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Rank: Moderator
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Joined: 9/23/2008
Posts: 1,467
Location: Lower the Hutt, New Zealand
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Kia Ora te whānau! Star Wars Adventure Gaming, or SWAG!, is a roleplaying variant of our beloved Star Wars Miniatures, or SWM. Through SWAG you can create SWM Characters and, should you so desire, adventure them through skirmishes and non-skirmishes alike. SWAG can also be used to supplement and arm your existing SWM characters, level them up, and progress them through a series of Campaigns. There is even a rough form of SWM AI which can help guide any NPC or basic enemy movements. Bring on SWAG! Links! SWAG d20 ChartsThis link is for a d20 Chart .pdf. This gives you a bunch of detail and rolling charts that you need for creating a SWAG Character. SWAG CardsThis link takes you to a Dropbox folder that has all the Cards needed for SWAG. These include Class, Species, Character, and Weakness Cards, as well as Item and Ability Cards. Level 0The first step is creating a Level 0 SWAG Character, one that can begin its adventuring. To Create a Level 0 SWAG Character, begin by consulting the d20 Charts. Make a series of d20 rolls to determine your Character’s Class, their Species, and their Character. Their Class determines what their role in the Star Wars galaxy is, what their base Stats of Hit Points, Defense, and Attack are, and sets them on their initial path. Classes also come with a Special Ability to begin with. Their Species focuses them more towards their own path with modifications to HP, Defense, and Attack and sometimes additional Abilities. Though two characters begin as Soldiers, for example, a Human Soldier and a Trandoshan Soldier can look very different! Their Character provides only basic skirmish information – again through modifications to their core stats – but, gives some key clues to how their Character can be played in many situations. A list of Strengths and Weaknesses can help you to roleplay them (or, at the least, help you to determine what they might do in a given situation), and the d20 AI information can help NPCs to make some basic movements. CardsEach of these decisions can be seen in a basic form on the d20 Chart .pdf, but the best way to view these is through their Cards. The link above to the Cards Folders gives you access to all the Class, Species, and Character Cards available. On these Cards are some key points of information. All the cards have Core Stats – Hit Points, Defense, and Attack – or modifications to these. Adding them altogether will help you to see their overall effect on your SWAG Character. (It should be noted that your minimums are 10 Hit Points, 8 Defense, and +0 Attack – you can’t go below these!) After that is some extra Skirmish information, namely Base Size and Speed (both on the Species Card), bonus Special Abilities (on Class and Species cards), as well as any bonus Ability Cards. (These will be talked about in detail in the Levelling UP section, but for now can be attached to your Character. These are found in the Ability Cards folder.) There is also some non-Skirmish information available for any RPG-ers out there! The key piece of info for each Card is a description of their Class, Species, and Character. This will help give some hints for your Character’s mannerisms and ideals. Each one also contains some Character Cost information (costing will be covered later in Levelling Up) and some additional Skills. Skills are non-Skirmish related and can help when roleplaying situations between skirmishes. These will be covered in more detail later. Finally, on your Character Card, are your Character’s HADSWIF numbers. HADSWIF stands for Health, Aggression, Defensiveness, Social, Wisdom, Intellect, and Faith, and it gives a snapshot of your Character. These range from 1 (poor) to 3 (excellent). These too will be covered later. Creation OptionsWhen creating a Level 0 Character, you have options. Option #1 is that you roll a series of d20s and take what you are given. While you might be hankering to play a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter, you might get a Jawa Trader. That’s the luck of the roll. You could, however, limit the options, depending on the Campaign you are wishing to run. You might not wish to include Sith characters, so ignore any rolls that take you down that path – or you may decide that someone, regardless of the roll, is going to be a Droid. It’s up to you. Option #2 is similar. For each set – Class, Species, and Character – you roll three options and choose your character from those. Again, the choice is yours. Option #3 is, and this will perhaps be no surprise, that you simply choose what you like. Easy. Example: I want to create a SWAG Character so I roll a series of d20s to determine what it will be. I’m just gonna let the dice take me where they will so I roll a couple of dice to get my Class. I roll a 1 – getting me a Civilian – and a 2 – netting me a Scout. I roll again for my Species – it’s an 18 – which puts me onto Species List #2 – so I roll another die, this time a 3, which gets me a Bothan. Nice! A Bothan Scout! I think I’ll call him Ke’viin. But, what’s he like? I roll a d20 to determine his Character and get a 15. Ke’viin is an Entertainer (a Character-type, not an actual entertainer – although, he could be!), which means he is spontaneous, energetic, and enthusiastic. Love it!
A Scout starts with 20 Hit Points, 14 Defense, and +2 Attack. Being a Bothan grants an extra +1 Defense, and an Entertainer gains 10 Hit Points, but loses -1 Attack. That means Ke’viin starts with 30 Hit Points, 15 Defense, and +1 Attack. For Abilities, Ke’viin starts with the Scout Ability of Move Faster (Once per Skirmish this character may move 2 extra squares as part of its normal move.) and the Bothan Ability of Stealth. He’s not gonna hit much yet, but he’ll survive long enough to get better at it, methinks!Integrating SWM CharactersThe SWAG system has been built to an able to integrate existing SWM Characters into it. Instead of choosing a Character Class, like Scout, Soldier, Jedi, etc., I could instead choose a Rebel Trooper. Your basic 5pt Rebel Trooper has 10 Hit Points, 13 Defense, and +5 Attack. If I added my Bothan Species Card and my Entertainer Character Card to the Rebel Trooper Card, I now have a Bothan Rebel Trooper with 20 Hit Points, 14 Defense, +4 Attack, and Stealth. Great! The only issue here is to be careful which cards you add and when. If I started with a Trandoshan Mercenary Card (20 Hit Points, 15 Defense, and +4 Attack), it would be remiss to add a Trandoshan Species Card to it because the Trandoshan nature has already been engineered into the original SWM piece. I might, however, still add the Soldier and Trandoshan Cards if I wanted to use their RPG descriptions and details, but ignore the Core Stats. Adding ItemsYou’ll notice I so far don’t mention Damage. That is because Damage is the property of Weapons, and these – along with Armour, Equipment, and Upgrades – are SWAG Items. Characters can be equipped with Items to give them all sorts of Abilities during skirmishes and other advantages during non-skirmish times. They can be chosen or, if you’re game to take the change, rolled, again using the d20 Charts. The 7th Page on the d20 Charts allows us to roll up Weapons, Armour, and Upgrades for these Items. The above link will also take you to the Item Card directory, giving you access to all the Cards and their Item information – including their Roleplaying description, any granted skirmish Abilities, their Damage, Cost, Rarity, and Size. To roll for Weapons, first you must choose whether your Character is a Light, Medium, or Heavy user of Weapons and Armour, or if they are instead Force Sensitive (meaning Jedi, Sith, and Median characters). A Noble or a Senator might be a Light user of these combative Items, a Scout or Pilot a Medium user, and a Soldier or Bounty Hunter a Heavy user. (These can be modified to suit your Campaign or Roleplaying narrative, of course!) Make initial rolls to determine which type of Weapon and Armour charts you will roll from, and secondary rolls to find the exact Items you will use. You may even wish to roll twice for Weapons in order to secure a backup weapon! Weapon and Armour Upgrades allow you to add extra bonuses to your Items. Since they are less common, if you choose to roll for these, you must first roll a d20 and only on a roll of a 16 or higher can you then roll for an Item Upgrade. Example: Ke’viin the Bothan Scout needs something to venture onto the battlefield with. Being a Scout, he would probably normally be a Medium user of Weapons and Armour, but as it’s his first time adventuring, I think its better that he starts with some Light Items. I’m going to give him two Weapon rolls. He rolls a 13, which puts him onto the Heavy Pistol list, before rolling a 7: a Net Gun. Not bad. On a second set of rolls, he goes a 20 – the Light Melee Weapon list – and then a 10 – netting him a Vibrodagger! Okay, he’ll be doing some sneaking up on people, methinks! The Vibrodagger is a melee weapon and does 10 Damage. I do have the Net Gun as a Range 6 weapon, but – if I am going roleplaying, which I am – it only has one shot. Better use it sparingly.
