As the topic said, I'm starting to get stuck on figuring out what kind of effects should be applied on Triumphs and Advantages. Actually, Triumphs, Advantages, Threats and Despairs. I get that each one should leave the players or NPCs who rolled them in a better spot than they were before, but I keep having trouble gauging how good or bad something is, not to mention figuring out original ways in which to apply the results.

As an example, I had some NPCs roll a Triumph when they attacked a PC droid who's the tank of the group. They couldn't get through the PC's soak, so I said that because of the Triumph the force of their blasts knocked the PC prone and sent his weapon skidding a short distance away from him. I thought that was okay, but the I realized that's become my go-to effect--knock the weapon out of someone's hands, knock them down, etc.

I'd like to know what other GMs do to come up with the effect of the results. How do you come up with what the effects are in the heat of battle? Do you have a limit on how game-changing a Triumph or Despair result can get?

Thanks!

We stressed over that in the beginning too, but have eased back on forcing ourselves to be too innovative. Sometimes the imagination is just tapped out. Let yourself and the players deal with it organically when you feel the urge. When not, just defer to the skill descriptions or charts. In combat I defer to the charts on the GM shield, and liberally apply the give and take of Strain unless there is a specific story-driven reason to throw something in, or a player thinks of something that moves the narrative forward. This doesn't happen that often, which is good IMHO, because when it does happen it's more memorable.

Threats and Advantages are easier because you can carve them up and use them in easy mechanical ways. Strain is a big part of the ebb and flow of our battles, and managing it becomes important. Even 5 advantage can be split into a critical and strain reduction.

Triumph and Despair are more complicated. I often default to extra criticals, or equipment malfunctions just to move the game along. No point in bogging down the game because nobody can think of something super innovative this time.

As for knockdown, "Knockdown" is a Talent that allows knockdown + damage when using a Melee weapon. Normally a Triumph should only do a knockdown if you want to forego the damage. Personally I'd rather use it to trigger a critical.

However, when the imagination strikes I let the players run with it. How liberal I am with it very much depends on how much fun everyone is having with it. If you have power gamers I suppose you'll want limits, but my group is very easy-going, so when they come up with something hilarious I let it fly.

Triumphs are critical hits automatically unless you have a special bonus on the weapon. Some weapons can activate their special attacks on a certain number of advantages. That is what my group seems to be spending them on. Also an advantage can be used to recoup lost strain during the round. Have your group burn through a little strain and this will eat up a lot of those advantages.

For environment effecting use of advantages I go with stuff like you hit the wall right by the trooper sending hot duracreate flakes into his face causing him to flinch and blink uncontrollably he gets a setback next action. Or you hit a steam pipe and it blows steam and vapor over the bad guys giving them a set back die.

As you blast away at the security guard he dives away from, but oh no, he has moved right into buddy's line of site! Buddy gets a boost to his attack.

Pretty much I go with 1 advantage equals one boost or set back die, and then at 2 they fall prone drop the weapon, things of that nature. Three advantage and above are starting to get into critical hits.

Triumph and despair can be game changers. I me don't roll the red die to much, but when I do it does not come a despair to often. If shooting into a melee/engaged characters, then you shoot your buddy.

But despair is usually out of ammo, spend a a round to duck down and reload. Oh you don't want to duck down, they get a boost die as you stand there fiddling with your gun.

But they can be even more grandiose if you want to. They don't come up often, but can be pretty spectacular. Let your imagine get a little crazier with these two. For a gun fight, perhaps you hit the guy and cause his grenades or thermal to go off, a piece of machinery gets hit and falls on some of the bad guys. Or you hit the fire suppression system right above them and super dense smothering foam comes pouring out covering them.

Not all triumph and despair have to be used at that moment. They should always be used for what they were rolled for. So if you get a despair, the GM burns it to have the group ID'd and security is waiting at their ship to question them about that firefight. Don't use despair to effect something that had nothing to with that roll though. Like blow out their sublight drives because of that gun fight despair.

Final advice, sit down in your down time and think about the cool action movies. Think about your favorite scenes and what you loved about hem. Write them down. Make a list of all the super cool and even cheesy things that happen in the movies. Put them in your GM holocron for your next adventure, and you will some pretty good pre made triumph and despairs. (I know PCs get to pick their own advantage and triumph. So hopes this helps a little. Good luck out there.

Remember it's up to the players to spend Triumphs and Advantage on their checks. The GM just needs to agree to the effect on the game. I would also not rely on knockdown as a triumph effect since it would negate the need to take the talent. Invoking a Critical Hit is often the past option for using a Triumph. PC's start to get really scared when they start getting a couple of Critical Hits due to the +10% per Critical Hit. You get into those higher rolls and things can go from manageable to disaster quickly. Advantage and Threats are best used to effect the environment, creating opportunities for boost and setback dice.

During my last session an interesting roll came up. One of my PCs was fighting a Gamorrean Guard, who was wielding a vibroaxe, at engaged range. The gamorrean rolled 2 Successes, a Triumph and a Despair. In this case, first I calculated the damage done to my PC. Then I used the Triumph to active a critical. With the Despair, I said he broke the head of his axe off in the PC's leg (where the critical was) and thus became unusable and could not be looted by the PCs.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

I have found the Skill Monkey podcasts to be a great boon for determining awesome outcomes to these rolls.