HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME This guide has been written under the assumption that you have a basic idea of what you want your character to be. You should at least figure out what it is your character is doing with their life, and possibly what their career is or what their life goals are. Pick something you know you’ll stick with. You can work from there using this simple step-by-step process. STEP 1: CHOOSE A RACE STEP 2: KNOW YOUR CHARACTER SHEET STEP 3: TAKE ADVANTAGES STEP 4: TAKE DISADVANTAGES STEP 5: CHOOSE SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES STEP 6: ANALYZE YOUR CHARACTER STEP 7: LEARN THE GAME STEP 8: YOU CAN’T GET TO STEP 8 If you know absolutely nothing about GURPS, none of what’s on that list made any sense to you. If you think you understood it you might be right, but chances are that you didn’t fully grasp what each of these steps actually consist of. You know other RPG systems, you know D&D, and you’ve got countless sessions under your belt. GURPS should be easy to get into since you’re already experienced with tabletop gaming… right?
NOPE. This system is absolutely bonkers. It doesn’t appeal to newcomers because of the sheer mass of information it presents all at once. It expects a lot from you, and you will need to muster a lot of effort before it ever starts giving back to you. It’s a very ambitious concept but it’s actually, for lack of a better word, flawless. Once you get an idea of what exactly GURPS is capable of, you’ll realize that no other system can be lined up next to GURPS and still be recognized as even relatively ‘decent’. It’s worth the time it takes to figure it out.
Ignore the steps for now. Right now you’ll just be learning about the important terms that are critical to understanding how this game functions. Only the basic information is included in this introduction.
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CHARACTER POINTS (CPs)
Progression is not based on EXP or how many dragons you’ve slain. These things called Character Points (CPs) measure just how valuable your character is in comparison to others. CPs are used to advance your attributes, skill ranks, and other traits that make your character more useful. Everybody (NPCs included) has a pool of spent CPs and a pool of unused/ remaining CPs. Your “rating” is measured by your spent CPs, as your unspent CPs aren’t doing anything for you. CP ratings can be directly compared to one another to judge how much better one character is than another in solely objective terms. At the beginning of a campaign the entire party usually has exactly the same CP rating, but some people usually end up getting a few more CPs than their compatriots as the campaign goes on. For this campaign, we are all starting with +75 CPs. You don’t murderhobo monsters or murderhobo strange loot you find in caves for CPs; you get them for playing the game right. You get CPs for roleplaying your character even when it would be a much better idea to do something else. You can also get them for reaching major story arcs or finishing missions that the GM designed for you. The most consistent way to get CPs is by making it all the way through a session. At the end of every session, the GM will give each player up to 5 points. He can’t give you any more than this, but might also rule that you get less or even no CPs if you played your character poorly in that session. You can also lose CPs by coming under circumstances that make your character worse, like losing an arm or becoming permanently blind. Being at a disadvantage like this effectively lowers your CP rating since you would be worse off than before, when you had your old rating. Even if you somehow reattached your arms and corneas and got them to function exactly how they did before you lost them, those CPs are still gone for good. The CPs you lose this way are first taken out of your unspent pool, and if that’s empty, the rest will be taken out of your spent CP (and therefore, your CP rating). When points get taken out of your CP rating, all CPs you acquire thereafter must be spent to make up the points that got taken from it until you reach your old CP rating. The CPs that you spend by doing this don’t give you any benefits, cannot be recovered, and are essentially forfeited. You can get additional CPs at the start of a new campaign if you willingly give yourself a disadvantage, since it gives you negative CPs. More on this at STEP 4.
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CLASSES
There are no classes. Everything that defines your character comes from your CPs. It makes sense to specialize in most cases, but you are free to spend CPs on whatever you want at any time as long as you can justify why your character would want to do that. If you were looking to pick a class then picking a race is as good as it gets. See STEP 1.
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ATTRIBUTES
All of your primary and secondary attributes start at 10. You do not roll for them. They must be purchased with CPs. You can opt to take points away from a particular attribute and gain the amount of CPs those points are worth if you are making a new character. Your attributes are listed on your character sheet on the Main tab:
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Strength (ST) [10 CPs per point]
ST measures your capacity to use your body to both apply and absorb force. It has its own checks, but most of the benefits it can give are a result of the secondary attributes that it is responsible for: -
Hitpoints (HP) [2 CPs per point] Your base HP is the amount of damage you can take before you risk falling unconscious. Your base HP is equal to your base ST; if you buy a point of ST you will also gain a point of HP for no extra cost. You may also spend CPs to directly improve HP, but this has no bearing on your ST or any other attributes; if you spend 10 CPs on HP you will gain 5 HP and nothing else. Not to be confused with HT. For information on how low or negative HP affects you, see STEP 7.
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Basic Lift (BL) Your Basic Lift is the maximum weight you can lift over your head with one hand in one second. It’s equal to your ST 2 ÷ 5. If your ST is 10, your BL is 20. Basic Lift is used to measure the points at which you are encumbered by whatever you’re carrying. You cannot buy BL directly; ST must be bought in order to raise it. It’s important, but it’s not really as useful as the other attributes in a Star Wars setting. Page 17 in the Basic Set has a table that incorrectly measures the specific encumbrance weights for BL. Fortunately your character sheet automatically calculates the correct numbers for you once you input your BL. The specific effects of each encumbrance level can be found on
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Striking Damage (Dmg) [+5 CPs per extra point of “ST”] This only affects the damage you do with non-Lightsaber melee and thrown weapons. There are two different attack types that Dmg can influence: Swing (sw) and Thrust (thr). A thr attack isn’t as strong as a sw attack, but they each have their own unique damage type. CPs can be spent to move your Dmg up a rank as if your ST was 1 point higher than it actually is. It does not affect your actual ST or any of its subsidiaries. For a table of what level ST does what Dmg for thr and sw attacks, see STEP 7.
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Dexterity (DX) [+20 CPs per point]
DX measures your ability to move swiftly and gracefully. It is arguably one of the most important attributes to have for combat: a close second to HT. A lot of skills (see STEP 5) also base their rolls off of DX, making it a very versatile attribute for both combat and non-combat. -
Basic Speed [+5 CPs for 0.25 of a point] Basic Speed is your reaction time. This attribute is better known as “initiative” in other systems. Your Basic Speed is a quarter of the sum of your DX and HT, but you can just treat every point of DX and HT as 0.25 and get the same results. The only thing this attribute directly affects is determining who acts first, but it also has two very important sub-attributes of its own: Dodge and Basic Move.
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Dodge Your Dodge is simply your Basic Speed +3, rounded down. It’s technically a combat maneuver so I will have another description for it over in Combat, and HT plays as much a role as DX does in determining what your Dodge is, if not a better one (it’s only half the price). The main reason I associate DX with it is because of the Acrobatic-Dodge maneuver, which is a DX based skill check (see STEP 5) that can increase Dodge by +2 on a success… but also gives a -2 if it fails. In any case Dodge is your only way to defend against blaster fire, which is very scary in this system. That’s what I based my character on, but feel free to do whatever you want. There are a lot of viable ways to build a character.
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Basic Move [+5 CPs per point] Basic Move is how far (in yards) you can go in one second or combat round. It’s equal to your Basic Speed, rounded down. It has uses outside of combat as well and determines just how far you can jump, among other things. Going fast is pretty neat, but it’s not that high of a priority most of the time.
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Intelligence (IQ) [+20 CPs per point]
IQ is a very powerful attribute. It governs the majority of all skills (see STEP 5) and a single point can cover a lot of ground as a result. The tradeoff it makes for having such amazing utility is its small impact on combat, although several IQ based skills can be used somewhat effectively in a fight; some might just let you avoid combat altogether. Anything’s possible when you take IQ. I’m on a horse. -
Will [+5 CPs per point] Will measures your mental fortitude. It’s not exactly something you can use in every situation, but it comes in handy. It’s hardly what you buy IQ for; this is just a great convenience when the need for it actually arises. That’s the reason you get a lot of IQ: it’s useful everywhere. This attribute might just save your life at some point. It’s just not something you should put points into when you can choose IQ instead.
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Perception (Per) [+5 CPs per point] Perception is, like all of IQ’s benefits, extremely useful. It’s another one of those life-saving attributes, except this one guarantees survival in almost every scenario. Many unfortunate, terrible losses are just a single failed Perception check away. This is definitely a good use of your points if you have no plans to grab any IQ. 14 is a good number to leave this at in that case.
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Health (HT)
[+10 CPs per point]
This attribute is important for everybody, especially for people who think they can get away with just being a brainiac or just being sneaky. I don’t care who you are; that big brain of yours isn’t going to do you much good against a critical hit from an enemy’s blaster. Make sure you have a plan for when you get walloped, it’s going to happen at some point whether you like it or not. Not taking at least one or two points in this attribute will undoubtedly get you killed very soon. If you still choose to leave your HT untouched after reading this, then you acknowledge that you are taking a huge risk. Consider yourself warned. -
Fatigue Points (FP) [+3 CPs per point] I have no idea how FP is supposed to work in the actual game. I suppose that will just be a matter that will sort itself out once we get acclimated to playing it a little. As far as I can tell, this is for stuff like holding your breath, nonstop sprinting, and using something called “extra effort.” I have a feeling that FP will end up being transient at best in the actual campaign. I’m probably wrong though; apparently losing all of your FP is capable of killing you. So, uh, don’t work too hard, I guess.
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Basic Speed If you’re stocking up on IQ, buying HT is going to be your source of Basic Speed and Move. It’s not a good idea to get both DX and IQ because you would be spreading your points rather thin; they both target very broad areas of skills so having both would be redundant and expensive. A combination of DX and HT is also very effective. Take note of how pretty much everything goes well with HT.
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Basic Move
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CHECKS
I know you know what a check is. The reason that I’ve put this here is mostly to remind you that rolling 3d6 is nothing like rolling a d20.
A d20 has a flat 5% chance to roll any given number on it. You are going to be rolling on a bell curve. This greatly reduces the odds of rolling a critical (3, 4, 17, 18). It makes also makes your modifiers matter a lot more.
Look at this table. In GURPS, you want to roll at or below your Skill Level. See how easy it is to roll at or below 14? The probability of success is greater than it would be to roll a d20 and not roll a 1 or a 2. Those are amazing odds, and your character is only at what is considered “level 1” by most standards. This is not your run-of-the-mill d20 based fantasy RPG where your rogue is a brainless halfwit for the first two years of his career.
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SKILLS
Your skills are your primary actions both in and out of combat. There’s a skill for nearly every purpose, and they are called upon any time you draw your weapon, grease your pistons, do the nasty, and other such actions (not necessarily in that order). All of them are 3d6 rolls. I’ll go into a lot more detail about this at STEP 5.
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CRITICAL SUCCESSES AND MISSES
There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ die roll since they are never directly modified, so there is never an unnatural roll to differentiate it from. With that said, a roll (the sum of all three dice) of 3 or 4 is a critical success. No matter what number you had to roll under, even if it was a 1 or a 2, you succeed in the most spectacular fashion possible. If this was an attempt to attack someone, they don’t get to defend against it. Critical success ranges can also be higher if your effective skill is 15 or above. A critical failure is a roll of 17 or 18. Sometimes all this means is that you automatically miss, but a roll of 18 usually isn’t so kind. More information about this is on STEP 7. -
ADVANTAGES
You can spend CPs to buy advantages, which are special traits that let you do specific things that skills don’t already let you do. They usually do not require you to roll for the abilities that they grant. The advantage may manifest physically, mentally, socially, supernaturally and/or be of an ‘exotic’ nature. Supernatural advantages do not make much sense for a Star Wars campaign outside of manipulation of the Force, so in STEP 3 I have taken the liberty of excluding most of them from my list of possible advantages you might want to consider picking. Exotic advantages most often pertain to certain races and make no sense for a typical human being to have. A good chunk of those advantages are also superhuman (x-ray vision, self-duplication, time travel at will, and laser-eye beams to name a few), so I’ve ruled out a good chunk of those too. However, some of them do remain fairly plausible for a few of the races that are available to you. These include unique physical traits such has having extra arms, water-breathing, 360o vision, etc. If you aren’t pleased with the selection of advantages that I’ve included in this guide, then feel free to browse the full selection of advantages on page 32 of the Basic Set. They will also include more in-depth descriptions of what I’ll be providing here, so you should take a look at them anyway. Don’t worry about it until STEP 3 comes.
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DISADVANTAGES
These are pretty much the opposite of advantages. They limit and hinder you and otherwise completely change the way you play your character, even if it’s not optimal, just like having a Lawful Good alignment. Now, why would you want to subject yourself to that? Because disadvantages cost negative CPs. This decreases your ‘spent’ pool of CPs, and in order to not exceed the 75 CP limit for making your character, this lets you take additional skill training, advantages, and attributes in order to ‘compensate.’ Some disadvantages include, for example, not having one or several of the expected amount of limbs for your particular species. The more hindering the disadvantage, the more negative CPs you get. Not having a thumb is a lot worse than not having your pinky finger! You can go into a negative value of CPs for your spent pool if you’d like, and you would then have however many CPs below 0 to spend in addition to the 75 you were given initially. There’s more to having disadvantages than cutting off your limbs. You can have a mental or social disadvantage just as well – maybe even several! You might suffer from severe hallucinations in conjunction with being a sociopath, pyromaniac, autophobe, necrophiliac… The possibilities are endless! Remember, you’re allowed to take as many disadvantages as you are willing to bear. You just have to justify all of them with a half-decent backstory.
