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InSilence

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  2. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    There's some trade offs that need to be made when designing a game that may or may not allow certain actions from the films, but theoretically a character could one-shot royal guards with the stats given in F&D. it would just be very unlikely.

     

    So, assuming...

    -Yoda would be an Ataru Striker, which means he would have at least two ranks in Quick Strike. Since he acts first before the royal guards know what's happening, he got those Boost on his attack. 

    -He's also the freaking Grand Master of the Jedi Order. So let's assume 6 in Willpower, 5 in Discipline at minimum.

    -The guards, as per F&D have 16 WT and 5 soak. So he needs to generate 22 damage; Yoda would need 11 Success to one shot the guards (Object and target both taking damage).

    -The guards are people, Silhouette 1, so 10 damage base if he's flinging them.

    -They're definitely within short range if not engaged.

    -We can say that though, mechanically, Yoda targeted one guard with the other, it could be narrated as slamming them into the wall.

    -If Yoda uses two maneuvers to aim, that 5 Proficiency, 1 Ability, 4 Boost.

    -Best possible outcome: All difficulty dice blank, double success on the proficiency and ability dice, and success and advantage on the boost dice. That'd be 16 success (26 damage), 4 advantage. Which I imagine Yoda would use to boost his melee defense and recover strain in preparation for his throw-down with Palpatine.

    knasserII and papy72 reacted to this

  3. Posted

    As written, here's how it works.

     

    If each minion's wound threshold is 5, then the group loses 1 minion at 6/11/16 wounds.

     

    So in your example, the second attack leaves the group at 10 wounds, so it still has 2 minions.

     

    If that attack dealt a crit, it would also deal an additional straight 5 wounds, leaving one minion seriously reconsidering his/her/its life choices.

    Col. Orange reacted to this

  5. Posted

    Thanks for the advice guys. I think I've figured out what I'm going to do. I also forgot to mention the Spy has slicer spec as his main talent tree (He also has recruit, but that's less relevant).

     

    Lemme just clarify, the stealth delivery vehicle is an experimental unit. It has some ability to trick sensors into believing its a cloud of debris. It works best along the hull of a vessel where only parts of the vessel's sensor arrays can sense it (I have no idea if that's actually how it works, but fudge it). It also comes equipped with a number of tools to assist in breaching a ship's hull and can act like a space-truck for the infiltrators so they can wear lighter space-suits.

     

    The core of the encounter will be two Hard Stealth checks. One to move across the IOCI section, the other to attach and infiltrate the hull of the Navy section. Destiny Points allowing, I'll try and upgrade the difficulty on both checks. Failing either one (Highly unlikely, but these players often roll comically overwhelming amounts of advantage and maybe 1 or 2 successes) will result in scout droids deploying to investigate. If they circumvent or deal with the droids, it'll still put the station on alert and add setback to checks for infiltrating the station. Getting ID'd and detected by the droids results in upgrades or increases depending on how the encounters play out.

     

    Threat produces debris clouds that can cause strain or wounds/hull trauma. 

     

    Despair results in a flyby by some form of space craft that will ruin the players' day (Base Despair = TIEs, Despair + Three or more threat = A VT-49 on patrol). The players then get a chance to use their skills to manage the situation.

     

    As for the principles of skill selection, I basically ask myself "What's the big thing here that, if it goes wrong, takes everything with it?" or "Ok, so he succeeded at this, but does that get the job done?" Then I ask myself, "Ok, what, in general terms, seems like the most relevant skill?"

     

    In this case, the big deal is: Don't get caught.

     

    While I can see the point in Cool; but here's the thing: You succeed. You're flying casually. But you still don't know exactly where you need to fly to keep from popping up on the sensors as a commando team on a space scooter.

     

    Same with Astrogation: Ok, you avoid those debris clouds, or spot a nebula that can provide cover from sensors. But you still need to hug close to the hull of the station and avoid view ports and stuff like that. 

