In the beta version of the game, the lightsaber had a Deflection of 2. In the core rulebook, that special ability ain't there anymore.

How do you deal with the deflecting ability of the lightsaber?

Do you only use the talent Sixth sense and Superior Reflexes talent to provide some kind of deflection bonus to, respectively, ranged and melee attacks?

Do the player gain Deflection 1 for each even ranks in lightsaber?

"Ain't" is not a word.

Now that that is out of the way, deflection will probably be handled in a talent, either from a Jedi specialty or a lightsaber force power. I expect the latter.

Currently, there are no Jedi in the game. We won't have any rules for them until, possibly later this year, when the Force & Destiny beta is potentially released.

If you are making an NPC, such you can give them deflection, but if you want this for a player character, you're out of luck. There are a number of fan made Jedi supplements that can help you. They don't appeal to me, but they are popular enough.

* edited for spelling

The statistics as they are represent an average Joe picking it up and attempting to use it - they aren't going to have any more luck connecting with blaster-bolts than they would if they were swinging a baseball bat. (Which is more likely than it sounds, as it turns out.)

Until Force and Destiny comes out, there isn't likely to be anything that makes you better at deflecting blasters. Instead use defensive talents like Sixth Sense (or Dodge or Side Step, depending on your "mundane" Specialisations) and the left-hand column of the Sense power to keep your Jedi-worshiping ass alive until you get a Luke to train you.

"Ain't" is not a word.

Now that that is out of the way,

We won't have any rules for them till, possibly later this year,

Internet forums aren't usually considered formal conversations and I think you understood what the informal "Ain't" meant just like I understood what the informal, "till" meant in your post. Had to get that out of the way.

I also agree with Samophlange and Colonel Orange (everytime I read your title I want to add something like, 'in the kitchen, with the pipe') that it was removed because that ability was later moved to a jedi ability, forthcoming. You wouldn't want just anyone picking up a lightsaber for the first time to have a chance to deflect blaster bolts. It has to be learned, perhaps a force-user tree Talent?

[Puts down the pipe, looks guilty.]

"Ain't" is not a word.

Now that that is out of the way,

We won't have any rules for them till, possibly later this year,

Internet forums aren't usually considered formal conversations and I think you understood what the informal "Ain't" meant just like I understood what the informal, "till" meant in your post. Had to get that out of the way.

Thanks for pointing out that. Corrected.

How do you deal with the deflecting ability of the lightsaber?

Because it is the ability of the user to deflect, not the weapon. The weapon is just the tool. It is not a shield. We will, in all liklihood, as already stated, see abilities for deflection in Force & Destiny once it drops, either in beta or Corebook.

"Ain't" is not a word.

A word is defined as:

A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed.

So, "ain't" is a word. It just isn't a word you would typically use in a scholarly journal. The same way I wouldn't use, "Hey *******, **** you and the grammatical high horse you tried to ride in on" in a formal essay.

Language is about conveying ideas to others, not about following hundreds of rules to meet the "proper" form of expression. So you feel free to live in your "Language 4e" ruleset, but me?

I'll be over here with my creative, colorful, and narrative expression. And there ain't nothing you can do about it.

Another option I would consider ,as a GM, is that a lightsaber wielding character could deflect a shot if the attacker rolled one or two despair results. This is with consideration that they at least have some degree of training, and not weilding the weapon for the first time.

@ Dbuntu

Language 4e? I assume a veiled reference to The latest released version of Dungeons & Dragons. I would retort that 4e is more in line with the dumbed down 'Murican dialect. Poorly implemented and dumbed down.

This is an aspect of the game that I'm just going to wait and see what FFG comes up with. F&D beta should be out in a few months, and while I like to think I'm a reasonably clever fella with house rules, I'm more certain whatever I dream up won't be how things work. Couple that with the folks around my table are content with living by the code of the Mavericks meet Star Wars........Better to shoot first and run away, to live, to shoot first, and run away another day...........not really Jedi minded folks, not Sith, but no one you bring home to mom......

Since language came up... Ricocheting is not the word you're looking for. Deflecting and/or Redirecting would be more appropriate in this context.

A lightsaber could have a Deflect Quality making it possible to Deflect or Redirect a blaster bolt but since it's an inanimate object you'd need someone with the ability to intersect the path of said bolt to Activate the Quality.

I was planning to have Despair when rolled by an opponent with a blaster send the bolt back with the same dice roll.

Force Sense allows the players to upgrade Defense Dice so your players can do this against the living at least. I also plan to allow the players this ability with Cortosis swords. Those are are pre-light saber technology.

A Nemesis Force User with adversary 2 should be able to generate 4 Defense Upgrades.

Its worth doing just to see the looks on their faces. "Waaa! Cry some more!"

@ Dbuntu

Language 4e? I assume a veiled reference to The latest released version of Dungeons & Dragons. I would retort that 4e is more in line with the dumbed down 'Murican dialect. Poorly implemented and dumbed down.

Ha!

Fair point 4e did dumb down some things. I was more aiming a jest at the choices they made. Specifically, I always felt like 4e was overly focused on combat rules and deemphasized RP*. That is sort of missing the point to me in the same way being overly concerned about the rules of grammar is missing the point of language.

*This is debatable and is entirely based on my opinions and experiences.

"Ain't" is not a word.

*Ain't ain't a word and you ain't supposed to use it.

Irregardless of this conversation, how is "nonetheless" a word? It's just three words tacked together. I just don't get it.

I was raised to believe that if a word is used enough it becomes a real word. However, there are words out there that suffer from prejudices and will never become real words and I find that sad. There are already plenty of self-antonyms. Why not add some more bad words to our language? It's not like we're speaking Spanish where they have a council to determine what a real word is and what isn't.

//word fun and/or rant over. Back to regularly scheduled content.

I too hope to see blaster deflection in F&D. It should be a fun book with stuff for lightsabers. For the time being, if you use a defensive talent, such as Dodge, just fluff it that you’re wacking stuff away with the glow stick.

Irregardless [...]

I see what you did there

Thanks for all your replies.

I wanted to know how you'd deal with that and I think I'll finally narrate it instead of using talents and/or skills to achieve it.

Language 4e? I assume a veiled reference to The latest released version of Dungeons & Dragons. I would retort that 4e is more in line with the dumbed down 'Murican dialect. Poorly implemented and dumbed down.

First you took a poke at someone's informal speech while doing the same yourself. Then you took a poke at the nationality of quite a few of us here. You-know-who hasn't poked his head in here for quite some time and thus it's been peaceful around these parts (hopefully that phrase doesn't harm your sensibilities too much). Let's please stop all of the poking and stay with the deflecting OP.