Lightsaber Duels

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

IMC you have to take a 5 foot step (if not prone) to keep your Dex bonus to Defense. It keeps people from moving around and (if using ranged attacks) not just sticking to the same piece of cover.

I don't think bull rush would do the trick. Chasing your opponent is about skill, not just strength. If you have Strength 12 but Dex 16 and are using a finesse saber, you should still be effective at moving your opponent around.

In a real-life sword fight, you're supposed to do things like chase your opponent so he stumbles over furniture, gravel, etc. I haven't come up with a good way of doing this in-game, however, since doing damage is usually superior to this option. (Sure you could make your opponent trip in 4 rounds, but you could also cut him for four rounds.)

 

[Masada]

Interesting idea to impose a minimum movement requirement every round to keep a Dex bonus... I like it. I also think opposed Attack rolls is more cinematic than opposed Str checks. Plus the suggested feat doesn't incur AoO for use on the target. AoO would still apply to adjacent combatants.

On one side I don't want to get in to a complex weave of combat modifiers for terrain. On the other side I want to see skillful/heroic combatants in cinematic battles in motion. So I think feats that can force penalties or bonus might be a happy medium. You could just assume that the a successful use of the feat would result in a -2 Defense bonus. Since we rarely sketch in gravel to our 1" maps you can just cinematically assume it's there.

Either way, at a GM I'm going to pay more careful attention to the battleground and it's potential.

BTW, I did grab "Driven before me" from Conan. In the first movie one of his owners asks Conan what is best in life to which he replies, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" Good line...

 

[Rhun]

One thing that I have thought of adding, though it would add another level of complexity, is the use of Lightsaber Forms. I've done a little research on this, and there are apparently seven forms, each of which have their own benefits and disadvantages. I think if appropriate pros and cons could be made for each one, this would also lead to some extra distinction between Jedi characters.

 

[Nebulous]

BTW, I did grab "Driven before me" from Conan. In the first movie one of his owners asks Conan what is best in life to which he replies, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" Good line...

Ah, probably the BEST line. One of my favorites. So, is there a Lamenatation of the Women feat too, or Crush Your Enemy?

 

[DnDChick]

BTW, I did grab "Driven before me" from Conan. In the first movie one of his owners asks Conan what is best in life to which he replies, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" Good line...

Excellent line, and one that was paraphrased from a real historical figure from what would be Khitai in Conan's world ... Genghis Khan himself!

 

[DnDChick]

One thing that I have thought of adding, though it would add another level of complexity, is the use of Lightsaber Forms. I've done a little research on this, and there are apparently seven forms, each of which have their own benefits and disadvantages. I think if appropriate pros and cons could be made for each one, this would also lead to some extra distinction between Jedi characters.

This is in the Hero's Guide, I think. I've only glanced through that book, but IIRC the lightsaber forms feats were in it.

 

[wingsandsword]

If a blow will kill a character, give them a choice: permanently maimed and crippled...or dead. Which do you want? A lot will probably choose dead, although maimed and crippled was Luke and Vader's choice.

That actually was a standard Force Power in the old d6 Star Wars game: Reduce Injury. It was the game-mechanic explanation of both Luke and Vader losing their hands in their duels.

To (loosely) convert it to d20, I'd say that any character with the Control feat can spend a Force Point as a reaction to any injury that would render them unconscious to remain conscious. If the blow would instead kill them (-10 Wound), they suffer a permanent injury as appropriate (severed limb, horrible burns, ect.) and only suffering 1 Wound Point of damage. At GM's discretion this cannot be used if there is no way a character could survive.

 

[The_Gneech]

This is in the Hero's Guide, I think. I've only glanced through that book, but IIRC the lightsaber forms feats were in it.

There are lightsaber form feats in there, yes, as well as a throwaway rule for dismemberment in the cybernetic attachments section.

-The Gn*vorp* AAAUUUGHH!


eech

 

[Masada]

ARGH MY ARM/LEG
Prereq: Combat Expertise, Dodge
Benefit: You may sacrifice a limb to stave off a lethal blow.
When the character sustains a lethal strike (a hit that would reduce WP to 0), the hero may opt to have a limb absorb the blow. The limb is severed and the hero is reduced to 0 and is disabled. The GM determines the limb randomly.

FOOTWORK
Prereq: Dodge
Benefit: If you take a 5’ step this round you double your Dex bonus for purposes of determining Defense.
Move it or lose it. By moving around in combat you confound opponents. Each round you take a 5’ step doubles your Dex bonus to Defense until the beginning of your next turn.

 

[SWBaxter]

Here is my simple system (want to work out the kinks first, then move on to more substance) I've tried to make it as simple as possible, and yet convey some of the excitement and drama of lightsaber battles (which I can't seem to do otherwise).

Well, I think the main problem with simulating the movie lightsabre duels is that the first hit pretty much ends the fight, where most d20 combat systems are based on an attrition model. I don't know if there's good, balanced way to support both styles in the same ruleset. It seems to me a better approach is change the combat system to focus on avoiding lethal hits rather than absorbing lots of hits until one finally drops you. At that point you're at least 3/4 of the way to a long movie-style duel.

Of course, you can also just handwave the descriptions of VP losses as near misses, but a lot of players are ingrained to think of losing points as representing some amount of actual damage. If you can get over that hurdle, then just lowering lightsabre damage should give a satisfactorily long duel. Maybe say that damage bonuses from two Jedi cancel out, so they mow down non-Jedi opponents in HTH but when they go head to head they're down to base lightsabre damage (unless one is much higher level than the other).

I picked up Blue Rose the other day, and I'm thinking the True20 system might be a better basis for Star Wars than relatively strict d20. Might be as simple as using Reflex saves instead of Toughness for all energy weapons (without requiring a feat to do so). Many force powers are already in the arcana system (not surprising considering its source), they just need to be moved around and renamed a bit, and the light/shadow alignment system with conviction and corruption points can apply pretty much directly to Star Wars.