Avatar: The Second Age

Hey Veeky Forums, me again!

I've been working on a full conversion of FFG Star Wars to Avatar since September.

Here is what I have so far:

docs.google.com/document/d/1SCD0NBMaCJ54njx0uXVjzsV60iw-L7ViEWJndwom3vQ/edit?usp=sharing

Please feel free to leave comments.

Please also keep in mind that I have [unfortunately] not had the time to play test or truly balance any of this content yet and the content itself is still severely lacking in terms of late-game bending techniques, adversaries, gear & equipment, vehicles and adventures....

I will continue to bump the thread with information and insight that was provided in the last thread >What is Avatar: The Second Age?

The Second Age is a free conversion for the Fantasy Flight Games tabletop roleplaying game Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (et al). Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) created a set of wonderful rules and a Narrative Dice System (NDS) that allows for Game Masters and players to create and live out dramatic and imaginative Star Wars stories — Avatar: The Second Age adapts that system to the setting of the universe from Nickelodeon’s Avatar series, complete with bending and a combat overhaul, among other key systems.

>Why use FFGSWRPG as a base?

I've played and enjoyed a lot of EotE, AoR, and F&D. I think that Fantasy Flight Game's narrative dice system lends itself very nicely to the Avatar universe due to the way the core mechanic tries to facilitate episodic, fast-paced adventures. FFG created the system to explore a vast universe which enables the same desire in players who want to explore the Avatar universe.

The core mechanic for Star Wars is the narrative dice which relies on a success/fail mechanic. You want to perform an action and you either succeed or you don't. The nuance is that sometimes you fail, either due to the environment or other narrative circumstances which can be quantified in negative modifier dice. Sometimes, even though you fail your action, you may still gain some sort of advantage and sometimes you succeed but with unintended negative consequences.

I think the combat system is what needed the most work to really emulate the fluid and often ad-hoc nature of the fights in the Avatar world. So when it comes to bending, entrenched techniques (like the water whip) are outlined as though they were Force techniques. This means you start with a basic technique but each technique can be upgraded along a tree to enhance the ability in ways to make it more powerful, potent, or to boost the form's utility (more on this in a later post).

So specific bending forms are handled by a Bending skill (itself reliant upon any of the character attributes depending on the nature of the ability) whereas generic one-off moves, like sliding across an ice path or using earthbending to enhance your ability to climb a steep cliff, are handled by a Bending Arts skill to represent the utilitarian nature of bending.

By separating certain techniques into outlined abilities (Bending) and free-form maneuvers (Bending Arts), I've provided players with definitive mechanics for combat as well as the narrative flexibility for improvisation.

>Does this conversion require only Edge of the Empire?

The conversion is essentially stand alone. I've synthesized elements from EotE, AoR, and F&D for a single, cohesive experience.

>Did you keep the Duty/Obligation/Morality systems intact, picked only one, or come up with some replacement for them?

I've synthesized the three systems into a new system called Honor.

Like Obligation, a character's Honor can have unintended consequences and create plot hooks if left unaddressed.

Like Duty, Honor can be accrued and used as a resource for additional insight or to meet characters; for example, a certain Earth Kingdom petty king may refuse to meet with the party unless they're 'honorable enough' to request an audience. Likewise, characters who are *too* honorable might not be able to convince a Triple Threat gang leader to work with them.

Like Morality, Honor should be a reflection of the characters' actions throughout the story. So if they do something particularly heinous or if they go against their own vows, they should realistically expect to lose some of their Honor.

>Will nonbending characters be viable?

Nonbending characters should absolutely be viable and I've modeled many of them after classes from the Star Wars games. The show itself clearly demonstrates that nonbenders frequently hold their own against benders.

Currently, there are six nonbender classes, each with three specializations. There is currently a single Bender class, but it has four specializations (one for each element).

>So what's different from FFGSWRPG?

Unlike many fantasy games, including FFGSWRPG, Avatar: The Second Age does not require that players choose a race. This is due to the source material only containing humans as a viable playable race. Character attributes are determined by players choosing a Background, which is comprised of a Location & Culture as well as an Origin. Each of these confers characteristics and attributes on a player character to provide variety in character creation. While a character’s Location represents where in the world they’re from; Culture to represent the nation in which they reside, their Origin represents a general summary of their lived experiences up until the events of the first game session.

Combat has also changed to reflect the fact-paced nature of combat in the Avatar universe. New mechanics have been added to include Counter maneuvers and actions, advanced grappling, and even defensive stances. Most importantly, the Martial Arts (formerly Brawl) skill has been expanded upon to create more variety and provide players with more flexibility in combat.

Characteristics which govern skill use are now known as attributes and they have been lightly overhauled to better fit in with the setting of Avatar. While FFG’s system contains Brawn, Agility, Cunning, Intellect, Willpower, and Presence, Avatar: The Second Age uses a mostly similar setup: Body, Agility, Intellect, Guile, Charisma, and Chi. The most important distinction is the inclusion of ‘Chi’ as a governing attribute with its own skills unique to the Avatar universe.

