Tajanna versus Hawke, #1

Meribson, this means that the first attack against Tajanna each turn will upgrade one Purple to a Red.

Also, the standard difficulty for all melee attacks is two Purple.

Good points you guys make about Obligation and Duty modifiers, and starting engagement distance (Short). The rest comes straight from your character sheets, as is. I'll update the rules, which also now include this one: you may only use one action prior to the start of a duel, for non-attacks (e.g., committing a Force dice for a power).

Hawke's face went blank as his lightsaber clashed with that of his opponent, mind racing, analyzing.

Standard Djem So attack pattern. Textbook use. Show me something new!

Just as the annoyance began to build, surprise filled Hawke as his opponent lashed out with a strike that nearly pierced through his guard. A brief backpedal and swipe of his lightsaber mitigated most of the strike, but even so his shoulder was clipped. Taking a moment to check the damage, Hawke recentered himself before moving back into the fray with a flurry of red.

Wounds Threshold: 2/16
Strain Threshold: 3/14
Soak: 5 (Armor Master talent included)
Defense (Ranged/Melee): 1/1

Everyone has to call their combat actions/maneuvers/incidentals (Attack, Parry, Reflect, use of Advantage,Threat, etc) in OOC format, in addition to any RP flavor they want to add.

Damage totals should be clarified in OOC as well

Wow. I didn't realize Hawke was packing a YYYG Lightsaber skill until now. That demented Gank is serious about killing shit...

FYI, the Aim maneuver can be used for melee attacks as well.

Also, good attention to the mechanics so far, both of you, taking account of the Melee defense and any Setback your opponent is pushing your way.

These rules are officially in effect now, so use them for the rest of your fight. Since Tajanna won initiative, it makes sense that using the rules also starts on her turn, even though it's after combat started. Either way. I appreciate the playtesting help, and will be awarding XP as mentioned below.

Obviously, ou should read over the new rules below before your next turn, as there are some important key changes (e.g., the base difficulty of melee attacks is now 1 Purple).

COMBAT POOLS: ATTACK AND DEFENSE

So, I've decided to officially move this forward for playtesting. As a means of motivating all of you to help playtest the improved combat rules...

I'm going to start awarding XP to those that help playtest the new combat rules: 2 XP for a win, 1 XP for a loss.

I'm giving 2 XP out for wins as a means of motivating you to try your damnedest to win, rather than just show up and bank some XP for simply being in the duel, which would be useless for good playtesting (please, don't do that). Also, please don't use this as a substitute for getting XP in the narrative, as that is still the focus of our game (if I feel you're focusing more on dueling than the narrative, you'll likely find yourself barred from dueling, at least temporarily). You can only be involved in one duel at a time, but beyond that there are no limits to how many duels you can participate in per month.

Worth mentioning is that the playtesting XP awards will not last forever, so get involved while you can.

Also, to make sure everyone can be involved without too much downtime, I'll provide a sparring partner, ensuring you don't have to wait too long for your next duel. For this purpose, I'm opening up a new forum in the Hyperspace Duels called 'Sleeping Quarters: Duels in Dreamland', from which you'll be able to fight a variety of opponents, in your dreams, or your nightmares.

If you like, you can even create a future, higher level version of your character with more XP (remember, there's no 10 XP tax anymore for buying Specializations outside of your Career), then use it yourself in a Dreamland fight. If you're planning on doing this, it's probably a good idea to announce the XP value of this character's build, allowing someone else to create a build of equal value for that duel, if it will be needed.

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THE OFFICIAL RULES ON HOW THE NEW COMBAT SYSTEM WILL WORK
Some definitions, for the purposes of the content below:
---'Melee' within the context of the below rules will refer to the following skills: Brawl, Melee, and Lighstaber.
---'Ranged' within the context of the below rules will refer to the following skills: Ranged-Light and Ranged-Heavy.
---'RaW' refers to Rules as Written.

(1) The rules will be universally applied to both Melee and Ranged Combatants:

---Against Melee combatants, we'll assume upgrading defense is the character's effort to dodge, focus on defensive positioning/movement, maintaining separation, non-Strain inducing Parry/Reflect (the many swings/thrusts of weapons you see in the movies), etc. In this respect, I've always imagined that Reflect, and especially Parry, only used strain against the strongest attacks, as I envision that there are more slashes/thrusts/parries/etc than the dice rolls and the mechanics presented anyway.

