So, I'm introducing an NPC (Bultar Swan) who lore-wise (can't recall if it's legends or canon) had the ability block blaster shots with her bare hands. Figured it would be cool to whip up a custom ability talent to let her do that in the game as well. However, I'm at an impasse on how to design it. Ideas include:

*Unarmed Reflect works exactly as Unarmed Parry, with the exception that Improved reflect doesn't work. Con: She's better at it without a lightsaber? That seems off.

*Unarmed Reflect costs 3 strain and a Force check, blocks 2+FP damage. Con: Dice rolling for incidentals might slow the game down too much.

*Unarmed Reflect works like Unarmed Parry, but worse, such as less damage reflected or costs more strain. Con: there's only any point in using it if she gets caught unarmed or off-guard.

*Unarmed Reflect simply adds Ranged Defense. Con: The simplest and most boring option.

Now, this is for an NPC, so it doesn't matter that much in the end, but as it would be cool to introduce it to the PCs at some point, I figure this is a decent way of playtesting it.

Opinions? Thoughts? Ideas?

@penpenpen Is that what Darth Vader does on Cloud City?

I assume it just tacks on like unarmed parry?

Is it passive and not ranked?

Rolling force dice might be cool.

Perhaps a bit different than Unarmed Parry, in that it costs her an extra point of strain to use this ability without having a lightsaber in hand. You don't have to worry about making it game-balanced since it's an NPC ability, since pretty much all of the special abilities of iconic NPCs in the Clone Wars and Allies & Adversaries aren't balanced for use by player-characters.

If she's got a lightsaber in hand, you can just narratively say that she's using her hand to deflect the blaster bolt instead of using her lightsaber.

Since it's not a player ability, I wouldn't fret too much about making it "exciting" and instead focus on making it fairly simple to track.

Give her a few ranks in the the adversary talent. And narrate any misses as blocking them with her bare hand.

Isn't there some sort of energy dispersion power already in the game? Give her a custom upgrade or ability that lets her use it as an OOT incidental?

56 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

Give her a few ranks in the the adversary talent. And narrate any misses as blocking them with her bare hand.

I like this, but you know SW fans and how they behave, they will demand to know how she's doing that.

You can always just give her some cortossis armbands, and let her full on Wonder Woman it

Of course there are so many ways this could be skinned onto existing Force Powers as well...

Ebb/Flow (specifically the Control Upgrade using Ebb to give your opponent Failures), Enhance (if you're boosting Brawn and thereby Soak/ablating damage), of course Protect which is literally this completely already, and even Sense with the attack Difficulty Upgrades. And really there's more... even just Endurance (sure you take Wounds, but you're preventing the REAL injury which Crits represent in this system), and the Defense upgrade of Foresee, both could skin this onto those Powers.

I wouldn't see any reason to ever make something new to give PCs the ability. Mainly because it's potentially a very strong ability, and they already have the ability to get there in numerous ways.

Well, I could just narrate it, or could just make up something unique on the fly and not worry about balance but...

10 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

I like this, but you know SW fans and how they behave, they will demand to know how she's doing that.

This. I'm using this as opportunity to backdoor playtest it.

Also, it's an exercise in rules design, something I enjoy and actually occasionally get paid for nowadays (not by FFG though).

I also want it to feel similar to the already established rules for reflect, meaning that it's use is reactive, ie an out of turn incidental like Parry, Reflect and Dodge.

11 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

Isn't there some sort of energy dispersion power already in the game? Give her a custom upgrade or ability that lets her use it as an OOT incidental?

The second idea was a bit of mashup between Protect and Reflect. I'll go back and take a look at possibly making it work more like straight up protect.

I always looked at Vader's blocking shots to either be more about his armor or about the Protect power, as he seems to have Protect/Unleash. He just doesn't have the mastery upgrade and his unleash manifests as a cold wave, as seen in star wars rebels: the siege of Lothal.

2 hours ago, GroggyGolem said:

I always looked at Vader's blocking shots to either be more about his armor or about the Protect power, as he seems to have Protect/Unleash. He just doesn't have the mastery upgrade and his unleash manifests as a cold wave, as seen in star wars rebels: the siege of Lothal.

