Explosive Traps and Healing

By Corwin Amberstar, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

All

Just ran an ad-hoc session for my group and I ran into two questions I couldn't resolve in the rulebook...

  1. They had 'picked up' two large cases of Imperial equipment. Both were sealed and locked... and also booby trapped. If not disarmed, the case would explode with the effects of four Frag Grenades. So, I could find the details for the grenades in the rules but nothing on determining the effects of the trap going off. There was no-one throwing the things to use for skills in normal ranged combat resolution... I fudged something to keep things rolling, but how should traps like this be adjudicated?
  2. As you might imagine, there was a lot of blood spread around as the result of the above... and this was the first time a Medical Pack had been used in mass-healing mode. One question, what is a reasonable number of Stim Packs that can be used in one session? The rules are a bit vague - which is okay with me - was just wondering what would be considered a reasonable number?

Thanks!

Use as many stim packs as you want - but they are less and less effective.

Regarding the Medpac, there are 2 functions: it eliminates setback dice and adds a boost die because you have proper equipment for making Medicine checks, and it provides 1 Stimpack per scene (CR p. 177). Also, each person can have 1 "first aid" Medicine check before they need to seek more serious attention (e.g. bacta tank, surgeon).

so i think RAW, the Medpac provides 1 Stimpack (presumably used on the most wounded character), and then each character can have 1 Medicine check made on them (CR p. 219) which has 1 boost die.

<deleted double post...sorry>

Edited by cvtheoman

To answer your first concern. I would just have trap do flat damage to all creatures engaged with the crate. No need to roll unless it's for the players to notice the trap

To answer your first concern. I would just have trap do flat damage to all creatures engaged with the crate. No need to roll unless it's for the players to notice the trap

Treat it like a poison but use Perception or Vigilance (probably Vigilance) instead of Resilience to resist it, and reduce the damage by Soak (so make sure it's higher than the poisons in the book).

Edited by HappyDaze

Age of Rebellion uses the Mechanics skill for demolitions work, including the "attack" roll of a land mine. Perhaps the trap should be based on the Mechanics skill of the being who set it.

Age of Rebellion uses the Mechanics skill for demolitions work, including the "attack" roll of a land mine. Perhaps the trap should be based on the Mechanics skill of the being who set it.

if it's a trap, Skulduggery could also be the applicable skill.

All

Just ran an ad-hoc session for my group and I ran into two questions I couldn't resolve in the rulebook...

  1. They had 'picked up' two large cases of Imperial equipment. Both were sealed and locked... and also booby trapped. If not disarmed, the case would explode with the effects of four Frag Grenades. So, I could find the details for the grenades in the rules but nothing on determining the effects of the trap going off. There was no-one throwing the things to use for skills in normal ranged combat resolution... I fudged something to keep things rolling, but how should traps like this be adjudicated?

A Perception check would be fine to notice the device, while Skulduggery (if a steady hand is important -- like for an explosive device that's set off by motion), Mechanics (if cutting the right wire will stop it from going off), or Computers (if bypassing an electronic security code of some kind) could be used to disarm it.

An activity requiring a "steady hand" might be better served with Coordination.

All

Just ran an ad-hoc session for my group and I ran into two questions I couldn't resolve in the rulebook...

  • They had 'picked up' two large cases of Imperial equipment. Both were sealed and locked... and also booby trapped. If not disarmed, the case would explode with the effects of four Frag Grenades. So, I could find the details for the grenades in the rules but nothing on determining the effects of the trap going off. There was no-one throwing the things to use for skills in normal ranged combat resolution... I fudged something to keep things rolling, but how should traps like this be adjudicated?

A Perception check would be fine to notice the device, while Skulduggery (if a steady hand is important -- like for an explosive device that's set off by motion), Mechanics (if cutting the right wire will stop it from going off), or Computers (if bypassing an electronic security code of some kind) could be used to disarm it.

Perception would be used if the players had reason to actively look for the trap I.e. Player A "I want to check out these crates. Are there any traps I can see?" Otherwise it should be Vigilance.

