Had a test play of using Frostgrave in Star Wars setting last night.
Here's the board.
The Sith Master advanced. This was the first action that felt like Star Wars. The Sith Master cast 'Leap' as his first action and then moved for his second action. Probably didn't help that I was humming 'Duel of the Fates' and making lightsaber noises. The R2 was a treasure token.
The Sith Apprentice encounters the Jedi Master. Again, the droid in the picture was a treasure token.
The Sith Master had initiative and cast 'Elemental Lightning' (Force Lightning) at the Padawan. Unfortunately, for the Padawan, a critical hit was rolled and it was goodbye Padawan - there's nothing like the power of the darkside!
This is where things turned decidedly unStar Wars like. A lowly Rebel thug engaged the Sith Master and inflicted 10 points of damage. These two would continue fighting the next turn with the Sith Master being defeated.
The Stormtroopers advanced into the marketplace. We used the Marksman profile for the Stormtroopers to reflect their shooting ability and armour. Stormtroopers proved to be surprisingly durable despite their limited numbers. In the distance, the first creature (using the wolf profile) appeared on the roof of a building.
The Sith Apprentice decisively engaged the Gamorrean (using the Barbarian profile) cutting him down in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, the Jedi Master fought the Stormtroopers suffering damage for his efforts.
Two more creatures had spawned. They headed straight toward the Rebel thugs, managing to inflict some serious damage.
Meanwhile, another Rebel thug managed to take out a creature. The Rebel player thought this thug had a treasure token sown up. However, in true dramatic style, the Sith Apprentice successfully used 'Leap' and leapt in front of the thug, before moving into contact for combat next turn. The next turn, saw the Sith Apprentice slay the Rebel thug.
It was beginning to look easy for the Empire. Although, the Rebels had two treasure tokens off the board, the Empire was systematically eliminating the Rebel forces. With one Thug left and four treasure tokens left, it looked slim for the Rebels. However, what changed the balance of the game, was that the two remaining creatures (using the Leopard and Werewolf profiles respectively) spied the Stormtroopers. Whilst the last Rebel thug headed off the board, the creatures slayed two Stormtroopers and the Sith Apprentice. A sudden change of plan saw the Rebel thug turnaround and eventually take out the remaining Stormtrooper (down to one health and one action). The Rebels won the six treasure tokens.
The test play showed that it is possible to use Frostgrave for Star Wars. However, our play highlighted a few tweaks we need to make before embarking on a campaign.
- We used the Critical Hits optional rule for everyone. With hindsight, Critical Hits should only be available to Force Users.
- We need to increase the Force users fight. Initially things looked promising, but soon the Force users were being made to look decidedly average. We used to the Frostgrave default of +2 fight plus a Lightsaber bonus of +2 fight thinking this would be enough. However, this only put them on a par with a Barbarian. We're thinking +5 fight for force users, but only playtesting will tell.
- It was very hard for Force users to actually use the Force - other than multiple 'Leaps', the other successful spells were 'Push' and 'Elemental Lightning'. Both Sith and Jedi are using the Chronomancer template as their starting point and we used the penalties for using Aligned, Neutral and Opposed spells. By removing the penalties, we might see more demonstrations of the Force being used. For example, the Sith could use 'Strike Dead' on an 18 as opposed to the 20 as it stands.
- Lastly, we are going to introduce turn limits. Current thinking is a max of 6 turns and you only earn treasure that leaves the board.
Anyway, that was our first testplay. I think we need to have at least another one to try and solve the Force users Fight ability - however, there's only so much you can do when you roll a string of 2s.