Fouth Session. (SPOILERS FOR Long Arm of the Hutt)

We ran the rest of Act 2 from Long Arm of the Hutt, and it threw up some more questions.

*Can you use Advantage to grant a Bonus Die to the next ally (1 Adv), AND Grant a Bonus to ANY ally (2 Adv) if you have enough Adv to spend? (Result in 2 Boost to the same player?)

*Frequency of healing outside of combat also comes up… our healer is just rolling dice after dice, as there is no rule saying she cant… I have said I will take advice on this, so I was wondering what your advice would be?

On another note, I am not sure if my party is overpowered.

They took out 4 thugs in New Meen before they ever got a shot off, they ate the two guards at the compound, and then faced off against 6 more (3 groups of 2) and Angu Drombb in the cantina.

The Trandoshan Bounty Hunter took out one group in 2 attacks with little damage.

The Selonian took out one group with ease… both of them killed one with the first attack and severely wounded the second in the group.

The Selonian did take two criticals in the combat however, but the Doctor healed both after the combat ended (See above).

*Does this sound overpowered? And how should I adjust to deal with it? (Without simply upgrading EVERY enemy, or throwing loads more bad guys at them?)

We have two very hard hitting melee players, and even the Doctor is killing with ranged easily for some reason.

*I am dishing out strain more, and I remembered to trigger Obligation this time, but there was no way for them to work towards working their obligation off… should there always be a way for them to work towards paying it off?

*Do you feel its reasonably to allow a Mechanic to aid in all medic checks?

*Do you feel I was fair in not allowing the doctor to help the mechanic hack a computer?

*How do I combat the fact they are now carrying about a dozen blaster pistols? I cant realistically stop them picking up everything every bad guy drops, but this is going to become an almost silly.

*How would I prevent them from doing something almost game breaking?

EG: They wanted to use the bulldozers to flatten the cantina with the thugs in it, I had to worm my way out of that as I wanted them to find the clues inside.

All in all, going well, but the speed of the dice rolling is not as fast as I would have hoped, but it is only our fouth session.

Cheers

RD

You can allow, or not, whatever you like with spare Advantages, there's no real commandment.

Not sure what you mean about healing, you are allowed one Medicine check per encounter.

Can't really speak to them being OP without knowing the weapons, builds, etc.

If they want to loot bodies that's no big deal, if they wanna lug weapons around. You of course could have the 'cops' shake em down or whatever.

The whole bulldozer thing is remedied pretty easy with a thug stepping outside with an anti-vehicle weapon and smoking their bulldozer.

*Can you use Advantage to grant a Bonus Die to the next ally (1 Adv), AND Grant a Bonus to ANY ally (2 Adv) if you have enough Adv to spend? (Result in 2 Boost to the same player?)

Yes. this is usally the go to thing for my players, so I always ask how the situation changes to grant those extra boost.

*Frequency of healing outside of combat also comes up… our healer is just rolling dice after dice, as there is no rule saying she cant… I have said I will take advice on this, so I was wondering what your advice would be?

It's once per encounter. I don't really use encounters and screen-swipes that much, our group has a different play style so once per day usually works in our group. It's once per week when it comes to crits though and that's RAW.

Does this sound overpowered? And how should I adjust to deal with it? (Without simply upgrading EVERY enemy, or throwing loads more bad guys at them?)

Not really, depends on the type of enemies they met but it does seems that the party is really combat oriented, give them other challanges outside of combat. Also again, only one medicine roll to get rid of crits per Week.

*I am dishing out strain more, and I remembered to trigger Obligation this time, but there was no way for them to work towards working their obligation off… should there always be a way for them to work towards paying it off?

Not always. Once every other session or so for one PC would be enough.

*Do you feel its reasonably to allow a Mechanic to aid in all medic checks?

*Do you feel I was fair in not allowing the doctor to help the mechanic hack a computer?

First, no. Not in all medice checks, but when it makes sense then yes assistance would be allowed.

Second, depends on the situation, but in general assistance should be allowed if it makes sense. Ask the players how they assist and figure out after if it actually makes sense.

*How do I combat the fact they are now carrying about a dozen blaster pistols? I cant realistically stop them picking up everything every bad guy drops, but this is going to become an almost silly.

