I am not really agree with your point of view. The first race in SW isn´t Human only by the cause of it is easier for FX… Really not, because C3PO, or Chewbacca could have been the protagonists of SW… And Lucas is the pioner of good FX in Alien Races. (What you say is maybe correct for Star Trek series) Mmmm… The thing is relative to the FEEDBACK of the people seing the films. SW is a History of rebels, princess and villains LIKE US in a galaxy at War, where alien races are the background and the flavor. In all the two trilogies, we have not more than three important alien SECONDARY protagonists. (Yoda, Chewbacca… and maybe Grievous).

Of course this is ONLY MY point of view. But i want to fix in my games the feeling of the movies, and my characters will be almost all human.

I have, in fact a genesis which explain this: WHY are there more human beings than people of the other races in SW galaxy? Well, this is my secret.
So, enfin, Alien Races are wellcome for important NPCs… but in my group, no more than one will be an alien.

Beyond of this, we have the concept of "race" of the SWTOR video-game (Horrible game), in which races are, really, cultures… (Mirialan, Miraluka…)


Sorry for my english… I am from Spain (Europe).
 

arkiva said:

Hope your group appreciates that. Most people playing Star Wars like variety and most of the time at least half if not more are usually playing aliens. Star Wars is about a galaxy far, far away full of alien races. One of the reasons we see so many humans in the original trilogy, besides the FX issue which was a reality back in the 70s, is because for the last 20 yrs leading up to events in A New Hope a human-centric dictatorship has been establishing its hold. Once FX caught up we saw many more aliens in the prequel trilogy. The pod race and the senate were two examples that were specifically there to showcase the aliens of the galaxy.

By all means, in your game deny the use of alien races to your players if that is what you want.  It sounds like you have a particular vision of how the Star Wars galaxy is. I just hope your players all agree to that vision as more than one may want to explore playing alien races.

mouthymerc said:

Is it not then the fact that all races are so similar a turn down?

Are this little differences enough to catch the flavour of the alien races? or there is the risk that playing a wookie may end up beign like playing with a hairy human?

Cheers,

Yepes

Yepesnopes said:

Actually that just means that the human and the Rancor don't roll any more dice than the other (keeping the dice pool small). There are probably other bonuses and Talents that give the Rancor an advantage over the human, such as modifiers for size. Unfortunately, I don't have the Beta with me and the full book hasn't been released yet.

P.S. This is how most systems handle bigger or smaller creatures. D20 SW used a Size Modifier for contests. D6 had dice caps for scale differences (2nd ed and before) or bonus dice to one side or the other (2nd Ed R&E). Savage Worlds uses size modifiers when dealing with STR and Damage from massive creatures. Same with GURPS.

mouthymerc said:

Cannot a human do the same?

I agree with you about the role play and the incarnation of the character; but precisely, the example you give, within the rules of EotE a human (or any other specie) can do it too. It is not a "wookie only" thing. Since mechanicaly there is no difference in strength between a human a wookie, why wouldn't a human be able to tear the droid apart? and if he can, then again, which are the differences between a wookie and a human?

Well, I would say wookies are taller, they have their body covered by fur and they communicate by producing annoying sounds…a yes and they are stronger than humans and can tear a droid apart (or similar). The only thing is that the last one is not anymore true within the game rules, in the sense it is not a diference anymore, since any other PC with the same brawn score should be able to do it.

It seems to me that the diferences between wookies and humans have thined. I agree with you, as you said, this is a rpg and not all aspects come reflected by game mechanics.  Still, we cannot neglect that some do, like the strength of a wookie. I don't see then, why a wookie cannot have more brawn than a human, why he cannot rise his brawn above the maximum of 6? It is a bit decaf that all alien races are equal in characteristics.

Cheers,

Yepes

mouthymerc said:

That is precisely my point. I am a bit afraid that the game betrays the players wishes in that regard. If a player comes to me saying "I want to play a wookie" why he wants to play a wookie? Probably is because he has seen the movies and he wants to play a big strong wookie who is also a faithful companion.

My fears are that the game mechanics won't provide enough coverage to the "strong" part for his (our) picture of how a wookie is. Said that, I haven't played yet, I am still in the process of reading the book, but, I will probably rise the limit of wookie Brawn up to 7. It will create the ilusion that wookies are stronger than other races, and I say ilusion because reaching Brawn 7 would cost at least finishing two talent trees.

My two cents,

Yepes

Yepesnopes said:

Play the game then worry about this. The wookiees 'feel' like very physical characters.

-WJL

Yepesnopes said:

Why? On average wookies are stronger which is represented by a higher starting Brawn. Why can't a human who dedicates himself be as strong as a wookie?

Azrael Macool said:

Where?  

I just did a quick look in the beta book and the only place I can find Rancors mentioned is in a silhoutte table (Table 6-5, p 137.  They're silhouette 3).  They aren't in the index, either, while Mynocks are.

So, it doesn't appear there are any references to Rancors specifically, and pg 64 states "During the course of play, no characteristic can be increased higher than 6."  No notes on whether NPC/creatures can have higher characteristics, though.  Also, I can't find anything that explicitly allows cybernetics to break that barrier, in the attributes chapter, gear chapter, or final week's beta notes.

-WJL

[QUOTE efidm=782461]

mouthymerc said:

That is precisely my point. I am a bit afraid that the game betrays the players wishes in that regard. If a player comes to me saying "I want to play a wookie" why he wants to play a wookie? Probably is because he has seen the movies and he wants to play a big strong wookie who is also a faithful companion.

My fears are that the game mechanics won't provide enough coverage to the "strong" part for his (our) picture of how a wookie is. Said that, I haven't played yet, I am still in the process of reading the book, but, I will probably rise the limit of wookie Brawn up to 7. It will create the ilusion that wookies are stronger than other races, and I say ilusion because reaching Brawn 7 would cost at least finishing two talent trees.

My two cents,

Yepes

[/QUOTE]

Humans could be as strong as wookies in all d20 editions.  Why is this suddenly a problem now?

-WJL

EDIT: Sorry, misquoted previously.

Azrael Macool said:

AH, you're correct!  Good catch, and I stand corrected.  Thank you.

It's easy for those bits to slip by when you're looking for them where you think they should be.

-WJL