Hi everyone,

My group played the first session of my new SW campaign last Sunday, which was the first time using these rules for all of us. During the first firefight, one of the PCs was hit by a blaster shot and took a critical. The player wanted to spend a destiny point to have a crate fall in front of the bolt so his character wasn't hit.

I ruled that this was more than a destiny point could do - was I right? My reading of it is that a destiny point can affect a roll before it's made, by upgrading skill or difficulty, and introduce background narrative e.g. the 'isn't it lucky we packed those breath masks' example in the books, but can't be used to negate a roll after it's been made.

I definitely wouldn't allow that.

Your reading is basically how I do it, too, you can flip a Destiny Point to affect a roll before it's made, or to affect some narrative aspect that might make things better...

* we have rebreathers so we can go underwater

* I remembered to pack an extra stimpack

* I've got history with this NPC which might help us in some way

...but not to say "that shot doesn't hit me".

You could however let them spend a DP to ignore the effects of that Critical for a round or two.

Ah the things players will try and pull...

Yeah, the ability to "introduce a fact" is more about fixing minor game issues than allowing the players to rewrite history.

So to take a cue from Progressions:

The players are going to a little known planet and either don't make or fail a roll to learn about it ahead of time. After flying 3 weeks through hazardous space with the opposition hot on their heels, they arrive and discover it's an ocean world.

So they can either: A) Turn around, and fly 3 weeks back to civilization to get rebreathers, and effectively fail the adventure. Or, B) They can spend a Dpoint have remembered to bring rebreathers "just in case" and can continue the adventure right here right now.

One that one of my player suggested upon learning about the fact thing..."Fact: Yoda is my uncle."

That kind of use of a Destiny Point is more in line with Saga Edition—where you had "Destiny Points," but you only got 1 per character level.

Making a shot miss after the fact is just beyond the scope of Destiny Point mechanic in this game. Except for maybe some powerful, once-per-encounter talent.

It was also how Force Points worked in WEG - increasing your damage resistance so that you could shrug off that nasty axe wound to the head.

I play on-line and form my dice pool on the dice app. Last thing I always do is to ask the players if they would like to alter the pool in any way.

The player in that case should have used the DP as the pool was forming and would have upgraded one of the attackers’ difficulty dice to a challenge dice. Once the dice are rolled you could narrate the result was to have a box fall in such a way as to deflect the shoot or prevent it hitting based on the roll.

Alternatively, during his action he could have used a DP to have a pile of boxes nearby, some exposed ductwork or column that he could have been near to and used as cover.

In my limited experience so far, I've pushed my players to use Destiny Points, but I was really clear that you can't use them to UNDO anything, or cancel a result.

Suggest that a Destiny Point can help curb the effects of getting hit with a critical by bringing in something positive, but it can't undo that crit.

For example: In our beginner game one of the Stormtrooper groups really shot (rolled) well and the poor player (Pash) was hit with a 5 success Blaster Rifle shot, with enough Advantage to trigger a crit as well, and all after having taken a couple wounds already. Pash good-naturally took the hit and crit, slumped to the ground, and flipped a Destiny Point saying: "That shot was obviously overpowered, his power pack must've burnt out." And so I made the Storm Trooper group fallback why the one member reloaded, giving the PCs enough of a breather to grab Pash and pull him behind cover.

Really, once player's get the hang of Destiny Points and the Advantage/Threat dice, you don't need to worry about restrictions much, they'll be more focused on narrative and story then success/failure.

How about reducing the critical result to the next level below what was rolled?

It wouldn't prevent the character being hit as they were but could use what they suggested to effect just how bad the critical was, need to read the rest of this thread will be interesting to see the do's and don'ts of suggested destiny point usage.

How about reducing the critical result to the next level below what was rolled?

Nawww... Just tell'm to suck it up, there are Bactra Tanks after all.

Yeah, while it is of course your game, I'm of the opinion that if there's a talent, skill, or ability that already does something (so in this case, Durable), you shouldn't make it a default option for a Dpoint.

