pistol, for example, does 3d6 points of damage. There are a few pages of weapon descriptions, along with tables of stats for them, and then the game discusses explosives and armor. Armor grants a bonus to your Reflex Defense, though this bonus supersedes the bonus you get from heroic level unless you have certain talents. Some armor also grants you an equipment bonus to Fortitude Defense, as well as to some skills.

Some rules have been made more general. Range increments, as we know them, have been eliminated, opting instead for four increments: point blank, short, medium, and long, each having an associated penalty. These have been made generic across type, as well; all pistols have the same range, for example. Similarly, armor penalties only apply if you’re not proficient with the armor, and all light armor offers the same penalty, as does all medium armor or all heavy armor.

There is also a discussion of various pieces of adventuring gear in the chapter, and the list of adventuring gear has been trimmed down to only the stuff that’s actually important to the game. Prices for clothing, for example, are not present. Finally, there is a list of services and some discussion of encumbrance. Encumbrance follows a Strength-based formula that probably will require a calculator, but it is discussed as an optional rule, and is given very little real estate on the page.

Chapter 9: Combat
This is where the bulk of the changes have been made, and they have resulted in a slimmer, easier to understand, and probably faster game. Actions that you can take in a round are spelled out in a very clear and easy to understand way, and swift actions have been incorporated into the game. Characters now get a damage bonus equal to half of their level, too, which brings me to the next part: the condition track.

There is now a condition track on the character sheet, with Normal at the top, Helpless at the bottom, and various levels of penalty in between. When you suffer more damage than your Damage Threshold, you move down a step on the condition track. But that’s not the only way that it’s used. Conditions are used for poisons, diseases, starvation, radiation, dehydration, and countless other special cases, and the mechanic serves to make such cases much easier to work with, requiring less memorization of obscure rules. Characters no longer have to deal with negative levels or ability score damage; instead they have to deal with persistent conditions, which are lifted in logical ways. A persistent condition from starvation, for example, is lifted by eating a nutritious meal.

Negative hit points have also been eliminated. Instead, if you take damage that drops you to 0 hit points and that damage exceeds your Threshold, you die. If you are unconscious, you make Constitution checks to wake up; fail by 5 or more and you die. If you die, you can spend a Force point to instead by unconscious. It’s simple and elegant, and I can’t wait to use it. It also means that hit points are not the only thing you have to worry about; it is possible to die when you still have hit points, even from normal damage.

The bulk of the chapter is taken up with definitions of various terms and explanations of how they work, as well as a clear list of what actions you can take in combat. Attacks of opportunity have been simplified, as have things like cover and concealment. Nonlethal/subdual damage is gone (replaced, instead, by stun damage that moves you down on the condition track). There are pictures using Star Wars miniatures used to illustrate things like line of sight and attacks of opportunity, and the game is very miniatures-friendly (it even lists speeds in ‘squares’). However, it’s probably also pretty easy to play entirely without miniatures and a battle map, due to the simplified range and attack of opportunity rules. In fact, I think that’s how I’m going to play it.

Chapter 10: Vehicles
Vehicles, too, have been simplified. Instead of using their own systems and statistics, they use statistics and rules already familiar to players, seeking to make the experience as seamless as possible. There are a few new things to keep track of, but nothing too complicated. There’s also a list of vehicles that you can drop right into your game, complete with crew bonuses and Challenge Levels.

Chapter 11: Droids
In addition to playing one of the seventeen available species, you can play a droid, and this chapter has rules for either playing a stock droid or creating your own, unique model. Again, droids follow many of the same rules as normal players, though the creation of a droid does follow a point-buy-esque system, buying various components with credits to create your ‘species’. You can then add character levels, as normal. If you don’t want to go through all that, you can take a standard droid off the shelf and add levels to it.

Chapter 12: Prestige Classes
In so many games, there seem to be wasted prestige classes, classes that simply don’t pack the oomph of the others. That is not the case in this game. There are twelve prestige classes in Saga Edition, and each one of them is both viable and really, really cool. Prestige classes get talent trees of their own, but the also allow access to talent trees that belong to various heroic classes, allowing you to mix and match your abilities a bit. They do tend to be much more specialized than the heroic classes, but they also tend to be a little bit more powerful, granting more hit points on average, more Force points, and overall more potent, if more specific, abilities. They do not grant new class skills, though; in this system, they really don’t need to.

