SW SAGA EDITION: Preview 7

[Pbartender]

lol I'm sorry, but Boba Fett's death is just silly. Describing Han as making an attack against him is a rather creative way of saying he inadvertently tapped the jump jet button and sent Boba Fett flying to his death via concussive head trauma.

Sure, but you've got to admit...

In most games, if a GM described a lucky lethal critical hit from a half blind character in a manner like that, the players would be cheering. Or at least... They would be at my table.

It's unique situations just like that that require an equally unique description.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Overall, that looks very encouraging. The power level of Force Points and Destiny Points seems about right, if perhaps a little low, most of the options used seem simple and intuitive, and the game's mechanics appear to allow for all of the events in the scene without any on-the-fly rulings - Boba Fett is dead in game mechanics terms regardless of how his demise is described by the GM.

What I would be curious about is: how long would it take to play that scene out, provided the GM and players were reasonably familiar with the Saga rules?

 

[Kesh]

Luke wipes the floor with the thugs because of the vast level difference. Notice how he does *not* wipe the floor with Boba Fett.

Yep. For some reason, reading this passage makes me think that Luke's player was the same guy who plays Legolas in DM of the Rings. "Yes! Can I make him stab another one in the face?!"

Luke spent most of the fight wiping out mooks, even showing off by doing unarmed combat, and ignores the named NPC that might actually be a challenge.

 

[Pbartender]

Luke spent most of the fight wiping out mooks, even showing off by doing unarmed combat, and ignores the named NPC that might actually be a challenge.

He was probably thinking, "Lando can take care of himself, Chewie and Han should be able to take care of Fett... But somebody really needs to take out the cannon on the sail barge, before it blows us to smithereens."

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Luke wipes the floor with the thugs because of the vast level difference. Notice how he does *not* wipe the floor with Boba Fett.

I agree with this sentiment, and understand and appreciate the logic behind it. However, in far too many instances a lot of "Jedi are overpowered!" rants tend to involve higher-level Jedi mopping the floor with mooks.

And let's face it, in that fight Luke was the star of the show. Han and Chewie spent most of their time trying to bail Lando out the fix he was in, and Leia was too busy choking the Hutt to have real impact. Other than Han's "lucky shot" against Boba Fett, the action was all Luke. Also, Luke didn't really pay that much attention to Boba Fett; most other players would have opened up with their most powerful attacks against someone like that, Luke did just enough to get Fett out of his way and worry about all the other goons that were trying to kill him and his friends. And I'd say forcing Fett to choke down a shot from a blaster cannon goes a long ways towards "dealing" with Mr. Fett.

So even though the authors have said the intent was to "ramp up" the other classes rather than nerf the Jedi, there are bound to be people that look at what a Jedi is capable of and decry them as "broken!" sight-unplayed.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

What I would be curious about is: how long would it take to play that scene out, provided the GM and players were reasonably familiar with the Saga rules?

Probably about twice as long as it took to read, given that all the players at one point or another will pause to consider their options before deciding how to act. Except maybe for Lando, who's only choices were to wait for help to scramble out of the pit.

Also depends if there's any powergamers that were looking for the best tactical options and willing to have combat grind to a halt until they found it

From the looks of it, Luke's player was having fun with finally getting a chance to strut his stuff in front of the entire party, particularly if he'd been playing second fiddle to Han, Chewie, and Leia in terms of what he could do, probably due to starting out the campaign as a 1st level Scout. Especially after Han's player mocked him for wanting to play a Jedi in the first place.

Han's line of "Thanks for coming back for me, now I owe you one" was in-character speak for "okay, I was wrong. Being a Jedi is pretty kick-ass."

 

[Klaus]

I think part of playing a Jedi, in the example, was drawing all the attention to Luke, keeping the mooks from targeting Chewie or Han (which is what would happen if Luke restricted himself to fighting Boba Fett).

Plus, Luke's player missed all the sessions taking place at Bespin, and the GM had to whip up a side trek that took him to Dagobah, then Bespin, to get reunited (sans hand) with the party.

 

[Ranger REG]

I was hoping i would get to see Leia vs jabba and how that would look. But oh well.

Hmm. How would you resolve Leia strangling Jabba, Moridin?

 

[Reaper Steve]

Man, I read preview 7, then I watched the RotJ scene again...and I think I like combat example better than the movie. Granted, in the RPG, the scene would never play out that way :
--why wouldn't Luke deflect more shots?
--why did Lando grab the skiff driver instead of taking him out?
--there was no reason for Luke to attack the thug's vibro-axe in round 11 (instead of just taking the thug out)
--I think Lando's, Han's, and Chewie's players could have been more proactive

BUT...that's not the point...the point is that they used this scene to showcase the RPG, and I think they did a great job. While the movie actions may not have been the best RPG actions, the fact that the RPG could model the movie speaks volumes.

I found the liberal interpretations of 'what happens at 0 hit points' to be quite invigorating...especially in the case of Boba Fett's demise. What could have been "I spend a destiny point and kill Boba Fett" became 'in your blind flailings, you feel the vibro-axe ring loudly against a metal canister, which is almost immediately accompainied by the roar of a rocket pack and the heat of its blast. You hear Boba Fett's scream as he is uncontrollably launched from the Skiff, followed by a thud, and then what sounds like a monstrous belch from beneath the skiff."

However, I do think the example glossed over some things:

1)'R2-D2 fires Luke's lightsaber to him on initiative count 27 as a readied action, which moves Luke's Initiative score down to 27 as it triggers his readied action.'
--Shouldn't there be some rolls here? One for R2 to 'throw' and the other for Luke to catch? And the catch appears to be a free action, as Luke already moved, then gets his readied attack after the catch.

2)How did the blaster cannon splash in Round 2 that killed the Nikto also throw him overboard...and Lando with him? Does it have some type of knockback? Or was it dramatic license (since all the other 'deaths' involved a dive over the side)? If the latter, that would be real hard for a GM to pull off. I think a player would (rightfully) cry 'BS!' if I said the dead Nikto was knocked overboard AND that he takes Lando with him since he is grabbing him, if there aren't rules to dictate that. Otherwise it would smack of unfairness at the table. "You're taking me out of the fight over something that didn't even affect me!"

3) The blaster cannon that Luke deflected into Boba Fett in Rd 3 did 77 points of damage! Yikes. And it was small enough for that thug to carry to the side of the barge.
3a)And I thought this a bit of a stretch...in the movie it looks like Boba dodges the redirected shot...it was a miss. I understand the nature and definition of hit points (ability to turn a deadly blow into something less) but if we were around the table a Luke's player deflected a 77 hp blaster shot into Fett, I think it would have been described as a direct hit, not "Fett ducks and needs a moment to compose himself."

4) Round 8: Luke's unarmed attack looked to me like it should have been a grab or grapple and a throw.

That's really it. Again, I loved the example, but I want to know if the rules support the above points or if they allude to an expected level of GM intervention to ensure the cinematic action?

Steve

 

[Reaper Steve]

Oh yeah, there's an error in the example, too:
Fett has 122 HP, the redirected blaster cannon shot did 77 points, reducing him to 45. Han's critical did 36, which would leave him with 9 HP, not 0 or less. Fett lives!

And Fett's player should have used his daily swift action second wind after the blaster cannon hit to recover 30 HP, giving him 75 when Han burned his destiny point. Silly newbs.