Extended tests

By Cilionelle, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I'm wondering if any of you who are GMing this game currently have used extended tests in your games, and how it went down. I have a character playing Mathus from the beginner's game who is patching up a cloven rifle (thanks for that, Lowhrick…) and I am basically making the tests cumulative. not just one Mechanics test for the whole thing to be fixed up, but a test for the power pack, a test for the barrel line, a test for the firing mechanism, etc., as a way of representing the finnicky details and the time taken.

the same might apply for jury-rigging a starship's shields or fixing a speeder, or hacking a computer system, or conning an Imperial officer, or whatever. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the idea of extended tests in EotE.

The basic skill challenge mechanics are relatively simple. Over the course of the challenge, the heroes take actions that either succeed or fail. If the heroes accrue a set number of successes before a set number of failures,they succeed in the challenge. If they accrue too many failures, they fail the challenge.

You as the GM, decided how many successs are needed and how many failures are needed to be avoided, and the difficulty.

Here is a good example, and it can be expanded into your game sessions with all the other players

SKILL CHALLENGE:
ESCAPE FROM KESSEL

In this skill challenge, the heroes are trapped in the spice mines of Kessel and must escape to freedom. The spice mines are currently under the control of the Colicoids, an insectoid species responsible for the design of the Droideka. The heroes have a chance to escape while being herded back to their barracks, and their goal is to make their way out of the mines, through the detention facility, and out to a landing pad where a spice-haul ing vessel is refueling for take - off. During the breakout, 10 other prisoners also decide to fight their way to freedom, he lping the heroes escape.


Complexity : 8 successes before 3 failures
Suggested Skills : The following are suggested primary skills for this skill challenge:

  • Perception [Average ]:The heroes can keep their eyes and ears open for the signs of approaching Colicoid guards. Alternatively, the heroes can search for side tunnels and passages that are rarely used.
  • Leadership [Hard ].·The heroes can convince some of their fellow prisoners to keep watch or fan out to distract the guards and prevent them from catching the main group.
  • Stealth [Average or opposed perception ]:The heroes can attempt to sneak by Colicoid patrols and to ensure that none of the other prisoners makes too much noise.
  • Survival [Hard] : The heroes can sea rch for signs of Colicoid tracks in the tunnels they are following, using that knowledge to determine which passages the insectoids are least likely to search .

Challenge Effects : The following are suggested effects for th is skill
challenge:

  • Close Call: The heroes accrue failures only on skill checks that have failure (as opposed to no successes) or more on rolls
  • Degrees of Failure: Any failures accrued by the heroes reduce the number of non heroic prisoners that reach the ship and escape.
  • Success: If the heroes succeed, they make their way to the BADI DEA short hauler sitting on the landing pad. They successful ly steal the ship and jump into hyperspace.
  • Failure: If the heroes fail the skill challenge, they are cornered by Colicoid guards and must engage in a difficult combat encounter to finally gain their freedom. If the heroes succeed but accrued one failure during the challenge, only five of the other prisoners make it to freedom with them. If the heroes succeed but accrued two failures during the challenge, none of the other prisoners reach the sh ort hauler-all 10 are recaptured by the Colicoids.

Each player takes "Turns" during a round and decided what to do. No one can take another turn until all have taken a turn that round. Order is not important

To me this a great example how to orginize a non-combat encounter.

So... sorry to necro this thread, but me and my players have been discussing this kind of check in our group. The rules suggested here seem interesting, but can anyone tell me where the quote is from? I have onlys the edge of the empire core rulebook.

I believe it's a variation on the Skill Challenge mechanic from D&D4e.

While not a bad mechanic, bear in mind it's also intended for D&D/D20, and so by extension was built with a binary result in mind. Star Wars, with it's 2.5 Axis tends to encourage you reduce multiple check tasks into a single check, applying the Advantage, Triumph, ect. in ways that a binary system would apply some of the failures/successes.Think like how shopping is done with a Single Negotiation check to both find the item and haggle in one roll, where D20 would want two rolls, one for find the item, one to haggle the price.

Not saying the skill challenge mechanic is bad, or that it wouldn't work for this system, just suggesting you give it some thought so it'll apply well and won't kick out some odd results.

It has been very, very hard for me to break my 25 year old habit of rolling for every single little thing. But I try and combine and put a dice pool at the highest level that I can and not make rolls for "Okay, now you search the dining room. Now you search the kitchen. Now you search the bedroom. Now you search the walk in closet. . . ."

Unless I have something in mind for that result, I try not to make 'em roll.

Not saying the skill challenge mechanic is bad, or that it wouldn't work for this system, just suggesting you give it some thought so it'll apply well and won't kick out some odd results.

I totally agree with you. That was the reason why I asked for the source in the first place. I wanted to read the original and understand how it was intended to be used before I thought about how to or if to implement the rule in my game.

I did find the source myself, by now. A deeper search yielded some hints that the text itself came from the saga edition, a further inquiry yielded the Galaxy of Intrigue Sourcebook as original source for the challenge rules in star wars.

Luckily one of my players had the book lying around from his saga time ( I hadn't yet jumped on the pnp train back then).

We tried the rule with a few adaptations and it delivered a nice and very granular game feeling, which was exactly what we wanted. (The goal was to zoom in into a multiple week long force meditation of one of my players in a mini-session)

In conclusion, while you are correct and the FFG System hasn't got extended checks for a reason, at times it is interesting to not simplify everything into one roll. The only thing we had to do was make sure that every success counted towards the challenge wasn't a net success but a successfull roll, same with the failures. The advantages and disadvantages made for excellent roleplaying cues, as always.

Thanks for the answer, everyone!

So long,

Ken