All

Just ran an ad-hoc session for my group and I ran into two questions I couldn't resolve in the rulebook...

  • They had 'picked up' two large cases of Imperial equipment. Both were sealed and locked... and also booby trapped. If not disarmed, the case would explode with the effects of four Frag Grenades. So, I could find the details for the grenades in the rules but nothing on determining the effects of the trap going off. There was no-one throwing the things to use for skills in normal ranged combat resolution... I fudged something to keep things rolling, but how should traps like this be adjudicated?

A Perception check would be fine to notice the device, while Skulduggery (if a steady hand is important -- like for an explosive device that's set off by motion), Mechanics (if cutting the right wire will stop it from going off), or Computers (if bypassing an electronic security code of some kind) could be used to disarm it.

Perception would be used if the players had reason to actively look for the trap I.e. Player A "I want to check out these crates. Are there any traps I can see?" Otherwise it should be Vigilance.

yeah. the way i think of it is Perception is like active scanning, while Vigilance is like passive sensors.

In my fantasy version of EotE, we have been using Coordination to "avoid" traps. So a set trap that has no ability to attack might deals flat damage. We'll use an explosive trap as the example to help to OP.

Lets say its a pretty nasty explosive trap, so I give it a base of 10 damage and maybe a crit of 3.

Each character in the blast would make a coordination check against the difficulty of the trap (I'd say at least 3 for imperial traps). Each success reduces the initial damage by 1, but 3 threat rolled can be spent as a crit on that character.

Question #2

Medpack & Stimpack pg 177

In addition, the internal stim storage grants the user the equivalent of one stimpack per scene...

So one per scene and you can determine when it runs out (You can use a Med roll result of a Despair or a couple of Threats to have it run out as well if you want). I'd have it run out just like ammo does. You're basically trading nearly unlimited uses of a single stim per scene for multiple individual uses.

pg 220 Stimpacks (not from a Medpack but as individual injectors)

The first stimpack used on a character automatically recovers five wounds. the second stimpack only four wounds, the third stimpack recovers three wounds, and so on. This means the sixth stimpack has no effect.

So you have a hard limit of five that are effective each day.

From my reading of this it seems that Medpacks are more like a small First-Aid kit for individuals rather than a full on Paramedic style Medkit so for groups a medical PC should also carry a hand full of regular stimpacks for multiple injuries. PCs should probably consider a Medpack for themselves and at least a couple of Stimpacks as well.

Edited by FuriousGreg

Emergency Medpacs are small first aid kits.

Medpacs are full-on kits for medics/doctors.

Emergency Medpacs are small first aid kits.

Medpacs are full-on kits for medics/doctors.

My mistake. Doesn't matter though as Emergency Medpacks don't have the stim function. So a Medpack is the Paramedic style medkit you'd find in other games but it's limited to the one stim per scene as a trade off for basically unlimited uses over time. In any case a good Medic will carry extra Stimpacks along with their Medkit.

I like this way of doing things. However, I'd like to recommend that perhaps Vigilance might be a better skill to roll? I think there's a good argument to be made for coordination, but I think Vigilance would alert a character to the idea that a trap was going to go off and give them that vital few half-seconds to twist themselves in order to avoid taking damage from it. So PCs would roll a Vigilance check against, say three dice, and throw in a challenge die to represent the ability to take a critical injury. Successes would reduce the damage, advantages would help them get to the other side of the area that the trap is presumably guarding, while threats might trigger the crits. Triumphs and Despairs are, of course, entirely up the GMs imagination. >:)

In my fantasy version of EotE, we have been using Coordination to "avoid" traps. So a set trap that has no ability to attack might deals flat damage. We'll use an explosive trap as the example to help to OP.

Lets say its a pretty nasty explosive trap, so I give it a base of 10 damage and maybe a crit of 3.

Each character in the blast would make a coordination check against the difficulty of the trap (I'd say at least 3 for imperial traps). Each success reduces the initial damage by 1, but 3 threat rolled can be spent as a crit on that character.