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COMBAT
I know that movement in combat is based on a hexagonal grid, but I only have very basic idea of how the combat system works exactly (I will have more details at STEP 7), but the way I think it works goes a little something like this: 1. INITIATIVE: Highest Basic Speed goes first. In a tie, use the higher DX. If still a tie, roll for it or something. 2. READYING: In order to draw a weapon, you must use a Ready maneuver. You may move while doing this, but you may not attack unless you make a successful Fast-Draw skill check. Some weapons need to be readied after every attack.
3. DECLARE MANEUVER: A combatant with a readied weapon may choose to do any of the following maneuvers: Attack; All Out Attack; All Out Defense; Move and Attack; Feint; Aim; Evaluate; Ready (a different weapon or shield); Move; Change Posture (kneel, prone, sit, stand, etc., a crouch is free); Wait; Do Nothing
4. DEFENDING: When someone is aware that they are being attacked, they have the opportunity to defend against the attack unless they used an All Out Attack on their last
turn. They may respond by Blocking, Parrying, or Dodging. If they have neither a readied melee weapon that can parry nor a blocking device, they may only attempt to Dodge unless they’re trained in like Martial Arts or some shit, iunno. Defending against a ranged attack has some strange rules that I’m not familiar with, but they can always be defended against with a successful Dodge. ALL-OUT: If they declared an All Out Defense (AOD or AD) on their last turn, they get a bonus to whatever defense type they declared with it. AD (Double) means they may defend with two different defense types against a single attack that round. AD Parry and AD Dodge give a +1 bonus to Parry and a +3 bonus to Dodge respectively against a single attack that round. 5. ATTACKING: When making an attack with any weapon, the user must make a skill roll corresponding to the weapon they are using. If the attacker is using a ranged weapon and used an Aim maneuver against the same target on the previous turn, the attack gets a bonus to hit, which varies per weapon on a table somewhere. If the roll is successful, the target must make an attempt to defend. If their defense roll failed, or they used an All Out Attack on the previous round, the attack hits and damage is rolled. A critical success (3, 4, sometimes higher; see STEP 5) means that the target gets no defense. A skill roll of 3 means the attack does maximum damage. Feints are described in STEP 7. ALL-OUT: There are four different types of All Out Attacks (AO or AOA): Determined; Double; Feint; and Strong. A Determined melee AO has a +4 to hit, a ranged one has +1. All of the other AO’s are exclusive to melee. Double allows two attack rolls with a weapon that does not need to be readied before use or with two weapons (-4 offhand penalty applies). Feints are described in STEP 7. Strong does +2 damage or +1 damage per die, whichever is better.
This covers the basics of combat. Everything else is in STEP 7.
STEP ONE: CHOOSE A RACE Choosing a race you want to play is tough if you know nothing about this game. Unless you had planned on being a filthy Human, you need to know about all of the things in the miniglossary I just provided in order to make a decision. I’m going to assume you read all of it if you are at this part of the guide. Your race is your baseline for your character, which is why it’s the first step. You will be selecting a list of racial templates. A template contains specific advantages and disadvantages that your character must have in order to be a part of that race. When you make a character, it starts out as whatever the “average” member of that race is. You can use your CPs to change your character in any way after that, but you may not remove your template’s default advantages, disadvantages, or trained skills. Your race just has those qualities, plain and simple. Your racial template makes suggestions for attribute scores, but you don’t have leave them at what they give you. You can add or take away anything you want from your characters attributes as long as you have the CPs for it. Make sure that your attributes also make some sense for your race too; a Jawa can’t just go all in on ST to be a hulking monstrosity, they just aren’t capable of that. The attribute suggestions just reflect what the average for that race is. Every race has an average Tech Level (TL) that reflects how advanced their concept of technology is. In this campaign, all modern equipment is TL 11. Several races have a TL below this, and they suffer a massive -5 penalty to IQ-based skill rolls per point of TL difference when using modern technology. A backstory can explain a slightly higher level of TL for your race, but you should still try to act like your race. Gammoreans are a good example of a race that can still function in a TL 11 campaign despite a huge 8 level difference. Don’t be all “my character is the first of his kind” either. You don’t just set a trend or break every physical boundary of your race just because you’re special. If you want something that your race doesn’t have then you should just play a different race. Additional advantages and disadvantages may be added alongside your default ones as long as they do not directly contradict them. For example, if your race has Cowardice as a disadvantage then you can’t go and choose Fearlessness to cancel it out. You’re just stuck with Cowardice.
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‘Entry Fees’
Nearly every race has a cost of CPs in order to be a part of it that can be negative or positive. A filthy default Human has no advantages, no disadvantages, a TL of 11, and 10 in every attribute. This means that their CP rating is exactly 0. This gives them an “entry fee” of 0 CPs since they have nothing particularly special about them, so the amount of CPs you get to spend on advantages will remain unaffected if you choose to be a Human. There are only two other races that have no entry fee: Ebranites and Kalduu. Their advantages and disadvantages are the exact same value, so they just result in a CP rating of 0. And unlike Humans, they have plenty of complexity and depth to them. Unfortunately, neither of them would make any sense in this campaign. You would need an impossibly good backstory to play either of them. Everything else has a fee that will either increase or reduce the amount of CPs you can spend to improve your character. -
Negative Entry Fees
If a race has enough disadvantages, the deficit of CPs can outweigh their advantages to the point where the average member of that race has a negative CP rating, and thus, a negative entry fee. All of our characters will be starting out with a CP rating of 75, so if your race has a negative entry fee, you get an amount of CPs equal to that to further upgrade your character with attributes and advantages. For example, a Gammorean has poor IQ, TL, and -50 CPs worth of disadvantages, which includes things like Bloodlust, Lv. 5 Intolerance and a few other nasty things. Having poor IQ and TL are also disadvantages, with IQ being worth -20 CPs and TL worth -5 per dropped point. Gammoreans have and IQ of 7 (-60 CPs) and a TL of 3 (-40 CPs), which totals to -100 CPs. They have a fair share of advantages too, though: they have an extra 2 ST, which costs +10 CPs each point, so they have 12 ST (+20 CPs). They also have 1 extra HP, worth +2 CPs. Their advantages include Dark Vision, Combat Reflexes and some other neat things, which total up to +48 CPs. They also have +12 CPs spread across a few combat skills. This totals up to -130 CPs from disadvantages and +62 CPs in advantages. The sum of these is the “entry fee” for this race, which ends up being -68 CPs. The average Gammorean has a CP rating of -68, which is 68 points lower than the average Human CP rating. If you chose to play a Gammorean, you would get to spend 143 CPs! Gammoreans are a rather extreme example of a negative entry fee. Most negative entry fees are usually around the -20 to -30 range.
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Positive Entry Fees
A positive entry fee means that you will have less CPs to spend by choosing that race. Their advantages simply outweigh their disadvantages, and their average member is better than the average human. I’m not going to bog down an example of positive entry fees with numbers like I did in the description for negative entry fees above. If you’ve already read that and understood the concept, you should be able to understand positive entry fees just fine. Droids are people too! Well, not really, but they do have a multitude of their own ‘racial templates.’ You won’t be able to play one in this campaign however, since our campaign takes place in 3951 BBY and the only templates they have in the book are for droids that hadn’t been invented until around 100 BBY. They also have very costly entry fees, so I’ll be using them for example purposes. A Droideka Destroyer Droid requires +1142 CPs, and it is impossible to choose one for a character if you are to still meet the +75 CP rating limit. There aren’t enough disadvantages in the entire game that would bring you down anywhere near that number. 3PO Protocol Droids have a far more reasonable fee, though it’s still unreasonable when compared to the normal, organic races. It has an entry fee of +96 CPs, which means you would have to take -21 CPs worth of disadvantages if you wanted to play it at all, and you would have no points left to improve yourself any further after that! Positive entry fees are not necessarily a bad thing. Their only drawback is that it gives you less variety in your customization options. However, some advantages are exclusively racial. Many races with positive entry fees offer at least one unique advantage that a Human can’t just buy later on. This makes positive entry fees a worthwhile investment, even though you’re limiting yourself a little. Some races offer very powerful combinations of advantages right at the start too, even if they’re not exclusively racial. Just looking at the stats of every race can give you an idea of how you’d further like to customize your character even if you decide to play a different race.
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DISCLAIMER
You aren’t going to know what any of the advantages and disadvantages of the races on the list are going to do if you aren’t already familiar with them, but that’s okay. You don’t need to know them. You just need to look at the names of the traits of each race that catches your eye. Try to get an idea of what exactly a character of that race is capable of. Do not start looking things up. Ask yourself if your first impression of this character would be something you’d be interested in playing. If the answer is yes, then go to STEP 2. If it’s only a little bit interesting, keep it in mind and look at the rest of the races. You’ll probably find a few that you like. Hooray for judging characters by their race!
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RACE TABLE
Over the next 10 pages is a list of all of the races that I believe could work for this particular campaign setting. If you would like to look at the full list of races (along with comprehensive descriptions of the races’ culture and physiologies) then consult the Star Wars: Sentient Species Book, which can be found here. My list covers 65 different races; the book covers 220. -
True Entry Fee
The true entry fee for a race is usually different than its actual entry fee. The actual entry fee is what is listed in the book, and it includes what I’ve called the Recommended Attribute Cost (RAC). It’s the cumulative cost of attribute adjustments and stands separate from what I deem to be the “true” entry fee as it is entirely optional. You should still use it as a guideline though. The true entry fee is labeled as “Entry” on the table. This does not include CP modifiers from a higher or lower TL; that is a part of the true entry fee. You should be sticking with your race’s TL whether you like it or not; that’s why it’s a disadvantage. Changing a TL from 10 to 11 is justifiable, but I still recommend that you keep your TL where it is. -
Advantages and Disadvantages
The names of advantages and disadvantages will always be contained in brackets. The advantages section of the table also includes bonuses for racially learned skills, and can be identified by the absence of brackets around it. The Talent advantage is listed as the subcategory that it affects, despite it not saying Talent anywhere. They too can be identified by the lack of a set of brackets. If you cannot find a listed advantage or skill for a particular race in the book, it is probably a Talent. (SC ) is a “self-control” roll that must roll under whatever the number following it is. -
Attributes
An asterisk ( * ) by the ST value denotes that the race gets a CP discount when buying ST points due to having a Size Modifier higher than 0. Keep in mind that the negative points you get from removing a point of ST is also discounted, e.g. if you buy ST for 9 CPs, you get 9 CPs for selling them. There is no indication as to whether a race’s SM is below 0 just by looking at the table. This is something you should check for yourself in the Sentient Species book. Per, Will, HP and FP are based off of their respective primary attribute, and I have accounted for that. If one or more of these secondary attributes are different than what their primary attribute is, it means that it is recommended that you upgrade that particular secondary attribute directly. Remember, everything attribute related is just a recommendation. You can do whatever you like with them. They’re here to help give you an idea of what each race is good at. You’ll be coming back to this list in later steps, so just skim it for now.
