Star Wars Conversions: Seperatist Droids

Hey all!!

Firstly, a very merry christmas to you all. I may not be religious, but there's nothing like spending time with family, with good food and drink and lots of presents :)

Secondly, here is another post from my star wars conversion series, where I convert things from the star wars universe to the mutants and masterminds RPG. This time, I have statted out some of the seperatist battle droids, as seen in Episodes I to III, as well as both clone wars TV series. As a guide, I used the stats as given in the star wars saga edition as well as greywulf's D&D conversion guide. I started off trying to convert things 1:1, but it was just taking too long and didn't seem to make much sense, so instead I chose an arbitrary PL rating for them, and statted them out to have approximately that number of power points. As for the weapons, I tried to just pick weapons of approximately similar power from the M&M equipment section and just made them energy weapons, with autofire. Ah, well...

Finally, a rant.

I've been watching a fair bit of star wars recently, particularly the recent clone wars movie and TV series (with the unique animation style, which I personally like; I know it drove a massive number of people up the wall). In general, I am really enjoying them as I feel they capture the feeling of star wars really well, and tell some pretty cool stories. However, there are a couple of things that I find just don't fit, and essentially just don't make sense. They both have to do with droids, which is why I bring them up here.

The first is that whenever two droids are talking to each other, they make stupid remarks, or act stupidly, or just generally act human. The fact is, the B1 series specifically is controlled by a remote processor (according to star wars canon), and the likelihood is that the remote processor that is controlling one of the droids is most likely controlling the other. There's absolutely no reason for them to say anything at all to each other, nevermind argue with each other or contradict each other in any way. Even with the B2 super battle droids which are somewhat independent, there is no reason they should say anything at all. It would be far more efficient and likely for them to communicate in droid speak, or even just wirelessly.

The second is the apparent accuracy of the droids. There are way too many scenes in the movies and the TV series where you see droids firing wildly at clones, and the clones find it possible to stand still and fire back. The fact is, droids should be able to improve their accuracy with every shot, especially at a stationary target. Any droid-builder worth their salt would have included programming that would take sensor information, process the placement of the shot, and improve it on the next shot. So, I would understand that the droids would miss for a few shots, but eventually, they should mow down anything that doesn't keep moving. The above theory notwithstanding, even if their accuracy were to remain the same, one of them should at least get a lucky shot in ... or why did the trade federation spend so much money on them? Before someone says it, I realise this is all dramatic license, and that lucas is just making the scene look tense for the clones, with laser fire all around them, and so on. I just think he's taken it a bit far, a bit too often...

Anyway, that's my rant over. Feel free to disagree with me.

Here are the stats I was talking about before. Well done to everyone that actually read my ravings. Please leave a comment, and tell me what you think.

B1 Series Battle Droid

Medium robot, PL 1 (15 points)

Str 14, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha -

Skills:

• notice 4 (+4)

Feats:

• equipment 4 (20 equipment points)

Powers:

• immunity 30 (fortitude)
• protection 1

Combat:

• attack +2 (base attack)
• damage +5 (blaster carbine), +2 (unarmed)
• defense +1
• initiative +0

Saves:

• toughness 2 (+3)
• fortitude --
• reflex 0 (+2)
• will 0 (+2)

Equipment:

• blaster carbine (damage +5, crit 20,  energy, autofire, range increment 50ft, large) 16 EP
• comlink 1 EP

Drawbacks:

• Limited: no on-board computer; requires a remote processor to operate (Uncommon, Major, 3 points)
• Vulnerable to electricity: double toughness save DC (Common, Major, 4 points)

Cost: Abilities -26 + Skills 1 + Feats 4 + Powers 31 + Combat 6 + Saves 6 - Drawbacks 7 = 15

B2 Series Super Battle Droid

Medium robot, PL 2 (34 points)

Str 16, Dex 10, Con -, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha -

Skills:

• Notice 8 (+8)

Feats:

• Power attack
• Equipment 4 (20 points)

Powers:

• immunity 30 (fortitude)
• protection 3

Combat:

• attack +3 (base attack)
• damage +5 (wrist blaster), +3 (unarmed)
• defense +1
• initiative +0

Saves:

• toughness 2 (+5)
• fortitude --
• reflex 0 (+2)
• will 0 (+2)

Equipment:

• wrist blaster (damage +5, crit 20,  energy, autofire, range increment 50ft) 16 EP
• commlink 1EP

Drawbacks:

• Vulnerable to electricity: double toughness save DC (Common, Major, 4 points)
  

Cost: Abilities -16 + Skills 2 + Feats 5 + Powers 33 + Combat 8 + Saves 6 - Drawbacks 4 = 34

Droideka Series Destroyer Droid

Large robot, PL 6 (90 points)

Str 16, Dex 14, Con --, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha --

Skills:

• notice 12 (+14)

Feats:

• Improved Initiative 2 (+8)
• Equipment 4 (20 points)

Powers:

• Immunity 30 (fortitude) [30]
• Growth 4 (Power feat: Innate; Flaw: Permanent) [13]
• Protection 1 [1]
• Force Field 8 (Extra: Impervious) [16]

Combat:

• attack 6 (+6)
• damage +8 (laser cannons)
• defense 5 (+4) (including -1 due to size)
• initiative +10

Saves:

• toughness 3 (+4)
• fortitude --
• reflex 3 (+5)
• will 3 (+5)

Equipment:

• 2 laser cannons (with blaster rifle stats + autofire capability):
• damage +8, crit 20, energy, autofire, range increment 80ft, size large)
• EP 16
• comlink; EP 1

Drawbacks:

• Vulnerable to electricity: double toughness save DC (Common, Major, 4 points)
  

Cost: Abilities -6 + Skills 3 + Feats 6 + Powers 60 + Combat 22 + Saves 9 - Drawbacks 4 = 90

Pictures are from the official Star Wars: Clone Wars site, and are their property. Everything else is also the property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and so on.

