I'm noticing that unless you have purpose built Stun items and someone pretty awesome using it, stun is really for pissing people off more than anything else. Each time the players get hit with stun weapons they imagine the enemy has really nefarious intentions for them and they become more aggressive lol. Different systems I have played have handled Stun differently, with some systems trying to make stunning happen like a quick knockout, but then risking stun attacks as superior in success than lethal attacks. Other systems portray stun/knockout weapons like this game and make it just a mirror of real damage more or less.

Furthermore, there are some things like Wookiees being vulnerable to Stun because of less Strain that are just sort of lame.

Weapons with a Stun setting, I believe, can only use it at Short Range, which I think is ok and a nice limiting factor. But if you are seriously trying to Stun someone with one hit, it's gonna have to be a pretty powerful weapon and you better roll good I'm thinking.

Any thoughts, clarifications, or house rules on how you handle Stun?

One could probably house-rule it as an instant-incapacitation to better follow the media but the problem with that is it makes stun weaponry the best weapons in the game. So for game-balance reasons, I leave stun as-is.

1 hour ago, GroggyGolem said:

One could probably house-rule it as an instant-incapacitation to better follow the media but the problem with that is it makes stun weaponry the best weapons in the game. So for game-balance reasons, I leave stun as-is.

Yeah man I agree. This is the conundrum. It's almost like Stun weapons are a context-specific thing. The right tool for the job hopefully when you get in that situation, but not supposed to be the vorpal sword of weapons lol.

I handle it by having it only come up if they bad guys have some nefarious intentions in mind. My players handle it by only using stun if they have some nefarious purpose in mind. So it is a safe bet that some nefariousness is going on when the stunners are broken out.

On the other hand, metagaming is seriously penalized, so reacting to stun weapons as worse than someone trying to kill you is generally a bad idea. Other than that, I havent had a problem.

I agree about the wookies tho. I have always thought that their lower stun was a bit odd, but I have never had a wookie in my game, so it hasnt come up

2 hours ago, korjik said:

I handle it by having it only come up if they bad guys have some nefarious intentions in mind. My players handle it by only using stun if they have some nefarious purpose in mind. So it is a safe bet that some nefariousness is going on when the stunners are broken out.

On the other hand, metagaming is seriously penalized, so reacting to stun weapons as worse than someone trying to kill you is generally a bad idea. Other than that, I havent had a problem.

I agree about the wookies tho. I have always thought that their lower stun was a bit odd, but I have never had a wookie in my game, so it hasnt come up

See! Nefarious. lol I think it's good that the metagaming part is seriously penalized, but to some people their build is agency so if they build a Stun Master... yeah.

Without the stun setting/damage the party I GM for would be long gone down the dark jedi path. Stun is the Paragon's friend.

I find stun situational, but might overrule some of the more powerful stun weapons, in favour of an extension of some of the basic ones. So for example, short as maximum range (as stun setting - unless it is something like firing a stun net, in which case long reload time and medium range), and no pierce or breach (regardless of base weapon - as per kyber crystal that stuns).

Could also give something like a hard resilience check to come round during the combat, if there are still combatants up, if taken down, but suffering setbacks afterwards.

I also find stun quite irritating as a force emergent, as it's presence makes reflecting more or less useless, especially if the GM is using a lot of it. Most of my talents are based around spending strain as a resource, dodge, reflect, thus being targeted there is really painful. Basically, if you want any Jedi character to run like the clappers, use stun. Just keep in mind that using this in this way will get you the dirtiest looks around the table ever, because they will feel practically useless.

Though last session it was used in a interesting way, they wanted the diplomats alive and thus four rival class mandolorians was able to give my 1000 xp character and two other members of the crew a good run for their money, as we also had to defend another party.

2 minutes ago, LordBritish said:

I also find stun quite irritating as a force emergent, as it's presence makes reflecting more or less useless, especially if the GM is using a lot of it. Most of my talents are based around spending strain as a resource, dodge, reflect, thus being targeted there is really painful. Basically, if you want any Jedi character to run like the clappers, use stun. Just keep in mind that using this in this way will get you the dirtiest looks around the table ever, because they will feel practically useless.

Though last session it was used in a interesting way, they wanted the diplomats alive and thus four rival class mandolorians was able to give my 1000 xp character and two other members of the crew a good run for their money, as we also had to defend another party.

Yeah, against Jedi, stun is the way to go from a mechanics standpoint. But in my games, most people only use stun for a couple conditions. 1 - If they are ordered to take captives (fairly rare), or 2 - If they are concerned about collateral damage. #2 is common based on where the fight breaks out. Cops usually use stun in crowded streets. Even thugs use stun when they are concerned about leaving a large body count for the police. But if there aren't any innocents around, assume most everyone is using lethal rounds.

8 hours ago, RusakRakesh said:

Without the stun setting/damage the party I GM for would be long gone down the dark jedi path. Stun is the Paragon's friend.

