Alternate Force Point Rules

[Bren]

Rationale
According to the Rules as Written, use of a Force Point doubles all die rolls for that round. This allows a character to become much more powerful in a manner sometimes described as nuclear – while this may be dramatically interesting and fun for the FP user, there are potential downsides and unintended consequences. In trying to revise Lightsaber Dueling and the lightsaber combat power, it has become clear that this problem is greatly magnified for Jedi.

(i) For Jedi characters doubling all skills and attributes in a round has a multiplicative effect. For example a Jedi in a lightsaber duel with lightsaber 8D, control 6D, and sense 6D; using lightsaber combat, the Jedi has 8D+6D-2D=12D to attack and does 5D+6D-2D=9D damage. Using a Force Point the same Jedi now does 8Dx2+6Dx2-2D=26D to attack and 5D+6Dx2-2D=15D damage. Given the high attack and damage dice, Vader, Kenobi, Yoda, or the Emperor would not survive without using a FP. This is a major reason that it is effectively impossible to replicate the extended lightsaber duels we see in the movies using the RAW. The first Jedi to use a FP immediately kills any opponent with remotely similar skill levels who does not use a FP.

(ii) Similarly a skilled pilot: starfighter piloting 8D, starship gunnery 6D will easily evade and shoot any pilot of remotely similar skill levels. And if the optional rules to do additional damage with a good attack roll is used, he may well destroy any opponent not using a FP.

(iii) A Wookiee with a 5D STR, brawling 6D, and dodge 4D uses a Force Point to attack a group of stormtroopers, who are about to gun down a group of citizens in reprisal for Rebel attacks on planet. The FP doubles all of the Wookiee’s skills and abilities, so he rolls 10D for damage and attacks with a 12D brawl. He chooses to make 8 attacks and no dodge. Attacking all 8 squad members. His attack is 12D-7D=5D* and he does 10D damage with his attack. He is not dodging, so he will be hit multiple times, but since he rolls 10D to resist the stormtroopers 5D blaster rifles, he is unlikely to take any damage. Since the FP was used to attack, the doubled STR roll to resist damage is a possibly unintended benefit of the FP usage. So that in addition to succeeding at a critical skill use at a dramatically appropriate time, the character is also protected from the risks of his actions by the doubled STR roll. Since this is a by product of the FP use, it is more difficult for a GM to discern if such use is selfish – preventing the return of the Force Point at the end of the adventure.
* Alternately his attack may be computed as 6Dx2+5D (for the increase in STR) - 7D (for MAPs) = 10D.

(iv) Since both PCs and NPCs have and can use Force Points and since the impact of failing to use a FP when one’s opponent chooses to use a FP can be immediately fatal, it becomes very difficult to have tense, multi-round, combats and challenges like those that we see in the films. This, I maintain, is a problem.

One possible solution is to change what using a FP does to lessen the benefit of Force Point use.

The New Rule
Instead of doubling all skills and attributes, the player picks a single skill or attribute that his character is using that round. The use of a Force Point then creates a dice pool based on the dice for that skill or attribute. The dice in the pool are available to add to any skill or attribute roll that round, with the limitation that no skill or attribute may be increased above twice the character’s skill or attribute and at least 1D must be allocated to the skill or attribute that the character selected to create the dice pool from.

Examples

1. A Jedi in a lightsaber duel with lightsaber 8D, control 6D, and sense 6D; using lightsaber combat. The Jedi uses a FP choosing to affect his lightsaber skill of 8D. That gives the Jedi a dice pool of 8D to his actions for the round. At least 1D must be allocated to his lightsaber skill and at most 6D may be added to his Control or Sense.
a. The Jedi could increase his lightsaber skill by 4D and his Control by 4D. Resulting in a lightsaber attack of 8D+6D-2D+4D=16D and damage of 5D+6D-2D+4D=13D. While this is still very powerful, it is now possible for a Vader to spend CPs and successfully parry.
b. The Jedi could spend all 8D on his lightsaber skill, which would give him a 20D attack, making success almost certain, but in this case his damage does not increase above 9D, his total without a FP. A Vader-like opponent could now spend his 5CPs on his STR roll. Now he can survive the strike, though possibly ending up stunned or wounded.
c. Alternately the Jedi could add as many dice as possible to his Control skill to increase his damage. Since his Control is 6D he could add up to 6D to his control roll. The remaining 2D would be assigned to lightsaber combat