Chapter 13: Galactic Gazetteer
This chapter imparts information on a dozen or so planets in the Galaxy. This information is imparted in the form of Knowledge check DCs, so that it both gives the GM when he needs to know and allows him to determine what the PCs know easily. There’s also a discussion of travel in the Galaxy, outlining the hows of astrogation and hyperspace travel.

Chapter 14: Gamemastering
A good chunk of this chapter is generic material, talking about the hows and whys of GMing. If you’re a new GM, a lot of it will probably be useful. If you’ve GM’d a few times before, most of it will be review. There is a discussion of experience rewards, as well as a table of how much experience to award per Challenge Level (again, much simpler than in previous editions). There is also a section on hazards, such as acid, falling objects, poisons, diseases, vacuum, and smoke, as well as sections on gravity and visibility. Most of the hazards utilize the condition track, and most are very easy to use.

Chapter 15: Eras of Play
This chapter discusses the three core eras of play: Rise of the Empire (Episodes I-III), The Rebellion (Episodes IV-VI), and the New Jedi Order (the expanded universe from the novels). There’s a lot of useful information here, as well as statistics for various characters in the movies. While most people probably won’t actually use these stats, it’s nice to see the rules put into practice in this way; it provides a frame of reference.

Chapter 16: Allies and Opponents
Finally, a discussion of beasts and nonheroic characters, as well as examples of each. There is a generic beast class used for constructing your own beasts, as well as examples like the rancor and the wampa. The nonheroic class is used to build the extras and cannon fodder, and there are a number of examples of these characters, from stormtroopers to clone troopers to street thugs.

What I Liked: Just about everything. This book is a new and intriguing step for the d20 System, and I think it’ll do a great job of capturing the fast-paced, epic feel of the Star Wars universe.

What I Didn’t Like: Not much. I’m not crazy about the fact that distance is usually expressed in squares, but it’s pretty easy to multiply that by 1.5 for meters or 5 for feet. The book does have its fair share of typos and formatting errors, but they don’t detract overmuch from the experience.

The Bottom Line: If you like Star Wars and roleplaying, then go buy this book. Go. Buy. This. Book.

I just got the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition a couple of days ago, and I’m totally geeking out about it. I’m about halfway through the book, and in no particular order, here are some things that I really like about the game:

• The changes to the skill system. Instead of the huge laundry list of skills found in most d20 games, Saga Edition has a slimmer list of broader skills. Instead of having separate skills for Bluff, Disguise, and Forgery, you’ve got Deception. Instead of having Tumble, Escape Artist, and Balance, you’ve got Acrobatics. Also, your skills automatically improve with your level instead of requiring skill points to be spent, with your trained skills always being at least +5 better than your untrained skills. It’s simpler and maybe offers a little bit less flexibility, but I think the end result is better in that it will dramatically reduce character creation time (always a plus for the GM).
• The condition track. Hit points still exist, but now there’s a condition track that you move up and down on when you take large quantities of damage. Moving down causes you to suffer penalties to just about everything, and if you move down far enough you’re unconscious (or maybe dead). It allows the designers to very elegantly do away with ability damage, negative levels, specific penalties for things like starvation and sleep deprivation, and it gets rid of negative hit points. And it’s very, very slick and easy to use.
• The changes to the way the Force works. There’s now one skill, Use the Force. You can’t use it unless you have the Force Sensitivity feat, but you can use it untrained if you have that feat (at least, you can use certain aspects of it). There are also a host of Force talents associated with the Jedi class, as well as with simply having Force Sensitivity, and with various other Force-using traditions. Also, there are Force powers, which have a “use-them-then-lose-them” effect similar to D&D spellcasting, but much better. In effect, you make a Use the Force check to use a Force power, after which it’s used up. However, you can spend a Force point to get a used Force power back, and if you roll a natural 20 when using a Force power, you get all of your Force powers back. Also, you basically get them all back after an encounter ends and you get a chance to rest.
• Force points and Destiny points. Force points are a lot like action points in d20 Modern, and can be used in many of the same ways. Destiny points are way more powerful and way more rare. You can choose a Destiny for your character, too; furthering it gives you temporary bonuses while running away from it imposes temporary penalties; completing it gives permanent bonuses. It’s a cool, mechanically-driven instant plot hook for the GM.
• Starting hit points are tripled now, in addition to be maximized. If you get 1d10 + Con modifier in hit points every level, you get 30 + Con modifier at first level. Very cool; it improves survivability at those low levels. Watch out, though; weapons tend to do more damage in this game. A blaster rifle does 3d8 points of damage, and that can be increased to as much as 5d8 with a feat. Ouch!
• Defenses. The concepts of AC/Defense and saves have been rolled into a single concept of Defenses. A Defense acts as a DC for attacks and effects that might hinder you, and is basically the sum of your heroic level + a class-based bonus + your relevant ability score + 10. Reflex helps you avoid attacks, just like Defense or AC would in other d20 games. Fortitude helps you resist poisons, diseases, radiation, and similar hazards, and also acts as your Damage Threshold (if you take this much damage from one attack, you move down on the condition track). Will protects you against Force powers and mind-affecting effects, and acts as the DC for skills like Persuasion or Deception.

