Over the last couple of years, I have been lucky to play in two linked series of Star Wars Saga games. My experience with the system has been as a player, but my GM and I have discussed the system quite a bit. He’ll chime in with comments in italics throughout the article.
Katana Geldar wrote a nice post about the recent announcement by Wizards of the Coast, where they declare the end of the Star Wars RPG line. Geldar then asked us the following in the suggestion pot:
I would like to see something about Star Wars Saga written up, there seems to be very little critique of the system on the Nets outside message boards and my own blog. And given that the current publishing run is ending rather soon, perhaps someone could take a look back at the system as a whole and what could be done in the future.
Saga in Time
Saga Edition came during an interesting period, with an interesting pedigree. It was released a year ahead of 4e, was widely viewed as a bridge to 4e, and introduced many mechanics and conceptual changes from their earlier Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
Bryan says: Saga Edition, in my opinion, was a huge improvement over the previous d20 incarnations of the game. If I could choose one thing about Saga Edition that was the greatest improvement I would undoubtedly say it was The Force rules. This was the first Star Wars RPG that seemed to get the Force right both mechanically and still stay within the spirit of the movies. I ran D6 Star Wars for nearly twenty years and while it played well enough for non-Jedi characters, the Force rules were just not what I was looking for in a Force system. The loss of vitality to use Force abilities in d20 RCR was a major complaint that I had under that edition as it didn’t fit what I saw as displays of the Force on screen. Saga Edition ditched that idea and went with “Uses” instead; uses that could be refreshed with a Force Point or completely refreshed with a minute break or a natural 20 on the “Use the Force” skill check. It works very well.
Fourth edition D&D players can find their way around a Saga character sheet pretty easily– stats, defenses, ability modifiers and feats are all quite similar. Many Jedi talents resemble encounter powers, as do some talents for each of the classes.
Saga Edition developed alongside 4e; it doesn’t remain locked in 2007 anymore than 4e is locked in 2008. Still, many 4e changes that might make sense in Saga Edition were never implemented. For example, minion rules were never brought across– so hordes of Stormtroopers soon have a lot of hit points if they hope to hit high level PCs, and can be a chore to bring down (since damage doesn’t increase much). Similarly, Saga NPCs are designed like PCs, rather than using the shortcut formulas that make 4e monster and encounter preparation such a snap.
Bryan: Minion rules are some thing that I wish had made it into Saga Edition. They will be added as a form of house rule to any future games I run using Saga Edition. Key NPC’s are created with the same rules as player characters. Minor NPCs can be taken from a non-heroic statblock provided in the books or custom created by the GM as a non-heroic template. While running the games mentioned, I often found it necessary to steal an existing statblock and modify it because there was so much bookwork to do when creating statblocks. Minor NPCs are easier than major NPCs (less to deal with) but you must still figure out the purchase of feats and trained skills (minor NPCs and/or beasts don’t normally have Talents). Other than modifying a stat block or using one as is, a GM doesn’t have the ease of preparation that 4e apparently provides and this can be a time sink in game prep. Saga Sheet (a player created aide) is helpful but it has bugs that you must be aware of such as weapons needing to be re-equipped to have the modifiers calculate correctly (not sure if it is fixed yet or not).
The Saga Core
The rules in the Saga core book were all we used at the start of our first series. It was a solid game engine, with many of the proper components, but with limited feats, equipment, and talents– clearly a good enough start, but designed to be expandable.
Our game was set soon after the Knights of the Old Republic video game. The technological stagnation of the Star Wars universe was a big help– even though specific equipment for the era was missing, it was easy to pick up a similar piece of equipment from the core book and rename it to match the setting.
At low levels, everyone contributed relatively equally, and niches were well protected. First level Saga characters are much closer to 4e than 3e in terms of durability– and the explicit decision to allow PCs to save their lives by spending a force point made a lot of sense for the setting. (It also resulted in Doumar enjoying time in a bacta tank after getting clotheslined by a wookie…)
Alternating talents and class specific feats on leveling helped maintain the unique feel of the classes. Those talents and feats added to design that ensured that characters gained something at each level combined to make each level rewarding. Multi-classing was handled closer to 3.x style D&D, which worked well when our noble’s Jedi heritage was revealed.
