Attribute and skill conversions from 2E

[bestialwarlust]

It seems the 2E always had npc's, characters, etc.. with fairly high dice pools. I don't mind dice pools but when they start getting really high I'm not a big fan. Force points can really drive up a die pool I don't mind that however as 1E doesn't hand out force points like candy. I guess my question is does anyone change dice pool numbers for NPC's if converting from 2E? Does anyone use a die pool maximum or do you just let the dice pools get real big? 

[boot]

2E does have characters with higher dice pools. There's specialization and advanced skills, which makes skills higher than can be made in 1E. And, a 2E player can use Character Points--up to five in some circumstances--to improve a skill or attribute throw.

1E doesn't have any of that.

A 1D increase is a hell of a modifier. Take a look at MY RECENT THREAD and focus on the improvement gained by adding just one die.  It's quite a bit.

[boot]

Yeah, with 1E, you're rolling just raw dice most of the time. A character will only have a few Force Points. Thus, the 1E character must survive with his raw skills.

The 2E character gets a lot of help. First, many skill levels are higher than for 1E characters due to specialization and advanced skills. So, that's more dice. Specialization and advanced skills are most probably going to be put on the character's main skills, so that means that these higher dice skills are rolled more often.

And, 2E has character points. These add one or two dice to a throw--up to five dice for defensive rolls. They are quite powerful. Upping the number of dice thrown on a task.

Plus, if a 2E still needs it, he's got his Force Points to rely upon, just like in 1E. Except, in 2E, characters who are Force Sensitive (another 2E concept) start the game with two Force Points--which is double that for any 1E character.





PILOTING

One issue I ran into while playing 2E were for those pilots in the group.  The PCs had a stock light freighter.  The character point rules allow you to use up to five in defense.  So, when the pilot of the ship rolled to avoid incoming attack--say a group of TIEs was chasing them--this would eat up the number of character points the pilot had.  He'd spend his character points defensively to save the ship, and everyone in it, but have none or few left for himself once the characters left the ship--while all the other characters in the party had all of their character points.

Character points in 2E are used for two purposes.  They are used as skill points in 1E, to improve skills, but in 2E, they can improve attributes too.  And, they can be used to improve skill checks and defensive throws.

So, the pilot gets robbed of all this just because he was the pilot.

This created a dilemma for me.  Do I rule that CP's can't be used while piloting?  But, it had worked so well for single pilots in starfighters in the game.  I'd have to stop that, too.  Do I set up a "ship pool" of CPs where everybody aboard contributes?  That seems clunky--and I really didn't want to go with a quickly suggested House Rule.

I never did solve the issue.  When I went back to gaming D6 SW, it was with 1E, so, poof, no more issue.

[bestialwarlust]

I think that's part of it when I ran R&E another is looking at some of the major NPC's and seeing the dice pool's. One thing I have to keep in mind is they are the pinnacle and not the norm. It also boils down to how generous the GM is with character points. 1E suggest between 3-10 per session so unless something major is done anything awarded over 5 should be rare.

[boot]

Apr 26, 2019 12:20:54 GMT -6 bestialwarlust said:

1E suggest between 3-10 per session so unless something major is done anything awarded over 5 should be rare.

Just for clarification, 1E suggests 3-10 skill points per adventure, not game session. An adventure is typically several game sessions (4-8 sessions, in my experience). And skill points are not used in the game like character points. Skill points are only used to increase skills. Character points are used to increase skills, attributes, or to add-to throws directly in the game.



2E Dice Bloat

In the past, I've often seen GM's say that stormtroopers, as written, are under powered--that the GMs have to boost them up in power for their games.

When I hear this an investigate further, I usually find that the GMs are running 2E games. The stormtrooper was designed for the 1E game, and when the PCs got buffed up a bit through the use of specialization, advanced skills, character points, and sometimes extra Force Points...well, of course the by-the-book stormtroopers will come across weaker.

Now, pit a stormtrooper out of the book against a 1E character, and the threat of the trooper is just about right. It fits what we see in the movies.

[bestialwarlust]

Apr 26, 2019 13:41:08 GMT -6 boot said:

Apr 26, 2019 12:20:54 GMT -6 bestialwarlust said:

1E suggest between 3-10 per session so unless something major is done anything awarded over 5 should be rare.

Just for clarification, 1E suggests 3-10 skill points per adventure, not game session. An adventure is typically several game sessions (4-8 sessions, in my experience). And skill points are not used in the game like character points. Skill points are only used to increase skills. Character points are used to increase skills, attributes, or to add-to throws directly in the game.



2E Dice Bloat

In the past, I've often seen GM's say that stormtroopers, as written, are under powered--that the GMs have to boost them up in power for their games.

When I hear this an investigate further, I usually find that the GMs are running 2E games. The stormtrooper was designed for the 1E game, and when the PCs got buffed up a bit through the use of specialization, advanced skills, character points, and sometimes extra Force Points...well, of course the by-the-book stormtroopers will come across weaker.

Now, pit a stormtrooper out of the book against a 1E character, and the threat of the trooper is just about right. It fits what we see in the movies.

oops that's right per adventure on the skill points.