I have played West End Games D6 Star Wars rules for many many years now and have always enjoyed it. I was not thrilled with the d20 WoTC era and just ignored it outright. When FFG got the rights I was intrigued. I waited until all three books were out and recently consumed all of them. By and large I REALLY enjoy the take that FFG has gone with. The dicing system takes some getting used to but once you do I think it is far cleaner. They have done a much better job (like many more modern RPGs as WEG d6 is almost 30 years old) of consolidating skills and such.

All the things I loved about WEG's D6 Star Wars is pretty much retained and even upgraded with FFG's. However, there is one thing that I can't account for and I am curious if I am the only one who has noticed this or not.

Some of my most iconic moments in WEG D6 when playing a force user where scenes where I was going on full defense (Full parry with lightsaber) and essentially spinning around a group of other PCs/NPCs protecting them from blaster fire or other attacks. The mechanic was you rolled your lightsaber skill with all bonuses as your sole action for the round and whatever number you rolled was the difficulty that all attackers had to beat. If no one beat it you parried all the things and everyone was fine. It was something that usually required the expenditure of a force point (double dice pools for the round) but it was pure Star Wars awesome.

There doesn't appear to be a way to really reproduce except in very specific talents in a limited number of trees. Note this was a trick anyone with a lightsaber and lightsaber combat could pull off in WEG assuming you had enough dice to make it worth it. Bodyguard and Circle of Protection both give something similar but only exist in particular talent trees and are fairly deep within them. On the whole I am not upset by this; however, it is the one draw back I see to the system.

Anyone else run into this?

I played a good amount of WEG's SWRPG, and used this same trick. If I recall, total defense actually added your parry dice AND the attack difficulty (instead of just choosing one or the other), which is what made it so freaking bonkers. However, I'm not sure that the total defense maneuver explicitly allows you to protect OTHER individuals, I think it was more of a frequent house-rule, but I could be mistaken.

A major strength (and, occassionaly, a major weakness) of this system is that they don't provide a rule for everything. So first off, anyone can "Fight Defensively" which allows you to add setback dice to an attack roll at some penalty. Now, based on the "rule of cool", the GM could allow a force user with a saber to fight defensively and provide cover for other players. Maybe providing additional bonuses for the Jedi using the Sense ability to further increase to-hit difficulties for his allies.

However, I don't think the benefit should exceed or even the talents that you mentioned that are *designed* to do this. I don't think the benefits provided by talents that cost XP should allowed to be duplicated by just anyone, otherwise the talent is pointless. The combat system is designed with the trees in mind and IMO this kind of maneuver is very powerful in this game system. Unfortunately it closer to the WotC model of "what you can do is based on your class" than the more permissive WEG "Anyone can try anything, some are just *really* bad at it" model.

Such is life.

Or maybe your GM allows you to duplicate a talent you don't have, but at substantial strain cost (e.g. 1 strain/rd for each 2 xp points the talent would cost). The cost should be high enough to discourage frequent, or even consistent, use but this could be hard due to the absurdly low cost of recovering strain.

It's also worth mentioning the spec'ing over to career to grab these kinds of talents in the first 2 rows of a tree are usally pretty cheap unless the tree has some goofy structure like the Slicer tree.

There are a number of ways to directly protect one's ally when armed with a lightsaber.

You could have the ally use a maneuver to "take cover" behind you, using you as a meat shield. Depending on your skill at being a meat shield, the GM might award your cowardly ally with improved cover

You can use the Bodyguard talent to upgrade the difficulty of attacks against your allies.

You can use the Circle of Shelter talent to Parry/Reflect for your allies.

You can use the Defensive Circle talent to give allies a better Defense rating, with your lightsaber. Using this talent in conjunction with Supreme Parry/Reflect is highly effective. This talent is probably closest to what the OP is talking about.

You can use the Strategic Form talent against your enemies, causing them to be able to only target you and not your allies.

You can use the Foresee power to narratively describe yourself as defending your allies with your lightsaber for the first round of combat, even before you act.

You can use the Protect power to reduce damage from attacks for your allies. This can also be used alongside effects like Circle of Shelter/Supreme Reflect for greater effectiveness.

Bodyguard is a pretty common talent which describes what you're doing- Circle of Shelter is the force user version of that trick specifically.

This game makes an effort to break up "force stuff" in to a bunch of different boxes to prevent D&D Wizard syndrome- One character did it once at a dramatic moment, therefore anyone should be able to do it anytime they want.

If you want to be the kind of force user who does what you describe, pick a Guardian class. Force Wizards can pick Counsular or Mystic, (noncombat) Skill Monkeys go for Seeker or Sentinal.

Yeah, I realize that FFG is trying to not allow this exact kind of behavior. I also realize it was probably a house rule in WEG as well. I could just as easily house rule it in FFG. I appreciate any suggestions related to that. I get that there are talents related to exactly what I am talking about but the restrictive nature of classes/careers talents make getting something that isn't exactly covered by one of those a little difficult. It just makes creating a perfectly customized PC more difficult, not impossible.

It just makes creating a perfectly customized PC more difficult, not impossible.

In addition to the suggestions on house-ruling above, I'll add my general philosophy re: customized PCs:

"If a talent/skill/ability fundamentally defines the PC, then it's worth the XP expenditure to unlock the talent/skill/ability. Everything else is gravy."

So if your character HAS to provide protection and cover to your allies, it sounds like you're playing a Guardian and taking that talent shouldn't be a problem.

If your character DOESN'T have to provide protection and cover to your allies, then why are we wringing our hands over ways to let him do it?

But IMO, defining a *starting* with their special moves is a pretty major inversion of priorities to start with.

Yeah, I realize that FFG is trying to not allow this exact kind of behavior. I also realize it was probably a house rule in WEG as well. I could just as easily house rule it in FFG. I appreciate any suggestions related to that. I get that there are talents related to exactly what I am talking about but the restrictive nature of classes/careers talents make getting something that isn't exactly covered by one of those a little difficult. It just makes creating a perfectly customized PC more difficult, not impossible.

if the party is starting at Knight level, no so much. 150 XP is plenty to dive for that one cool ability, and if you need multiple trees, well, you didnt need a 5 in a stat anyway- a Human or Gand could have as much as 270 XP to play with, with obligation/duty/morality boost

If you're looking for "poor man's Defensive circle," or something like that, you could just take the talent and make it way harder for the PC to pull off: Increase/Upgrade the Difficulty, and either raise the Advantage cost to increase Defense or just remove that effect.

But I'd agree with LethalDose that, if it's a central ability to your character, you'll want to invest in that thing.