force powers

[EnderAndrew]

Good questions.

 

You can invent skills if so desire. Run them by me to make sure we agree what attribute they go under. In my uber-lengthy Star Wars campaign, it was not uncommon for players to have 40 skills including such gems as "Shopping" and "Bold-Face-Lying" I had one player who used a "Yo-Yo" style melee weapon, and made a skill for that.

 

Also, if you don't take the skill, you can roll at the base attribute. However, I also impose a higher difficulty number if you try a skill untrained. Let's say that you've never touched a blaster in your life. Someone hands you a blaster, and tells you to shoot a stormtrooper, or whatever. A normal target at medium range is a Moderate difficulty, so it would be like 15. I'll bump it to a Difficult difficulty of 20. You roll your base Dexterity against that target number. It may seem like being penalized twice, however I think it encourages people to be balanced skill wise if they want to try different things.

 

I have a house rule about initiative, which I touched upon earlier. Low roll declares first, and high roll goes first. I apply that to any system I play. I also have a house rule that I apply to any system called the "s*** skill" Most players really seem to dig it. I was going to get into it later, but what the heck.

 

When you are finishing up character creation, you get to pick one additional skill for free. However, the skill must be something that doesn't affect game balance. It's just something to flesh out your character.

 

Maybe they Yodel rather well, or like to recite Wookie Poetry.

[EnderAndrew]

Anakin,

 

Alter is not inherently DS oriented. However, there are DS only powers that use Alter like Injure/Kill, Force Choke, etc. Vader was a big fan of Alter based powers, where as Yoda prefered Sense powers like Farseeing.

 

As pure Alter powers, I think Telekinesis, Injure/Kill, and Force Choke may be it. Alter is also useful for Force Healers. With Sense/Alter combinations you can do things like Control Another's Pain, etc.

[nightcleaver]

Edit: oops, already answered.

 

Guess I'm still not sure what to pick.

 

How changeable are force powers? In how many sessions could I add a point to a Force power?

 

And what does it mean one force skill requires another? You know all of them already. Does it depend on roll checks for those other skills? OR do you just not even use that system? (this is what I see at the rancor pit)

Edited June 23, 2004 by nightcleaver

[ShinIchiro]

I'm probably going to start out focusing on sense related to saber combat/danger awareness along with telekinesis. I'll probably eventually branch out to become compotent in all areas.

 

Btw, how is damage figured? Is strength a modifier like in most RPGs? Also, how much health do you have and how does one reduce damage? How does one block/dodge/parry/ect...?

[nightcleaver]

Doh...

 

I guess I'll figure something else out, then.

 

I'll start with alter, I think, though it seems slightly less fitting to my character

[ShinIchiro]

It's okay. I'm going to specialize in the danger sense and lightsaber parts of sense and primarily telekinesis. Ohhh idea. I can by the Ganner Rhysode of the group.

[EnderAndrew]

Each pip you have in a Force Power (Control, Sense, Alter) allows you have to have a Force Skill. If you have 1D in Sense, you know three Sense skills. You don't automatically know them all, but eventually you pretty much will. 3D in Sense gives you 9 Sense skills. You have to take prerequisite skills before you take later skills.

 

The second edition rules states that Force Powers raise like attributes, at ten times cost. It's very slow developing. I think second edition revised changed it to where they raise like normal skills, which is far too quick.

 

What I generally play is that if you have a teacher, they raise at double cost. If you lack a teacher, they raise a 5 times cost. So, to raise your Sense from 2D to 2D+1, you need four character points if you have a teacher, or 10 if you do not. You can raise any skill, attribute, or power one pip per gaming session (assuming you can afford it).

 

Weapons have a damage rating. A standard blaster does 4D if I recall. A lightsaber does 5D (but Jedi can add their Control rating to damage if they successfully active the Lightsaber Combat skill).

 

You roll damage, and the target rolls their strength to resist. If the damage roll is higher, you are wounded. The difference in the two rolls determines the severity of the wound. Armor can grant addition dice to resist damage. There are also Force Powers such as Reduce Injury, and Control Pain that can come into play.

 

Certain Force Powers do your Alter rating in damage like Force Lightening.

