I always loved Star Wars. During the 90's, the many different SW videogames and comicbooks introduced me to the Expanded Universe (my first contact with an ever-expanding franchise, which nowadays seems to be the norm) and that captivated me. These were stories that explored untouched sites or themes than those found on the original trilogy, and anyone could see the potential in that. As I dug deeper, I found out that all of these spinoffs were actually considered canon, at least until Disney decided to fuck shit up in 2014 and turn most of it into Star Wars Legends. And at that moment I thought "well, this might work just like with RPG settings, in which you take what you want, leave out what you don't, and add your own creations and content however you see fit for your gaming table" (meaning that the sequel trilogy never happened in my headcanon).
I own the original d20-system Star Wars RPG (before it was revisioned as The Saga Edition), bought it when it came out. But I've never ran it (having SW characters with D&Desque levels and classes never felt right for me). I also never played or ran the original WEG Star Wars D6. My first experience with Star Wars Roleplaying was with the Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars line (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny). Those books are gorgeous, and the rules system is both kind of narrative (the Genesys dice have multiple axes of resolution) and crunchy (lots of rules and exceptions with all the talent trees and the equipment and vehicles and etc etc etc). The mini-campaign I ran was cool, but given that I am more leaning to the narrative and simplistic spectrum of RPGs nowadays, the system was just too much crunch for my tastes. I closed that chapter thinking that even that I enjoy Star Wars and I could run games in that setting forever, the SWFFG system and books are just too cumbersome (to teach to new players, to reference and remember all the rules, to adjudicate rulings on the spot, and most importantly, to improvise anything that might come up).
So I moved on to other RPGs, but remained always attentive to other indie games set in the SW universe. I looked at the Streets of Mos Eisley Playset (a World of Dungeons hack) with interest, but ultimately it didn't find a spot in my ever-growing list of must-play RPGs. Eventually I found two games that did: GALACTIC by Riley Rethal, and Galaxy Far, Far Away by Jim Parkin. The former is a very narrative-focused and character-driven game based on the Belonging Outside Belonging framework. It oozes with personality and potential to create deep stories in the Star Wars universe. The latter is Jim Parkin's take on a FKR version of Star Wars, very minimalistic with the rulings, not rules and play the world ethos at the forefront. Both had material very usable at the table: random charts for generating anything from adventure starters to background decor, loadouts or lists of character traits for players to create their PCs with quick prompts, etc. I tried both, and they fulfilled what I suspected they would: They allowed me to play a narrative story set in the Star Wars universe with zero prep, while still being fun enough. But they still were too lightweight and lacked some deepness for my liking. This gave me a push to start designing a similar game, or a mix of all of those, that better fit my own tastes.
In comes FAR GALAXY, my own hack of rules and procedures taken from many other RPG systems.
The first obvious insertion was the use of Fantasy Flight's narrative dice (I already have them, they smell of Star Wars, and provide quick action resolution AND the very enjoyable and's and but's that create cinematic action in the fiction by making you think of the context apart from your own action). They work slightly differently than in SWFFG: it's a more simplified dice system in which each dice type belongs to something (⬟: base roll, ♦: skills or items, ◼: stunts or aid) and there's no "evolving" or "increasing" a die type (something that's kinda complex to explain to a newbie player).
Then I decided to codify a little more the "resistance" or grit of characters (instead of leaving it all up to narrative and GM adjudication), and implemented a sub-system very similar of Fate's Stress and Consequences (in FAR GALAXY they're called Chances and Conditions).
Another addition was that of Flaws, character traits that work similarly to Dungeon World's Flags. These are aspects of the characters, usually negative, that are there mostly to generate tension between PCs and incite them to interact in certain ways between each other... with the incentive of XP if they do so. This and the Obligation were put in the game to promote a specific type of roleplaying, one that I think emulates the character development we see in most Star Wars media.
Also, the use of the Force and falling to the Dark Side has a rather expanded subsystem because I feel it's an important part of the setting. It's not too crunchy, in fact any "power" a force user wants to execute must be adjudicated to a certain level in the spot by the GM. But it's defined with enough procedures that I think represents its nature well enough.
Finally, the manual is filled with lots of random tables and generators (many borrowed from other aforementioned hacks) and lists of NPC stat blocks, because I want this game to be usable at the table with zero prep.
FAR GALAXY is currently in playtest. You'll find a download link once I deem it worth of publication (albeit free because of copyright and other legal reasons).
EDIT: links to the manual and character sheets as of December 19th, 2022:
Feedback is appreciated!
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