Melee Combat/Parry....same?

[Cool McCool]

Here's what I think:

Blaster is opposed by Dodge.
Brawling is opposed by Brawling Parry.
Melee is opposed by Melee Parry.

So no one form of attack is better than any other. Thus, you can have characters who specialize in one of the various types, based on player preference, without being or feeling "gimped".

What I always did was that if you declared a Dodge (we declared actions first, and you couldn't change them, or take reactive defensive actions during the combat round), you suffered a -5 penalty if the guy was Brawling and a -10 penalty if the guy was Melee-ing. Melee Parry vs. a Brawling gave you +5, and Brawling Parry was -10 to Melee or Blaster.

I don't know if I'd do that like that now though. I'd probably just say a flat -5 if you're not using the right defensive skill.

Lightsabers are different because they are lightsabers. The game is deciding to make them more powerful in order to capture the feel of Star Wars. Good, bad, I'll let you decide.

I think that realism is a secondary concern. Luckily, it's easy enough to tweak to get the kind of feel you want. Make sure you know the consequences of doing so though!
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Still funky after all these years

[Pel]

We've always allowed dodging of ranged or physical attacks. A kind of "jumping out of the way" effect, usually a full dodge.
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Aha!