May 5, 2025 10:22 am
This is still just an interest check, to see if it is worth spending time working out details. So treat this as a rambling first draft. :)
• Contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode III (Order 66).
I had an idea for a game where we play Jedi Padawans that survived the Order 66 cull, and are now on the run. This idea stuck with me for about a week, so I am bringing it here.
How you avoided death would be up to you and the game group, it could be individually, or as a group, whichever we prefer. Maybe you were at the temple when Anikin struck, maybe you were away with your master and they died saving you, maybe you were on a class outing and survived as a group? Options abound, make your backstory your own.
How you join up as a team would be up to the group as well. Maybe you were all together when things went down, maybe you were responding to the recall beacon and were close together when it was changed to a warning and stuck together, maybe you found each other over the following weeks? It need not be the same for everyone.
You are old enough to have had some training, and to have made your lightsaber... but a lightsaber is an obvious tell that you are Jedi, so using it may be a bad idea. Maybe you hid it away, maybe you sold it, maybe you turned it in for the reward, claiming to have killed the Jedi who wielded it? Maybe you keep is close, just in case? You could always (try) make another one later if it comes to that.
Age ranges are probably between Ahsoka in Clone Wars and Obi-Wan in Episode I, so probably the equivalent of 'teenagers' (for whatever that means for your species), though ones that have been taught to be more mature than our current crop. :)
This idea was actually spawned from a discussion of 'low dopamine production in the teenage brain —making everything "sooo booooring!"— and high dopamine reward pathways —making risky behaviour appealing.' So it is 'Star Wars as an afterthought'.
FKR
Free Kriegsspiel Roleplaying (or Revolution or Renaissance) was born out of Kriegsspiel (Kriegs = war; spiel = play) or 'War Games', played by professional soldiers, as training. They found that the 'rulebooks' could not cover all the options, because the real world is complex and ever-changing, and decided that "We are all soldiers. We know what is reasonable and what works. We don't need the rulebooks." So they started playing 'Frei' (Free (of overcomplicated rules)).
It worked because everyone was on the same page about 'what sort of things could happen', 'what could come up', 'what could work'. They were all experienced soldiers playing soldiery things.
Since we can assume 'we all know Star Wars', FKR seems a good fit.
We don't need overcomplicated rulebooks that force us to play a particular way. We can all envisage the sorts of scenes that we would see in a Star Wars, and we can describe it and have it happen.
I am not 'a massive Star Wars fan', though. I enjoyed the movies and the Clone Wars animated series, and Andor, and read a few books, but am pretty meh about most of the other stuff. Just to get us all on the same page.
FKR and Dice
Sometimes we need to answer a question that is not obvious, then we turn to some 'resolution mechanic'. I have seen differing opinions on how this should be done:
Some feel the 'dice' should be as minimalist as possible, and get out of the way as quick as possible. And old-old-school "roll a d6, better than x" can do the trick. 'X' could 'better than 1' for an easy task 'just don't roll a 1 and you are fine' —a la 'Gygax'— or a hard task could be 'better than 5' for a really risky task were you have to roll a 6 to succeed.
Some feel that, since the 'dice' only occasionally come up, they should 'be an occasion'. Ironically —since we are definitely not using the system— the FFG Star Wars (Genesys) system's fancy dice provide a lot of narrative flavour which I often like for FKR. It can be worth spending the time to put together a dice pool based on the situation and interpret the outcomes. This site supports these dice, so they are an option, we can talk about it. This can be slow in PbP.
Cards are also a popular vehicle for randomness in FKR, especially if we don't concern ourselves with 'sheets and books' and skip the 'pen and paper' part. They can be more convenient while standing in a queue, or while on a hike. Dice are not feasible (I don't like rings), but a shuffled deck of cards in a jacket pocked is easy to draw the top card from. Cards also provide colour and flavour, not just numbers. This site's cards are too clumsy to make that worth it, I think. :(
Personally I would go with a fairly simple system with a little structure. Maybe 24XX (SRD) blends the simple dice rolls with a little situation-based dice-pooling, and an easy to understand and remember outcome number.
