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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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Joined: 07 Apr 2017
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 Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 10:55 am Post subject: |
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| Zulgyan wrote: | | Wajeb Deb Kaadeb wrote: |
Note that if a player wants to use a Force power that he doesn't have, then the character must learn it. |
Ins't that optional? According to the 1E book: "A character who knows a Force skill can use any or all of the powers listed under the skill name".
Am I missing anything? |
Sorry. That's a typo on my part. I meant to say Force Skill.
It always confuses me why they named Force Skills the way they did, when the Force Skills are treated differently than regular skills.
I think a character should have skills, Force Abilities, and Force Powers. That way, there's no confusion about skills. |
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Solo4114
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Joined: 18 May 2017
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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| This is awesome! If there's any way to reduce this to a nicely formatted PDF, I'd say you've got a hell of a "1e Companion" document to help familiarize players with the system. |
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Bren
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Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Zulgyan wrote: | | Quote: | A stunned character is momentarily disoriented. Their skill
and attribute codes are reduced by 1D for the rest of the combat
round and the next combat round. Stun damage is cumulative.
Example: A character stunned three times in the same
combat round reduces all die codes by 3D. A character taking
two stunned results in combat round six, and two
stunned results in combat round seven would lose 4D from
all actions for the rest of round seven.
If the number of stuns ever equals or exceeds a characters
basic die code of STAMINA or STRENGTH (not including pips), then
the character falls unconscious. |
Does anyone know the reason for that rules change? To me it seems that the standard 1E rule is extremely punishing. Losing all your actions for getting hit seems quite harsh. Any thoughts? |
I assumed it was because some people felt the standard rules were extremely punishing. Especially for characters who don't have high Dodge scores and are likely to get hit. Spending the entire battle getting stunned round after round and never being able to act doesn't sound like much fun. |
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Zulgyan
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Joined: 09 May 2017
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Solo4114 wrote: | | This is awesome! If there's any way to reduce this to a nicely formatted PDF, I'd say you've got a hell of a "1e Companion" document to help familiarize players with the system. |
Yeah. That would be great. It's really a great job. |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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THIS R2 IS BANGED UP! YOU WANT ANOTHER?
I am going through the thread, correcting some errors I made. I wrote this a little while back, and I did a lot of it from memory. I've seen that I've got a few screw ups in the text here and there--so, I am fixing those.
Last edited by Wajeb Deb Kaadeb on Thu May 18, 2017 9:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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STUN!
Let's talk a little bit about stuns. The rule says that, on a successful hit, a character is, at a minimum, stunned. In other editions and rule upgrades, you'll find different ways Stuns are measured in the game. But 1E Star Wars, by the book, sticks by the notion that a blaster packs a hell of a wallop and will flat out knock you on your butt.
What is a blaster bolt? It is a gas that has been super-heated to a plasma state. That's one of the reasons the bolts are relatively slow for a weapon (You can't see bullets fired from a slug thrower moving as slow as blaster bolts.) These plasma bolts carry a hell of a lot of kinetic energy, though. When a bolt hits, it slams into its target, usually doing a lot of physical damage. Remember the scenes in any of the Star Wars movies, especially in The Force Awakens. When people are hit, wearing armor or not, the energy from the blaster bolt sends the target flying.
In game terms, a stun occurs when the character's defensive STR roll is higher than the Damage roll. If a character is stunned, the game says that the stunned character falls prone and cannot do any action for the rest of the game round.
Note that a combat round in 1E is about five seconds long. So, if a character is effected by a stun, then he is only robbed of his actions for five seconds or less. It could be 1 second, or even 3 seconds.
If a character has already acted in a combat round, then the stun, really, has no real effect except to knock the character down. Consider a character taking two actions and acting early in the round, on combat segment one and segment two. Then, on segment three, the character is stunned by a foe. The stunned character is not allowed to act for the rest of the round due to the stun, but the character doesn't have any actions left to perform anyway!
In 1E, it is typical to have two or three action segments in a combat round as characters rarely perform more than two or three actions. Of course, if a Force Point is spent, you can see a lot more combat segments in a round, but that happens rarely. Plus, experienced characters will "save" an action for a Reaction, like a Dodge.
