The Beacon of Hope
A long time ago, in a decade far, far away…or a time we like to call “the 80’s” there was a gaming company named “West End Games,” or “WEG” for short. In 1986, WEG published the first ever official STAR WARS role-playing game. You could live out dreams of being a Rebel agent, a dashing smuggler, or a young Jedi battling against all odds to free the galaxy from the tyrannical grip of the evil, ever-present Empire. It was a glorious time to be playing RPGs. There are days I miss the simplicity of it all…
The Basics
The system is purely based on d6s for each of the character’s six main abilities (Dexterity, Perception, Knowledge, Strength, Mechanical, and Technical) with corresponding skills for each ability (e.g., Dexterity has skills entitled “Blaster” and “Dodge” while Mechanical has “Astrogation” and “Starship Gunnery”), which, represents a specialized form of said ability. Essentially it means that anyone can use any skill they want to use; they just have to roll their ability dice. However, characters trained in specialized skills gained, typically, at least one extra die, if not more, through character advancement in that skill. Pretty standard for any RPG.
But being a Jedi was a little different.
Jedi Abilities
If your character is Force Sensitive, the doors to their skills are opened wider. They gain access to three more Force-only skills: Control, Sense, and Alter.
Control, Sense, and Alter represent differents way Force-sensitives perceive the world. Each is unique and powerful in its own way, but can be combined with one or both of the others to great effect.
- Control represents the Force-users way of controlling their own body – rapid healing, resisting poisons and/or toxins. Essentially, mastering yourself and your body the way others cannot.
- Sense grants players the ability to see or perceive things others cannot – seeing into the future or the past, hearing more astutely, etc.
- Alter opens up the door for players to affect the world around them – moving objects, Force-choking someone, etc.
From a game mechanical standpoint, players assign a d6 score to the skill, and advance it the same way they would other skills, with some notable exceptions. A starting player may never begin their career with only Alter. When considering the time frame of the system (between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back) it only makes sense from a flavor perspective because Alter is the most powerful powers of three, especially in combat, and in order to learn requires being taught. Also, its powers present the fastest ways to earn Dark Side Points, and falling to the Dark Side in this system is not difficult. Very scary actually.
The Powers of the Force
In WEG Star Wars at the time of advancement players can use their experience points to buy new skills, increase old ones, or increase their ability scores. For characters with ranks in aforementioned Force skills, when they rank up their Force skills they get to choose a new Force Power from the family tree of the Jedi skills they increased. Therefore, if the player chose to rank up Control they also gain access to a new Control power, representing their advancement in their mastery of the Force. Additionally, some Force Powers have combined Force Skills. For example, “Lightsaber Combat,” which essentially provides the user the ability to channel the Force to guide them in wielding a lightsaber.
When a player reads these powers now they might be disappointed due to their lack of flashiness. Remember, this was publish thirteen years before The Phantom Menace was released. Before The Clone Wars television show. Before Zhan’s famous Thrawn Trilogy. Jedi were not “Super Heroes” with powers we would see in comic books like the Justice League or the Avengers, but rather average people would had mastered themselves and their own capabilities and pushed beyond to tap into a mystical energy field that provided them the ability to affect others slightly. Jedi were not blowing things up with their minds, phasing through time or objects, and running around the hulls of capital ships fending off Super Battle Droids. It was a more restrictive time and it balances well with other characters’ skills and abilities.
Beware the Emperor
A flavorful mechanic in the game my friends and I used to use, as suggested in the original Core Rulebook, was if your character gained a rank of 7d or higher in any Force skill they have caused a ripple in the Force and gained the attention of the Emperor and his ultimate henchman, Darth Vader. When that rank was achieved, we always ramped up the encounters, made Force-sensitive acolytes appear, more dangerous foes, and even had Big V show up every so often. On the lighter side, we would also have less trained Force-sensitives seek these characters out for training and guidance in the ways of the Force. It only makes sense because a character that powerful using a shared energy field could not go unnoticed by others.
The Lure of the Dark Side
In WEG Star Wars, any character can earn Dark Side Points, but, as the saying goes “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” When a player has at their finger tips the ability to quickly and easily resolve situations by corrupting beings or killing them with a mere thought it becomes tempting to do it again and again and again.
With this system, any time a Game Master hands out a Dark Side Point, the play adds that number to their current total and then rolls 1d6. If the result of the roll is LESS THAN the character’s current Dark Side Point total, the character has fallen.
The Champion Arises
All-in-all being a Force-sensitive, and even a Jedi in this system is great fun. Your character will lag a little bit at first while the other players are honing the respective skills and abilities of their PCs, but very quickly your PC will begin to shine in their own way as they will dominate the battle field performing superhuman feats, mastering their bodies for the ultimate protection and guiding the team through adventures by always knowing just where to go and why they need to be there.
The system is very streamlined and easy to play, and relies more on the fun of the action than the crunch of the mechanics.
I highly recommend it.
The D6 Holocron is a free online resource you can use.
Check it out, and May the Force Be with You. Always.
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