Star Wars d20

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Star Wars d20 is a d20 System game made by Wizards of the Coast. It's set in the Star Wars universe. Preceded by The Star Wars d6 game.

After Wizards let the license go, it has currently passed to Fantasy Flight Games and now they are doing their own RPG.

All systems have their advantages and disadvantages

Star Wars "Revised" Edition

System

Basically Star Wars D&D 3rd Edition. It involves a system that is far more streamlined than regular D&D 3rd, more in line with d20 Modern. Gone is any hint of spell slots or memorization tables. Generally only class abilities, skills and feats determine a character's capabilities. In this system Jedi are strong adversaries but can realistically be gunned down by a large number of stormtroopers. Force abilities are generally reflected as Force skills and Force feats. Skills cover most general applications of the Force like the infamous Jedi Mind Trick or Telekinesis. Force Feats expand on such abilities for more potent or specialized applications. For example, any Jedi can lift objects, but it takes a feat to create a freaking localized hurricane at will. People who are not Force sensitive can channel it through the use of Force points which can be spent to add extra dice to their rolls not unlike Eberron's action points.

Characters have two sets of "hit points". Vitality reflects the energy to get out of the way of blaster bolts at the last instant or that instinctual dodge from a lightsaber blade. It's basically plot armour in the sense that a character that still has Vitality can moon stormtroopers as they shoot at him and come out just fine. Actually getting stabbed by a lightsaber subtracts from your Wounds which is equal to your Constitution score. And does not increase with level. You start actually bleeding when your Vitality (which does scale with level) is depleted or when you take a critical hit. This means that even the highest level badasses can go down like a punk with a few bad rolls that crit them. Jedi expend Vitality to use the Force so there's a soft cap on the kind of bullshit you can conceivably pull with the Force. Many NPCs don't have a Vitality score which explains why heroes are great shots while the average extra can't hit the broad side of a Star Destroyer at fifty paces.

The Revised Edition also had the special distinction of making the vast majority of characters into fragile snowflakes in a Tatooine summer. Mainly because armour no longer adds to Armour class, but instead functions like Damage Reduction. Sounds like a good idea in theory, so it takes special effort to mess it all up. Which is brilliantly achieved by making Armour DR only function on Wound damage. If you haven't caught on, your DR only functions when you are about a dozen points of damage from death in a setting when crazy people with laser swords are trying to cut your head off. Even the most basic weapons deal 3d8 damage, so even with the heaviest armour, it's only a couple or so shots before you croak. It also hinders your DEX bonus which is one of the few things which does add to your AC (or "Defense" as they term it here). Basically, armor makes you weaker and easier to kill.

• This can be fixed in house rule. Just rule that DR applies to Vitality hits. Lore-vise, that would represent grazing hits, ricochets, or non-penetrations; your character would need to move less - as instead of making sure the shot outright misses, he would need to move just enough so it hits the armor at curved angle and doesn't do any serious harm. Mechanics-vise, it would make Armor actually viable to use.

By the way, Jedi lightsabers ignore DR (except Beskar/Phrik and other super-armor) and most Jedi classes have their lightsaber damage scale with level. By the early double digit levels they are dealing damage on par with rocket launchers which is setting appropriate but also handily explains why they are the primary melee warriors in a setting where everyone else tends to pack a blaster. If a Jedi crits you, it's usually time to roll another character.

Criticisms

Star Wars d20 Revised had a relatively short lifespan so it never accrued some of the insane combinatorial explosion of brokeness that characterised late D&D3.5. That said the game had its flaws, some of them can be considered quite serious.

One common criticism is that the game is very "vanilla". Many classes gain all of their class abilities by roughly level 6, everything else was nothing more than a numerical improvement. Aside from the Jedi classes, classes tended to have only a small handful of class abilities and some of those abilities were highly situational. This extended to the prestige classes; the Bounty Hunter PrC for example got the Ranger's Favoured Enemy which extended to his current bounty target (which was nice) but only to his current bounty target (not so nice) and the rogue's sneak attack. That's it, that's all you get as a bounty hunter in way of class abilities. Basically you took a PrC to get access to class abilities D&D characters got at level 1. Equipment too was basically a numerical improvement as opposed to the huge expansion of capabilities enchanted gear could offer to players more used to fantasy RPGs. Most classes were also very "samey" with situational bonuses and a small list of bonus feats differentiating some of them. The feats tended to fall into the "+2 to that skill and +2 to another skill" type aside from the feats found in the core d20 system. In a way think of it as a prototype to d20 Modern, even though that came first.

As such overall, the game can get quite boring over time. Any non-Jedi character slowly grows in powers they already have while a new feat can give Jedi a whole bag of tricks to unleash. Even their core abilities rise more quickly; as most Force powers are skills they gain +1 per level. BAB for a combat character rise at half that rate. As most enemies simply lack the crazy amount of special abilities that characterize core D&D's monsters it becomes all too routine. Just Stormtroopers with even better aim, droids with more weapons, etc. Even fielding Sith simply means that the party will focus fire and gun that sucker down.

This leads to a major problem when parties get together. Everyone is pretty fragile but Jedi are so much more powerful than everyone else. Mixed parties tend to have many other characters overshadowed by the Force Users. All Force Users tends to have lots of overlap and can be hard to fit into the timeline if you use canonical Star Wars (ie the Old Republic or the New Jedi Order; even worse if you intend to have plenty of Sith to fight at the same time). All non-Force Users and you might as well be playing D20 Future. Movie conventions that protect major NPCs also do not exist; if Darth Vader shows up, there is every chance that the party will try to shoot him with proton torpedos from their vehicles if they can.

• This should be balanced by common sense. Darth Vader knows that, if he shows up in the open area, he'll most likely get bombed by proton torpedos - so, he won't go in the open; instead, he will either make sure he has air superiority, or confront you in artillery-safe spot (bunker network, heavily fortified building, deep part of capital ship or space station, ETC).
• All force-users seems as the best (least boring) variant. See above criticism about "vanilla" and "quite boring over time" about why non-force-users are bad — and you now know, why playing as all force-users would be a lot more enjoyable.

Mundane skills are worse than baseline 3E. D20 took 3E's already too large skill list and made it bigger. While nobody has the dreaded 2 skill points a level, many things you could go without in 3E are now basic life skills. You need to be a master hacker to gather information on the internet. All but the most basic vehicle operations also require training. In-fact even basic operations require training because astrogate is trained only.

This is further turned into a mess by making force skills the unholy combination of of the Truenamer and Martial Adepts: Force skills require a skill check to function, but there are literally dozens of them. Unlike Martial Adepts these aren't mundane skills you've learned to an extent you can use them in combat (Wax on, wax off), they have no consistent or rational attribute dependencies (akin to the MAD of 3.0 Psionics) and they can only be used to burn vitality and turn it into an effect. It gets worse still as, despite the system having only enough books with more than a couple sidebars of crunch they can be counted on your fingers, the only one that doesn't introduce a new force skill is Arms and Equipment Guide. In its short run it literally introduced more skills than 3.X did in its 70+ books and countless web articles with new content. Worse still precisely 1 (Oriental Adventures's Iaijutsu Focus) of 3E's new skills was not tied to a sub-system, 2 if autohypnosis (which is tied to Psionics and only given to them as class skills, but technically usable by anyone) is counted.

All classes are locked into their class skills entirely until the feat Cosmopolitan in the Hero's Guide. Even with this feat you only got one extra skill. This had a nasty way of hard locking characters into certain roles. While this was always the case in 3E's skill system (until Pathfinder), it really stings after d20 Modern's starting occupation made it the one variant with an exception in the core rulebook. Diplomatic skills were particularly locked down with Nobles and Jedi Consulars being the only people capable of asking nicely for things (contrast 3rd edition where Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin and Rogue, over half the classes, were).

