Combining actions and the Command skill

[TheDoctor]

Running a beginning adventure at a convention, one of the players (never having played Star Wars before) loaded a lot of his beginning dice into the Command skill, resulting in a Command skill of 6D (he was an ex-Imperial officer).

Luckily he got to make good use of his Command skill as he served to coordinate the actions of the other PCs.

Now I'd forgotten the specific rules for combining actions, so I figure I'd have him role his Command skill against a difficulty based on the situation (Easy for coordinating pilots on a ship, as that was he had previously done as a profession, but Moderate for repairing the ship, as he had little repair experience). This much was accurate to the official rules.

However, I decided that if he beat the difficulty, the participants combining their actions would total BOTH of their skill rolls, otherwise use the best roll if the Command skill roll failed.

I found later that the official WEG rules work differently. For combining actions, the highest skill participant rolls his dice, with a +1 per person helping if the Command (or PERCEPTION) roll succeeds.

To be honest, the official rules don't sit well, as it seems that a +1 per person helping modifier is rather weak. What about the proverb "together, we are greater than the sum of our parts", rather than "together, we are the highest skilled, and +1 per person helping"?

How do you handle combining actions in your game? What do you think of simply totaling all of the participants dice pools?
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"We attack under cover of daylight. Yes it's the last thing they'll be expecting, a daylight charge over the minefield." - Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC SSC

[jmanski]

Totalling all results is too much. But I agree that +1 is too little. I'd go with +1d for combining two people (isnt it that way in 2nd ed?)
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[TheDoctor]

It's actually +1D per 3 people, which breaks down to +1 per person.

But then again, the way this system works, it rules out the skill level of the helpers.

Hence in game terms, if Han Solo is fixing the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon, he gets a +1 bonus to his repair roll whether his helper is Chewbacca or Jar Jar Binks.

I think in reality, there's a big difference between being helped by Chewbacca or Jar Jar Binks.

How about this, a +1 bonus per full die each helper has in the skill?

So if Chewbacca has 4D in starship repair (just for example, I don't actually know Chewbacca's repair skill) and Jar Jar Binks' repair skill is 1D, then Chewie would add +4, and Jar Jar would add +1.

For the most part, that might work, but I'd actually have Jar Jar give a negative rating for everything- except for voting to create a Clone Army.
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"We attack under cover of daylight. Yes it's the last thing they'll be expecting, a daylight charge over the minefield." - Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC SSC

[jmanski]

But how much can Chewbacca really help? Even if his repair skill is close to Han's he wouldn't add any knowledge. He'd basically be doing what Han told him.

Too much bonus is bad. Very bad.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

In sparks we run it a little differently.
2 people = +1d
4 = +2d
6 = +3d
10 = +4d
15 = +5d
25 = +6d
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[jmanski]

I can dig that. That's more along the lines of what I was thinking of.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

Same chart..
# Coordinated 1D 2D 3D 4D 5D 6D 7D 8D+ Bonus
2 M M E E E VE VE VE +1D
4 D M M M E E VE VE +2D
6 D D M M M M E E +3D
10 D D D M M M E E +4D
15 VD D D D M M M E +5D
25 VD VD D D D M M M +6D
40 VD VD VD D D D M M +7D
60 H VD VD VD D D D M +8D
100 H H VD VD VD D D D +9D
150 H H H VD VD VD D D +10D 250 H H H H VD VD VD D +11D 400 H H H H H VD VD VD +12D 600 H H H H H H VD VD +13D 1000 H H H H H H H VD +14D 1500 H H H H H H H H +15D

Take the number of people (fire linked weapons) on the side, and cross with the 'average' skill level of those to be coordinated on the top line. IF you fail, drop 1 level of coordination to see if you pass.
Keep dropping till you find a level you pass and drop off 1 pip. That is what you get.

EG trying to coordinate 25, you get 6d. BUT you failed, yu get to 15. you still faill, but succeed at the 10 level (4d).. so you add 3d+2.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

That really loses something in translation
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

Where? You have lets say 6 people, who are wanting to shoot the berserked wookie who is threatening your boss.
PC1 has 4d+2 blaster,
PC 2 has only his base 2d+2 dex
PC 3 and 4 both have 6d
PC 5 has 2d+1 of his dex (has the skill but never raised it) while
PC 6 has 7d+1.
All told, we average up to 29d/6 or 5d+2 give or take. That averages out to 6d. 6 people with a 6d average require a Moderate command roll to successfully coordinate. If you succeed, the HIGHEST person (pc6) gains +3d to add to both his to hit and damage.. Some systems (not sure if r&e or base 2nd ed) has it where your bonus is split between to hit and damage..

The higher the skill, or the LESS the people, the easier it is to coordinate.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

I don't know how to do charts here.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[cheshire]

[TheDoctor]