I could go on. Believe me, I could go on. But I won’t just now. Suffice to say that, so far, just about everything’s been streamlined and polished and coated with awesome, and I can’t wait to play this game. I may do a full review once I’ve read the whole book and played it once or twice, but honestly I think you know what I’m going to say already.

Microsoft is creating a tool to facilitate communal memory through online photos. Viva la hive mind!

My friend Rich, who was in my Wild Blue playtest this past Saturday, recently posted a comment summing up his feelings on the playtest. I think it’s important that everyone see the player’s side of things rather than just mine, and I realize that not everybody looks at the comments on this blog; so me of you just subscribe to the feed. As such, I’m re-posting his comment in this news post, and I’ll be replying to the comment throughout. Block quotes are Rich’s comments.

From a player perspective – Overall a very positive gaming session, lots of fun was had, bad jokes were made, the berserker went berserk and possibly ruined all our plans….*@#$&# berserkers. (not that he shouldn’t of played that way, I mean, after all, he’s a berserker.) Oh, and quite possibly the most important side effect – creation of a new gamer. John really enjoyed himself, and wants to be in on future gaming. But now on to some comments on the system.

It’s always really good to hear that the players had fun, and it’s an even bigger stroke to my ego to know that I’ve helped convert a new player. Viva la hobby!

Things to improve upon -
Kind of hard to learn/So much to keep track of – I haven’t actually read through the rules (but I will soon, and post comments for you) so we all learned from Brian’s explanations. Since I’ve playtested the system before and I’m into working on rules systems and such, I didn’t have too hard of a time grasping the mechanics. Mike faired alright with it, but John was pretty well lost in it all. He was getting confused with all the options for activating skills, why traits don’t always apply, how specialization works, etc. In all, I might say that the system is too complex to recommend for beginners. However, as noted before, John did still have a good time.

I’m really glad John had a good time. Interestingly, my friend Chris played an older iteration of this system and thought it was really good for beginning players because of its focus on narrative over rules. Of course, he’s a big gamer (more board games than RPGs), so he’s pretty familiar with mechanics in general. I have tried to simplify things a bit in the current beta, though.

Character specialization – like most point based character systems, you run into the “highly specialized” issue. This is where characters are very good at what they do, and really bad at the rest. While this can make for some better roleplay (characters who are good at everything are so boring), it can make for excessively challenging conflicts. When the BBEG can attack anyone either Physically, Socially, or Mentally, it gets difficult to mount a suitable defense. The broad interpretation of the skill sets helps counter this, since we saw Academia, Subterfuge, and another skill used against mental attacks and even awareness and legerdemain as physical defense. I guess some of the issue may have come from the lack of knowledge that the players had in creating the characters – we were all mainly focused around physical aspects of the world.
Massive quantities of dice – not necessarily a bad thing, but it really starts to bog down play when counting out 27d6 then hunting for the successes. Play is even more bogged when you run into silly dice superstition like rolling one die at a time.

