Stuff that WEG screwed up, and how should it be fixed

[ZzaphodD]

[quote="HACCP"]

[garhkal]

[S-Foil]

[atgxtg]

Okay, as the risk of getting toasted faster that a Death Star, I can think of lots of things that that WEG got wrong. Now, it's not that I don't like D6, but it is far from perfect. Just looking at the House rules and seeing the topics that keep getting addressed over and over shows the major flaws.


1) Overall NPC Competency level.
PG makes initial PCs very good in comparison to the NPCs, so that players can have fun doing the sorts of things the Luke, Han and Leia do. The problem is that PCs quickly reach a point where most NPCs aren't much of a challenge. If you use the WEG skill rating table, with 4D being a typical professional and 6D+ being "best in/on..." real challenges for PCs with skills over 6D are few and far between.

The difference between the heroes of the films and the minor villains in the RPG are so great that I have a hard time figuring out how Luke, Hand and Leia had as much trouble as they did in the films. Or how the stormtroopers managed to dodge as many shots as they did!

2) Energy Missile Weapons are underpowered
In the films, whenever somebody gets shot, they drop, and we don't see them getting back up. Luke and Leia being the only exceptions. Stormtrooper armor doesn't seem to be very effective as stopping blasters in the films. Yet in the RPG, it can be all to easy to soak weapons. Hold out blasters are a joke against anybody with a STR of 3D or more. igh STR humans have a 50% change of shrugging off a shot from a blaster pistol, Wookies are fairly resistant to blaster rifles, and big critters such as Acklay and Rancors are nearly impossible to stop with character scale weaponry.

And there is no difference in the RPG between being shot by a 4D blaster pistol, a 4D slug, a 4D sword, or getting punched by a guy with a 4D STR. As far as the RPG goes it is all 4D lethal damage.


3) Lightsaber Combat
Lightsaber Combat in the RAW is overcomplicated and overpowered. If the Jedi really could pump up their Lightsaber skill so much, there is no way that they would have been challenged by the GAR, let alone defeated. The way the RAW works, a character that gets up a really high parry is safe against an almost limitless number of foes. This become even more of a problem thanks to the universal skill table introduced in 2nd edition. If a die code of 8D is considered one of the best on a planet, a Jedi PC who, thanks to LSC has a Lightsaber skill of 12D, really doesn't have too much to worry about. He should probably be more worried about botching a roll and cutting himself than of any of the NPCs he can expect to run into. At least until he runs into somebody else with a lightsaber.

Also, I think that the lightsaber should have a higher damage rating, and that Control shouldn't make the weapon do more damage, but that Jedi should boost their damage the same way other character can boost damage with weapon (i.e. by some option like in SpecForces/ROE or in the D Legend system where a good attack roll means good damage). In the RPG there are several times when a Lightsaber can't cut through something becuase 5D damage can't beat a vehicle's Hull or Body code. I just don't see a lightsaber bouncing off the hull of a ship or AT-AT.

4) A slight advantage goes too far.
It is part of the genre for the PCs to confront and defeat villains who are more powerful than they are. Yet the D system is strongly biased towards the character with the highest skill. Somebody with a 1D skill advantage can pretty much hold his own against two foes thanks to multiple actions and because a parry or dodge works against an unlimited number of foes.


5) Combined Actions
WEG came out with at least 3 difference methods, and all have problems. In the films the Jedi drop to the combined fire of lots of battle droids or Clone Troopers. Yet in the RPG, especially in 2R&E that just isn't going to happen. Yet by 2R&E in order for the mooks to be able to get past a Jedi7s parry, they would need to be commanded by somebody with more command dice than the best generals in the Galaxy.

6) Sequencing
In the films the Jedi can draw and swing with thier weapons right away. By the RAW it takes several actions just to get lightsaber combat up, and probably another to draw and activate the blade. Obi-wan's fight scene in the Catina is pretty much impossible according to the RAW. Okay, maybe it is possible if Obi-wan was walking around with Lightsaber Combat and Danger Sense up, but then the MAPs would have reduced his PER so much that it is doubtful they he could have spotted Luke at the bar. Alternating turns migght be good for a game, but it doesn't match the films. In the films one guy often snaps off multiple shots or makes a couple of lightsaber swings in a row.



