I am of the opinion that these sort of "special movements" must be handled narratively during the fight.

And I do, but technically "gain the advantage" would just be narrative. In fact, most of our rules could just be narrative. I think iconic things having crunch is fun. Having the option spelled out, even if it is just "on high" guidance when it comes to spending advantage and threat in lightsaber combat, would be welcome by me and my players.

The "gain the advantage" idea is good, but it means everything is still tied to the lightsaber skill.

Our examples may be too limited. Using starship combat as the example, why couldn't we have "lightsaber dueling" with an evasive maneuver and a stay on target, as well as a saber lock to gain the advantage?

For example:

Lightsaber Dueling Maneuvers

Guarded Dueling Maneuver: The Guarded Dueling Maneuver reflects a character's efforts to avoid incoming lightsaber attacks. The Guarded Dueling Maneuver upgrades the difficulty of the dice pool once for all lightsaber attacks made against the defending character until the end of their next turn. While this makes the character executing the dueling maneuver harder to hit, it also makes it harder for the character executing the dueling maneuver to hit anyone else. Executing the Guarded Dueling Maneuver likewise upgrades the difficulty of the lightsaber dice pool once for all attacks made by the character until the end of their next turn.

Assault Dueling Maneuver: This reflects a duelist's concentration and ability to shut out combat-related stresses and distractions to make sure an opponent is hit or an adversary destroyed. Until the end of the dueling character's next turn, all lightsaber combat checks made by the assaulting character upgrade the ability of the dice pool once. Unfortunately, while he is concentrating so hard on his opponent, the character blocks out all other threats and is an easier target for opponents. Any combat checks made targeting the character executing this dueling maneuver also upgrade their ability once until the end of the character's next round.

Lightsaber Dueling Action

Saber Lock: This action reflects the iconic event of locked blades in a lightsaber duel. It allows a character to gain the upper hand on a single opponent so that he positions himself for a better attack during the following round. To execute this dueling action, the character makes an opposed lightsaber check. If the check succeeds, the character ignores all penalties imposed by his own and his opponent’s use of the Guarded Dueling Maneuver until the end of the following round. In addition, the character also ignores his opponent's melee defense rating. If he fails his check, he fails to win the Saber Lock attempt and still suffers the effects of any Guarded Dueling Maneuvers.

Once a Saber Lock has been won, on the following turn the opponent may attempt to cancel out the advantageous effects by using The Saber Lock action as well. This works as described earlier, but increase the difficulty of the check for each time he or his opponent has successfully won a Saber Lock.

What I like about this is it already has precedent in the rules. It's a fun way to spend maneuvers, and it gives a lull action that is a very worthwhile chance.

So it's like a thing where the sabers actually get 'locked' together?

I always thought it was just one guy pushing hard on the other guy's saber and the other guy resisting?

So it's like a thing where the sabers actually get 'locked' together?

I always thought it was just one guy pushing hard on the other guy's saber and the other guy resisting?

I'm not sure where the lock idea started, but it's been part of the games (video at least) for a long while. Definitely a big part of Jedi Academy. I do recall it in either Saga or D20 (can't remember which), not sure if it was ever in WEG. In any case, it's apparent from the movies that lightsabers clash and kind of "stick", they don't slide along each other like two metal blades.

The "gain the advantage" idea is good, but it means everything is still tied to the lightsaber skill.

And that makes sense to me. A saber lock moment is a great time to spend those "actions as a maneuver" talents.

True, but my original intent was to be able to inject more than the Lightsaber skill into the duel. I think what you're describing is a neat idea, but for duelling in general, not locks. In the scenes during locks the participants are doing things other than Lightsaber...they're using the Force to distract, attack with a Move or a push while the other person is stuck, or they're simply contesting wills to "gain the advantage".

In Saga Edition this is how they handled it.

Saber Locks: This optional rule was originally published on page 33 of the Jedi Academy Training Manual, and is paraphrased here for fair use by players. Whenever the Block talent is used to negate an attack and the Use the Force check is equal to the attack roll, the attack is negated and a saber lock occurs. The attacker and the blocker make opposed initiative checks, the winner may make an unarmed attack as a free action, ending the saber lock. The unarmed attack cannot be blocked or negated in any way.

Translated into this system: Whenever the Parry Talent is used by a lightsaber wielding character to reduce damage from a lightsaber attack and the amount reduced (after soak) is exactly enough to avoid taking any damage, a saber lock occurs. The defender makes an opposed (Discipline? Vigilance? Cool?) check, the winner may make a Brawl combat check as an out of turn incidental, ending the saber lock. The Brawl combat check cannot be parried.

Both Discipline and Vigilance use willpower (contest of wills). I used "after soak" because parry will likely never be powerful enough to negate all of a lightsaber hits damage (as currently written).

I'm not sure where the lock idea started, but it's been part of the games (video at least) for a long while. Definitely a big part of Jedi Academy. I do recall it in either Saga or D20 (can't remember which), not sure if it was ever in WEG. In any case, it's apparent from the movies that lightsabers clash and kind of "stick", they don't slide along each other like two metal blades.

The crpgs got the idea from the way you see the duels taking "lulls" with the blade locks, where instead of performing a parry, the defender blocks and holds and the attacker just keeps pressing with thier blade, and then talking ensues, and then they break to clash a bit more, repeating until the fight is over.

Translated into this system: Whenever the Parry Talent is used by a lightsaber wielding character to reduce damage from a lightsaber attack and the amount reduced (after soak) is exactly enough to avoid taking any damage, a saber lock occurs. The defender makes an opposed (Discipline? Vigilance? Cool?) check, the winner may make a Brawl combat check as an out of turn incidental, ending the saber lock. The Brawl combat check cannot be parried.

I used "after soak" because parry will likely never be powerful enough to negate all of a lightsaber hits damage (as currently written).

For instance the Seer/Makashi 'Master' I just stated up has a Parry Soak of 6... so I could reasonably soak an unmodded Shoto with only 2 successes on the hit.

Granted, a fully damage modded Illum cystal + lots of successes would be rough to Soak even with a Parry Soak of 14.

I personally like the concept that as long as two parties are getting up close and personal, and already engaged they can attempt to initiate a sort of "Duel" in melee.

The difference would be that the character would have to focus their attention on the attacking party and both opposing rolls would take place at once. Your attack roll and theirs oppose each other, advantages and successes are hits and boosts for you or can give setback to their next action. Failures and Threats are the opposite for the enemy.

Not sure if there would need to be anything else to add to it, but it could make some of the rounds of back and forth swordplay more cinematic and possibly be much more defensive as well.