For his Armour roll he roll a 6 – the Light Armour List – and a 7: the Padded Flight Suit. Nice. I have a go at rolling for Upgrades and roll a 7 for Weapons Upgrades – no cigar there – and a 17 for Armour Upgrades – yuss! I then roll a 9 which gets me some Vacuum Seals. Helpful if I go into spaceflight, but not so helpful for a skirmish! I can now add the Net Gun, Vibrodagger, Padded Flight Suit, and Vacuum Seals Cards to my Character. Ke’viin is read for his first adventure!One note about Pistol and Rifle Abilities here. I’ve added a Twin Attack restriction on Pistols and Rifles. The reason is I don’t want Twin to just happen willy-nilly, but rather I want weapons to have some manner of upgrading to make them work. Only by attaching a Cooling Cell to your Pistol or Rifle can you ignore the Twin Attack restriction. You may ignore this if you choose! Oh, and it’s Armour, not Armor. I’m Kiwi. I’m not changing the honour or the flavour of the word. (See what I did there?) Equipment and Droid UpgradesThe same process can then be done to give your Character Equipment and, if they are a Droid Character, Upgrades. By using the d20 Chart, you can roll more Items. Unlike Weapons and Armour, Equipment can be more focused on the Roleplaying aspect and can sometimes not give any benefit to a skirmish, so if you wish you could ignore these items. The recommendation is that you should make three separate Equipment rolls and take those Items, but you can have as many or as few Equipment Items as you require for your Adventure. Droids can also get Upgrades, but whether they should get them upon creation is debateable. They are mostly rather high level and should probably be something that the Droid Character set out to attain, rather than gifted at Level 0, or even the first few Levels. Example: Ke’viin, the Bothan Scout, has some Weapons and Armour, but what else will he carry into his first battle? My first double roll nets me a 10 – Medical Gear – and a 9 – a Stimpak. That should come in handy. My second double roll is a 13 – Survival Gear – and an 18 – an Aquata Breather. Now, if I was solely interested in just skirmishes, this is a useless Item as it gives me no Abilities, but as I’m setting out to roleplay this bad boy, I’m dam keen on the Aquata Breather – very handy for a Scout, I imagine. (Not that I think Bothan’s like getting wet though…) My final rolls are 2 – Communications – and 20(!) which gets me a Com Scrambler! Noice!SizesAll Items have a Size to them. This is an indicator of how much your Character may or may not be able to carry or use. For Weapons it is best to match the Size of the Item to the Character. A Medium Character can easily use a Medium Weapon in one hand, while a Large Weapon would require two hands. A Medium Character could then hold a Blaster and a Vibrodagger at the same time (although, you may want to put some limits on things – up to you). Armour comes in five categories – Padded, Light, Medium, Heavy, and Battle. These can be defined how you like, but essentially only the heavier Armours can be worn by the stronger Characters – Characters with a high Health Score. Again, police this how you will, but I wouldn’t allow my Senator with a Health Score of 1 to wear anything significant. Ke’viin, my Bothan Scout, has a Health Score of 3 (being an Entertainer) and, therefore could wear something very heavy, but being a Scout would probably choose not to. Equipment then follows the same rules – Medium to Medium in one hand, etc. – but you would not be able to carry two Weapons as well as use a piece of Equipment (unless you were a Besalisk!) so you need to be specific about what you are carrying and what you are actively using. Ke’viin has a Com Scrambler, but I have to actively be carrying it to have access to it. Upgrades are a little different. They generally have no size, or a size of +1, meaning that they are either easily fitted to an Item, or that the attachment is of some significance. Generally, if an Upgrade has a +1, it will add bulk to the Item. A Heavy Plasma Bolt Generator has a +1 for its size, so adding it to my Weapon will add to its size (Medium to Large, one-hand to two) and also, I won’t be able to add anything else, whereas a Cooling Cell doesn’t change the Weapon significantly. (You need to be careful about how many size-less Upgrades you add though – they can’t go on for ever!) Upgrading SWM CharactersOne benefit here is that you can simply add Weapons, Armour, Equipment, and Upgrades to existing SWM Characters! Your Rebel Troopers could now get access to Fibre Armour and your Stormtroopers could easily find themselves in possession of a Missile Launcher! You can add these in a number of ways – you could roll for bonus items at the start of the skirmish, place objectives about the map and, when you land on those squares roll for Items, or you could simply grab Items like it’s a candy store. Completely up to you. Once you have chosen them, attach the Cards to the Character. Abilities vs SkillsAn Ability is anything that adds specific bonuses for Characters during skirmishes. So far we’ve only covered Abilities that are either attached to Class and Species Cards, or Item Cards. When we Level Up our Characters we will be able to gain Ability Cards that give us access to lots of goodies. This will be covered later. Another part of SWAG is Skills. For skirmishing, these play very little part, but they come into their own in roleplaying. On the backs of your Class, Species, and Character Cards there are three Skills listed. Ke’viin, as a Scout has Stealth, Survival, and Balance, as a Bothan gains Stealth, Concentration, and Slicer, and as an Entertainer has Deception, Crowd Master, and The Force (which is a Skill more akin to luck than actually using the Force). Each of them comes with a short description that gives some body to that Skill. Stealth, for example says “being hidden from the world” and you can interpret that how you will, but it means that Ke’viin should be able to use this Skill during any roleplaying aspect of his adventuring, far more than say Mighty Swing, something he is not Skilled in. If you have a Skill listed on a Card in such a way, you are considered ‘Skilled’ in that area. There is a full list of the Skills available on the final page of the d20 Charts .pdf. When testing a Skill in the SWAG system you roll a d20, much like you do in a SWM skirmish. If the Save on a challenge was an 11, you simply need to equal or beat an 11 in order to complete it. Everyone in SWAG gets one die for a Skill roll, no matter whether they are Skilled or not. If you are Skilled, however, you get a second die, a second chance! This shows your increased Skill in that area. (You can’t be double-Skilled and get an extra, extra die! Ke’viin gains Stealth from being both a Scout and a Bothan, but he only benefits from it once.) Setting a Save roll for a given challenge is an art, not a science, but there is a helpful table which you can use on the final page of the d20 Charts. You combine the difficulty of the Save (Easy, Tricky, Hard, Difficult, or Challenge!) and the time allowed for the Save (a Day, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and an Instant) to determine the overall Save required. Once you’ve lined up these two, find a corresponding Save on the chart – see if it needs nudging one way or the other – and then offer the Save to the Character needing to make it. Example: Ke’viin, the Bothan Scout, is looking to sneak past an enemy on a battlefield in order to get away without being drawn into a skirmish. He’s not keen on just using his vibrodagger here. The Game Master (GM), or whoever is determining these things, looks at the chart and considers the Save ahead of Ke’viin. He’s got time to achieve this, but not all the time in the world, so the GM settles on Minutes – the middle row – and also reckons that, because the enemies are playing sabbacc and not hyper alert, the Save is really only going to be Tricky, the second column. That combines to give a Save of 11. Yeah, that feels right. Ke’viin rolls a 7… uh oh – not so good, but(!) Ke’viin being a Scout has Stealth so makes a second roll, this time rolling a 12. Success! Ke’viin sneaks past and is gone before the guards even finish their next hand.Skirmishing vs RoleplayingWe in the world of SWM are all good with Skirmishing. The SWAG systems merely adds some flavour to it and allows you to change up some aspects of your casual play, adding Species and Character content, as well as cool Items, to your play. The Roleplaying aspect, however, give a new added element to your gaming, utilising the base of SWM to add some character to your gaming experience. You can go in as deep as you like! You may simply choose to add a short out-of-skirmish introduction and end to your SWM games, or use the character elements to make out-of-game decision (“oh, my character would definitely break into that to rescue them,”), or you could choose to go full RPG. I have been running some SWAG roleplaying over the last year or so and its bloody fun. AIOne final aspect to your Level 0 Characters is the addition to an AI. Now, its very hard to come up with an AI system for a game that is as complicated as SWM, not to mention, trying to fit that onto half a card! I’ve had a go, however, of adding some guiding principles that can shape some decisions of NPC and enemy characters. On the bottom of the Character Cards are a list of 7 focuses for a character, depending on what they roll on a d20. For an Entertainer, for example, a roll of a 16-20 will have my character with the following: “Charge!; Attack only if possible”, and “Committed; the last to leave”. This means my character will be ultra-aggressive, looking to base enemies where possible and sticking at it to the end. A roll of a 6-15, however, would see my character: “Using cover when its at hand”, “Follow others; waiting”, and being “Beside allies; neither gains cover”. They would therefore be making use of cover where possible, preferring to only head into conflict zones behind others, but ultimately positioning where possible evenly next to their allies. On a roll of a 1-5 they would: “Attack, then run” and “Ignore allies; fly solo”. Their decision making is poor – they attack from their starting space if possible, declining to get into a better position, and they will charge off away from their allies, possibly down another corridor! While its not a perfect system, it will be able to at least guide you in how they might make decisions on the battlefield. Have a Go!Have a go at making your own SWAG Level 0 Character! In the next post I’ll talk about Levelling Up. Mauri Ora, Mauri Mate!
