What Was I Saying...?

Dear Obi-Wan Kenobi:
One of our co-workers has been stealing other people's food from the fridge. None of us have actually caught her doing it, but by process of elimination we're pretty sure we know who it is. The question is, should we confront her about it, or should we just sneak some Ex-Lax brownies into the fridge to teach her a lesson?
--Seriously Annoyed

Dear Seriously Annoyed:
Obi-Wan?! ... Obi-Wan ... now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A loooong time. I haven't gone by the name of 'Obi-Wan' since, oh, before you were born. I think perhaps we should get indoors. The Sand People are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in larger numbers.
--Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi

Dear Yoda:
I've been dating this girl for about four months and we've really hit it off. I mean, I can picture myself doing the whole 'settle down, have kids' thing with her, but I'm still worried that I might be making a big, unfixable mistake. How do I know if it's "the real thing"?
--Cold Feet

Dear Cold Feet:
Everything! Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering!
--Jedi Master Yoda

Dear Mace Windu:
What can I do about unsightly stains on my kids' clothes? I've tried sprays, I've tried powders, but nothing seems to really work on grass and ground-in dirt! Can you help me?
--Fastidious Mom

Dear Fastidious Mom:
This Separatist attack makes no sense; a massive invasion, but no attempt to take the Jedi Temple or the Senate. Unless it's all a ruse to distract us from their primary objective? Palpatine! Trooper! Turn this ship around!
--Mace Windu

An idea that 4E implements well that I'm totally stealing is the idea of "quickie levelling" for NPCs and critters. Say, for instance, you really, really need a 9th level bounty hunter, but the only stat block you have handy is for a 7th level one? Slap a couple of quickie levels on that bad boy and run with it!

Or, alternatively and perhaps even more common, what do you do when really, really need a 5th level bounty hunter, but the only block, as before is for 7th level? Slap a couple of negative quickie levels on that bad boy and run with it!

Each level adjustment impacts BAB, Damage, Defenses (Ref, Fort, Will), Hit Points, and Skill Checks only. The base character's ability scores, feats, talents, and trained skills do not change, nor are any of those figured into the changes. (For instance, a +2 level adjustment gives a flat +10 hit points, which is not modified by the creature's Con score.) If you wish, you can further adjust the stats by whether or not the NPC is a dedicated fighter or a complete noncombatant.

Level/CL	BAB	Damage	Defenses	Hit Points	Skill Checks
±4	±3	±2	±4	±20	±2
±3	±2	±1	±3	±15	±1
±2	±1	±1	±2	±10	±1
±1	±0	±0	±1	±5	±0
Noncombatant	-1*	+0	+0	-5**	+0
Combat Spec.	+1	+0	+1	+5	+0

*At +1 level, this should be +0 rather than -1.
**This does not stack with other negative HP values.

These levels, as indicated, are "quickies," designed to give you a working stat block that's "close enough" for a workable encounter. Note that they only go +/-4 levels in either direction: this is intentional, because once you start getting that far off from the basic stat block, you end up with NPCs that have either a major surplus or shortage of feats and talents for the amount of challenge they're intended to provide. When you get to that disparate a level, you should either look for another base stat block, or do it "the long way" by hand.

If desired, it probably won't be an "encounter breaker" if you add a feat or a talent of your choice at +2 and +4. However, it's probably not worth taking away any feats or talents at -2 and -4 — most NPCs and/or creatures won't get to use all of their abilities in any single encounter anyway, so it's not worth the time to figure out which one(s) to strip.

Comments welcome and desired. Whattya think, sirs?

-The Gneech

Orim, you're up!

-TG

Power Cards for Kira Windu

I figure we can use these for feats, talents, force powers, ship maneuvers, and whatever else may be handy to keep track of. It's a little labor-intensive, but not too bad and worth the effort if it keeps the game moving fast and furious.

To minimize the amount of mental gear-shifting between games, I've used the 4E color coding and range terminology (e.g., "close burst 6" means "anything within 6 squares of yourself").

Whatcha think, my players? :)

-The Gneech

PS: For those who are interested, my Star Wars Saga Edition campaign page is yours for the viewing. Enjoy!

