Lightsaber vs parry

[Lord Ben]

Can you parry a lightsaber? My player seems to think that just because it says parry that if you tried to parry it you'd slice your arm off. I said parry is just the WEG terms for a melee dodge and that it means avoiding the attack by whatever means available - NOT sticking your arm or vibroaxe in the way of the blade.

That being said

[Gry Sarth]

I believe it works like that:

If you have a melee weapon, you can melee parry a lightsaber, though that might slice your weapon in half.
If you're unarmed you can brawling parry the lightsaber, and that doesn't necesarily mean slicing your arm in half, just maneuvering out of the saber's way.
I'm not sure you can dodge it, I think dodge is for thrown things.

[Error]

A parry, in and of itself, is bringing an object to "block" something that's being swung or thrown at you. It's in no way a dodge.

A dodge is just that, a dodge.

I see no reason why you couldn't attempt to dodge a lightsaber strike, but you'd be rolling your dodge to do it, not your melee parry or your lightsaber skill. These have specific uses that are described in the rulebook.

If, for some strange reason, you wanted to parry a lightsaber with a vibroblade or one of those neat little staves General Grievous's henchmen had, you would roll your melee parry. But odds are, unless it's something very special (like one of those staves), it's not going to make a lick of difference. The lightsaber would most definitely glide right through your average vibroblade without the user even feeling it, and you would get hit anyway.

As far as non-force sensitive characters vs. Jedi, dodging is about the only way you're going to get out of the way of a lightsaber attack.
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[Gry Sarth]

Ok, let's dig out the Rulebook, shall we? That darn thing is quite useful for these kind of things:

-Brawling parry is a "reaction skill" used to avoid being hit by a brawling or melee combat attack if you're unarmed. Brawling parry is used to hold one's ground yet avoid or block a hand-to-hand combat attack.

-Dodge is a "reaction skill" used to avoid any ranged attack, including blaster fire, grenades, bullets and arrows. Characters using this are doing whatever they can to dodge the attack — slipping around a corner for cover, diving behind cargo containers, dropping to the ground, or any other maneuvers to avoid getting hit.

-Melee parry is the "reaction skill" used if a character has a melee weapon and is attacked by someone with a melee combat, brawling or lightsaber attack.

I think that endorses my vision as posted above. Dodge is only for ranged attacks, not direct combat. Brawling parry is not only actuall "parries", but evasions as well. And although the same thing is not stated in Melee Parry, I believe it's safe to assume that it should work the same way.

Summing up. If someone comes at you w/ a lightsaber, you can use either brawling or melee parries (depending if you're armed or not) to simply get out of the way of the saber.

[Error]

In that case, I disagree with the rulebook. Ranged attacks are not the only thing that one can "dodge" in real life.

If someone swings a stick at you, and you jump out of the way, you didn't parry, you dodged. A brawling parry should not be the only option available to an unarmed combatant who is facing a melee weapon or a lightsaber; it simply makes no sense.

If a GM feels that being able to dodge a melee or another type of hand-to-hand attack places too much weight and value on a high dodge skill, he or she might implement a new rule: if you dodge a melee or lightsaber attack, you have moved too far out of range to make a brawling or melee attack the next round.
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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.

[Gry Sarth]

The thing is that Brawling Parry and Melee Parry are sort of misnamed, since apparently the skill doesn't cover only "parries". It's more something like Unarmed Defense and Melee Defense. I believe using dodge in a brawling/melee/lightsaber combat would only really fit if you were really jumping out of the fight, disengaging your enemy and ducking behind some crates or something, not just swinging around to avoid being hit.

That said, I'm rethinking a little bit what I said first about Melee Parry. If you're not going to block or deflect the attack with your sword, but get out of its way, you should use Brawling Parry. Because if you're just avoiding the attacker's blade, what difference does it make if you're holding a sword or not?

[Stule]

I have to agree with Gry.

Each Parry is to be used in a specific way.