Skills and Leveling and such
We can pull skills from our imagination, or from other rulebooks (WEG d6 or Force & Destiny or 2400 for instance) and make a system that makes sense for what we are playing. 2400: Project Ikaros' Psi Powers could provide a place to build our Force Powers from.
Using Force Skills risks revealing your Jediness, and will bring trouble. Some are obvious: like firing up a lightsaber, or using Force Jump to flip over a bully and Force Push to knock them down (i.e. 'pulling a Spider-man'). Others are more subtle: like using Force Push, in a crowded street, to cause your target to stumble and miss their taxi. The details of the situation would heavily affect this. The fiction always comes first. Using your Force Powers to jump a little further and run a little faster to win a competition might go unnoticed... for a while. Using Mind Trick to get past guards might become a problem when they are questioned as to why they let you pass, or why they sold you death-sticks and are rethinking their life...
We, obviously want to have Force Powers, else we would not be playing Jedi. But resisting the temptation to use them is likely to be a large part of the game. :)
'Leveling Up' might use a simplified Trait Vote system (from Burning Wheel), so what you do would shape how you 'level'.
Species
I never thought the 'playable' races in Star Wars were very distinct. I generally just modeled the different races as 'flavour'. But diverting a few Initial Skill Increases to 'Species Characteristics' is a fun way to handle these (see 2400: Legends as an example). If you are aquatic, you would naturally be good at swimming, so put some points into Swimming; you might also be able to breath underwater, but need to keep yourself wet. If you don't breath 'our atmosphere' (accept it, it's Star Wars), you might need to wear a mask at all times, this is a vulnerability, but also means you don't need to worry about poison gas or lack of atmosphere.
• Don't be a dick. Don't abuse the freedom of the system.
• Be a fan of the other players' characters. Use your character's specialness to make them shine. If everyone else is allergic to water, don't make a character that can live and breath in water, or don't expect that ability to come up except in very special circumstances where you might get your one chance to shine.
What do we think? Shall we give this a try?
• Contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode III (Order 66).
I had an idea for a game where we play Jedi Padawans that survived the Order 66 cull, and are now on the run. This idea stuck with me for about a week, so I am bringing it here.
How you avoided death would be up to you and the game group, it could be individually, or as a group, whichever we prefer. Maybe you were at the temple when Anikin struck, maybe you were away with your master and they died saving you, maybe you were on a class outing and survived as a group? Options abound, make your backstory your own.
How you join up as a team would be up to the group as well. Maybe you were all together when things went down, maybe you were responding to the recall beacon and were close together when it was changed to a warning and stuck together, maybe you found each other over the following weeks? It need not be the same for everyone.
You are old enough to have had some training, and to have made your lightsaber... but a lightsaber is an obvious tell that you are Jedi, so using it may be a bad idea. Maybe you hid it away, maybe you sold it, maybe you turned it in for the reward, claiming to have killed the Jedi who wielded it? Maybe you keep is close, just in case? You could always (try) make another one later if it comes to that.
Age ranges are probably between Ahsoka in Clone Wars and Obi-Wan in Episode I, so probably the equivalent of 'teenagers' (for whatever that means for your species), though ones that have been taught to be more mature than our current crop. :)
This idea was actually spawned from a discussion of 'low dopamine production in the teenage brain —making everything "sooo booooring!"— and high dopamine reward pathways —making risky behaviour appealing.' So it is 'Star Wars as an afterthought'.
FKR
Free Kriegsspiel Roleplaying (or Revolution or Renaissance) was born out of Kriegsspiel (Kriegs = war; spiel = play) or 'War Games', played by professional soldiers, as training. They found that the 'rulebooks' could not cover all the options, because the real world is complex and ever-changing, and decided that "We are all soldiers. We know what is reasonable and what works. We don't need the rulebooks." So they started playing 'Frei' (Free (of overcomplicated rules)).
It worked because everyone was on the same page about 'what sort of things could happen', 'what could come up', 'what could work'. They were all experienced soldiers playing soldiery things.
