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Krapou
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 173
Location: Bordeaux, France
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 Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:29 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | And you could have had Vader survive. Most of the sourcebooks list Vader and Palpatine force powers and mention that those are the KNOWN powers that they had. They could also have other more unusual powers that would allow them to survive such a catastrophe. Mind you with the levels of his force skills, Vader should have had a good dice pool to soak with Absorb/dissipate energy. |
He could just have used the control power "Reduce Injury"... |
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Jedi Skyler
Moff
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:49 am Post subject: |
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| Heck, with the levels they had to work with, he could have used BOTH Absorb/Dissipate AND Reduce Injury, making both rolls even with the penalties. |
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entropy
Lieutenant
Joined: 13 Jul 2005
Posts: 81
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:42 am Post subject: Death of Vader |
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| Quote: | And you could have had Vader survive. Most of the sourcebooks list Vader and Palpatine force powers and mention that those are the KNOWN powers that they had. They could also have other more unusual powers that would allow them to survive such a catastrophe. Mind you with the levels of his force skills, Vader should have had a good dice pool to soak with Absorb/dissipate energy.
He could just have used the control power "Reduce Injury"...
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I was a PC in this particular encounter, and I have to say I appreciate that the DM did not pull something like this just for continuity. Vader was standing between a charge of detonite set to destroy a hardened imperial bunker and 30 kilos (30D damage, heat trigger) of thermite gel in the backpack of one of the PCs. When the charge went off, Vader was blown into the back of the PC and the the thermite was set off by the blast. We didn't calculate the damage for the detonite, since we already knew that he was taking an additional 30D to the chest cavity. And then the building collapsed on them.
So really, even if Vader had managed to "survive" the blast using the force, all of the electronics keeping him alive on a day-to-day basis would also have been destroyed. Without things like respiration, he would have had a hard time sustaining his life long enough for the imperials to dig him out of a couple thousand cubic feet of reinforced duracrete. |
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Jedi Skyler
Moff
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:54 am Post subject: |
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While I'll agree with you that with normal circumstances there's no way Vader SHOULD have survived such an encounter, I'd also say that it might be possible to construct a semi-plausible way that he could. Granted, he'd be completely messed up for some time to come, which in and of itself is a change in the movie story line, but there are time periods not covered by them which could be accounted for by such a recovery time.
As long as you don't care about altered storyline, y'all did a great job! Score a HUGE one for the Alliance! |
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Krapou
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 173
Location: Bordeaux, France
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:18 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I was a PC in this particular encounter, and I have to say I appreciate that the DM did not pull something like this just for continuity. Vader was standing between a charge of detonite set to destroy a hardened imperial bunker and 30 kilos (30D damage, heat trigger) of thermite gel in the backpack of one of the PCs. |
Well I'm fine with that : I was just giving an idea for "how could he survice that". I agree that he probably could not take that much damage and survive. But maybe he could avoid it...
Anyway, it is always GM's appreciation  |
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Volar the Healer
Jedi
Joined: 04 Aug 2003
Posts: 664
Location: Arizona, USA
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:41 am Post subject: Re: Breaking Missions |
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| Tahlorn wrote: | | I was wonderding how you guys make sure that your players don't go down a COMPLETELY different path than you intended... |
I don't.
After one mission briefing, the players (a Rebel strike team) whined the Alliance wasn't giving them anything hard to do (mostly bravado), so they all laughed they'd like to kill Vader. I had the Alliance intel officer stare at them for a moment, blink twice, then say "O.K. If you think you can. I cannot order anyone to do that - we've lost two complete teams on previous attempts - but you guys are good, maybe you can do it. I'll authorize you to draw anything you want from supply."
Now, the players know I "let the dice fall where they do" in battle - that they do have a chance to kill him. I then broke for lunch saying "I need time to plan your next adventure. I was unprepared for this."
Remember, a good RPG is a combined effort between the Director and the players. If they want to be fighter pilots, cool. If they want to be a tramp freighter crew, cool. If they want to be soldiers in the same infantry squad, cool. If they want to fly to Ossus to try to find the Jedi acadamy, cool; as long as the do it with character knowledge.
My way of dealing with this is to have three adventures ready at once for the players to choose from. Right now I have three plots occurring at the same time. They're too busy to fly off on their own. (Then, of course, there's the cost of the fuel, another payment is due on the starship, shipping contracts to completed, etc, etc...)
If they make a left turn...well...that encounter I had planned for Besbin could happen on Alderaan. I can run the same adventure idea in a different locale with only small changes. All roads can lead to Rome as long as the players don't realize all roads lead to Rome (Thanks, Hellstorm).
