Lightsaber Base Damage

[vanir]

Any weapon can be fumbled on a catastrophic wild die mishap. The reason for the lightsabre specification of self injury at 10 points shy of difficulty for any hit is because of the description Lucas gave in the Star Wars novel published when the movie was released. In this book Lucas remarked that Luke was both impressed and intimidated by the lightsabre, its energy blade looked like it could cut through the hull of a starship like a knife through butter, but because it was weightless he realised he only needed to be distracted for a moment to inadvertantly cut himself, there was no sense of motion, so no way of being entirely sure where exactly the blade was at a given moment without looking, even if you're the one holding it.
And in combat you don't stare at your weapon.

[cheshire]

Imagine trying to wield a flashlight and not touching yourself with the beam. I'll tell you, people cut themselves slicing vegetables more often than they would trying to wield a weapon with the Wild Die mechanic proposed.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[DougRed4]

So how many of you consider lightsabers to do energy damage? And do you consider blaster weapons to do the same (energy)?

And if you consider either/both of these to be energy, then is physical only stuff like knives and punches and the like?

[Naaman]

Since there are only really two basic types of weapon damage in SWD6, "energy" seems the most logical for a lightsaber.

[jmanski]

Blasters = energy
Lightsabers = *special* energy

Punches, knives, bullets, sticks, explosions = physical

(edited lightsaber to special)
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Quetzacotl]

I see Lightsaber as Energy as well... though i would like to give explosions a new type of damage... explosive ^^ I just wonder when Explosions can be warded against with some armor that gives resistance against energy... that doesn't feel right

[DougRed4]

Thanks for the answers all, and I completely agree (though for me just calling lightsabers energy is good enough).

[Naaman]

Explosions are actually the rapid expansion of gasses such that any container they are in cannot withstand the pressure. Consider a balloon popping. Damage can come from fragmentation (clearly physical), the concussion (probably physical), and heat (likely energy).

For simplicity's sake, Most grenades and missiles are presumably physical, while thermal detonators or plasma type munitions might be energy.

[jmanski]

I'd just simplify it to say that all explosions are physical. But I'm a simple kind of guy
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

[Tupteq]

Reviving topic (I hope it's not a problem).

I'm currently using following rules for LS damage:
* Base LS damage is 5D, moreover most of LS have only 4D+2 damage (less powerful crystals are easier to obtain).
* Energy armor is used versus LS, but LS has penetration value of 1D (subtracts 1D form armor), this way stormtrooper armor doesn't protect against LS at all.
* Full value of energy armor is used only if it's made of special materials (phrik, cortosis, mandalorian iron etc.).
* Jedi may upgrade LS damage by using extra crystals (max 2 additional crystals, each provides +1/+2 or +1D), so theoretically with 3 pontite crystals (one base crystal and two damage increasing crystals +1D each) it's possible to raise damage to 7D+2. But such lightsaber couldn't work under water, have adjustable length etc., because all crystal slots are taken by damage boost.
* Each full round of LS cutting through material increases LS damage by +1D (up to +3D). I adapted this rule from this thread.
* I reduced Lightsaber Combat bonuses to +1 for each die, so Control 4D provides only +4 to damage. Also, this bonus applies only when Jedi is able to make a swing two-handed (so it doesn't apply when slowly cutting through material).

[DougRed4]

Bringing back an old thread is no problem at all, Tupteq!

I like some of your ideas, especially that last one.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Fallon Kell]

[Darth_Hilarious]

A flak vest may protect the wearers torso from shrapnel but does NOT cover the extremities, since a vest only covers 40-50 percent of the body i just reduce shrapnel damage by half and give full concussive damage.

[Naaman]

This is where we run. into the problem of how to interpret damage. Because the vest covers the vitals, it is certainly harder to achieve a "kill" or a "mortal wound." Heck, even a result of "incapacitated" is far less likely.

The queation is, do we express this benefit of armor in a better overall die code to resist al damage frome area-effect attacks, ruling that a failure to damage the target is the total result of target's toughness and armor combined (those pieces of flying shrapnel that hit outaide the protected zone were not significant enough to cause recordable damage)? Or do we simply say that since the "whole body" is vulnerable to the blast only the parts not protected should take full damage (that is, a kill is rendered impossible, since vitals are protected, being automatically reduced to "mortally wounded," which may result in the target dying eventually.

I'm of the opinion that if vitals are covered by armor, the benefits apply to all damage, no matter the source (provided the armor could actually be effective against that source), since being forced to target exrremities reduces the cchances of inflicting serious damage. Getting punctured in the arm is far les serious than a puncture to the chest..