Also, ship collision damage is rather wonky. It is possible to use Escape Pods offensively: shoot empty pod in such direction, that it crashes into enemy capital ship - and it'll easily do more damage than entire salvo of your capital ship's weapons.

Why Bother With It?

The main things of interest with Star Wars d20 are the lore and modules. About half of the books released for the system are actually lore books with zero or near-zero crunch, which are handy for any Star Wars campaign. There were also a good number of scenarios released for free on Wizards' website that range from a full adventure (Luke wants you to track down a wayward student. An errand sends you to Tremors.) to an interlude you can place anywhere (A con artist tries to steal your ship. When seeking a Hutt for something you get caught up in one of his minions trying to userp him.). There was also a lot of modules released for the Living Force RPGA campaign. Though these varied wildly in quality, many are actually quite good and they are canon to the Expanded Universe (though finding out what the canon outcome was is impossible if it's not directly referenced in another.). Since the campaign isn't run anymore, they're a decade out of date and DMs were officially told to delete them after the conclusion, you have to find them like you find any other old, out of print RPG thing. You're still better off converting them to any other Star Wars RPG though.

Saga Edition

System

Was a revised "revised" edition, so they just called it the "Saga" Edition.

It basically followed the D20 system from D&D but with a great number of differences that put it somewhere in between 3.5e and 4e in the ruleset, which is actually a good thing (Wizards eventually let slip that Saga was built from the "Orcus" prototype for 4e, which if Saga is any judge would have been better than what we got in the end.). Ultimately, the changes are so great any conversion between the two requires a pretty big rebuild of everything stated. Some of the many changes include:

• Skills come in "trained" and "untrained" rather than tracking bazilions of skill points which makes character management much easier.
• In another nice touch, Armour Class has also been removed, meaning you take your defenses based on your Reflex/Will/Fortitude modifiers.
  • Wearing armour provide bonuses to Reflex saves and occasionally Fortitude, but negates any "Heroic bonus" you might gain based on your level, so armour is only really a good thing for non-heroic NPCs, lower level characters who have low bonuses, or high level characters specifically trained to use armour.
• Leveling is free-form, you just gain talents from trees available to your class so there is no "End" ability that you have to wait for in levelling up, or might miss if you multi-class.
  • It also means that two players playing the same class can have absolutely no abilities in common whatsoever. These abilities are generally visible and battle turning too. A fan made a PDF (DMF's Big Book of SWSE NPCs) with 197 generic NPCs (e.g., CR4 Thugs) stated still had inspiration to suggest alternate options that could radically change an encounter on every single one of them.
• Taking a level in a class after first level only gives you one of their starting bonus feats, cutting back on dips for proficiencies. The previous versions flirted with this idea, but errated it away.
• Inclusion of "Force" and "Destiny" points, which are a limited pool of points used by player characters which can be used to modify dice rolls, regardless of whether you are Force sensitive or not.
• Saga Edition still uses the metric system, but rather than making all instances of "five feet" to "two meters" (as the previous system did, creating several oddities), it uses increments of "one and a half meters" (which is close enough for most character scale purposes and more accurate than every foot is a meter).
• While this edition uses hit points, higher starting damage, and omnipresence of area attacks (grenades and autofire) that always do damage to characters without cover (at least those without the evasion talent or some form of shield/damage reduction) make it so two platoons of Stormtroopers are a serious threat to even the highest level player characters.
• Rather than requiring incrementally better gear every level, calculations for "heroic" characters add character level or half of it, regardless of what you are using.
  • Money won't buy combat ability. A stormtrooper's gear plus basic tools for your skills (such as medical kit or a mechanical tool kit) is sufficent for most non-Jedi. Instead more money buys gadgets that increase versatility.
• Gone are small +2 bonuses. Instead most bonuses are +5 or a reroll.
• Space combat rules are greatly revised. Abstracted in the parts that matter (did there really need to be 5 pages covering how much extra turning costs when a square is literally hundreds of kilometers?). It also gives a wider variety of heroes stuff to do during battles (Force abilities can be used at much greater distance in the emptiness of space. Have fun throwing ships into each other. Atmosphere is even more fun if one is handy!).
• With the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide, a character's history can now grant bonus class skills.
• With Scavenger's Guide to Droids, droid PCs are easy to build while also being highly versatile.
• All debuffs are replaced by a single "condition track" with universal rules for removing them. While it's a bit too friendly to "condition track killer" builds that focus on applying loads of debuffs to instantly kill the enemy, it otherwise works.
  • A “Damage Threshold” system where characters that take more damage in one attack than 10+Fortitude Save drop on the condition track, avoiding the issue found in most RPGs of characters with 1 HP being just as (if not more) capable as one with 100% HP.
• Carrying capacity is actually transparent for once. Rather than a complex chart for carrying capacity, you can carry (Strength/2)^2 kilograms (with modifiers for size and multiple legs) without being overburdened, which has only one degree and one set of penalties. The math works out to an increase in load over the chart that has normally been used for d20 games, so long as your strength is 7 or higher.

Anyone of a species that isn't barred can use the force too, there are entire chapters providing Talents for Force sensitive characters that are essentially universal talents which can be taken by any class so long as they are force sensitive. So you don't need to be a Jedi to be an effective force user (the main advantages of actually being of the Jedi class are the bonus feat options making it easier to focus on the force, and talents for lightsabers), which itself adds to the freedom of gameplay as you could be a force-wielding scoundrel and never actually take any talent from the scoundrel trees at all. All that's needed to use the force is 1: The "Force Sensitive" feat (Automatic for first level Jedi. Can pick between it or lightsaber proficiency if you multiclass to Jedi) 2: Being trained in Use the Force (requires Force Sensitive. If obtained after level 1 you need to increase your intelligence or spend a feat) and 3: One or more instances of the Force Training feat to gain force powers (A bonus feat option for Jedi and optional if you only want to move handheld objects around and make basic telepathic calls). Thus any first level any race with one of the two as a bonus feat (Human, Miraluka and a few others) can do it at first level and anyone not barred from using the force can start at third even if they aren't Jedi.

The game actively encourages multi-classing though, and there is a "modest" (in comparison to 3e D&D) number of prestige classes available that which provide access to their own, usually restricted list of Talent trees, but also provide class abilities with the core classes don't provide. For example: the "Jedi Master" prestige class provides Force Secrets which are like metamagic feats and can modify your Force powers in cool ways. Unlike base classes, prestige classes don't gain bonus feats every other level, which makes few of them (mostly the Jedi ones as those get a bonus talent instead) worth it long term.

Classes & Talent Trees

There are five (and only five) core classes in the system (Seven if you count the NPC classes "nonheroic" and "beast", which are just empty hit die), however as mentioned earlier, because the classes simply provide access to talent trees rather than pre-determined level benefits, players who choose the same class can build themselves entirely differently and shouldn't need to be hemmed into a particular class-role if they don't want to. The division of talents into trees instead of just class serves two purposes. Firstly, many talents require having any one or two talents from that tree already. Secondly, many prestige classes can pick talents from certain trees in addition to their unique, prestige class specific tree, such as Officer being able to pick from the Noble’s leadership tree, the Soldier’s Commando tree, or its exclusive Military Tactics Tree.

What follows is mostly a list just to consolidate the widespread rules are for the system and show how varied that characters can be:

CORE CLASSES

JEDI

Don't be fooled, the Jedi talent trees are actually some of the largest in the entire setting, and that's not even counting how they have access to force talent trees straight away. Plus they are meant to be a starting point for multi-class characters, as the "Jedi Knight" prestige class gets a butt-ton more talent trees. Not only that, but they are intended to be generic enough that they can apply to any lightsaber wielding character (Sith, Jal Shey etc). Note that there's isn't actually anything stopping a non-Force Sensitive from taking levels in Jedi, even though most Jedi talents are useless for such a character. That's intentional so that the handful of non-force using saber users in the franchise can take certain talents from the Lightsaber Combat tree.

