General questiong

[lord17c]

cool.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I got the following one on the starwars page.

Easy. Babylon 5 is supported and releases books. Star Wars isn't supported other than a few lame online articles and even those have become more and more minatures based. I keep hearing people say the game isn't dead but it hasn't released a book since May-June last year. The products page hasn't even been updated since then and there just seems to be a great big void of information from Wotc. Not sure how much more dead it can get. Maybe they will suddenly surprise us and release books again. BUt i ain't holding my breath and I gave up on SWMini's. Just too darn expensive in the after market. I am more than happy to give Wotc my money for SW books but they have to release something and sorry Wizards but Ultimate missions doesn't cut it not by a long shot.

Star Wars gamers. The forgotten children.
__________________
Harbinger: Gave up on
Dragoneye: Completed.
Archfiends: 37/60
Giants of Legend: 1/60

After I saw this one I decided I would be doing the B5 game. now I just have to get the money together for the books.

 

[lastbesthope]

After I saw this one I decided I would be doing the B5 game. now I just have to get the money together for the books.

Good luck with that.

Not counting ACTA, I've spent £335 on B5 RPG books. If I did my sums right. And that'll be up to the round £350 when I buy Wheel Of Fire tomorrow.

LBH

 

[lord17c]

yea, the hobby can get expensive, but that is why its a hobby, you can cut the funding if you need too.

 

[mthomason]

yea, the hobby can get expensive, but that is why its a hobby, you can cut the funding if you need too.

It's not a hobby for LBH, it's a way of life

 

[lastbesthope]

It's not a way of life, it is the way of life. And it's the only one I've got . . .

:wink: Was most miffed when my FLGS had accidentally sold my copy of Wheel of Fire when I went in yesterday. :evil:

LBH

 

[qstor]

what about SW 20? I like the class based defensive bonus.

Mike

 

[redlaco]

That plus the great VP/WP system and armors that offers DR instead of increasing Defense Value.

All in all, Star Wars D20 is a good system with plenty of material out there. Plus the web is a great source for material; I have already two binders full of crunchy bits and fluff.

Apart from an "Ultimate Starships" and an Old Republic sourcebook, I feel the line is almost complete. The collectible lines of minis are a fumble, AFAIC. It's good for their gross income, but not for the players wallet.

 

[Ranger66]

While I like both Star wars and B5 for me the biggest difference RPG wise is the simple fact that Mongoose is supporting the B5 line constantly with alot of interesting material and the Star Wars RPG has died. One look at Wizards Star Wars Rpg section and you see alot of stuff for the minatures and the minatures have their own section. My money is going to Mongoose and has been for a while now.

 

[scottmage]

I have a lot of gaming experience, from D&D (before they had even "Basic" and Advanced), Star Wars from West End Games, and a lot of games you probbly have never heard of in between.

I personally liked the WEG version of Star Wars much better than the D20. I could refine my characters so that each was unique by spending experience in what they did in the campain. In D20, when you get to a certain level, you advance according to a chart. My character might gain an ability that they had not even worked on developing.

One of the stupidest arguements that the D20 Star Wars fans used against WEG was "Bucket of Dice". While the possibility of using a Force Point to double the number of dice could easily push with Force use a roll of 24 dice (happened to me one time), that is the best arguement against that system. Granted there was some rules in the D20 version that made sense that was never incorporated into WEG, such as Force Points and how many Dark Side points a character had.

I know I beat on the Telepath class, but take them for example. I have a P10 that cannot do a Surface Scan before Level 2?

Take the Officer class, when do ranks come in? In GURPS, I can spend experience on the class skills that would allow an Officer to advance in rank and then I can spend points on actual rank.

I think Mongoose of all the D20 companies could make it work by doing something like every 2 levels a character could take a Feat Rank Advancement or some other advantage. That would make sense from a military perspective. I know officers that quickly moved up through the ranks and others that their experience is much broader.

There could even be Prestige Classes for Medical (Doctors & Nurses), JAG, Clergy, etc. that jump to higher ranks immediately. There is also a difference between Command and the above prestige classes.

Garibaldi is a Warrant Officer (which is funny). Warrant Officers are usually responsible for equipment, Starfury, Tank, Helicopter, etc. or a task such as Translation, not people. That could be a Prestige class, Warrant Officer.

Maybe that should be on the B5 Wishlist - Prestige Classes.