7) Lightsaber Duels
In the films the duels are dramatic with lots of flashing swordplay. It (usually) takes several rounds for one opponent to beat down another's defenses. Yet in the RAW the duels are very quick and anti-climatic. Within a round or two somebody gets a hit and kills the opponent outright. There is no maneuver, give and take, or even time for good banter.

9) Force Points
Force points are supposed to give the PCs a edge, allow them to face great odds and tough obstacles like heroes, let the Jedi draw their strength from the Force (and be even more heroic), and make the Dark Side villians a cut above the run of the mill bad guys.

Unfortunately, thats to the cumulative effects of points 1, 2, 3,4, 5 and 7, Force oints cause more problems that they solve. In a common fight, "doubling up" via Force points turns what might have been an exciting fight into a boring lopsided slaughter. The effect of just one FP can and often will throw the outcome of any contest between any two characters who are a reasonable challenge for one another. That the FP doubles every one of a character's die codes just makes it all the worse. That tough villain can become impossible. And fights between Jedi and Dark Siders often turn into a contest of Force Point attrition. If one character doubles up and the other doesn't, the contest is usually decided.

This is boring, anticlimactic, and practically the opposite of what FPs were intended to do.

10) Danger Sense
In the films Jedi often (but not always) get a premonition that they are about to be attacked. Yet by the RAW, Danger Sense, if activated, always works, and can actually prevent opponents from being able to attack a character due to the requirement to declare a round in advance. A Jedi in a tunnel or maze could maneuver in a way that prevents his opponents from ever being able to declare an attack.



11) Scaling
Doesn't work. One of the problems is that scale doesn't seem to factor in for the actual speed and maneuverability of a vehicle. For instance,a fast and agile A-Wing is easier to hit that an slow, cumbersome AT-AT,simply because Starfighter is the next scale up. And a slow moving vehicle becomes great a dodging a larger craft simply due to scale.
I think scaling dice or capping them, just doesn't work right. Wither something gets turned into a brick so that it can be tough, or do good damage, or something gets wimped up sot hat it can be nimble. The films give no indication that T-47s are more maneuverable than an X-Wing. Certainyl not 3-4D more maneuverable.

Scaling also makes climatic fights with starfighters facing captial ships a lot less fun. The all or nothing approach that D6 uses for damage, means that most starfighter weapons are ineffective against big ships. By the RAW, Luke wouldn't have been able to blow up the Death Star becuase of the 18D scaling difference! But in the films, Luke wasn't trying to attack the whole Death Star, just one weak point.

12) The Wild Die
This is just too flukey. One of three rolls with either be a one or a six. This is just too random. Professional level (4D) characters fail at moderate and even easy tasks much too often. The films don't give the impression that 1 out of 6 hyperspace jumps turn into mishaps.

[S-Foil]

[ZzaphodD]

[Guardian_A]

[jmanski]

[Grimace]

[MacRauri]

Of course I would like to see Force Powers in general revamped, but in particular I want boundaries or at least clarifications on Affect Mind.

Some of the uses my gaming groups came up with for Affect Mind were utterly ridiculous and once you start going there you always gotta out do yourself. In particular this was at the VD end of the ALTER scale which your victim is just as likely to resist as something at the VE end because they're rolling their Perception (awesome attribute--other thread) against your SENSE.

Obi-wan said "The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded"

But in our experience a Jedi who has come into their own can use Affect Mind to have a strong influence over virtually anyone who isn't also a Jedi! Is that Obi-wan's definition of weak-minded? Non-force sensitive?!

[garhkal]

[Azai]

One thing I do was adjust the difficult levels for when pcs get really high end like 10D above.

Heroic now has Unreal, Impossible, Legendary, and Godly above it. I had to look at what would be consider that stuff but it seems to work out well.

As for adjusting enemies I just make them real smart. Squads will target together for combine actions, or on the fly I might make a hit really hurt. The group tends to dislike people just "shrugging off" blaster bolts.

[Guardian_A]

[S-Foil]

[cheshire]