Sins of the Empire V2 — Gritty Star Wars Rules
No Outside Book Needed This is a complete Star Wars tabletop game. You roll a d20, add your bonus, and try to beat a Difficulty. You pick a Species and a Class, get what the level table says, and go. We used a d20 engine behind the scenes to build balanced features, but you never see that. No point-buy. No outside reference.
START HERE
New player? Make a character in 10 steps with an example Human Scoundrel.
Character Creation Guide →Takes ~15 minutes. Ends with a finished sheet at fried.sh/sw/
How This Game Feels
- Level 1-10. L1-2 street scum (Tier 4), L5-6 knights & hunters (Tier 6), L10 masters (Tier 8). Slow, grounded power curve.
- Gritty Lethal. All damage causes Injury -1 that stacks. A blaster grazed you? Next shot is worse. 4 hours rest per Injury, 48h for Staggered, bacta 1 Injury/hour.
- Debt Drives Play. Scoundrel owes 35k for his ship (-350cr/mo). Fixer owes 15k for his network (-150cr/mo). Everyone needs credits.
- Small vs Large Matters. Jawa 0.9m is hard to hit: +2 Dodge/Parry, +4 Stealth, -2 Intimidation, moves 5m. Wookiee 2.3m is easy to hit: -1 Dodge/Parry, -2 Stealth, +1 Intimidation, carries more, moves 7m.
- Scale. Person (P) < Speeder (V) < Walker (W) < Starfighter (S) < Capital (C) < Titan (T). Shooting up does -5 Damage per step. Shooting down is -5 to-hit +5 Damage per step. Rocket launchers ignore one step up. Point-defense guns ignore one step down to-hit.
Rules Sections
1 — How To Play
d20 + bonus vs DC 10/Defense, degrees 1/5/10/15, Hero Points, conditions fully defined.
Open →2 — Character Creation (Full)
8 ability ranks at L1 (cap 3/min -1), 6+INT skills (Technician 8+INT, Jedi/Pilot 4+INT), species, size, speed.
Open →3 — Combat — Lethal & Gritty
DC 15+Rank Toughness save, fail 1-4 Injury, 5-9 Dazed, 10-14 Staggered, 15+ Dying. Ranges 10m×Rank (Pistol), Rifle 40/80/160. Grapple, grenades, cover.
Open →4 — Skills & Crafting
26 skills, Trained-only †, Expertise gating, building DC 15/20/25/30, 2h/8h/24h/4d.
Open →5 — Species & Droid PC
Human flexible +1 any, Gozzo & Jawa Small, Wookiee Large Powerful Build, Rodian, Bothan, Tusken, plus Droid Property template.
Open →6 — The Force
Check DC 10+Rank using Expertise: The Force, Strain -1 on fail 1-4, Fatigued on 5+, natural 1 = Dark Side point or Fatigued. Force Boost passive.
Open →7 — Ships, Walkers, Scale
Inside-scale size still matters: Jawa +2 Def vs Wookiee -1 Def = 15% swing vs AT-ST. Handling, Evasive Maneuvers, Outmaneuver.
Scale Open →8 — Gear, Money, Crime
Licensed / Restricted 2× / Military 5×, black market, debt, armor = Toughness only.
Open →Classes (12)
Pick one. You get your level table plus a Feat every odd level. Talents at 2,4,6,8,10. Feats at 1,3,5,7,9 (General for everyone, Force Feats if you are Force-sensitive) — see Feats.
The only one who can buy Restricted without a job.
Make Your Character Now → Learn The Core Roll