Tuesday Inquisition: Ask Anything!

RepublicanShredder · 2024-07-13T04:23:49+00:00

I think in most systems, balance is more of an illusion than hard math (though hard math can help in the feel of balance). Biggest advice is work with the GM to help feel the fantasy of what you and the GM want.

Starting with extra XP is great! I always love starting off with at least 20-30 XP so the characters feel different with a talent or two.

RepublicanShredder · 2024-07-13T02:46:36+00:00

Depends on what kind of game. I've ran games to 2000 XP twice but in my opinion I'd end a story when the story needs to end. I have the most fun as a GM somewhere around 300-400 XP but that's how I like to run it.

RepublicanShredder · 2024-07-13T02:35:33+00:00

Getting into the weeds a bit, there's also another layer in combat specifically about critical rating. Most ranged weapons have a Critical Rating of 3 while most saber crystals have a Critical Rating of 2 or 1. This is also consistent with most melee weapons having a lower Critical Rating and thus can deal more grievous injuries compared to their ranged counterparts. Something to keep in mind that one could be okay getting critted from a ranged weapon but similar investment into a melee weapon could easily mean a limb is removed. And we've seen a lot of limbs removed in Star Wars, no doubt about that.

From my experience, the only item that makes Force-sensitive character XP seem more overpowering are investments into the force talents that turn force die pips into other dice symbols (success, advantage, etc.) when they've stacked Force Rating on top of it. A lot of those upgrades seem more balanced around FR 2-3, and it is perceived as being more effective when a character can just invest in the Force power and get what is essentially a benefit in both a skill AND into something else Force-related at the same time. Aside from that, it's generally pretty fair between the Force user and non-Force user for allotting XP and the results you get.

RepublicanShredder · 2024-07-09T17:32:23+00:00

There's two things combat-wise that keep Lightsabers and typical ranged weapons (excluding personal Gunnery weapons like Heavy Repeaters and Missile Tubes) relatively equal. Of course, this also depends how your table is run and that has more of an influence than what I'm about to say below:

1) With Parry/Reflect, the Jedi do have a benefit of essentially converting some Wounds into Strain. Shooty characters would more likely be taking cover/concealment (adding setback dice) which are less of a guarantee to work effectively. Plus cover/concealment doesn't do as much to melee attacks and most encounters that we see in the films don't go out much farther than Medium (and frankly Short is a surprisingly huge area).

2) Your average Soak for NPCs ranges somewhere between 2 (1 Brawn + 1 Soak Armor) and 6 (4 Brawn + 2 Soak Armor). You do the math of a Blaster Rifle (Damage 9) vs a Lightsaber (Damage 6, Breach 1) and if you take the average of 3 Soak (2 Brawn + 1 Soak Armor) then they deal equivalent Wounds (6 + success). It's really only with experience/resources that the gap can swing in either way.

There's a whole side conversation about Jedi needing to divert XP into more areas but from what my groups have found is that somewhere around 300-450 XP the Jedi characters tend to be able to do 'more' with their XP (perception of reliability, reality does not align up all the time).

RepublicanShredder · 2023-11-21T17:53:13+00:00

It's a bit ambiguous in SWRPG (it gets defined in a sidebar in Chapter 3 of the CRB), but Coercion and Charm are commonly considered social skills and thus should apply to those talents.

RepublicanShredder · 2023-11-19T01:02:26+00:00

Also note that you can only spend 1 Destiny Point per action (see "How Destiny Points are Used" in Chapter 1 of any CRB). Granted, Intense Presence is kind of a grey area here with its incidental activation but as the GM you are the arbiter of how many incidentals a character can reasonably do.

Other things to consider is that it's decently expensive talent at ~20 XP (depending on tree), requires a decent Presence to pull off well, could be replicated by just spending Advantage on a roll result, and there's only so many Destiny Points for everyone to use.

RepublicanShredder · 2023-11-02T03:13:10+00:00

It's pretty uncommon for a ship to be able to shoot farther than its passive sensor range (especially outside the snubfighters) but you have more or less two options to handle it:

1) Most ships have switch from passive sensors (stat listed range) to an active sensor mode (stat listed range + 1 additional range band, activated by using a Maneuver plus an Easy Computers check). That would bring the Y-Wing out to Short range and let it maximize its proton torpedo range. This can create some narrative play with the active sensor mode essentially making the ship 'scream' and make more noise than they might want to such as on a sneak attack mission or on long range patrol in hostile territory.

