Converting Marvel Super Heroes to Star Wars?

[Jedaii]

First, apologies. I can't find a system for running Star Wars among the published games. All of them are very good in their own ways but, just ..... not doing it for me. SO why not hack a system I like and create something atrocious 🥴?!? I really need folks familiar with TSR's Marvel Super Heroes to dissect my SW-MSH Hack below and tell me what does/could/doesn't work. Please be critical because I want to know if this works, or is a disaster in the making. I tried a hack using Mutants & Masterminds 3e but, doing the Force powers was wonky. GURPS and HERO are too wonky in too many areas. Using D&D + Star Wars is a hard "Nope". Savage Worlds has cards lol 😂 The trick is making a Jedi: the system has to have powers (not D&D-like spells) and rules for using spaceships (fairly easy rules, so no Traveller. After many, many years I am just now realizing that word is spelled wrong) 😐 If anyone can suggest a different system to hack and/or give me notes on my hack below, many thanks!

Star Wars the Superhero Game! (not the actual title)

Ability Benchmarks: Amazing is the maximum for Humans and most alien races. Human strength maxes out at Good and aliens max-out at Remarkable. Roll for Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, Psyche and Popularity in order. If Strength exceeds the maximum, that result can be swapped with an Ability result that meets the max (i.e., IN is rolled for STR and TY for Fighting; those ranks can be swapped):

 

01-10 = TY

11-30 = GD

31-50 = EX

51-70 = RM

71-90 = IN

91-00 = AM

 

Common Talents: Guns (blasters), Marksman*, Weapon Master*, Weapon Specialization* (Force-users), Tumbling, Acrobatics (Force-users), Pilot, Military (rebels), Crime, Detective, Computers, Electronics, Mystic/Mental (Force-users), Languages, First-Aid, Trivia, Repair/Tinker, Leadership. Players roll to see how many Talents they get, then pick from the list (in the Players’ Book). Talents with a “*” count as two Talents:

 

01-25 = 2

26-50 = 3

51-75 = 4

76-00 = 5

 

Combat: 

• 1 Round = 3 seconds and each combatant must choose an offensive or defensive action

• Dodging (the attacker must make an attack FEAT roll vs. the target’s Fighting or Agility rank)

• Blocking (the attacker must make an attack FEAT roll vs. the target’s Fighting or Lightsaber Talent rank)

• Charging is based on the higher of Strength or Fighting

• Grabbing (not Grappling) is based on Agility: White = Miss, Green = Damage/Break, Yellow = Grab, Red = Take

• SLAM: White = damage rank in yards, Green = damage rank in feet, Yellow = knocked down, Red = No

• STUN: White = unconscious until revived, Green = 1d10+1 rounds, Yellow = 1 round, Red = No

• KILL: White = Dead!, Green = all Health lost & -1CS Endurance per round, Yellow = all Health lost & -1CS Endurance per minute, Red = No

 

Weapons: 

• Blaster: EX Energy damage

• Blaster Rifle: RM Energy damage

• Mounted/Spaceship Blaster: AM Energy damage

• Lightsaber: AM Edged damage (Yellow results count as a Bullseye)

 

Resources: 

01-05 = FB (broke & unemployed)

06-30 = PR (low-paying position)

31-60 = TY (average-paying position)

61-95 = GD (better than average position)

96-00 = EX (high-paying position)

 

Transport:

• Landcraft: TY cost, GD control, AM speed, GD body, PR defense

• Spaceships: EX cost, EX control, CL1000 speed, IN body, IN defense (RM w/o deflector shields)

• Hyper-jump: +1CS Spaceship cost & speed

 

Force Powers: Players of Jedi characters roll for the number of powers, then pick from the list. Powers with a “*” count as two powers:

01-25 = 2

26-50 = 3

51-75 = 4

76-00 = 5

 

• Danger Sense

• Cosmic Awareness

• Combat Sense

• Emotion Detection

• Force Detection

• Tracking Sense

• Leaping

• Electrical Manipulation

• Energy Reflection*

• Telekinesis

• Ultimate Skill*

• Astral Projection*

• Postcognition

• Extra Attacks 

• Energy Generation*

• Stunning Missile/Attack

• Recovery

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Jedaii (see edit history)

[yxanthymir]

My suggestion would be use Fate with Venture City, really easy to convert anything to Fate; or use Cortex Prime, that is a system created to be hacked.

[Malkavian Grin]

What do you think of Powered by the Apocalypse rules? I am currently running a game of Star Worlds which is PbtA rules hacked, and hacked, and hacked again to be Star Wars. I think it works really well and the Force doesn't feel like Jedi are the best character type.

You have the right of it though: whatever you use has to have Powers. But to what extent? Are you trying to make it obvious that the Force is OP much the same way a Superhero would be? Or are you trying to just find a good ruleset that lets people play a Jedi without being the obvious best character type?

Fate is kind of designed to accommodate anything, really. But instead of the Force Powers feeling "extra" they'd probably just feel like "something my character does to solve problems." What I mean is, anything goes in Fate because it's all the same thing; you roll the Fudge dice and add a number. That's it. That's like, the whole system.

I will say, I don't know what Venture City is; I think is a supplement/setting for doing Superheroes in Fate?

[Jedaii]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:26 PM, yxanthymir said:

My suggestion would be use Fate with Venture City, really easy to convert anything to Fate; or use Cortex Prime, that is a system created to be hacked.

Not a fan of Fate or Cortex Prime.

On 6/16/2023 at 5:39 PM, Malkavian Grin said:

What do you think of Powered by the Apocalypse rules? I am currently running a game of Star Worlds which is PbtA rules hacked, and hacked, and hacked again to be Star Wars. I think it works really well and the Force doesn't feel like Jedi are the best character type.

You have the right of it though: whatever you use has to have Powers. But to what extent? Are you trying to make it obvious that the Force is OP much the same way a Superhero would be? Or are you trying to just find a good ruleset that lets people play a Jedi without being the obvious best character type?

Fate is kind of designed to accommodate anything, really. But instead of the Force Powers feeling "extra" they'd probably just feel like "something my character does to solve problems." What I mean is, anything goes in Fate because it's all the same thing; you roll the Fudge dice and add a number. That's it. That's like, the whole system.

I will say, I don't know what Venture City is; I think is a supplement/setting for doing Superheroes in Fate?

The Force gives people superpowers so it makes sense to use a superhero rpg. PbtA games can be fun, but they lack the rules to cover Force-users and the playbooks are restrictive.

[RedMax]

12 hours ago, Jedaii said:

Not a fan of Fate or Cortex Prime.

The Force gives people superpowers so it makes sense to use a superhero rpg. PbtA games can be fun, but they lack the rules to cover Force-users and the playbooks are restrictive.

 

I've used Hero 5e for Star Wars. The campaign went for about two years. The Star Hero supplement is helpful, but mostly I used Hero System 5th Edition, Revised.

Multipower works great for Force powers.

Edited June 18, 2023 by RedMax (see edit history)

[Jedaii]

On 6/18/2023 at 6:14 PM, RedMax said:

 

I've used Hero 5e for Star Wars. The campaign went for about two years. The Star Hero supplement is helpful, but mostly I used Hero System 5th Edition, Revised.

Multipower works great for Force powers.

Agreed that's a great system for SW.