Do lightsabers have a stun setting?

7 hours ago, Darzil said:

I find stun situational, but might overrule some of the more powerful stun weapons, in favour of an extension of some of the basic ones. So for example, short as maximum range (as stun setting - unless it is something like firing a stun net, in which case long reload time and medium range), and no pierce or breach (regardless of base weapon - as per kyber crystal that stuns).

Could also give something like a hard resilience check to come round during the combat, if there are still combatants up, if taken down, but suffering setbacks afterwards.

I think a separate resilience check is a really good idea, thank you for that. I also considered moving stun bolts to Engaged only for pistols and short for rifles and carbines.

58 minutes ago, Edgookin said:

Yeah, against Jedi, stun is the way to go from a mechanics standpoint. But in my games, most people only use stun for a couple conditions. 1 - If they are ordered to take captives (fairly rare), or 2 - If they are concerned about collateral damage. #2 is common based on where the fight breaks out. Cops usually use stun in crowded streets. Even thugs use stun when they are concerned about leaving a large body count for the police. But if there aren't any innocents around, assume most everyone is using lethal rounds.

Yeah see I don't like the metagaming tactic of using stun against Jedi because it messes with their pool they need to do stuff. That seems like knowledge and tactics that is hard to integrate into the perceptions of the character.

"Hey what are you doing Zarga?"

"I'm setting my weapon to stun on this Jedi, do the same and he will perform less attacks against us."

"I thought we were ordered to kill the Jedi."

"Yes but the short-range stun setting will stress him out."

That just doesn't cut it for me. I think the weakness of a Strain pool is invisible to the characters themselves in the experiences of their lives.

18 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Do lightsabers have a stun setting?

There is a crystal that does stun, Kimber Stone. It doesn't crit and has no Breach, Vicious or Sunder.

I'm doing my own version of Star Trek in an upcoming Genesys campaign and I'm overhauling Stun. Getting away from depleting the Strain pool and moving it towards what we actually see it do in the movies/shows. At times it knocks people down, sometimes they're loopey for a bit, some really get put down on their butts, some shake it off. So I am handling it inflicting a single point of Strain, with a very high crit rating, and it will likely have some kind of hybrid weapon effect, kind of like Bolas. Some kind of Disorient, with Knockdown for additional Advantages, and the ability to spend Triumphs on a Concussive effect type thing. I'm still mulling the possibilities.

11 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

I'm doing my own version of Star Trek in an upcoming Genesys campaign and I'm overhauling Stun. Getting away from depleting the Strain pool and moving it towards what we actually see it do in the movies/shows. At times it knocks people down, sometimes they're loopey for a bit, some really get put down on their butts, some shake it off. So I am handling it inflicting a single point of Strain, with a very high crit rating, and it will likely have some kind of hybrid weapon effect, kind of like Bolas. Some kind of Disorient, with Knockdown for additional Advantages, and the ability to spend Triumphs on a Concussive effect type thing. I'm still mulling the possibilities.

Man that sounds amazing. if you wouldn't mind could you keep us updated on what further details you implement? I think it would be very helpful to me and maybe others 2P. Thank you for posting this.

13 minutes ago, Darzil said:

There is a crystal that does stun, Kimber Stone. It doesn't crit and has no Breach, Vicious or Sunder.

Ok cause I was thinking that if you were a paragon that maybe you were a big Jedi and I was curious.

40 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Do lightsabers have a stun setting?

Of course not. It's far more "elegant" and "civilized" to take someone alive by dismembering them.

2 minutes ago, Vorzakk said:

Of course not. It's far more "elegant" and "civilized" to take someone alive by dismembering them.

Sure they do. Turn them off and beat them like a dirty Welcome mat with it......

Sleep Spell for Jedis? I don't read the Force powers that much so I don't know what they would fall under.

17 hours ago, Archlyte said:

But if you are seriously trying to Stun someone with one hit, it's gonna have to be a pretty powerful weapon and you better roll good I'm thinking.

Any thoughts, clarifications, or house rules on how you handle Stun?

That could be said for any type of attack, with the hopes of dropping them in one hit. I mean, unless you are really good at shooting, and have a powerful weapon, you won't likely accomplish that with regular damage either. So that's hardly a Stun specific issue.

The idea when designed was for balance, so nothing really drops anyone in one hit, because players would piss and moan about something being OP, and broken, and every twink would build every combat monkey PC around such a weapon, because of course they do because they're gamers and have no concept of restraint.