Listed by True Entry Fee, Highest to Lowest: Race
TL
Advantages
Disadvantages
ST
DX
IQ
HT
Per
Will
HP
FP
RAC
Entry
On The Edge (SC 6)
9
12
10
10
10
10
9
10
+10
+60
9*
11
11
9
11
12
8
9
+14
+56
10
10
12
9
12
12
10
9
+30
+49
[Dependency: Moist, Daily, only in arid or non-moist environments]
10
9
11
10
11
12
10
10
+5
+47
[Compulsive Behavior: Learning]
10
10
11
10
11
11
10
10
+20
+46
[Ambidexterity] [Combat Reflexes] Xexto
11
[Compartmentalized Mind 1] [Extra Arms+2] [Claws (Blunt)] [Compartmentalized Mind 1]
Quermian
11 [Extra Arms+2] [Telecommunication (w/ Quermians)]
[Pacifism: SelfDefense Only] [Quirk: BroadMinded] [Quirk: Vow]
[Acute Senses 2: Hearing and Vision] [Sense of Duty] Adarian
11
[Innate Attack: Long Call, 2d dmg to FP, stun, 3 per day]
[Indecisive] [Stubbornness]
Business Acumen+1
[Amphibious] [Doesn’t Breathe] [Nictitating Membrane 1] Mon Calamari
11 [Peripheral Vision] [Pressure Support] [Reputation+1] [Speak Underwater]
[Extended Lifespan 3] [Damage Resistance 2] [Night Vision+1] Exiled Draethos
11 [Telecommunication] [Fit] 15 CPs worth of 1 or more IQ-based skills
[360o Vision] [Acute Senses 4: Touch]
[Low Pain Threshold]
[Charisma 2] Vuvrian
11
[Cultural Adaptability] [Reputation+1]
[Gerontophobia (SC 6)]
9*
10
11
10
11
11
9
10
+11
+44
10
10
10
11
10
9
10
11
+13
+38
[Thallassophobia]
8
11
10
9
10
10
8
9
-10
+36
[Appearance-1]
11
9
10
9
10
10
11
9
-20
+35
[Dispersed Vital Parts]
10
12
10
8
10
10
6
8
+12
+34
[Xenophilia (SC 12)]
[Sensitive Touch] [Social Regard]
[Amphibious] [Damage Resistance 1] [Doesn’t Breathe]
Quarren
11
[Nictitating Membrane 1] [Night Vision+4] [Pressure Support 2]
[Dependency: Moist, Daily, only in arid or non-moist environments] [Quirk: Dislikes Idealists] [Quirk: Dislikes Optimists]
[Speak Underwater] Swimming at HT+1
[Acute Senses 3: Taste and Smell] Chadra-Fan
11
[Dark Vision] [Discriminatory Smell]
[Extra Arms+2] Besalisk
11
Swimming at HT+2 Survival (Arctic) at Per+4
[Flexibility: DoubleJointed] Gados
11 [Perfect Balance] Acrobatics at DX+1
[Affliction: Sound Attack (Stun, Deafness)] [Penetrating Voice] Ithorian
11 [Reputation+2]
[Pacifism: SelfDefense]
10
9
11
10
11
11
10
10
0
+30
[No Sense of Taste or Smell]
10
10
10
10
11
10
10
10
+5
+29
10
10
10
10
10
9
9
10
-7
+29
10*
10
10
9
10
11
9
9
-7
+28
Expert (Ecology) at IQ Farming at IQ Gardening at IQ
Chagrian
11
[Radiation Tolerance/100] 1 Law skill at IQ
[Affliction: Pheromones (Social Reactions+1)] [Appearance: Handsome or Beautiful] Zeltron
11
[Chummy: Gregarious] [Compulsive Behavior] [Gluttony (SC 12)]
[Charisma 2] [Empathy] [Reputation+2]
[Lecherous (SC 12)] [Pacifism (SelfDefense)]
[High Metabolism] Smooth Operator+1
[Appearance: Attractive] Ayrou
11
[Reputation+1] [Flexibility: DoubleJointed] [Rapier Wit] Fast Talk at IQ+1
[Curious]
[Acute Senses 4: Taste and Smell] [Damage Resistance 1] Baragwin
11
[Discriminatory Smell]
[Ham-Fisted]
10
9
11
11
11
11
10
11
+10
+27
[Bad Sight: Nearsighted]
9
10
13
8
14
13
9
8
+35
+27
[Pacifism: Total Nonviolence]
9
10
12
9
12
12
9
9
+20
+26
10
11
10
10
10
9
10
10
+15
+26
1 Mechanic skill at IQ Engineer (Small Arms) at IQ-1
[Acute Senses 1: Taste and Smell] [Doesn’t Sleep] Bith
11
[Fearlessness+5] [Microscopic Vision+3] [High Manual Dexterity+1]
[Reputation+1] [Racial Memory: Active] Caamasi
11
[Eidetic Memory] 1 Artist skill at IQ Diplomacy at IQ-1
[Reputation+5: Power Groups]
Dashade
11
[Radiation Tolerance/2]
[Reputation-5: Commoners] [Overconfident]
[Force Static: Resistible] [Heat Dissipation+1]
[Claim to Hospitality: Togruta]
Togruta
[Scanning Sense: Sonar]
[Reputation: Poisonous]
[Striker: Horns]
[Quirk: Attentive]
11
10
11
10
9
11
11
10
9
+20
+25
[Reputation-2]
11*
10
10
11
10
10
11
11
+19
+24
[Truthfulness]
9
9
11
10
11
11
9
10
-10
+19
8
10
10
10
10
10
8
10
-20
+18
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
0
+18
10
10
10
10
10
9
10
10
-5
+18
[Teeth: Sharp] Stealth at DX+1
[Unaging] [Night Vision+2] Feeorin
11 [Fit: Very Fit] [Less Sleep]
[Claws: Sharp] Drall
10 Science! at IQ
[Voice]
Bimm
11
Merchant at IQ+2 OR Literature at IQ, and Public Speaking at IQ+1
[Intolerance-1: Other Species] [Amphibious] [Claws: Sharp, Deadly Venom] Selkath
11
[Doesn’t Breathe] [Pressure Support 2] [Speak Underwater]
[Vow: Never use claws to attack] [Vulnerability: Sonic Wailing, x2FP, Willcheck at 0FP or go insane] [Quirk: Likes Neutrality]
[Charisma 1] Twi’lek
11
[Night Vision+1] [Resistant: Disease]
[Quirk: Careful]
[Wealthy] Anomid
12
10 CPs across 2 Mechanic skills at a 50% discount
[Cannot Speak: Mute] 9
9
9
10
9
9
9
10
-50
+17
10
11
9
10
9
9
10
10
0
+17
11
9
10
10
10
10
11
10
-10
+17
10
10
11
10
11
11
10
10
+10
+15
9
10
11
10
11
12
8
10
+13
+15
10
11
10
9
10
9
10
9
+5
+9
10
10
10
10
11
9
10
10
0
+9
[Pacifism: SelfDefense]
1 Engineer at IQ+5 [Flexibility: DoubleJointed] Blood Carver
11
[Reputation-2: Wealthy]
[Claws: Sharp] Stealth at DX
[Berserk (SC 12)]
Trandoshan
11
[Claws: Sharp]
[Bloodlust]
[Damage Resistance 1]
[Cold-Blooded]
[Regrowth]
[Intolerance-3: Wookiees]
Survival (Desert) at Per
[Selfish (SC 12)]
Tracking at Per
[Short Lifespan 1] [Quirk: Likes Hunting]
Advozsec
Neimoidian
11
[Dark Vision]
[Pessimism]
[Fashion Sense]
[Cowardice]
[Higher Purpose]
[Fearfulness-1]
[Wealthy]
[Greed]
Business Acumen+1
[Reputation-1]
11
[Acute Hearing 4: Hearing] Balosar
11
[Appearance-2: Unattractive]
[Resistant: Poison]
[Combat Reflexes] [Bad Smell] [Enhanced Tracking+1] Rodian
11 [High Manual Dexterity+1] Tracking at Per
[Obsession: Violence] [Reputation-2]
Arkanian
[Wealth: Comfortable]
[Reputation-1]
[Claws: Blunt]
[Overconfident]
11
10
9
11
11
11
11
10
11
+10
+3
9
10
10
10
10
10
9
10
-10
+3
10
10
10
9
10
10
10
9
-10
+2
10*
10
11
10
11
11
9
10
+18
0
11
10
10
10
10
10
11
10
+10
0
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
0
0
12*
7
12
12
12
13
15
12
+27
-1
Navigation (Hyperspace) at IQ Duros
11 Piloting (Low or High-Performance Spacecraft) at DX-1
[Charisma+2]
Caarite
Acting at IQ
[Reputation-2]
Merchant at IQ+1
[Selfish]
10
Survival (Jungle) at Per-1
[Protected Sense: Vision] Adnerem
11
[High Manual Dexterity+1]
[Fanaticism: Steris] [Uncongenial]
[Subsonic Hearing]
[Bad Temper] Aqualish Quara
[Amphibious] 12
[Bully] [Doesn’t Breathe] [Reputation-2]
Human
You’re a boring old human. Congratz.
11
[Cold-Blooded] [Reduced Consumption 2: Cast Iron Stomach]
[Gluttony]
[Damage Resistance 1]
[Intolerance-1]
[Greed]
[No Legs] Hutt
11
[Extended Lifespan 3]
[Overconfident]
[Longevity]
[Sense of Duty]
[Force Static: Resistible]
[Vow: Never kill a messenger from another Hutt]
Cathar
11
[Acute Senses 2/1: Hearing/Taste and Smell]
[Impulsiveness]
[Catfall]
[Berserk]
[Claws:Sharp]
[Sleepy /2]
11
11
9
10
9
9
11
10
+10
-2
11
9
10
11
10
9
11
10
-5
-4
10
10
10
11
10
12
10
12
+23
-4
10
11
10
9
10
10
10
9
+10
-5
10
10
9
10
9
9
10
10
-20
-7
10
11
8
11
8
10
10
11
0
-10
[Teeth: Sharp]
[Damage Reduction 1] [Reputation+1: Criminals] Chevin
10 [Extended Lifespan+1]
[Reputation-1: Non-Criminals] [Code of Honor: Professional]
Merchant (Illegal Goods) at IQ
Zabrak
11
Survival (Acid Wasteland) at Per
[Overconfident (SC 12)] [Quirk: Attentive]
Diplomacy at IQ
Bothan
11
Electronics Operation (Communication) at IQ
[Reputation-2] [Easy to Read]
Intelligence Analysis at IQ-1 Surveillance at IQ
Gran
11
[Infravision]
[Pacifism: SelfDefense]
Beam Weapon (Pistol) at DX+2
Klatooinian
11
Beam Weapon (Rifle) at DX+2 12 CPs across any amount of Melee Weapon (Vibro) skills at a 50% discount
[Social Stigma: Subjugated by Hutts] [Code of Honor]
[Teeth: Sharp] Devaronian
11
[Compulsive Behavior: Wanderlust]
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
0
-11
9
11
11
10
11
11
9
10
+30
-12
10
10
11
10
11
12
10
10
+25
-13
11
10
9
11
9
9
11
11
0
-14
10
11
10
9
10
10
10
9
+10
-15
10
10
8
11
8
8
10
11
-30
-16
[Striker: Horns] [Increased Consumption]
Jenet
[Eidetic Memory]
[Illiteracy]
[Night Vision+1]
[Odious Racial Habit: Tactless]
11 Climbing at DX+1
[Reaction-2] Swimming at HT
[Damage Resistance 2: Torso] [Extra Legs+4] Krevaaki
11
[Flexibility]
[Appearance: Hideous] [Pacifism: SelfDefense]
[Longevity] [Selfless] Hidden Lore (Jedi) at IQ-1
[Chameleon+2]
Brubb
5
[Damage Resistance 2]
[Hard of Hearing] [Cold-Blooded]
[Enhanced Defenses: Dodge+1]
[Gregarious (SC 12)]
Sullustan
11
[Absolute Direction: 3D Spatial Sense]
[Curious (SC 6)]
[Acute Senses 2: Hearing]
[Pacifism: Reluctant Killer]
[Night Vision+5] Climbing at DX+1
[Xenophilia (SC 12)] [Quirk: Likes Practical Jokes]
[Damage Resistance 1] Vodran
11 Survival (Jungle) at Per
[Social Stigma: Subjugated by Hutts]
[Cowardice]
Jawa
[Night Vision+1]
[Illiteracy]
Scrounging at Per+2
[Odious Racial Habits: Odor]
10
8
11
10
10
10
9
8
10
-5
-28
12
10
7
10
7
7
12
11
-38
-30
10
10
10
11
10
10
10
11
+10
-32
12*
9
10
10
10
9
12
10
-7
-42
10
11
11
9
11
11
10
9
+30
-151
[Reputation-1]
[Dark Vision] [Combat Reflexes]
Gamorrean
3
[Short Lifespan 1]
[Damage Resistance 2]
[Bloodlust]
[Striker: Horns]
[Reputation-4]
[Striker: Tusks]
[Intolerance-5: Ranged Weapons and Droids]
Brawling at DX+2 Melee Weapon (Gammorean) at DX+2
[Acute Senses 2: Hearing, Taste and Smell] Arcona
[Bad Sight: Near Sighted)]
11 [Claws: Talons]
[Addiction: Salt]
[Damage Resistance 1] [Berserk (SC 6)] [Brachiator]
[Cannot Speak: Basic]
[Claws: Sharp] [Damage Resistance 1] Wookiee
11
[Extended Lifespan 2]
[Code of Honor: Family] [Intolerance-3: Trandoshans]
[Rapid Healing]
[Sense of Duty: Life Debt]
[Social Regard+1]
[Social Stigma] [Vow: Don’t use claws in combat]
Kel Dor
11
Mechanic (Breath Masks and Goggles) at IQ
[Code of Honor] [Dependency: Breath Mask]
STEP TWO: KNOW YOUR CHARACTER SHEET This will just be a quick run-through of the roll20 interface for GURPS. The example pictures I’ll be including are from my own completed character sheet, so your values will be different. You’ll find your character sheet in the Journal tab of the roll20 sidebar.
-
Main Tab
This first tab is where all of your attributes are recorded. All of the entry boxes have special qualities that vary based on their color. I don’t fully know how to utilize the weapon or armor sections (the green and blue boxes), so I won’t be covering them in this chapter. If I do end up figuring it out, I’ll put it in STEP 7. Don’t worry about filling this page out right now, you’ll decide what you want to put in here at STEP 5. For now, just try to understand the layout.