This is more a function of artifacts of the old style of character creation. Saga is not, strictly speaking, a point-based system, though you get some point-buy elements toward the end of character creation. It has elements of point-buy, but it also uses prioritization of assets and skills instead of point buy, and you get a set number of traits to start. Wild Blue works a little differently, using a sort of narrative character creation instead. In some ways it’s a little more free-form, like a point-buy system. Now, I agree that the system does lend itself somewhat to specialized characters, but it is possible to create a generalist in this game; at least, I think it is. I’ve never actually tried, but I did try to make it possible. Now, as to specialization being a bad thing; I think it can be, in the wrong hands, but I also think that (like you said), it’s boring when the PCs are good at everything. I think that the PCs should have to do something that they’re bad at from time to time, or else they become complacent and, even worse, bored. Challenge is good.

As to the massive quantities of dice, I agree that this is a problem. I’ve tried to remedy that in the most recent beta, though it remains to be seen if I succeeded. I did include a rule that allows you to trade in dice for automatic marks, on a 3-for-1 basis.

The fuzzy line – I’m talking about the one between RPing out an interaction and running a social conflict. In your post, you mention that we didn’t actually “win” any social conflicts – I think this stems in part from the habits we may have from other games – roll a gather information check and what you get is what you get vs. this system’s “roll to see if you break down the defenses, nope, try again, nope, try again, ok, you have worn them down” (it wasn’t quite like that, but in a way) Some of this may be settled by stating clearly “You are now in a battle of wills – if you win the battle, you get the info you want. If you don’t, you won’t get the info and you’ll suffer X as consequences.” Or, as players go along they’ll start to understand what the consequences will be and they no longer need to be spelled out. Since each “round” that we played gave us more info and we were talking a lot of it out, finishing the conflict “per the rules” didn’t seem necessary.

I think it’s probably a good idea to set down the parameters of a conflict before it happens, so everyone knows what to expect, and I’ll try to incorporate that into the game at some point in the future, for those who think similarly. Also, I should mention that while you didn’t “win” that social conflict with the old lady, you didn’t “lose” either. It ended prematurely, because John got information through alternative means. Which is fine. It actually worked out quite well, in the long run.

Kismet – What is this Kismet stuff, really? And why should it make damage into a 50/50 good/bad toss-up? I’d consider that every mark on a kismet roll can be spark, but every other result is doom.

I’ve made kismet a little more bad and a little less good. Hitches (1′s and 2′s) are always bad. Marks (5′s and 6′s) are only good if you have no hitches. This still might not be enough. I do like your idea of making everything below a mark a bad result, but that might increase player mortality rate a bit more than I want it to. Originally kismet was always bad, and I found that nobody ever used it. That’s why I made it sometimes good; to make it something of a gamble. You might come out ahead, but you might wind up bringing yourself that much closer to your Doom, too.

Wow, I can really get to typing sometimes, huh?

Yep. Welcome to the club.

What to definitely keep – FUN. We had fun. Therefore it was good. But more specifically -
Character creation – I had some fun with this, especially coming up with new traits and specializations. It’s also cool to see how you can use the traits in new and exciting ways once play has started.
Drives – While we saw very little in the way of mechanical “gain” for the players from the drives, I think it was very helpful for everyone to have these defined on paper, right in front of them. While I initially was opposed to the idea of a mechanical drive aspect that allows players to gain bonuses from the kind of roleplaying that they “should” do anyways, I found that having it there really was encouraging to all of us to try and fulfill those drives.

That was pretty much what I was going for. I wanted traits to be both a way for you to get out of tight spots or to hedge your bet, and a way for you to define your character in both narrative and mechanical terms. Rather than having a list of attributes that describe you physically and mentally, you just say, “this is what I can do.”

Drives came from the idea that I wanted to be able to give characters nudges in specific directions, as well as to give them some direction that they could define and follow themselves. I also wanted the most potent reward structure to be based off of what was important to individual characters. Rather than saying, “you get XP for killing things or completing quests”, I wanted characters to get rewarded for doing things that their characters would find rewarding, and gain confidence from.

