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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 2567134" data-attributes="member: 12332">VP/WP seems like one of those things where the fans can get rabbid about it.But the basic problem with it as a system is it's one-sided.It's a pretty obvious aspect of game mechanics that I'm pretty sure comes up in the DMG somewhere ... I think talking about roll-for-AC or something:Anything that increases the randomness aspect of the game HURTS THE PLAYER CHARACTERS.PCs FACE rolls more often than anything else in the game.  They're on the recieving end of the dice many times every session, where-as even a recurring villian may only be in there for 20 total rounds.If even 2.5% of all rolls are insta-WP hits, the number of times the PCs will face that compared to any other character is much higher.  While an equal number 'per side' might get dished out, it's expected that PCs will remain through the game, correct?Without some additional mechanic for "Extra Lives" or "Get Wounded But Not Dead", you just end up with more random PC deaths.While "any fight can be lethal" might be a good thing, depending on genre, the fact that the lethality of that fight is more heavily weighted toward the random number generation and not the static number generation portions of the game is, IMHO, unfortunate.SW is about Jedi and lightsabers.  Without those two things, you're just playing a space opera set in the same universe.  While that can be fun, if you ask Joe Random Dude On The Street what's cool about StarWars ... it'll be Jedi and Lightsabers.People want to play Jedi games.  Hell, -I- want to play Jedi games, and I usually shy away from playing with the big IP of a system/setting/game.  If the game mechanics make playing with Jedi and lightsabers unfeasible, then there's a problem with the mechanics for the game.This isn't to say that nothing but Jedi should be playable, but if Jedi aren't playable ... After running an all-Jedi Tales of the Jedi game ... yea, Jedi aren't really playable.My players wanted Jedi.  My players wanted lightsabers and they wanted to fight OTHER guys with Lightsabers.That couldn't happen.  VP/WP + Lightsabers + Jedi Powers = Dead/Dying PCs.  Dead/Dying Jedi PCs = Not Fun.  I don't think the answer to "The Problems With VP/WP" should be:  "Dude, you shouldn't be playing with Jedi and Lightsabers."  That would be like:  "Dude, you can't play RAMBO: THE RPG with guns!  You'll have alot of dead PCs.  Everybody should have knives and sticks.  Guns are supposed to be lethal!"--fje</blockquote>

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