     

    I actually took a look at the adventure in the back of EoTE where you can use piloting to avoid a sentry droid. It's predicated on knowing the droid's patrol route. While in Onslaught at Arda, you need to use Stealth to avoid a probe droid if you're unable to spot its location.

     

    The way I'm looking at it, the Stealth skill comes into play when you don't know specifically what the enemy is using to try and detect, but you do know the techniques for countering those methods and what the trade-offs for employing such evasions entails. 

     

    In that case, the closest alternative to Stealth would be the scenario Braendig suggested and if the players suggest trying that, I'll most likely let the slicer roll a Hard Computers. On success, the pilot can make one Hard Piloting (Three or more success = Average difficulty) check with two Setback (owing to the need to stick close to the station's hull) in place of both Stealth checks. Threat adds additional Setback, advantage adds Boost. Failure means spent time and requires the group to rely on general Stealth skills. Failure and threat results in an additional Setback (1 or 2 threat) or an upgrade (three or more) to both Stealth checks as the slicer misreads the data. God help them if the slicer gets a Despair which upgrades the difficulty of the Stealth and/or Piloting checks as the sensor arrays detect the slicer's attempts to scan the sensor frequencies (or whatever technobabble makes sense) and puts the station on alert, while also upgrading the difficulty of checks to infiltrate the interior of the station. 

  6. Posted

    The party was on the run from a Vindicator heavy cruiser, which they temporarily shook in an electrical storm in the system spanning nebula. However, before they managed to shake it off, there was a Sentinel-class landing craft that had disgorged its stormtroopers into the hangar of the group's ride, a Marauder corvette, and they were fighting the Alliance marines in the hangar. My pilot flew into the hangar and used the repulsors to turn his X-Wing into a gunship (that wasn't the Destiny Point moment. Though it probably should have been one. I'm not sure if you can actually do that in a Marauder but the thing's 168 meters long...) Visualized here:

     

    The Sentinel congratulated his bull with a pair of concussion missiles, which the X-Wing survived. The Sentinel had barely taken a scratch but the X-Wing had 8 HT but good hit with a pair of proton torpedoes would have ruined the thing's day. But that would have left the hangar inoperable and the other starfighters high and dry should the Vindicator catch them again. Then the player said, "I want to ram the Sentinel out of the hangar so my squad-mates can blow it up outside."

     

    I was just like "Wut"

     

    So I made him spend a Destiny Point and make a ramming check. He succeeded with a Triumph. He scraped the landing craft out of the hangar, flipping it out into space where seven other aces greeted the thing with a barrage of laser fire, proton torpedoes, and concussion missiles. He also decapitated some stormtroopers in the process.

     

    Afterwards he was like, "I don't you were prepared for that."

     

    I literally shouted at him, "I don't think ANYONE could have prepared for that. I don't think even YOU were prepared for that!"

     

    That hangar fight also had another fun moment. I customized the stats for stormtrooper officers, basically giving captains the Overwhelming Fire ability that Army officers have. The two players in the thick of the laser fight just fought off two 4-man minion groups and a sergeant, but the marines were getting creamed in the mass combat checks (Fail on the first roll with three advantage, fail with double threat on the second). So another three groups of 4 minions entered combat with the players along with the ST captain. One player flipped a destiny point so a rack of proton torpedoes could be within short range of the bulk of the new challengers, which included the ST captain. He made the combat check to blow up the torpedoes so I had the STs in range make Athletics checks to see if they took planetary or personal scale damage. The minion groups made it (losing one trooper each) while the captain was vaporized. 

     

    Both players were knocked out, but they managed to kill like 20 out of the 54 STs in the hangar between the two of them. And by that point, the pilot goaded a rival NPC ace to join him on gunship bull duty in the hangar, so I called it in their favor. It was a fun session.

    alltheraz reacted to this

  7. Posted

    Ok, so I'm planning an arc in my campaign where the players are trying to rescue allies that got captured by the Empire. Half the party is meeting with the administrator of the space station in orbit of the prison. The station is split into two sections, one for the IOCI/ISB and the other for the Imperial Military. They're using the approach to the civilian sections as cover to launch a delivery vehicle (think this thing, 'cept IN SPAAAACE!!!!1!1!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEAL_Delivery_Vehicle) and sneak the other half of the party over to the navy section.