Use encumbrance rules. Also where is all these pistols, most likely in a backpack that would be hard to open when needed but i don't think that's the problem. Why stop them? Have the game world have consequences, trying to sell them? Stolen guns that's been used in armed robbery? Thats a few upgrades on the streetwise check, oh look a despair, law enforcement incoming. Or if they succeed, nobody, and i mean nobody would pay even half the listed price on stolen, illeagal guns used in criminal activity and that is if they at all succeed selling them.

*How would I prevent them from doing something almost game breaking?

EG: They wanted to use the bulldozers to flatten the cantina with the thugs in it, I had to worm my way out of that as I wanted them to find the clues inside.

Well if this is breaking your game, talk with the players about it. This is sooooo ******* incredibly stupid for your murder hobo PCs to do. But maybe they need some more consequence for their actions, not seeing where this will lead. But bulldozing a civilian building with a lot of innocent people in it. Not only local law enforcement will see that as an act of terrorism but also the Imperials. Use law enforcement together with the Imps and throw in a few bounty hunters and such.

The clues is another thing, try not having only one place to get a clue, have some other possible way to get them.

The Healing issue.... when I hear 'encounter' I am assuming an encounter that involves initiative (typically combat). But once thats resolved, and you are not in initiative, how would you define an 'encounter'

How long before you would allow a medic to retry a failed check?

Ill give details on the chracter builds in another thread in a couple days

1. Bonus dice, yes you can send multiple to the same player.

2. Healing, One medicine check per player per encounter. That means if Joe is hurt he can only be healed once on that encounter. Jane can't attempt to heal them as well until the next encounter.

3. Can only attempt 1 crit "heal" per week per critical injury.

4, there is no need to always give them a way to work it off. Sometimes it needs to hang over them... weighing on them.

5, How is a mechanic useful for a medical check? except on a droid or with cybernetics?

This gets into a shady area sort of. Can "anyone" help on any check? that is where you as the GM make the choice. It could be that the mechanic worked on droids and explained a certain method of fixing the droid and it gave the doctor an idea about how to fix the wound? But if they don't explain it... nope! That is at least how I would run it.

6, Depends on how they explain it. Same as 5.

7, you can always add the Gene lock attachment or, more realistically point out the encumbrance. Unless they all have huge backpacks and utility belts, 12 blaster pistols is going to weigh them down a ton... look at the encumbrance stat and force them to handle that. Also if they want to pick everything up... go for it. Let them get money when they sell them, why not. If you want to keep them poor, docking fees are an easy way out.

8, why not let them be creative. It is only game breaking if it isn't fun. Think of the check, and the difficulty and let the dice gods decide if it is going to work or not.

Most of those are easy to answer questions. Keep in mind the GM has the final say but, the goal is fun. In one game I had errant grenade fire blow up the pillars holding up a building and it came crashing down. Kind of hard to sneak around after that. Impose consequences and they will either continue and have fun consequences or they will stop. Either way you will know how to handle the situation.

The Healing issue.... when I hear 'encounter' I am assuming an encounter that involves initiative (typically combat). But once thats resolved, and you are not in initiative, how would you define an 'encounter'

How long before you would allow a medic to retry a failed check?

Ill give details on the chracter builds in another thread in a couple days

It doesn't really matter how Encounter is defined, in game terms when they engage in separate combats, they can do a healing check. So they land on the planet and are ambushed on the tarmac, gunfire, wounds etc. You do a healing check. They go to meet their contact and there is another ambush and more wounds, another healing check.

They don't get to re-try failed checks, that's why it's called failure. Get a better medic....or use a stimpack or 5.

The Healing issue.... when I hear 'encounter' I am assuming an encounter that involves initiative (typically combat). But once thats resolved, and you are not in initiative, how would you define an 'encounter'

An encounter is a scene in a more classic sense, it could be a combat encounter for a few rounds, it could be that bar talk and having a drink for two hours or the buying new armor on the bazaar for 15 min or the deluxe dinner with the governors daughter for five hours and another scene right after with the opera. Hope you get my meaning, or someone else will have to explain it. It's to late for me and English is not my native language.

How long before you would allow a medic to retry a failed check?

Until the time has passed, or they get better equipment or get a better dice roll (in some way). At least if that is normal "taking care" medicine roll, if it's stressed out combat i might allow a new the next round.