“Spark” – used for narrative control and story effect was pretty cool, but might have had less impact than I would have liked. At one point it seemed that we would spend spark to undo things that could have been undone with fortune instead. It may be worthwhile to investigate the possibility of drive-generated spark for storytelling only, and scenario based XP or similar for character improvement.

I see what you mean about spending Spark when fortune would have done the trick, and I think that’s something that players and GMs will have to suss out for themselves. You guys could probably have spent fortune to make the darkness go away. Forcing the BBEG to stay in one form was definitely a job for Spark, though. As far as story-related Spark rewards, I had thought of that. I didn’t want Spark rewards to just be a way for the GM to say “good job”, though. I wanted Spark gain to be somewhat at the players’ control, even if the GM has the ultimate say (though a good GM will pick up on his players’ cues).

Story driven – the ability to run a game that everyone is into despite the lack of “overt conflict” is a real accomplishment. Not sure if this is more a reflection of the GM or the system or both, but whatever it was, it worked, and we’re all looking forward to playing again.

Thank you. Just, thank you. This is high praise, particularly in light of the fact that I ran the game and created the system and setting. Thanks. I’m really glad you had fun; I had a blast.

Skill usage – already been mentioned once or twice, but the ability to use almost any skill that can be made relevant in some way. Another great way that encourages some creative thinking and RP.

What I’ve found is that this particular aspect of the game really encourages players to describe their actions rather than just saying “I attack with my axe,” or whatever. I ran a playtest a while ago that was entirely combat, but there was a lot of description and improvisation going on, and it wound up being really memorable. For me, at least.

What to rattle around in your head -
Magic system – magic systems are tricky to nail down. I liked the broad, sweeping definitions vs. specific spells and effects. I like the idea of resonance. I didn’t like the seeming lack of effect that magic had (and some of that may have been that I wasn’t applying it to skills appropriately). I didn’t like the way resonance works – almost too arbitrary, and with more than one magic user, a GM would have to be painstakingly careful not to invoke resonance on one more that the others. May I suggest – Whenever a magic ability is used, a character gains resonance – For a discreet use, one resonance token is gained; Continued use in a conflict situation accumulates 1 resonance per round; Using a gift for an entire scene causes a character to gain 3 resonance. Whenever a character gains resonance, they make a resonance roll. Each mark causes the character to lose one resonance token. Each 1 or 2 invokes one of their drawbacks and causes them to lose a resonance token. A 3 or 4 has no effect. A character automatically loses 1 resonance at the end of each scene, but must make a resonance roll at the start of the next scene. As an option for GMs, each time a character gets a 1 or 2 on their roll, instead of immediately activating a drawback, they can pool those dice for use at an appropriate time in the game.

I like your ideas a lot. The magic system is still in its infancy. Saga, itself, doesn’t have a magic system, since it’s meant to be generic. The magic system I used was something I hammered out for Wild Blue specifically, and I’ll be the first to admit that it really does need some work. On paper, I thought the idea of building up a pool of tokens that the GM could use to hamper you with weirdness was a cool idea, but in play I think it creates an unnecessarily adversarial relationship between GM and magic-using players, and I often avoided using Resonance for just that reason. There’s a similar problem with traits in that I can invert them to hamper you, but you at least get a fortune token out of the deal if I do that. I’m thinking about putting that more in the players’ hands, allowing you to voluntarily invert a trait in order to get a fortune token (though I think I’ll retain the GM’s ability to do it, too).

Lastly, inverted traits – Allowing inverted traits to be bought off by fortune points is fine, but it’s also good to offer an alternative method – “I need a drink” should be able to be bought off by taking a round of conflict to do nothing but get out the bottle and take a swig. Lawman could be uninverted by intentionally commiting a crime (in view of those for whom lawman was a negative quality)

Yeah, that’s a good idea. I might pilfer that.

Thanks, Rich, for all the feedback; I think it’ll ultimately be very helpful. Go ahead and shoot me an email about the other stuff you wanted to talk about.

