GETTING STARTED
Here’s what you need to start
playing Star Wars:
- Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Hero's Handbook and/or regular visits to d20 Hero SRD
- A character sheet for each player
- Pencils and scrap paper
- Dice (only a d20 is required by Mutants & Masterminds, but the more the better)
Take some time to familiarize yourself
with the rules. You don’t need to know everything right away (or ever), but you’ll
need to understand the basics, how hero points/victory points
work, how to make
characters, and what your abilities
do. If you intend to be the gamemaster, you will need a more thorough
understanding of the rules and the setting. If you need any in-universe answers
to Star Wars questions, Wookieepedia
has your back.
THE
DEFAULT SETTING
Most of the material on this
blog will assume that adventures will be taking place after Return of the Jedi formerly known as the
New Republic Era.
That being said, most of the material should be useable for nearly any Star
Wars campaign and perhaps for other settings as well.
CHARACTERS
Character creation will
be largely unchanged from Mutants &
Masterminds. Unlike the superhero genre, Star Wars has a more limited origin for powers. In fact most powers
would not be thought of as such by the characters. To be sure, Force using
characters clearly have unusual powers and both droids and non-human species
are capable of amazing feats (at least by human standards), but then so are Star Wars heroes like Padme Amidala,
Lando Calrissian, and Boba Fett. In game terms, these ‘normal’ characters will
have powers too.
The following origins will be
the most common sources of these abilities:
Droid
Experiment
The Force
Mutant
Species
Technology
Training
In addition to ready to play
archetypes, Star Wars campaigns will
benefit from templates designed to speed character creation and encourage
creativity. Species
templates can be found here http://starwarsmandm3e.blogspot.com/2016/02/blog-post_16.html
and class templates will be added at a later date. The ‘classes’ are not intended
as part of the traditional class and
level system, but rather to provide a familiar and simple starting point
for players. None of these templates need to be taken whole. Even species
templates could be separated into components either to create a new species, a
hybrid or simply an atypical individual. In fact, experienced players can feel
free to dispense with them entirely! Mutants
& Masterminds is simple at its core, however it can also be like
opening up a huge box of lego bricks. Even with instructions, it can be hard to
put all the pieces together. Templates serves as character ‘blocks’ that you
can stick together if you want.
POWER
LEVEL
The power level for the Star Wars campaign should range between
3 and 8. PL 3 is appropriate for inexperienced heroes who are expected to grow
tremendously during the course of the campaign, as with characters like Luke
Skywalker, Finn, and Rey. More experienced characters should be closer to PL 5
or 6. These characters will see slower advancement over the course of the campaign,
if they advance at all and represent characters already in their prime such as
Han Solo and Chewbacca, Poe Dameron, or Mara Jade. PLs 7 and 8 should be
reserved either for mentor characters, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, or the peak of achievement
for characters advancing from a lower PL like Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Knight.
Higher power levels should generally be reserved for gamemaster characters or perhaps for other eras such as Jedi Knights and Masters in the time of the Clone Wars.
Higher power levels should generally be reserved for gamemaster characters or perhaps for other eras such as Jedi Knights and Masters in the time of the Clone Wars.
ABILITIES
Ability ranks range from -5 to
20, with 0 being average, applying no modifier (equivalent to a score of 10 or
11 in other d20 games). See the ability benchmarks below. Generally, only
non-humans or enhanced humans will have ranks of 8 or more. Characters starting
at power level 3 should generally spend 10 to 14 character points on abilities.
This will approximate the ‘standard array’ of ability scores found in other d20
games.
All abilities should be equally important in a Star Wars campaign.
All abilities should be equally important in a Star Wars campaign.
Ability Benchmarks:
-3
|
Younger child
|
-2
|
Child, elderly, impaired
|
-1
|
Below average; teenager
|
0
|
Average adult
|
+1
|
Above average
|
+2
|
Well above average
|
+3
|
Gifted
|
+4
|
Highly gifted
|
+5
|
Best in a nation
|
+6
|
One of the best in the world
|
+7
|
Best in the galaxy; peak of human achievement
|
+8 or higher
|
Superhuman
|
SKILLS
Your total skill modifier can be
no more than 10 + your power level. Even so, this means that a lowly PL 1 character
could be an ‘expert’ in a couple of skills. Keep the benchmarks below in mind
when designing your character and consider that the best ever at something in
the real world probably topped out around +15 (like Einstein might have had
Expertise: Physics at that level) and even fictional characters rarely reach
higher than that. So called ‘epic’ levels of skills are possible at higher PLs,
but are rarely necessary and should represent near godliness.