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Rank: Moderator
Groups: Member
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Joined: 9/23/2008
Posts: 1,467
Location: Lower the Hutt, New Zealand
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You’ve created a Level 0 SWAG Character and they’ve gone through their first adventure. They survived either a skirmish, or an RPG experience of some kind, and now they’re ready to grow! Let’s Level up this puppy! Levelling UpTo Level Up a SWAG Character, you must first complete an Adventure or series of Adventures that have enough significance to constitute a Levelling. This is fairly free in its definition, and the nature of an Adventure will be discussed later, but is essentially up to the players and/or Game Master (GM) to decide when this is due. After this, you can complete a fairly simple process of modifying any Core Stats and adding or Upgrading Abilities. The numbers and Abilities can get a little unwieldy – you now have a number of Stats, Cards, and things all floating about – so we can record all of this on a Character Sheet. Modifying Core StatsAt the completion of a Level, a Character will automatically progress in one of its Core Stats. At the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, and 13th Level your Character will gain an extra +10 Hit Points each time. At the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, and 14th Level they will get another +1 Defense, and at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 15th Level will gain a further +1 Attack. Across their 15-Level Career, they can gain an overall +50 Hit Points, +5 Defense, and +5 Attack merely through progressing through the Levels. Example: Ke’viin, the Bothan Scout, started with 30 Hit Points, 15 Defense, and +1 Attack. Becoming a Level 1 Character he will gain 10 Hit Points lifting him to 40. At Level 2 his Defense will become 16, and at Level 3 he will jump to +2 Attack. This will continue till he eventually (should he survive that long!) reach a Level 15 stat line of 80 Hit Points, 20 Defense, and +6 Attack.There are other ways of increasing Core Stats, through Abilities and Items, and these will be covered later. Adding AbilitiesThe next step in Levelling is adding Abilities to your Character. These come in the form of Ability Cards that gives a Tiered set of Abilities for the skirmishing player, as well as an increased focus on the attached Skill for that Ability, and some extra Skills to boot. An Ability Card packs a lot of punch! To determine what Ability Card you can gain for your Character, you can follow one of several options. You could trust your fate to the d20, you could combine choosing and rolling, or you could simply just pick the Abilities you want. The easiest to explain first is the combination choose-roll scenario. Your first decision when gaining a new Ability is whether or not to take one of your Class, Species, or Character Abilities. Each Skill that your Class, Species, and Character possesses, is an Ability that is always available to your Character, because that is who you are. Ke’viin, my Bothan Scout, can at every Levelling opportunity choose to access the Stealth, Survival, and Balance Abilities (Scout), the Stealth, Concentration, and Slicer Abilities (Bothan), and the Deception, Crowd Master, and The Force Abilities (as an Entertainer). If you choose one of these, simply pick which one you would like to add to your character and add the corresponding Ability Card (found in the Ability Card directory in the Card Link above). If I choose not to take on of these Abilities and want to turn my hand to fate, I can go to the 3rd page of the d20 Charts .pdf and roll on the Roll an Ability Tree chart. A roll of a 1-5 will have me rolling for extra Hit Points, Defense, and Attack, while a 6-19 will allow me to roll again for a chart that corresponds to one of the HADSWIF-based tables. It is suggested that you roll three options and then choose one to take as your Ability for that Level. Example: Ke’viin has decided to chance his arm at Levelling and forego the automatic choices of his Class, Species, and Character (for your entertainment!). He first rolls a 15, which has him rolling from the Wisdom list of Abilities. He is now rolling off a Civilian chart and his second roll of an 8 gets him Battle Awareness. Cool. His second set of rolls – a 14 and a 15 – sees him back on the Wisdom table, this time picking up Perception. Now we’re talking! His final set of rolls – this time a 5 and an 8 – sees him on the Extra HP/Def/Att Table and having Extra Defense as his Ability. Handy, but he’s already got some good Defense, so he’s gonna be looking at that Perception Ability a little more closely.Each Ability Card has two sides to it (although they are single .jpg files in the directory) and therefore can give two options. Once you have chosen your Ability, you must then choose a Focus or a Side of that Card which will then give you your skirmish Ability that can be added to your Character. A basic list of the Focuses attached to each Ability are given on pages 4 and 5 of the d20 Chart. On the Abilities Cards are Tiers, each Tier progressing through different levels of like Abilities to show growth in a given area. When first chosen, the Ability Card starts on Tier 1 and progress when another Levelling event occurs. This will be discussed later. Each Ability card also has an amount of roleplaying information. It has a description which gives depth to the Ability, making it essentially a more profound Skill, which will be discussed later, as well as three new Skills that the character can become Skilled in (gain an extra die during and RPG-based Skills Challenges). Example: Ke’viin has the choice between Battle Awareness, Perception, and Extra Defense. Battle Awareness yields the Focus choice of Offensive and Defensive, while Perception has the Focus choice of Recon and Loner. Extra Defense has no such choice and only adds a bonus to your character’s Defense. The Recon Focus of Perception seems the best fit for my Bothan Scout – the Battle Awareness doesn’t feel right, and the Loner aspect seems contradictory to his Entertainer spirit – and a quick glance at the Tiered Abilities shows that he can initially gain Recon then, if he chooses to progress this Ability, It’s a Trap and Hunter. That seems very good for Ke’viin! Taking this, he now also becomes Skilled at Sense, and Focus, already being Skilled at Survival due to his Scout nature. Great choice!Once chosen, add the Ability Card to the Class, Species, Character, and Item Cards. All of the above works well, but you may be so keen to let the die determine your future that you opt to use the Optional Pre-Roll detailed on page 3 of the d20 Charts. Using this roll, a 1-3 will give you the Abilities that correspond to you 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Class Skill, a 4-6 is the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Skills for your Species, and 7-9 match to your three Character Skills. A roll of a 10-14 moves you on to the Roll and Ability Tree table, while rolling 15-18 gives you different options for upgrading Abilities, which will be discussed shortly. You can ignore any of these options if they don’t apply. Finally, a 19-20 puts you onto the Commander Effects table which will be outlined soon. Extra Core Stats and Class/Species Bonus CardsThere are options to, as shown previously, gain Extra Hit Points, Defense, and Attack. These cards come with no RPG-based bonuses, but do lift the Core Stats of the character. They start at Tier 1 give a +20 bonus to Hit Points, or a +2 bonus to either Defense or Attack. These can be progressed in the same way as standard Abilities. Some Classes and Some Species also gain Ability Cards. Force Users start with the Force Card (already set to the Force User Focus), Bounty Hunters the Industry card (you can choose a Focus), and Pilots begin with the Pilot Card. (The Pilot card brings in aspects of X-Wing… a very different game, and will be discussed later!) Certain Species – Duros, Rodians, Trandoshans, Wookiees, Ewoks, Gungans, Clones, Lasats, Togrutas, and Tuskens – also start with an Ability Card, all of them bar the Duros having no extra RPG-based information, but still behave like Ability Cards in terms of Tiered progression. Levelling Up AbilitiesPerhaps this is not your first Levelling opportunity and you already have Ability Cards at Tier 1, or it is your first Levelling and you have existing bonus Ability