Alas, there's no way I'll have prep done by this weekend. But one of the three pieces of the upcoming scenario (specifically, sirfox's solo mission) firmed up a bit in my head last night and I think it will be a nifty change-of-pace.

In the realm of house rules, I'm thinking about squidging 4E and Saga Edition a little closer to each other, because aside from character creation, they're very similar — or should I say, just different enough to make it a pain to remember which is which. Specifically, here are changes I'm considering:

Diagonal Movement: In 3.x, it's 1.5 squares; in Saga Edition, it's 2 squares; in 4E it's 1/1. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, GUYS! Sheesh. Right now I'm leaning towards going 1/1 for all. Honestly, if they'd just switch to a proper hex grid it wouldn't be a problem, but they're never going to to do that, so we'll just have to put up with square explosions.

Second Wind: I like this being usable once per encounter, instead of once per day. Star Wars particularly has a lack of healing options, which makes for parties of battered heroes running from encounter to encounter. In the movies at least, the heroes stay relatively whole until the very last moment, at which point they get a limb lopped off. So having Second Wind freely available makes sense. I haven't decided about the "below half hit points" requirement or the +2 to defense scores.

"Shift" (a.k.a. 5' Step): I don't know why they pulled this out of Saga only to turn around and put it right back into 4E. I'm puttin' it back in to Saga.

lythandra, hantamouse, jamesbarrett, sirfox, what do you think?

-The Gneech

In re: our 4E session on Saturday, as we're all learning the system, I was looking over some of the various rule uses and so forth that came up. Something that I noticed was our use of Second Wind, which obviously had been colored by our use of Saga Edition.

Specifically, in 4E, you don't have to be bloodied to take your Second Wind. You can do it any time (once per encounter), you could even do it right off the bat before a blow landed on you, if you wanted. Doing that would waste a healing surge and not give you any hit points, so it's kind of pointless, but it could be a viable tactic if you were really desperate for +2 AC for a turn, I suppose. We were working on the assumption that you did have to, because that's the way it is in Saga.

Something that struck me as peculiar, is that lythandra's paladin, the party tank, had way more healing surges than anybody else, but she was also the one who used them the least, as she had AC 22 and none of the enemies could hit her. In fact, she used more of them to heal other people (via "lay on hands") than she did on herself. Obviously, in a "big boss" fight, when she's got the dragon marked and he's chewing on her the whole combat, those healing surges will be sorely needed ... but against most of what we fought on Saturday, her AC kept her mostly wound-free.

I think I may port the "per encounter" nature of Second Wind over to my Saga Edition games, especially Star Wars. The characters in that game rarely get to rest 8 hours before "going back in," and they go through a lot of medpacs.

-The Gneech

PS: My wish for a 3.5 Warlord may have been answered!

Yoinked from mooncat.

-The Gneech

Can't you stupid Jedi keep from being wiped out for ten minutes?

Honestly, who put you bozos in charge of the galaxy, anyway?

-The Gneech

PS: Snagged from rikoshi.

Y'know, when I named my Star Wars campaign "Empire's Legacy," I had no idea they were going to run an awful comic series referred to as "the Legacy era." I'm kind of ashamed of the name, now. :(

What brings this up is I just officially "didn't buy" a Star Wars Saga Edition supplement tonight, the Legacy Era Sourcebook, after giving it a pretty thorough examination. Now granted, most of the "expanded universe" tends to be pretty weak[1], but I was not prepared for just how bad the Legacy stuff would be. All of the flaws of something like, say, Dark Empire, magnified by a factor of 10. "Whee, let's wipe out the Jedi again! And guess what, the Empire is back! But that's not bad enough, so now there's two Empires! But one of the Empires is a good Empire, or at least not as bad an Empire. Ooooh, moral complexity! Who says I'm a hack???"

Pfeh.

I had intended to pretty much ignore the fluff and pick up the book just for the stat blocks, talent trees, and so on, but those were pretty uninspired too. In the end, there just wasn't anything in there worth the money.

-The Gneech

[1] About the only EU stuff that I'd say was really good is the Knights of the Old Republic era, although I do enjoy playing the Jedi Knight computer game series.

I've got it! Rancors. With laser beams on their heads.

-The Gneech