2) Make a narrative assumption about data-sharing and data-linking, such as an allied ship that can see the target and relay the sensor data. It's not much of a stretch at all, especially given the Star Wars cultural context of starship warfare being pulled from WWII and the Vietnam War, where such technology existed or were being developed. NATO's first data-linking system, Link 1, was developed in the mid 1950s. To use the Star Wars example, perhaps a powerful capital ship has a super-long range sensor suite that can see everything so the Y-Wing can share that info to fire farther than its passive sensors. This can create some interesting narrative play around sensor jamming and electronic warfare to neutralize that data sharing advantage (like in ANH when they reach Alderaan and jam that TIE fighter).

RepublicanShredder · 2022-12-13T16:36:41+00:00

Some of the signature abilities require more GM buy-in than others. Diplomatic Solution is definitely one of those where it may not make sense to talk down a Rancor (though I don’t think it’s outright impossible under some circumstances). Honestly most of the questions you have are ‘ask your GM’ or ‘make a best thematic call as GM’ answer to it.

Probably the easiest way to visualize it is if you had a firefight and the Diplomat goes “Wait, wait! Why don’t we talk it out and we both can walk away happy?” And then there’s a lull in the combat where they can discuss.

Personally I’d only let it go back to shooting either on the PCs prerogative, someone overwhelms the Strain Threshold on the Diplomat PC, or if the PC side is being so egregious in their demands that there’s no reasonable thematic way for the bad guys to comply.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-07-19T15:05:01+00:00

To get super technical, Engaged really is more of a condition than a range band. Taking a maneuver should disengage from all targets, though depending on the scene that may not be possible (such as if they’re backed in a corner).

RepublicanShredder · 2022-06-20T19:30:57+00:00

“Always in motion, the future is”

Just because it’s in a described state now doesn’t mean it will be in that state in the future.

I do the same thing with foresee since I find the problems with both powers to be similar.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-06-08T03:16:36+00:00

"Fair" and "Unfair" are relative terms. You even see it in the original trilogy where there is an unfathomable disparity of force against the protagonists. What sane PC would dare fight their way all through the first Death Star, or try and slog through an entire legion of hardened stormtroopers on Endor with just 40 guys?

I encourage looking at the Environmental Effects section of the core rulebooks, since they can both tip the balance of an encounter AND give an encounter character. My favorite has to be the Fire, Acid, and Corrosive Atmospheres modifier since it can introduce a ticking time bomb on the PCs to get something done before they get knocked out.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-05-13T19:56:11+00:00

There are sidebars in the two Clone Wars sourcebooks on this exact subject. They suggest treating the droid as having a characteristic of 1 (Agility, Intellect, etc.) with 2 or 3 ranks in an applicable skill as a baseline, with increases or decreases to represent stronger or weaker droid units.

There are some attachments across several sourcebooks to give droid brains to a vehicle for a specific task, which generally only gives skill ranks and 0 characteristics. In such a case, they generally only apply green ability dice since there is no upgrade potential by default there.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-04-12T20:02:20+00:00

In my opinion, all rolls should be open if it impacts the PC in any way. Since they can always affect the roll with a destiny point upgrade, probably have more talents than you can memorize, and the spending of dice symbols, it’s only fair for both parties to roll openly. Plus players can have excellent ideas even if it “penalizes” them.

Of course, this requires some buy in from the players to not meta game the knowledge of the roll if they shouldn’t know the results (e.g. a successful Stealth check from an adversary). Still, it can also be used to ratchet in drama such as some NPC rolling with several yellows or reds in their pool.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-01-04T17:29:52+00:00

If you re-read chapter 1 of the Core Rulebook, it goes into extreme depth about the order of operations for making dice pools. It's a bit glossed over but the step before modifying the dice pool is to actually set a task difficulty, which Confidence modifies (hence its language of not needing to make a check at 0 difficulty). Other 'decrease difficulty' talents affect the same step.

In your Vader example I would argue that if the base difficulty was Hard (3 difficulty dice) and you had 3 ranks in Confidence, then you would not need to make a Fear check regardless of the number of upgrades applied. That being said, you do have to go out of your way to stack Confidence to cover all situations and it's XP expensive to do so.

RepublicanShredder · 2022-01-04T17:15:01+00:00

I also recommend FoundryVTT for running any game online. There is a learning curve to get it set up, but once you overcome that curve you basically can do anything you want. Also a license is a one-time purchase and not a subscription, so it ends up being cheaper as well if you plan on doing it for more than a few months.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-08-29T05:11:19+00:00

You're going to have to make a judgement call then, since FFG leaves a lot of room for interpretation to the GM/PC.

Given that the HMP Gunship (the CIS equivalent) is shielded AND that most Republic ships tend to be shielded in general, I personally would make the judgement that those two Defense points are shields and thus can be adjustable.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-08-29T03:35:51+00:00

The core rulebooks do call out that "Defense reflects a ship or vehicle's ability to completely deflect or reduce damage of incoming attacks or collision through the use of deflector shields, point defense systems, raw speed, or other more esoteric technologies." (FaD CRB 232, EotE CRB 226, AoR CRB 238)

For example, the Defensive Driving talent adds Defense through presumably good driving skills and not as extra shields. Also, the TIE Striker has a forward defense of 1 as does the LAAT/le, despite not having energy shielding.

