I recently started as a GM. We are still in the Beginner Game Long Arm of the Hutt, even tough with some alteration to the full rules to the Beginner Rules (we started using the crit table among other things for example) and I have a question.

The PC's decided to kill a Gamorrean Guard who was asleep. I decided to make it a Stealth check since they wanted to kill him silently without alerting the guards in the other room. But it got me thinking. what is the go-to skill for silent assassinations? Sneaking up to someone and breaking his neck, assassins creed style knife in the chest assassinations in the open and so on.

How would you typically resolve such actions? Skullduggery (since its not exactly a civilized way), stealth, brawl, athletics (choking a gamorrean guard would qualfy as a feat of strength I believe) all seem like reasonable choices. How would you resolve such actions?

Well, if he's a Minion, all it takes is one Critical. And also know that if they are attacking a sleeping or unaware person, the difficulty might be reduced by one you may get boost die at least. If he's a minion, all you have to do is deal a LOT of damage or score a critical injury with enough Vicious and Lethal Blows to make him die right away. That's how I'd handle it at least.

I would suggest spending Advantage/Triumph to keep the kill silent and Threat/Despair to have him squeal like a stuck piggy.

If the Gamorrean was a Minion-level NPC I'd just let them kill him automatically, no roll required. A rival I might let them roll a Simple: Melee and either double the damage or count Advantage as damage as well, or give an auto-critical with +10 for each Advantage or something.

A Nemesis, on the other hand, they'd have to roll to hit as normal and do normal damage. They should have to work a little to take out a major NPC.

First a stealth check with a boost die (the Gamorrean being asleep), then depending on the result of the stealth, it could be a simple melee attack with boost die.

You could even conceivably Aim for two maneuvers comfortably, giving you two further boost die.

did I read your comment correctly: you can aim+aim+action in the same turn? (for 2 strain obv.)

Since the guard is asleep you can move to engage + on turn one and then aim + action on turn two. That would give the double aim.

Since the guard is asleep you can move to engage + on turn one and then aim + action on turn two. That would give the double aim.

did I read your comment correctly: you can aim+aim+action in the same turn? (for 2 strain obv.)

You could even conceivably Aim for two maneuvers comfortably, giving you two further boost die.

I would only allow the PC to aim once, either your aiming or not, its redundant to aim twice.

Since the guard is asleep you can move to engage + on turn one and then aim + action on turn two. That would give the double aim.

did I read your comment correctly: you can aim+aim+action in the same turn? (for 2 strain obv.)

You could even conceivably Aim for two maneuvers comfortably, giving you two further boost die.

I would only allow the PC to aim once, either your aiming or not, its redundant to aim twice.

Except that the book disagrees with you. It specifically states that aiming once is one boost die, and aiming twice is 2 boost dice. Unless you're aiming at something specific, in which case aiming once is 2 setback dice, and aiming twice is 1 setback die.

-EF

Since the guard is asleep you can move to engage + on turn one and then aim + action on turn two. That would give the double aim.

did I read your comment correctly: you can aim+aim+action in the same turn? (for 2 strain obv.)

You could even conceivably Aim for two maneuvers comfortably, giving you two further boost die.

I would only allow the PC to aim once, either your aiming or not, its redundant to aim twice.

Except that the book disagrees with you. It specifically states that aiming once is one boost die, and aiming twice is 2 boost dice. Unless you're aiming at something specific, in which case aiming once is 2 setback dice, and aiming twice is 1 setback die.

-EF

Well look at that, page 201. Thanks!

Exactly . And since I doubt he's going to wake up of all time between point A and B, it is conceivable to do that. Plus, since he's sleeping and not actively dodging you, I'd make the attack only roll against 1 difficulty instead of the typical 2.

I'd make the sleeping attack check a simpler check, i.e. no difficulty dice. An unaware and/or preoccupied opponent could sometimes be an Easy check. Circumstances and context I guess. A sleeping target on the other hand, simpler...

I'd make a stealth check to approach the target (against target's perception, but with like 2 boost die due to sleeping)...and then do a 1 die difficulty melee check (if using a knife, or brawl if using hands, or ranged if using a blaster). Player can Aim (or even twice) to represent lining up the knife over a critical spot. Success should be easy, but i have 1 die of difficulty to represent what would happen if you didn't line up the stab quite enough and you hit a piece of armor or a non critical organ. If threat is generated, the kill is not silent.

You could also let the attacker ignore armor since it would be easy to target an unarmored area.

I'd make the sleeping attack check a simpler check, i.e. no difficulty dice. An unaware and/or preoccupied opponent could sometimes be an Easy check. Circumstances and context I guess. A sleeping target on the other hand, simpler...

There should definitely be at least one difficulty die for a sleeping opponent, there should always be a chance that the player will screw up and wake the enemy up. If the target was blackout drunk or already knocked unconscious for some other reason then a simple check would be appropriate.

well, to me that depends on the enemy, context and risk of the situation. Some random minion guard thug in some less than important warehouse that my players have stumbled into as a distraction and which has little to do with anything, I'd let the player feel real ninja by offing him without no difficulty dice if he succeeded on his stealth check to close in on the guard.