-
Gray Boxes (Generic)
There are two different kinds of these boxes: light and dark. A light box is for entering a base value of some sort, like for attribute scores. As a rule, these boxes contain completely unmodified attributes that can only change with the use of CPs. They’re also used to enter descriptions for things.
A dark box is similar, but it does not necessarily contain just the base value all of the time. It is used for stats or attributes that have base values but also have other factors that can influence them, such as advantages, disadvantages, or equipment. They also are used to track non-character related values in the other tabs.
-
Yellow Boxes (Dynamic)
A yellow box contains a value that will get changed a lot. These will be used to keep track of things like current hitpoints and defense ratings. The values they keep track of will never have a base value that is completely their own.
-
Purple Boxes (Reactive)
These boxes are unique in that you cannot directly enter a value for them. They only contain values that are dependent on other values, like your marker for half-HP. All these boxes do is apply a set formula to a value from another box and display the result.
The two exceptions to this are the Combat and Full Load Dodge rating boxes, as the formulas that govern their values can change depending on which of their bubbles is filled in. This is the only application of bubbles.
-
Beige Boxes (Dropdown)
Clicking on one of these boxes will show a dropdown list of all of the options that can be put in that box. By clicking an option on the list, it sets that as the selection for the box. This value is usually then called upon by another formula executed by a purple or black box.
-
Black Boxes (Interactive)
Clicking on any black box will perform some kind of action. Usually the black boxes will perform a check for you, but the Maneuver box declares your next combat maneuver in the chat depending on what you filled the beige and gray boxes around it with. If I wanted to do an All Out Defense (Dodge) maneuver with an Acrobatic Dodge while Retreating, then I would fill everything out like so:
And when I click it, this will appear in the chat:
I don’t think it matters what you put in the boxes that aren’t for base maneuvers or maneuver options. I could be wrong, but as far as I can tell the Maneuver button only displays what’s in those.
-
Skills Tab
Now that you understand how the boxes work, try to get a grasp of how your skills are going to be laid out. You aren’t going to be deciding on these now either; that’s also in STEP 5. What you’ll be doing with this right now is figuring out how to add skills to your list.
My character sheet has a bunch of stuff already on it, but yours is going to look more like the way my Techniques look. You won’t have anything there, so to add a new line for a skill, you just click the +Add button and one will pop right up. Take a look at all of the boxes. The only one you shouldn’t recognize is the one labeled CP. You’ll never have to worry about this since it doesn’t really do anything other than remind you to do something with it later. If you mouse over it, a help bubble with show up:
To remove a line, hit the Modify button at the bottom right of the Skills section. All of the lines will then be grayed out and a red button with a trashcan will appear on each line. Click the red button of the line you want removed and it’ll disappear. To go back to editing your lines, press the Done button where the Modify button used to be. The section labeled Ref. is where you’ll be putting page references to the skill in question. This is helpful for finding it in the book again later, but I’m going to include that sort of thing later in this guide so that you don’t need to worry about it. It’s more convenient if you do it yourself though. That’s all you need to know about how to operate this tab for now. You’ll learn how to fill it out in STEP 5.
-
Traits Tab
This layout is the same as the one for skills, except there are no fancy boxes.
In this tab, you just add lines and page references. Don’t worry; you don’t need to put down this much stuff. Even though it looks like I put down the entire description (which I did) for every advantage and disadvantage, I spread that out over multiple lines to make it easier to read. It doesn’t do that automatically; the line just keeps on going on and on and on if you don’t stop adding to it. If you want a more concise layout, you should summarize your advantages and disadvantages in as few words as possible. I find the exact wording more helpful, but that’s just personal preference. Make sure you include all of the vital information like the CP cost and such. The next step, STEP 3, will contain further instructions on how to use this layout effectively. There’s not much to do here.
-
Inventory and Powers Tabs
I don’t know how items are going to work in this until we actually start the campaign. I’m also pretty sure that Powers won’t be a thing in this unless you’re a Force user. I’m not a Force user, so it doesn’t concern me. That’s something you’ve to figure out on your own.
-
Various Tab
This part is useful, but not really required. The CP tracker is all you will need this for.
I highly advise that you use the Quick Notes feature of this tab to keep track of your CP expenditures. Log everything that you take and note the cost of it. Go through it and make sure everything adds up to +75 CPs before you finish making your character. Something else that’s really cool about this tab is the way it uses languages. If you click the interactive box by any of your known languages, a prompt will appear. You can then type whatever you want to say in that language into it. Press Submit and it will appear in the chat:
STEP THREE: TAKE ADVANTAGES Hopefully, you already have somewhat of an idea about what you wanted your character to be like. If you still don’t, that’s fine; maybe looking through the available advantages will help. You only really need to have an idea of what your character is going to be like by the time you get to STEP 5. By reading through the selection of races, you’ve probably got an idea of what advantages are. They’re traits that, to say the least, improve your character or otherwise give them the upper hand over others who do not have this trait. Advantages are always a good thing! They really define who and what your character is. Coming up with a reason as to why they’re like they are falls into your hands when you pick the advantage. You have to justify your advantage within your backstory. You don’t just wake up one morning and suddenly have Combat Reflexes! Picking a lot of advantages means you have to have a very colorful background… and usually a bunch of CPs to purchase them all, too. Advantages that demand lots of CPs are considered more powerful than cheaper ones. They’re also considered less realistic. If your advantage is ridiculous, you would need a very good reason to have it. You might even have to base your entire backstory off of it. Some advantages are also completely unreasonable for this campaign, so Justins might forbid it entirely. One that I know he’d ban for sure would be Jumper, which lets you travel through time and space to any point of your choosing as often as you like, and you can do it at will, without any devices or cost outside of what it initially costs to purchase the advantage. Despite the cost of 100 CPs, there’s no way you can justify an ability that powerful within the limitations of the Star Wars universe. However, any advantages given to you on the basis of race are always possible within the Star Wars universe. You would still have to justify it somewhat with your backstory, but you wouldn’t have to try as hard to incorporate it as you would have to do for a ‘learned’ advantage. Many advantages are labeled as being superhuman, so if you’re a human, you just can’t have them. Many advantages are exclusive to particular races (e.g. Extra Arms, Amphibious, Regrowth, etc.) so it would be completely unjustifiable for anyone who didn’t naturally have it, including non-humans, to just develop it over time. You can try though!
-
ADVANTAGE TABLES
There are four tables spread across the next few pages that list all of the advantages that could both be ‘learned’ by any one particular race (within reason) and that are also viable for this campaign. There are even more advantages in the Basic Set Rulebook that are not listed here if you’d like to try to find other stuff that might work for this campaign. After character creation, you may only spend points on advantages marked with asterisks. If marked with two asterisks, the advantage requires some sort of special condition to be met (e.g. finding a teacher) before it can be learned post-character creation. If you’re still in character creation, you can pick any advantages you want from this first section of lists regardless of whether they have asterisks. You will still have to justify any advantage you learn non-racially in your backstory, but bolded advantages require significantly more explanation. An explanation for a non-bolded advantage such as Combat Reflexes could be as simple as “served as a soldier,” or “grew up with multiple brothers.” Justifying Weapon Master, on the other hand, would have to be something as drastic as “galaxy renowned blademaster and is head-engineer of a primary vibroblade production enterprise; he watched as both of his parents were chopped to bits in an alleyway when he was nine years old which made him become just like Batman, but the difference was that the blade that his parents were cut down by happened to be of his own design and he was the one that was doing the chopping.” It’s still possible, but… y’know. Each table governs one particular category of advantages out of 4 possible categories: -
Combat Utility and Skills Social Reactions (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
The tables will be presented in that order for both of the sections. The advantages themselves are listed from most expensive to least expensive. The table the list is on will also say if a particular race comes pre-packaged with it. -
Table 1: Combat Advantages
Name
Weapon Master**
Descriptionᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚ When performing an attack with a specific (all/large/medium/small/paired/one) class of muscle-powered weapon(s): add +1 per die if relevant weapon skill is at DX+1 or +2 per die at DX+2 or higher halve your penalty to make a Rapid Strike halve your penalty to parry more than once per turn use a higher default if untrained Examples of some classes: (large): all bladed weapons (med) : all bladed vibro-weapons (small): all vibro-swords (pair) : dual-wield vibro-sword with offhand vibro-shortblade (one) : longbladed vibro-sword
Race(s)
Page
99
CP cost
+45 all +40 large +35 med +30 small +25 pair +20 one
Extra Attack**
You get additional Attack maneuvers per turn equal to the level of this advantage. Any readied ranged and/or melee weapons can be used in combination. The amount of attacks you can do is limited to the amount of readied weapons you have during that turn. A kick can be used as an attack, provided you’ve got one left to stand on too.
Gunslinger**
Treat all single shot ranged attacks (RoF 1-3) done with a 1handed weapon as if an Aim maneuver had been used prior. 2-handed ranged attacks get half of what their normal Aim bonus is, but still get their full bonus when actually Aimed. Bracing and any other modifications retain their benefits.
Combat Reflexes*
+1 to all active defense rolls and the Fast-Draw skill and +2 to Fright checks. You do not freeze when surprised and get +6 on all IQ rolls to wake up or recover from mental stuns. Your entire party gets a +1 on initiative ─ +2 if you are considered the leader.
Enhanced Defenses**
Fit*
Rodian
(Enhanced Dodge**): +1 Dodge. (Enhanced Parry**): +1 Parry for all melee skills OR for one melee skill. (Enhanced Block**): +1 Block for either Shield or Cloak.
(Fit*): +1 to all HT rolls that aren’t skills or the HT check itself, which includes avoiding death, stay conscious, etc. You also recover FP at twice the normal rate.
Draethos Exile (Fit)
(Very Fit*): As above, but the bonus to HT rolls is +2. In addition, you lose FP at only half the normal rate.
Feeorin (Very Fit)
53
+25 per lv
58
+25
43
+15
51
+15 for Dodge +10 for all Parry +5 for one Parry or Block
55
+15 for Very Fit +5 for Fit
High Pain Threshold**
You never suffer a shock penalty when injured. You also get +3 on HT rolls to avoid knockdown or stunning. If you are tortured physically, you get a +3 to resist. You may also get to roll against your Will+3 to ignore pain in other situations.
Arm ST*
You can dedicate CPs to extra ST for purely arm-related uses; it does not affect HP or Basic Lift. If a task requires you to use multiple arms and they don’t all have the same ST, use the average. Arm tasks include making melee and throwing attacks. Discounts for Size Modifiers can be used.
40
Ambidexterity
You never suffer the -4 DX penalty for using the off-hand.
39
+5
79
+5
Rapier Wit**
You can use witty repartee to stun your foes in combat. Roll Public Speaking vs your opponent’s Will. -1 per opponent beyond the first to affect a group (you must know something the entire group has in common so you can taunt them with it!). If you win, your opponent is mentally stunned. A critical success causes 1 HP damage (drops something on their foot, bring their head up suddenly and hit something, etc.). If you lose, there’s no effect. Crit failures are for the GM to decide!
59
Ayrou
+10
+8 for 3 arms +5 for 2 arms +3 for 1 arm
Hard to Kill*
Hard to Subdue*
-
Each level of this advantage gives +1 to HT rolls made for survival at -1xHP or below and on any roll where failure means instant death (poison, etc.). If this bonus means the difference between success and failure, you collapse, apparently dead, but come to in the usual amount of time. A successful Diagnosis roll reveals the truth. This can fool your enemy into thinking you’re actually dead... but your allies might not be able to tell either!
Each level of this advantage gives a +1 to any HT roll to avoid unconsciousness – whether as a result of injury, drugs, or stun guns – and to resist Force abilities that cause unconsciousness.
58
+2 per lv
59
+2 per lv
Page
CP cost
Table 2: Utility and Skills
Name
Race(s)
Descriptionᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚᅚ You are an inventor; it’s easy for you to design cool gadgets even at TL levels higher than your own. You need money and equipment to do your work, and it might take several days or months to put what you want together. To make a concept, describe it to the GM and he will tell you what skill you have to roll against (you must be trained in it to have any success). Next, the GM will arbitrarily assign a ‘complexity level’ of the invention. Use the following table for inspiration: Complexity
Gadgeteer**
Req. Skill Level
Time (min
Price (in
1 day)
credits)
Simple 14 or less 1d-2, day Up to 225 Average 15-17 2d, day Up to 2,250 Complex 18-20 1d, mon. Up to 22,500 Amazing 21+ 3d, mon. 22,500+ Now the GM will make a ‘concept’ roll against the skill chosen earlier. There’s no penalty if it’s simple, but you have a -2 penalty if it’s average, -4 if complex, or -8 if it’s amazing. +5 if you have a working model you’re trying to copy, or +2 if it exists but you don’t have it with you. +1 to +5 if the item is a variant on an existing one. You can attempt to make inventions of a higher TL at a -5 penalty per level above your own, and the price also doubles per level. If you fail, nothing happens and you may try again the next day with no additional penalty. Success means you go to the next step. Critical failure means you go to the next step and will fail on every attempt until you get a critical success, at which point you may make the concept roll again. If you made it to the next step you must pay the appropriate costs, then the GM secretly makes another roll against your previously mentioned skill with the same modifiers, but at a 1 to -10 if he believes you’re using anything less than the best tools available to make the prototype. If you fail, divide the cost by 10 and pay that in order to attempt the roll again. Critical failure inflicts 2d damage and the next attempt is at full price. If you succeed, congratulations! (Quick Gadgeteer): Scrounged parts, not money; concept takes 1d mins; simple gadget is 2d minutes of assembly, average is 1d-2 hours, complex 1d hours, amazing 4d hours.
