Author Topic: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?  (Read 4839 times)

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RadicalTaoist

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Kai

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2008, 02:55:11 AM »
Love it.  :love
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Banor

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2008, 03:26:26 AM »
It's a great game for sure, so far the best I've found for Sci-Fi

Optimator

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2008, 06:11:14 AM »
I absolutely adore Saga Edition.  I am slowly converting all my friends at the moment.

Josh

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2008, 03:40:18 AM »
It's a great game for sure, so far the best I've found for Sci-Fi
Just a point of information, Star Wars is not Sci-Fi,  It is fantasy.  Saga edition is a great game that can apply to other Space fantasy as well. 
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heffroncm

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2008, 01:19:24 PM »
I absolutely adore SAGA.  It's a great system for spacefaring fantasy.  I've played in 2 games, one Clone Wars era and one in which we used SAGA system for a post-movie Firefly setting.  Both were very entertaining and mechanically easy.  The game didn't get in the way of the characters.

RadicalTaoist

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2008, 10:56:05 PM »
I am in good company. :D
I absolutely adore Saga Edition.  I am slowly converting all my friends at the moment.
Wait. What do you mean 'slowly'? :P

clarkcd

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2008, 03:56:50 AM »
I've been playing SWSE since it's release and I absolutely love it.  It has it's quirks (skill focus: UtF I'm looking at you :nonono ) but for the most part it's a wonderful system to play Star Wars in.  Much better than WEG D6, much better than OCR and much better than RCR.
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Josh

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2008, 04:29:16 AM »
The game didn't get in the way of the characters.
That is the charm of saga. 
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Dragon Snack

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2008, 05:17:49 AM »
I only played 2 sessions (of the 3 sessions that group played), but we found some loopholes even in that short time.

Auto-intimidates allowing one player to make another player his bitch was kind of funny though (because I kept quiet about my 14 Will Defense)...
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PhoenixInferno

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2008, 04:16:04 AM »
Having seen the SAGA rules, I was VERY disappointed to not see 4E look more like that.

Rev

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2008, 08:00:15 PM »
Having seen the SAGA rules, I was VERY disappointed to not see 4E look more like that.

I can agree with that. However, much as I like it, Saga does suffer from some unusual design quirks.

Anything more than light armour is pretty undesirable for high level armour spec characters (since the formula for half armour + dex mod comes out to more or less the same & Fort boosting isn't worth the feat cost). That said - it's more that the armour talents aren't great than a problem with the system itself.

The Skill system is a bit lumpy - A beginning "expert" character won't get any better during his career (& in fact will get worse comparative to the defenses of his equals). Smaller boosts with a higher level scaling would have been better.
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heffroncm

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2008, 08:30:34 PM »
Oh, by no means is SAGA perfect.  The ability to cripple enemies, and sometimes outright win, without doing any significant HP damage by manipulating the Condition track is IMO a little ridiculous.  The skill system could be better.  Jedis could be cooler.  The other Force traditions could have been explained in a little more detail.  Some of this is fixable with splats, some if it is fixable with homebrew or houserules, and some of it I wouldn't know how to fix.

Saga is a 'good enough' system.  It does what it does well enough that I can play my character, have fun, and not have to worry about the system.  I'm not constantly referencing rules in a 200 page book printed for no other purpose than to referance rules.  I'm not constantly annoyed at the insane number of special circumstance rules that only get used once every couple of months unless a character is built around them.

Wait. What do you mean 'slowly'? :P

I RP with 26 different people in 9 campaigns spread across 6 different groups that meet anywhere from weekly to bi-monthly.  When there is a gap in campaigns, I step in and run a short SAGA to keep people going.  This can end up taking a LONG time to introduce very few people.  For example, the last time we got together for my bi-monthly group, we did some unexpected things and went off "the tracks."  Long story short, TPK, but we also accomplished the major "story" quest, leaving us with no party and no real reason to continue the same storyline.  So, I broke out my SAGA books, and we spent the rest of the night making up characters and backstories, and coming up with reasons they are all working together.  We RP'd the first scene of the game, and I cliffhangered it just as a fight was breaking out becuase it was late.  We'll be picking it up from there on August 16th, where I'll have 12 hours to bring the intro adventure to a close before we decide what to play next.

j0lt

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2008, 02:45:07 AM »
ME!   :D

I started running a Saga campaign with a small group (2 players) just before Dawn of Defiance came out.  We sequed in to DoD and had a good time of it, even with one player being a complete beginner with tabletop RPGs.
Due to nefarious circumstances beyond our control, the group has slowly drifted apart (geographically), and the campaign ended rather abruptly.  I'm working on a new campaign which will hopefully start in July.