     

    I'm having some trouble as to whether sneaking across the hull of the station would be a Stealth or Piloting check. 

     

    -On one hand...it's a space vehicle. Piloting is involved

     

    -On the other hand, the piloting aspect isn't the most important part. No real need for fancy flying. The sneaking part is the main issue. 

     

    Right now, I'm thinking of making it an assisted Stealth check. The pilot will make the check (He has a 6 in Agility), the spy will donate his 3 in stealth, and the Jedi will donate a Boost (helping spot sensors and what not). 

     

  9. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    Yeah, unfortunately I was not wise in the ways of the game when one of my players started his journey to the min-max side. He's now carrying a jury-rigged heavy blaster rifle and rolling four yellows and a couple of greens on most of his ranged heavy checks. Even a medium range (two purple) auto fire shot (now three purple) means lots of advantages. Minion groups just evaporate in front of this guy...

     

    The moment a player jury-rigs an autofire weapon is the moment enemies with three ranks in Adversary, Enduring, Dodge, and Sidestep start showing up... 

     

    Just don't let him get his hands on Dangerous Covenants. 

    Krieger22 and bradknowles reacted to this

  10. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    Along those lines...Since it specifically refers to difficulty, can a character bypass difficulty upgrading abilities like Adversary and Dodge? Like, if you target an enemy at long range without Adversary and an enemy at medium range with Adversary? Or would the upgrades still apply since you're still technically targeting the enemy with Adversary?

  11. Posted

    Hey y'all, I have a quick question.

     

    So the A-Wing on  p. 267 has a built in ECM Suite (the Miradyne 4x-Phantom). It jams comms and sensors in range, reducing its silhouette by 1 when fired on. 'Cept it doesn't list the range...

     

    The full description of the ECM Suite mod on p. 286 states, "Designed to blind and deafen enemy ships, an electronic countermeasures suite transmits a dense stream of white noise and junk data that fogs sensors and jams comms traffic within close range of the broadcasting ship." But that's in the description above its base effect, which also doesn't list a range...

     

    I used to assume that the A-Wing's ECM suite covered its sensor range, but I'm not so sure anymore. I'm leaning towards ruling it as referring to the close range band. But I like the A-Wing, so I want to rule it as being based on a ship's sensor range. Thoughts?

     

    Thanks in advance.

  14. Posted

    The laser cannon on the Anti-Infantry turret deals damage on a personal scale. The Anti-Vehicle turret does damage on a planetary scale. So the Anti-Vehicle turret actually does 60 damage to people and outranges the Anti-Infantry turret by two bands (Assuming you go directly from Personal!Extreme to Planetary!Close then Planetary!Short).

  15. Posted

    @Atraangelis

     

    Wrong. 

     

    1. Ensnare inflicts the Immobilized status, which prevents you from using any maneuvers (EoTE 156).

    As a side note, while it prevents you from using maneuvers, you can potentially still use your action to wiggle or roll around via an Athletics or Coordination check subject to DM approval. 

     

    2. Minor point since Ensnare's duration is measured in rounds, not turns, but you're conflating rounds and turns:

    "When using structured gameplay, the game is broken down into a series of rounds, each of which is further broken down into a series of turns. During a single round, each Player Character and Non-Player Character gets one turn, during which they have the opportunity to accomplish tasks and perform various actions" (EoTE 198).
     
    3. In Ensnare's description you can make a Hard Athletics Check to break free of the effect of Ensnare. Presumably, this ends the associated Immobilized status. 
     
    Of course, Rule Zero always applies: The rule book doesn't run the game, the GM does. Though in my opinion it would seem unfair for the Immobilized effect to persist after a character burns their action to get rid of said status effect.
    MILLANDSON, bradknowles and FangGrip reacted to this

  17. Posted

    Everything Ghostofman said. 