+50 for Quick 475, 57
+25 for normal
Arm DX*
Daredevil
Empathy
You can dedicate CPs to extra DX for purely arm-related uses; it does not affect Basic Speed. If a task requires you to use multiple arms and they don’t all have the same DX, use the lowest. Arm tasks include using firearms while remaining stationary along with anything requiring fine manipulation. Combat or DX based skills that require moving the body do not benefit from this.
40
Any time you take an unnecessary risk (in the GM’s opinion), you get a +1 to all skill rolls. Furthermore, you may reroll any critical failure that occurs during such high risk behavior. For example, this advantage would not grant any bonuses if you ducked behind a wall to take cover from gunfire, but it would if you barreled over the wall screaming at the top of your lungs as you charged the gunmen with your fists!
47
(Sensitive): When you first meet someone, or are reunited after an absence, you may ask the GM to roll against your IQ-3. He will tell you what you ‘feel’ about that person. If you failed, you will have misread the person, but you won’t know that. +1 to Detect Lies and Psychology.
+16 for two arms +12 for one arm
+15
+15 for Empathy Zeltron (Empathy)
51 +5 for Sensitive
(Empathy): As above, but +3 bonuses to Detect Lies and Psychology instead of +1. Roll at full IQ instead of at -3.
Flexibility
(Flexibility): +3 on Climbing, Escape (to escape bindings), and Erotic Art. You may ignore -3 in penalties for working in close-quarters (e.g. fighting someone in the same space as you). (Double-Jointed): As above, but +5 to those skills. You ignore -5 in penalties for close-quarters.
Ayrou (DoubleJointed) Blood Carver (DoubleJointed)
+15 for DoubleJointed 56 +5 for Flexibility
Gados (DoubleJointed, no Erotic Art)
A level in any of the following (there are more in the book) grants +1 to every skill that it governs: (Business Acumen**): Accounting, Administration, Economics, Finance, Gambling, Market Analysis, Merchant and Propaganda; reaction bonus from people you deal with. (Healer**): Diagnosis, Esoteric Medicine, First Aid, Pharmacy, Physician, Physiology, Psychology, Surgery and Veterinary; reaction bonus from patients, past and present. Talent** (Mathematical Ability**): Accounting, Astronomy, Cryptography, Engineer, Finance, Market Analysis, Mathematics and Physics; reaction bonus from engineers and scientists. (Smooth Operator**): Acting, Carousing, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Intimidation, Leadership, Panhandling, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal and Streetwise; reaction bonus from con artists, politicians, etc. -but only if you are not trying to manipulate them.
Adarian (Business Acumen+1) Neimoidian (Business Acumen+1) Zeltron (Smooth Operator+1)
+15 for Smooth Operator
89-91
+10 for groups of 7-12 skills +5 for groups of 6 or lower
Absolute Direction*
(Absolute Direction*): You always know which way is north and you can always retrace a path you followed within the past month, no matter how faint or confusing. This doesn’t work in interstellar space, but it does work underground, underwater, and on other planets. +3 to Body Sense and Navigation (Air, Land or Sea).
Sullustan (3D Spatial Sense)
+10 for 3D Spatial Sense 34 +5 for Absolute Direction
(3D Spatial Sense**): As above, but works in three dimensions. This ability is useful in deep space. In addition to the bonus from above, you get +1 Piloting and +2 to Aerobatics, Free Fall, and Navigation (Hyperspace or Space)
(Eidetic Memory): You automatically remember the general sense of everything you concentrate on, and can recall specific details by making an IQ roll. However, it gives a +5 bonus whenever the GM requires an IQ roll for learning. Eidetic Memory
Voice*
(Photographic Memory): As above, but you automatically recall specific details, too. Any time you, the player forget a detail your character has seen, the GM or other players must remind you – truthfully! This trait affects recall, not comprehension, so it does not benefit skills. +10 bonus for learning.
You have a naturally clear, resonant, and attractive voice. +2 Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Mimicry, Performance, Politics, Public Speaking, Sex Appeal, Singing, and on reaction rolls from anyone who can hear your voice.
Brachiator*
You can travel by swinging on vines, tree branches, ropes, chandeliers, etc. You can move at half your Basic Move while brachiating. +2 Climbing
High Manual Dexterity
Each level (max 4) of this advantage gives +1 to DX for tasks that require fine, delicate touch. This includes all DX-based rolls against Artist, Jeweler, Knot-Tying, Leatherworking, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Sewing, Sleight of Hand, Surgery, as well as DX-based rolls to do fine work on Machinist or Mechanic (e.g. clockwork). This doesn’t apply to IQ-based tasks or large scale DX-based tasks, nor does it apply to combat related die rolls of any kind.
Lightning Calculator
(Lightning Calculator): You, the player, may use a calculator at any time to figure anything you want – even if your character is fleeing for his life! For most math-related things that could be solved using a calculator, the GM will assume that your character instantly knows the answer.
+10 for Photographic Memory
Caamasi (Eidetic Memory) 51 Jenet (Eidetic Memory)
+5 for Eidetic Memory
Bimm
97
+10
Wookiee
41
+5
59
+5 per lv
66
+5 for Intuitive Mathematician
Adnerem (+1) Bith (+1) Rodian (+1)
(Intuitive Mathematician): As above, but your ability is not limited to arithmetic. You can perform astrogation without a computer, do any level of engineering design in your head, and solve differential equations almost instantaneously.
Single-Minded*
+3 to skill rolls that you concentrate on to the exclusion of other activities, if the GM believes that concentration would help. If it already would have required your undivided attention (e.g. inventing), this provides no benefit.
+2 for Lightning Calculator
85
+5
Versatile*
You get a +1 bonus on any task that requires creativity or invention, including most rolls against Artist skills, all Engineer rolls for new inventions, and all skill rolls made to use the Gadgeteer advantage.
96
+5
35
+2 per lv
55
+2 per lv
71
+2 per lv
Adarian (Hearing+2, Vision+2)
Each acute sense is a separate advantage that gives +1 per level to its respective Sense roll: (Hearing): You are more capable of hearing faint sounds, such as the safety of a gun being switched off in the dark.
Acute Senses
(Taste & Smell): You are more capable of recognizing subtle tastes or smells, such as poison in your drink. (Touch): You can get more precise information by touch, such as being able to tell if you’re being pickpocketed. (Vision): You have a sharper eye for very fine details, such as looking for traps or noticing a flawed replica.
Arcona (Hearing+2, Taste & Smell+2) Balosar (Hearing+4) Baragwin (Taste & Smell+4) Bith (Taste & Smell+1) Cathar (Hearing+2, Taste & Smell+1) Chadra-Fan (Taste & Smell+3) Sullustan (Hearing+2) Vuvrian (Touch+4)
Fearlessness**
Add your level of this advantage to your Will any time you must make a Fright check. Subtract your level of this advantage from Intimidation rolls made against you.
Bith (+5)
Exiled Draethos (+1) Quarren (+4)
Night Vision*
Each level of this advantage (max 9) allows you to ignore -1 in combat or vision penalties due to darkness, provided there is at least some light. Regardless of level, this advantage has no effect on the -10 penalty for total darkness.
Feeorin (+2) Twi’lek (+1) Jenet (+1) Sullustan (+5) Jawa (+1)
-
Section 1, Table 3: Social Reactions Having above average appearance is an advantage. Below average would be a disadvantage. For these bonuses to have any effect, you must be visible.
+16 for Very
(Somewhat Attractive): +1 on reaction rolls. Appearance
(Quite Attractive): +4 for people attracted to your sex, +2 on reactions otherwise.
Ayrou (Somewhat)
21
Zeltron (Quite)
+12 for Quite +4 for
(Very Attractive): +6 for people attracted to your sex, +2 otherwise. For those not attracted to your sex that also have reason to dislike you, they resent your good looks and react at -2 instead.
Somewhat
Claim to Hospitality
You belong to a social group that encourages its members to assist one another. When you are away from home, you may call on other members of this group for food, shelter, and basic aid. Members of the group are friendly to each other (+3 reactions) and may provide advice, introductions, and small loans, if asked.
41
+1-10, depends on how big the group is
Charisma*
Per level of this advantage, you get +1 on all reaction rolls made by sapient beings with whom you actively interact; +1 to Influence rolls; and +1 to Leadership, Panhandling, and Public Speaking skills. This may not affect those with vastly different social understanding than yours (e.g. Vratix).
41
+5 per lv
21
+5
22
+5
86
+5
Fashion Sense**
You get +1 to reaction rolls when you have a chance to plan your attire in advance. You can also give someone else a +1 bonus when you put together the outfit.
Pitiable
You get +3 on all reaction rolls from those who consider you to be in a position of helplessness, weakness, or need. This does not affect those with the Callous disadvantage.
Social Chameleon
-
You are exempt from reaction penalties due to differences in Rank or Status. In situations where there would be no such penalty, you get +1 on reactions from those who demand respect (priests, kings, etc.).
Togruta (+10)
Twi’lek (+1) Vuvrian (+2) Zeltron (+2)
Neimoidian
Section 1, Table 4: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Signature Gear
You have distinctive, valuable possessions unrelated to your wealth level. This gear is as much a part of your personal legend as are your reputation and skills. You must explain where it came from: you won your starship in a card game, inherited your droid from your father, etc. The more powerful it is, the more points it’s worth and the more ridiculous your explanation should be.
+??? 85 GM decides
You can function under a wider range of gravities. Without this advantage, your “G-Increment” is every 0.2 difference in gravity magnitude: if your home gravity is 1.0G then your tolerance is 0.8G to 1.2G, at which point you would gain a GIncrement. You can increase this 0.2 difference by putting points in this advantage, thereby widening your tolerance threshold. This comes in several levels:
Improved GTolerance*
(10.0G difference) (5.0G difference) (1.0G difference) (0.5G difference**) (0.3G difference*)
+25 for 10.0G +20 for 5.0G
60
+15 for 1.0G +10 for 0.5G
A -1 penalty applies to IQ and HT for every two G-Increments higher your environment is as compared to your home gravity. A -1 to DX applies for every two G-Increment difference, but this does not apply to DX-based skills that have only manual components (Lockpicking, etc.) and do not have anything to do with judging ballistic trajectories (i.e. Beam Weapons is not affected, but Melee Weapons and Guns would be). It affects everything else, such as Acrobatics, normally.
+5 for 0.3G
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
Danger Sense
Indomitable
If you have this advantage, the GM rolls once against your Per, secretly, in any situation involving an ambush, impending disaster, or similar hazard. On a success, your character knows that something’s up but has no idea what the actual problem is, and won’t be able to provide any detail as to what’s wrong to the party; but you at least get enough of a warning that you can take action. On a critical success, you can get a very minor clue. Make sure you save the game if this happens.
You are impossible to influence through ordinary words or actions. Those who wish to use Influence skills on you must possess the Empathy advantage. Everyone else – however convincing – fails automatically.
47
+15
60
+15
43
+10
Any time you start to do something that the GM feels is
Common Sense**
STUPID he will roll against your IQ. A successful roll means he must warn you: “Hadn’t you better think about that?” The GM may decide that you have this advantage at any point if your character is being jeopardized by you, the player.
G-Experience*
You suffer only half the DX penalty for different gravity. In situations where low gravity would make a task easier, you roll at full DX, plus the bonus for low gravity, plus an extra +1. For instance, if a normal person would get +2 to catch a ball in low gravity, you would get +3.
+10 for all gravities 57 +1 for one field of gravity
Less Sleep*
Each level of this advantage reduces the amount of sleep you need by one hour, down to 4 hours per night.
Feeorin (+1)
65
+2 per lv
(Reduced Consumption 1*): You require 2/3 as much food and water. (Reduced Consumption 2): You require 1/3 as much food and water. (Reduced Consumption 3): You require 1/20 as much food and water. Reduced Consumption**
(Reduced Consumption 4): You require 1/100 as much food and water.
+2 per lv for normal Hutt (Cast-Iron Stomach 2)
80 +1 per lv for CastIron
(Cast-Iron Stomach 1*): You only require your food to be 2/3 of the standard quality. +1 to resist food-borne poisons and diseases. -3 on reactions from anyone watching you eat. (Cast-Iron Stomach 2): As above. 1/3 quality. +2 to resist. (Cast-Iron Stomach 3): As above. 1/20 quality. +3 to resist. (Cast-Iron Stomach 4): As above. 1/100 quality. +4 to resist.