Bryan adds: There was a good deal of balance with the corebook. The Jedi did not seem to overpower the other classes initially. Each class contributed to the group’s success. The Noble and the Scout had very useful talents. The Scout seemed to have more talents that helped himself and thereby helped the party, while the Noble had more that helped the party and thereby helped himself. The Jedi seemed to compliment the Scout and the Noble well, rushing into melee while the Scout and Noble broke out the blasters. Our Noble character was able to multi-class seamlessly and Saga Edition handles Multiclassing very well in my opinion. What made it more fun though was that our Noble player came up with a creative slant on the multi-classing, wanting to bring it out through role-playing more than just mechanically (which we followed as well).
Now with Splatbooks
Speaking of changes… we took a several month break between the first and second storylines. When we returned in September of 2008, a number of supplements had been released (including the very useful to us Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide), and several more books were in the pipeline.
The game’s additional complexity made keeping track of characters a little more difficult; we moved to SagaSheet for the even the PCs– and the GM began suffering from the long enemy build times, even with aids like SagaSheet.
Bryan: I have found numerous game aides that help with Saga Edition crunch, but there is still an incredible amount of stuff to remember. No one item is hard to comprehend but it can get quite hard to recall every little detail with so many feats, talents, and force powers added to just about every book. One doesn’t need to use it all, I suppose, but most of it is very good stuff and part of the fun is in choosing cool new elements to add to a PC’s arsenal of capabilities. If we had a weekly game instead of a twice monthly game, we would have had a sharper grasp of the mechanics. The additional abilities also required that I be very prepared with Major NPC capabilities. The additional information released by the supplements does add to the variety of PC and NPC builds though. You can have many different variations on the five classes.
Characterization and roleplaying continued to be fun, but balancing got wonky. The decision to hold on to the different BAB advancement rates made it trickier to provide foes that could challenge Soldiers and Jedi, but still be shot by classes with slower advancement rates. For most classes damage output plateaued early on, leaving only Jedi high damage area of effect abilities.
Bryan expressed frustration with the book’s CR calculations; the fights were difficult to predict and could range from underwhelming to tough at the same CR. He tried out the 4e inspired encounter budget system (pdf, homebrew), and found it worked a little more consistently.
Bryan: My players did a great job with characterization. You can’t be thankful enough for pro-active and engaged players.
Balancing encounters in Saga Edition might as well be non-existent as written in the core rulebook. It is one of Saga Edition’s greatest flaws. Early on, it was guesswork as to how much a group of PCs would be able to handle. Like D&D 3.5, there were many times where I would design conservatively, hoping not to kill the whole group, but also able to bring in reserves if the fight was going too easily. Gauging the CR for the encounters was a real stinker. I discovered a link to a Budget system for Saga Edition that was based on that found in D&D 4e. While it was not perfect, it was a far better solution than offered by the design team in the errata. I consider it essential to use the budget system. Having a fairly reasonable guideline is far better than having useless or no guidelines at all.
All Tied Up
Saga Edition Star Wars has been the favorite game of our young group; soon after the first series ended we pressed the GM to work on a sequel. A year later, at the end of the sequel campaign, our rallying cry became “Star Wars comes in Trilogies”.
Bryan taunts: I suppose it will happen sooner or later. A third “movie” seems to be a near requirement. I’ve been sorely tempted to run it using FATE or Savage Worlds though. 🙂
Despite our joy in the characters and campaign, a few annoyances mean that the GM needs a good break before he will be able to look at a sequel. The lack of a shortcut NPC math means that custom NPCs take a long time to build, and that you have to trust your spreadsheet keep track of the math.
NPC “grunts” can have a lot of hit points if they have attack bonus enough to hit, which can be a pain to track. I strongly suspect that if we play again, minions and minor enemies will get tracked by number of blows rather than strict damage counting (like John’s 10 good hits system).
It has become quite clear that Jedi are the heroes, just like in the movies– particularly at high level. This doesn’t take mechanical adjustment, but the group has to be comfortable with spotlight balance instead of a combat effectiveness balance.