• Consular - Using the force for negotiation and conflict resolution
• Guardian - Learning combat related techniques and maneuvers
• Sentinel - Skilled at seeking/resisting dark-side opponents
• Lightsaber Combat - Improving prowess with lightsaber weapons

NOBLE

• Anticipation - Able to pre-empt enemy maneuvers
• Collaborator - Manipulate enemies into thinking you are their ally
• Disgrace - Use underhanded tactics to gain advantage
• Exile - Adept in ways of taking care of yourself
• Fencing - Noble fighting style with light weapons or lightsabers
• Gambling - Expose yourself to gain the advantage over an opponent
• Idealogue - Able to provide motivation or demoralisation in certain situations
• Influence - Using interaction skills to overcome opponents non-violently
• Inspiration - Provider of buffs to allies in different situations
• Leadership - Provider of buffs with yourself as the centre of effect
• Lineage - Gain access to skills, equipment and wealth due to family connections
• Loyal Protector - Gain FOLLOWERS and train them as bodyguards
• Master of Intrigue - Able to use adjacent characters to your benefit
• Provocateur - Turn enemies against one another
• Skill Challenge - Bonuses for yourself and allies when using skills
• Superior Skills - Improve your ability when using a particular skill

SCOUNDREL

• Brigand - Techniques used to distract and expose the enemy
• Fortune - Provide yourself with luck based bonuses and rerolls
• Misfortune - Gain attacks bonuses which take advantage of enemy mistakes
• Outsider - Exercise caution to avoid dangerous situations
• Opportunist - Take advantage of mishaps
• Recklessness - Gain bonuses and effects in otherwise deadly situations
• Revolutionary - Expert in subversive and resistance tactics
• Run and Gun - Able to make mobile attacks
• Slicer - Master of computer hacking
• Smuggling - Able to provide innocent cover for suspicious situations
• Spacer - Expert in space combat

SCOUT

• Advance Patrol - Attack with the advantage of stealth and keen observation
• Awareness - Keen senses that enemies cannot exploit
• Camouflage - Improve your skill at stealth
• Espionage - Able to react to certain situations with the application of stealth
• Fringer - Learn to "make-do" in frontier situations
• Hyperspace Explorer - Expert operator of vehicles
• Master Scout - Talent Tree combining several different disciplines
• Mobile Scout - Maneuvers usable while mounted
• Reconnaissance - Gain FOLLOWERS and train them as scouts
• Surveillance - Expert in perception
• Survivor - New maneuvers in difficult environments
• Spy - Able to use stealth and deception to gather information
• Unpredictable - Make it difficult for enemies to damage you
• Versatility - Gain bonuses of your choice to adapt to any situation

SOLDIER

• Ambusher - Take advantage of surprise at the beginning of combat
• Armour Specialist - Maximize the benefits of wearing armour
• Brawler - Expert in melee combat
• Brute Squad - Combat bonuses when accompanied by allies
• Commando - New advanced combat techniques
• Mercenary - Use underhanded tactics to gain victory
• Rocket Jumper - Expert in the use of jump packs
• Shockboxer - Trained in unarmed combat
• Squad Leader - Gain FOLLOWERS and train them as soldiers
• Trooper - Grant you and your allies combat benefits
• Warrior - Master of endurance and overcoming enemy abilities.
• Weapon Specialist - Weapon bonuses with a specific chosen weapon
• Veteran - Able to overcome injury and psychological effects

FORCE TALENT TREES (Class free)

If your character has "Force Sensitivity" then they can take a force talent in place of a talent granted by their class, there are five generic Force talents while the remaining ones require you be a member of or connected to a particular organisation.

• Alter - Telekinetic and Telepathic mastery
• Control - Able to regulate your own physiology and center force effects on yourself
• Dark Side - Abilities drawing from the dark side
• Guardian Spirit - You have a link with a Force Spirit who gives you guidance
• Sense - Using the force to increase your perception and read the future
• Aing-Tii Monks - See the Force as a rainbow rather than Light/Dark with focus on Freedom
• Agents of Ossus - Refugees of the Jedi Purge who formed their own tradition
• Bando Gora - Dark Jedi Splinter group who have formed their own dark traditions
• Baran Do Sages - Farseers of the Kel Dor species
• Believers - Adherents to the "old ways" of the Sith
• Blazing Chain - Force wielding pirates and corsairs
• Dathomiri Witches - Shamanistic female force users who cast "spells" and control animals
• Disciples of Twilight* - Former Jedi looking for new path, found in solitude and shadow
• Embers of Vahla - Dark Side religion, worshippers of fire
• Fallanassi - Ancient isolationist order capable of disappearing into the Force
• Felucian Shamans - Tribal force users of the Felucian species
• Iron Knights - Sentient force using crystals within droid bodies
• Jal Shey - Scientific explorers of force potential
• Jensaarai - Splinter Dark Jedi philosophy that treads the line between light and dark
• Keetael - Expert hunters and stalkers using the Force
• Kilian Rangers - Force using knightly order trained in lance and shield
• Korunnai - Nomad tribes from Haruun Kal who create bonds with animal followers
• Krath - Dark side group who have recovered Sith techniques by experimentation
• Luka Sene - Miralukan tradition who use the force to improve sight
• Matukai - Ascetic warriors who use the force to obtain physical perfection
• Seyugi Dervishes - Force trained Death Cult Assassins
• Shapers of Kro Var - Use the force to add elemental effects to your abilities
• Tyia - Pacifistic order dedicated to seeking harmony
• Wardens of the Sky - Travelling warrior monks who keep the space lanes safe
• Zeison Sha - Philosophy of self-sufficiency and telekinetic mastery, users of discblades

DROID TALENT TREES (Class free)

Featured exclusively in Force Unleashed Campaign Guide and Scavenger's Guide to Droids are a second type of class free talent. Each of these five types is exclusive to one of the five classes of droid.

• First-Degree - Use various hard sciences to various benifits. Known Vulnerability is notable for being a reliable debuff to anything you hit.
• Second-Degree - Increase the speed you use various skills at.
• Third-Degree - A bunch of options to boost your social skills.
• Fourth-Degreee - Mechanical combat.
• Fifth Degree - Brute force.

Prestige Classes

Like the core classes, they have talent trees, many of which are unique to them. Some classes are very restricted; Jedi Masters for example only have access to one tree in addition to the "class free" Force talents, while others such as the Jedi Knight have unique talent trees up to their armpits. Listing all the trees would become a nightmare so here is simply a consolidated listing of the available classes.