Animal companions had such a huge presence in the show and it would be a disservice not to include mechanics for such a quintessential Avatar feature. The Animal Bond talent from Force and Destiny has been borrowed and renamed as well as expanded upon. Additional rules for pets can be found in Chapter IX: Game Master.

Bending will be explained in a separate post.

>Why "The Second Age"?

As you can see by the title, Avatar: The Second Age, the rules are written in the context of a Korra timeline. There are a number of reasons I went down this route, chief among them that my friends and I all want to play during this timeline, which is why I started the conversion in the first place.

The game itself, whenever the first adventure is completed, will take place immediately after Season 3 of Korra - after the assassination of the Earth Queen and after Korra received mercury poisoning and goes on a 3-year hiatus. With the Avatar on hiatus, it gives the characters an opportunity to explore the world with little-to-no interference by a God-like character.

Additionally, new and unique air bender characters make sense canonically and with Tenzin reorganizing the 'Air Nations' into nomads once again, air bender characters have a lot of inherent plot hooks.

Finally, it gives me, as narrator and GM, a chance to explore some cool concepts for a story that I feel Korra missed out on:
- more Equalists and politics
- more unique uses of old bending techniques
- more canon to support the possibility of players becoming lightning, metal, or plantbenders

Plus, it means I get to bring pic related back to life.

That being said, I've tried to write the mechanics to be flexible enough that any GM or player interested in exploring a timeline before Korra and Aang can absolutely do so. All you have to do is cut out the fluff you don't like (such as Satomobiles or electric gloves).

The main mechanics will work no matter what timeline you're going to be in, and once I finish working on TSA, I wouldn't mind putting work into an 'expansion' book of pre-Hundred Year War content. Depending on the form in which that content takes shape, however, it may simply be easiest to include it as fluff in the last few chapters detailing World History and Organizations.

>How the heck is bending supposed to work? It's not the Force! FFGSWRPG doesn't seem like a good system to use as a base.

Pragmatically, I chose it because I felt the system works for a game that will be heavily-driven by a narrative. A narrative dice system suits Avatar best, in my humble opinion.

I also believe that FFG had the right idea in outlining certain Force abilities with their own technique skill trees. I think this approach works beautifully for an Avatar setting because it gives player characters the ability to focus their experience on whatever abilities they prefer.

For starters, Force dice have been abandoned entirely. In order to enhance or use certain bending techniques, Bender characters will have to voluntarily suffer strain. As they gain experience, they can unlock Class talents that:
- provide additional strain
- mitigate the strain spent OR
- they can upgrade the bending Forms to require less strain to use.

I dropped the Force dice because it's incredibly stupid that the technique would only work if a secondary type of dice permits it. Bending "Forms" - unlike Force powers - simply require a Bending skill check, the difficulty of which is determined by the form and any other circumstances the GM feels is relevant.

>That's a lot of strain...can benders really be viable?

All ~complex~ bending techniques are classified separately from regular talents as "Forms." Unlike talents, which are one-off or sometimes tiered, Forms were described above as analogous to Force powers with their own talent trees.

For example, the waterbending ability to phase shift water from ice or ice to water is its own talent; specifically, it starts out as a maneuver and can be later unlocked as an incidental.

Water Whip, on the other hand, is a ubiquitous combat technique that each and every waterbender trains endlessly to perfect. To reflect this, the Water Whip is a Form technique.

Pic related is a rough draft (unbalanced) proposal of how the Water Whip (and other forms) will function mechanically.

As you can see, all Forms start out with a base technique that can be enhanced and upgraded with respect to that particular technique. As the waterbender gains experience and "through training" hones their craft, they can upgrade their Water Whip in a variety of different ways, including the 'training' necessary to remove the strain cost of the base technique.

In addition, all bender specializations (Earth, Fire, Air, Water) have access to the "Chi Channeling" Talent.

Chi Channeling
>Maneuver. Once per encounter, until end of turn, may perform one Bending Form without taking strain.

This talent is usually down a ways on the skill tree, but it's written in such a way that a Bender could potentially use a Water Whip - and fully enhance it with all of the upgrades - without incurring any strain at all during that turn.

As another user had pointed out in the last thread, encouraging field trips outside the city has to be key [to exploration and adventures] and I agree wholeheartedly.

Something I'm really excited about is to play with a group of friends who are also in love with the setting.

There are so many unexplored mysteries, ruins, and histories that I've created an entire class (Scholar) to explore them. The Scholar class includes the Tinkerer, Archaeologist, and Astronomer specializations, each filling its own little niche.

looking pretty nice so far, I do have a slight nit-pick issue concerning lore:
>" a spot held by an Air Acolyte and later the son of Avatar Aang, Tenzin, until 171 AG."
Surely those things are the other way around?

but yeah, grammar aside, it looks well thought out and I may try it at some point