---Against Ranged combatants, we'll assume upgrading defense is some combination of making better use of cover, moving evasively/fast, or the character's ability to make themselves 'small' when it comes to getting shot at, crouching down to an extent, etc.

---In any case, Melee vs Melee, Melee vs Ranged, Ranged vs Ranged, Ranged vs Melee, the rules will be universal. Every type of character will be able to take full advantage of these rules.

(2) The Engaged range attack difficulty will continue to be 1 Purple Difficulty for Ranged combatants (using RaW), but will also be changed to 1 Purple Difficulty for Melee combatants.
---Using RaW (F&D p.217), Ranged-Light combatants will add 1 to their difficulty against both Engaged Ranged and Melee opponents, whereas Ranged-Heavy combatants will add 2 to their attack difficulty in such cases. As it should, using Ranged weapons against Engaged combatants should be difficult.
---This change (dropping one of the Purple Difficulty for Melee combatants) is to reflect that part of the Melee combatant's efforts should, to some extent, be focused on defending themselves, depending on their actual interest in doing so. Whether your character prefers to build walls of defense, attack like a frenzied berserker, or switch up tactics depending on the situation and the opponent, it's up to you. Be the kind of combatant you want to be, and develop your own personalized fighting style.
---This change will also even things out a bit, making it a little harder to stack defense, while allowing a slightly wider range of offensive/defensive behavior for Melee combatants (e.g., going 'all out' on the offensive will be balanced against characters who are likewise going 'all out' on defense).

(3) Prior to attacking on any turn, the player may convert any number of dice* from the appropriate combat skill, depending on their equipped weapon(s) (Lightsaber, Melee, Ranged), into a defensive dice pool, increasing the difficulty of their opponent's attacks, using the conversion methods below.
---Yellow Attack dice can be converted into Purple Difficulty dice, which are added to their opponent's attack difficulty.
---Green Attack dice can be converted into Black Setback dice, which are added to their opponent's attack difficulty.
---These pools will be referred to as 'attack' (Yellow/Green) and 'defense' (Purple/Black) pools.
---Any adjustments made to a character's attack/defense pools carries over from round to round, until the player makes another adjustment, prior to attacking on any turn. Adjustments can, of course, be made without a followup attack.
---Dice are downgraded when converting from Attack to Defense due to the fact that all attacks start with at least one Purple Difficulty, in addition to preventing abuse of the new Defense pool mechanic. Also, this will ensure that defensive Talents that upgrade dice (Dodge, Defensive Stance, Side Step, etc) will continue to have value. We're going for balance here, and downgrading Attack Dice to Defense dice seems like a good fit.

(4) Characters will have a default setting for both Attack and Defense pools, recorded on their character sheet, which will be used to start combat for situations in which their character is not surprised/ambushed (meaning initiative was rolled with Cool).
---Otherwise, when surprised/ambushed, characters must wait for their first turn to adjust their combat pools, which means, except for the Engaged range Difficulty change above for Melee combatants, that combat will ultimately be played out using RaW, until your character gets a turn). I'm also a big fan of this because it lends more value to getting the drop on someone for an easy kill.

*Initially, I considered requiring a Maneuver to convert Attack dice to Defense dice, but didn't want to interfere with combat movement and some of the Talents that require a Maneuver to use (Defensive Stance, Center of Being, Saber Swarm, Side Step, etc). I'm still considering making it cost a Maneuver, as part of an effort to stop players from stacking Aim or Guarded Stance with dice pool conversions, also keeping in mind that players can spend 2 Strain on any turn to give their characters a 2nd Maneuver.

For now, let's start with conversion being free, although I'm still looking for some insight on this one. What do you guys think? Free dice pool conversion, or Maneuver cost for conversion? I'm leaning heavily toward free, simply because, like I said, I don't want to discourage the use of Talents, or characters moving around the battlefield; discouraging Talent use seems far worse than allowing players to continue to use Aim/Guarded Stance. However, I'm open to being talked out of it, so if you disagree with me, I'd like to hear it.