Cards. You can then upgrade those Abilities. At Levelling, once you have amended your Core Stats as outlined above, you can then begin the process of choosing to upgrade your Abilities. You could approach this in three different ways. You could roll on the Optional Pre-Roll table on page 3 of the d20 Chart, banking on a 15-18 to increase your existing Abilities, you could instead roll directly on the Roll and Ability Tree table, letting fate dictate whether one of your existing Abilities comes up as an option, or you could simply choose to upgrade an existing Ability. Easy! Regardless of how you choose it, when the time comes to upgrade a Tiered Ability, you forego the taking of a new Ability and simply Upgrade an existing one. It moves from Tier 1 to Tier 2, or Tier 2 to Tier 3. You lose the Ability you had at the previous Tier and gain the new Ability associated with the new Tier. The Skills associated with your Ability remain the same. There are two things that can prevent an Ability from being upgraded. The first is if the Ability is locked at a given Tier through a Commander Effect. This will be discussed below, but you will have chosen this so it won’t be a shock. The second is based on your HADSWIF numbers. You can only have an Ability reach a Tier that is allowed by the corresponding HADSWIF limit. Each Ability relates to a HADSWIF family – Health, Aggression, etc. – and, as such, are locked to that. An Aggression score of 3 means that I can progress every Aggression Ability to the 3rd Tier if I want to, but an Aggression score of 1 would mean that I cannot upgrade my Aggression Abilities past the first Tier. The work around for this is that with your Character Classes and Species they have HADSWIF bonuses which means that a given Class or Species is actually a little better at those types of Abilities than others. A HADSWIF bonus would allow you to progress to the next Tier. A character with an Aggression score of 2, but also in possession of a HADSWIF bonus for Aggression could lift an Aggression-related Abilities to the 3rd Tier. There is no 4th Tier and double bonuses – from both Class and Species – don’t apply. That is balanced, however, by their being HADSWIF penalties for Species. This lowers the available Tier, so that even if I had an Aggression score of 3, if I had a HADSWIF penalty for Aggression, I could only lift my Aggression-based Abilities to the 2nd Tier. You cannot go lower than the first Tier. Example: Ke’viin has decided to take Perception, a Wisdom-based Ability. As an Entertainer, he only has a Wisdom score of 1 which means he’d be stuck at Tier 1 on this Ability. Luckily, however, he has a HADSWIF bonus for Wisdom courtesy of being a Scout meaning that he’ll be able to take that as far as Tier 2 should he choose to do so.There are a few Abilities – Extra Core Stats and Species-based Abilities – that do not tie to a HADSWIF number. They can be progressed to Tier 3 if desired. Abilities and Skills Again – Specialised SkillsGaining an Ability and progressing it through its Tiers can add bonuses for any Skills being used with the roleplaying aspect of SWAG. At the beginning, every SWAG character gains 1 die for any Save they wish to attempt, and those characters that are Skilled gain a second die. If a character gains an Ability at Tier 1, they have chosen to focus on this aspect of their Skill journey. That Ability outside of skirmishes becomes a Specialised Skill and grants an extra die. A Skilled character with a Tier 1 Ability in say Might Swing, for example, is given three(!) dice on which to attempt a Save. If they were Unskilled but still had the Ability at Tier 1, they would only gain two dice. At Tier 2, this increases to two extra dice, and at Tier 3, three extra dice. A Skilled character at Mighty Swing with a Tier 3 Ability in Mighty Swing would be considered a master – they would get 5 dice for a Skill Challenge! (An Unskilled character with Tier 3 would only get 4 dice.) Example: Ke’viin now has Perception as a Tier 1 Ability granting him an extra die on any RPG-based Saves. Since he is Unskilled in this, he only gets 1 extra die taking him to a total of 2 dice, which is better than a punch in the face. If, on his next Levelling he progressed his Perception to Tier 2, he would up his Perception dice to 3 dice. If he, instead, took the Cunning Ability (which he could have rolled to gain), one of the Skills gained on that Ability is Perception, which would make him Skilled in that Ability, also granting him 3 dice.Commander EffectsA big part of SWM is the opportunity for characters to possess Commander Effects by which they can benefit their allies. This is not often the first consideration with a roleplaying-based character as they are often more about growing as their own character, but there may come a time when your character may wish to develop in this way. Whether you choose to take a Commander Effect, or you perform the Optional Pre-Roll step and roll a 19-20, you follow the steps below. Once you are on the Commander Effect path, you can roll to determine your Commander Effect or choose. By now you should be used to this array of options! All the Commander Effect options are briefly shown on Page 6 of the d20 Charts, and are included in the Ability Cards folder linked above. There are five sections for Commander Effects: Gain Ability, Gain Bonus, Gain Advantage, Restrictions, and Special Commander Effects. Gain Ability allows you to take one of your existing Abilities and turn it into a Commander Effect that can be spread to your Allies. Once you select the Ability (either by choice or by roll), that Ability is locked at that Tier and cannot be moved any more. (Take the Gain Ability Card and slide it under the chosen Ability Card.) With Gain Bonus, you are given the opportunity to boost the Attack, Defense, or Damage of your Allies. With Gain Advantage there are a number of specific Commander Effects which you can choose from that will boost your Allies. All of these Commander Effects require three Restrictions to be taken when the Commander Effect is first taken. To grant a Commander Effect, you must begin with three Commander Effect Restrictions all selected from the list on page 3 of the d20 Chart .pdf. These limit the initial effectiveness of the Commander Effect. These Restrictions can be removed on at a time, however, by foregoing your Levelling step of gaining a new Ability or moving an Ability up a Tier, but instead choosing to remove a Restriction. When you remove a Restriction, there is no order that they must be removed in. (Place the 3 Restriction Cards under the Commander Effect Card they apply to.) If the Commander Effect is a Gain Ability one, the amount of Restrictions you are allowed to remove depend on the Tier of the Ability. A Tier 1 Ability can remove all three Restrictions over time, while a Tier 2 Ability must retain 1 Restriction, and a Tier 3 Ability must retain 2 Restrictions. Gain Bonus and Gain Advantage have no limit on the amount of Restrictions that can be moved, but the Gain Bonus option has different levels of effectiveness depending on the Level of the character. The final group of Commander Effects are Specials. These need no Restrictions, but only become effective once a character has reached Level 9. There are no limits as to how many Commander Effects your character has. WeaknessesThere is a potential for getting some pretty outrageous combos of Abilities and, if you choose Abilities instead of rolling them, you could achieve a character bordering on broken. A great balancing tool, which is especially good for roleplaying, is adding a Weakness. Weaknesses are a set of 20 Abilities that are largely detrimental to your character. They range from Clumsy – penalties to all saves – to Speed -2 – permanently reducing your character speed! While these can be overcome, they certainly add flavour to your character! If you opt to include them – and you definitely should! – they should be included in your character’s journey as early as possible. The best way to determine them is to roll for them, as shown on the d20 Chart at the bottom of page 3. You should only have ONE ROLL! and live with the consequences. The Character SheetSWAG Character SheetsOnce you start Levelling your character, all of this information can get a bit unwieldy. The Cards can certainly help clear up information, but the Character Sheet makes it easy to hold onto the varied bits of information. The sheet is divided into different sections and is made to be a thin