Heavy Duty SWRPG Geekery -- Challenge Code to CR Conversion [gaming]

[the_gneech]

I like the general approach that the SWRPG takes towards experience -- i.e., you're rewarded for the overall difficulty for a particular goal rather than the more simplistic D&D approach of "Monster X is worth Y experience points." I particularly like the passage that comments, "Heroes do not receive experience points for obstacles outside the bounds of the adventure. A hero who ignores the goals of a mission to pick random fights in a cantina should not receive experience points no matter how many scoundrels and Gamorrean thugs the hero lays low." (Of course, this is not to say you can't run D&D this way -- and to a certain extent, I do.)

However, when you start to look at the numbers, the experience charts of SWRPG are pretty much the CR charts from D&D with the edges rounded off. A "Challenge Code A" creature/encounter is roughly equivalent to a D&D creature/encounter with a CR of 1/3 to 1. It's just disguised! But that makes building a Star Wars adventure a little dicey for me to wrap my brain around. Since I've gotten pretty used to the D&D numbers, trying to mentally convert them to the SW analogues makes me brainlock.

To help with this, I created the Challenge Code to CR Conversion Chart! Among other things, this will allow me to use handy utilities such as the EL & XP Calculator for D&D in my SWRPG campaign. And since I try to be useful when I can, I'm posting it here for you. :)

SWRPG Challenge Code	D&D CR	1st lvl	3rd lvl	5th lvl	8th lvl	10th lvl	15th lvl	20th lvl
A	1/3	100 S	100 E	100 T	--	--	--	--
A	1/2	152 E	152 S	152 T	--	--	--	--
B	1	300 C	300 S	300 T	200 T	--	--	--
B	2	600 X	600 C	500 S	300 E	--	--	--
B	3	900 !	900 C	750 S	400 E	250 E	--	--
C	4	1350 !	1350 X	1000 S	600 E	375 E	--	--
C	5	1800 !!	1800 !	1500 C	800 S	500 E	--	--
C	6	2700 !!	2700 !	2250 X	1200 S	750 ch	--	--
D	7	3600 !!	3600 !	3000 !	1600 S	1000 S	--	--
D	8	5400 !!	5400 !!	4500 !	2400 C	1500 S	375 E	--
D	9	7200 !!	7200 !!	6000 !	3600 X	2000 S	563 E	--
E	10	10800 !!	10800 !!	9000 !!	4800 !	3000 C	750 E	--
E	11	!!!	!!!	12000 !!	7200 !	4500 X!	1125 E	--
E	12	!!!	!!!	18000 !!	9600 !	6000 !	1500 S	--
F	13	!!!	!!!	!!!	14400 !!	9000 !	2250 S	500 T
F	14	!!!	!!!	!!!	19200 !!	12000 !	3000 S	750 E
F	15	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	18000 !!	4500 C	1000 E
G	16	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	24000 !!	6750 X	1500 E
G	17	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	9000 !	2000 S
G	18	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	13500 !	3000 S
H	19	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	18000 !	4000 S
H	20	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	!!!	27000 !!	6000 C

LEGEND:

--: CR chart does not give experience points for encounters this much lower than the party EL
T: "Trivial" encounter per EL/XP Calc
S: "Simple" encounter per SWRPG
E: "Easy" encounter per EL/XP Calc
C: "Challenging" encounter per SWRPG
ch: "Callenging" encounter per EL/XP Calc
X: "Extreme" encounter per SWRPG
!: "Deadly" encounter per EL/XP Calc
!!: "Obscene" encounter per EL/XP Calc
!!!: CR chart does not give experience points for encounters this much higher than the party EL

The leftmost column is the SWRPG challenge code, the next is the D&D CR, and the columns to the right indicate the party experience by average level, assuming a 4-player party.

As you can tell, there's a pretty wide variance in Challenge Codes, and this chart is pretty much an approximation. But it pretty well evens out. To convert a SWRPG challenge code to a CR, you can either just take the mid-range (e.g., every foe of challenge code "D" is CR 8), or you can tweak it up or down according to the encounter situation (e.g., a low-level starfighter pilot, code "C", is CR 6 in a starship battle among asteroids, but only CR 4 in a lightsaber duel). An average stormtrooper, being Thug 3, is Challenge Code B, CR 2.

Hope you SWRPG GMs out there get some use out of this!

-TG

Comments

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I was trying to figure out that Challenge code but I think I was like "Uh, I'll read this part later... I'm gunna read about starships again!", or something like that. ^_^;

--Salen

[maxurso.livejournal.com]

d20 Modern has been giving me similiar problems. Thanks for the chart.

The one tihng I like about SWRPG is how they handled ammo. When you roll a natural one (a fumble) the clip is empty.
This has led to an annoying running joke that has now surpassed game systems.

I was running the starter adventure, the heroes were dealing with the terrorists attacking the political event, the guards were all out of it, their rifles laying about ready for use. Every single rifle that was picked up...fumbled...the clips were empty. All of them. When the final rifle was aimed, and it too didn't fire, the heroe in question asked "What the hell, are these ALL CEREMONIAL?!"

To this day in my Sunday group (Skytech is the DM/GM)a fumble gets the "Must be ceremonial." treatment.

Now I'm missing SWRPG. Dang it.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I haven't done much with d20 Modern and didn't remember that it used the "challenge code" model as well. Huzzah for multi-use charts! ;)

-TG