PRESTIGE CLASS LIST

• ACE PILOT - Master of vehicular combat
• ASSASSIN - Trained professional killer
• BOUNTY HUNTER - Master tracker and apprehender of wanted persons
• CHARLATAN - Professional con-man and thief
• CORPORATE AGENT - Leader within a non-governmental organisation
• CRIME LORD - Leader of a particular criminal organisation
• DROID COMMANDER - Droid adapted to lead other droids
• ELITE TROOPER - Highly trained combat and tactics specialist
• ENFORCER - Investigator and trained tackler of individual opponents
• FORCE ADEPT - Trainee in force tradition not connected to the Jedi Order
• FORCE DISCIPLE - Master of the mysteries of the Force unconnected to the Jedi
• GLADIATOR - Part combat specialist / part showman
• GUNSLINGER - Small arms specialist
• IMPROVISER - Expert at coming up with quick & ingenious solutions
• INDEPENDENT DROID - Self-Sufficient droid character
• INFILTRATOR - Covert military operative
• JEDI KNIGHT - Member of the Jedi tradition who has passed the Jedi trials
• JEDI MASTER - Highest members of the Jedi Order
• MARTIAL ARTS MASTER - Unarmed combat expert
• MASTER PRIVATEER - Expert pirate and ship-to-ship combat master
• MEDIC - Professional healer
• MELEE DUELIST - Master of a particular melee weapon (may be lightsabers too)
• MILITARY ENGINEER - Tech specialist with military applications
• OFFICER - Trained leaders and trusted members of a military organisation
• OUTLAW - Wanted fugitive and expert at evading capture
• PATHFINDER - Expert in using your environment to your advantage
• SABOTEUR - Master of distruption when it comes to demolitions or technology
• SITH APPRENTICE - Trusted members initiated into deeper mysteries of the Sith Tradition
• SITH MASTER - Highest members of the Sith Tradition
• VANGUARD - Advance scout and strike specialist

Sourcebooks

• Saga Edition rulebook - The Core rulebook. Has an emphasis on species, equipment and ships that appeared in the six films.
• Dawn of Defiance - A PDF only series of free that forms a full campaign. Starting just after Revenge of the Sith and focuses on Bail Organa sponsoring early acts of rebellion against the Empire.
• Threats of the Galaxy - Basically the Monster Manual, with a focus on humanoid mooks but also including some creatures and droids. A few player options are scattered in the book.
• Starships of the Galaxy - Rules for building, modifying, and running combat with starships as well as tons of spacefaring vehicles. Had a really low print run for some reason.
• Scavenger's Guide to Droids - Rules for droid PCs and NPCs, including optional rules for PCs to manage droid companions like minions. A ton more droid examples than Threats.
• Scum and Villainy - Ostensibly a de-facto splatbook for the Scoundrel class, nonetheless rules for everything non-force related were included. Equipment modding rules are a highlight.
• Rebellion Era Campaign Guide - Rules for playing during the era of the Original Trilogy, also added optional character Background rules to replace Destinies.
• The Clone Wars Campaign Guide - One of the best sourcebooks, adds elegant follower/minion rules that act as extensions of the PCs rather than additional party members. Also adds rules for massed combat.
• The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide - While it has stats for stuff from the vidya of the same name, it's more of a guide for campaigns set between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the original movie as an artifact from how Force Unleashed was meant to be a Shadows of the Empire esqe multimedia project (before the game's constant delays and ultimate mediocrity sunk it). Good for what are essentially Epic character rules that can be taken at any level, allowing you to perform Epic shit like in the video game (e.g., pulling Star Destroyers out of the sky)
• Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide - Guess what era this covers! Another pretty good sourcebook covering rules for pretty much everything including lightsaber combat for non-Jedi as well as loads of rules for Mandalorians and new talent trees for everyone.
• Legacy Era Campaign Guide - Despite a name that implies it covers only the Legacy of the Force series, it covers the time after the films up to 130 years later, including the return of the two different Empires (with different rules for Imperial Knights and Sith) but also as early as the Thrawn trilogy .
• Galaxy at War - The Soldier splatbook, with rules for building "battlestations" (i.e. Death Star-style dungeons), and benefits for joining large military organizations. Not as many guns as you might think.
• Galaxy of Intrigue - The Noble splatbook. Variant rules for skill challenges, basically a non-combat book. Lots of plothooks and mini-adventures in the back section.
• Jedi Academy Training Manual - Splatbook for some class or another, I forget which. Full of Force Talents, and also includes tons of other Force-using traditions besides Jedi that can grant talents if you are a member. Also includes rules for variant lightsabers and the effects of swapping crystals. A tiny Monster Manual of Force-creatures, too.
• The Unknown Regions(...The Final Frontier) - The Scout splatbook in theory, but mostly a book to allow GMs to just roll stuff up (Rules and tables for creating new planets, life forms, and civilizations) since the Saga edition ruleset was coming towards the end of its 5-year mission lifespan.

Criticisms

Player Characters

Saga edition loosely followed Star Wars canon for how strength in the force works, meaning that Force Sensitive characters pwn everything and outshine non-sensitive characters. While everyone can be influenced by the Force, (allowing them to use up "Force points" to modify dice rolls), actual characters with any force talents/feats can min-max their character to do pretty much anything and therefore only need to improve their ability to Use the Force.

• For example: the "Force Pilot" talent allows players to use their Force skill instead of Pilot skill, while the "Force Persuasion" talent also allows players to use the force instead of their Persuasion skill, Force Healing and so on and so forth. Someone with "Force Block/Deflect" can negate attacks on them with a Use the Force check and a lightsaber. So basically these characters only need one skill (and only one skill) to play the game.

This does however come at the cost of not using those talents to become more powerful instead of more versatile. More annoyingly, the logistics of the system was an unwieldy clusterfuck, which is probably one of the reasons that Wizards could not sustain the system. Rather than having each class self contained in a single sourcebook and then presenting a new class with a new book, the problem with having and keeping so few classes was that options for the classes were presented EVERYWHERE. Meaning your character build could easily have options taken from every single sourcebook to the point that you'd forget where it all came from, and becomes a paperwork nightmare. This is further hindered with some options just being thrown in to whichever sourcebook was released at the time, meaning it's not very intuitive in figuring out where a particular rule comes from. A fan created index mitigates this, but requires having something that can view XML files handy.

When non-sensitive characters are involved, Droids are the best. They have lots of resistances (Poison, Disease, Radiation, noncorrosive Atmospheric Hazards, Vacuum, Mind-Affecting effects, Stunning effects, and any other effect that only works on living targets), can use various useful Droid Systems (see Personal gear), and can come in all different sizes. Then, there is such thing as Downloading and Restoring Memory — you can copy your Droid's mind into other bodies, making lots of powerful and allied Forks; or copy mind to Colossal-sized Droid, or to Starship (naturally, the only way to rules-legally play as Colossal PC — being so massive is very powerful; extra points if that would count as strange Droid-Starship hybrid, with ability to use systems of both; Logically, you should be able to use Starship systems at Huge size, since that's the smallest size of actual Starships — but there's one Large Droid using Starship systems, so why not; you could also copy your mind to Capital Ship at your command, to increase it's capabilities); or copy your mind to self-propelled Remote Processor, controlling a Droid body with Remote Reciever, Backup Processor and Hidden Core — instant hivemind (you can't start the game with Remote Processor, but you can copy mind into Droid with one). For "organical" party, you can get Replica Droid — as many character creation points as normal character, while still effectively being Droid with all it's pluses (other variants have their drawbacks — Shard can't use all Droid Systems, Total-Conversion Cyborg needs Destiny Point and nearly dying to become machine). Essentially, being a Droid is strict upgrade over being a non-sensitive fleshbag; the properly optimized party should consist entirely of Droids and Force-Users.

Vehicles

I and user of dedicated game wiki have found what some of the ships can be made ridiculously powerful. Long story short, ships have "Emplacement Points" (EP for short) what can be spent to install or upgrade systems, and gained by removing/downgrading systems, removing escape pods, or removing the cargo hold; ships also have unused EP, 1 by default.

You can gain some EP's by removing "Escape Pods" (1 per 10% removed) and placing back lifeboats (small lifeboat holds 15 people, costs 1 EP and fits on Colossal ship; large lifeboat holds 50 people, costs 2 EP and fits on Colossal Frigate ship) - it will work if ship has less than 150 total people (for small lifeboats) or less than 250 total people (for large lifeboats).