collection of base information, relying on the Cards for the main bulk of info. The sheet can also be folded in half so you can place the cards inside the folded sheet and paperclip it closed securing everything for your next adventure night! I know, right? The first side has spaces for the Name, Squad Name, Class, Species, Character type, and even Rank and Homeworld info. (Some potential Rank information is included on page 9 of the d20 Charts .pdf.) After that comes three sections devoted to recording the character’s Hit Points, Defense, and Attack. Next comes a space for keeping record of Hit Points lost and Force Points gained during any skirmish. The next section relates to your character Cost. Now, cost is more of a science than an art, so costing an SWM character is tricky at the best of times. You may wish to ignore this step altogether if you are going deep into the roleplaying nature of SWAG, because Cost doesn’t really apply when you’re taking on a squad of Battle Droids. Some Abilities, however, reference a character’s Cost, and if you are integrating your Character into a SWM squad, then Cost becomes more important. There are several steps to Costing your character. First, every +10 Hit Points, every +1 Defense above 10, or every +1 Attack adds +1 to your Cost. Any NonCommon Items you are actively using add +1 to the Cost, every Rare Item +3, and every Very Rare Item +6 to the Cost. You can remove 5 Cost points if you have taken a Weakness and if your character has no ranged Weapons, they can remove another 2 points from their Cost. Their Class, Species, and Character Cards will also contain a Cost Modifier which can be calculated at this time. Finally, as you progress through the Levels, your Cost will increase. Use the Chart at the bottom of the Costing section to help calculate that additional Cost. Example: Ke’viin is a Level 1 Bothan Scout Entertainer, with 40 Hit Points, 15 Defense, +1 Attack, with the Recon Ability, a Vibrodagger, a Net Gun, Padded Flight Suit, Vacuum Seals, Stimpak, Aquata Breather, and a Com Scrambler. His Class/Species/Character Modifiers total +4, and add in 4 points for 40 Hit Points, 5 for Defense and a further 1 for Attack raises Ke’viin’s Cost to 14. He has no Weakness currently, but if he doesn’t use his Net Gun (he’d prefer to keep the Com Scrambler handy), he is only armed with a melee weapon, meaning that -2 to his Cost drops it to 12. The Vibrodagger is NonCommon (1 point), he’s not using the Net Gun (it’s packed away somewhere), and his Com Scrambler is Rare (3 points), so if he adds the 4 points for his Items together, as well as the extra +1 for being Level 1, Ke’viin’s Cost is 17. He’s a bit expensive for what he does, but with Recon and the Ability to limit an Enemies Commander Effect, he’s got a future!The second side begins again with Name, Class, Species, and Character, before launching into a place for your Abilities. Here you can record up to 10 Abilities (you can have no more!), the associated HADSWIF code, the Focus or Side of that Card you have chosen, and what Tier it is on. Below that is a space for any Bonus Ability you gained at Creation from your Class or Species (if you gained two Bonus Abilities at Creation, the second Bonus Ability counts towards your 10 regular Abilities). Next is a tick box for your Level and a place to record your HADSWIF numbers and any HADSWIF Bonuses and Penalties. We haven’t talked about Event Triggers yet, and I will do so in the next section, so hang on to your hats for that one. The bottom section is then left for recording your Class, Species, and Character Skills for reference, and any key Items that you are actively using that are NonCommon, Rare, or Very Rare (and therefore affecting your character Cost). Your Character Sheet only goes to Level 15 and then you are encouraged to retire your character at Level 16. I have already largely worked out the mechanics of creating an Epic Character – from Level 16 through to Level 30 – which will require a new Character Sheet. If you get there and want it and I haven’t done it, don’t let me forget it! What Constitutes an Adventure?The final piece of the Levelling puzzle is working out what a character needs to do to complete a Level. Well, the answer is varied, and will depend on their current Level, their Campaign, and what the point of your games are. A low-Level character will possibly progress faster than a high-Level one, or perhaps you are Campaigning and a skirmish a night, followed by a hearty Levelling session is just what your group is into. It should be measured fairly by your group for where you’re at. If you hang at the back of a map and let everyone else do all the dirty work, did you really earn the right to Level up? Well, perhaps while they were fighting, you were busy rolling Saves trying to line up Coms Tower to beam info to your Allies while simultaneously out-diplomating an evil Senator trying to win over the favour of a vacillating Crime Lord… maybe you were roleplaying the crap out of it. Who could say!? Whatever it is, be measured, be fair, be fun! In the last section, I’ll cover a bunch of extra rules. Have fun Levelling! Mauri Ora, Mauri Mate!
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Skills Challenges
We all understand SWM-based skirmishes – after all, how else did you come to be here – but one aspect that is fun to bring into SWAG play when you’re not shooting Stormtroopers is the Skills Challenge. A Skills Challenge simply put is a series of Skills Saves in a row designed to tell a particular story. It is largely driven by the players with them choosing the Skills needed, who will do them, and what their intent it. A simple Skills Challenge could involve five such events involving Saves, while larger ones could take eleven or more. The number should be set at the outset by the GM (although unseen problems could arise!) and there should be a certain number of successes required to succeed in the overall Challenge.
The characters will identify a goal in mind. It could be the capture of an official, the infiltration of a building, or the stealing of a ship – anything! – and the GM announces a Skills Challenge citing the number of individual Challenges and the number of successes needed. The characters, after some initial planning, then combine to tell the story, moving from Challenge to Challenge, but selecting a character and a Skill relating to the story and telling the party and GM how they are using that Skill in that give situation. The GM then sets the Saves and, after the character rolls, delivers the results of the Challenge, before the characters then respond by guiding the story onwards.
Example: Ke’viin, the Bothan Scout, Tre’voor – a Duro Pilot – and Co-‘Liin – a Human Soldier – are all attempting to get inside a local government building to inform the council that an invading militia attack is imminent. So far, the local regiment Commander is unpersuaded by their arguments, and if they don’t get the local Governor to act now, all may be lost. They have to break out of the containment centre the Commander has imprisoned them in (a story for another time!), and get to the government buildings immediately! A Skills Challenge!
The GM asks them what they want to do. Co-‘Liin says he has a Slicer Ability and might be able to short out the containment system. Tre’voor says that he can run straight for the nearby speeder that they saw coming in, as long as Ke’viin can clear the way. Co-‘Liin uses his Slicer Save first and is successful, meaning that the containment system dies and our heroes escape. Ke’viin and Tre’voor waste no time running to the speeder area and while Ke’viin keeps a lookout, Tre’voor hotwires the speeder. Ke’viin uses his Perception Skill and – successful Save! – sees someone coming, but he rolled a Positive Event Trigger (discussed next!) and the GM informs him that the guard wanders a different way. They’re off to a great start, but as soon as Co-‘Liin arrives and the three take off on the Speeder, the local guard notices and sets off in pursuit… what will happen next…?
The characters are driving the story and taking turns using the Skills to make the story exciting and something that are in control of. It won’t always work, and sometimes their ideas will be so outlandish that a GM will have no choice but to put a high Save on something. When a failure happens in a Skills Challenge, the players then need to think their way out of the situation. Too many failures, however, and the Skills Challenge ends.