Skills Benchmarks:
+1-4
|
Familiarity; trained
|
+5-8
|
Professional
|
+9-12
|
Expert
|
+13-15
|
Master
|
+16 or higher
|
Best in the galaxy
|
ADVANTAGES
Unlike many older d20 games, Mutants & Masterminds has a fairly
shallow pool of ‘feats’, which suits most games just fine. If you like sorting
through pages and pages of ways to add a bonus to something, feel free to add
more by converting feats from other games. The advantages in the core rules
should suit most games just fine. Any power or effect that has a final cost of
1 character point per rank, could be used as an advantage if desired, however I
prefer to keep such things designated as ‘powers’ to allow more interplay
between them (advantages can’t be nullified, but powers can and can likewise be
countered).
EQUIPMENT
Armor, tools, vehicles and weapons
will likely see more play in Star Wars
campaigns than in a typical Mutants &
Masterminds game. The standard rules for equipment should be used
however additional rules dealing with wealth and equipment will be explored. The
main concern with using the rules as written is with regard to vehicles (with
spaceships being integral to galaxy spanning adventure). One option is to use
the standard rules for personal gear (acquired via the Equipment
advantage), but to employ a different management strategy regarding vehicles.
It may make more sense (and could be necessary for low PL characters) to have a separate PL for pilots and their vehicles. For example, it seems quite unlikely that a proton torpedo can be made to fit PL 8 or less, even if you trade off most of its accuracy for damage. Vehicles might require that players track in game wealth (usually hand-waived in Mutants & Masterminds) more rigorously and require that players budget for repairs, docking fees, licenses and so forth. In fact, for a freelance trader campaign this could represent a big part of the fun!
Another possibility is to hand out vehicles with complications. Want your own freighter? Be prepared to spend a huge amount of time on adventures that serve to pay off your debt and if you default, you’ll probably have an enemy much more powerful than you. X-wing pilots are probably soldiers of the New Republic and have many responsibilities beyond gallivanting around the space lanes or seeking tutelage in the ways of the Force.
Each group (and perhaps each individual campaign played by each group) may need to find different ways to incorporate equipment and get the right feel for their game.
It may make more sense (and could be necessary for low PL characters) to have a separate PL for pilots and their vehicles. For example, it seems quite unlikely that a proton torpedo can be made to fit PL 8 or less, even if you trade off most of its accuracy for damage. Vehicles might require that players track in game wealth (usually hand-waived in Mutants & Masterminds) more rigorously and require that players budget for repairs, docking fees, licenses and so forth. In fact, for a freelance trader campaign this could represent a big part of the fun!
Another possibility is to hand out vehicles with complications. Want your own freighter? Be prepared to spend a huge amount of time on adventures that serve to pay off your debt and if you default, you’ll probably have an enemy much more powerful than you. X-wing pilots are probably soldiers of the New Republic and have many responsibilities beyond gallivanting around the space lanes or seeking tutelage in the ways of the Force.
Each group (and perhaps each individual campaign played by each group) may need to find different ways to incorporate equipment and get the right feel for their game.
POWERS
Most Mutants & Masterminds games assume a number of origins,
countless power descriptors and, well SUPER-powers! Star Wars is a little different, but that doesn’t mean you can’t
have fun with powers too! As mentioned previous, the source of ‘powers’ (this blog will tend to
use the term abilities) is somewhat narrow, however many descriptors will be
associated with power effects. A number of descriptors from Power Profiles
will be used with Star Wars, however additional descriptors will be added or
given greater prominence such as: audacity, courage, the Dark Side, fear, the
Force, hyperspace, injury and skullduggery. In general, abilities will be
sorted into classes (Agent, Fighter, Fringer, Jedi Guardian, Pilot, Scoundrel,
etc.) and each class will have between one and three unique descriptors. For
example, only scoundrels will use skullduggery. Other descriptors may be common
to several classes (like luck or social) and the talent descriptor will appear
in most class abilities.
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