I personally think the rules are fine, as most PC's have a lower strain threshold than they do a wound, so you're more likely to drop them in less shots, assuming all other factors are equal. But if you are trying to replicate the "one shot and down" effect we see in the films, then I'd just alter the effect the weapon has, to trigger whatever Critical Injury is "unconscious", if they roll enough advantage to trigger it. You can just forgoe the stun dmg = strain damage thing entirely, and just have it turn their lights out, assuming you have enough advantage (I'd say 3 baseline). Have the stun do something like inflict knockdown+unconscious for 1-2 turns, allowing the person shooting enough time to restrain the target, assuming they don't have other things to deal with, like the allies of said target shooting at them. Perhaps have a setback die on any athletics/coordination checks for the remainder of the scene after the stun wears off, to reflect the target being groggy and kind of out of it from the zotting.

47 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Sleep Spell for Jedis? I don't read the Force powers that much so I don't know what they would fall under.

The basic power of Influence is basically this. It inflicts 1 strain (no Soak) per Force point spent. 2 per point if you have the strength upgrade. 3 pips can knock out your average minion, 6 for your average Rival.

2 hours ago, LordBritish said:

I also find stun quite irritating as a force emergent, as it's presence makes reflecting more or less useless, especially if the GM is using a lot of it. Most of my talents are based around spending strain as a resource, dodge, reflect, thus being targeted there is really painful. Basically, if you want any Jedi character to run like the clappers, use stun. Just keep in mind that using this in this way will get you the dirtiest looks around the table ever, because they will feel practically useless.

Though last session it was used in a interesting way, they wanted the diplomats alive and thus four rival class mandolorians was able to give my 1000 xp character and two other members of the crew a good run for their money, as we also had to defend another party.

If your reflect is high enough ranks, between it and your character's soak, it's still worth it to reflect if you would ignore most or all of the strain damage. An example being that you get hit for 10 stun damage. Your soak removes 4 and your 4 ranks of reflect could remove the rest. You still suffer 3 strain for reflect but it's better than suffering 6 strain if you didn't reflect.

35 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

The basic power of Influence is basically this. It inflicts 1 strain (no Soak) per Force point spent. 2 per point if you have the strength upgrade. 3 pips can knock out your average minion, 6 for your average Rival.

Or Ebb/Flow, which you can use to cause or regain strain. I currently have a character using a training lightsaber (6 stun damage) with Ebb/Flow to strain enemies out. Or, if strain is becoming an issue for my character, he heals some of his own strain.

3 hours ago, Archlyte said:

Yeah see I don't like the metagaming tactic of using stun against Jedi because it messes with their pool they need to do stuff. That seems like knowledge and tactics that is hard to integrate into the perceptions of the character.

"Hey what are you doing Zarga?"

"I'm setting my weapon to stun on this Jedi, do the same and he will perform less attacks against us."

"I thought we were ordered to kill the Jedi."

"Yes but the short-range stun setting will stress him out."

That just doesn't cut it for me. I think the weakness of a Strain pool is invisible to the characters themselves in the experiences of their lives.

Besides, it does not work well either, because getting into short range to a lightsaber monkey is the last thing you want to do and usually as well the last thing you actually do when fighting a saber monkey. On top does soak apply against stun damage. So in most cases it makes little difference anyway, because either way no damage will be done, but now the force user can just engage you for one maneuver instead of spending two to move from medium to short and from short to engage. And with that attack he is free to spend advantage to reduce his strain.

If the thugs would have done the normal thing and instead used some full autofire weapons for multiple hits, the jedi would have lasted not as long AND on top you would be free to engage from long-range instead.

Now using something with the stun quality, this neat quality which ignores reflect/parry and soak. That is nasty, but those weapons fit the description of "anti-jedi" rather well too, so it would not be a meta thing to use anyway.


BTW, my character is "forced" to use a shield remote, because he regularly goes down in one hit. WT 11 can be such a pain in the ***. Screw you snipers!

32 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

Besides, it does not work well either, because getting into short range to a lightsaber monkey is the last thing you want to do and usually as well the last thing you actually do when fighting a saber monkey. On top does soak apply against stun damage. So in most cases it makes little difference anyway, because either way no damage will be done, but now the force user can just engage you for one maneuver instead of spending two to move from medium to short and from short to engage. And with that attack he is free to spend advantage to reduce his strain.

If the thugs would have done the normal thing and instead used some full autofire weapons for multiple hits, the jedi would have lasted not as long AND on top you would be free to engage from long-range instead.

Now using something with the stun quality, this neat quality which ignores reflect/parry and soak. That is nasty, but those weapons fit the description of "anti-jedi" rather well too, so it would not be a meta thing to use anyway.


BTW, my character is "forced" to use a shield remote, because he regularly goes down in one hit. WT 11 can be such a pain in the ***. Screw you snipers!

Autofire stun weapons just hits me as the wrong direction lol. I know why you would suggest it, but this is like having a missile tube with a stun missile for one character as the target. I think the devs were on the right track for the resource thing, so maybe having the character/GM expend a destiny point in order to get a real "stun" to happen. Would work better in a game where the DP equivalent is given out by the GM instead of in a finite pool. I do hand them out in my games but I can't remember the book saying this is kosher and I think the game is meant to run off the pool generated at session start.