LostKnightsRPG.org

Okay, I revised the difficulties again. There are now more and higher modifiers for knowing someone. The top end of the added difficulty is 20. I honestly cannot see it going any lower. I went back and looked, and there aren't even all that many powers that use this modifier, so its largely irrelevant. The only powers that are modified by relationship are obscure, and I have only seen them used rarely if at all. Not only that, but when that are used, they are used largely between characters that are familiar to one another (this tells me there is a reason Jedi do not walk around sensing everyones thoughts, and talking in peoples heads. At least Jedi who aren't masters don't).

Oh, in response to your comment Steven, I actually do think it would be harder to affect an alien mind with these powers. I may look at a separate modifier specifically for a character's familiarity with a race. This would either be an on or off thing. Yeah, let me try that. I'll write it in, and you can let me know what you think.

A die code of 10D is more than enough to meet these difficulties. This means masters are able to use these powers against strange aliens regularly, but for other less powerful characters its harder. I think this fits the paradigm well. So take a look, and let me know.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about a way to help mitigate the power creep of the D6 system with Force Powers, and other bonuses. The bottom line as I see it, is that since the system is incapable of dealing with die codes past a certain level, rules need to be in place to enforce keeping characters within those limits. The alternative is that the game very rapidly becomes unmanageable power wise.

My solutions are listed below. It should be noted that powers, and skills will still continue to work as before, but the total amount of bonus they are giving get limited by a characters existing die codes. So while Lightsaber Combat may say that it adds Sense to a character’s Lightsaber die code, it should now be read as Lightsaber Combat adds Sense to a character’s Lightsaber die code up to the total allowed bonus.

Basically, Powers now dictate a total bonus amount, by which they CAN increase a skill/attribute(s). However, they no longer guarantee a bonus. A character benefits from these bonuses only if that character has the necessary skill/attribute scores to do so. This creates new tensions for character design, and represents a character’s natural limitations even with the Force. It also means that characters desire to be more specialized, which is more in the feel Star Wars with its archetypal characters.

Over all I think it is at the very least a more balanced approach to enhancing die codes via the options granted by the system. With other types of bonuses stacking on those granted by the Force, it means characters can still gain major benefits from Force Powers without breaking the system.

On the plus side this means I would be a lot less hesitant to start handing out lightsabers in game, which means you guys would get cool stuff faster. So keep that in mind.

Okay, so here are the proposals:

AUGMENTING ATTRIBUTES
An attribute may be augmented by a bonus totaling no more than half its normal die code +1D. Always round the die code down to the nearest even number of whole dice when determining half its value. So die code of 3D+1 would take half of 2D (which is 1D) then add +1D to determine An its total allowed bonus of 2D. This ensures that an attribute can always be enhanced at least 1D (consider that it subtracts 1D from all die codes to activate/maintain a power).

AUGMENTING SKILLS
Skills simply take half their normal die code to determine the total allowed bonus that can be granted. Again, round the die code down to the nearest even number of whole dice when determining half of that skill’s die code. Thus, a die code of 7D+2 would allow a total bonus of 4D (round down to 6D before halving it, and adding +1D).
EX: So a character that has a Lightsaber die code of 6D+2, and a Sense die code of 7D+1 would add a total bonus of 3D to Lightsaber from activating Lightsaber Combat. While a character with a Lightsaber die code of 10D would get to add 5D to Lightsaber by activating Lightsaber Combat.

A character under the effects of multiple powers that grant bonuses to must choose between them. It no longer benefits a player to have lots of augmenting Force Powers active at once. A player may still activate multiple powers to gain bonuses to different attributes and skills however.

BATTLE MEDITATION
Due to the nature of Battle Meditation, and the fact that is has been regulated to a Force Trait, its granted bonuses will stack with those granted by other Force Powers, above and beyond a character’s normal allowed limits. This makes Battle Meditation exactly what it should be… a really powerful ability, that can be easily limited by a storyteller if necessary.

TACTICAL BONUS
Tactics adds it’s bonus to Initiative, and Skill rolls on top of other bonuses being provided.

MOVEMENT BONUS
The following was an idea I cooked up from watching the last combat. I noticed that you can get really good bonuses from having cover, but there is nothing to be gained from moving around (except trying to move to cover), even though its hard to hit a moving target in real life. So to help encourage people to move about, and take advantage of mobility I thought about introducing a bonus to Dodge for moving characters.

If a character has moved his Full Move this round increase his dodge skill by 1D, or adds a roll of 1D to his current Dodge rating. This bonus affects the character’s dodge as soon as he has moved up to his Full Movement. Each time a character moves his Full Movement during a round that character adds another 1D to his dodge.

I suppose it might also help to understand the above rule a bit if I took a moment to explain how I want movement to work (because it currently isn’t). I don’t feel like D6 movement converts to a standard map very well. So here is an easy fix I want to utilize.

Halve a character’s listed ‘Movement’ (round down). This number is now the character’s Movement Rating. Each time a character takes an action during a round that character may move up to his Movement Rating in spaces as a part of that action. A character may not exceed double his Movement Rating with normal actions in this way. Moving up to double his Movement Rating means the character has taken a Full Move.

If a character spends an entire action doing nothing but moving, that character may take a Full Move. The character may then, as a part of other actions that round, move as normal, however, a character may not move more than double his Full Move in a round in this way.

If a character spends an entire round moving, that character may move up to triple his Full Move. A character doing this may do nothing else in a round. However, the bonus granted to a characters dodge is still added to the difficulty needed to hit that character if he is attacked.

ONE FINAL BONUS

I took the liberty of amending the Force powers that augment combat (LS Combat, Augment Close Quarters, and Augment Blaster). These powers now let a character draw a weapon as part of the activation of the power. You can draw more than one weapon if its appropriate, but the weapon must be a type useable with the power. I didn’t think anyone would mind me doing this. It’s sensible, and makes life easier.

Okay that’s all I’ve got for now. Let me here you thoughts on these changes. Preferably before next session, so I can work them out, and get them on the wiki. Thanks

Here is a revised Dark Side Flaw list for review, and discussion since people felt the originals were to harsh. These aren't quite as bad, but still pose some stiff penalties on characters choosing to be Dark Side.

NEW FLAWS

-(DECAY)- This character receives a penalty to any rolls he makes using Physique, or any of the skills governed by that attribute. The penalty is -1 for every Dark Side Aspect Level the character has attained.
-(RIGOR)- This character receives a penalty to any rolls he makes using Coordination, or any of the skills governed by that attribute. The penalty is -1 for every Dark Side Aspect Level the character has attained.
-(MADNESS)- This character receives a penalty to any rolls he makes using Intellect, or the skills governed by that attribute. The penalty is -1 for every Dark Side Aspect Level the character has attained. When this flaw is taken the character may choose up to 2 Intellect skills to which this penalty does not apply, in order to better represent a specific type of dementia. This flaw more than any of the others must be role-played accordingly. The type of madness chosen by the character should become a real part of the characters personality.
-(TAINTED)- This character receives a penalty to any rolls he makes using Savvy, or any of the following skills: Bargain, Manipulate, and Perform. The penalty is -1 for every Dark Side Aspect Level the character has attained. When using Intimidate specifically this penalty is added as a bonus to those rolls instead.

These look pretty good. Is the "you die if the penalty exceeds your dice" thing still in effect? Or are these exactly as written?

I don't know what you're talking about. Its just a penalty to the die rolls nothing more. You can die if certain rolls fail I guess, and the penalty makes that much more likely....

the previous flaws said that you would die if your negative pips reduced an attribute to less than one die

better.