 

As far as blocking, parrying, dodging, that is all handled by skills.

 

You have skills such as Dodge, Brawl Parry, and Melee Parry. When you declare actions, you can declare multiple actions in a round, and take dice penalties for doing such like I covered earlier.

 

Let's say you that declare a lightsaber attack, and a lightsaber parry in the same round. For taking two actions, you drop 1D from each action. When you roll your parry, it becomes the target number your enemy has to beat to hit you. This is called a partial defense, because you defended while taking other actions. If your roll is lower than the standard difficulty of 15 to hit, you can still take the 15.

 

If you declare nothing but defense in a round, you roll your appropriate defense skill (dodge, melee parry, lightsaber parry, brawl parry) and ADD IT to the base difficulty to hit you.

[nightcleaver]

Who was Ganner?

 

Ok, Ender: Are force skills rolled individually? Can you improve individual Force skills, in other words, or do Force attributes do that for them?

[EnderAndrew]

Well, normally you do not have seperate ratings for these Force skills. You merely roll the Force attribute.

 

However, there is an exception. When West End came up with rules for the Dathomir Witches and Nightsisters, they presented alternate rules. The Dathomir Witches see the Force quite differently from Jedi. For them, it's more like ritual magic. Individual rituals are needed for each skill, and they increase in their ability to do each skill.

 

With Dathomir Witches, they do not have Control, Sense, and Alter ratings. They have individual Force Skills.

[ShinIchiro]

Firstly, how would we probably work a teacher into the game in our campaign? Holocron? Someone probably can't play as a teacher as they would be way more powerful than us. Unless the GM has a teacher or teachers having this adventure with us which would be weird. Secondly, Ganner was the show offish Jedi in the NJO who always tried to be the dashing, flashy, gallavant hero and had an inflated opinion of himself. He was obsessed with his own good looks and wore a flashy cape with expensive boots and tried to cover his own fears through acting as the perfect hero. After Anakin dies he tries to loose that attitude and be a real, non-flashy hero. He finally succeeds and proves himself a true hero and Jedi as he dies guarenteeing Jacen Solo's escape in Destiny's Way.

[EnderAndrew]

Well, the teacher will likely be a Holocron to start, if there is a teacher.

 

It depends on the character types of the Jedi, and the time period. I don't have a specific plot in mind yet. When we have all the PCs, I usually try to craft a plot that caters heavily to the party make-up.

[ShinIchiro]

I think that unless a lot more people join in the vote's definately for KOTOR era. The question now is what part of KOTOR era? Exar Kun, KOTOR 1, other stuff in middle?

[EnderAndrew]

I'd like to suggest either pre-KOTOR itself, or quite a few years after it. When KOTOR 2 comes around, I don't want to have to worry about matching the chronicle with the plot of that game.

[ShinIchiro]

I vote pre. That's when the massive jedi sith wars were going on. If we want classic stuff where jedi fight jedi (i'm looking foward to it) and thus aren't that unusual, this is the era.

[GhostofAnakin]

Question:

 

Are the "bad guys" going to be known bad guys, or made up ones? For example, will we be facing a Darth Vader, or a Darth Malak, or Grand Admiral Thrawn? Or will it be made up guys during whichever era?

 

I'd personally prefer (but not against) using original bad guys rather than going up against existing ones. However, I don't mean no facing Storm Troopers or Sith troopers. I'm mainly speaking of like the "big" bad guy.

[ShinIchiro]

I'd guess we'll probably be fighting custom big bads in a preexisting time with preexisting events. Like maybe the Kun wars. Then again that just a guess.

[EnderAndrew]

Well, using starting characters (even fairly powerful ones) it wouldn't make much sense to throw you up against Exar Kun.

 

Existing characters from continuity may appear, but why play existing plots? You know exactly what happens.

 

I like to focus on the behind-the-scenes stuff while other major meta-plot happens in the backdrop.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm getting worried about confronting Darth Enderwiggin

[nightcleaver]

Edit: err... scratch ALL of that discussion...

 

How 'bout something original?

Also, I was thinking (not wanting to leave anyone out though) since both me and the archaeologist character are big about knowledge, maybe we could start out as being on some sort of expedition? My guy is a big explorer type anyway, self-sufficient (he trains his force use through holocrons, uses it in ways to benefit his travels), everyone else could either find us by coincidence or be on some sort of expedition to start with with us.