2. A pilot with starfighter piloting 8D, starship gunnery 6D uses a FP and chooses to affect his piloting. He now has a dice pool of 8D which he can divide amongst his piloting and gunnery skills. He spends between 1D and 8D on piloting and may add up to 6D to his gunnery. While he can easily evade or shoot any pilot of remotely similar skill levels; doing both will be more difficult. And to take advantage of the optional rules to do additional damage will increase the risk of being hit by return fire since it will require even fewer dice be added to his own evasion roll.

3. A Wookiee with a 5D STR, brawling 6D, and dodge 4D uses a Force Point to attack a group of stormtroopers, who are about to gun down a group of citizens in reprisal for Rebel attacks on planet. The Wookiee choose to have the FP affect his brawling. This gives him a dice pool of 6D that he can allocate. He must allocate at least 1D to brawling and may allocate up to 5D to STR. Now he will not be able to easily defeat an entire squad of stormtroopers in a single round. In addition, it is easy to judge that the addition to the STR roll is intentional and possibly selfish, rather than a mere unintentional by product of using a FP.

If these alternate Force Point rules are used, the GM may wish to allow characters to both use a FP and spend character points in the same round. However, the GM may wish to restrict the CP expenditure:

• To only skills other than the skill chosen for the FP usage.
• To no more than double the dice in the skill or attribute being increased (ignoring any extra dice from the wild die).

Have you observed these problems with FP usage? Do you have other methods of managing the problems? Other comments?

[Edit: 'alter' to 'sense' in example (1)]

[CRMcNeill]

A minor typo on Example 1, where you have the Jedi rolling Control and Alter for Lightsaber Combat, which is a Control and Sense power. That threw me for a second.

I'm still digesting the rest, but on the surface it definitely seems to address the issue. The existing Force Point rules seem designed for lower level characters only, and the higher your skill level gets, the more cumbersome it becomes. Something definitely needs to be done.
_________________
"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

[ZzaphodD]

Id say you automatically base the dice pool on the skill with the highest level you use in the round.

The major problem with FP:s is not not that you temporarily become invulnerable, but as you mention, that encountering the 'bad guy' will most probably be a short fatal encounter (for the side not having or spending a FP).

Say I pit my Dark Jedi NPC against the characters. If the NPC calls on the dark side and no character declares a FP, they are probably all toast in one round.. If a character calls on a FP while Im not, my 'major' NPC is just a fly on the windscreen as the characters drive by... Either way, its not that exciting for anyone. Even with FPs being made less powerful, the same problem remains even if to a lesser degree..
_________________
My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[Bren]

[garhkal]

One way i have seen it reigned in, is that maps acrue more for being on a FP.. 0 for 1 action, -1d for 2, -3d for 3, -5d for 4 and so on.. Also i have seen that you can pop a FP for either offense or defense. so if going offense, your str (for soak) does NOT double.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

[Fallon Kell]

We don't allow force points to affect soak, and often have a cap of 5 actions per round at GM's discretion...
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[Bren]

[Fallon Kell]

[Bren]

[Fallon Kell]

[Bren]

[CRMcNeill]

[Bren]

[atgxtg]

I7vwe mentuioned this before, but it seems to be heading along the same lines as this thread is going:

How about spending a FP just shifts the Success level of an action?

That would be even simpler than the X&H method, downgrade FPs a bit, but still make them very powerful, since characters can pull off nigh-impossible tasks by spending an FP.