Mooks?

[krysallokard]

Well, one thing I've always noted in the rules is that Stormtroopers are particularly powerful according to the rules. Especially if you count their armor at full value (rolling 4D+2 to resist damage or something like that). Their not invulnerable, but they ARE a far cry from what we see in the movies.

So I've been debating in my a head a 'mook' system similar to that of the Feng Shui RPG. Any time a PC hits a unnamed NPC such as a Stormtrooper they don't roll damage. Instead, they simply have to roll a certain number higher then the difficulty of the attack.

For example, let's say that your average Stormtrooper requires a +5 or better to take down. If the ST is at medium range the difficulty is 15. So the ST would require an attack roll of 20 or better to drop them. If the roll was between 15 and 19 the ST would just be stunned (-1D to actions), and on a 14 or less the attack is a miss.

I think this could speed up combats some making them a bit more dramatic. In the case of important NPCs (like those with names other then TK-421) you could just treat the damage as normal.

For particularly large weapons, you could simple apply a bonus to the result needed to drop the bad guy.

Any thoughts on this?

[Ankhanu]

It kind of takes away the most important aspect of combat in Star Wars; "Combat is dangerous."
As it is, there are official rules in place to help beef up Stormtroopers to make them more of a threat, I don't think the standard issue troopers really need to be gimped any more than they are.

Yeah, they're not super easy to take down, but, c'mon, they're heavily armoured, well trained forces, they're not SUPPOSED to be easy to take down.

[cheshire]

I've done something similar to that, but only after a Jedi party has gotten strong enough that the damage rolls are pretty much irrelevant. A lightsaber vs. a stormie is pretty much a no-contest thing. However, that was more or less to speed up game play, and not to do with how well they did or didn't go down.

Not to mention, some of my group actually balked at the idea. They knew that Stormtroopers were a challenge, and they liked that they moved beyond them. As much as people make fun of the buckets o' dice, it made them feel powerful to kill a once-threatening stormie four times before he hit the ground.

*shrug*

[Gry Sarth]

Now there's a complain I've never heard before: stormtroopers being too powerful. Usually it's the other way around. I, for one, think stormies are just right. With 3D against energy and 4D against physical damage, they stand a fair chance of being wounded and killed, specially with their poor dodge skill.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

Yeah, I've never heard that complaint before either. The people I've gamed with always took great pride in having their characters survive long enough to be able to inflict that kind of damage. Plus, it became a challenge for our GM to come up with new adventures for our advanced characters-a challenge he enjoyed, so it was win-win all around.

[Maur]

And as characters advance, stormies can be made more deadly through the idea of combined fire and teamwork :)
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[cheshire]

That's how I always did it. You should have seen the looks on my player's faces when they ran into 30 Stormtroopers at once.

Granted, I used a deus ex machina (more like deus ex machinegun) to help them out.

[Esoomian]

If anything Stormies seem a little underpowered for what is in theory a branch of the armed forces that binds the galaxy to Palpatine's will

[scott2978]

I've never had a problem with Stormtroopers being too powerful or too weak. I just make sure they have the appropriate amount of support and numbers to affect the story they way they should. Note that I don't mean they are a fixed element that forces things to go one way or another, just that they are properly equipped for the kind of encounter the group expects.

[garhkal]

[Ray]

Don't forget, during the height of the empire, they had more Stormies to throw at you, than you had ammo to throw back.

And, also, there's all those nice specialized branches to throw at the group as well.

Stick 'em in Canada... Er... Hoth, and send Snowtroopers at them while the PCs are still getting used to wearing heavy parkas.

Or have them on a Water Planet while Seatroopers come up from under the water! (This was a royal pain as we tried to keep them from ruining our "Bubba-Gump Shrimp Boat".).

Finally, when you care to send the very best, and the group gets too big for it's britches, Stormtrooper Commandos. Even at our Height, they scared the hell out of us! Well, except for the one platoon that we Squeegied off the roof of a Planet-Side Rebel Base using a malfunctioning Corellian Corvette, but that's a different story.

[krysallokard]

Well, what I've been doing is just increasing the ST accuracy as the PCs get more powerful. At first they didn't hit much, but as they've gotten more powerful the shots keep getting closer and closer. It's worked well so far.

I was thinking of the previous idea as more of a way to speed up play. I have seven players and when I throw seven or eight ST their way combat gets cumbersome.

[Lor-Pbk]

I know this is an older post, but I wanted to add my 2 bits...

I know the recent movies portray Stormtroopers as the bulk of the imperial military, But realistically Thats just not true. The clone troopers may have been used as the generic trooper in the movies, but that was part of the storyline as they did make up the majority of the Republic army. Where as, I feel in the time of the later movies ( episodes 4-6) the storm troopers are no longer just clones. They are largely made up of actual recruited individuals from around the gallaxy. And I also portray Stormtroopers as the eleite troops making them tougher than they are in the game. Not the standard trooper. The standard trooper wears different armor;

Quote page 45 of the imperial source book:
Army troopers make a vast number of the empire's planet bound fighting forces....

there are also Imp. Naval troopers depicted on page 43 of the same book.
And I use page 62 of the Deathstar Technical Compainion for pics of these npcs... ( not the best art work in WEG Star wars books, but it works.)

These are an example of the resistance my players usually encounter. Stormtroopers in my Canpaigns are the eleite troops used for storming rebel bases and other key military targets, not the standard units that would be found guarding a base or patroling the streets of a city.

I kinda thing stormtroopers were over used in the movies, But I'm not Lucas, so whatever.

To this My players usually reguard STs as really nasty advisaries. And alot of running away is common.




And something I actually do in my campaigns is I have made it a fact not all Storm tr

[Lor-Pbk]

Also ... Something they dont cover in the books. As troops are recruited from around the gallaxy, you find alot of races loyal tot he Empire. With this in mind I have actually used various other races as Imperial troops. Especially when doing missions on the outer rim. Local govenors would commonly use the recruits available to them opposed to waiting for buracracy to supply the man power they need.

Hence finding a twi'lek or Devorian in imperial garb in my campaigns is not unherd of. With modifications made to the armor to support thier racial traits. ( horns/headtails)

[Ray]

Maybe after the Emperor is gone, Lor.

But, before that, it was very, very, very, VERY rare for a non-human to get into Imperial Service.

Informants, sure. Contractors, absolutely! Soldiers? Hardly.

Not that I saying there weren't any (*Cough*Thrawn*Cough*), but very much a "Whafark" moment.