 

I hear about this archaeologist who's exploring some tombs, and I decide to come along. Something pushes the rest of us with him (council, interest, friendship, etc). I think I'll be a Padawan who's spent his freedom travelling quite a bit. My father was someone who fell to the darkside - that's fairly well known among the Jedi and all the Master's know, and that's one of my character's greatest fears and at the same time, interests. One of the reason's he seeks knowledge so eagerly could be to understand why his father fell and destroyed his family, and possibly atone.

 

I used to be a part of the order, but whether I am or not still is iffy. That explains the holocron bit. They were reclusive about knowledge, and I was sick of it. I didn't want to be in the dark anymore, so I struck out and sought knowledge

elsewhere.

It would be fitting if shin were trying to get promoted by tailing me, trying to figure me out or confront me if I had turned. Being that we're all of heroic stats, maybe the Jedi see no other threats and send him to me.

 

Another question: Can I invent some force powers? Droid-affecting powers come to mind, like destroy/stun droid and maybe a way to mislead them.

Edited June 23, 2004 by nightcleaver

[EnderAndrew]

You can invent powers if you so desire. I don't know that I'll approve all of them.

 

I've always been wary of droid-affecting powers on a certain level since Droids don't exist in the Force per-se.

 

You can zap them with a variation of Force Lightening and fry them pretty good. You can pick them up with Telekinesis. I just don't see how you're supposed to reprogram them, or affect them with the Force. I know young Anakin did it with the Force in the novels, and during Tales of the Jedi, the Sith had droid control powers. I just don't quite understand how.

 

One thing I was thinking was having the ship be a hyperspace exploration ship. If we set the game around KOTOR, then most hyperspace routes weren't explored, and astrogation computers were first being developed. I think there is a lot of potential with a galaxy-expedition-theme.

[nightcleaver]

Because it's mechanics. Droids work on mechanics, not some mysterious, "Other Force". I'm sure that's not what you were suggesting, but do you see what I mean? If you can levitate a rock, you can affect a droids workings. You can warp data types, short circuit various systems by telekinesis. The droid needs something to WRITE the memory, so that physical mechanism (you'd have to understand droids) could be controlled. It could be kinda like the "instinctive astrogation control" power - you're doing mental calculation, and your success depends on your understanding of droids. It might take a while, but a scouting droid could be stunned (short circuited communications, look pretty much just like an accident) and then worked with until it's memory was erased, if it say anything, and the'd simulate some natural disaster. Fabrication couldn't be done, I guess, unless the person were amazing with the skill and used data from a similar droid to implant it in the other one. You might need multiple Jedi working on it too. After a while, you might get really good at it. Maybe have an implant that could translate your thoughts into robot protocol more efficiently, which you'd use to implant in the droid.

 

Might be a lot of trouble, though.

 

 

I like that idea (hyperspace routes). I say something unrelated to other events, though, if you think you could do it without any frame of reference.

 

Wasn't one of us a pilot? I could be the co-pilot, using force-intuition to help guide us on the safer paths. Everyone else should think of their own story (I'm sure they're horrified by that...)

[EnderAndrew]

From a mechanical stand-point, I can see affecting droids to a certain extent. It's just the sensing part that is a bit of a stretch since Droids don't add to the Force. Only living things do. I think the instictive astrogation is a good example though. I suppose it could be done, but it would be pretty difficult.

 

As a GM/Storyteller, I try to be pretty fair in adjucations. I'll give players a chance to argue their side when making calls.

[GhostofAnakin]

so have we decided on time period and such yet?

 

i can't recall reading it, but how exactly is this going to work? are we all going into a chat room or something?

[JohnDoe]

If theres any spots left, I'd like to be in. I've never RP'ed online before.

[nightcleaver]

I'm going to be gone for a while starting on the fifth - though where I'm going, I might be able to connect to the 'net from my laptop, but I won't have cable anymore

It lasts to the end of June, then school (college) starts in a couple weeks from there.

 

 

Weekends would be preferrable after that, but I could manage to do homework around the sessions.