I agree with this post up to a point. I think that story fudging can be a lot of fun. I did a lot of that in my Wild Blue playtest on Saturday, in fact. There were a number of points during the story when I had one thing planned but, whether it was because the PCs came up with a better idea or because something occurred to me that something else would be more fun, I changed things. Of course, Saga and, by extension, Wild Blue is sort of intended to be played that way.

But that’s not really what I’m talking about when I infer that there are things about this post that I disagree with. I do not disagree that a simple dungeon crawl done in broad strokes can be extremely fun. It can, and I’ve had lots of fun in the past in those exact kinds of sessions. I do disagree that there’s something inherently more fun about them than more involved, intricate storylines with deep characterization and rich plots. Again, in the Wild Blue playtest, there was really only one battle (at the end), but the game was a blast because the players were really into their characters and were playing them to the hilt, and they were really into the story, too. If I had played it more like a simple point-a-to-point-b slugfest, it would have suffered considerably for it.

I think that, fundamentally, it depends on the mood of the group and their preferences. I think that a melding of both is, ultimately, my preferred style of play. And I do realize that Mearls is simply stating his preference in this post; that’s not lost on me. I just thought I’d counter with mine.

On Saturday, I got together with my friends Mike and Rich, and Rich’s friend John, and we played some Saga/Wild Blue. All three players were Wardens (a sort of jurisdiction-transcending lawman), and were sent to investigate a series of murders in a tiny village called Tom’s Crossing. Mike played Thor, a hulking berserker formally of the Tribes of the Dragon but now a Warden. He didn’t say much, but what he said carried a lot of weight with those he talked to. Rich played Cristof, a nobleman’s son with some magical powers who wanted nothing more than to redeem his family’s tarnished name. John played Mason, a cunning thief-turned-Warden whose primary goals were sex, greed, and proving himself (probably in that order).

There was a lot (and I do mean a lot) of talking and investigating, and only one big fight at the end. There were a few minor social conflicts throughout, but overall I think I could have made the game more challenging, rules-wise; most of the NPCs were pushovers (though the PCs never actually won one of the social conflicts; it ended in a stalemate, but they found information through . . . alternative means). The final, climactic battle went pretty well, I think. There was some physical combat and one big push of mental combat toward the end that did some serious damage to the PCs. They wound up winning, but I think they doubted that they would for a second there.

Things I took away from the game were that the rules on pushing needed to be revised, clarified, and made more useful (which I did in Beta 3, yesterday). I also looked at kismet damage and how it works, and revised it to make it a little more deadly. I also noticed that the PCs tended to roll huge handfuls of dice when they were playing to their strengths. As in, 20 or more. A few too many, in my opinion. So, I’ve done two things in Beta 4 to combat this issue. First, I’ve made a few changes to the way assets work that, I think, will make them easier to use, will reduce the number of dice rolled somewhat, and will make conflicts a little more challenging for the PCs (all goals I had in mind when I made the change). I also added a rule whereby you can trade in three dice for an automatic mark.

At any rate, here’s Beta 4. Hope you like it. Really, these changes should have been in Beta 3, yesterday, but I didn’t think of them then. It was 1am, after all.

Saga, Version Beta 4

Following a largely successful and very fun playtest of Saga using the Wild Blue setting on Saturday, I’ve made some minor updates to the core system. Of note is the fact that I changed the way pushing works in the game; rather than being based off of spending additional tokens, it’s based on how many net marks you roll. Pushing also has more specific effects, and is generally (I think) more useful. I also removed the concept of burning a token from the game to eliminate confusion; you now always spend tokens, but you regain tokens at different rates in and out of a conflict. Also, since the version on Lulu is free, too, I’m just going to point you there (after all, you get cover art that way).

At any rate, here’s the new revision:

Saga, Version Beta 3

Just a quick post to let everyone know I’m still around. I’m working on some stuff that I’ll talk about later; primarily Wild Blue and a new project. I did a playtest last night on my new project (I’ll tell you that it’s another card game), and it went really well. Afterward we played Arkham Horror, pitted against Yig. We defeated him (barely) after he emerged, and the game ended more or less the same way it did last time we fought Yig: Chris and I got devoured and Tad, who had had the presence of mind to get blessed before Yig came out, would up dealing the finishing blow. Good stuff.