A rival or nemesis sleeping is another thing, also a minion guard of the HQ of the big bad nemesis villain would then be treated differently. It tells better stories in my opinion and things go more swiftly when they are distracted and off on some paranoid goose chase of little importance.

In this instance, I would steal a page out of my old World of Darkness days. I'd have the character make a Brawn based Stealth check with a difficulty equal to the targets Vigilance -1. My reasoning is thus.

1. I try to resonlve most actions in this game with as few rolls as possible, but that's just our play style.

2. By incorporating Brawn into the roll, I simulate not only the physical act of the strike, but Stealth as geting there quietly is the most important.

3. Setting it at Vigilance -1 is most appropriate. For a lone minion, unless they happen to have a high presence, this will either be a Simple roll, or Easy at most. For Rival/Nemesis NPC, it gives them a level of survivability.

I'd make the sleeping attack check a simpler check, i.e. no difficulty dice. An unaware and/or preoccupied opponent could sometimes be an Easy check. Circumstances and context I guess. A sleeping target on the other hand, simpler...

There should definitely be at least one difficulty die for a sleeping opponent, there should always be a chance that the player will screw up and wake the enemy up. If the target was blackout drunk or already knocked unconscious for some other reason then a simple check would be appropriate.

I think the stealth check covers that. Once you have successfully snuck up on the target, they should be dead.

I'd make the sleeping attack check a simpler check, i.e. no difficulty dice. An unaware and/or preoccupied opponent could sometimes be an Easy check. Circumstances and context I guess. A sleeping target on the other hand, simpler...

There should definitely be at least one difficulty die for a sleeping opponent, there should always be a chance that the player will screw up and wake the enemy up. If the target was blackout drunk or already knocked unconscious for some other reason then a simple check would be appropriate.

I think the stealth check covers that. Once you have successfully snuck up on the target, they should be dead.

imo, there should always be a chance of failure in this type of situation. Sure, you could say "well, I just slit his throat so much it's impossible for him to survive", well what if you botched the attempt? didn't cut deep enough, or missed his heart? Even if the chance is small (1 purple die versus 2 yellows, a green, and 2 boost dice), there's still a chance imo

Fair enough. I see your point, but this lets the less important stuff happen with less rolling. Another approach is just to use the Passive Check optional rule on page 322, or a variation of the the One-Check combat resolution optional rule on page 323.

There should definitely be at least one difficulty die for a sleeping opponent, there should always be a chance that the player will screw up and wake the enemy up. If the target was blackout drunk or already knocked unconscious for some other reason then a simple check would be appropriate.

imo, there should always be a chance of failure in this type of situation. Sure, you could say "well, I just slit his throat so much it's impossible for him to survive", well what if you botched the attempt? didn't cut deep enough, or missed his heart? Even if the chance is small (1 purple die versus 2 yellows, a green, and 2 boost dice), there's still a chance imo

There are factors here that I agree might require a check. But if we are talking about gammorean minions I would just let the stealth check be enough. I could also see requiring a knowledge xenology check for stuff like this with non standard races and different than the active characters race IE human killing a Mon Calamari. Failure there might require an actual attack check.

There should definitely be at least one difficulty die for a sleeping opponent, there should always be a chance that the player will screw up and wake the enemy up. If the target was blackout drunk or already knocked unconscious for some other reason then a simple check would be appropriate.

imo, there should always be a chance of failure in this type of situation. Sure, you could say "well, I just slit his throat so much it's impossible for him to survive", well what if you botched the attempt? didn't cut deep enough, or missed his heart? Even if the chance is small (1 purple die versus 2 yellows, a green, and 2 boost dice), there's still a chance imo

There are factors here that I agree might require a check. But if we are talking about gammorean minions I would just let the stealth check be enough. I could also see requiring a knowledge xenology check for stuff like this with non standard races and different than the active characters race IE human killing a Mon Calamari. Failure there might require an actual attack check.

Interesting approaches. Never thought about a xenology check. Also, as always, if it makes for an interesting scene, the GM is always welcome to let it succeed automatically (provided the player passes the stealth check), especially if it's something as tame as a minion

I agree on the xenology check. For example, in an adventure I'm planning, an NPC is going to vibroknife a trandoshan in the back of the head. To do so, he is going to either grab him in the nostrils or firmly below the chin.

I would make players do a stealth check to engage him, then a xeno check to stab him. If the xeno check fails, I'll say they tried to cover his mouth and he chomped them, botching the stealth kill.

Now, if they just wanted to club him on the back of the head and knock him out, I'd probably have them do an easy melee check.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if my players get creative and remember how the NPC did it, I would let them skip the xeno check.

Wow...

my players would carefully sneak up...

quietly quietly draw their weapon...

aim ever so carefully...

then BLAST 'M WITH A BLASTER!

BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Then ask me why the other Gamoreans noticed.

*sigh* (on the internet no one can see you shake your head)