Brawling
Dodge
Melee

Each one is for that specific combat style.

So if your fighting a Jedi and he has a Lightsaber, then you would use Brawling Parry if Unarmed, and Melee Parry if armed.
And if you used Brawling Parry against a Lightsaber, it doesn't neccesarily mean you took damage. The description (thanks to Gry) says you can avoid the attack with Brawling Parry.

Dodge is for Ranged attacks.

That's the simple way of it.

But the beauty of this game is that if you want to do it a different way you can!



Peace.

Stule

[MA-3PO]

I also agree with you Gry. I have always interpreted the parries as not just parrying but jinking and moving to get out of the way of an attack.

Even if you are carrying a vibroblade and the other guy has a lightsaber you should still use melee parry despite the fact that the lightsaber can cut through it. The vibroblade can still "get around" the lightsaber and do damage to the lightsaber wielder. In my games I say the lightsaber player has to specifically target the other guys melee weapon in order to sunder it.

Dodge is for ranged attacks or falling objects. Think about real life. If someone is coming at you with a sword you are going to try and avoid it differently than if someone was shooting at you.

I think the rules are perfect as is.

[Error]

Well, I suppose we'll all have to agree to disagree then.

My point of view really comes from about ten years of playing D6 and some of its homebrew variants. I'm not saying that I'm more qualified than you guys to make judgements on the rules, of course...I'm just saying that I've found that the system I described works well for myself and my players.
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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.

[Stule]

And that's the beauty of the D6 System!

The nice thing about this system is that you can do just that, Error.

You can customize the system to suit your needs.

That's why I have to say, in my 25 years of gaming, the D6 is absolutely the best RPG out there!

Peace.

Stule

[RedFox]

I have to agree with Gry that the skills are just misnomers. They should really be "Ranged Defense," "Melee Defense," and "Hand-To-Hand Defense."
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I have Star Wars stuff!

[scott2978]

Over on the D20 Star Wars RPG website, someone asked this same question and the answer they gave was yes, because you can reach out and block the lightsaber wielder's hands or arms, or duck and roll out of the way, or something like that.

In D6, I'll let my players block lightsaber attacks with their brawling parry or melee parry skills for the same reason. Essentially, the purpose of the Brawling and Melee parry skills is to give the character a chance of avoiding the attack. Not giving them that chance is like saying that there is no defense against a lightsaber, which is obviously not the case as we see in the movies unarmed jedi blocking lightsaber attacks with kicks and punches, and dodging and rolling out of the way all the time. I allow it because what they're doing is blocking or avoiding the ATTACK, not necessarily the blade of the lightsaber.

Not letting characters defend against a lightsaber attack is just stupid IMO.

[Allst Beamem]

I belive that you are both correct.

If you wish to use dodge to avoid a melee or brawling attack then you are dodging out of range of the attack and out of melee.

If you use a parry then you are standing your ground and staying in the melee.

Maby that helps

[Vanion]

Obviously a lot of this discussion is simply a matter of trying to wrap your mind around what the designers had in mind. It's a tad bit like "rock/paper/scissors". For each personal combat skill there is a defensive skill (except 'grenade' which uses dodge as it's counter-skill). You have:

Blaster vs Dodge
Melee combat vs Melee parry
Brawling vs Brawling parry

Of course there are some gray areas, when it comes to actually implementing those in combat, as described by the skill descriptions themselves. Personally, I think they should have combined the two pairs of close combat skills into one. Such as a, "close combat vs close combat defense"... since they are almost the same anyway. You could use brawling parry to defend against either or melee parry to defend against either (if you held a melee weapon)... according to the rulebook.
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[TheFamousTommyZ]

Was reading this last night...

Dodge is meant only for ranged attacks, but with the two parry skills, you can use one in place of the other...and, in fact, you get a bonus if you're brandishing a melee weapon (attack or defense) against an unarmed opponent.

The big question is...if someone tries to punch you, and you parry with a lightsaber, does he lose his hand?

=)