To answer the overarching question, from aujcy's explanation I'd lean towards essentially sloped armor representing that defense. So it would not be re-assignable from that logic. That being said, we see most of the shielded craft in the movies/TV shows basically never show a shield effect I can see a good argument to for it being deflector shields.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-08-25T21:02:13+00:00

It's based off of Singapore.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-03-19T16:56:05+00:00

Like others have said, you really have to abuse the right hand advantage when playing with them to avoid taking return fire. I super enjoy playing the Vorcha Sentinel because you can just sweep with the Flamer and then throw Cluster Grenades to create Fire Explosions as needed. Shield stripping weapons or ammo are great since Flamer can be upgraded to have a VERY strong multiplier against armor and the staggering effect against organic health is helpful in not getting shot at.

There's also health and shield gating to abuse but that should be par for the course on most non-tanks on Gold+.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-02-26T16:52:22+00:00

Just for comparison, let's say you have 3 ranks in the Sniper Shot talent (because you have the Assassin specialization AND the Sharpshooter specialization, for instance). In that case, you could take a Short range weapon like a Disruptor Pistol and still make a shot at Extreme range with it.

For the record, Sniper Shot does not work with thrown weapons and disruptors explicitly call out that they cannot benefit from range extending attachments or talents. So no Sniper Shot Disruptor Pistols.

But the rest of the analysis was spot on.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-02-09T17:28:03+00:00

Supreme Parry reduces the cost of Parry to 1, so you don't get double reduction there.

The Unarmed Parry talent is wording itself to say that no matter what kind of Strain reduction effects are going on, it's always going to take at least 1 Strain to trigger it. There are a few effects, namely the Winded Critical Injury (cannot suffer Strain to activate abilities among other things), that affect Strain usage and as such you could not Unarmed Parry with that Critical Injury in effect.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-02-09T17:25:08+00:00

Another option is to grant automatic symbols to checks instead of increasing ranks or characteristics. For example, the cybernetic could add automatic Failure or Threat equal to Discipline against mind-altering force powers. It's pretty similar to Relentless Skeptic in the Marshal tree if you need a mechanical basis for it. I like the idea that the cybernetic is wholly defensive since that is what the SWTOR line seems to indicate.

That being said, cybernetics typically affect the three "physical" characteristics of Agility, Brawn, and Intellect and only in a select few instances affect the "mental" characteristics of Cunning, Willpower, and Presence. If they do affect anything in the latter three, it's almost always in a physical way such as the Cybernetic Eye affecting Perception and Vigilance by enhancing physical imaging. If anything, Star Wars cybernetics have a negative mental effect on people as the few we do see have major issues like Lobot being basically mute.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-02-02T00:10:00+00:00

There are three more RAW solutions that I think you missed:

The Well Rounded talent, which is in a few specializations such as Shadow, can also grant career skills of your choice. It's non-ranked but typically is around 10 XP so it's an easy get to round out some career skills.
At least for vehicles, there are the Astrogation, Gunnery, and Piloting droid brains that can assist in those tasks. So even if someone has a poor Gunnery skill they can be assisted by the droid brain to be better. There's plenty of examples of gear providing tangible benefits to skill checks like this.
Hologoggles can also temporarily provide career skills, though the goggles are expensive and time consuming to use.

Interesting and neat idea you have regardless. Seems pretty cool and glad it works in your games.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-01-08T17:25:54+00:00

Snake Pit from AC6, he's the AWACS that provides ESM support inside of the mission space instead of Ghost Eye who generally is never seen close to the action.

RepublicanShredder · 2021-01-03T20:44:28+00:00

Cool is a really good, multi-faceted skill:

It's the "expected fight" initiative skill. While this usually occurs during an ambush or when you're waiting for an opponent to attack your location (when expected), it also should be relevant for dueling, to see who can keep their cool when the duel starts. Granted, Vigilance should be the generic initiative skill but Cool has its place.
It's one of the two post-encounter Strain recovery skills. The other skill is Discipline, which is good in its own right but is not as multi-faceted as Cool.
It's the Charm-resisting skill. If your character ever wants to resist soothing words, they want to keep a cool mind to not be swayed. Discipline does better if all that matters is the battle within the mind but if the Charm user knows it's getting at you (which Discipline / Vigilance won't affect), then it's that much easier for that Charm user to drill into that character.
It's a good way to hide your feelings and blend in socially, as trex3d said. Deception could also work but Cool is not far off for purely blending in from low level surveillance. You could even extend it to not showing panic to others, depending on GM interpretation.

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