It’s also important to not let the players go to the well too often. Just because Ke’viin is Skilled in Perception, he can really only use it once in a Challenge like this. That asks the players to be selective and creative in how they complete the Challenge. At some point one of them is going to have to use 1 die on Persuading a government guard that they need to get in to see the Council… and that is going to be dicey (ha!). Whatever you do, make it a challenge(!) and make it fun!
Event Triggers
On the second page of the Character Sheet is a space for Event Triggers. These Triggers are a way of being able to build interesting elements into any roleplaying story that you may be building around your skirmish adventures. To generate your Event Triggers, roll two d20s ignoring 20s and 1s and record them in the two boxes provided. One, along with a 20, becomes your Positive Event Trigger, and the other, along with a 1, becomes a Negative Event Trigger.
During the middle of a non-skirmish portion of your adventuring, you will often be asked to make Saves using your Skills, rolling anywhere from 1 to 5 dice in the process. The core purpose of rolling these Saves is to equal or beat a Save result that indicates success. A number of your dice might do this, and some won’t. A way of adding story elements into your rolls is by allowing some of those results to trigger Positive and Negative Events. Regardless of whether you make or fail the Save, if you roll one of your Positive Event Triggers – a 20 or the number you logged as a Positive Event Trigger – something positive can be added by the GM to your story. Conversely, regardless of the result of the Save, if you roll a 1 or the other number you logged as your Negative Event Trigger, it will lead to something not so good.
Example: Ke’viin has a 5 as his Positive Event Trigger and a 17 as his Negative Event Trigger. He started with a die for Perception (because everybody does) and gained another when he took Perception as a Tier 1 Ability. Later on in his career, he became Skilled at Perception and so now has 3 dice on any Perception checks. During an adventure, Ke’viin and his squad are sneaking through a warehouse they need to get through to rejoin the rest of the platoon on the other side. The enemy is around somewhere, but they’re not sure where. Ke’viin, being the Scout of the squad, decides to use his Perception Skill to work out whether the enemy is in the building. The GM decides that a Save of 11 is a fair target for this so Ke’viin gathers his 3 dice and rolls – a 3, 13, and a 17. He succeeds in his check and the GM informs him that there are no enemies that he can perceive in this part of the warehouse. The squad can rest easy… but, Ke’viin did roll a 17 and, even though it is a success for this Save, it is also a Negative Event Trigger. The GM then informs Ke’viin that while he is perceiving what is about him, he leans back onto a button which triggers the fire suppression system. Ke’viin and his squad are immediately covered in water jetting out of pipes above. It’ll be a wet march from now on…
The Event most likely won’t have huge repercussions for the mission… or maybe it might. Maybe after marching in wet clothes for another hour, they’ll be slower to react when they’re jumped by the enemy. Maybe someone will catch a cold and that will lower their performance for the next week. Who could say?!
Making High Level Characters from Scratch
Say your squad has been adventuring for some time and you want to bring in a new character and don't want to start him from Level 0... or you and your fellow adventurers just wanna get stuck in with some half-way decent Abilities... no problem! You can simply do the Creation process and Levelling Up process all in one. Their are really only two major differences - the first being that you can immediately adjust your Hit Points, Defense, and Attack straight away knowing how many Levels you are needing to progress to. If I was making Ke'viin from scratch as a Level 5 Scout, I know that I get +20 Hit Points from Levels 1 and 4, +2 Defense from Levels 2 and 3, and an extra +1 Attack from Level 3. No worries there.
The next piece of the puzzle is the adding of Abilities. It takes 1 Level to add a Tier 1 Ability, 2 Levels for a Tier 2, and 3 Levels to add a Tier 3 Ability. If you wanted to jump straight to Level 5, for example, you simply need to work out in advance what kind of mix of Tiers you want for your character. You could have 1 Tier 3 and 1 Tier 2, 2 Tier 2s and a Tier 1, or even 5 Tier 1 Abilities. If you want to bring Commander Effects into play, remember that taking a Commander Effect is equivalent to 1 Level, and removing 1 Restriction is equivalent to one Level also. Once you have settled on the make up of Tiers, then you can start sifting through Skills and Ability Cards to find the right combination for you.
An easy alternative, if you don't want the mathematical headache, is to use this chart:
Level 1: 1x Tier 1
Level 2: 2x Tier 1
Level 3: 1x Tier 1, 1x Tier 2
Level 4: 2x Tier 1, 1x Tier 2
Level 5: 3x Tier 1, 1x Tier 2
Level 6: 2x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2
Level 7: 3x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2
Level 8: 2x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2
Level 9: 2x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 1x Tier 3
Level 10: 3x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 1x Tier 3
Level 11: 2x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 1x Tier 3
Level 12: 2x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 2x Tier 3
Level 13: 3x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 2x Tier 3
Level 14: 2x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 2x Tier 3
Level 15: 2x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
If you do look to created a higher Level character from scratch, it is recommended that you use as many of that character's Class, Species, and Character Skills to get your Abilities from as possible, unless you are really familiar with the SWAG system.
X-Wing and Piloting
If you are a Duros, a member of the Pilot Class, or you manage to roll or choose to add a Pilot Ability to your Ability Cards, you will see that if speaks about Elite Pilots Talents and Pilot Abilities. What are these strange foreign words? Well, they are from the Fantasy Flight X-Wing game, and it is quite likely that many SWM players are at least familiar with the game. SWAG allows you to bring elements of that game into this roleplaying engine.
The Pilot Ability Card is the only Card that has no affiliation with a HADSWIF family, but still grants Skills. The Tiered Abilities have no relevance to the SWM game, but rather increase your X-Wing Pilot Initiative in conjunction with the number of X-Wing-based Abilities you take on. If you have no intention of utilising the X-Wing game, you can merely see this Ability Card as cosmetic and play however you like. The Card, like many others, has two sides asking you to choose between Freighter Pilot and Starfighter Pilot. This too is cosmetic and merely implies focus. If, however, you have access to the X-Wing game, and the idea of integrating it into your SWAG play is an exciting idea, then read on!
You can take an X-Wing based Elite Pilot Talent or a Pilot Ability in much the same was as you do a SWM-based Ability. At Levelling, you either roll or choose to take something Piloty and can choose from the number of Elite Pilot Talents (the set of cards from the X-Wing game) and Pilot Abilities (Pilot Cards that show specific Pilot Abilities on the Ship Cards from that X-Wing game). Elite Pilot Talents come in at Tier 1 and do not progress through the Tiers (you cannot Upgrade them). Pilot Abilities, however, are immediately attached to a Tier that is based on its Pilot Initiative and is only available for in-game use upon your character reaching a particular level. There is also the restriction that they may also only be used on the Ship that the Ability is from. (If you have opted to take Poe Dameron’s Pilot Ability, you can only utilise it while you are flying a T-70 X-Wing.)
Pilot Abilities that have an Initiative of 1 come in at Tier 1 and are available at Level 2 or above. Abilities of Initiative 2 also come in at Tier 1 and are available for use at Level 4 or higher. This continues on: Initiative 3 come in at Tier 2 and are available at Level 6 or higher, 4 come in at Tier 2 and are available at Level 8+, 5 come in at Tier 3 and are available at Level 10+, and Pilot Abilities that have an Initiative of 6 come in at Tier 3 and are available at Level 12 or above.
In terms of how you play these, it is largely up to you. You could, in fact, create a series of SWAG Pilots using this SWM-based system, but largely spend most of your time flying X-Wings! That would be awesome! The SWAG System, however, is SWM-based and you may have to do some patch-work to make it flow. But that is part of the fun!