Bryan: It became difficult, after 9th level, to keep everyone in the spotlight because it did seem like the Jedi were beginning to dominate combat with Force Slams and other useful powers. One thing was apparent though, and this is likely true for many games: the Sith Lords the group were fighting would focus on the Jedi PCs while having their minions deal with the non-Jedi of the group or using the minions to add to the Jedi’s problems. More often than not, it was the Jedi that were dealing with the Sith Force Users while the Scout, Soldier, and Scoundrel were dealing with Sith Troopers, thugs, and the like.
An advantage, pointed out in Geldar’s linked post, is that the system will be complete in a few months. At that point the expense of the system drops to zero, and books become something to review at your leisure instead of scrimping to purchase and cram this month’s supplement. I hope that the system keeps its fan base and players continue to actively play, even with the official support coasting to a close. I know that I have some dice ready for another Saga campaign.
Bryan: Indeed. The line is coming to an end but the games go on. Some of the late supplements have been very good. Galaxy at War adds much information about military campaigns and military organizations. Galaxy of Intrigue adds much about political and espionage operations, along with a Skill Challenge system appropriate for those types of activities. I’m not sure that they could have added that much more to the rules of the game without turning it into a bloated mess. There is quite enough to work with as it is. About the only book I will miss will be one about Riding Beasts and Creatures. This is one area of the rules that could surely have been expanded upon.
The Future
The future of Saga is unclear– much of it is in our hands. Without a corporation and a steady stream of new product the game will fade from some players’ minds. Others will continue to find the game and their way into roleplaying when they encounter the books in the store. Star Wars is a great universe that we enjoy imagining and it will remain on people’s minds with TV shows, expanded universe novels and comics, and other merchandise.
From a player’s point of view, they are releasing the last class book before they wind down the line, so there aren’t any obvious holes. (GMs and players will continue to homebrew feats and talents particular to their characters and campaigns, but there isn’t a crying need for more.)
For GMs, most eras have a book that provides some information, but requires additional work. Fortunately, much of the missing information is easily adapted from the movie or expanded universe sources– if you need the Sun Crusher, the novel provides a strong springboard. A network of premade NPCs, ships, and worlds could make the lives of GMs easier. Those contributions are easier to make knowing that an official version won’t come out two months later. The future is in the community’s hands.
It’s chicken and egg question guys, as I made the comment about Star Wars Saga in the pot before “the announcement” as the last book was coming out soon.
You’re right about the NPCs, which is why books like Threats of the Galaxy is such a good resource, depsite some of it’s flaws. Galaxy of Intrigue was a bit of a disappointment with the lack of stat blocks
Thanks for the mention, Saga is dead, long live Saga!
Threats of the Galaxy is a good resource but one needs to download the errata for it. It probably has more stat block errors than any other Saga Edition product. Some of those errors are just unbelievable… like a Jedi without any Force Powers for example.
Considering the expense of obtaining the Star Wars license from Lucas, I think we have seen the last of the Star Wars licensed games. It is possible that WotC could regain the license in the future, considering their Hasbro parentage and the connection to Lucas on the toy deals and such, but that probably won’t happen for quite some time. I just don’t see anyone else being able to pony up the credits for the license.
That doesn’t mean that Saga Edition is dead by any means. Like Scott said, the game is now in the hands of community that plays it. It will only die if we stop playing it entirely. Out of all the licensed versions/editions of Star Wars, Saga Edition remains the one that I will use for my Star Wars role-playing games. Now about planning that third “movie”… 😀
Is there anyone else out there who plays Saga– or even bought it to get a preview of 4e but never played it? Does anyone have questions about it?
I picked up a used copy of Saga Edition before 4e came out, and fell in love with many of the new elements of it. I liked the new skill lists and the static defenses. I loved how there were only a few base classes, but they had extensive talent trees. I loved how all the modifiers were +2 and +5.
Saga Edition made me excited for D&D 4e. Unfortunately, 4e disappointed me by moving too far away from what Saga Edition was, at least in class design. I believe that if it had looked more like Saga Edition, Pathfinder wouldn’t have the audience it does now.
@Jeff Carlsen – There are some elements of D&D 4e that I wish were closer to Saga Edition’s implementation. I also think that the traditional spell system could have been re-worked into an at-will, per encounter, and daily spell system without turning everything that classes do into a similar “powers system.” That would have been a much better design choice to me. But that just wasn’t the way that the cookie crumbled.