Yep.

Base attack difficulty = 1 Purple
Converting your Lightsaber skill into difficulty: 3 Yellow = 3 Purple; 1 Green = 1 Black
Melee Defense = 1 Black

Total = 2 Setback and 4 Difficulty.

Also, moving forward, 3 Strain counters a Disarm attempt using the new rules.

Maybe I'm just tired but, I'm not sure why Hawke is at:
Wounds Threshold: 6/16
Strain Threshold: 7/14

when he was at this before Tajanna's last attack:
Wounds Threshold: 2/16
Strain Threshold: 4/14

I think he should be at:
Wounds Threshold: 2/16
Strain Threshold: 6/14 (4 + 2 for 2nd Maneuver to pick up Lightsaber)

Meribson, the net result of that attack was 4 Advantage (the 3 Successes and 3 Failures canceling out).

Also. Tajanna most recent attack 'I can't Roll More than 8 Dice' had too many dice. It should have just been 4 Purple, 2 Black. Following standard PbP dice trimming, we start from the right, so the bottom two Purple we can ignore, keeping the two Black. The net result is:

0 Successes, 4 Threat for Tajanna.

I get what you're saying, but it's also logically sensible to prepare for defense, especially when you can't do anything on offense.

Now, this is what we're playtesting it for, as I have to look at what just happened and wonder about it:

Hawke had to move to get his weapon (Maneuver #1), then pick it up (Maneuver #2), so is it believable that his defense could be that prepared? When we consider this, we have to consider the idea of Incidentals and Maneuvers.

According to F&D RaW, p. 205:

Incidentals are "...minor activities that characters can undertake that require extremely little time or effort." The example that most closely resembles adjusting for offense/defense is this one "Minor movements such as shifting position, peeking around a corner, or looking behind a person."

Maneuvers are "...activities that aren't complex enough to warrant a skill check, but which still involve time and effort on the part of a character." Looking at the examples that follow, I see one that closely resembles the idea of adjusting one's combat efforts toward offense/defense, because the example is literally one that increases offense (Aim) not to mention there is a defensive Maneuver called Guarded Stance.

So, with those concepts in mind, and just picturing the sequence in my mind, it doesn't seem like Hawke should have been able to put together better defense before Tajanna got to him (in a movie scence, I really picture Hawke getting his Lightsaber up to defend himself at the last second). And, based on the Aim/Guarded Stance coupled with the examination of Incidentals vs Maneuvers, I've got to adjust my thinking toward this:

Adjusting one's Combat Dice toward attack or defense seems like it should cost a Maneuver; it seems less like an Incidental, and more like a Maneuver (e.g., Aim). With further consideration, I think this will work well, especially since Combat Dice don't need to be adjusted every round, and characters can also tap into a 2nd Maneuver any time they want, which still leaves using other Maneuver type talents wide open for use, depending on the player's combat style and preferences, which is what this is all about: opening up the game a little more to make combat more interesting, rather than the 'rinse and repeat' event that it currently is.

Also, having it cost a Maneuver will add some tactical depth to the decision, beyond the reflexive "well, I can't Engage, so let's go all out defense." And it was that moment in the fight that sold me on this idea: someone in Hawke's position, after the Disarm, shouldn't have been as prepared.

Thoughts?

Keep in mind that Disarming isn't the 'uber move', and sometimes it's just going to prevent an attack, as it did there (although, since you went full offense, preventing any attack is a good thing!).

Disarm has tactical value, depending on how you use it (e.g., Hawke's at Short Range and you fry him with Force Lightning, Lightsaber Throw, Force Move/Throw him, weapon scattering off the edge of a bridge, etc). The meat here is that Disarm is situational, and not the ace card it seems to be at first glance.

Also, still tinkering with that one, and really appreciative of the playtesting here and the feedback. Based on the combat tables, I'm thinking of opening things up to where Disarm simply costs a lot of Advantage, as it should be rare, and a move usually performed by highly skilled combatants against inferior opponents. Reasoning: I want to make it possible to Disarm someone, without wearing them down via Strain (that classic movie scene where the master disarms the opponent in the first move, musketeer style). But, this move should only happen when a master goes against a mediocre talent, or when an opponent of skill has that rare mental lapse that allows him to be disarmed (dice going the wrong way).