Thanks, but that wasn't really what I was asking for. Protect is a nice power to tie into, but it feels too much like a passive shield.

5 hours ago, penpenpen said:

I also want it to feel similar to the already established rules for reflect, meaning that it's use is reactive, ie an out of turn incidental like Parry, Reflect and Dodge.

16 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

Isn't there some sort of energy dispersion power already in the game? Give her a custom upgrade or ability that lets her use it as an OOT incidental?

2 hours ago, GroggyGolem said:

I always looked at Vader's blocking shots to either be more about his armor or about the Protect power, as he seems to have Protect/Unleash. He just doesn't have the mastery upgrade and his unleash manifests as a cold wave, as seen in star wars rebels: the siege of Lothal.

Considering how many times I've looked at the Protect Tree it's downright embarrasing when I realized there's a control upgrade that lets you flip a DP to do it as an OOT incidental.

I'd possibly give her a streamlined version fueled by strain rather than dp that omitts the Discipline check (and the bonus protection gained from successes) to speed things up.

Darn, I hate when the answer is staring you right in the face and you don't notice until you've asked someone with this seemingly impossible task.

My hat is off to you good gentlebeings for the help I shouldn't have needed!

This is what I went with in the end.

Unarmed Reflect: Suffer 4 strain to activate Protect as an out of turn incidental without a Discipline check.

Very powerful as it doesn't require a Destiny Point but requires a high Willpower, FR and a lot of Strength upgrades before it starts competing with regular Parry/Reflect. I considered ruling that it couldn't be stacked with a normal Reflect/Parry (like the once-per-session DP-flip version can) to effectively trigger Mastery but I figure the combined Strain cost would limit that use. I might turn out to be wrong, but hey, playtest.

Considering the once-per-session DP-flip upgrade, I might not ever make this available as a player upgrade, but it's still worth trying to make it somewhat balanced.

13 hours ago, penpenpen said:

Well, I could just narrate it, or could just make up something unique on the fly and not worry about balance but...

This. I'm using this as opportunity to backdoor playtest it.

Also, it's an exercise in rules design, something I enjoy and actually occasionally get paid for nowadays (not by FFG though).

I also want it to feel similar to the already established rules for reflect, meaning that it's use is reactive, ie an out of turn incidental like Parry, Reflect and Dodge.

The second idea was a bit of mashup between Protect and Reflect. I'll go back and take a look at possibly making it work more like straight up protect.

If you are looking for the simplest way to do it. I would do a combination of any of the already existing mechanics people mentioned above, like just narrating different force power uses as her deflecting, but also literally giver her some Cortossis bracers. Or heck, just give her the Reflect talent, plus the bracers, and say she's got a version that doesn't require a lightsaber. She was trained to use her hands/arms for the deflection/reflection thing.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to accomplish this, when there are already plenty of existing rules that could accomplish this, and a well established physical material, known to be resistant to sabers and blasters, etc.

If you specifically want to experiment with making up new rules, well, ok then, knock yourself out with whatever you want to make up. I personally wouldn't, simply because I dislike making this game more complex, as the whole point of this system was to simplify the rules so you didn't have to nitpick and micromanage stuff. That it was supposed to be a narrative, looser system by design. So I would just reskin the Reflect/Deflect talent as unarmed, and just go with it. But that's just me.

5 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

If you specifically want to experiment with making up new rules, well, ok then, knock yourself out with whatever you want to make up. I personally wouldn't, simply because I dislike making this game more complex, as the whole point of this system was to simplify the rules so you didn't have to nitpick and micromanage stuff. That it was supposed to be a narrative, looser system by design. So I would just reskin the Reflect/Deflect talent as unarmed, and just go with it. But that's just me.

Well, as you see, my final solu... erm... the way I approached it in the end was pretty much to streamline the use of Protect. Yous pays your strain and yous rolls yer force dice. No discipline check. No destiny poiny point flip.

If it turns out not be simpler or otherwise not worth it, I'll scrap it.