Melee Reaction Attacks

I was reading a (very cool) fight scene in the climax to Shadows of the Empire where Luke is fighting two guards with his lightsaber. The guard on the left fires. Luke deflects the bolt then counters by chopping off the guard's hand. Then, Luke spins and kicks the guard on his right. Luke's foot connects with the guard's face, and the guard goes down.

I was thinking. There's no way to realistically model this in 1E D6 Star Wars. The blocked blaster bolt is a Reaction triggered by the guard's firing of the weapon. Luke's character declared two actions that round--the lightsaber attack and the kick.

But, in a game, a player would never declare a lightsaber attack and a Brawling attack, not when the player could declare two lightsaber attacks because lightsaber damage is higher than the character's Brawling damage.

Often, in a game, though, when fighting hand-to-hand, there are opportunities for head butts, kicks, slaps, elbow jabs, a knee to the groin or gut, shoulder shove, that sort of thing. When fighting with pure Brawling, it is easy to describe these types of attacks happening. But, when fighting with a melee weapon, where the damage is higher than a character's Brawling damage alone, there is no action for these types of attacks to occur.

Reaction Attacks

What I'm thinking is a house rule where these types of attacks--opportunities for these types of attacks--pop up during a combat. They're not planned, the way reaction skills are not planned or declared in basic 1E combat (Yes, when using the Rules Companion, reaction skills are declared).

What I'm thinking of is using some type of trigger. This may work--what I am about to propose. But, I haven't play tested it or even thought it through very well. I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

What if, when a character in melee, rolls 6's on two dice, that an opportunity for a Brawling attack (only) is given to the character to attack another foe within range.

In my example above, from Shadows of the Empire, Luke Skywalker has Lightsaber 8D. He rolled 8D on the reaction to block the blaster bolt then took his one action, to attack the guard with the blaster. He rolled 7D on that attack and ended up taking off the guard's hand.

By my house rule, somewhere in that 7D roll, two 6's popped up. That means that Luke could attack a second foe within melee range with a Brawling attack (not the same foe, and only a Brawling attack). This is a non-declared attack, triggered by the two 6's that pops up. Luke would roll 6D on this Brawling attack (Luke's kick) because it is his third action.

1. Two 6's must be rolled.
2. If two 6's are rolled, a Brawling attack is triggered.
3. The triggered Brawling attack cannot be used on the first, primary foe.
4. The new foe for the Brawling attack must be in Brawling range (and be a secondary target).

If three 6's pop up, then Luke may use the triggered Brawling attack on either a secondary foe or his primary foe. This allows for head butts, elbow jabs, kicks, punches, and the like with primary foes--or secondary foes--at the player's choice.

If four 6's pop up, then Luke gets two Brawling actions at any foe within melee range. Multiple Action rule applies.

If five 6's pop up, then Luke get three Brawling actions at any foe within melee range. Multiple Action rule applies.

And so on.

Thoughts?