Since we can assume 'we all know Star Wars', FKR seems a good fit.
We don't need overcomplicated rulebooks that force us to play a particular way. We can all envisage the sorts of scenes that we would see in a Star Wars, and we can describe it and have it happen.
I am not 'a massive Star Wars fan', though. I enjoyed the movies and the Clone Wars animated series, and Andor, and read a few books, but am pretty meh about most of the other stuff. Just to get us all on the same page.
FKR and Dice
Sometimes we need to answer a question that is not obvious, then we turn to some 'resolution mechanic'. I have seen differing opinions on how this should be done:
Some feel the 'dice' should be as minimalist as possible, and get out of the way as quick as possible. And old-old-school "roll a d6, better than x" can do the trick. 'X' could 'better than 1' for an easy task 'just don't roll a 1 and you are fine' —a la 'Gygax'— or a hard task could be 'better than 5' for a really risky task were you have to roll a 6 to succeed.
Some feel that, since the 'dice' only occasionally come up, they should 'be an occasion'. Ironically —since we are definitely not using the system— the FFG Star Wars (Genesys) system's fancy dice provide a lot of narrative flavour which I often like for FKR. It can be worth spending the time to put together a dice pool based on the situation and interpret the outcomes. This site supports these dice, so they are an option, we can talk about it. This can be slow in PbP.
Cards are also a popular vehicle for randomness in FKR, especially if we don't concern ourselves with 'sheets and books' and skip the 'pen and paper' part. They can be more convenient while standing in a queue, or while on a hike. Dice are not feasible (I don't like rings), but a shuffled deck of cards in a jacket pocked is easy to draw the top card from. Cards also provide colour and flavour, not just numbers. This site's cards are too clumsy to make that worth it, I think. :(
Personally I would go with a fairly simple system with a little structure. Maybe 24XX (SRD) blends the simple dice rolls with a little situation-based dice-pooling, and an easy to understand and remember outcome number.
Skills and Leveling and such
We can pull skills from our imagination, or from other rulebooks (WEG d6 or Force & Destiny or 2400 for instance) and make a system that makes sense for what we are playing. 2400: Project Ikaros' Psi Powers could provide a place to build our Force Powers from.
Using Force Skills risks revealing your Jediness, and will bring trouble. Some are obvious: like firing up a lightsaber, or using Force Jump to flip over a bully and Force Push to knock them down (i.e. 'pulling a Spider-man'). Others are more subtle: like using Force Push, in a crowded street, to cause your target to stumble and miss their taxi. The details of the situation would heavily affect this. The fiction always comes first. Using your Force Powers to jump a little further and run a little faster to win a competition might go unnoticed... for a while. Using Mind Trick to get past guards might become a problem when they are questioned as to why they let you pass, or why they sold you death-sticks and are rethinking their life...
We, obviously want to have Force Powers, else we would not be playing Jedi. But resisting the temptation to use them is likely to be a large part of the game. :)
'Leveling Up' might use a simplified Trait Vote system (from Burning Wheel), so what you do would shape how you 'level'.
Species
I never thought the 'playable' races in Star Wars were very distinct. I generally just modeled the different races as 'flavour'. But diverting a few Initial Skill Increases to 'Species Characteristics' is a fun way to handle these (see 2400: Legends as an example). If you are aquatic, you would naturally be good at swimming, so put some points into Swimming; you might also be able to breath underwater, but need to keep yourself wet. If you don't breath 'our atmosphere' (accept it, it's Star Wars), you might need to wear a mask at all times, this is a vulnerability, but also means you don't need to worry about poison gas or lack of atmosphere.
• Don't be a dick. Don't abuse the freedom of the system.
• Be a fan of the other players' characters. Use your character's specialness to make them shine. If everyone else is allergic to water, don't make a character that can live and breath in water, or don't expect that ability to come up except in very special circumstances where you might get your one chance to shine.
What do we think? Shall we give this a try?
Last edited May 10, 2025 5:38 am