As for why I like it, I think heffroncm said it best.  The system HELPS you build the character you want, instead of limiting your choices and pidgeon-holing you into a character concept that the designers chose for you.
Just like d20 Modern, you can start your character design from the conceptual level, rather than say, D&D's "I want to play an Elf Wizard" as your entire character idea.
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DaveTheMagicWeasel

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #14 on: June 27, 2008, 10:00:03 PM »
Not got a chance to play it, but I read the book and thought it looked really well done.  Imo captured the feel of the jedi while still toning it down to the right balance.

GawainBS

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #15 on: July 11, 2008, 07:19:55 PM »
I agree with PI. I was enthousiastic about 4E when I learned it would look like SWSE. Imagine my disappointment...
Anyway, absolutely love the system.

serow

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #16 on: July 13, 2008, 01:25:17 AM »
Saga!

Balthanon

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #17 on: July 13, 2008, 02:00:12 AM »
I just recently started playing in a Star Wars Saga campaign and it has been fairly interesting.  We're playing just after the Clone Wars, so Jedi are pretty much out unfortunately.  Overall, I would say that I'm a bit torn when it comes to the character building-- a lot of the talents are pretty mediocre, particularly for nobles.  (Which the "play as it lays" rolling that we did for stats has pretty much forced me into for my characters.  My main character and two backup characters have all had medium strength, poor dexterity, and excellent mental stats so far.) 

I think part of it is that I would just like more options available.  Particularly with classes, though that might just be a holdover from playing D&D, since I'm not sure which major archetypes are missing if any.  Part of it is likely that Jedi isn't available in our game (unless I happen to crash land in Dagobah or something), which means if I want full BAB for the character I need to take soldier.

Outside of that, I have mostly liked the system.

clarkcd

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2008, 02:31:28 AM »
One of the things that you might be missing about saga is that multi-classing is encouraged to the max.  There are no inherent penalties for doing so and getting some nice synergy between classes to make your character really shine at what you want them to do is very nice.

Unfortunately it seems that some of the problems you are having (stats, no Jedi, etc) are more a function of the campaign/GM than the system itself.  I do encourage you to try the rules set without those restrictions placed upon it (if possible).   I think you'll really enjoy it. :)
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Commx

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Re: Testing the Waters - who here likes Star Wars Saga Edition?
« Reply #19 on: July 13, 2008, 08:14:57 AM »
It's quite a simple system to learn and use, and I have to say I've enjoyed it so far. The only thing I'm not too sure of is the condition track, as it seems that at higher levels, you are perfectly capable of taking out enemies without removing even half their HP.

However, I do think I found something quite abusable in the system. To avoid clogging the thread, it's spoilered below.
[spoiler]
Droid Noble. Unlike with most characters, a Droid's power is almost always related to its value. A Droid Noble taking Wealth will have an average of 10k to spend on itself at first level, and this amount will only become more ridiculous as you advance in levels, and taking Connections will make it easier to acquire the Licenced+ parts.

With the pile of money you have, you can also afford to actually use the Tech Specialist Feat and add +2 to your Str, Dex, and Int. Your useless Feats and Skills can also be reprogrammed into something more useful later on, by just spending more money. The most important thing is naturally the ability to afford all good parts, especially the Shield Generators.

Also, install a pair of melee weapons on Extended Stabilized appendages. Now you can dual-wield weapons and still get the double-strength bonus. You also get Reach 2, something which is normally unavailable to PC's. (Melee might not be the best option in the game, but this is a step towards making it useful at the least. The rules do not prohibit you from dual-wielding ranged weapons, so dual wielding two rifles or other two-handed ranged weapons is also an option, again one which normal PC's don't get.)
[/spoiler]