     

    Also, just because you can only use 2 vehicle maneuvers in a round (and thus only 2 Fly/Drive manuevers) doesn't mean you can only move twice in a round. The Begginner Game has an example for a speeder chase of using your action to make an Opposed Piloting Check to move as if it had taken a Fly/Drive maneuver, but only to close in on an opponent (You could probably have an inverse action using Deception vs Discipline/Perception where a feint increases the range band between a player and the target opponent.)

     

    Remember, the rules should be more of a foundation less than a limit. If your players come up with a quirky way of equaling the odds, let the dice decide with setback or boost equal to how much you want/don't want them to succe-I mean, how difficult or easy you think their action would be given the context of the combat I.E: A furball with over 3 dozen fighters zipping around or obscuring terrain on the field, would make it easy to shake off enemy fighters. Not so much if you're the only prey in close range and out in the open.

  19. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    The fun thing about this question is that there are a lot of answers.

     

    Short answer: 1 Group of 3 STs per player should be a pretty challenging fight for a group of new characters, assuming each one is competent (Rolling at least 3 dice) on at least one combat ability. 

     

    An easier fight would be 3 STs per player, folded into groups of 4 each, round down (so two groups of 4 for your party). A character will generally take more damage from multiple successful Combat Checks than one really painful Combat Check.

     

    Stormtroopers are tough minions, but they're still minions (so a crit will automatically take one out). If you want to really test your group, replace a minion group with a Sergeant. If you want to be really mean, just thrown a Sergeant in on top of the minions.

     

    And, even though you didn't ask for it, here's why from my experience:

     

    -The main thing that makes STs tough compared to other minion groups is their 3 Brawn and Agility, plus their laminate armor, resulting in 5 Soak. That means to knock out a single trooper you need to deal at least 11 raw damage on a single attack (assuming you don't score a crit).

    -Just by rolling 3 dice on a combat check with their blasters means they'll be painful at medium range. 

    -Additionally, they have 3 Willpower, which means they roll 3 Ability dice on initative if your party is trying to get the jump on them. Alternatively, they only have a 1 in Presence, which means they only roll 1 for Cool checks... 

     

    And, one more thing, encounters don't occur in a vacuum (unless they do...'cause space). Stormtroopers are known for their front-line combat skill and unwavering discipline and not their creative thinking, so a party that can think on their feet may be able to run circles around a squad of STs.

     

    Hope that helps!

     

    Edit: Also, disclaimer, I'm not responsible for any potential TPKs that may result from following my advice...

    DeadBothanSpy, Starco and JRRP reacted to this

  20. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    And speaking of GtA, what happens if the target ships just moves away? Say an A-wing moving at speed 6 uses two maneuvers to move to long range. Any minion TIE fighter that had GtA on it would be unable to shoot at it because it would have to use both its action and maneuver just to keep up.

     

    That's what a competent A-Wing pilot is supposed to do. Though, making it so that the target of your GtA has to make an opposed Piloting check to escape could be a potential addition...

     

    I think I'll post here some of the house rules I use for my campaign in regards to vehicle combat: 

     

    -Handling and Vehicle/Starship combat checks
     1. Combat checks from the vehicle/ship with the higher handling gets +1 Boost.
     
    -Speed and Vehicle/Starship combat checks
     1. The vehicle/ship with the lower speed gets +1 setback on combat checks and opposed Piloting checks.
     2. For each additional 2 point difference in speed, the slower vehicle takes +1 setback die on opposed Piloting checks. 
     For each additional 2 point difference in speed, both vehicles take +1 setback die on combat checks against each other.
    [1: 0/1 | 3: 1/2 | 5: 2/3 | 7: 3/4 | So on]
     3. Guided weapons ignore setback equal to their guided rating from speed difference.
     