Combining Skirmishes and Roleplaying
One thing that is important to do, especially in the early stages of your SWAG journey, is to keep the aspects of skirmishes and roleplaying separate. In the middle of a skirmish, regardless of how Skilled you are in an area, you’ll still only roll 1 die on your Saves. You won’t roll Perception rolls in the middle of a battle, and you won’t likely try and Intimidate your enemies during the fight! Conversely, in-between skirmishes, regardless of the Tiered Abilities you have, you’ll still use your Skills to determine your path throughout the roleplaying part of your adventure. You may have Force Push 2, but you’ll still have to make Saves using your Skills to see if you can push that item off a ledge to save your party. And so on and so on…
That does not mean, however that, once you are used to the flow of things, you can’t start to bring in elements of each into each. All of those possibilities I’ve just highlighted could actually happen if you’re prepared to make it work. It will really take experience and seeing how they work together. You also don’t want to set a dangerous precedent for some players… if they managed to intimidate a bunch of Stormtroopers to run away last time, they’ll potentially want to try it every time…!
The Future
It’s taken me four months of solid work, and a coupl’a year prior to that, to get SWAG 3.1 (the current system you’re seeing here) to work. My priority over the next few months is to test it with some fellow roleplayers – and I invite y’all to do the same! – while I also coach some basketball, record some music, and start writing the third novel in the trilogy. But, when I come back, I have some key things I like to hit – after I make any changes!
Firstly, I’ve done these all as Cards because I’m actually keen to get them printed. I’ve looked up a place and used one their templates to size everything with the view to one day printing this all out. The artwork is all from Excel so, as a Designer, I’m not over the moon about it, but it works and I’m happy at this stage with it. We’ll just watch this space, as I have plenty of other things I want to do before I commit to printing this stuff. Secondly, and I’ll probably do this much sooner, I want to include some rules for Epic Characters – character beyond Level 15. I know exactly how I want it to work, and I just have to make the Character Sheet and share the rules with y’all. If you want it before I get to it, pressure me! kezzamachine@hotmail.com
After that I have a few ideas of things I want to tackle. I have a bunch of ideas about a Machinery/Vehicle Generator – an engine for creating SWAG-based machines, speeders, and other vehicles that can interact with characters, or that characters can ride or use. Similarly, I want to make a Creature Generator, so you can make Rancors and other beasts to ride or be consumed by. I’m also an avid fan of Armada – another Fantasy Flight-designed game – and I’d like to bring in some kind of advanced area to this game where your character can become a commander of hundred, if not thousands of troops or ships. We’ll see how that one goes.
One final aspect I want to bring in is Squads. If you take a Class Card, a Species Card, and a Character Card, along with any Abilities or Items you want to add, you end up with a solid SWAG character. I want to add a Squad Card to that so you one character now becomes nine, a Commander and eight troopers. If you look at page 9 of the d20 Charts .pdf, you’ll see I’ve already started this thinking, but I like the idea of you being able to make Squads and progress them in a similar way to working with a single character. If you’re into wider Campaigns, then this will be for you!
(If you want to play around with it, I’m thinking something like a card that 1) adds a Commander Effect for the Commander, 2) adds a sniper-type Ability for two Sharpshooters, 3) adds a scouting Ability for two Scouts, 4) adds a door control element for two Techies, and 5) some heavy weaponry for two dedicated soldiers. Then I want to introduce some kind of partial Levelling Up system for Troops that survive, while being able to bring some greenies into to fill any gaps!)
Please Test This!
If you can, I’d love to hear your feedback and see some of your questions. I am aware that this makes all perfect sense in my head, but that this is seldom the case outside of it. Most of all, I want y’all to continue to enjoy SWM like fo’ ever. That is certainly my plan.
Tūtawa mai i runga
Tūtawa mai i raro
Tūtawa mai i roto
Tūtawa mai i waho
Kia tau ai te mauri tū, te mauri ora ki te katoa
Haumi e, hui e, tāiki e.
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This sounds amazing! thanks for sharing this kezza!
I rolled one up to see what i get and i got a Civilian Wookie Trader who is a Debater (this sounds like a fun character for RPG btw!). Stats are:
lvl 0
20hp
10def
+4 attack.
I wrote down my skills as: Deception, Mechanics, Slicer, Balance, Momentum, Tenacity, Disruption, Intimidation.
i had a question about making a character tho when it gets to that chart where is has the letters HADSWIF. Does that mean you pick a special ability from those skill cards categories and then you get the tier number based on you number under the value? My values were as follows: H(2) A(3) D(1) S(2) W(2) I(3) and F(1). Mu wookie species card said i get an HADSWIF bonus: aggresive. I have a penalty: defensive. Do i get an additional aggresive SA? what tier does it get? i'm guessing i lose my defensive ability then also because of the penalty?
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Quote:You can only have an Ability reach a Tier that is allowed by the corresponding HADSWIF limit. Each Ability relates to a HADSWIF family – Health, Aggression, etc. – and, as such, are locked to that. An Aggression score of 3 means that I can progress every Aggression Ability to the 3rd Tier if I want to, but an Aggression score of 1 would mean that I cannot upgrade my Aggression Abilities past the first Tier. The work around for this is that with your Character Classes and Species they have HADSWIF bonuses which means that a given Class or Species is actually a little better at those types of Abilities than others. A HADSWIF bonus would allow you to progress to the next Tier. A character with an Aggression score of 2, but also in possession of a HADSWIF bonus for Aggression could lift an Aggression-related Abilities to the 3rd Tier. There is no 4th Tier and double bonuses – from both Class and Species – don’t apply. That is balanced, however, by their being HADSWIF penalties for Species. This lowers the available Tier, so that even if I had an Aggression score of 3, if I had a HADSWIF penalty for Aggression, I could only lift my Aggression-based Abilities to the 2nd Tier. You cannot go lower than the first Tier.
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Mando wrote:i had a question about making a character tho when it gets to that chart where is has the letters HADSWIF. Does that mean you pick a special ability from those skill cards categories and then you get the tier number based on you number under the value? My values were as follows: H(2) A(3) D(1) S(2) W(2) I(3) and F(1). Mu wookie species card said i get an HADSWIF bonus: aggresive. I have a penalty: defensive. Do i get an additional aggresive SA? what tier does it get? i'm guessing i lose my defensive ability then also because of the penalty? I added more information after you posted this that deals directly with this! Your HADSWIF numbers are initially a snapshot of how good your characters are in certain areas of life. Your Wookiee is really aggressive and very smart, but is defensively and reflexively poor and probably doesn't put too much stock in luck, fate, or the Force! Where HADSWIF really takes effect is when you start gaining Abilities. An Ability that you take will relate to a HADSWIF family and the corresponding HADSWIF number will determine what Tier you can ultimately lift that Ability to. HADSWIF Bonuses and Penalties lift of lower by the one the Tier level your character can access. Your Aggressive Bonus doesn't wildly help as you are already at the maximum for Aggression, and your Defensive Penalty is the same in the opposite direction. What that means for your Wookiee at Level 0 is nothing. But, at Level 1, when you start choosing your first Ability, it may help your decision as to what you take. If you roll or choose an Aggression-based Ability such as Attack!, you'll be content knowing that you'll be able to take that right up to Tier 3 if you choose. Nice! Conversely, if you roll or choose a Defensive-based Ability - Grapple, for instance - you'll only ever be able to get that to Tier 1. One final note: as a Wookiee, you get the Wookiee Ability Card. At Tier 1 it doesn't give you anything, but once you progress it, you'll start looking more and more Wookiee-licious!