I’m sad to see Saga go, but I can’t say I’m surprised; the writing on the wall seemed increasingly clear over the past year, particularly starting last summer.
Working on Saga — development and editing on the Saga Edition Core Rulebook, rule support via Jedi Counseling, editing additional books over the next couple of years — was an absolute dream, and I’m happy to have had that opportunity.
I really like the Saga rules. There are plenty of rough edges (mostly due to the ridiculously compacted production schedule), and the XP rules mentioned in this blog entry are a great example. The original version I wrote was a slightly simplified version of what you saw in 3.0/3.5; during the managing editor’s pass, he went with a greatly stripped-down XP system due to a lack of space, but unfortunately some of the changes just weren’t scaled correctly for the Challenge Level system we’d used for NPCs. The result was a horrible patchwork that tried to fix the problem, but I really wish that Chris had thought to simply import the “level-independent XP awards” rule in Unearthed Arcana (which was later adapted for 4E) — it would have made everything so much simpler by allowing an “XP budget” and so forth.
A while back, I’d started writing up a codified version of all the house rules I use in my own Saga games, and I quickly realized that I had so many changes that it could actually be a completely new system — a sort of “Saga Revised” ruleset. So, I started assembling a fresh take on the venerable d20 system, building something that matches the flavor and feel of Saga Edition, enhancing its strengths, fixing its weaknesses, and making it genre-neutral for different settings and play styles while using Open Game Content as its starting point. (When I started to come to the conclusion that WotC was likely to drop Star Wars, of course, I picked up the pace!)
The result is my e20 System Project — http://e20system.com — which I’m doing as a patron-backed project so I can bring in fans at the earliest developmental stages to see if we can build a really solid rules engine. In short, it’s an experiment in “grass-roots game design” to see if we can change the way games are made.
(Also, since I live on freelance work — thanks for the layoff, recession! — doing it as a patronage project helps to generate enough money that I can work on it full time even as I have to pass on other freelance projects.)
We’ve already got our forums running — http://gmsarligames.com/forums — and even though we’re not at our fund-raising goal yet, the level of discourse and creativity tells me that this grass-roots game design idea really can work. I’m currently working on assembling an “e20 Lite Beta” document, something 10-15 pages long that gives a more concrete idea of what I have in mind so that potential patrons can get a better idea of how it might be similar to and different than Saga Edition, earlier 3.0/3.5 products, and D&D 4E. With any luck, I’ll have that assembled in a couple of weeks, giving plenty of time to look it over and even take it for a test-drive before our March 15th fund-raising deadline. (Yes! The Ides of March!)
No matter what happens with the e20 System, though, I’m incredibly proud of Saga Edition and what it accomplished. Sometimes I can’t believe I was fortunate enough to get to write in the Star Wars universe, and every time an excited fan stops by to chat with me at Gen Con I’m reminded how special an experience it has been.
Heartfelt thanks go to WotC for taking me along for the ride. 🙂
I will have to look at your project GM Sarli. With any luck, it would end up being the d20 product I am looking for (and have been for a while). 😀
I ahve to disagree with the part about system balance – I had a lot of troubles in this regard. From level 1 some Force powers were way out of whack – I’m thinking of Move Object and Battle Strike in particular. The Jedi would charge in and generally take out the leader of the bad guys in one hit, and then get knocked out as every other enemy ganged up on him while the other PCs stood back and tried to shoot them.
There were problems with the classes and races as well. No one would play a Scoundrel (I think over 20 levels and 5 characters one player took 1 level of Scoundrel to help qualify for a prestige class). The Noble we had was very fragile and all but useless in combat until higher levels. All but 1 character was human, because other races had too many stat penalties.
As soon as 4e came out I saw a lot of cool features that should have been in Star Wars. In a lot of ways I think that the 4e system is even better suited to Star Wars than it is to fantasy. I’d like a 4e style system for Star Wars if only for the ease of GMing. Maybe Gamma World will give us enough of a basis to do a conversion.
@bytemarc – Battle strike doesn’t seem overpowered. Move Object is a powerful power, but it is tempered by size of object modifiers for the target somewhat. Moving stuff by low-level characters required some fairly high rolls on the Use the Force check. Move Object failed more often than not early on.
