For sake of example lets say I have a PC that is fighting a mob of 4 generic civilians with a soak of 2 and a wound threshold of 4 a piece. If the PC does 10 damage is that considered knocking out two (10 - 2 = 8 / 4 = 2) or 1 and leaving the other at half health ((10 - 4) / 4) = 1.5?
Also if the PC did hit 2 minions how would you handle that narratively? Your shot went right through the first guy and killed the guy behind him to?
As for the second part, a combat round is up to a minute long so an attack action doesn't mean just one shot, so there shouldn't be an issue saying something like "You fire a barrage of blaster bolts at the enemy, striking two in the chest" or something like that
Edited by IceBearMinions basically exist to make the players feel like action heroes, so I have no qualms about letting them mow them down in droves. If you feel an encounter just suddenly got cheesed due to a few lucky rolls, you can always just bring in one additional minion group and say they were just arriving from someplace further away.
As for the second part, a combat round is up to a minute long so an attack action doesn't mean just one shot, so there shouldn't be an issue saying something like "You fire a barrage of blaster bolts at the enemy, striking two in the chest" or something like that
Exactly. Once you divorce yourself from the idea that one roll of the dice equals one pull of the trigger, your narrative descriptions are going to benefit drastically.
I had a player recently who was using a modded blaster rifle with auto-fire. He shot at a minion group who were using a doorway for cover. He rolled really well and killed the entire group. I narrated it as him strafing the entire wall near the doorway and his shots penetrated the wall, after he finished shooting a few of the dead minions slumped into view in the doorway.
As for the second part, a combat round is up to a minute long so an attack action doesn't mean just one shot, so there shouldn't be an issue saying something like "You fire a barrage of blaster bolts at the enemy, striking two in the chest" or something like that
Exactly. Once you divorce yourself from the idea that one roll of the dice equals one pull of the trigger, your narrative descriptions are going to benefit drastically.
And quoted, because this, Rikoshi, is really the heart of the matter when dealing with a roll of the dice and is paramount for every GM and player to understand. Well put.
Consider a minion group as 1 tough enemy. With one soak and one wound threshold.
If you rolled 10 damage, that is 10 minus 2 soak equals 8. If individual wound threshold is 4 (with a total of 16 wounds if the minion is 4 dudes large), then that is two minions going down. The group now has 8 wounds left to play with and 2 members. Their skills also get reduced as a result.
As for the "one shot" thing...this is a narrative system, so what's hapening is that there is an exchange of blaster fire...could be multiple shots with 2 or more finding their marks. You can even imagine that the stormtroopers are firing back at the same time, but missing until they "roll a success".
I play that you have to exceed the WT of a minion to drop them. This means that against 4 minions with WT 4, you drop the first one with the 5th point of damage after soak, and the last drops with the 17th point of damage. We like to stay consistent that WT needs to be exceeded to eliminate an opponent. With minion groups, it just happens that the point that exceeds WT also starts nibbling on the next member of the group, but that's fine for us.
I play that you have to exceed the WT of a minion to drop them. This means that against 4 minions with WT 4, you drop the first one with the 5th point of damage after soak, and the last drops with the 17th point of damage. We like to stay consistent that WT needs to be exceeded to eliminate an opponent. With minion groups, it just happens that the point that exceeds WT also starts nibbling on the next member of the group, but that's fine for us.
Unless I'm misreading your post, that's precisely how the rules state it
Also Damage in this narrative system can mean more than an actual wound, you can have the damage equal people running away or hiding to take them out of combat.
I lean towards the side of taking out multiple minions at a time.
One of my responses to this was to have one minion go down, and then say that one of the other PCs managed to take one down retroactively. But this kind of cuts into the attacking PC's spotlight.
It is easier when you have two targets next to each other, so you can just say "The Wookiee swings his vibro-axe and cleaves two of the little buggers in half" but not so much when the minions are in different range bands.
One solution I'm thinking of employing when there are not enough minions within range/line of fire, that I hold off on removing a second minion until someone else does even one point of damage and then they get an easy kill (hey, maybe it had a heart condition!) and then continue from there. It'll take a bit of accounting to keep track of how many should be dead, but it'll be easier than having the melee attack take out one he is engaged with and one at medium range.
As for the second part, a combat round is up to a minute long so an attack action doesn't mean just one shot, so there shouldn't be an issue saying something like "You fire a barrage of blaster bolts at the enemy, striking two in the chest" or something like that
Exactly. Once you divorce yourself from the idea that one roll of the dice equals one pull of the trigger, your narrative descriptions are going to benefit drastically.
Yes I sat down with my group and explained that it's not like DnD, it's more like the movies and you are firing back and forth. The roll they make is really just an opening that presented itself.
I play that you have to exceed the WT of a minion to drop them. This means that against 4 minions with WT 4, you drop the first one with the 5th point of damage after soak, and the last drops with the 17th point of damage. We like to stay consistent that WT needs to be exceeded to eliminate an opponent. With minion groups, it just happens that the point that exceeds WT also starts nibbling on the next member of the group, but that's fine for us.
Unless I'm misreading your post, that's precisely how the rules state it
Yes, so in the above example, only one civilian goes down. They were taken out when they hit 5 damage. The next will go after the group takes 1 more point of damage (for a group total of 9).
I play that you have to exceed the WT of a minion to drop them. This means that against 4 minions with WT 4, you drop the first one with the 5th point of damage after soak, and the last drops with the 17th point of damage. We like to stay consistent that WT needs to be exceeded to eliminate an opponent. With minion groups, it just happens that the point that exceeds WT also starts nibbling on the next member of the group, but that's fine for us.