Reducing Rolls for Force Powers

[Jamfke]

Hey folks. I haven't been around in a while, but I'm wanting to dabble in the fun of Star Wars again.

I've been pondering a way to reduce the number of rolls needed to perform the various Force powers used in the game. I haven't done an extensive search of the forums to see if anyone has had a similar idea, and I'm thinking off the cuff here, so bare with me.

A typical Force user must make up to three rolls for certain powers (one for Control, Sense, and Alter). Some consider that it's perfectly understandable to have the player make these rolls while the other players are making theirs for combat/non-combat actions, and I can see that. However, I like to keep the action rolling, and would like to have things expedited. Here's my idea:

Let's look at Jo Smophus, a Padawan with Control: 3D+1, Sense: 2D+2, and Alter: 1D+2. Jo wants to "turn on" Lightsaber Combat, which requires a Moderate (avg Diff 13) Control roll, and an Easy (avg Diff 8.) Sense roll. Now, you can be a good GM and give the player a Control Diff on the low end of the spectrum (11), and Sense at (6).

Now, if you are wanting to keep the flow going, would it be feasible to total up the Difficulties for the power (11+6=17) and have the player roll the total of their Control and Sense abilities, minus a MAP for multiple skill use? It would be 5D+3 minus 1D for the MAP, for a total of 4D+3. It would still make the chance to get the power working kind of a squeaker, but you'd get the rolls out of the way quicker.

Let's look on the higher side of the Force. Darth Maul (C: 7D+1, S: 8D+1, A: 7D+1) is fighting Qui Gon (C: 10D+1, S: 13D+2, A: 9D+1), and decides to pull one of his telekinetic pushes to the Jedi's face (Projected Fighting). The difficulties for the power are C: Difficult (avg. 18.), S: Difficult (avg. 18.), A: Moderate (avg. 13, modified by proximity; line of sight +2 for a total of 15). Adding the difficulties together gives us a whopping 51! Now, that seems crazy, yes? Well, now we add up Darth Maul's Force ability dice for a total of 22D+3 (minus 2D for MAPs, or 20D+3). Just rolling 16D on my computer's dice roller keeps giving me an average in the 60s, even with an occasional 1 on the Wild Die. This says that it is a simple task for Maul, and that is reflected in the movie during the Duel.

So, to keep a game moving, to keep the heat of the moment HOT! Would it not be prudent to use this method of rolling for Force powers?
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[Quetzacotl]

I actually like this idea a lot. It woul make the action faster and you get to do your stuff earlier without giving you too much of an advantage thanks to the MAP, AND your overall knowledge of the force would be important.

Thumbs up from me

[garhkal]

While it reduces the # of rolls, you are not really changing things much. Plus it also makes it seem easier imo to get powers up and running.. just keep bumping up ONE of the 2 (or 3) force skills needed for said power (so if you wanted to get LS combat up, just keep bumping sense only, so its cheaper.
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[Quetzacotl]

Isn't it the other way around?
Only bumping Sense would cost much more then advancing in both sense and control. While you have to pay like 5 CP to advance sense from 5D to 5D+1, you only need to pay 2 CP for Control from 2D to 2D+1. So you get 2 1/2 pips for the same amount of CP when you don't only bump sense in this case.

[Tupteq]

Such approach makes multi-force-skill powers easier to use because there's only one MAP (in RAW each roll has it's own MAP).
Let's take LSC as an example: having C:4D, S:3D and wanting to activate power in one round you have to declare two actions and roll both C and S with MAP (3D and 2D accordingly, giving 5D in total). With rules you proposed you roll 4D+3D-1D=6D (total MAP is 1D vs. 2D). Difference is even bigger if power is using all three skills (-2D vs. -6D). Not sure if it's the effect you wanted to achieve.

[Leon The Lion]

I like it. Hel, I'd go as far as to say I love it. Genius, Jamfke, pure genius.

[Barrataria]

[Leon The Lion]

I just thought:

When making such a combined roll, shouldn't we roll not one but two or three Wild Dice, depending on the number of skills combined?
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[Jamfke]

[garhkal]

Just still seems to me like yet another way to bump up the power of jedis over everyone else (since no one else has any 2 skill use powers etc)..
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[DougRed4]

I like it, too (and welcome back, Jamfke!) 8)

I was just thinking that one plus to this is that it does away with so many chances for failure (by eliminating the number of Wild Die rolls), though it also would reduce the number of extraordinary successes one could get (by rolling 6's), too.

I think I actually like that, so might test this out with only a single Wild Die. Makes things faster and more streamlined. Why get bogged down, waiting for someone to roll so many dice? (our Jedi often ends up rolling ahead of time, since it takes so long for him to pull off all his Force rolls).
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[CRMcNeill]

I find myself leaning more toward the flat value rules in the back of D6 Space. I would use the Wild-Die-only method when making a single roll, then use the 5D method for making multiple rolls or rolls in distracted situations.
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[Jamfke]

Currently starting up a dark side campaign over at my forums. I'll be giving this a try.
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[DougRed4]

We've tried this a bit and it seems to work well, FWIW.
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[Jamfke]

Yes, it has for us too so far. I'm only using it in the Play by Post game I'm running over at my own site, but I haven't seen any issues with it yet. We'll see how things stack up when there is a lot more Force slingin' taking place...soon...(Skyler, you didn't read this)...
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