Scoundrels can be quite effective, but a player must use their abilities to maximum effect. Scoundrels have some amazing Talents. I also didn’t see any evidence that the Noble was useless in combat. Far from it. His persuasion abilities alone turned the tide in more than one battle.
We’ve had very different experiences it seems.
The Original D20 Star Wars RPG is actually what got me into tabletop gaming in the first place. I saw it in one of WotC’s old “Game Keeper” stores when it first came out and talked my little brother into splitting the cost with me. I’ve been playing/GMing Star Wars off-and-on ever since, and I’ve been playing/GMing SWSE pretty much continuously since it debuted.
SWSE is, in my opinion, almost the perfect Star Wars system ever. The classes are well-balanced (including Jedi). The talent trees are cool. The feats aren’t broken. Prestige Classes are accessible and interesting. Most importantly, like y’all said, the Force feels like the Force.
The only problems I’ve had with the system are with skills and the NPC issue. The problem with skills is that I’ve found my players (who tend to be skill whores) can get pretty ridiculous bonuses really early on. In a mid-level game its not uncommon to see high 30’s or low 40’s from a character. My friends & I are on the “extremely computer literate” end of the spectrum, so Use Comp. can end up a significant problem (“I’ve got root access to the system, why can’t I open all of the doors of the Star Destroyer to vaccuum?”). My solution: a “skill challenge” like system. Each challenge gets ~40 “SP” and a set of DCs for appropriate skills. Each success grants the players 2d10 “skill damage” subtracted from the challenge’s “SP”. For every 5 points the player beats the dc by, he gets +1d10. For every 5 points they fail the DC by, I add 1d10 SP. Particularly clever description by the player might add 1 or 2 d10. If they reduce the challenge to 0 they succeed; if I increase the challenge by more than 50%, they fail catastrophically (if it makes sense).
As for NPC’s, Threats helps some, but I’ve gotten into the habit of ignoring NPC generation rules. NPCs don’t have nearly the screen time as Player Characters, why should they be created the same way? Pick an Attack Bonus, Defenses, HP, and important skills (Initiative, Perception, Use the Force), along with a few essential feats or force powers, and handwave the rest, at least for the average 1-scene mook. Set the Attack Modifier so that it hits the average PC about 50% of the time for an average encounter or 75% of the time for a difficult encounter. Pick Defenses so the average PC hits 50% or 25% respectively. It makes NPC generation a snap, and the players really don’t notice. It also allows you to run minions fairly easily; I’ve found 20-30hp for stormtroopers to be pretty good (they usually go down in 1-2 hits). As far as XP is concerned, I either treat average baddies as CR=PC level and harder baddies as that +1 or +2, or just grant the PCs levels when they complete N adventures (sort of the way the first D20 Star Wars worked).
Overall, though, I’ve found SWSE to be pretty much the best RPG system I’ve ever picked up. Balanced, true to the source material, with splatbooks that are relevant and useful without being absolutely required foreverandever. Thanks a ton GM Sarli… you’ve made the last few years pretty darn awesome for my RPG group.
Haha, ALL of my players are scoundrels! @bytemarc –
@qcontinuum – It sounds like your work arounds help keep game prep streamlined and running smoothly. Your NPCs sound like they couldn’t be made by the PC rules (too much attack bonus per HP, etc.), but that’s great– exactly what 4e did for monster prep.
If you were to put up a table of attack bonus, defenses, and hit points, I bet it would become a go-to source for quick NPC generation– much like the unofficial encounter budget system. If nothing else, reducing his work load might encourage my GM to get back to it sooner… I guess you see where my self-interest kicks in. 😉
@Scott Martin –
Right On!
Reducing my work load might just do THAT. 😀
I also had to make the ‘Withdraw’ action a full round (with double the movement) because the Jedi would just charge-withdraw every turn. It also kept his opponents from fleeing him beofre he could hit more than once.
My players are pretty good min-maxers, so had no trouble hitting high DCs for Move object or Battlestrike.
Sorry to harp on, but I’m still trying to finish the Star Wars Adventure Path.
