Irresistable Force Meets the Immovable Dowutin

By HappyDaze, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

So the Dowutin have this ability:

Immovable: Dowutins who suffer the immobilized condition, are knocked prone, or are otherwise moved against their will may, as an out-of-turn incidental suffer 3 strain to avoid the effect. Dowutins that are of silhouette 2 suffer only 1 strain.

So, while some things are fairly clear, like using this ability to resist an attack/effect that would knock the character prone, getting blown out of an airlock, or getting thrown by a martial arts master, what are the limits?

Can this ability be used to negate an attempt to use the Bind or Move power (directly) against the character? In the case of Move, some Force users are able to lift starships, so a Sil 1 or 2 being shouldn't somehow be able to just laugh that off, right?

I thought Dowutin were all sil 2?

Per RAW, I think they were probably including Move/Bind in that. However, I don't particularly like that, I think it would be better to make an opposed check more difficult.

In the case of a Force power, rather than allowing them to just ignore it, I'd allow them to suffer the strain to add a number of Failure to the opposed check, not sure how many.

As written, you could theoretically use a Dowutin as an anchor. Even a vehicle could not move a Dowutin so long as the character had Strain to spend. Oddly enough, falling is also likely to be a situation where the Dowutin is "moved against their will" so a Dowutin can pull a cartoon-like refusal to submit to gravity so long as their Strain holds out (suggestion--learn Ebb/Flow).

Yeah, looks like they went "Oh, let's throw this clause in there to cover edge cases" and didn't really think through all the implications.

It was likely intended to apply to something like Push Aside, Draw Closer, or a grapple gun, not Force powers or gravity.

This is kinda letter of the law rule vs intent of the law rule. Although the wording allows it, I wouldn't be letting my players use 1 or even 3 Strain to keep from getting knocked over when a low-flying Corellian Corvette runs into them or an AT-AT drop kicks them. As with the wording of many rules, I would go with the obvious intent instead of parsing the wording. Anyone recall the Brace talent debate? :)

C'mon this is a start of a good debate here. Start this stuff over at one of the new forums to get them going!

3 hours ago, Sturn said:

This is kinda letter of the law rule vs intent of the law rule. Although the wording allows it, I wouldn't be letting my players use 1 or even 3 Strain to keep from getting knocked over when a low-flying Corellian Corvette runs into them or an AT-AT drop kicks them. As with the wording of many rules, I would go with the obvious intent instead of parsing the wording. Anyone recall the Brace talent debate? :)

C'mon this is a start of a good debate here. Start this stuff over at one of the new forums to get them going!

So what about those cases that may or may not be the intent? Specifically, how would you rule on using this ability to negate uses of Bind or Move against a Dowutin at the cost of 3 (or 1, depending on the Dowutin's chosen Silhouette) Strain?

20 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Specifically, how would you rule on using this ability to negate uses of Bind or Move against a Dowutin at the cost of 3 (or 1, depending on the Dowutin's chosen Silhouette) Strain?

It would come down to personal preference as a GM. I liked what P-47 suggested. The Dowutin ability allows an Opposed roll with the use of Strain. Something normal folks wouldn't be able to do.

21 minutes ago, Sturn said:

It would come down to personal preference as a GM. I liked what P-47 suggested. The Dowutin ability allows an Opposed roll with the use of Strain. Something normal folks wouldn't be able to do.

PCs are already allowed to resist the Force powers, so I was suggesting Strain increasing the difficulty.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

PCs are already allowed to resist the Force powers, so I was suggesting Strain increasing the difficulty.

My bad. I've been playing Genesys too long and never had any Force users in my old Star Wars campaigns.