Temperature Tolerance*
Each level of this advantage adds your HT to your “comfort zone” width. For example, a normal human the zone width is 55o wide and falls between 35o and 90o, though for nonhumans this range can start and end anywhere as long as the width is 55o. This extension can be distributed in any way you wish between the high and low ends of the zone.
93
+1 per lv
The advantages not listed here are in the Basic Set Rulebook. Many of the advantages for each race listed in STEP 1 are not listed in this guide, so you will need to look there to find those. I was going to at least list all of them, but for the sake of time in getting this finished I will not be bothering with it.
STEP FOUR: TAKE DISADVANTAGES These are my favorite part of the game. Unfortunately, I can’t go into too much depth about them due to time constraints. There are so many viable disadvantages you can take in this campaign that it would be a painstaking effort to try to list, categorize, and summarize every single one of them. You would be much better off looking through the book yourself and picking ones that you like. What’s so cool about disadvantages, you ask? Because they make you stronger, albeit indirectly. The total CP pool that you are trying to meet for character creation can be lowered by taking disadvantages, thus allowing you to further improve your attributes and specialties. Say that you take 68 CPs of attributes, skill training, and advantages. Your CP limit is 75, so that means you have 7 points left to spend. If you were to take Bad Smell, a -10 CP disadvantage, your character would smell really funky but they would also have 17 CPs to spend instead of 7! It’s a really simple concept. What’s less simple is picking disadvantages that will be fun for you (and hopefully everyone else too). It’s tempting to take Blindness, a -50 CP disadvantage, but it would hinder you and your party so much that it likely would end up getting you into more trouble and unfun situations than even an extra 50 CPs would be worth. It can also be tempting to not take any disadvantages. While this is certainly something you can do, it wouldn’t be as much fun as it would be to do otherwise. It would also mean you wouldn’t get as much CPs to spend! Disadvantages are what keep your character interesting and fun to play. Many powerful characters from other stories have plenty of disadvantages that they have to adhere to, but they are all very interesting as a result. If your powerful character had no disadvantages, you would be playing a neutrally aligned first-edition bard. First-edition bards are very powerful, but overall lack character depth since they can do pretty much anything they want. Tack that on with having a neutral alignment, and soon you’ll find yourself completely unstoppable since you have nothing that keeps you from doing things with a healthy amount of risk. Playing a character like that might be interesting for the first couple of sessions, but at some point you’ll realize that no matter how much you roll the dice, the outcome isn’t affecting you. You’ll get bored, to say the least. Other versions of D&D punish you by putting you at risk for doing anything that is considered less than the “standard.” Essentially, this means that you’re being punished for
wanting to be different. In GURPS, you get rewarded for trying to keep yourself from being a generic first-edition bard through the benefits provided by taking disadvantages. It rewards you for trying to play an interesting character. I’d rather play a delusional, armless, blind, deaf, quadriplegic, terminally-ill krayt dragon over a bard that turns himself into a fully functional dragon on a whim. I wouldn’t necessarily want to be that krayt dragon, but I would find him a much more interesting character to play. Find what works for you; this system is perfectly capable of fulfilling your wildest dreams of being the most talented sentient fish tank that you could have ever hoped to be.
STEP FIVE: CHOOSE SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES There are a lot of choices to make here, and all of them are terribly confusing. I can’t tell you how to make your character correctly because that’s not something I can really define for you. What I can do, however, is tell you how to build your character efficiently. First, you need to understand what skills are and just how much of the game they have control over. Everything that your character does has a skill for it; there are so goddamn many of them that I can’t even begin to list them like I’ve been listing everything else in this guide. You should just assume that if you can feasibly do something, there’s a skill tailored expressly for that. There are lots of combat skills and other roguish-type skills, but there are also skills that let your character design and engineer deadly machines or works of art; and possibly deadly works of art. There are entire skills dedicated to all forms of politics and typewriter usages, too. Pretty much everything is a skill. Earlier, I described how a 3d6 system differs from a d20 system. This is very important for skills, as more than 80% of your rolls are going to be skill checks. The bell-curve probability chart shows you just how valuable it can be to improve your skills, but also demonstrates diminishing returns. I’ll put the corresponding table here again just for convenience:
So, what is a “skill level”? It’s a measure of your character’s competence when it comes to whatever the particular field of skill they’re working in. Every skill has a relevant attribute that determines the base value of the skill. The largest categories of skills fall under IQ and DX, but the rest of the attributes govern some skills of their own as well. Essentially, your score in the relevant base attribute is what helps or hinders how you can perform the skill before any training is considered. Your training in a skill comes from however many points you’ve spent on it in order to raise the modifier of the skill. Each skill has a predetermined difficulty that defines where on this table your costs begin to ramp up. The first “rank” of a skill always costs 1 CP, and depending on the difficulty of the skill, the modifier will determine your skill level.
Imagine that I need to make an Acrobatics check, which is a Hard DX-based skill. If my DX is 12 and I have 1 CP in the Acrobatics skill, my skill rank would be 1, but my skill level would be -2. This is because the first rank of any Hard skill puts your skill level at Attribute-2, as demonstrated by the table above. Now that I know my skill level, I apply this to the base attribute, which would be my 12 DX: 12 minus 2 is 10, and this number is my Base Skill. In order to succeed the check I would need to roll a 10 or lower. Some advantages and disadvantages can indirectly affect your Base Skill by adding a bonus or a penalty to your skill level. If I had the Perfect Balance advantage I would get a +1 to my Acrobatics skill level, thereby increasing it from -2 to -1. As a result, my Base Skill would total to 11. Your Base Skill is what you roll against when there are no situational modifiers applying to it. If there is a situational modifier, then you would then roll against your Effective Skill. Effective Skill is simply your Base Skill with the new modifier applied to it, so if I’m getting a +2 bonus to my Acrobatics check because I’m simply trying to do a somersault then this is a good thing. The bonus is added to my Base Skill, and this sum results in my Effective Skill being 13 instead of the usual 11. Now I only need to roll below a 13 instead of an 11, which means my likelihood of success jumped from 62.5% to 83.8%. If I were instead given a -2 penalty, my Effective Skill would be 9 instead, and this lowers my success rate down to 37.5%. Remember, the situational modifier is never applied to the actual roll you make; it only affects the target number. A positive modifier is always a good thing.
If I wanted to get to the second skill rank, I would need to buy the first one beforehand. This means I would have to spend 3 CPs on the skill in total in order to get to it without already having the first one. The third skill rank would require a total of 7 CPs in the skill if I was previously untrained in it. If I already had the first skill rank however, I would need to pay the cost for the next one, which is 2 CPs. In the end, this means I still had to pay 3 CPs on the skill in total anyways. What this means is that advancement to other skill ranks must be done in order; if you had anything at rank five you must’ve already dedicated at least 27 CPs to it. 27 CPs just for five ranks? In just one skill? That seems a bit overkill if you wanted a good chance of success at a decent number of skills. However, if you wanted to have quite a variety of skills, there are still plenty of options for you. If you wanted a lot of IQ based skills, then it might just cost less overall to buy a point of IQ so that you can upgrade your Base Skill for all of them at the same time. Since there are so many IQ based skills, upgrading the attribute directly can be very worth it despite the cost of 20 CPs per point; it’s a better idea to spend 20 CPs on a single point of IQ to raise the Base Skill of 50+ different skills than it would be to spend points upgrading each one separately. However, this doesn’t make training your skills entirely worthless either. If you are not trained in a skill at all, then you must use whatever the Default Skill Rank happens to be for that skill whenever you must make a check for it. The Default Skill Rank for any skill usually carries a penalty around -5, which is a lot. If you plan to get a variety of skills, it’s worth spending just a single CP on each one in order to get the first rank of a skill and avoid needing to use the Default Skill Rank so that you can have a good chance to succeed in any of them. For characters that only require a few skills, then buying ranks past the first for any given skill can be quite worth it; especially if they all have different base attributes. In this case, it wouldn’t be worth it to buy attribute points just to upgrade skills until those skills are around rank five or six. These kinds of characters would typically want to focus on attribute points (particularly HT) for their many non-skill related benefits. In reality, it comes down to what you think you want your character to do. There are a lot of possibilities here, but I’m going to try to list as many as I can and hope that at least one of them can fit the archetype you want your character to fulfill: -
Brainiac
This archetype fits the role of the “brains of the group.” It involves thinly spreading CPs across many IQ-based skills, then pumping IQ up to a level that nearly guarantees the success of any IQ-based skill check should the need for it arise. This path is very versatile and can easily cover a lot of ground, but it severely lacks the ability to be competent in combat situations. This can paint an enormous target on the Brainiac’s back since they are not only an easy target, but a valuable one too. The Pacifist disadvantage is a good choice for this kind character. To make a Brainiac, first go through the book and find every single skill that you think will be useful. Don’t worry about your CPs just yet, just find everything that you might want. When you think you’re finished, count them up and separate them into groups based on the skill’s
difficulty. Your goal is to get most of these skills up to at least 13 Base Skill, and all Easy ones must be at 14. Skills that are Very Hard could stand to be at 12, but if you have the CPs to get them higher then you should do that. To get a Very Hard skill at rank one up to 13, you ideally would need 16 IQ; this totals to 120 CPs for the IQ alone. To remedy this, count up all of your Very Hard skills and bring them to rank two, and get your IQ to 15. If you still can’t afford an IQ of 15, then consider focusing less on Very Hard skills or taking a few more disadvantages. A Brainiac should have at least 14 IQ. To help pay for IQ, consider putting your ST and DX at 9 each. You might also consider taking more out of DX for better results, but you also take away a few of your DX based skill options by doing this. This isn’t that big of a deal since you already encompass a very wide variety of skills thanks to your IQ, so I recommend putting it lower if you really cannot afford to take any more disadvantages than you have likely already taken. Going for a jack-of-all-trades DX/IQ hybrid sort of character is very viable, but also gets extremely expensive without giving all that much back when considering the cost. Kevin’s Jawa character is a great example of a Brainiac, and is put to fantastic use alongside the Quick Gadgeteer advantage. There are probably even more great synergies with being a Brainiac out there, too. -
Brawler
This archetype fits the role of the “brawn of the group.” It involves heavy focus on one or two weapon skills alongside ST and HT. In some cases, a Brawler can double as the leader and “looks” of the group, but this would be more befitting of a Commander (which is the archetype after this). A Brawler is a very combat oriented kind of character, and this may not be appropriate for the kind of campaign we’re doing; especially since this character is fairly meleebased. Simply put, the way to build this kind of character would be to choose a melee weapon skill, preferably one that’s common (you can find your fists almost all of the time!), and start pumping ST like it’s nobody’s business. Ideally, you would want to get your ST to at least 19 but this could be inefficient if you don’t think you’ll be doing any heavy lifting for an extended period of time (at this TL almost everything is pretty light). 14 or 15 ST should suffice, but also make sure to grab several levels of the Striking ST advantage until your effective ST for melee combat reaches 19 or so. If you plan on having something you can use to swing with on you and think you can afford it, go for 21 effective melee ST. You need HT. How much you think you’ll need is up to you; I recommend at least 14. You need this for several reasons, but the most important one is so that you don’t end up dying within the first combat encounter. An HT of 14 also has the benefit of increasing your Basic Speed by 1, which means you’ll also improve your Basic Move and Dodge. Along with this, take Hard to Kill of level 2 or more and the Very Fit advantage (or just normal Fit if you prefer). You are going to spend a lot of time with your HP below zero whether you like it or not, regardless of how much HP you had initially. You’ll lose a lot of FP if you are actively in hand-to-hand combat, but Very Fit should prevent any shortage of it. High Pain Threshold is also very useful.
When considering how to get more CPs to spend, try to leave DX untouched. You’ll need this for a lot of combat related rolls. You’ll also need it for your weapon skills, but you’ll be bringing those up to around rank four or five since those are the only ones you’ll ever need; the DX still comes in handy though. If you’re going to lower a stat, take it out of IQ. I think you’ll find that you have very little need for it if you play this character right. -
Commander
This archetype fits the role of the leader and “face of the group.” This is a very general concept that’s open to a lot of interpretation, but the main idea is for this character to do most of the talking. This character also needs Combat Reflexes, as it has a useful benefit for the entire party if whoever is considered the “leader” has it. My recommendation is to try an overall general build, specializing in skills as you see fit. HT is the most important attribute by far. You don’t necessarily have to be friendly or charismatic to be the leader, you just have to be the one that’s making the big decisions. This archetype could easily be combined with the other ones listed here. A ranged skill build with other things that increase overall survivability would mesh well for this. Logan’s character definitely fills this role pretty well. So does Han Solo, but he is more of a Scout (you’ll see this later). -
“Fight then Flight”-er (Flighter)
This archetype is similar to the Brawler’s, except it has very little to do with ST. It focuses heavily on DX and versatile mobility options for combat. Another advantage this archetype has over Brawler is that it’s a lot more useful outside of combat since all of that extra DX covers a good amount of skills. It combines the combat prowess of a Brawler with the utility function of a Brainiac, which makes this character a valuable asset. It doesn’t entirely replace them either however; this archetype covers no IQ based skills and has very low survivability if struck. Unlike the Brainiac, this type of character does not have skills as their first priority. Combat is a very important aspect of this character, and the reason why this character is so good at it is because it doesn’t need to put itself at risk. A Flighter stays out of sight and/or out of reach, but still contributes to combat with ranged damage and positional advantage. Skills like Acrobatics, Climbing, Jumping, and Stealth let this character get to places that would otherwise be very dangerous to navigate to, then take advantage of this position to ambush the enemy and cause disarray. Once seen, the Flighter takes flight and tricks the enemy into following them to an even worse position for them since the Flighter can take advantage of its mobility options to navigate terrain that would be impossible for someone without training to do. If they don’t follow the Flighter, then they continue to get shot at from an angle that they can’t defend against, leaving the enemy in a predicament that can only end badly for them. If the Flighter comes under heavy fire, active defense maneuvers combined with Acrobatic Dodges allow it to escape any pressure it comes under; it also diverts such heavy fire away from the rest of the party. A Flighter is tricky to deal with and even trickier to play, but it can provide a lot of combat utility to the party.
