General questiong

lord17c

Mongoose
Hi all,

A friend of mine wanted to try this RPG setting and I was wondering how it compaired to the Starwars RPG.

Thanks
 
There are pros and cons.

Pros:
1. Mongoose as a company is very receiptive to requests for new products (in fact they ask for input).
2. The developers almost live on the message forum.
3. The products arrive very close to schedule.
4. Mongoose got more right in their first edition than Wizards did in their first edition of Star Wars (I refused to purchase it based on all the holes I saw in a few minutes of scanning the book).

Cons:
1. Star Wars is a bit more mature game, thus has an enormous amount of background material. The previous version of Babylon 5 was never finish and Mongoose has made great strides to accomplish this.
2. Sometimes when you lengthen your stride, mistakes creep into the product. There is some Errata (not for all of the mistakes) but they are working on it and are receptive.
3. It is based on D20 - need I say more.
4. It follows D20 D&D too closely sometimes.

Overall, I have about 4 times as many Mongoose Babylon 5 books as I have D20 Star Wars books.
 
Hi,

so are you saying that it following the D20 system is a bad thing?
 
so are you saying that it following the D20 system is a bad thing?


Well if he's not I am ;) Give me the 3d6 curve anyday, that aside Mongoose have done a great job just like Scottmage said :)
 
From my reading of the thread it seems like people don't like the probability curve of the d20 roll.If you could find another way of getting a number between 1 and 20 that suited your preferred probablilty curve would that suit you, or is there lots of the ruleset you don't like as well?

LBH
 
It is just the probability curve I dont like, i do play D&D+varients.

Although it has its problems it is a not bad system, that coupled with the amount of material available makes it a worthy system to rolplay with.

In my humbke opinion.
 
Silk said:
It is just the probability curve I dont like, i do play D&D+varients.

Well if you figure out what aort of curve you're looking for, then formulating a dice roll shouldn't be too tricky form there.

I could help anyone who needs it with that, I did stats, combinatorics and probability for quite a few years of my education.

LBH
 
Wow that was a quick reply, thank for your most kind offer.

i have some ideas I would like to run past u , I will happily Pm them to you soon.


Thanks again :)
 
so, the main problem on this board seems to be with the odds of what you are going to role, that is quite interesting. I know there seems to be comments that the d20 forces you to develop in a certain way, but I always thought that was alittle silly.
 
Getting this thread back on topic, lord17c the one big difference between Babylon 5 and Star Wars is the difference in storyline. A lot of questions and complaints have come up in the group of people I game with as to how the Star Wars storyline works, the holes in it that have come up. However in the Babylon 5 storyline there haven't been as many questions come up. Basically think of B5 as a live action anime series, very coherent storyline, all of it makes sense (or at least is less confusing) to people.

If you want to know anything else go ahead and PM me and I'll do my best to answer ya.
 
Silk said:
Wow that was a quick reply, thank for your most kind offer.

i have some ideas I would like to run past u , I will happily Pm them to you soon.


Thanks again :)

Hey silk,

Pmed you with my e-mail addy.

I'll wait to hear from you.

LBH
 
Also, you should really ask this question on Star Wars d20 message boards as well so you get the opinions of their fans. ASking on only the B5 forum will get you a bit biased answers.
 
D20 does have it's limits. Although as I've said beofre 3.0 is better than 3.5 in my opinion. 3.0 is more balanced than 3.5. Although 3.5 warriors can do more Hacking and become more munckhkinized at the same time!
 
lastbesthope said:
From my reading of the thread it seems like people don't like the probability curve of the d20 roll.If you could find another way of getting a number between 1 and 20 that suited your preferred probablilty curve would that suit you, or is there lots of the ruleset you don't like as well?
LBH

I have been using this for the last few weeks for B5.
http://www.metaphase.biz/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?MidThreeD20

Regards
Dave
 
Actually Crothian I don't think that would go over as well there. I saw one thread comparing D6 and D20 Star Wars and it got locked down. One of the moderators went in and declared the subject wasn't "appropriate" for those forums and if I remember right if anyone kept goin they wouldn't be nice to em. Not very encouraging if you ask me.

Honestly I like both Star Wars and Babylon 5, I'm not one of these types that gets into the "which sci-fi property can beat which other sci-fi property" debates and I rarely if ever pick a sci-fi property because it's like another one.

Ah well, that's my two credits worth
 
I concur with LoneStranger on this.

I have most of what has been published for SW d20 and B5 d20 and I find they cather to a different feel., that is : cinematic space opera VS Hard SF. I know B5 isn't pure Hard SF, but it's less cinematic than SW, which is fantasy/western in space after all. It's far more easier to me to GM a SW game, since you don't need an overly complicated story arc.
 
well I have played, and still play both games and I believe both have merit. I am a fan of both Star Wars and Babylon 5 and although the D20 system is not perfect, it is better then not being able to play games in these two universes. I would not put one system or storyline above the other as I believe that sort of debate would demean both. I do like to support that has been given gamers at the Mongoose boards, but I would point out that Star Wars also has some support from the RPGA in the form of the Living Force campaign, which is fun and detailed.All in all I would say that you should use the system that you and your players are the most interested in.
 
That is a great way to put it. I agree with you Eric! Totally! That players have to be happy and enjoy the game at the same time.
 
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