Lightsabre Damage Tables

[Darcy Burgess]

Guess what...yet another person (me) is trying a Star Wars / RoS adaptation.

I've got some good stuff going re: skill packets and the force.

However, I'm running into some difficulty modifying the damage tables for energy weapons.

I know other people have done things like "ignore blood loss and crank up pain and shock", which works.

However, I wanted to come up with proper damage tables that were customized for lightsabres & blasters.  The blaster tables are pretty easy -- they literally are the piercing tables with reduced blood loss and increased shock & pain.

However, the lightsabre table is a different kettle of fish.  A great deal of the wounds in the cutting tables involve breaks and crushes -- based on the fact that heavy swords don't always cut cleanly, it is often their mass that does the damage.  Lightsabres don't work that way.

Typically, the area I run into is in the level 3-4 wounds, where you tend to get results like "shattered knee" and "arm broken, and lots of blood".  Translating that to lightsabre damage usually means "arm lopped off" and "leg severed".

I know that lightsabres are lethal, but I really want to try to keep the limb loss and instant death results to level 5 as much as possible.

So, does anyone have any good ideas for what I can substitute for all those breaks and crushes?

[hkdharmon]

Replace the crush bones with slashed tendons and muscles. It should have a similar effect to the broken bones.

[hkdharmon]

You could probably burn injuries to the table as well across the board. As for my previous post, simply replce broken bones with severed tendons and muscles. They would be very disabling while not being true amputations.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

light saber? I would just make evrything not a level 0-1 a level five limb severed. But thats just me :)

[Vagabond Elf]

Given that the only thing that actually seems to stop a light-sabre is another light-sabre, I'd agree with Ashren, but I'd do it this way:  Light-sabres have a damage score of 10 (ST is irrelevant), can only be parried/blocked by another Light-Sabre or a force-field, and suffer no loss for TO or armour (until you start talking AT-ATs, at least).

Light-sabres are really, really nasty.

[John Harper]

In one of the Obi-Wan books, the Jedi apprentices fight with "training sabers" which are essentially regular lightsabers turned down to a minimal energy output. After one of these bouts, the students have various minor wounds, including burns and bruises.

A lightsaber clearly has some kind of kinetic force when swung (Luke sends guys flying when he hits them on Jabba's sail barge) and of course the blade is extremely hot (hot enough to liquify a blast door). So I think it makes sense for lower-level wounds to be severe burns and impact damage in addition to the cut tendons mentioned already.

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi all.  Thanks for the input.

I've been working on the tables, and was working with the "tendons/muscles/burns" idea. -- I only have a small part of location VI and all of VII left to do.

However, the "lopping off limbs except on 0/1" also holds a lot of merit.

I'm loathe to chuck all the work out (even if I do, I'll save my current version, so that I can go back to it later if need be).

My current idea is a bit of a compromise --

Have the tables go to Level 4 only, with the appropriate "ramping up" of lethality.

In addition, level "0" hits would still cause some minor damage -- say 2 or 3 shock, to represent the grazing pass of the lightsabre's heat.

Also, to put things in perspective, I'm planning on using Bob Richter's idea for how damage is calculated: net successes only (no strength, no toughness, no armour), so high-lethality hits will likely occur with great frequency.

[Darcy Burgess]

Also, another thought:

In the films (never read the comics, and I think the only book I ever read was one of the Lando books -- something about a harp), it's rare that a Lightsabre gets used against a "hero" level character, unless that character also weilds a lightsabre.

The only time this isn't the case (that I can think of) is Obie-Wan vs. Jango in Episode II.

Otherwise, they're used against mooks (Jabba's goons, combat droids) or other lightsbre-weilding dudes.

Does this imply some sort of Jedi code?  One that even the sith follow?

If so, it has interesting implications in a "heroic damage" concept.

[Deliverator]

Also, another thought:

In the films (never read the comics, and I think the only book I ever read was one of the Lando books -- something about a harp), it's rare that a Lightsabre gets used against a "hero" level character, unless that character also weilds a lightsabre.

The only time this isn't the case (that I can think of) is Obie-Wan vs. Jango in Episode II.

Otherwise, they're used against mooks (Jabba's goons, combat droids) or other lightsbre-weilding dudes.

Does this imply some sort of Jedi code?  One that even the sith follow?

If so, it has interesting implications in a "heroic damage" concept.

I think this would be better handled with Destiny, actually, or perhaps other SA's.  The reason you have Luke and Darth and the Emperor facing off up on the Death Star while all the people sans lightsaber are duking it out down on Endor is because Luke has something like:

Destiny:  Confront my father once and for all
Drive:  Destroy the Emperor
Conscience:  Turn said father back to the light side of the Force
Faith:  The Force is my guide

Vader has:

Destiny:  Redeem self at Last Possible Moment (TM)
Drive:  Depose Palpatine; rule the galaxy w/Luke at my side
Faith:  The Dark Side *is* stronger, fool!

Whereas Han and Leia have Passion: Each other, Destiny: hang out with ass-kicking teddy bears...  um, wait.  No.  But you get the point.

Matt

[Mike_Oracle]

Hi All,

  Why not just look at the damage lightsabers do in the Star Wars RPG, and adapt the TROS combat tables appropriately to match? For that matter, look at any Star Wars game (KOTOR, Jedi Academy, etc.) and see how much damage lightsabers do on average. That might save you a lot of trouble researching how much damage they should do on average.

-Mike

[Durgil]

Hi Mike,
This forum for TRoS is pretty much a ghost town now.  You might want to make this and future posts HERE.