In many roleplaying games there comes a time where player characters have acquired so much XP, equipment, and abilities that the game balance begins to suffer. Whether it be PCs who are undefeatable by the provided enemies or player-to-player balance breaking down outside of the so called \u201csweet spot,\u201d this phenomenon can have quite a negative effect on a group\u2019s enjoyment of a long running game. Keep reading to find out about my experience running high-XP Star Wars, and how I plan on putting the system through its paces at epic levels.<\/p>\n
My Experience So Far<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Recently in my Scions of the Sith campaign, in which players began as acolytes at the Sith Academy on Korriban and are now apprenticed to Sith Lords, the PCs went up against a session based on the Hammer Station Flashpoint from Star Wars: The Old Republic<\/em>. The four PCs are at roughly 350 earned XP plus some extras such as a free extra talent tree and force power. Two PCs are focusing on supporting roles and two on lightsaber combat. I would describe the group as having a skillful Inquisitor, a pragmatic infiltrator, a defensive duelist, and a critical striker. Here are some of the threats they faced, and defeated, for an idea of what I throw up against them at this level of XP.<\/p>\n The DN-314 Tunneller droid served as a solo threat in a relatively large and open area. You will notice I have made the threat a character as opposed to a vehicle but still applied the Massive rule to it.<\/p>\n DN-314 Tunneller [Rival]<\/strong><\/p>\n Br 6, Ag 2, Int 2, Cun 1, WP 2, Pres 1<\/p>\n Soak 9, W. Threshold 100, M\/R Def 0\/1<\/p>\n Skills:<\/strong> Brawl 3, Cool 3, Gunnery 3, Perception 2, Ranged (Heavy) 3,<\/p>\n Talents:<\/strong> Adversary 2, Massive 2, Durable 2, Heroic Fortitude<\/p>\n Abilities: <\/strong>Droid Traits, Silhouette 3, Multiple Combat Turns<\/p>\n Equipment:<\/strong> Excavation Blaster (Gunnery; Damage 15; Blast 8), Mining Laser (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 8; Crit 3, Pierce 2), Mining Claws (Melee; Damage 12; Crit 2, Pierce 5)<\/p>\n The droid\u2019s Massive 2 was little help against my critical striker (Soresu\/Assassin). To keep the fight meaningful, I decided to invoke rule zero and flip a point to the PC side to \u201cnegate\u201d an early 151 crit into \u201conly\u201d 50 points of extra damage. Ultimately, this threat became a speed bump.<\/p>\n In order to make the final fight a true challenge I built out Battlelord Kreshan as follows. I paired him with two groups of four minions based on Stormtrooper stats.<\/p>\n Battlelord Kreshan [Nemesis]<\/strong><\/p>\n Br 4, Ag 4, Int 2, Cun 3, WP 3, Pres 3<\/p>\n Soak 6, W. Threshold 30, S. Threshold 17, M\/R Def 1\/1<\/p>\n Skills:<\/strong> Brawl 2, Coerce 2, Cool 2, Melee 3, Perception 3, Ranged (All) 3, Vigilance 3<\/p>\n Talents:<\/strong> Adversary 4, Parry 6, Aura of Command, Heroic Fortitude, Lethal Blows 2, Soft Spot<\/p>\n Abilities:<\/strong> Multiple Combat Turns (one additional turn at the end of the round)<\/p>\n Equipment: <\/strong>Battlelord\u2019s Sword (Melee; Damage 8; Crit 3; Accurate 1, Cortosis, Defensive 1, Pierce 2, Vicious 2), battle armor (+2 soak, +1 defense)<\/p>\n You\u2019ve read it right, I gave Kreshan Adversary 4 and Parry 6. The two groups of minions were dealt with by the support\/skill PCs, with Kreshan engaged by the two lightsaber focused PCs. He was able to hold his own, even taking one of my PC\u2019s hands, before being dispatched after a suitably epic fight. While a threat to life and limb, Kreshan ultimately posed little threat of a Total Party Kill. In all, spot on what was needed to cap off the session.<\/p>\n Initial Observations<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n While my Scions of the Sith group has only now entered what I would consider high-XP play, I have noticed a few trends emerging that I will be keen to investigate in my stress tests. Since these observations come only from one set of PCs, I am hesitant to offer more than a reportage analyzing more data.<\/p>\n Firstly, as expected, I am seeing powerful talent\/equipment combos emerging. The most visible example of this in the group is my critical striker saber user (Soresu Defender\/Assassin) with his crit rating 1, curved hilt lightsaber that can output consistently powerful critical injuries when combining rolled advantage, auto-advantage, and multiple ranks of Lethal Blows. Less dramatic but almost equally impactful is the defensive ability of my defensive duelist (Makashi Duelist\/Shii Cho Knight) saber user, who combines generous investment in Parry with as much Grit as he can reasonably take to hold attackers at bay.<\/p>\n These factors lead to the next observation: the threats provided for me at the back of the book, even the dreaded create-an-inquisitor, no longer provide a sufficient threat. Certainly I still get a lot of utility out of the existing threats for use as Minions or lower-end Rivals, but to truly challenge my PCs I need to take time out to tweak a Nemesis or create a new one from whole cloth. Adversary and Parry have been very handy to scale up the defensive abilities of threats, with Multiple Combat Turns scaling up the offensive in turn. I\u2019ll be curious to see how threats will hold up in my Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion tests, where gun totting threats are more the norm. I suspect with less Pierce\/Breach in the PC\u2019s hands I will be able to rely on Soak more extensively.<\/p>\n Thirdly, I am surprised to report I have not seen heavy Force use from the PCs in this campaign. This is probably a peculiarity of my own group, as my players tend to shy away from over-specialization. No one is playing a Sorcerer concept, so no one is (ab)using high level Move or Unleash. I think this is mostly because my players have prioritized skills and combat over the Force, so as costs for high tier talents, high rank skills, and new trees start to add up I suspect the PCs will find investment into Force powers increasingly economical.<\/p>\n The Stress Test<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n As a service to you, the dedicated readers of d20radio Blog, I will be stress testing FFG\u2019s SW RPG at high earned XP levels with my home group. My players will make high XP characters and will select or be granted equipment to match. The characters will be ones that my players would enjoy running in a real campaign, and I will conduct the stress test by running a few sessions according to my usual home game style. Here are the XP levels for my tests:<\/p>\n Edge of the Empire:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 600 XP \u2013 15,000 Credits worth of kit<\/p>\n Age of Rebellion:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 800 XP \u2013 Kit list as approved by GM<\/p>\n Force and Destiny\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1000 XP \u2013 Kit list as approved by GM<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be very curious to see what Force and Destiny characters are generated by my testing players. My group has a shared belief that Force using characters have multiple attractive XP sinks which will tend to prevent a character from becoming particularly powerful in any one area. Anecdotally, my Sith Inquisitor PC is fairly weak because his character is spread very wide across skills, talents, Force powers, and combat abilities.\u00a0Look forward to an initial follow up on this article once I get a few sessions of 600 XP Edge of the Empire on the table.<\/p>\n Have you been playing the Star Wars Roleplaying Game at high XP levels? How has that experience been? Let me know in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"