    -Modification to Gain the Advantage (These are in addition to the base effects)
     1. Your target must be within short range of the target.
     2. Gain the Advantage lasts a number of rounds equal to the number of net successes or until an enemy takes back advantage.
     3. If you end your turn outside of short range of the target, you lose the advantage.
     4. If you successfully gain the advantage you ignore any setback dice for being slower than your target.
     5. The ship with advantage upgrades combat checks against the target once.
     6. Combat checks from your target against your ship are Opposed by your Piloting skill (this was the simplest why I could word it. Basically combat checks become opposed Gunnery vs. Piloting checks).
     7. You can attempt to Gain the Advantage against other ships even when you already have the advantage on another, 
    but each successful check upgrades the difficulty of the next check one additional time. 
     8. Using Advantage and Triumphs
    a. Three advantage can be used to upgrade all combat checks and opposed Piloting checks from your ship against the target for the duration of GTA.
    b. Three advantage can be used to upgrade the difficulty of all combat checks and opposed Piloting checks from the target against your ship for the duration of GTA.
    c. Triumphs on a success can be used to apply this effect against 1 additional target within short range of your ship,
      as long as the difficulty to gain the advantage against them would be the same or lower as the initial target.
    d. Double triumphs on a success can be used to make a free combat check against the target as an incidental action.

     

    -Gain the Advantage and Combat Checks
    1. On a triumph, the active character can reduce the opponent's duration of Gain the Advantage by 1 round. 
      This can be used multiple times.
    2. On a despair, the GM may extend the duration of the targeted ship's use of Gain the Advantage by 1 round. 
      This can be used multiple times.  

  21. Posted · Edited by InSilence

    @awayputurwpn, I actually implemented that house rule yesterday with my group. Talk about synchronicity...

     

    @Ladysingsthelando: After reading through this thread, I figured I'd add my completed unasked for two cents regarding firing arcs, with a bit of insight from an old system called Feng Shui. For those of you that don't know about it, it's an old system (with a sequel in the works) that bills itself as a "Hong-Kong movie action RPG" that tried to emulate the fast-and-furious action of that genre (and it was **** fun to play too!). One section included a guide on how range affected the difficulty to hit someone with with a caveat along the lines of, "We included this here just in case, like if some guys trying to run and your sniper wants to sit in his lawn chair and shoot the target in the rump. But for the most part, everyone can take a swing on anyone."

     

    For starfighters it seems to be a similar situation. Take a chase, for example. Let's say you're in an X-Wing trying to flee a swarm of TIE fighters and have managed to win the first round of competitive checks (and let's assume we're on world where the X-Wing's sensor range is increased by Alliance control towers and satellites or a CR90 in low-orbit providing AWACS assistance). You're now at Short range, still within range of your proton torpedoes. So you want to do a sharp turn, lock on to a random minion group, fire the torpedo, and then continue fleeing. In this case, the GM can say, "No, you've already said you're trying to flee at top speed, S-foils locked and everything." Or "Yes, but you'll have to take either two Setback dice to your Gunnery check for the rushed lock-on or to your next competitive Piloting check"

     

    Or let's say you're on a runaway speeder-train and your friend brings up their BTL-S3 Y-Wing, flying parallel to the train, with the cockpit open so you can jump in and escape. There are still mooks blasting away at you from the a cars to the rear of the Y-Wing. So your friend is like, "Can I strafe those guys?" and the GM can respond, "The only weapon you have that can fire back is the Ion Cannon, and those don't do much to organics, unless you want to break off the rescue approach to use your laser cannons." 

     

    And so on. 

    awayputurwpn reacted to this

  22. Posted

    Short answer: Yes

     

    This is one of those things where the rules are meant to be taken more as a toolkit. I believe this was also discussed in a previous thread, but I can't remember the name of it...

     

    Anyway, you have options. Also, the following suggestions aren't really anywhere in the book, just some things I've extrapolated/pulled out my rear-end.

     

    Option 1a: Let the dice decide. Successful stealth means the attacker rolls Cool while the ambushed roll Vigilance. The dice decide how well the attackers take advantage of their stealth versus how well the defenders respond to the ambush. 