But, by far, the most common and useful method is by removing cargo capacity. You gain 1 EP by removing amount of tons equal to ship's Cost Modifier - for example, 2 for Gargantuan (like X-Wing) and 5 for Colossal (like Millenium Falcon). Some ships have incredible huge cargo capacity relative to their size, meaning they can get a lot of EP's by removing cargo. In their respective sizes, there are 2 ships what are best in this regard:

• In Gargantuan size, Civilian Lone Scout-A (civilian variant of TIE Scout) is best with it's 150 tons (+75 EP), what nets it a total of 76 EP's to use. It also has 3 crew members and 3 passengers - each of those could use additional weapon systems you can add.
• In Colossal size, Corellian MT Dropship is the best. It has 500 tons (+100 EP), plus 1 unused EP, giving you 101 EP from the start. On top of that, it starts with 4 bulky Concussion Missile Launchers, of likely Medium type - they can be replaced by Proton Torpedo Launchers with ammo extensions and same damage, giving you extra +16EP (for 117EP total). It also has 15 crew members and 200 passenger troops + speeders (or 50 + 4 heavy walkers) - meaning, you could add dozens of different weapons, and have enough men to use them all simultaneously (just don't use Weapon Batteries rules - they make weapons weaker). And the ship is very powerful to begin with - it has multiple guns by default, is a lot more sturdy than anything it's size (among other things, more HP and strong shields) - what also makes it more resistant to GM's "No Fun Allowed" claims (this ship is a flying fortress, it's supposed to carry lots of systems, weapons and whatnot). If you are feeling especially (over)confident and don't mind finding yourself on a wreckage with 1 hour of life support, you can remove all Escape Pods (they're not that much better than Wreckage anyways), netting +10 EP (for a total of 127EP). Turning this ship into a literal flying fortress is just a matter of money.
  • There is unique ship Shackles of Nizon what can have 3800 EP after cargo removal + 1 EP unspent. But it's practically unusable by PC's, as it's seen in 1 encounter, then flies away after being saved and is never seen again.
• And, as you could see in the links, Colossal (Frigate) ships (both Space Transports and Capital Ships) with 1000+EP are fairly common - you have some variety in them. The biggest variants have 2000+EP.
• There were also some notable ground vehicles:
  • X-34 Speeder Escort, CAV PX-10, AT-XT, Aerosled Mk III are Large vehicles with Total Cover, what can be used indoors.
  • All-Terrain Roller and FC-20 Speeder Bike are useful for rules-lawyering weapons exploit: they can be outfitted with System with 1 EP cost, including Weapons Systems; if we extrapolate Weapon Sizes rules, we can get what those installed weapons would be no bigger than Large, as both vehicles are Medium; therefore, a Medium character, in theory, could use those weapons after bolting them off and doing a little modifications to them (and perhaps something to give energy to them - but that can be worked around by carrying variants of portable generator). That includes things like full-sized Proton Torpedo Launcher and Medium Laser Cannon.
  • Land Crawler, A-A5 Speeder Truck and UT-AT can be turned into powerful ground tanks - a lot more powerful than proper fighting vehicles of same size. Land Crawler can also be turned into cheap remotely-aimed artillery/MLRS.

You can install passenger seats in ships — what requires ridiculous amount of EP's, and usually not worth it. But, while such possibility is not explicitly stated, you could try to reverse that process — remove passenger seats to gain EP's and make ship cheaper (similar modifications also happened both IRL and in-universe). In this case, you would get ridiculous amount of EP's — for example, Corellian MT Dropship has 200 seats — so, you could get 40 EP's and 40000 CR (if it's Seating), or 400 EP and 100000 CR (if it's Quarters). On top of that, such modification could make cost of some ships into negative value.

Then, there's nonsensical "Cost Modifiers", what makes systems more expensive the bigger the ship is, without any logic. Light Laser Cannon is 1500 CR and 1 EP - so, for Huge, it's 1500 CR and 1 Ton of cargo removed; but for Gargantuan, it's 3000 CR and 2 Tons; Colossal - 7500 CR and 5 Tons; Colossal (Frigate) - 75000 CR and 50 Tons; Colossal (Cruiser) - 750000 CR and 500 Tons; Colossal (Station) - 7500000 and 5000 Tons. And while Colossal (Station) Light Laser Cannon is seemingly 5000 times bigger, it's just as weak as "Huge" variant, functioning just the same without any increases in power. Basically, imagine if pintle-mounted MG on Baneblade was 500 times more expensive and heavy than pintle-mounted MG on motorcycle, without any increase in power. If you want to have things more consistent — play as if Cost Modifiers was always 1 no matter the size.

• Rougly same nonsense for Droid Cost Factor. For some reason, systems for Small droids cost more than for normal sizes. While there were miniaturization issues, IRL smaller things cost smaller. And Cost Factor for big droids is big for things, what don't need to be enlarged to continue functioning - like Multispectrum Searchlight - not to mention, what systems again don't become better despite being bigger. Again, for better playing experience, count Cost Factor of droids bigger than Medium as 1 - and in case of droids smaller than Medium, divide the cost by Cost Factor.

On top of that, scale and proportions of the system are incredibly wrong — you'll need big overhaul to make everything as is should mathematically by. Big and strong things are weaker than they should be; small and weak things are stronger than they should be; there is no consistency of translation in-universe measurement values into in-game values; many supposedly armored vehicles can be taken down by small arms fire; there is no consistent size of Mass-Combat/Space Squares; and many other errors, mishaps and inconsistencies.

There were some sub-frigate vehicles with Turbolasers, what shouldn't be normally possible. Because each model of weapon is different ("Several common (and some not-so-common) Weapon Systems are detailed below. Note that the damage given for these Weapon Systems is typical, not absolute, and naming conventions are far from universal. It's impossible to detail every Weapon System for every manufacturer throughout every era. These values are representative, and a Gamemaster is free to modify them as they desire"), precisely those models of Turbolasers could be bolted off the original vehicle and placed in something else, since they did somehow fit into original vehicle in the first place. This includes Light Turbolaser on Huge ship, or Medium Turbolaser on Colossal ship.

Strategic scale unit command

The game definitely wasn't made for Apocalypse/Epic sized battles, as maps are tiny (usually you won't be further than Short range of Pistols), and models are big. Encounters and campaigns are usually made for small groups of PC's, and would completely break when armies and fleets get involved. You'll likely run out of physical table, minis, and even proxies. To play a big battle, you'll definitely need a virtual table, patience and time. But, there are mechanics allowing PC's to command armies - and tricks to make those armies bigger and stronger.

First, there is Gear Requisition. Amount of credits you can spend on things is determined as: sum of all levels of PC's + requisition bonus of most highly-ranked character. When requesting personal gear only, you have Requisition Levels * 2000 credits; if requesting starships, you have Requisition Levels * 10000 for ships and Requisition Levels * 500 for personal gear. For example, if all PC's are level 20 and at least one of them is General/Marshal, there will be 50 Requisition Levels. Ships are requesited at Used cost - or 60% cost if only regular cost is stated.

Generally, the most cost-effective options are cheap Starfighters - like rebel CloakShape Fighter, CIS droid-fighters, or crappy Mankvim-814 Light Interceptor - that way, on high levels, you can get hundreds of those ships. When cost of both sides is same, lots of cheap fighters will destroy and tear small numbers of big ships. Also, spammable things like rebel CloakShape Fighter, and CIS "Vulture" Droid Starfighter and Hyena-Class Bomber, also carry missiles. For example (because Used cost is 60% of normal cost unless explicitly stated), CloakShape Fighter costs 15000 CR, "Vulture" Droid Starfighter 11400 CR, Scarab-Class Droid Starfighter 10200 CR, Mankvim-814 Light Interceptor 6000 CR — while requisition can get up to 900000 or even 1000000+ CR total at high level (cue upper 2, or even 3-digit number swarm; that's not even going to whether personal aides count for Requisition levels).

