Star Wars RPG Story: the S.M.O.L. Squad

Puffin: "How did the players know there had been a time change?" Me: "They didn't did they?"

I like the idea of a "mechanic" accidentally making a robot that's actually competent with technology.

Whoever assumed that the message of the first trilogy was that only the Skywalker's had the force was insane

"He kept his character's name a secret for a really long time and when the other players learned what it was they didn't really care" is honestly so relatable. Players trying to be enigmatic and other players just not really caring is something I've experienced so often.

“He died, but he got better” That made my day

My favorite thing with the SAGA system is that Ackbars race has a bonus to perception and one of the things perception accounts for is trap finding. Which means ackbars race is good at finding traps. BTW the narrative dice are legit great give them a try if you can everyone.

"he eventually met a grizzly end, dying to his own explosives" as is the fate of all bomb guys

The narrative dice are really fun :D Love to hear about puffins experience with the rest of the systems.

S.M.O.L. is a hell of an anogram for "Turtle Friends"

Really missed your stories Puffin. And it just makes me want to play in one of your groups, including all your obscure games with odd dice or ship maintanence XD What I found fascinating about Star Wars Saga was that it was clearly a prototype for a lot of 4e mechanics, yet it mostly worked. Perhaps you could go over what made that work and 4e should have kept? XD

The narrative dice were hands down the best new idea in RPGs for decades and I'll die on this hill.

I've never really known anyone who ended up being impressed by another character's mysterious secret backstory information when the mystery is finally revealed.

Groups with a gimmick make my favorite stories, especially when the GM plays along.

Honestly the fantasy flight system of story dice instead of the standard system is actually very easy to understand and can lead to some incredible situations.

"They hated all tall folk" oh dear god my worst nightmare, an MHI Gnome party

As a GM for the FFG system I can confirm selling on the narrative dice is the second hardest thing, the first hardest thing is then explaining the dice and getting people to remember how it works. Edit: Also the narrative dice are really cool with how much freedom and expression they give players and the GM that the euphoria of rolling a Nat 20 is nothing compared to rolling a Triumph in a critical moment to knock the Inquisitors lightsaber from their hand or retconning that you DID buy a thermal detonator from that shifty market earlier just as the villain turned their back on you, handing you and your party the battle over your long fought nemesis.

I love how the Force can totally just do whatever the story wants, Time Travel doesn't even rank in the top 10 of weird nonsense in the Legends books

Oddly, Fantasy Flight's interpretation of L5R is easily my favorite because of their mixing their proprietary dice obsession with the 'roll and keep' core mechanic of L5R. By mixing in the 'stress' system, you actually have to make difficult choices with what to keep sometimes, plus it fixes the old 'load up on stats, ignore skills' issue by making the skill dice more attractive. Add in that they absolutely did not skimp on the power level, and it is easily the best interpretation of the system.

Clearly the players were in hyperspace when the time ripple adjusted for the time change. Its possible a few others would also experience it.

When I was playing in a star wars table top, my group decided to go with the Galactic Empire Era, but because of the species I chose to play, I was the only force sensitive. Now, that may sound unfair, but when you're playing a Hoojib, a 30 cm tall telepathic creature, there really isn't much you can do.... I mean hell, we're talking a species whose adults may get to Grogu's height. So because of that, I played him as someone who was always obsessed with trees, to where by the end of the third session, there was an entire forest room that my Hoojib (who I named Eep), lived in while using someone's head as a means of travel.