Jedi Counseling 9: Spinning Ships

By JD Wiker

"Jedi Counseling" returns to conquer your conundrums about the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Designer JD Wiker addresses your questions about "potions of healing," Cooperation, stopping rockets with the Force, tractor beam fights, and what happens when you can't pull your starship out of a spin!

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

Q: Luke is standing in a hall and has his lightsaber in hand but not ignited. Greedo goes running by and passes through an area Luke threatens. Since igniting a lightsaber is a free action, does Luke get a chance to ignite it and take his attack of opportunity?

A: No. You can only take free actions on your own turn.

Q: Are there any items that speed up healing, similar to potions of cure light wounds in D&D or "boosters" like those in some sci-fi shows?

A: There currently aren't any, and it was a design decision to not create them. Bacta tanks are the pinnacle of healing technology in Star Wars, and we didn't want to change that by making something better.

Q: Move Object states that Medium-size beings are in the 5 to 50kg range. Um, most Medium-size people are more than 50kg, but not that much (well, a lot less than the 500kg range, which is the next difficulty). Was this an error, or did you want to show that a person could be moved with the same difficulty as most other Medium-size things?

A: That seems to be an error. Medium-size beings should fall under the range of 51 to 500 kg.

Q: Can you use Cooperation (found on page 73 of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game revised core rulebook) with Force skills? If so, what is the vitality point cost for these skills?

A: Yes, you can use Cooperation with Force skills. The vitality cost is the same as if you had used the skill since, as the rules for Cooperation state, that's what you're doing.

Q: Does a lightsaber ignore the hardness of Yuuzhan Vong weapons or not?

A: Judging by all the times Jedi have used lightsabers to try to cut through amphistaves, I'd say no, they don't ignore the hardness of Yuuzhan Vong weapons.

Q: Is it possible for a capital ship's weapons batteries to fire only one individual weapon, or does the entire battery have to fire all the time?

A: Yes, you can fire individually if you desire.

Q: If a character fails a starship stunt and then fails the check to see if she goes out of control, how does she recover if the DC is higher than any roll she could get? For instance: A 1st-level fringer fails a tight loop (a DC 25 maneuver she could barely complete with a lucky roll) and then goes out of control by failing the next check. She goes into a spin with a -8 to her check, so now she has to roll a 25 on a 20-sided die, which is clearly impossible. Does she just keep spinning? How can she ever right herself?

Whooaaaaaaaaaaa!

A: She can't -- not all at once, anyway. She'll keep spinning until she hits something, or until someone else comes along and helps her out. But each round, she gets a chance to regain control again. Eventually, she's only going to miss her check by 15 or less, which means she's yawing instead of spinning.

Now her check penalty drops to -6. The DC for a tight loop is still 25, but assuming the character was created for flying, she'll probably have a total Pilot skill modifier of about +10 or +11. The -6 penalty means she now has roughly a +5 or +6 total skill modifier, meaning that she just has to keep trying until she rolls a 19 or 20 on her check. Assuming that she's not in any danger, she can just take 20.

Q: We had a situation where we were getting into our ship, our shields were down, and we were being shot at by a heavy blaster pistol. Our GM ruled that it was like ship-to-ship combat. But I don't think a pistol can hit that easily.

A: The Defense for a starship will work fine in personal combat; a starship is a pretty big target. Use the attack and defense modifiers from Table 11-6 in the core rulebook (which means a Human actually gains a +12 attack bonus; a Medium-sized starship has a +0 modifier to its Defense against the attacker).

Q: Is it possible to use the Force skill Move Object in a battle situation? The rules allow for it, and the check to stop, say, a thermal detonator or rocket would be easy (DC 10) due to their low weight. Granted, in normal circumstances, the player would have to ready an action to do this. However, I feel that some other action should be necessary, like a Reflex check or something; otherwise, it just seems too easy to snatch missiles and stuff out of the air.

A: Move Object really isn't designed to allow a Force-user to stop projectiles (or alter their course). If you wish to create a set of rules that allow for this option, that's certainly within your right as the GM. Personally, I'd make it a feat, and make sure it's not terribly easy to do. Remember, we don't see Jedi doing this sort of thing in the movies, so it's plainly not easy.

Q: My character has the Quick Draw feat. A goon has a blaster pulled and aimed at my character. My hero wants to pull out his own blaster and fire in the next round. Since he has Quick Draw, does a roll of initiative for the next round between the two characters determine who fires first?

A: Technically speaking, yes, assuming they've not both already rolled initiative. Of course, if the goon has a blaster already out, then presumably he had surprise on your character and could fire first, before you even rolled initiative. You might want to rethink just how fast your character really is.

Q: With the Point Blank Shot skill (which gives a hero a +1 bonus to hit and damage and increases the point blank range to 10 m), should the DC to avoid stun damage also be increased by +1?

A: No. Point Blank Shot doesn't affect anything except attack and damage rolls.

Q: I'm running an all-Sith campaign in a Sith timeline and was wondering about Sith swords. What would be a good estimation for hardness and wound points? I was going to use the same hardness as longswords, which is 10, but 2 wound points (as with longswords) seems a bit weak for an alchemically forged sword. Plus, Sith swords are Large weapons, whereas longswords are Medium size. Would a hardness of 10 with 4 or 5 wound points be acceptable?

A: I'd go with hardness 10 and 10 wound points. Sith swords don't shatter all that easily, even though they look like glass.

Q: What is the minimum distance that a starship can travel in hyperspace? Are there any penalties for performing microjumps?

A: A few of the novels make microjumps sound quite difficult, but at present, there are no rules for how to modify Astrogate checks to account for them. I would allow the starship crew to make microjumps by taking a -10 penalty to their Astrogate checks, but that's really just a rule of thumb.

Q: Let's say there are two spaceships, both equipped with tractor beams, engaged in combat with each other. The first attempts to use its tractor beam to pull the other closer; the second wishes to use its tractor beam to push the other away (to avoid being boarded).

Do the two beams cancel each other out? Is there a skill roll in here somewhere? Or does whichever ship wins initiative get to perform its action, and the second simply has to wait its turn?

A: The easy answer is that they simply cancel each other out, assuming both pilots fail at their "resist tractor beam" rolls -- or, for that matter, if both succeed! But, technically, the ships take turns, in initiative order, tractoring the other vessel and taking free actions to resist. It might look a little strange -- one ship getting closer, then the other getting farther away -- but that's one of the oddities of turn-based movement. What you're really concerned with is where they are at the end of each round.

Q: I'm new to the game, and though I've read the rules over and over, I can't figure out how to make a character. Help!

A: If you're having trouble understanding the rules, use pages 14-15 of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game revised core rulebook as a guide, and refer back to them regularly. Your first character is liable to take a while to finish, but after that, they'll go a lot more smoothly. And if you're still having trouble, e-mail me with your specific questions, and I'll explain as best I can.