Special Orders are usually not very great - request transport (what will carry you from point A to point B - it may shoot enemies along the way, but while it can get you in/out/through dangerous place, it's not there to fight for you), request supplies (small amount), artillery strikes (what you can instead buy as Personal Gear Requisition), Knowledge/Use Computer skill. There is a troops reinforcements variant - usually in line with other variants, but there is a method to make it a lot more useful.

There is "Starfighter Pilot" CL 5 General Unit (usable by any faction) - what can be used for Major and Command troops special orders - and what has "Vehicle or Starship" in possessions. If your GM is off his meds, these guys could bring in Capital Ships and Space Stations (though it is technically RAW-possible - and as stated in it's profile, it can "represent" "a ship captain" - idea of a hundred ships-of-the-line responding is completely unbalanced and absurd); if we restrict this to more reasonable variant "Planetary Vehicles + Starfighters + Space Transports" (or at least, have not all of them be Capital Ships), that's still incredibly useful - level 20 PC can get 20 of troops from Major order and 25 from Command, what in case of Starfighter Pilots means 20/25 ships. General/Marshal has 3 minor, 2 major and 2 command special orders - meaning, you can get 90 of those Starfighter Pilots, each with his own robust vehicle or starfighter/gunship.

There is also a mechanic where PC's can command Capital Ships. Ships are commanded for duration of 1 week - but cooldown between uses is not specified. PC can get 1 Capital Ship for General/Marshal rank and 1 if he's high-level member of proper Custom Organization. For example, player team of 4 can have, at most, 8 capital ships. Each capital ship can be the strongest variant faction has - while "Space Station"-sized ships seem to not fit into "Capital Ship" category (they are super-capital ships - and therefore are a separate and greater class), there are extra-large and often unique capital ships like "Outbound Flight" (CL22), "Imperious-Class Star Destroyer" (CL29), "Pellaeon-Class Star Destroyer" (CL28), "Nebula-Class Star Destroyer" (CL26), "Endurance-Class Fleet Carrier" (CL26), "The Indomitable" (CL23), "Scythe-Class Battlecruiser" (CL22) - they are not always available, so use them if you can. Even more modest CL20, (or CL19 if those are unavailable), capital ships carry lots of starfighters, space transports, entire army contingents, carry even things like frigates inside them, and come with escorts and supplements of other Cruiser-sized ships, essentially being flagships of a small fleet. At this point, you can easily get 3 digit-number of units on the field - and if each player brings in a Capital Ship, you can get 4-digit number of units on field. That's not even going to the point of what would happen if GM allowed you to bring in "Space Station"-sized super-capital ships.

• Also, there is no explicit limit to amount of organizations a PC can be member of — both including pre-existing organizations and custom organizations. If you have multiple PC's with custom organizations, you could make PC's cross-join them (at the most extreme case, N custom organizations and N PC's, each being member of every custom organization). You can also be member of multiple pre-existing organizations. Take note, however, as that not only means more privileges (e.g. extra Capital Ships for your army), but also more responsibilities — you have more superiors to answer to, more subordinates to command, more things to care for, more jobs to do. Also, you need to mind the timing of events — or else you may find yourself in mishaps or problems (for example, you get order to «immediately do this important mission» from Organization A — while you are busy doing mission from Organization B of comparable importance). Then, in some cases, interests and goals of factions may not intersect, causing some of them to not be involved (therefore, no privileges and no responsibilities from that organization for that mission). Things get even worse when interests and goals of organizations contradict each other — you'll need to use your wits to make things done without losing your face — though, such situation is very unlikely (unless either you're member of backstabby organizations like those ruled by Darksiders or particularly bad criminals/syndicates/cartels — or if you're somehow member of organizations what are outright hostile to each other). It's better to be member of organizations what are Helpful and closely related (like The Jedi and Republic/Rebels), or at least Friendly; though just Neutral/Indifferent are also possible; Unfriendly or Hostile to each other is to be taken with caution. Besides, successfully being member of multiple organizations should make their relations better, successful combined forces operations will make it even better, though messing things up may make relations worse (at least, to your PC) or make some scandals. But overall, the more organizations you are member of, the better — since carefully-chosen privileges outweigh responsibilities — think having a dozen Capital Ships flagships, each with it's own Mini-Fleet, and also multiple parties worth of Personal Aides, and other things — and otherwise Indifferent factions may eventually become Friendly or Helpful to each other due to your adventures (think your Capital Ship and their Mini-Fleets from multiple Organizations starting as neutrals and becoming brothers-in-arms).
• Also, Custom Organization scale is "one-half your Heroic Level plus your Charisma bonus", but not less than 10 (Multiple Planets), and the character what created it via Natural Leader feat is automatically it's leader (+10 Organization Score). Scale 20 is Entire Galaxy (e.g. 20 levels and 30 Charisma). In theory, if you really min-max the "Party Face" out, you could unify the Whole Galaxy, or make a Organization what somehow occupies more than the Entire Galaxy (completely colonize entire Galaxy and entire Rishi Maze? Finally go into other Galaxies?).
• It's unclear what happens to Organizations whose PC has died. My best guess is what their Scale development stops or slows down — and starts increasing again once they get a member whose "one-half your Heroic Level plus your Charisma bonus" matches that of their previous leader.
• Remember what PC can join Organizations created by PC from other groups, provided they exist in compatible eras (E.G. you can't join organization what doesn't exist yet). Therefore, keep track of every custom organization what ever existed.

It is advised to, instead of Batteries fire, use lots of separate attacks - that way, you can do more damage, have more change of hitting target, and can overwhelm nimble targets with Dakka (Pilot check can be done only once per round). Batteries are convenient for speeding up combat, but are detrimental for your firepower. The only exception is Orbital Bombardment - in it, you use 1 weapon system only, so you can't do lots of attacks in Orbital Bombardment - but Batteries come handy in Orbital Bombardment. And it is strong enough what it was advised as "only as a means of making a Mass Combat encounter more dangerous" and "only if the needs of the adventure require it rather than as a means for resolving combat" - but if PC is in command of a Capital Ship, he can order his ship to fire as much as he wants, turning it into borderline-universal problem solver. More over - Ion cannons are effectively non-lethal, they only disable vehicles and knock out people - allowing to use them for taking prisoners or not severely harming civilian infrastructure.

About those custom organizations ("Designing your Organization"):

• Privileges range from nearly useless to must-have. Access to Capital Ship for 1 Week is very strong - it's very strong, and carries army worth of ships and troops, alongside a small fleet - making it many times stronger than "Starfighter" and "Space Transport" options. Personal Aide with (PC's level - 3) Heroic Levels is also good, as it's essentially additional custom character - what makes "specialist agent" option unneeded, as he's weaker and only works on Organization's territory.
• Some duties are noticeably more easy than others. "Donate credits" and "Obtain supplies" are the easiest; "Destroy supplies" is also one of the easier; "Obtain Object", "Perform Mission", "Kill enemy" are hard. It's obvious what it's easier to pay 19000 CR than to kill Darth Sidious.

Economy

There are some ways to break the economy and gets lots of money. One of them is the Supergambler build: when playing against a House, you get Wisdom check and win/lose amount of money based on how high the check is. You need a +9 modifier to be unable to lose against the House; as was explained in "Gambling Wisdom" and "Talk:Gambling Wisdom", you can get Supergambler at level 5 if you max out Wisdom and take lots of Gambler talents - or, if you also use proper species (+4 Wisdom) and make character Old (+2 wisdom), you can make this at level 1. More over - you can use this custom-made character as a helper from Custom Organization, or "trooper" from Special Orders - meaning, you don't need to cripple your character's build to break the economy. But even the super-optimized Supergambler can still loose to even level 1 character - so, play with the House instead.

Personal gear

There are some very powerful - or at least very useful - personal gear options.

