How to con the players into melee combat

[Ninja-Bear]

This Sat., I'm planning to run a premade adventure. The players will face pirates that have vibrorapuers. As a gm, I wiukd really like to pull off a sword fight instead of a blaster fight.
I'm looking for ideas to have this action without a total gm fiat.

My only idea is to have the area exposed to potentially explosive gases. How do I justify though the vibro part of the rapiers? Specially insulated?

[shootingwomprats]

I have been toying with mechanic that adds a new range called Engaged. Which is 0-3 meters. Most hand weapons are not effective at this range so it fits. Once you have entered Engaged range you perform brawling and melee attacks.

The part I have not figured out yet is movement. The issue in the past has been if a character uses an action to close, and the opponent uses their first action to move away, melee combat never takes place.

Some have suggested an Attack of Opportunity from D&D but I dislike this as well. So what to do.

I think if a character closes to within Engaged range and they want to move away they must make an opposed Running/Dexterity roll versus brawling/melee combat. If successful the character can move normally. If failure they cannot disengage.

Just an idea.
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
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@swd6podcast, Twitter

[MrNexx]

Cargo crates, stacked poorly, creating a maze of tiny passages where long sight lines for blaster fire aren't available. Stick everything at about half light, so distance fire is even worse.

Happened all the gorram time in Mass Effect 1, usually with Husks... couldn't stand back and shoot them, wound up having to draw a shotgun or beat them to death.
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[Ninja-Bear]

[shootingwomprats]

Well if you're wanting the players to do melee as opposed to ranged, the easiest thing to do, it take their ranged weapons or make them unavailable to them. Maybe they have to leave them on their ship, turn them over to an authority, maybe there is a strange dampening field that only affects tibanni gas? Tons of reasons.

As has already been suggested, make it so that ranged weapons are ineffective. Reduce ranges with short hallways, boxes, crypt, winding hallway. Though be aware, your players will try to use this to their advantage stating anything from Point Blank shots and Short Range. You will have to have a counter answer for them

Lighting is also a good one, but if your players have anything that negates this its pointless. I would suggest at least a -2D lighting and maybe a -2D steam modifier, total -4D added to difficulty.
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[Ninja-Bear]

The initial scenerio calls for the pirates to jump the pcs on a Rim world. The PCs are leaving a cantina to their docking bay. Hmmm planetary condions?I

[MrNexx]

[shootingwomprats]

[TauntaunScout]

Cracken's field guide states that landspeeder coolant gas, or something, diffuses blaster bolts. You can look it up. It gives rules for making balsters do less and less damage the farther they shoot through a cloud of it. Cracken used a big canister of it to make a blaster-proof smoke screen.

You can always have lots of volatile stuff around that will explode if shot. There was something like that in the miniatures book. Every time a character bombs out while shooting, something explodes and/or catches fire.

[Error]

I like the explosive gases idea. You won't need to change vibrorapiers at all. If a player wonders why the swords don't set off the gases (unlikely that anyone would ask), just say that the power required to vibrate one of the swords is too low to ignite them (true anyway).
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The only words of explanation you need for any concept in the entire Star Wars universe are the words Science Fiction and Space Opera.

[garhkal]

[Sutehp]

[garhkal]

Here's the item from the equipment guide, which came from several other sources..

[Sutehp]

[TauntaunScout]

"Canon" is out the window in a non-canon 20 year old RPG. Whatever the Game Master says, that's canon for the duration of the game.