The Destiny Point system is completely broken. After the first few levels, the Adventure Path presented a lot of encounters that were too easy. The encounter balance in the game is out. So my PCs would save all their Destiny Points for the one really big bad guy in each module and then all drop auto-crits on him and kill him in the first round.
@bytemarc – I would advise not using Destiny Points. I’ve run nearly twenty six-hour sessions of Saga Edition and haven’t missed Destiny Points at all. Force Points seem quite sufficient in bolstering PC capabilities.
I’d almost re-design the encounters using the Budget System and setting the difficulty that you want in the Adventure Path scenes. The encounter balancing guidelines in the core book are next to useless.
@bytemarc & BryanB
Another option is to limit players to having only 1 Destiny Point at a time. If they can’t save them up it trains them to use them at times other than the big boss fight (the “if I don’t use it and we level up I’ve wasted a Destiny Point” logic). I tried that with my group for the last campaign, and it worked beautifully. Or take away the auto-crit option for using Destiny Points (maybe it can grant a re-roll with a +5 bonus or something instead). Plus, if your baddie is a force-user, I’m pretty sure there’s a nifty talent in Core that lets you spend a force point to turn a crit into a normal hit (spent your destiny point for a crit? my force point says too bad…).
@Scott
I’m working on a table which I’ll post whenever I get a chance to finish it. However, its really party dependent… there’s not an easy way to do it strictly by level. My best metric is the +/- 10 rule: For a 50% chance to hit/to be hit, defenses should be the party’s average attack mod + 10, and attack rolls should be party’s average defense – 10. As for HP, the blaster rifle deals an average of about 13.5 damage per shot. So use that times the number of hits you want the guy to take before going down as a ballpark number.
Not really a flaw with the system itself, but of the business circumstances surrounding it, is the lack of a unified database and tool for SAGA like 4e. GMing 4e is SO easy since all I need is my laptop tuned into the database and then I can look up any rules/item/monster I need. The hyperlinks help in dealing with things I forget.
NPC generation isn’t too difficult if you cheat and do it the 4e way- Recolorize and reorganize NPCs from the book. The main challenge is that the stat blocks reference feats and special abilities that do require memorization, so they don’t tell you explicitly what the dealio is.
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As for Jedi, I haven’t seen any balance problems. Characters that are similarly “all-out” geared for combat are just as effective. Your Noble and Scoundrels probably just spend more towards talents that are effective out of game rather than in game.
For example, does your noble use wealth to buy rocket launchers and battle droids? Or fancy gold earrings?
Does he use Trust to essentially gain the combat potentially of any PC?
Does your scoundrel ‘chainstrike’ using Destiny points+Sneak Attack+That ability that allows you to attack twice after a critical hit? Does he use placed explosives to change terrain/knock the ceiling down over the heads of the enemy? If he’s a gunsliger, does he knock enemies -3 down the track in a single shot?
Hi everyone.I am new to this site but I have turned to your expert advice inhopes you may help me with some Gming tips.I have just started a Campaign if Starwars Saga edittion.The characters and Players I have are only lvl 4.However the problem I hav is the players seem to be creating character that are able to take out CL lvl 10s with just 1 Concussion grenade. they dont even give the enemies who should by all rights be able to destroy the lvl 4s.For instance I have a lvl 4 Droid who seems to have stats that a normal cl 17 should have.He created it from the scavengers guide.I am a Believer in the rulse, bule but this seems to be giving me problems in creating encounters for the groups that I have to either make extremely hard for the other characters,and very simple for the 1 to do by himself, or making an encounter that seems to be far too weak.The damage the equipment does that the characters have is unreal.What can I do to make this more challenging yet keep it fair for my players?
It has been a while since this article was active, but I wanted to post an update.
The Unknown Regions contains an expansion of beast creation rules from the core rulebook. It also contains a very simple and Star Warsy planetary system generation system.
The last book in the line was a winner.
I also recommend picking up the Essential Star Wars Atlas. It contains some awesome star maps and planetary bios on many of the major systems found in that galaxy far far away. 🙂
Another update:
I blundered into this NPC Generator for Saga Edition while researching for my next series. It doesn’t make the stat blocks for you, but you could use this as a creative spark for some data entry into the latest version of Saga Sheet.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/pz/zircher/saga_npc.htm