I'm wondering if I'm reading the rules wrong in the book but I get the idea that critical damage works far different in edge of the empire than the other FFG game. Every time they take critical damage (which is after their wounds), they roll on a chart with +10 given which each extra wound. While this builds up, you could easily keep rolling low when 140+ is death. So...Once you're at critical, you could almost be shot 7 for any amount of damage and survive? Seems a little silly.

I don't plan on killing my players but combat should be dangerous.

But I must be reading it wrong...

As you note multiple Critical Injuries add +10 to the roll.

The Viscious weapon ability adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Lethal Blows Talent (or something like that) adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Each additional critical injury on a single hit adds +10 to the roll.

Death generally won't come out of nowhere but it is a real possibility in the right circumstance.

Also an unconscious character can also be killed without needing to roll on the critical chart (IMO... but that's just me and as a GM it would probably be a jerk thing to do... I stun you unconscious and then kill you. MWAHAHAHAHA!)

Wraith428

Presumably characters could "choose" to die making some heroic sacrifice in the context of the game a la Obi-Wan in EpIV. However, I'd even go so far as to say that a player could even spend a destiny point and not die even if the dice rolls came up that way...

I'm still scratching my head on players potentially taken shots like a pin cushion and making it for dinner and some blue milk. I know this isn't Dark Heresy...but this might make for some shenanigans.

Ultimately I feel that combat is dangerous even if there was rule that explicitly stated your characters can't die.

As a GM my players know I won't kill off their characters, and it doesn't detract from them having fun or feeling like they need to win a fight. Losing a encounter could mean missing out on XP and/or landing yourself in stickier situation than you were before, and that is punishment enough. In fact it's part of the fun.

I would only permanently kill a character if my player agreed on it with me before hand, because they were leaving the game, or wanted to make a new character, or some other reason.

I realize lots of GMs don't agree with this mentality, but that's how I feel.

I would never kill a player even if he/she was okay with it. PCs on the other hand are fair game. :-).

It is actually pretty close to FATE in that regard, which is a good thing. Keeps players on their toes, and keeps deaths truly dramatic moments. I like the idea that critical wounds really stack up to death in this system. It is a good balance between the two styles of gaming.

I tend to not activly try to kill PC's but if they do something stupid enough i dont have much recourse to say well after jumping off the bridge of doom and missing the ledge you fall to your death 400 stories above corescant.

Solution: Use the Only War critical damage charts.

I would never kill a player even if he/she was okay with it. PCs on the other hand are fair game. :-).

LOL! Well, you have me there.

I tend to not activly try to kill PC's but if they do something stupid enough i dont have much recourse to say well after jumping off the bridge of doom and missing the ledge you fall to your death 400 stories above corescant.

And how does your player feel about that? I don't know, that just doesnt sound fun to me.

The best deaths in any game I've played have been in Dogs in the Vineyard, where players can only die if they choose to.

A player getting to make that choice makes for some awesome moments. Far better than "Stormtrooper #5337284 scores a lucky critical and you die."

When my group was playing D&D 4e I killed a PC. He was incapacitated and just bled out on the ground. That wasn't fun for me or the player. I like with this system it is very hard for the PC's to die. That being said I have no problem killing a PC that does something very dangerous. However, I would most likely let the player know that their actions could result in the PC's death before they made the check.

As you note multiple Critical Injuries add +10 to the roll.

The Viscious weapon ability adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Lethal Blows Talent (or something like that) adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Each additional critical injury on a single hit adds +10 to the roll.

Death generally won't come out of nowhere but it is a real possibility in the right circumstance.

Also an unconscious character can also be killed without needing to roll on the critical chart (IMO... but that's just me and as a GM it would probably be a jerk thing to do... I stun you unconscious and then kill you. MWAHAHAHAHA!)

Wraith428

+10 to what damage been meaning to ask this what is the +10 going to

As you note multiple Critical Injuries add +10 to the roll.

The Viscious weapon ability adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Lethal Blows Talent (or something like that) adds +10 to the roll per rank.