The risk a Flighter carries is that if it is struck, shock from the blow will apply a penalty to DX that might endanger them. Being at low HP also applies penalties to Dodge and Basic Move, which further limits their mobility. Because of this, a Flighter should avoid risk whenever it is possible. A Flighter can respond to any danger with evasive action and can solve a conflict without any direct head-to-head combat; usually done through indirect knife-to-back means. To build a Flighter you need a good amount of DX, I recommend around 13. You don’t need as many points in your main attribute as some other character types since you aren’t as skill oriented as a Brainiac and not a big enough target to warrant getting a bunch of survivability attributes. The DX just provides a good baseline to start your skills from while also contributing to your Basic Speed. Most of your utility comes from your advantages however, like Flexibility. Many advantages that provide mobility options can only be justified by the race that you pick; a Gados would be a perfect fit for this role. Between your advantages and your bought DX, most of your CPs will have been used up. Spend about 15 CPs worth of whatever’s left on mobility skills and a weapon skill of your choice, preferably a middle to long ranged beam weapon. After this, spend CPs on HT if you can afford it. Try to at least get HT to 11 so that your Basic Speed reaches 6. This is what my character is. -
Jedi
I don’t know what you’re supposed to do, exactly. The universally recommended option is to just pump everything into HT and then pick whatever you want. Pick skills that are appropriate for your backstory and at least one weapon that you’ll have access to (i.e. not lightsabers). I can’t be of any more help, just like… follow the Jedi way and be the source of galaxy-wide suffering or something. Figure it out. -
Scout
This archetype fits the role of “the eyes and ears of the group.” In other RPGs, this would essentially be the thief. Scouts are very reliant on IQ since a lot of skills they need (Fast-Talk, Streetwise, and Urban Survival just to name a few) are IQ based. They require a few DX based skills too, but not enough to warrant putting points into straight into DX; it’s better to just buy skill ranks for those. This type of character is rather similar to a Brainiac except it focuses more on guile and manipulation rather than booksmarts and craftiness. A Scout doesn’t need nearly as much IQ as a Brainiac would, but still needs a significant amount; 13 should suffice. It would be better to have more, but you still need to have a few points to use on HT and non-IQ-based skills. Advantages that improve social reactions would do well for a character like this (Appearance and Voice are good ones). The Smooth Operator talent works well, too. As far as combat goes, one ranged weapon skill and a good bit of HT should be all you need. A good Scout wouldn’t always have to resort to violence, though. Han Solo is a great example of a Scout/Commander. A Zeltron would be the ideal Scout.
If you didn’t like any of those character types, then here’s some general advice on making your character: -
If you want lots of skills that are based off of the same attribute, it may be more cost effective to just upgrade the attribute directly.
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If you wanted around 5 or 6 different skills, it is probably a better idea to just upgrade their ranks directly until it just becomes more cost effective to buy their attributes. If they are mostly based off of different attributes, then you might need to upgrade their ranks a lot before their attribute would be of any help.
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Go to the actual book and read what each skill does, then go to the advantages section and look at the Talent advantage. Each talent encompasses a wide variety of skills that can all be bought at the same time for a cost that doesn’t scale. Some of the preset groups of skills they mention might be very cost effective for you.
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When in doubt, just buy HT.
This is how your skills should be organized. For more information on how to do operate this interface, see STEP 2.
STEP SIX: ANALYZE YOUR CHARACTER Now that you’ve made some pointless decisions, go back to the beginning and start this entire guide over. You are going to make your character from scratch again. Why? Because when you made it, you didn’t know how to make a character. Now that you do, go and make it right this time. Before you do that, go and read through the actual book’s advantages, disadvantages, and skills. Make sure you know what all of your options are before you make any decisions about what you want to go in your character. If you didn’t already know what you wanted to make, you do now. Once you’re done reading that, go through the steps in no particular order. Make your character in whatever way that you want. Forget everything that I said about “character archetypes” a little while ago; they are not character templates. They were there to give you an idea of what kind of things you could do with the system. They are by no means all of the possibilities, and I encourage you to figure something out on your own. STEP 6 is short, but it requires the most reading out of any step. Come back to STEP 7 when you think you’ve got a solid character put together.
STEP SEVEN: LEARN THE GAME I don’t know what to put here because I haven’t learned this game yet myself. I’ve only glanced at section two of the Basic Set, and it does a much better job of explaining the more advanced parts of the game than I could ever do. This is pretty much the section where I store any non-character creation trivia about the game that I could put together from the first section of the Basic Set, which is pretty much just whatever I decided I would leave for later from the introduction of this guide. This is going to be a lot shorter than it ought to be, but I am just not well equipped enough to provide any other decent information. -
Death, Dying and Negative HP
When your current HP drops below one of the milestones listed below (relative to your base HP), several things may happen: 1/3rd HP: Halve your Basic Move and Dodge. Basic Speed is not affected. 0 HP or less: When your turn starts, make an HT check at a -1 for every full multiple of your base HP that you are below 0 by. If your HP is 10, you would have a -1 penalty at -10 HP, a -2 penalty at -20, and so on. If you succeed, you may act normally but must make this roll again at every turn (unless you choose to do nothing) until you fail the check or your HP becomes 1 or higher. Failing the check means that you fall unconscious. -1xHP or less: Immediately make an HT check or die. Failure by a margin of 2 or less means you’re dying, but not dead. You do not have to make this roll again until your HP drops down another negative multiple of your base health. You’re still conscious if you still have not failed an HT check, but you must keep making those checks at a -1 penalty as per the above description. -5xHP or less: You die. -10xHP or less: Killed in whatever spectacular and gore-drenched fashion the player or GM cares to describe.
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Rolling a Critical
Your critical range always includes a roll of 3 for success and a roll of 18 for failure, no matter what it is that you’re doing or how good you are at it. 4 and 17 are also criticals, but they sometimes just mean a regular (but always guaranteed) success or failure regardless of skill. 5 and 6 can also be critical successes if the rollers effective skill (or target number) that they’re rolling against is 15 or 16+, which can be thought of as 10 degrees of success or more despite that the maximum roll for critical success is 6. Critical failure has no such limit; failure by 10 degrees or more is always a critical failure (unless it’s a 3 or 4, in which case it’s actually a critical success despite all odds!). If the effective skill is 6, critical failure occurs on a roll of 16 or higher instead of on just 17 and 18. At 5 effective skill, this range becomes 15 or higher. This goes all the way down to -15 effective skill, where every roll but a 3 or 4 is a critical failure. If the only way to make or fail a particular check would be to roll a critical, then some special rules apply. When the roller’s target number is 16 or higher a roll of 17 is not a critical failure, just a normal failure. It doesn’t matter how high their skill is, a 17 always fails. It’s not a spectacular failure though, that’s what their high amount of skill helped to avoid. Likewise, when the roller’s target number is 4 or below, a roll of 4 is just a normal success, and can sometimes be described as just barely scraping by; some fluke completely outside the control of the character was the reason success was possible at all. There’s always some kind of reward for rolling a 3 or a 4, it’s not just something like “the bomb didn’t explode in your face, try again.” A roll of 4 succeeds; something good always happens on a success. A response like that would be more appropriate for someone who rolled a 17 when their effective skill was 16 or higher. If the expert with 16 or higher effective skill had rolled an 18 however, then that bomb definitely explodes. Against all odds, most likely as a result of something that is completely beyond their control, the worst possible scenario occurs. Even if what they were dealing with had nothing to do with bombs, something is going to explode in their face. Something very bad always occurs on a roll of 18. The GM should not be afraid to be absolutely ruthless about the result; this is not the standard critical failure that you would see on a roll of 1 on a d20, which has a 5% chance of occurring on every roll. An 18 occurs once every 200 rolls on average, or 0.5% of the time. Death would not be out of the question! If an 18 happens on a roll to parry, block, or dodge, then the defender might have to roll for unconsciousness or even death despite what HP they were at. That’s what happens on an 18 for anybody, but critical failures on other rolls aren’t nearly as bad. They’re still pretty bad (something bad should always happen), but usually this roll is your typical “natural 1” on a d20: you pull a muscle; drop your weapon, etc. It’s a result that can turn the tide of a battle, but never something that decides it (that’s what an 18 is supposed to do!). Remember that a critical failure is different from a normal failure and that a normal failure is different from a critical one. This may seem redundant, but a normal failure should never be any more complex than “it doesn’t work.” That’s the worst thing that a normal failure can ever do. A critical failure must be more than that, but not quite to the extent that a roll
of 18 can do. The GM will figure it out! Someone that critically failed their defense might be at a penalty to attack the next turn, or maybe they fell over! If a critical failure is made for an attack roll, take a look at page 556 of the Basic Set… You get to roll to determine the effect! Similarly, a critical success is a normal success, but it also has some other bonus effect. On a check for a skill such as Engineer, a critical success might mean that the design is especially efficient and requires fewer resources to build or maintain. For a defense roll, you might be able to dodge into an advantageous position that gives you a +2 to hit on your next turn or +2 to defend against any other attacks made against you that turn. For a critical attack roll (critical hit) your opponent doesn’t even get a chance to defend against it, so you automatically hit them. You also get to roll again for any of the effects listed on page 556 of the Basic Set; one such effect is doing triple damage! A roll of 3 is the best case scenario, no matter who you are or what you’re doing. If this was made during or at the beginning of a series of checks, you automatically succeed the rest of them (an 18 would have failed them all!). Additionally, something spectacularly lucky happens that is completely outside of the expectations the character had in mind for what they were trying to do. Someone trying to get out of the way of a massive explosion would not only take no damage whatsoever even when a normal success would have done half damage, but the weapon that had been knocked out of their hand earlier comes skittering across the floor from the force of the explosion and stops right next to them, completely intact. Against every single odd, they profit from a situation that would have been a loss for anyone else. If a 3 is rolled to hit for an attack, it not only bypasses the enemy defense and rolls on the critical hit table on page 556 of the Basic Set, but it also automatically rolls 6 for all of the damage dice for the attack. It’s also assumed that the attack lands wherever it would be the most inconvenient for the target, but the most convenient for you. If your effective skill was astoundingly low, even into negative integers, a roll of 3 would still allow you to succeed with the maximum effect. -
Advanced Combat
Most rules that have to do with cloaks, shields, and fencing will have very little impact on the game we will be playing. Our game will mostly be shooting blasters and dodging any return fire. Attempts at melee combat would just be responded to with Parthian shots until a bolt lands, followed by more blaster shots that would be even harder to dodge after the first shot (if you’re still standing, that is). The rules about combat begin on page 362 of the Basic Set. Go and read them if you want, but you’re probably never going to need to know most of those rules for this campaign. I will be providing everything I know about how ranged combat works for this section of the guide. A basic outline of how general combat works can be found in the introductory section of this guide. On the next 10 pages is a list of all labeled blaster and ion weapons that might be seen throughout the course of this campaign. The various labels spread across the table will be explained below it. I’ve put it on every page so that you don’t have to scroll back up every time.
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Damage The damage (in dice) inflicted on a successful blow before modifiers from DR apply. o
Armor Divisor
The number in parenthesis is the armor divisor. Divide the target’s DR by this number before calculating the damage negated by DR. o
Type
The properties of the damage dealt by the attack, which are listed after the armor divisor (if any) and are denoted as follows:
Burning (burn) Deals 1x damage (damage is unchanged) after DR negation to all targets that don’t otherwise specify a different modifier for Burning-type damage. This kind of damage does not cause flames to ignite on flammable targets (e.g. curtains, wood), but can ignite particularly heat sensitive materials (e.g. gasoline). This is specified mostly to better visualize the nature of the injury. Blood from this kind of wound is rare since it is immediately cauterized.
Impaling (imp) Deals 2x damage (doubles) after DR negation to all targets that don’t otherwise specify a different modifier for Impaling-type damage. This kind of damage causes massive bleeding and deep wounds that can rupture vitals. These injuries are much larger than typical bullet wounds and frequently over-penetrate; passing through the target to possibly hit multiple others before stopping completely.