 

[frobisher]

Believe it or not, I'm with you on the rank thing - it does seem to be an extreme weakness of the d20 system; I'd previously gamed B5 using the Traveller (3rd ed) system and that covers the entire issue with ease as well as prior experience etc.

Garibaldi is a Warrant Officer (which is funny). Warrant Officers are usually responsible for equipment, Starfury, Tank, Helicopter, etc. or a task such as Translation, not people.

That's probably true of the US military, but it's not universal.

To quote from here http://www.answers.com/topic/warrant-officer

United Kingdom
In the British armed forces, a warrant officer is effectively a senior non-commissioned officer, although he or she holds the Queen's (or King's) warrant. Warrant officers are not saluted, but are usually addressed by their juniors as Sir or Ma'am.

British Army
In the British Army, there are two warrant ranks, warrant officer class 2 (WO2) and warrant officer class 1 (WO1), which is the senior of the two. It used to be more common to refer to these ranks as WOII and WOI (using Roman instead of Arabic numerals). The rank immediately below WO2 is staff sergeant.

Every warrant officer has an appointment, and is usually referred to by his appointment rather than by his rank.

This seems consistent with Garibaldi's position on B5, which is probably okay given Earth Force was formed from several militaries.

 

[scottmage]

Believe it or not, I'm with you on the rank thing - it does seem to be an extreme weakness of the d20 system; I'd previously gamed B5 using the Traveller (3rd ed) system and that covers the entire issue with ease as well as prior experience etc.

Garibaldi is a Warrant Officer (which is funny). Warrant Officers are usually responsible for equipment, Starfury, Tank, Helicopter, etc. or a task such as Translation, not people.

That's probably true of the US military, but it's not universal.

To quote from here http://www.answers.com/topic/warrant-officer

United Kingdom
In the British armed forces, a warrant officer is effectively a senior non-commissioned officer, although he or she holds the Queen's (or King's) warrant. Warrant officers are not saluted, but are usually addressed by their juniors as Sir or Ma'am.

British Army
In the British Army, there are two warrant ranks, warrant officer class 2 (WO2) and warrant officer class 1 (WO1), which is the senior of the two. It used to be more common to refer to these ranks as WOII and WOI (using Roman instead of Arabic numerals). The rank immediately below WO2 is staff sergeant.

Every warrant officer has an appointment, and is usually referred to by his appointment rather than by his rank.

This seems consistent with Garibaldi's position on B5, which is probably okay given Earth Force was formed from several militaries.

Well...since we broke off from the British, our system is pretty much the same except no Royalty. From the definition that you found, sounds like that makes it really close (I would rather have a warrant from a King or a Queen, just sounds 8) ) to the American definition.

warrant officer
n. Abbr. WO
A military officer, usually a skilled technician or a helicopter pilot, intermediate in rank between a noncommissioned officer and a commissioned officer, having authority by virtue of a warrant.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

In the American Military, there is WO-1, WO-2, WO-3 (Chief Warrant Officer), WO-4 (Chief Warrant Officer), and WO-5 (Chief Warrant Officer).

Garibaldi is a Chief Warrant Officer, mentioned several times through out the series. One of the things they teach you in the Officer Basic courses is that "You can delegate authority, you cannot delegate responsibility". A Warrant officer has authority for things (not usually people), but is not "responsible" for them.

Sounds like there is a bit of flavor for both. I do know a CW3 (as they are called in the US Army) that had people that answered to him. Mostly because of the Type of unit they were. Besides, Garibaldi kept talking about his contract like he was some kind of Contractor or something rather than a member of Earthforce.

 

[frobisher]

Besides, Garibaldi kept talking about his contract like he was some kind of Contractor or something rather than a member of Earthforce.

Garibaldi's circumstances are probably quite special I think. He's the only of the security personnel that was wearing an Earth Force uniform, and the rest were most definately civilians (but then there's the contract thing you mentioned). It could be that he's got to retain his EF status whilst being contracted to B5 security. It certainly appears that the role didn't require the Chief to be Earth Force; Boggs (I think?) wasn't and was Night Watch's shoe in for the role. Now whilst B5 was suceeded from Earth at the time, Zack Allen's appointment to Chief didn't seem to be a problem then, or indeed after the resolution of the civil war - he got to retain the position, and indeed it appeared he later got to join Earth Force ("Sleeping in Light").

Of course jms has admitted in the past that that he does tend to know military terms when he hears them, but perhaps not their "correct" application (hence the Omega "Destroyers").