MAKE THE STUN VISUAL AND EXCITING!
When a stun is applied to a character, PC or NPC, make it extremely exciting with your description. You need to breathe the life of STAR WARS SWASHBUCKLING ACTION into the minds of your players.
Don't always describe the same thing with something like, "Oh, you're stunned. You're knocked down. No more actions this round."
Instead, you want to describe how the blaster bolt zoomed by and grazed the character's shoulder, igniting the character's tunic on fire! The character spins--almost a three-sixty--and is slammed to the ground!
| Quote: | | You can actually smell your flesh burning! And your arm! By instinct you pat out the fire, but you thought or a second that your arm had been torn from its socket! |
THAT'S how to describe a stun.
I also want to point your attention at all the excellent notes given to Game Mastes in the 1E rulebook. Don't ignore these. There's tons of great advice in that book.
You can use the idea of Interpreting Rolls (page 30) when you gauge how to play out your stuns. If the STR roll beat the Damage roll by a great deal, then maybe the stun isn't so bad.
Remember when Leia got hit in Return of the Jedi? By the rules, she was stunned. Yet, she didn't go sprawling across the wooded plain, right? No, what happened was that she got grazed, said, "Ouch," and she squatted down--because it hurt!
In game terms, this is a light graze. Leia STR roll beat the Damage roll by A LOT.
What are the mechanics of the game with a stun? A character gets knocked down and is allowed no more actions for the round.
Did Leia take any more actions that round? No.
Did Leia get knocked down? Yes. She was already squatting, firing her blaster, when she got hit. She fell backward on her feet, and Han reached down to help her.
But, I am hear to say that you don't even really need to knock a character off their feet, or describe them as even getting grazed or hit, when a stun occurs, as long as the mechanics of the game are satisfied.
Picture a character leaning around the corner of a corridor wall, and the character gets hit--resulting in a stun.
Why not do something a little different with the stun? Say that the bolt smashed into the wall close to the character's head. Bits of polymer explodes from the hit. "Oh!" Screams the character, as she involuntarily ducks back around the corner and sinks to her knees.
The character is "shell shocked" from the blast going off so near her head. Survival instinct kicks in. That's why she crouches, almost in the fetal position. Maybe she's can't see because of wall debris in her eyes.
Are the mechanical effects solved? Yes. She doesn't act the rest of the round. And, to stand back up, it's an action, just like standing up after being knocked down.
Mechanically, the two scenarios are the same.
You can even describe the stunned character as not crouching and not being knocked down, if you want. Just keep the mechanics the same. The stunned character in that situation would not do any actions for the rest of the round and be penalized -1D the next round (the same penalty if an action was used to stand up).
Does a character drop what he's holding when he is stunned? That's up to the GM and his dramatic description. I'd use the difference between the STR and Damage roll as a guide. If the STR and Damage rolls are close together, then the stun is a hard one. Be aggressive with your description. The stunned character is not only knocked down, but he tosses anything in his hands, and he skids a few feet when he hits the ground.
On the other hand, if the STR roll soundly beats the Damage roll, then describe the damage as a spray of plasma--the bolt struck something solid close to the character and plasma shrapnel sprayed on the character. It's hot, but she maintains balance--she's just paused for a moment. (And, if she's not knocked down, then be sure to penalize the character by -1D for stun residue to keep the mechanics the same.) |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | Wajeb Deb Kaadeb wrote: | SPACE COMBAT!
SHIELDS - Another thing that can be done to protect the ship is to angle a deflector shield. Unlike Evasion, a separate Shields check must be made per shot fired at the ship during the round. When this check is made, a character rolls his Shields skill and adds that to the roll for the ship's Shield's Code, and this total is added to the difficulty for the enemy shot. |
If the pilot evades that segment and the shield person angles the shields against a shot are those additive for that one shot or is it the best of the two? |
I totally screwed that up in the original post, and I went back and fixed it (and deleted the wrong material).