In a TV series someone was stabbed and because their armor was so tight the wound wasnt felt or noticed until the armor was loosened. I'm sure that could come up somehow for those wearing bodygloves and simlar suits. Maybe their Boot gives them support on a sprained ankle or their powered armor gives them enough of a back brace

Yeah, while it is of course your game, I'm of the opinion that if there's a talent, skill, or ability that already does something (so in this case, Durable), you shouldn't make it a default option for a Dpoint.

I'm actually of the opinion that that is a solid use of a Destiny Point: use it narratively and replicate the effects of a mid-level talent (one that doesn't already require a DP to be spent). Should be taken case-by-case of course, and you might wanna tone it down a little, but if you're looking for a way to incorporate Destiny Points into the narrative, just take some inspiration from an existing effect.

That way, you can be like, "first one's free...you want more? There's this talent right over here..."

As this is the closest post without creating a new one.

Situation: all players, none force based, roll all dark Destiny points. As the GM, am I under obligation to upgrade a difficulty just to give the players a white? Or just let them think today (this session) is just a bad day?

Yes! Yes you are. You might want to go back and re-read page 315 to 316 in the Edge Core book.

The flow between the dark and light sides of the destiny pool must flow.


Edit:

Btw, it wouldnt matter if there where force users or not. Even Dark siders Player Characthers still use the White sides on the destiny pool, the dark side is for the GM only

You aren't "required" so, but you should. I have no problem flipping DPs on my players...my problem is they try to hoard them, or prevent me from using them. So finally I said that I'd just flip them all dark again if they left me locked out too long. No problems since...

Keep in mind that you can sometimes flip a number of DPs for nothing but dramatic effect.

If the players know when you tend to flip DPs normally, and suddenly you flip half the pool, or maybe even the entire pool of DPs, they’re going to wonder what’s going on that they don’t know about. Feel free to have an evil grin on your face, but otherwise say nothing of the event.

Thanks for the advice. I had many an opportunity to dork over my party but we had two players that played very little due to schedule vs my hardcore players that couldn't make it so I made the decision to not hinder their fun as they finally contributed to the overlying plot.

I mentioned the force user thing to indicate no one could flip the DPs but the GM.

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I mentioned the force user thing to indicate no one could flip the DPs but the GM.

Just so you know, any player can flip Destiny Points, not just Force sensitives. Players can only flip Light Side DPs. Even if a character is a Dark Sider, they still only use Light Side points.

In this game, "Light Side Destiny Point" means "player-usable DP" while "Dark Side DP" means "GM-usable DP". The Light/Dark has nothing to do with Force users and their affiliation.

-EF

That I didn't know. I thought dark side player, regardless of being a PC or NPC villain, had to use the dark DPs. I didn't know it was strictly "o = PC" and "• = GM."

That I didn't know. I thought dark side player, regardless of being a PC or NPC villain, had to use the dark DPs. I didn't know it was strictly "o = PC" and "• = GM."

Page 27, EotE, How Destiny Points are used : " ​…the Player Characters may only spend light side Destiny Points, and the GM may only spend dark side Destiny Points. "

-EF

That I didn't know. I thought dark side player, regardless of being a PC or NPC villain, had to use the dark DPs. I didn't know it was strictly "o = PC" and "• = GM."

Page 27, EotE, How Destiny Points are used : " ​…the Player Characters may only spend light side Destiny Points, and the GM may only spend dark side Destiny Points. "

-EF

And there it is. I overlooked that.

In regards to the OP, the player could have used the destiny point to still have the crate fall to provide cover for future attacks if you allowed. For example if the bowled over critical was applied, "As my character is thrown back against the shelving a couple of the poorly secured crates come crashing down in front of her as she lay there holding her gut trying to catch her breath. At least now she has something separating them...for now."

I made the mistake early on of allowing Destiny points to be used like they were in Saga edition... d'oh! Now I have to... clarify... wish me luck!