Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Gylthinel]

I'm planning to run a round of Savage Star Wars soon. Me and my players were gabbing about it, and highlighted (highlit?) the fact that 1 hit tends to take out anybody in the genre. Not just grunts. Even most heroes are put out of action by a blast or a saber.

D20 Star Wars sort of mirrors this effect by il using vitality points: hit points that count as a "near miss." Mechanically this was a great way to handle things. But from a storytelling standpoint it didn't really work. You roll a hit... Oh wait, you 'missed.'

In any event, I'm wondering if anybody has a good mechanic to handle the feel of near misses. It needs to have a building tension-like taking wounds. Thoughts?

[cpk666]

Spending your last Benny doesn't cause tension? Bennies for Soaking work pretty much like Vitality points.

CK
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Since this is my post, please understand that the thoughts expressed in it are my opinion.

"Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass."--Cordelia Chase

[steelbrok]

Being Shaken could count as a near miss with a blaster

[Jordan Peacock]

Here's how I'd probably approach it:

* High damage, low Toughness.

Everybody with a blaster or a starfighter is a "glass cannon." Some settings seem to carry this idea that 2d6 is a respectable amount of damage for a basic weapon. When the average UNARMORED Extra has a Toughness of 5, and you'd need a 9 to Incapacitate him ... no, 2d6 doesn't cut it.

Similarly, starfighters shouldn't have wickedly high Toughness compared to the weapons they carry. Sure, X-Wings and the Millennium Falcon have "shields," but representing that with high Toughness just makes things all the more random. If it's just damage vs. Toughness, you might very well have a TIE Fighter who scores the lucky damage roll on the first shot as on the fifth, with no time for someone to complain, "The shields are out!"

I'd represent shields with a pool of "Bennies" a ship has that can be applied toward Soak rolls, and a "shield rating" for the ship (in the form of what die type it gets to roll when soaking). Let's give it a flat bonus of +2 to the soak roll while we're at it, or else odds are high the shield won't do a bit of good when it counts. Once the shield is gone, however, it's gone, until repairs can be made (which makes a Wild Card R2 unit pretty awesome to have around).


* New house rule: "Missed Me."

If a Wild Card is the target of a successful attack, the controlling player (or GM) may spend a Benny to force the attacker to reroll the attack, and take the lesser result. Additional Bennies may be spent for additional rerolls as desired.

If this Benny is spent after damage has already been rolled, damage is NOT REROLLED unless the new result would change it (e.g., original attack hit with a Raise; new roll is a mere Success).

Note: This doesn't mean "A Benny means I can never get hit." Stand out in the open, sans cover, within short range, while an Extra with d6 Shooting takes an action to Aim, and then lets loose with a 3RB, and odds are awfully good you're going to get hit, even if you make him reroll it.
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[Zadmar]

[Jordan Peacock]

[Sean-Khan]

An interesting topic, something that never occurred to me. There's been some minor cuts or scratches, but usually when someone's hit, he's hit for good. I could think of agility roll vs. shooting roll, but does that make agility too strong? Spirit instead?

One simple thought about shields I got is that shields give armor, but only if the target ship isn't shaken or wounded.
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Shaper & Maker - modelling, gaming & a lot of other stuff

[Blackhawk]

All of which makes it interesting that none of the good guys ever wear armor.

[EmptyOwl]

[Gylthinel]

Glass cannon. I like it.

I thought about spending Bennies to force re-rolls. This wouldn't work in my group. We always save our bennies for soak rolls, so bennies are just another tier of health. This was so bad we actually removed soak rolls. Forcing enemies to re-roll would have the same effect, at least in my group.

I also considered removing wounds entirely from the game, so once you're hit you roll toughness as if you'd taken your 4th wound. I'd then give heroes a pool of counters, call them "evasion" counters, which they could spend to negate hits (or force re-rolls). But this woudl be just like vitality points in SWD20, and have the same narrative sluggishness.

[Jordan Peacock]

[Cryonic]

[Gylthinel]

[theDevilofWormwood]