Everything I've written earlier in this thread should be completely by the book, now.
This is how a starship attack is handled in First Edition Star Wars.
Let's say a TIE is attacking the Millennium Falcon.
The TIE attacks in the Fire Segment. He rolls his Gunnery skill plus Fire Control bonus from his vessel.
Han can choose to Evade. If he does, it works like a Dodge. He rolls his Pilot skill and his ship's Maneuver Code and adds that to the target number for the TIE's attack.
If the Evade is successful, then the TIE misses. Han has twisted the Falcon out of the way of the incoming fire.
If the TIE still hits, then Chewie can angle a deflector shield. This is a Shield task. Chewie rolls his Shield skill against a target number based on range to the TIE. If successful, the Falcon's Shield code is added to the Falcon's Hull for damage. The damage of the TIE weapons are rolled, precisely, against the Falcon's Hull code + Shield code. |
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Zulgyan
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| Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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About STUN: If I had the real 1E book I would go by the standard rules. But right now I just have the "Classic Adventures" booklets and I have already given copies of the Player's Manual to my players. Since it's their first time ever playing a TRPG, I think the -1D rule for stuns with no loss of actions will make things a bit easier for them. It will make for a better learning environment.
Last edited by Zulgyan on Fri May 19, 2017 9:13 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Make sure your guys have the Medicine skill improved. And, be prepared with they discover the Stun setting. |
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Zulgyan
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| Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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One player is planning to play Wookie who's a first aid specialist and has a backpack full of medpacks.  |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 7:50 am Post subject: |
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| Zulgyan wrote: | | One player is planning to play Wookie who's a first aid specialist and has a backpack full of medpacks. |
Interesting choice! 
In that case, make sure that as part of the Wookee's equipment that he has a Wook-to-Basic translator. A medic has to be understood by his patients. He can war the thing around his neck, and that way, you don't have to worry about anyone (who can speak Basic) not understanding the Wookiee.
Without the translator, consider using the rules that are written on the back of the Wookiee template when it comes to the language barrier.
Also remember that you can use droids for things like this. If no player really wants to put skill dice into Medicine, then simply give them a Medic Droid. Make up a quick droid (as I describe up-thread, or as described in the core rulebook) and make one of his specialties the Medicine skill. One of the droids attachments could be a replacement for medpacs. Let's say the droid can apply 50 (maybe 100, depending on the size of the droid) medpacs before it needs to be restocked. The little guy (I'm picturing a half-size Artoo like unit with extra arms) can fly around on its built in repulsor drive, floating out to injured party members and fixing them up.
Give it a stuck-up bed side manner to add some humor to the game. "Injured again, huh. I don't think you're worth the bacta pads I'm wasting on you trying to heal you up. Oh well. Bend over. This won't hurt a bit. He-he-he." And the droid produces this syringe with this big @$$ needle on it.
Or...you see an arm telescope from the droid's housing, the tip spread into finger-like manipulators, all of them covered by this plastic rubber glove. "Must insert digit. Must insert digit. Must insert digit." The droid says, over and over, until it does so. |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 9:40 am Post subject: |
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@Zulgyan
One more thing. I know that you're using the modified damage system from Classic Adventures, so the game isn't as punishing as a normal 1E game.
But, still, you should drill into your players a respect for combat.
If combat starts, their instinct is going to be to shoot back, or shoot back and move. If they're caught out in the open, then they don't want to do more than one action. This is because they don't need their DEX codes lowered. If someone shoots at them, they can run for cover (or Dodge). If they make it to cover, then the enemy gets a cover penalty to their shot.
Teach your players to move from cover to cover in combat (just like in real life!). In between cover, then Dodge. |
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Zulgyan
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 10:25 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah. I will sure warn them not to take combat lightly! Thanks for all the help Wajeb |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 10:28 am Post subject: |
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| Zulgyan wrote: | | Yeah. I will sure warn them not to take combat lightly! Thanks for all the help Wajeb |
Pay me back by returning and reporting on your game! I'd love to hear how it goes! |
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Zulgyan
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Sure! We are about to start in a few hours! |
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