[Star Wars] Saga Edition's New Damage System

[Shalimar]

People are treating the possibility of dying from a blaster bolt to the chest like its undesirable (from a system standpoint). Aside from Jedi powers like absorbtion, or just being a Gammorean, a blaster bolt to the chest should have a chance of killing a character. Storm Troopers in armor were dying from blaster shots, that is part of the setting, blasters are not water guns or they wouldn't use them, if a person cannot die from a blaster shot, then the game is not Star Wars.

Allow poeple to spend a force point to unconfirm a critical against them, but the idea that a baster bolt is a deadly thing has to be there for Star Wars.

 

[mmadsen]

A system that uses a "attack save" and no hitpoints has the same problem - you can't really predict whether you'll survive the next attack or not, and you are at the constant risk of a deadly hit.

Yes, but you can easily combine a Toughness Save, which is purely a function of actual toughness, with Hero Points, which are purely a function of plot protection, to create a system where combat seems to make sense, but the heroes (and key villains) are always the lucky survivors.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

but the idea that a baster bolt is a deadly thing has to be there for Star Wars.

This may seem like a stupid question but...

Why?

Star Wars is an action series. Fights break out left and right. Blaster bolts go flying through the air and the heroes are always outnumbered. Yes, they take cover. Yes, they sometimes run. But they don't get cut down by mooks. Any deaths are heroic deaths against the big bads.

If I actually need to worry about a single die roll killing my character I won't feel like I'm playing Star Wars. If four or five die rolls go against me in a row - that's one thing, but if a single critical shot from Random Stormtrooper Number 3 kills me in the first fight of the session it's just not Star Wars to me.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Storm Troopers in armor were dying from blaster shots, that is part of the setting,

Yes. Mooks can die from single blaster shots; that's why they have 10 or fewer hit points.

Allow poeple to spend a force point to unconfirm a critical against them, but the idea that a blaster bolt is a deadly thing has to be there for Star Wars.

I'd say that "the idea that a [single] blaster bolt is a deadly thing" is pretty fundamentally counter to the setting. Han and Luke brave dozens of blaster shots at a time, and things only get crazier with Jabba's yacht and the Endor battle.

 

[Mokona]

The oldest system I can remember like this "track" is Shadowrun.

It's too early to judge the system but it seems plausible. If I were in charge I'd be putting out games like Saga Edition with "potential" rules for 4th edition D&D. Then I'd observe the actual appeal and in-play use of the ability before deciding to include it in 4th edition.

 

[Vanuslux]

Yes. Mooks can die from single blaster shots; that's why they have 10 or fewer hit points.

I'd say that "the idea that a [single] blaster bolt is a deadly thing" is pretty fundamentally counter to the setting. Han and Luke brave dozens of blaster shots at a time, and things only get crazier with Jabba's yacht and the Endor battle.

Unless I'm misremembering (entirely possible since it's been a long time since I've watched them), the only time any to the heroes of the original trilogy actually got HIT by a blaster was Han on Endor and one hit nearly killed him.

Addendum: The point being, I don't remember Han and Luke soaking up a bunch of blaster shots when I think of the Star Wars series...I think of how incredibly terrible the marksmanship of their enemies were. For the most part it seemed like Stormtroopers mostly only hit things on natural 20s if you look at the number of shots they fire versus how often they actually hit anyone.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The "helpless but unconscious" result is both a good and bad thing. It basically puts such a character at the total mercy of the GM, since unless the coup de grace rule's been changed, it applies to helpless characters.

As a GM this presents a bit of a dilemma. If I don't have the stormtrooper execute such a PC, I'm obviously fudging tactical play in situations where this would be the thing to do, especially if I follow the classic Star Wars setup and have more of them than the PCs.

This seems as though it assumes an unnecessarily adversarial style of play between GM and players. A GM could set challenges to kill any PCs at any time they wanted, but they don't because the aim is for a fun game.

As others have said, in a fun game unconscious characters could be ignored (how would someone know whether they are alive or dead without checking?) or more likely captured for interrogation and the adventure continues with different (classic) options.

I'd have quite a stretch to think of any genre of RPG where automatic CDG of fallen foes is the obvious thing for a GM to do - perhaps in a horror or zombie game?

Cheers

 

[MerricB]

Unless I'm misremembering (entirely possible since it's been a long time since I've watched them), the only time any to the heroes of the original trilogy actually got HIT by a blaster was Han on Endor and one hit nearly killed him.

Addendum: The point being, I don't remember Han and Luke soaking up a bunch of blaster shots when I think of the Star Wars series...I think of how incredibly terrible the marksmanship of their enemies were. For the most part it seemed like Stormtroopers mostly only hit things on natural 20s if you look at the number of shots they fire versus how often they actually hit anyone.

If you get "hit" for 10 hit points and you have 100 left, the _actual_ bolt missed you. Hit points represent luck, training, divine favour, whatever.

Most of those near-misses in the movies would actually be hits in the game... but not significant ones.

Cheers!

 

[dcas]

Unless I'm misremembering (entirely possible since it's been a long time since I've watched them), the only time any to the heroes of the original trilogy actually got HIT by a blaster was Han on Endor and one hit nearly killed him.

It was Leia that got hit -- in the arm.

 

[Remathilis]

Addendum: The point being, I don't remember Han and Luke soaking up a bunch of blaster shots when I think of the Star Wars series...I think of how incredibly terrible the marksmanship of their enemies were. For the most part it seemed like Stormtroopers mostly only hit things on natural 20s if you look at the number of shots they fire versus how often they actually hit anyone.

Thats all well and good against stormtroopers and battledroids, but against rancors, sith lords, bounty hunters, cyborg generals, and other "named" baddies, the game takes on a grisly form of russian roulette: who will roll the first natural 20 vs who is the better/smarter/craftier fighter.