Galaxy Far Away: Star Wars - This Is The (Ultralight) Way

I love Star Wars. I always have. I always will. Arguments about which bit of the canon (or non-canon!) is best is moot. Every segment of the whole has its flaws--lackluster moments, inconsistencies, cringe-inducers, and poor realization etc--but the saga is greater than the sum of its parts. I digress. This isn't an agenda post, it's my attempt to slim down Star Wars roleplaying into a bite-sized game while maintaining grit, tropes, and high stakes.

Ever since I read around about FKR stuff I thought about the "worlds, not rules" adage, and what worlds I'd like to translate to an ultralight model. My son made that decision for me after he asked me to run a Star Wars game for him. I have WEG Star Wars d6 handy, but thats an awful lot of dice and still a bit too crunchy for a five-year-old to play. I've opted to take concepts from Landshut, Adventure Hour, Revenant's Hack, and Primeval d6 and fire them all into the thermal exhaust vent of the Death Star to see what happens.

Jaromir Hrivnac, ff

Galaxy Far Away: Ultralight Star Wars

[PDF here] - For an update on rules and tweaks, go here

There is one referee and one or more players. The game is a conversation. 

Treat the world as a real place. Lean into what you know about the given setting. The referee is neutral and plays to see what happens as much as the players do. Reasonable action happens as described. Risk and impact are adjudicated by the referee. Trust each other to be fair. Act in good faith.

Creating a Character

Decide as a table if you're aligned with the Rebellion or Empire, or unaligned.

Play as any species or droid, etc. Individually, note the following on your character sheet. Keep these to a few words at most:

• One positive trait and one negative trait. 
• Two of either a prior job, organization, training, or culture that has shaped you.
• One lingering personal haunt and one forward-looking goal.
• One relationship to a non-player character. 

Start with a commlink and 1,000 credits, enough to afford a cheap blaster. If you're not a droid, roll 1d6 to determine Force sensitivity--note sensitivity if you roll a 6. Finally, roll 1d6 against each of the following tables and add those items to your character sheet. Take a moment and infuse them with a bit of personality.

d6	WEAPON	CLOTHING	TOOL	TRINKET
1	Holdout blaster	Jumpsuit	Security spike	Stimpac
2	Knife	Utility vest	Multitool	Hand scanner
3	Blaster rifle	Visor helmet	Medpac	Restraining bolt
4	Vibroblade	Leathers	Repair kit	Sabacc deck
5	Frag grenade	Modular armor	Magnetic grapple	Brass knuckles
6	Heavy blaster	Uniform	Respirator	Sketchy map

Action, Risk, and Danger

The vast majority of situations will not require a dice contest, but merely a judgement call to resolve. Players and their characters leverage their environment, use common sense, and clearly describe their actions. Consequences follow accordingly.

If it is unclear if a player's action will succeed, or if grave risk is involved, the referee declares the probable impact and rolls 2d6. Then the player character most at risk rolls also 2d6.

- If the player rolls higher, their character succeeds
- If the referee rolls higher, something bad happens
- If they tie, the character succeeds AND something bad happens

Whatever happens, the referee describes the impact.

Wounds, injury, and death are meted out according to the real stakes of the fictional struggle. A blaster to the shoulder will hurt. A blaster to the belly might kill. A frag grenade blast will concuss a character through a wall. A lightsaber will sever your arm clean off. 

Stormtroopers aren't accurate, but their numbers will overwhelm you. A Death Trooper is a much more acute threat. Similarly, an academy pilot chasing the players' ship in a baseline TIE Fighter could cause some trouble, but the party will probably shake them. Soontir Fel dispatched in an elite TIE Interceptor will likely spell disaster for the players. The more intense the danger, the more obvious is should be.

In short, all sense of health and stamina is to be ruled according to the context.

Destiny

This game is firmly rooted in grit and honesty. That said, the galaxy is bound together by the Force, which transcends all material things. At the beginning of each session, the table begins with six light side markers. The referee then rolls 1d6, flipping that many light side tokens to dark side tokens. 

At any time, a player may choose to flip a light side token to the dark side, immediately granting a dramatic boon to the party, such as a finding a critical tool at hand, declaring that a door just jammed and is now blocking enemy reinforcements, or any other fortuitous plot twist. Similarly, the referee may choose to flip a dark side token to the light side, immediately escalating a bad situation, such as overheating a player's weapon or silencing a com signal to allies. A token flip is always a big deal.

Destiny tokens convey the sense of cinematic peaks and valleys through their use as metacurrency. Each use of a token by players charges it for use by the referee, and vise versa. Referees can consider flipping a dark side token at the beginning of a session to establish a looming threat, such as a nearby Star Destroyer or an inbound heavily-armed bounty hunter.

If the table is aligned with the Empire, treat light side tokens as actionable by the referee.

Using the Force

If a player character is Force sensitive, they may extend their senses and field of action around them according to their ability. As with the remainder of this game, the player will describe their reasonable intent and the referee will judge its risk and impact. Force powers include telekinesis, supernatural empathy, manipulation of energy, and weaponized projection. Force sensitive characters are encouraged to be creative with the use and interpretation of their ability.

Advancement

As characters resolve conflict, achieve goals, and expand their horizons, they are sure to change and adapt over time. There are no levels or experience in this game, but as the precedent for realistic in-fiction consequences has already been established, the same concept informs advancement. Player characters may gain new traits, master a new weapon, become crippled by an injury, grow in or be warped by the Force, learn a new technical skill, or improve their connections with the underworld, etc.

Adventure Generators

Roll on the following tables to quickly create whole adventures or pick and choose to add new elements as play progresses.

d6	HOOK	TARGET	THREAT	MAJOR PROBLEM
1	Capture target	Contraband	Cartel	Bounty Hunter(s)
2	Eliminate target	Operative	Empire	Unrelated Firefight
3	Deliver target	Starship	Rebellion	Double-Crossed
4	Purchase target	Resource	Faction	Mechanical Failure
5	Restore target	Leader	Animals	Innocent Civilian(s)
6	Locate target	Intelligence	NPC	Better Offer

d6	CARTEL	FACTION	CONTRABAND	MINOR PROBLEM
1	Pyke Syndicate	Rebel Partisans	Death Sticks	Droid Sentry
2	Hutt Clan	Imp. Security Bureau	Unrefined Spice	Volatile Cargo
3	Black Sun	Czerka Corporation	Thermal Detonators	Mistaken Identity
4	Kanjiklub	Mandalorian Clans	Political Dissident	Stowaway
5	Crymorah Syndicate	Sienar Fleet Systems	Weapon Prototypes	Proximity Alarm
6	Crimson Dawn	Bounty Hunter Guild	Tibanna Gas	Resource Drain

d6	RUMOR	EXOTIC GEAR	NPC 1	NPC 2
1	Paranormal Research	Beskar Armor	Force Adept	Heavy Gunner
2	Uncharted Rebel Base	MWC-35c Staccato	Smuggling Captain	Outlaw Tech
3	Imp. Prison Break	Assassin Droid	Droid Tech	Fringe Scout
4	Aged Clone + Secrets	MS-32 Disruptor	Defector	Sleeper Agent
5	Outpost Gone Silent	Dark Trooper Exo	Bounty Hunter	Sith Outlier
6	Location of Jedi	Lightsaber	Demolitions Expert	Ace Pilot

Feel free to remove any used results in these tables and replace them with new options as play progresses.

Adaptation and Flexibility

Alternatively, choose a different Star Wars epoch and adapt accordingly. Also alternatively, file off the serial numbers and use this to run any sort of ultralight game regardless of setting.

(CC BY-SA 4.0)