M&M/SWSE Crossover - Races (Part 1)

Firstly, credit where credit is due. Greywulf, over at his lair, inspired me with his series of D&D/M&M crossover articles to do a few articles of my own. Since I am quite a fan of Star Wars Saga Edition, I thought "let's see what M&M can do with that". So, with that in mind, here are the first 8 races out of the core rulebook (there are a massive 17 races in the core game for some reason) as racial templates. Also, thanks go to to Greywulf for helping me work out a few issues with these.

Humans

• Enhanced Trait (+4 in any skill) [1]
• Any feat [1]
• Total 2PP

Bothans

• +2 Dex [2]
• -2 Con [-2]
• Enhanced Trait (+4 Gather Information) [1]
• Total = 1PP

Cereans

• +2 Int [2]
• +2 Wis [2]
• -2 Dex [-2]
• Second Chance 1 (reroll any Initiative check) [1]
• Improved Initiative 1 (+4 to Initiative) [1]
• Total = 4PP

Duros

• +2 Dex [2]
• +2 Int [2]
• -2 Con [-2]
• Second Chance 1 (reroll any Pilot check) [1]
• Total = 3PP

Ewok

• +2 Dex [2]
• -2 Str [-2]
• Small size: Shrinking 4 (Normal strength, Permanent) [4]
• Super-senses (accurate and radius smell) [3]
• Second Chance 1 (reroll any Stealth check) [1]
• Enhanced Trait (+4 Survival) [1]
• Drawback: Language: Ewokese (speak only) (very common, moderate) [-4]
• Drawback: Primitive (-5 to attack rolls with blasters, rifles and heavy weapons) (common, minor) [-2]
• Total = 3PP

Primitive is an interesting little mechanic. In SWSE game terms, it takes away whatever weapon proficiency you have with blasters, rifles and heavy weapons, whether your class gives it to you or not. This means that you take a -5 to attacks with these weapons. The only way I could think of to emulate this was to make this a character drawback. I'm not sure how common it is (depends on roleplaying), and how serious it is depends on whether you're trying to use those weapons anyway (so I went for moderate).

Gamorreans

• +2 Str [2]
• -2 Dex [-2]
• -2 Int [-2]
• Drawback: Primitive (-5 to attack rolls with blasters, rifles and heavy weapons) (common, minor) [-2]
• Enhanced Trait (+2 Fort save) [2]
• Protection 2 [2]
• Total = 0PP

Damage threshold is another mechanic which SWSE introduced, and I think it's pretty cool. It opens up some pretty cool tactics and talents. In game terms, if you take damage greater than your damage threshold (which is usually your Con score), you move one position down the "condition track". This track has 5 levels, which give you penalties to pretty much all rolls, up to a maximum of -10 followed by unconsciousness. Improved damage threshold basically makes this number higher. So, to emulate their ability to roll with the punches (so to speak), I gave gamorreans a little free protection. This means they are less likely to be bruised/battered and take penalties to toughness.

Gungans

• +2 Dex [2]
• -2 Int [-2]
• -2 Cha [-2]
• Enhanced Trait (+4 Swim) [1]
• Second Chance 1 (reroll any Swim check) [1]
• Immunity (underwater suffocation); Limited (works for 25 x Con score rounds before normal conditions apply) [1]
• Enhanced Trait (+2 Reflex save) [2]
• Super-senses (low-light vision) [1]
• Total = 4PP

I love how flexible M&M is here. For instance, Gungans get a weird mechanic where they can hold their breathe for 25 X Con score round before they drown (for a character with 10 Con, this is an impressive 25 minutes). Without making up new mechanics, you can simply state that this is the case as a limitation of the power.

Ithorians

• +2 Wis [2]
• +2 Cha [2]
• -2 Dex [-2]
• Bellow: Blast 3 (sonic energy, area: 30ft cone, tiring) [6]
• Second Chance 1 (reroll any Survival check) [1]
• Enhanced Trait (+4 Knowledge: Life Sciences) [1]
• Total = 10PP

For any of you that have seen the Clone Wars animated series (the first one a few years ago), you might remember the power Bellow. Again, another example of the flexibility of M&M that it can emulate all aspects of this power (energy type, area, tiring). The only thing I was a little unsure of was the power. This will do +3 damage to anyone in the area. The original power does 3d6 damage, so I don't know if this stacks up.

I hope you enjoyed these. I tried to comment where I could on why I chose certain things. Part 2 to follow.