Jedi Counseling 5: Lightsaber Fumbles

By JD Wiker

Confused about combat? Daunted by damage? Befuddled by the Force? JD Wiker is back to answer your questions about the Star Wars Roleplaying Game in the latest installment of "Jedi Counseling." This time around, you'll get answers to your questions about combat gloves, prolong Force, and putting your eye out with a lightsaber!

Have a question for the counselor? See the link at the end of the column!

Q: How do you figure out a ship's crew rating? Is it based on Pilot skill for all fields -- i.e., Initiative, Maneuver, Attack bonus, etc.? Or is each one based on different modifiers, such as Dexterity modifiers and the like?

A: "Crew rating" is meant to be a catch-all term for all of an NPC crew's functions. When the ship is crewed by characters, use the characters' stats to determine what the totals are. If it helps, think of it as filling in your character sheet, with the added modifier of the ship's equipment applying, in some places.

Q: The manual clearly says that characters not trained to use a lightsaber risk injury if they try to do it anyway. Yet, there is no information about how that works! One of my players is a non-Jedi who picked up a lightsaber after his team defeated a Sith Lord. Now he wants to use it. I know he must use it at -4, but shouldn't he risk injuring himself? For example, if he misses, should he roll against his own defense and risk doing the damage to himself?

Careful, farmboy!

A: Such rules shouldn't be any more necessary than rules for injuring oneself with a blaster. That text ("They are as likely to injure themselves as harm their opponents.") isn't meant to be rules text; it's "flavor" text. The game doesn't have rules for "fumbles," because it's no fun to accidentally kill your character in the middle of an important battle -- and it's even less fun to do it in an unimportant battle!

Still, if you want something to discourage the player from using the lightsaber, here's a simple suggestion. If a character who is not proficient with a lightsaber rolls a natural 1 on his attack -- which is an automatic miss, regardless -- have the player make a second roll to "confirm the fumble." If he rolls a natural 1 again, he inflicts 1d4 points of wound damage to himself from brushing the blade against his flesh. But since a pair of natural 1s is a 400-to-1 chance, feel free to warn him of the danger he's in by describing how his wild swing slashes through a power conduit on the wall, or comes perilously close to puncturing the starship portal, or nearly clips a nearby ally.

Q: What are the penalties or consequences with regard to a solid projectile (like a slug from a slugthrower) fired at a lightsaber-wielding character? Would the projectile disintegrate within the blade, or depending on the speed, could it pass through to cause damage, especially with regard to arrows, bullets, and other, more primitive projectile weapons?

A: A lightsaber can deflect a bullet or other object just as easily as it deflects a blaster shot. If you define this as the bullet (or other projectile) burning up on contact with the blade, that's fine. But "deflected" means "no damage carries through to the lightsaber wielder," so it shouldn't pass through the blade to inflict any damage on the person wielding the lightsaber.

Q: Is there any armor that a Wookiee can wear without having to modify it first?

A: I imagine that Wookiees make such armor on Kashyyyk all the time. And considering that Wookiees are considered Medium-size (despite their great height), any of the armor in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game core rulebook would fit (though I'd probably rule that stormtrooper armor would be a bit too small).

Q: How do combat gloves work in the core rulebook? Are you considered armed? That is, do you provoke an attack of opportunity when you attack while wearing combat gloves? Do you get to make attacks of opportunity?

A: No, you're not considered armed just for wearing combat gloves. So you would still provoke attacks of opportunity for making unarmed attacks, and you wouldn't be able to make attacks of opportunity unless you had some other melee weapon readied.

Q: Is the threat range of a character with Martial Arts wearing combat gloves 19-20 or just 20?

A: Combat gloves just change the damage dealt; they don't affect the wearer's threat range with unarmed attacks.

Q: Does using the prolong Force ability provided by the Control feat cause the Force user to become fatigued? After all, this loss of wound points is not actually taking damage -- you're just powering an ability.

A: You'd still become fatigued. The game doesn't make the distinction that voluntarily giving up wound points is an "exempt cost" for the purposes of becoming fatigued or making the Fortitude save to avoid becoming knocked out.