Surge (sur) The attack produces an electrical surge or pulse that can disable electronics or anything with the Electrical disadvantage, which includes a number of blaster weapons and non-combat droids (though some combat droids have vulnerable electrical parts). This isn’t a damage type in its own right, but it always accompanies at least one other. It is assumed that this only affects objects that are directly targeted by the attack, so if a blaster bolt strikes your body then you can assume that your blaster will still work just fine. If your blaster gets shot right out of your hand however, it’s probably busted. This has no effect if the damage is completely negated by DR.
Affliction (aff) This attack deals 1d3 Burning-type damage with an armor divisor of (1). Any damage that makes it past DR has the Surge modifier (see above). Whether or not any damage penetrates, the target must make an HT roll at a -4 penalty plus half the DR on the location struck (this secondary hit has an armor divisor of its own: (2) unless otherwise specified). On a failure, the target is physically and mentally stunned. They may then roll against HT every turn at the same penalty (but without the DR bonus) to recover. In addition to this, droids also take damage directly to their HT (the primary attribute, not HP) equal to the penalty specified by the modifier listed by HT for the respective weapon (an ion pistol would be -3). This damage is in combination with the 1d3 Burning-type damage to HP. The droid still must roll for stunning, but the HT damage is still applied whether the HT check succeeds or fails (the droid must make the roll with the new HT total, -4 penalty still applies). HT lost in this way can only be regained through extensive maintenance and replacement of fried components. If the droid’s HT ever drops below 0, then it is completely scrapped and every electrical component that was a part of it becomes worthless and unusable. Repairing it is impossible and far less practical than just building/buying/”finding” a new one.
o
Or This weapon (AKA an “Omni-Weapon”) has a secondary firing mode that has a different damage formula as well as other range values and properties. Only one mode can be active at a time, but switching between these modes is a free action. Both use the same ammo types unless otherwise specified.
There’s something next to the damage of ion weapons that says “(1 yard)” but I am unsure as to what that means. It might be that that is the maximum range it can stun at, but it does not specify; it could just as well be for the damage to HT on a droid. I assume that the burning and droid damage are unaffected by this “1 yard” range and instead use the normal one.
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Accuracy (Acc)
Accuracy gives you a bonus to weapon skill equal to whatever the weapon has listed under Acc, but only if you took an Aim maneuver on the previous turn or, if applicable, have the Gunslinger advantage. The accuracy listed by a particular weapon also represents the maximum possible accuracy bonus that can be gained from the accumulation of all attached upgrades for that weapon (e.g. if your 3 Acc Holdout Blaster has a padded grip that gives +1 when aiming and a scope that gives +4 when aiming, you get a +3 bonus, not +5). That same 3 Acc Holdout Blaster with all of its upgrades has a +6 bonus in total as a result. If a weapon’s Acc has a + and another number by it, that means the weapon comes with a built-in scope or aiming device upon purchase (removal of this aim-assist device takes this bonus away but allows additional upgrades to take effect if they would surpass the base Acc). That same 3 Acc Holdout Blaster with all of its upgrades installed would look like 3+3 Acc upon purchase. After this, you can further increase the bonus you get from aiming by bracing your weapon. This entails resting your two handed weapon on a low wall, table, windowsill, etc. It’s also possible to brace a weapon by using a bipod and lying prone. For one handed weapons like pistols, it’s considered braced if you are using two hands to aim. This gives +1 to hit. In order to Aim, you must declare what your target is (it must be visible to you) and which weapon you’re aiming at it with. Aiming is a full turn maneuver, so you may do no actions other than free ones if they would be considered as something that would not take away from your concentration. You can fire it on the next turn for a +1 bonus, or you can choose to use an Aim maneuver again and fire on the next turn for a +2 bonus. You can keep using Aim on the third turn for a +3 bonus to hit for the next turn, but more Aim maneuvers after this would just retain the +3 bonus without adding anything else. If you are attacked while aiming you may choose to defend, but doing so automatically ruins your Aim and any accumulated benefits. If you are injured while aiming then you must make a Will roll or lose your Aim. The only way to move while aiming is by making no more than a single step per turn. You can’t move at all if your weapon is braced on something other than yourself.
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Range
The numbers listed under this section of the table denote the range (in yards) at which the attack starts to do only half of its original damage on the left side of the slash and the maximum range on the right side of it. If there’s just one number, there is no half-damage range and this is just the maximum distance. Any range between 0 and the half-damage range is the distance the weapon’s projectile can travel and still do full damage. -
Weight
The weight for any given weapon on the table is listed in pounds (lbs.) and accounts for the weight of an energy cell. Beyond the slash is the type of energy cell needed in order to power the weapon, and the number too if it needs more than one. The weight of these cells is not specified. “Dp” is a portable D-cell, usually in the form of a backpack. -
Rate of Fire (RoF)
This is the amount of shots a particular weapon can fire in one round of combat. If you have a weapon that can fire more than one shot per round, you must specify how many times you are shooting that round before making the attack roll. You only roll to attack once. For every degree of success you make it over your effective weapon skill, an extra hit lands (rolling right on your score would be 1 hit in total, rolling 1 under it would be 2 hits, rolling 2 under it would be 3 hits, etc.). You cannot fire more shots than what your energy cell has left for in its remaining charge, for obvious reasons.
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Shots
The value listed in this part of the table represents how many shots you can make with a fully charged energy cell before needing to replace it. The number in parenthesis (it’s 3 for all of the weapons up there) next to it is how many 1 second Ready maneuvers (which is essentially an entire turn) it takes to eject the dead cell (turn 1), retrieve a new cell from somewhere, usually on your person (turn 2), insert the new cell (turn 3). A successful Fast-Draw skill check can make the retrieval of a new cell not an issue, so you can reload by spending 2 turns instead of 3. A failed Fast-Draw check means you drop the cell and/or fumble around with it for long enough to waste your entire turn, but you still didn’t manage to retrieve the cell on this turn and it is not in your hand, so you’re not putting it in your blaster on the next turn (you can try another Fast-Draw check on the next turn to possibly do both at the same time, however). You need to get another cell before you can move on to step 3 and finish loading your weapon. As long as the dead cell has been ejected, you can delay your other two Ready maneuvers since your blaster remains empty. You need two free hands in order to eject the cell (you can probably do it with one but it would take a long time in combat), so you can’t just hold the fresh cell in your hand prior and have it ready to go once the dead one is ejected; that’s what a Fast-Draw check is supposed to determine. If you think you can get away with “tape and turning” (if you know what that is), it won’t work because you have to close off the cell with a protective cover for the blaster to resume functioning; a second cell wouldn’t be able to fit in there with it.
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Requisite Strength (ST)
The numbers in this section refer to the required amount of ST needed to properly use the weapon. A number with a dagger (†) denotes that the ST listed there is what is required to use the weapon with two hands. If you try to use weapon that requires more ST than you have, you will be at a -1 to weapon skill for each point of ST that you lack in addition to losing extra FP equal to ST lacked at the end of a battle that lasts long enough to fatigue you. If you try to use a two handed weapon with only one hand, treat it as if the requisite ST was 1.5 times as much (round up). Using a weapon like this to attack means that it becomes unready, so the next turn requires a Ready maneuver before the weapon can be used again. If you suffer more than a -5 penalty for doing this, you can’t do it at all. If you want to use it without the weapon becoming unready at all, treat it as if the requisite ST was twice the base amount (can’t do this either if the penalty for doing so is -5 or more). You’ll have to figure out how to reload it on your own though. -
Bulk
Bulk measures the weapon’s size and handiness. Apply this modifier to your weapon skill when you make a Move and Attack maneuver. It also applies as the penalty to conceal the weapon with the Holdout skill. -
Recoil (Rcl)
A high value for this means that the weapon is hard to control when firing more than one shot in a turn. Rcl 1 means there’s no recoil, so don’t worry about this. -
Cost (credits)
This is the amount of credits required to purchase the weapon. This cost includes the most basic repair kit in order to do routine maintenance, such as cleaning rust off of the cell chamber so that. It’s assumed that if you bought the weapon yourself, then you also have the means to keep it from falling into disrepair in the future.
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Legality Class (LC)
The Legality Class of a weapon determines how easily you can find a weapon or how easily you can keep it from being confiscated by law enforcement. It doesn’t measure how socially accepted it is to carry around, just how legally accepted it is to carry it around. Widely available weapons have a high Legality Class and heavily restricted ones have a low Legality Class. o
LC 4 (Open) The weapon is widely available and can be owned and used by anybody. Usually such weapons are for recreational use in certain combat sports – not self-defense – so there are very few regulations for them. Someone can’t just take one and walk down the street with it in their hands; it’s still recognized as a lethal weapon and action can be taken against the carrier if they try to bring it into a designated non-hostile area (e.g. school, airport, etc.).
o
LC 3 (Licensed) The weapon is available, but requires some sort of registration in order to be carried legally. Any adult seen carrying such a weapon by their hip wouldn’t rouse much suspicion; they would likely just be assumed to already have a license for it. A kid carrying one is almost always unlicensed.
o
LC 2 (Restricted) A weapon like this usually requires the owner to be a part of some higher caste, such as law enforcement. A citizen caught walking around with one might be called out by law enforcement, but it is usually legal to keep such a weapon within their own property.
o
LC 1 (Military) This sort of weapon gets the attention of legal enforcement and fellow citizens. It is not legal to own a weapon like this as a citizen no matter where they might use it. Only military personnel can be authorized to operate a weapon of this type. Holdout Blaster is the only weapon on this list with LC 1, but I should clarify that this kind of LC pertains to things like anti-aircraft missiles and armored combat vehicles. That’s how illegal a Holdout Blaster is.
o
LC 0 Everybody knows this weapon is illegal. This kind of legality class is consistent galaxy-wide and is reserved for things such as an entire Death Star. If there’s even a mention about a weapon like this somewhere, there will be people from all sorts of governments after it to make sure that nobody can ever use it for any reason. There’s no weapon on this chart here with LC 0, but anything that’s considered a “super-weapon” that gets people around the galaxy talking about “planet-shattering” should be considered LC 0.
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Notes
Notes are specifications that are unique to a particular weapon. There are only two different notes on this table, but there are a lot more of them in the book. They all mostly have to do with weapons that will likely never play a role in this campaign however (cavalry, musclepowered crossbows, etc.), so I’ve left those out for the sake of simplicity. Note [2] was just to specify the special stunning and droid damaging effects of the “Affliction” damage type, so that description can be found back up at the Damage section of these table elements. It was already described in full detail in that section. Note [4] means that the weapon can have different firing modes and has the “OmniWeapon” specification. This was described in the Damage section under Or, but what I didn’t mention there was that you can apply this specification to any other weapon on this chart (except ion weapons because of redundancy). All you have to do is double the price of the weapon you want to apply it to. The secondary firing mode provided by this specification functions similarly to an ion weapon’s Affliction, but it renders the target unconscious for minutes equal to the margin of failure on the HT-4 roll to resist was (instead of stunning them mentally and physically). It also has no effect on droids! It has a few different modifiers. For a pistol, the armor divisor against the initial bonus from DR to resist the knock-out effect is (3). A carbine’s armor divisor is (3). A rifle’s armor divisor is (3). For all of these, divide the half-damage and maximum ranges by 7. An Omni-Weapon’s settings can be switched between at any time as a free action.
STEP EIGHT: YOU CAN’T GET TO STEP EIGHT Are you done learning the game? The answer is no. That’s why you can’t get to step eight. That’s why you never will. This system is so deep and complex that the rules are literally endless. The guide might be over, but you are not done. I don’t even know if the guide is over yet; there’s some homebrew rules that we haven’t even made yet that have nowhere to go but in this guide. I might be making further edits to this guide and I’ll have to figure out a way to upload it in a way that can be reached by all of you at some point (uploading directly to Skype just gets buried eventually). There’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t cover in this guide and probably won’t ever get around to covering them. This is because the book can usually explain stuff better than I can. I wouldn’t have written this guide if I didn’t think I could do it better at some parts, but for the most part the book does a great job of organizing displaying a lot of information in a way that’s coherent there. That said, if you need to find yourself some more numbers to crunch then you will find what you’re looking for stumble upon something in the book. Don’t know where to find the book? Well, here’s a list of all of the vital components that you are going to need in order to understand like maybe 30% of what I haven’t already explained: 4th Ed. GURPS Basic Set pt. 1: https://www.scribd.com/doc/119108893/GURPS-4th-Ed-Basic-Set-I
4th Ed. GURPS Basic Set pt. 2: https://www.scribd.com/doc/119108204/GURPS-4th-Ed-Basic-Set-II
4th Ed. GURPS Star Wars Sentient Species: http://members.upc.nl/l.deckers3/pdf/GURPS%204th%20-%20Star%20Wars%20Sentient%20Species.pdf
4th Ed. GURPS Star Wars Sourcebook: http://members.upc.nl/l.deckers3/pdf/GURPS%204th%20-%20Star%20Wars%20Sourcebook%20(2009-06-11).pdf