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace |
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Jedi Skyler
Moff
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | All roads can lead to Rome as long as the players don't realize all roads lead to Rome |
Speak it, Volar! That's another sign of a really good GM- PLANNING! Having a number of alternatives prepared can mean the difference between a smooth transition from one set of plans to another and the sudden "CUT!!!" scream from the director because things aren't going according to plan, and he needs to regroup. That Volar has alternate complete sets of plans ready means he's got that much more flexibility where his group is concerned, and that's only ever a good thing for his group. |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:26 am Post subject: Re: Death of Vader |
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| entropy wrote: | | Quote: | And you could have had Vader survive. Most of the sourcebooks list Vader and Palpatine force powers and mention that those are the KNOWN powers that they had. They could also have other more unusual powers that would allow them to survive such a catastrophe. Mind you with the levels of his force skills, Vader should have had a good dice pool to soak with Absorb/dissipate energy.
He could just have used the control power "Reduce Injury"...
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I was a PC in this particular encounter, and I have to say I appreciate that the DM did not pull something like this just for continuity. Vader was standing between a charge of detonite set to destroy a hardened imperial bunker and 30 kilos (30D damage, heat trigger) of thermite gel in the backpack of one of the PCs. When the charge went off, Vader was blown into the back of the PC and the the thermite was set off by the blast. We didn't calculate the damage for the detonite, since we already knew that he was taking an additional 30D to the chest cavity. And then the building collapsed on them.
So really, even if Vader had managed to "survive" the blast using the force, all of the electronics keeping him alive on a day-to-day basis would also have been destroyed. Without things like respiration, he would have had a hard time sustaining his life long enough for the imperials to dig him out of a couple thousand cubic feet of reinforced duracrete. |
Not necessarily... Perhaps the emperor 'sensed he was in need', like he did in EP 3, and used a force power to draw vader away into a medical facility just after it happened...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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Jedi Skyler
Moff
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:28 am Post subject: Re: Death of Vader |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Not necessarily... Perhaps the emperor 'sensed he was in need', like he did in EP 3, and used a force power to draw vader away into a medical facility just after it happened... |
I don't know about that one...Palpatine didn't use a Force power to draw Vader away in EP 3; he sensed his impending predicament and went to physically remove him from the scene. What might be more believeable (or doable) would be for Vader to use Absorb/Dissipate Energy, channeling the energy he soaked straight into a Force shield. Corran Horn did this (although on a MUCH smaller scale.) And I don't believe Vader should have emerged unscathed either, but it is perhaps possible (however remotely...) that he might have survived the encounter. But he'd have had to burn up every last Force point he had to do it, I'd imagine. |
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entropy
Lieutenant
Joined: 13 Jul 2005
Posts: 81
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:48 am Post subject: Death of Vader |
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| Quote: | But he'd have had to burn up every last Force point he had to do it, I'd imagine.
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I don't know if it's an official rule or not, but I believe we have always played that you must declare a force point at the beginning of your round. You can't use it in reaction, except for the effects of certain force powers (transfer force, etc.) |
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Jedi Skyler
Moff
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| I'm just speculating on possibilities here... Since we're talking about the GM having to take extraordinary measures to ensure Vader would have stayed alive, I think that qualifies... |
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The Brain
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 242
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| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| Jedi Skyler wrote: | | I'm just speculating on possibilities here... Since we're talking about the GM having to take extraordinary measures to ensure Vader would have stayed alive, I think that qualifies... |
Extraordindary measures? Why bother, good old Palpy sitting on a throne someplace senses a disturbence from Vader's death shrugs and orders up a new clone, with the chamber set on "dark menacing evil overlord" and hopefully not "whiny man-child". |
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KageRyu
Commodore
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 1391
Location: Lost in the cracks
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| Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:42 am Post subject: |
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I try not to worry if my players "break" from a planned mission or goal too much. I take a number of steps to steer them in the right direction, and I take other steps. My campaigns are dynamic, and always in motion. As have been said by others, I have a storry arc I wish to see unfold, which usually consists of severalpages of notes on the overall highlights of what will happen. I have dozens of Stock Characters on 3x5 index cards, as well as specific NPCs. I then jot down an overall description of significant events, locations, obstacles, and forces in any given place, as well as clues the players may or may not find at any given place. I then basically leave things up to fate. I make note of what clues the players find, which they act on, and what action they take. In my storry arc, I keep it flexible enough to account for success or failure of varrying degrees, and open enough for new ides. I will try to use NPCs to steer the players in the right direction if they are having trouble or can't decide, but I keep this low key, and only have the NPCs act on information they've heard from the PCs or would reasonably know.
Aside from this, all player actions are dulely noted and used to build future adventure ideas. Most adventures are really collisions of ideas from multiple storry arcs, and so do not fit the traditional "adventure" or "module" format. Older players in my group realize that all actions have consequences, and the newer players are quickly learning this.
For those rare events when the players either step so far outside of what I planned I am unready(or when I just had insufficient time to prepare sufficient materials) I use my library of source materials to quickly fill the gap. I heavily wing it, salvaging what I can from what was prepared, and simply adapting locations, NPCs, and story elements from other sources. I have even used non Star Wars RPG books for background and maps on locations and stories in a pinch.
I have found that by keeping the campaign dynamic and flexible, it is far more enjoyable to all.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra |
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