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kezzamachine wrote:Mando wrote:i had a question about making a character tho when it gets to that chart where is has the letters HADSWIF. Does that mean you pick a special ability from those skill cards categories and then you get the tier number based on you number under the value? My values were as follows: H(2) A(3) D(1) S(2) W(2) I(3) and F(1). Mu wookie species card said i get an HADSWIF bonus: aggresive. I have a penalty: defensive. Do i get an additional aggresive SA? what tier does it get? i'm guessing i lose my defensive ability then also because of the penalty? I added more information after you posted this that deals directly with this! Your HADSWIF numbers are initially a snapshot of how good your characters are in certain areas of life. Your Wookiee is really aggressive and very smart, but is defensively and reflexively poor and probably doesn't put too much stock in luck, fate, or the Force! Where HADSWIF really takes effect is when you start gaining Abilities. An Ability that you take will relate to a HADSWIF family and the corresponding HADSWIF number will determine what Tier you can ultimately lift that Ability to. HADSWIF Bonuses and Penalties lift of lower by the one the Tier level your character can access. Your Aggressive Bonus doesn't wildly help as you are already at the maximum for Aggression, and your Defensive Penalty is the same in the opposite direction. What that means for your Wookiee at Level 0 is nothing. But, at Level 1, when you start choosing your first Ability, it may help your decision as to what you take. If you roll or choose an Aggression-based Ability such as Attack!, you'll be content knowing that you'll be able to take that right up to Tier 3 if you choose. Nice! Conversely, if you roll or choose a Defensive-based Ability - Grapple, for instance - you'll only ever be able to get that to Tier 1. One final note: as a Wookiee, you get the Wookiee Ability Card. At Tier 1 it doesn't give you anything, but once you progress it, you'll start looking more and more Wookiee-licious! thanks for explaining that more in detail! makes a lot of sense. I had this crazy idea yesterday after reading this whole thing and making a character. what if we had a swm skirmish between everyone in the bloomilk community who wants to join where you play as your individual character as a team with other players against another team of other players. initiative rolls could determin what order everyone goes and its a big board wide brawl to see what team makes it to the end. this sounds like it'd be a ton of fun! crazy idea tho.....but it'd be fun to see!
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I'm totally there! It's fine running a squad of characters that aren't you... send them to their deaths!... but, make the piece a version of you and I don't think everyone will be so keen to get into gambit...!
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Rank: Moderator
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Edited the Additional Rules to included Making High Level Characters from Scratch rules.
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Edited the links. Some minor changes to some cards and the d20 Charts. Added the EPIC Levelling for Levels 16-30 for making super awesome SWM Characters!
If you're looking to create EPIC Characters from scratch (as per the section regarding creating SWAG Characters from Scratch above), then follow these guidelines:
Level 16: 3x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 17: 4x Tier 1, 2x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 18: 3x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 19: 4x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 20: 5x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 21: 4x Tier 1, 4x Tier 2, 3x Tier 3
Level 22: 4x Tier 1, 3x Tier 2, 4x Tier 3
Level 23: 3x Tier 1, 4x Tier 2, 4x Tier 3
Level 24: 4x Tier 1, 4x Tier 2, 4x Tier 3
Level 25: 3x Tier 1, 5x Tier 2, 4x Tier 3
Level 26: 2x Tier 1, 6x Tier 2, 4x Tier 3
Level 27: 2x Tier 1, 5x Tier 2, 5x Tier 3
Level 28: 1x Tier 1, 6x Tier 2, 5x Tier 3
Level 29: 0x Tier 1, 7x Tier 2, 6x Tier 3
Level 30: 0x Tier 1, 6x Tier 2, 6x Tier 3
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I just rolled up this character:
Kaegens Tualba
Mon Calamari Force Adept, Defender
Level 9, Cost [26]
Hit Points: 50
Defense: 16
Attack: +6
HADSWIF: 1-2-3-3-2-3-2; Base Size: Medium, Speed: 6
"*Special Abilities*
Deadeye (On this character's turn, if it doesn't move, it gets +10 damage.)
Vector Prime (During setup, characters in your squad may set up within 4 squares of the starting zone instead of within the starting zone.)
Loner (+4 Attack if no allies are within 6 squares.)
Singular Focus (Cannot gain abilities from allies.)
Blaster Pistol (Range 18. Twin Attack cannot be used with this weapon.) [10 DAMAGE]
Quarterstaff (Adjacent enemies only. If you do not have Twin Attack, you may gain Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, it makes 1 extra attack against the same target.), but if you do so, both attacks suffer a -5 penalty.) [10 DAMAGE]
Padded Flight Suit (+2 to Grenades, Mines, and Missiles saves. Not affected by abilities or Force powers whose name contains Poison.)
*Force Powers*
Force 3
Force Leap (Force 1: This turn, this character can move through enemy characters without provoking attacks of opportunity.)
Force Push 2 (Force 2, replaces attacks: range 6; 20 damage to target and each character adjacent to that target, and push back target and each character adjacent to that target 2 squares if Huge or smaller. Replace Turn to add 10 damage and 1 square of range to this ability.)
Lightsaber Assault (Force 1, replaces attacks: Make two attacks.)
Mind Trick 2 (Force 2, usable only on this character's turn: range 2; target living enemy and 2 living enemies adjacent to that target are considered activated this round and cannot make attacks of opportunity this turn; save 11.)
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Location: Chokio, MN
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kezzamachine wrote:I just rolled up this character:
Kaegens Tualba
Mon Calamari Force Adept, Defender
Level 9, Cost [26]
Hit Points: 50
Defense: 16
Attack: +6
HADSWIF: 1-2-3-3-2-3-2; Base Size: Medium, Speed: 6
"*Special Abilities*
Deadeye (On this character's turn, if it doesn't move, it gets +10 damage.)
Vector Prime (During setup, characters in your squad may set up within 4 squares of the starting zone instead of within the starting zone.)
Loner (+4 Attack if no allies are within 6 squares.)
Singular Focus (Cannot gain abilities from allies.)
Blaster Pistol (Range 18. Twin Attack cannot be used with this weapon.) [10 DAMAGE]
Quarterstaff (Adjacent enemies only. If you do not have Twin Attack, you may gain Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, it makes 1 extra attack against the same target.), but if you do so, both attacks suffer a -5 penalty.) [10 DAMAGE]
Padded Flight Suit (+2 to Grenades, Mines, and Missiles saves. Not affected by abilities or Force powers whose name contains Poison.)
*Force Powers*
Force 3
Force Leap (Force 1: This turn, this character can move through enemy characters without provoking attacks of opportunity.)
Force Push 2 (Force 2, replaces attacks: range 6; 20 damage to target and each character adjacent to that target, and push back target and each character adjacent to that target 2 squares if Huge or smaller. Replace Turn to add 10 damage and 1 square of range to this ability.)
Lightsaber Assault (Force 1, replaces attacks: Make two attacks.)
Mind Trick 2 (Force 2, usable only on this character's turn: range 2; target living enemy and 2 living enemies adjacent to that target are considered activated this round and cannot make attacks of opportunity this turn; save 11.) looks like a fun character! Padded Flight suit sounds very useful
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thanks for adding all the info on how the SWAG system works Kezza! your contributions to this game go above and beyond and i just wanted to let you know how much this project of yours that you shared means! i encourage everyone to check SWAG out. its brilliant and huge for anyone looking to make custom characters or do a star wars RPG!
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SWAG3.1 SpreadsheetOkay. So, when the idea was floated to make characters and build squads etc., I thought it would be super handy to try make a spreadsheet that calculated everything for you. I already had a spreadsheet where I'd been gathering all of the info and making all the data work, but I thought if I could add a sheet which let you build a SWAG Character, well that would rule. Guess what? It does rule. I've spent the last two weeks making add-ons to my original spreadsheet (and writing school reports for 150 students...) so that you can step through and make a SWAG character. Below is a video of me explaining the spreadsheet roughly (very roughly...) FYI. The character creation part is about 5 minutes in. Enjoy! Spreadsheet Explained!
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