Space-proof suit - "Life Support" gear like Flight suit (or armor with "Vacuum seals") - is must-have. Atmospheric hazards and inhaled poisons are surprisingly common; then there is Vacuum on space and inhospitable planets (...also deep water, being entombed in sand or debris, toxic atmospheres...), and you have risk of being thrown into space when your vehicle gets destroyed, or section gets spaced; and there is also things what are specifically described as being resisted by life supports, like Smoke, chemical weaponry (like Hex and -hex weapons, Defoliator Launcher), Gas Grenades, ETC. Flight Suit is most practical of them - 1000CR, 10 hours of life support, 3 KG weight, +1 Fortitude Defense. You can use this for your advantage, as not all enemies have life support - space sections, or start trash fires in your rooms, so enemies would get damage while you is safe.

For comparison: Vacuum Seals need to be applied to generally-useless Armor; Standard gives 10 hours for 2000 CR, 2 KG and 0 UP's; Advanced has 24 hours, 5000CR, 1 UP's, needs Medium/Heavy armor, 10 KG. Environmental Bastion Armor Template, on top of that, has very small Life Support time (amount of hours = bonus to Fortitude Defense). Space Suit costs 2000 CR, weights 15 KG and +2 Fortitude Defense. Also there is crappy Breath Mask (1 hour, 200CR, 2KG + 1KG filter), Aquata Breather (2 hours, underwater only, 350CR, 0.2KG), Vacuum Mask (10 minutes, 650CR, 0.3 KG). Because missions usually don't last for that long, Flight Suit or Standard Vacuum Seals on Thinsuit are enough — you can re-fill between missions.

There are "Armor" models what don't have Armor Bonus/Armor Class — what circumvents normal armor's uselessness. There were Shield Gauntlet, Cortosis Gauntlet and Biohazard suit — but, the best are Thinsuit and Energy Shields. You can add Armor Accessories and Armor Upgrades to "Armorless" armors — especially, Thinsuit, as you can wear lots of stacked Thinsuits (for example, Thinsuit with Heat Environmental Systems and Standard Vacuum Seals + Thinsuit with Cold Environmental Systems + Thinsuit with Aquatic Adaptation). Thinsuit can be worn beneath clothes and armor, protects against Extreme Temperatures, has +6 Max Dex Bonus (you get +7 bonus on 24 Dexterity — most PC's get that in late-game, if at all), weight 1 KG. Energy Shields impose Armor Check Penalty and Max Dex Bonus when turned on, and don't when turned off — but they give large SR numbers, can be worn as Armor Accessory, and don't have any weight. Because both Thinsuit and Energy Shields count as "armor", and you can wear arbitrary number of stacked Thinsuits, you can simultaneously use arbitrary number of Energy Shields — on top of that, there's no (explicit) limit on amount of Armor Accessories you can add to a piece of Armor arbitrary number of Energy Shields on 1 Thinsuit), Energy Shields can be attached to other Energy Shields — giving you arbitrarily large Shield Rating, making you effectively immune to Energy, Ion (and maybe, Fire) damage.

"Miniature Proton Torpedo Launcher" has 6d10 with 2-square Burst in anti-infantry mode; and 6d10*2 with no area effect and -10 penalty for hitting targets smaller than "Huge" (like TIE Fighter) in anti-vehicle mode. This is more damage for vehicles than any other Heavy Weapon, and also more damage to infantry than any other Heavy Weapons. For comparison: "Light Concussion Missile Launcher" has 4d10*2 and have -10 for targets less than Huge; Concussion Grenade turned into Missile Load has 12d6; normal Missile Launcher has 6d6, and most blaster heavy weapons and rifles have 3d10 or 3d12. MPTL also has 8Kg mass and cost 1500CR - very low for what it does.

Concussion grenades have 8d6 in 2-square Burst — more damage than any other grenades; they also deal Bludgeoning damage, what ignores Shield Rating. Thermal detonators have same damage with bigger radius - but have "Illegal" rarity and cost a lot. Missile Load turns grenade into missile for Missile Launcher, for 250 CR and with 1.5 times more damage — so, Concussion Grenade with Missile Load will have 12d6.

Power Pack Bombs can be made of 5 Power Packs from d12 weapons - resulting in bomb with 10d12 damage. They are also dirt-cheap, as their materials cost 125CR. They have 2 minuses: they can blow up in your face if you fail check to make them, and they explode in random time. First part can be circumvented by ordering mooks or prisoners to craft them; second sometimes can be irrelevant, as there are situations where it doesn't matter when they explode. You could try to argue about turning Power Pack Bombs into Missile Load - since they behave as both Explosives and Grenades, and have the size of EMP Grenade (so, they should fit in) - so, GM could say "No" (they're Explosives) or "Yes" (they're Grenades, or somehow both simultaneously). If you turned maxcap Power Pack Bomb (RPPB) into Missile Load variant (RPPM), you would get 15d10 weapon — what would explode on impact (or perhaps fly erratically around the battlefield until it explodes).

Fire Paste is absurdly powerful when used creatively. 1 appliance of Fire Paste burns for 3d4 minutes (3d4*10 rounds) deals 1d6 Fire damage to things in contact, while weighting 0.02 KG and costing 3 CR. After some calculations were made, it turned out what glass bottles can have enormous amount of Fire Paste appliances — when including weight of bottles and using "Upgrade Points" size chart to determine maximum weight of those munitions, we get: 47 appliances for Tiny, 90 appliances for Small, 232 for Medium, 2324 for Large. Target gets damaged by each of those appliances — and while Fire Paste may not be in contact for long (as it may not have cohesive or adhesive strength), just 1 hit like that is usually enough. There's two interpretations of the rules: one in which target is hit by each appliance separately (in which case anything with DR less than 5 dies instantly, and even things with DR 5 get severely damaged or disabled); and another where damage of all appliances is combined into 1 attack (in which case bluntly anything dies, with Tiny version destroying AT-AT in 2-3 turns, Small version destroying it in 1-2 turns, Medium destroying Imperial-1 Star Destroyer in 4 turns, and Large version being able to destroy Death Star (!) in 14 turns). That's not even going to using ships with big cargo capacity for carpet-bombing the battlefield with countless Fire Paste "bombs" (including 1-appliance-sized — kinda like WW1 Flechettes, except flaming), or dropping a giant Fire Paste cistern capable of burning entire planet.

Flying droid locomotion is very speedy (9 Squares for Small and smaller, 12 for Medium and bigger; allowing to kite enemies, or to quickly engage them in melee; for comparison, most characters move at 6 Squares), it allows you to move freely in any direction (e.g. fly to roof of building, move between floors of skyscraper on the outer side of building), is not hindered by any type of terrain (including Difficult Terrain), you don't touch the ground (e.g. fly over razor wire and some mines variants, screw up "tremorsense" monsters, fly over hazards), it allows for great navigation where there is no ground (like space or Bespin) or ground is dangerous (think lava planet like Mustafar), makes Jump and Climb throws irrelevant (why jump if you can fly over), what in turn makes Strength more irrelevant, and it's makes swimming and secondary movement systems (Underwater and Burrower) faster, makes you effectively immune to Fall damage (since you can decelerate before you hit the ground), and lets you use third dimensions for extra cleverness (think flying upwards, so you would be out of enemy's range, while still being able to attack them — or flying upwards to be just out of range of any ground handheld weapons, or any weapons at all; if using default Visibility rules, flying sufficiently high would also make character invisible from the ground). Since Flying PC can go to in places and ways what most other characters either find difficult to do (e.g. going to roof of a house without ladders), or can't at all (fly in space/over lava field/large pit/in the middle of the sky), it gives PC's ability to both get tremendous advantage over NPC's, and to break story when needed (I have the high ground!). ALso Flying locomotion allows you to match other Flying characters and vehicles, making you resistant or immune to their shenanigans — since they too can try all those strategies on you, if you're not Flying. Buy as soon as you can.

