Two "stupid" questions...

By Alderaan Crumbs, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

For my games, I treat a Force slam as pretty much being the same as hurling the targeted person at the ground. Since most individuals are Silhouette 1, that means they suffer 10 damage plus successes on the Discipline check. Knocking the target on their hindquarters (i.e. prone) is 3 Advantage, while 2 Advantage can be spent to give the target a setback die to account for them being off-balance from the 'throw' and a Triumph can inflict a critical injury.

For minion groups, I handle it a little bit differently. In effect, the Force user hurls one member of the minion group into the rest of the group, so the group suffers two hits of 10 damage plus successes. Now I usually treat my minion groups as being engaged with one another (a holdover from Saga Edition's squad rules I suppose). So as an example, if a PC uses Move to attack a minion group of 3 stormtroopers and gets 3 successes on their Discipline check, then the trooper group would take a total of 16 damage, with each hit being 10 base + 3 successes = 13 damage, less the trooper's 5 soak (as it's being treated as two individual hits instead of just one big one). Thus far, it seems to work pretty well, making a "Force slam" type of attack useful but not completely encounter breaking at the lower end of the spectrum (something that could not always be said for the Force Slam power in WotC's Saga Edition, which could and did end low-level combat encounters in one action if the bad guys were clumped together).

OK, I read Bind and Move again. Move is "poorly" explained and nothing in it leads to thinking it affects people. Even Force slam doesn't stand out as a use of it. Also, if you can sustain Move on people it steps on Bind quite a bit (it's pretty hard to do jack while floating in the air! ;)). It would be great if an official clarification was posted. If I hadn't asked here I'd still be scratching my head and others may not think/want to do the same. BTW, is there a link to Sam's explanation? I'd love to read it.

Oh, what roll would you think covers Force slam? Off the cuff, I was going to go with the rules covered under throwing objects*. Thoughts?

*that verbage! lol "Objects" and "Items" doesn't lead one to think of people. :)

To add: I noticed the sidebar on narratively grabbing your falling friend is with Bind, not Move now. Just another point of possible confusion.

That side bar starts with the sentence: "The powers presented in F&D are intended fit with the game's narrative, and as such are left intentionally broad in scope."

That sentence and the one following it which says "don't be abusive with it" are the important part of that sidebar. If using Move on a living target fits the narrative, it's fine. IMO there's no reason for that sidebar to be a source of confusion if you read it in its entirety.

I like...no love...as with pretty much all they've done with this game, that it's not too rigid.

Yeah, overall, it's a plus, but man has it led to some bad blood on these forums. Ultimately, the rules of an RPG are there to provide all the players with a common paradigm and shared lexicon so outcomes can be decided in a relatively objective manner and everyone has a shared understanding of causality. When you start designing a game where there limits are intentionally omitted, the shared lexicon breaks down which leads to situations where multiple individuals my have completely contradictory interpretations of some rule, and both believing that they're interpreting the rules as they were intended

There are some *very* small inclusions (at most, a paragraph) that could have been made to at least explicitly address the implicit design strategy that was employed. It would have headed off a huge amount of ill-will on these forums and probably more than a few issues at gaming tables.

Edited by LethalDose

That's good idea, Donovan. I'll try it out. I'm probably going to rule that you can't just Force slam things like an X-wing and cause damage unless it strikes another object. Because of how the rules interact with larger silhouettes, I'm not sure I like the idea that, with enough sucesses, you could "ping" a star fighter to destruction with pure Force energy. Of course, that may be something that works and I'm eager to fiddle. :)

That's good idea, Donovan. I'll try it out. I'm probably going to rule that you can't just Force slam things like an X-wing and cause damage unless it strikes another object. Because of how the rules interact with larger silhouettes, I'm not sure I like the idea that, with enough sucesses, you could "ping" a star fighter to destruction with pure Force energy. Of course, that may be something that works and I'm eager to fiddle. :)

Well, given that the damage from Move is in character scale, using Move to "hurl/slam" an X-Wing is only going to do 3 points of vehicle scale damage on average, which an X-Wing's Armor is simply going to absorb outright.

Plus, the PC is going to either need to have purchased 3 Strength Upgrades or really buffed up their Force Rating to able to activate the Strength Upgrade multiple times. So it's not like the PC is going to be hurling vehicles and starships around willy-nilly without investing a lot of XP, either in the Move power itself or in boosting their Force Rating.

That's good idea, Donovan. I'll try it out. I'm probably going to rule that you can't just Force slam things like an X-wing and cause damage unless it strikes another object. Because of how the rules interact with larger silhouettes, I'm not sure I like the idea that, with enough sucesses, you could "ping" a star fighter to destruction with pure Force energy. Of course, that may be something that works and I'm eager to fiddle. :)

Well, given that the damage from Move is in character scale, using Move to "hurl/slam" an X-Wing is only going to do 3 points of vehicle scale damage on average, which an X-Wing's Armor is simply going to absorb outright.

Plus, the PC is going to either need to have purchased 3 Strength Upgrades or really buffed up their Force Rating to able to activate the Strength Upgrade multiple times. So it's not like the PC is going to be hurling vehicles and starships around willy-nilly without investing a lot of XP, either in the Move power itself or in boosting their Force Rating.

I considered the disparity in personal and vehicular scale, but as I haven't seen it in play it's merely a potential snag (which, as you pointed out, probably isn't a big deal) other than a true concern. Anyway, you all have been a great help and it's appreciated! I can't wait to actually see it all in play.