Since there are Talents for disarming opponents (Sum Djem via Makashi, Niman, or Shii-Cho Specializations) and Resist Disarm (Makashi Spec), reflecting saber styles that focus on the techniques, I'm thinking that the standard Disarm maneuver might just end up costing 6 Advantage (5 for those with Sum Djem), as a means of keeping the Disarm move less common, but available, and something that doesn't require a worn out opponent low on Strain (cutting out the ability to for those without the Makashi Resist Disarm to spend strain to do so).

Perhaps the best way I can make sense out of this is by using the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader at the end of Episode III. If that battle had been played out using the core RaW written, both combatants would have been disarmed several times each. And that's some of the imagery in mind when I consider what combat should look like between two skilled combatants: an intense battle, hard fought, not some klutz fest of "Oh darn, I dropped my weapon... again." and "Damn!? Again" and then both of the combatants laugh themselves to death, incapable of picking up their weapons due to the slapstick shenanigans.

So, I know it's another change, and I appreciate the playtesting efforts, but let's just move forward with Disarm being a 6 Advantage move (5 with Sum Djem). It will still happen, just less frequently, which will make sense.

Also, it would appear I accidentally deleted your last post Tefmon; some of it's a quote above though. Sorry about that.

Bad news, Meribson. Still a hit, just less awesome. if you look at the table in the F&D book for how to spend Advantage/Threat etc (also found on this page in the Library) you'll see that it takes 2 Threat to convert into one Boost (mirroring the Advantage conversions).

Trimming Boost dice, from the right per standard PbP method, we drop the last two dice, meaning a loss of 2 Success and 1 Advantage, reducing the Boost roll to 2 Advantage.

The net result for your roll is 1 Success, 4 Advantage.

Since I'm doing the calculating now (an inherent PbP penalty to move things along), I'm just going to trim from your critical, and you get +10, netting a crit roll of 67 = ...

Scattered Sense (Tajanna removes all Boost dice from checks until the end of the encounter; I also interpret this as there's no reason to add Boosts to Tajanna's checks anymore, as they will be removed due to the crit)

Also, when you keep dice from your combat pool for defense, please write something like "I'm converting one Yellow to a Purple for defense, and 1 Green to a Black."

Anyway, Hawke's Green converts to an added Purple to the difficulty of Tajanna's next attack.

Gah. My mistake.

1 Yellow converts to 1 Purple.

1 Green converts to 1 Black.

That's a great way to show your defensive pool, Tefmon. For those not interested in using the text color, a simple Red Purple Black would work as well. But I like how that method eliminates any confusion about Tajanna's defense pool, and it makes sense for it to be the defender's responsibility to make sure any attackers know what they are up against, just as it is the attacker's responsibility to get the dice right for their attack.

Also, nicely played with the Defensive Stance; it shows how Talents are indeed still very viable. That's what I'm going for here: allowing players to have their own lightsaber combat style, that works with their character. And, although you can adjust your attack/defense pools, it's something to be done strategically, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the combatants, relative to the situation. Adjustable pools just allows you to have your own brand of fighting.

And yeah, you're right about the upgrading of dice pools, Tefmon. If there are no Purples to change to Red, you add another Purple. This is in contrast to downgrading dice pools, wherein Reds are changed to Purples, but Purples do not get removed from the dice pool.

So, assuming an attack from Hawke, that makes Tajanna's Defense Pool: RPPB.Of course, that extra Purple difficulty is for whatever Hawke's next check is.

Also, part of each of your character's combat stat blocks is a section called 'Critical Injuries.' Really, your stat blocks should look like this, thorough, yet still lighter for Hyperspace Duels:


Tajanna:
Wounds Threshold: 3/12
Strain Threshold: 5/13
Soak: 2
Defense (Ranged/Melee): 1/1

Parry Rating (Ranks + 2): 3
Reflect Rating (Ranks + 2): 3

Force Rating: 1
Committed Force Dice: 1 (Sense Defensive Upgrade-- 1 Purple to Red)

Critical Injuries: 1 (Scattered Senses: no Boost dice until end of encounter).