• While it's not explicitly stated, and therefore closer to rule of thumb, you could implement third dimension. Also useful for Flying droids/cyborgs, Flying beasts, Airspeeders and Starships. You would need to track the direction of vehicles on vertical axis, calculate range a little bit different (calculate diagonal of X and Y — then, diagonal of that diagonal and Z axis — that'll be range), and other miscellaneous things. But it may be worth it.
• In general, kiting from beyond target's weapons range — with weapon with longer range — also attacker with bigger speed, and/or flying beyond range against non-flyer — is surprisingly effective. At this point, the target should either get weapon with sufficient range (go in combat vehicle), go into cover (to force enemy go away or close in; though it'll better be good cover, like underground bunker — as weaker buildings have stats and can be destroyed), lose sight of them and go stealth or call quick allied forces to deal with attackers. Otherwise, they'll just be harassed and bombarded until they're run out of HP. Usable harasser choices include Flying droids/cyborgs, naturally Flying creatures with ranged weapons on low-end — Flying vehicles and Orbital Bombardment from Capital Ships/Space Stations on high-end. Tactic can be used for both and against PC's.

Having a lot of Hands appendages as Droid also very useful.

FC-20 Speeder Bike and All-Terrain Roller are Medium-sized. You can use them indoors for more mobility. As for Starships Modifications rules, they can be outfitted with System with 1 EP cost, including Weapons Systems; as per Weapon Sizes rules, those installed weapons would be no bigger than Large, as both vehicles are Medium; therefore, a Medium character, in theory, could use those weapons after bolting them off and doing a little modifications to them (and perhaps something to give energy to them - but that can be worked around by carrying variants of portable generator; and that's not needed for missiles/torpedoes). That includes things like full-sized Proton Torpedo Launcher and Medium Laser Cannon. Yes, 9d10*2 you can fire at anyone's face. Make them Miniaturized and those weapons will now be Medium - you could fire them with one hand, and have smaller chance of getting hernia from carrying aircraft-grade torpedo launcher with 16 torpedoes loaded in.

Miniaturized makes things 2 times lighter, 1 size category smaller - making it possible to carry more and use things you couldn't use (at least in one hand). Melee weapons have their dice size decreased, but other than that, there are no downsides.

Detection and Surveillance devices commonly include many items what increase Perception checks, detect on long range, and they detect through walls unless explicitly stated otherwise. You don't need to hold most scanning equipment - you can have them turned on somewhere on PC, and send their readings to Datapad/Portable Computer and HUD (on glasses or helmet). Sonar Mapper scans things with echolocation, has range of 100 meters, and can hold 12 hours of readings (more can be stored in Datapad). Sensor Pack weights 9 KG and used Standard Action, uses unknown method, and is a lot better - 1 KM range, "general details on comm signals, life forms, and hazards", readings amount unspecified. Surveillance Tagger launches homing beacons, Surveillance Detector finds beacons and other Surveillance Devices in 6 squares radius. Communication Scanner intercepts transmission; Recording Unit records things in sound, video and hologram; Vid-Vox Scrambler ruins said recordings. Radiation Detector detects radiation in 6 squares. Heat Sensor detects anything what has heat signature in 100 meters (most machinery and living beings emit heat; it also shows exactly how hot things are with "color-coded readings" and explicitly sees though solid obstacles) and +2 to Perception for them. There's also some scanning devices worn on the head, what give bonuses, but can't be worn with a helmet or other device worn on head (space-proof suit's helmet also counts as "helmet") and sometimes also give minor debuffs.

• TL;DR combination of Sonar Mapper, Heat Sensor, Datapad and HUD effectively gives you 100-meters (Character-Scale square is 1.5 meters — so, 66(6) squares) ranged limited wallhack (Sonar can't go into entirely closed objects, like spaceship with all doors closed — though, waves can go around the obstacles, going around the corner and back; Heat Sensor struggles with things what have room temperature, like cold-blooded animals), what is still enough to "see" most NPC's and hazards before they detect you (walls are a problem for them) and act accordingly — that also allows you to properly orient in darkness (since low-light vision for fleshbags is expensive, absolute dark vision for men is homebrew-only, and light sources uncover your position and usually have small range); most sensor readings — especially like Sonar Mapper and Sensor Pack — can be combined into convenient and large automatic, detailed map, what also somewhat sees through walls. Then, there's a question of what counts as "general details on comm signals, life forms, and hazards" — as that is subject to interpretation, it may vary from frustratingly broad (Imperials are right there) to incredibly pinpoint (Darth Vader on those coordinates).
• The default vision rules work as if everything was covered in thick, inky fog. Rules-As-Written, you shouldn't be able to see the Sun and Moon from the ground. At default rules, 60 Squares would give -30 Penalty. So, there's 2 interpretation of rules: 1) in which Detection Devices are subject to the Distance Modifiers (at which case things like 100-meters and 1KM isn't coming into practice at all, since DC is becoming impossibly big long before that), and 2) in which those devices don't cate about range, and you see things on them just as if they were in 1 meter from you (in that case, they are even more broken - since you see enemies on 100 meters, and they in about 20-40 meters).

There are some Droid Accessories usable for living PC's. Multispectrum Searchlight is 6-KM range (4000 Character-Scale squares) flashlight, what gives +2 for Perception (in situation where light gives an advantage), can un-stealthe targets in 6-square cone (-10 to Stealth) and blinds them in that cone with Standard Attack (when successful, -5 to some skill checks, and -2 if unsuccessful) — if you use common sense and rule of thumb, you could attach it to your suit or weapon, so you can blind enemies while shooting; you can also blind enemies with infrared, or ultraviolet light, so they can't see it, but get disoriented anyways (even better if you can see infrared/ultraviolet). Mesh Tape Dispenser is infinite mesh tape what can also entangle enemies — though, you can do many other things with it, limited by only your imagination.

Repulsor Pad can carry seemingly limitless weights — and they can be combined to haul bigger things. That allows to loot big and expensive things what PC's can't normally lift, like Vehicles, Bacta Tanks, or just «loot from entire location arranged into a single pile». Logically, it makes cargo «Zero-Friction», effectively weighing 10 times less. Then, you could take Repulsor Hitch — what can carry 200 KG — and attach it to Repulsor Pad via Chain — such combination should be able to transport 2 Tons of cargo. And all this is both compact and quiet, and can be brought in places where Vehicles can't or shouldn't be used.

Force Powers

• Move Object is good when used creatively. If object is within line of sight and 12 Squares (18 Meters) around character, you can move it by 6 Squares (9 Meters); DC is used to both determine damage dealt by object and being able to lift objects of different sizes. It's damage is pretty good on it's own, and it can be used to ram enemies into each other, dealing damage to both of them — but it only starts there. Object can damage more people at once if it's big, and covers multiple Squares. It can be used to throw enemies into Hazards, off the cliff, or off the map entirely. You can also ram enemies into the ceiling — so they get both normal damage and some falling damage if ceiling is higher than 3 meters in height. You could remove equipment and weapons from your enemies — making Force Disarm pointless (GM may object, but it's RAW-possible). And you could grab yourself, or buddy-grad ally, to fly this way (devs think it's not possible, but it's possible by RAW). You can also send flying enemies down to earth — useful, since Flying enemies can fly up multiple squares of Z-levels, trying to impede Jedi from going melee with them. And you can also use to barricade things with heavy objects, or move then around for small distances. And you can hurl things like Mines and Razor Wire. Possible uses go on and on.

Star Wars
About:	The Franchise, The Setting, The Movies, The Video Games
Television Shows:	The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, Disney + Originals
Star Wars Games
Miniature:	X-Wing, Armada, Legion
Tabletop:	Rebellion
Roleplaying:	FFG, WotC (d20), WEG (d6)