     

    Option 1b: Let the dice argue. if the defenders get higher initiative slots, it may simply allow them a chance to make a Perception check (against whom's Stealth would be up to the GM) without automatically giving away the attackers' positions.

     

    Option 1c: Let the dice decide and bring some friends. Add boost/setback dice to attackers/defenders as seem appropriate depending on whole well/poorly the Stealth roll went.

     

    Option 2: "Surprise Round". I'm borrowing from DnD here. Roll initiative, but the attackers get a free round of turns. Or require Discipline checks from the defenders to be able to use their maneuvers.

     

    What's important to keep in mind is that EoTE/AoR/F&D are just as much about the narrative as they are about the mechanical structure. For example, let's say your character has zero ranks in Cool but three in Vigilance: One possibility is that he's (or she's or it's) a paranoiac who's itchy trigger finger serves him well when being ambushed but causes him to hesitate in less subtle confrontations 'cause he's always looking for enemies in the pipes instead of what's in front of him. 

     

    Likewise, you may use a different approach depend on how the characters narrate their stealth check. There's a difference between two characters being in plain view of each other, but one doesn't notice the other's blast, versus one character being entirely unaware of the other's presence.

     

    Quick Strike, read as written, gives you a boost die (per rank) on combat checks against any character that hasn't acted. So if you're taking option 1, and a defender uses a higher initiative slot, then Quick Strike wouldn't help against the defender. It could be that the defender has simply moved out of the optimal position that would generate the Boost dice from Quick Strike for the attacker. 

     

    Hope that helps!

    whafrog, eowarion, Richardbuxton and 2 others reacted to this

  23. Posted

    What Duty does is pretty well covered in p46-50 and p325-326. However, the core rule book doesn't really provide hard numbers as to how it should be divvied out. I think Onslaught at Arda has numbers like 5 per player for finishing a "main quest" and 3 for completing a "side quest". But lemme go step by step.

     

    First, there's the narrative aspect. Duty represents how a character thinks they can best help the Alliance and/or how they think the Alliance can best defeat the Empire. How a player has their character react along these lines is up to them. They could just consider it their main job and primary proficiency, volunteering for missions that they feel involves their chosen Duty. I.E: A commando with the Combat Victory may volunteer to ambush and annihilate a platoon of stormtroopers spotted near the secret rebel base; or a slicer with Intelligence may suggest a detour on a raid to hit the Imperial garrison's main-frame. They could feel it's the best way for the Alliance to proceed, with the corollary that other duties are a waste of time (Personally, I'd smack any player that plays up this approach far too aggressively). I.E: An ace with Space Superiority and an X-Wing will object to being assigned to close-air-support, preferring to hit the Star Destroyer in command of the Imperial invasion directly; or a character with Political Support who feels his comrades' focus on battle may lead to the Alliance splintering after any sizable defeat.

     

    It also represents how well known they are in the Galactic Civil War. As a group, at 0-50 duty, they're new recruits or just finished training. They're going to be following orders more often than giving them and the Empire only cares about them insofar as they're faceless rebel scum. At 51-99, they're at least viewed as competent operatives with some field experience. 

     

    Second, there's the mechanical effect. The direct effect is that at the beginning of each session, you take the character's Duty totals and form them into a table. The directions are on p48. If you roll under their total combined duty, every player gets +1 to their wound threshold for the duration of the session. The one with whose result coincides directly with the roll gets +2 instead. There is a suggestion to kind of mold the session around that specific player unless it turns out to be too inconvenient.

     

    Third, there's the contribution rank. When the combined players' duty totals exceed 100, they reset their scores to zero and upgrade their contribution rank. They then get a reward of some sort (decided by the GM). Their commanders take a bit more notice of their talents, and so does the Empire. 

     

    When rewarding Duty, the adventures seem to follow the format of 5 points per player for finishing their main mission. Side quests based on a particular duty tend to reward between 1-3 points to the players with that particular Duty.

     

    I think I remember the designers also addressing this in a podcast.

     

    Hope that helps!

    kinnison reacted to this
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