Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Star Wars Saga Edition

The Game: Star Wars Saga Edition
The Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Degree of Familiarity: Read the core book, that's about it. Fairly good grasp on the setting, though.
Books Used: Star Wars Saga Edition rulebook

Not a lot of preamble here, as this is one I have rather minimal experience with... none, in fact, though I ran a couple one-shots under the old d20 (*shudder*) ruleset, and have the knowledge of the setting you'd expect of a geek from the Eighties. I'm not big on d20, if I'm being honest, so I never had much love for Wizards' previous edition of the property, but Saga is not too bad -- in fact, it actually was one of the early test-runs for several of the mechanics introduced in Dungeons & Dragons' Fourth Edition rules, and I am a fan of D&D 4E.

Was quite the fan of Star Wars once too, but.. George Lucas failed me. However, my dissatisfaction with two of three entries in the prequel trilogy is a topic I may address at some other time.

Anyway.. I've not got a lot of inspiration for this.. so I think I'll do this old school: Roll the stats and let them fall where they may, and see what that results in. That said, off to Random.org...

Strength 11
Dexterity 12
Constitution 13
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 16
Charisma 14

...well, not terrible, really.. one good stat, and another above the curve. Lets see what those stats can enable... reading over the stats, Wisdom has an effect on Force powers, but those physical scores are a bit low for a Jedi.... the Charisma ability also boosts Use the Force checks, though... hrrr... possibly. We won't be a brawler, that's for certain... moving onto our Species... and, as this is a Star Wars game, of course there are a lot to choose from... and now, as one must do when rolling stats randomly.. one must decide whether to choose a race that complements existing strengths, or helps shore up one's weaknesses. Looking at our options, we'l lgo with the former and thsu decide our hero is an Ithorian ("Hammerhead"). and looking at sample names, we'll mash things up and dub our Hammerhead..... Morntor. Creative, I know, but I suck at naming Ithorians. Looking at the book, Ithorians add +2 Wisdom and Charisma, but at the same time suffer a -2 penalty to Dexterity (..that squares it, no getting into fistfights, and put the damned blaster down, we'll just shoot our foot off); they also gain the ability to Bellow with those big, honking-loud (literally) four throats of theirs, a +2 bonus to their Will Defense, the ability to re-roll Survival checks, and if they have the Knowledge (Life Sciences) skill, they gain Skill Focus in it as a bonus. More mundanely, they are Medium creatures with a speed of 6 and start play with the abilty to speak Basic and Ithorese, and on that subject our Intelligence Bonus (+1, as our Intelligence is a 12) entitles us to an additional language...we'll take Huttese, there. And with that done, we move on to choosing a Class.

Okay, lets see.. given our strengths, and our weaknesses physically, the only two Classes we have the raw chops to make work with any sort of luck are Jedi and Noble, and honestly, poor Morntor doesn't belong anywhere near a fight with those stats, so Noble it is.... looking to the class description, we start out with 19 Hit Points (Base of 18, +1 for our 13 Constitution), 5 Force Points, a +1 bonus to Reflex Defense and a +2 bonus to Will Defense, and Weapon Proficiency with Pistols and Simple Weapons (for all the good it will do us); we also get to choose 7 (6 base +1 for our Intelligence modifier) Skills to be Trained, and looking at our list, we'll take Gather Information [Cha], Initiative [Dex], Knowledge (Life Sciences) [Int], Perception [Wis], Persuasion [Cha], Treat Injury [Wis], and Use Computer [Int]. That decided, we'll note that our Attack Bonus is +0 (so, with our dazzling array of physical capability, we'd be likely to hit the broad side of a bantha at five paces on a clear day), and now.. we must choose our 1st Level Talent. Now, what do we want to go with, here? I sort of like the image that Morntor is a generally peaceful, nice sort of Hammerhead, a quiet doctor really, but that when he gets angry, those bellowing throats can be rather intimidating.a sort of "daddy voice" he can bring to bear that, though he wouldn't hurt a fly himself, is frightful enough that the opposition doesn't necessarily have to know that to be the case, and so we'll take Presence from the Influence tree, letting us make a Persuasion check to intimidate an enemy into surrender as a Standard Action, as opposed to taking all Round. That done, we'll roll 3d4 for... 8, so we have 8 x 400, or 3200 Credits to buy equipment with. That takes care of Class-specific concerns; moving on, we'll take the next step and choose our 1st level Feat... well, we may as well play to our strengths and go with Surgery Expert, which allows us to perform surgeries ib ten minutes instead of an hour -- not earth-shattering, but.. useful.

Class: Noble
Level: 1

Hit Points: 19
Force Points: 5
Base Attack Bonus: +0

Reflex Defense (10 + Character Level / 2 + Dexterity modifier + Class/Race bonuses): 11
Fortitude Defense (10 + Character Level / 2 + Constitution modifier + Class/Race bonuses): 11
Will Defense: 10 + Character Level / 2 + Wisdom + Class/Race bonuses): 18

Skills (Character Level / 2 + Stat Modifier +5, for trained skills, + any modifers for Feats or other circumstances): Gather Information +8, Initiative +5, Knowledge (Life Sciences) +11, Perception +9, Persuasion +8, Treat Injury +9, Use Computer +6

Talents: Presence

Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge [Life Sciences]), Surgery Expert, Weapon Proficiency (Pistols), Weapon Proficiency (Simple Weapons)

And lastly,we have to purchase our equipment, which isn't going to be a long list: 315 Credits for a Sporting Blaster Pistol and its associated License, 600 for a Medical Kit, 1,000 for a Surgery Kit, and another 1,00 for a Datapad; we'l lfinish with two Medpacs at 100 Credits each and 25 more for the Power Pack to actually power the Sporting Blaster Morntor's family insists he carry even if he's useless with it, and we'll bank the last 60 Credits

INVENTORY
- Licensed Sporting Blaster
- Power Pack
- Medical Kit
- Surgery Kit
- Medpac x2
- Datapad
- 60 Credits

And, that'll finish up with our Ithorian medic. Let's recap...

* * * * * *

NAME: Morntor
SPECIES: Ithorian
CLASS: Noble
LEVEL: 1

ABILITY SCORES
Strength 11
Dexterity 10
Constitution 13
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 18
Charisma 16

HIT POINTS: 19
FORCE POINTS: 5
BASE ATTACK BONUS: +0

DEFENSES
Reflex: 11
Fortitude: 11
Will: 18

SKILLS
Gather Information +8
Initiative +5
Knowledge (Life Sciences) +11
Perception +9
Persuasion +8
Treat Injury +9
Use Computer +6

TALENTS
Presence

FEATS
Skill Focus (Knowledge [Life Sciences])
Surgery Expert
Weapon Proficiency (Pistols)
Weapon Proficiency (Simple Weapons)

SPECIES ABILITIES
Bellow

INVENTORY
- Licensed Sporting Blaster
- Power Pack
- Medical Kit
- Surgery Kit
- Medpac x2
- Datapad
- 60 Credits

* * * * * * *

Morntor never asked for adventure, he was a simple, if wealthy, Ithorian doctor on a quiet world in a galaxy far, far away a long time ago... but when destiny called, he reluctantly fell in with whatever band of misfits fate conspired to leave him in the company of, and lent his skillful medical and biological knowledge and his stern, thunderous voice to the group's heroic endeavours.....

Yeah, not much of a backstory, but we're working in a void at 1st level here so it will have to do.

And that's a wrap, space cowboys. See you lot next week.