For those that listed to the Order 66 Podcast this Sunday, here are the Dueling Rules that Chris mentioned I would be posting. Feel free to leave some feedback.
Dueling Rules
Completely unrelated, but what do you use to make your maps in the campaigns linked in your signature?
Photoshop
For those that listed to the Order 66 Podcast this Sunday, here are the Dueling Rules that Chris mentioned I would be posting. Feel free to leave some feedback.
"Should a character’s Challenge Point Rating reach 0, the character automatically drops their Strain to 0, and their wounds to 1. In the case of physical combat, the character also takes a critical wound as if struck by a weapon that the attacker is using."
Not sure I understand. Does this mean that at the end of the duel the character leaves the duel with no strain suffered and just one wound suffered? If not, then you've got the system backwards. Per RAW, you count up, not down. So a character starts at 0 wounds and 0 strain and as they take damage it is ADDED to that count until they EXCEED the thresholds.
Strain Threshold drops to 0, and Wound Threshold drops to 1.
Strain Threshold drops to 0, and Wound Threshold drops to 1.
Ouch. That's a severe punishment. How do they recover the threshold back to its normal value?
Its supposed to represent a Duel. Every Duel we see in the films ends up with one of them dead or incapacitated.
A PC can escape and leave a duel but there is a penalty.
I believe the point Kallabecca is making is that if the actual Threshold (as in their limits, not their temporary amounts that can be recovered with rest/medicine checks) drops that low, a character might as well be dead since survivability from then on would drop to nothing. Which is playing on the point that you seem to be misunderstanding the rules as Kallabecca also pointed out, which is that the correct way is to have you increase Wounds/Strain as you take damage (a healthy character taking 1 Wound damage would increase their Wounds from 0 to 1, not decrease from, say, 15 to 14).
So would it be better worded to this:
"Should a character’s Challenge Point Rating reach 0, the character's current strain is reduced to 0, and their current wounds are reduced to 1. In the case of physical combat, the character also takes a critical wound as if struck by a weapon that the attacker is wielding".
Basically they take loose all of their current strain, and their current wounds are reduced to 0.
So would it be better worded to this:
"Should a character’s Challenge Point Rating reach 0, the character's current strain is reduced to 0, and their current wounds are reduced to 1. In the case of physical combat, the character also takes a critical wound as if struck by a weapon that the attacker is wielding".
Current strain of 0 means they are fully healed, per RAW. Wounds reduced to 1 means they have taken just 1 wound so far, meaning they are nearly healed.
So I will ask again: Can you make a suggestion as to what it should be?
I would have thought the words "reduced to" implies that you have no strain left and only 1 wound remaining. Obviously in a game where rules lawyers are the enemy, perhaps this would be better:
"Should a character’s Challenge Point Rating reach its threshold, the character's strain is depleted such that the character is left with no strain (i.e. falls unconscious, is exhausted, etc). In the case of physical combat, the character's wounds are reduced to 1 below their wound threshold, and also takes a critical wound as if struck by the weapon that the attacker is wielding".
The game rules are written around the assumption that you start with 0 wounds/strain, count upward as you take damage, and count downward when you receive healing. Once either count exceeds the relevant threshold, the character is disabled.
If you're trying to completely disable the character then the wounds/strain should be set to 1 point above the character's thresholds. (A character with a wound threshold of 14 and a strain threshold of 11 would be set to 15 wounds and 12 strain.)
"Should a character’s Challenge Point Rating reach 0, the character automatically drops their Strain to 0, and their wounds to 1. In the case of physical combat, the character also takes a critical wound as if struck by a weapon that the attacker is using."
Why not something like this?
Should a character's Challenge Point Rating reach 0, the character automatically has their strain set to 1 point over their Strain Threshold and their wounds set to 1 point under their Wound Threshold. In the case of physical combat, the character also takes a critical wound as if struck by a weapon that the attacker is using.
The aim is to have them disabled, but not unconscious.
Immediately takes Strain to take the PC to their Strain Threshold, (Which would mean they are not unconscious, as you need to exceed your threshold).
The same applies to Wounds, taking them "to their threshold" will not incapacitate them, but will be a mere "poke in the ribs" from being so.
Presuming I understand correctly
I think the issue arises because the CRB says you count UP from 0 to your Threshold, and exceeding either is "unconsciousness" while what you have written, would indicate you would 'recover' all your strain, and all but 1 wound, (As 0 is where you start).
But you can count things the other way, it makes no difference mathmatically, but is confusing if you count one way, and someone else counts the other way.
So.... both are right.. from a certain point of view
I like this! Want to incorporate this into one of my campaigns. Would work great in a solo mission....
I wonder if the dueling rules in Fly Casual would work well for a lightsaber duel...
I read the whole document and I still don't understand why should it replace the current available mechanic?
All duels can be done in competitive rolls, without using real combat (damage soak, etc), and with narration of the fight... as epic and paced as you need it to be...
One on one combat I partially agree, but it breaks down when you have a party of PCs that get "involved". It means you can't have an epic duel the length that we see in the films. If you don't like the system then don't use it. For those that do...enjoy.
Edited by GM HoolyOne on one combat I partially agree, but it breaks down when you have a party of PCs that get "involved". It means you can't have an epic duel the length that we see in the films. If you don't like the system then don't use it. For those that do...enjoy.
If you've got multiple PCs attacking a single BBEG, then it's no longer a duel.
A duel generally indicates a one-on-one confrontation, with everybody else keeping their noses out of the fight. TPM and RotS had 2-on-1 duels, those being Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul and then Obi-Wan & Anakin vs. Dooku, and even those eventually became one-on-one fights. The rest of the saber battles we see in the films are one-on-one affairs.
Personally, I think GM Chris got too focused on mechanics with these, and tried to solve a problem that FaD already fixed, namely keeping lightsaber battles from being "one and done" in terms of the first person to land a hit wins the fight. With generally lower damage ratings and the Parry talent, FFG's already made it so that you can have a pretty cool lightsaber duel that will generally last for more than a couple of rounds and generally not be completely decided by the first successful hit.
For those that found that the link to the rules was broken, here is an updated version.