Each additional critical injury on a single hit adds +10 to the roll.

Death generally won't come out of nowhere but it is a real possibility in the right circumstance.

Also an unconscious character can also be killed without needing to roll on the critical chart (IMO... but that's just me and as a GM it would probably be a jerk thing to do... I stun you unconscious and then kill you. MWAHAHAHAHA!)

Wraith428

+10 to what damage been meaning to ask this what is the +10 going to

The +10 goes on your next critical % roll

When a critical hit is done you roll a d100 (or rather 2d10) and go off of the Character Critical Injury Results chart (pg 217). So the extra number to that roll basically makes you suffer a more severe wound.

I had a character take Crit +40 today from Banden Dobah's Vibro-axe after he had already taken on crit. He rolled a d100+40 and ended up rolling 105 and got his arm cut off. His character is a Trandoshian, so he'll grow a new arm eventually.

Yeah, in the right circumstance it's possible alright. Now with basic weapons it is kind of hard, just wait until the player characters and the enemies start modding their ships and weapons out.

For instance Banden Dobah's Axe was claimed by an Outlaw Tech in my group. He used his reward money to put a Mono-Molecular Edge on the Vibro Axe and managed to successfully roll for 2 options. That same Vibro-Axe can now crit on 1 Advantage now has Pierce 4.

This system reminds me of the princess bride. Combat is "to the pain" which I feel is much better than instant death. Having a character with no limb, or blind or a reduced stat is much more interesting to me than a fresh new character.

Having a critical injury is a bad enough consequence, I think, to not want to get hurt too much.

I also like with this system that I have a lot of control over the more serious stuff that can happen to PC's. I don't have to inflict critical injuries on them with weapons when i have the right amount of advantage or triumphs on the roll. Of course they will get a critical injury from exceeding their wound threshold but the injury from that is very unlikely to kill them.

Yeah, in my case the PCs all have experience playing D&D and Pathfinder apparently under some harsh DMs, so if I take things too easy on them they'll feel cheated in a different way. The real catch is to keep combat intense and nothing says intense like a player taking a big hit.

Edited for double post, sorry

The way I enjoy playing (your mileage may vary) is like previously mentioned, that my players don't die unless they want their characters to. The catch is that even though they don't die, the bad guys (or good guys, depending on what the party got themselves into) can really win. If the party is attempting to defend a backwater village from invaders and all "die", they are left for dead and may pull themselves from the rubble later that night, barely clinging to life only to find the entire village razed and the NPCs they were defending all killed. Or perhaps the PCs stood out from the NPC villagers and were taken hostage, to either sell into slavery or cash in on any bounties the party might have. In this example, the PCs now must find a way to escape, retrieve their gear and get back their ship. Maybe it was sold off in the meantime, so they have to track it down (finding new loot and earning more credits in the meantime of course). Maybe their recurring nemesis bought it, forcing another confrontation. Maybe the final one?

I like this approach a lot because it punishes the players for "losing" (I do know this is a cooperative story-telling adventure, not a GM vs PC deathmatch), but keeps the story going, and in interesting directions. Like when Vader cut Lukes hand off and he fell through the chute in Cloud City. Luke could have died, but was rescued in the very nick of time, much more worse for the wear but recovers and the story continues.

I enjoy harsh death systems because it discourages people from being total reckless idiots. Sure, it can be a bit anti-climatic when your Rank 6 Guardsman has his head turned into mush because of one lucky sniper shot, but it adds to the suspense and "Anyone Can Die" attitude of the game.

Star Wars isn't in the Grimdarkness of a Galaxy Far, Far, Away(...), but I still feel like the PCs shouldn't become pincushions.

Last session one of my players rolled a triumph while leaping onto an elevator, and spent it to shoot the controls and send the elevator flying up 5 stories while he sprayed the enemy with blaster fire. This led to him getting blasted by the big bad and riding the elevator back down in a burnt and bloody heap.

Because of the way crits work, he's banged up, but did a lot of damage and will continue to take risks like that. So in that case I'm happy with players being reckless, I think it leads to a more entertaining game.