Combat | How to Play Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition | The Infernal Brotherhood

Combat

The Infernal Brotherhood of the Scruffy Looking, Nerf Herders, TTRPG / / Combat, How To Play, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition, Tabletop Role-Playing Game, WEG, West End Games

Let’s learn the basics of combat for West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition. You can learn more about Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Roleplaying_Game 

You can pick up the original sourcebooks as PDF’s here: https://www.starwarstimeline.net/Westendgames.htm 

Time Stamps:

About Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition

Few books or games have had as enduring an impact upon the Star Wars galaxy and its fans as Star Wars™: The Roleplaying Game. Originally published by West End Games in 1987, it arrived at a time when the future of the Star Wars galaxy was uncertain, and it captivated a whole generation of gamers with rules and guidelines that made it possible to design and enjoy adventures truly worthy of the Star Wars universe and its ongoing space opera.

Now Fantasy Flight Games is proud to offer faithful recreations of this influential rulebook and The Star Wars™ Sourcebook. Our Star Wars™: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition is a limited edition set of both books, printed with higher quality than the originals and packaged in a stylized slipcase.

These books were sent to Timothy Zahn as references when he started to develop Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Thrawn trilogy. They introduced materials that were later adopted into Star Wars canon, such as the names of alien races like the Twi’lek, Rodians, and Quarren. They even inspired members of the Lucasfilm Story Group as they worked on their writers’ bible.

Now, Fantasy Flight Games is proud to return Star Wars: The Roleplaying to print as a collectible set of two high-quality, hardbound books presented in a stylized slipcase. You’ll find all the original game materials—just as playable as ever—and they’re presented with the same graphic design and fake, in-universe Star Wars advertisements for the Imperial Navy, the R2 astromech Droid, and more.

Even the books’ use of black-and-white, blue ink, and full color sections have been recreated, along with its use of still photos and concept art, some of which have been updated for this new 30th Anniversary Edition. Finally, the books come with a foreword by Pablo Hidalgo, one of the creative executives on the Lucasfilm Story Group.

Transcript

Intro

Welcome to The Infernal Brotherhood of the Scruffy Looking, Nerf Herders! In this episode of How to Play West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition, we are discussing Combat.

Discussion

Basic Game Mechanic

With nearly every Tabletop Roleplaying game or TTRPG, the shared storytelling between the Game Master or GM and the Player Characters or PC’s will run into some form of conflict. Be it  opposed by a non-player character or NPC or not, there needs to be some way of resolving a PC’s conflict with a NPC or their environment. In Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition this is accomplished through rolling one or more six sided dice or D6. The number of D6 you roll depends on the Attribute or Skill you are using at the moment. So for example, if you are calculating hyperdrive coordinates to Tatooine you would use the Astrogation skill under the Mechanical Attribute. You would only use an Attribute if there is not a specific Skill that affects what you are doing. However many D6’s you have represented on your character sheet next to Astrogation is the number of dice you roll. To succeed you will always need to roll equal to or greater than the difficulty number that the GM assigns to the task. 

It’s really that simple. So, if you want to run and leap over a storage container for cover, roll a 10 or more with your Climbing/Jumping Skill, for example. Some conflicts will be opposed by PC’s or NPC’s. In these cases it’s just as simple. If you want to arm wrestle, both characters roll their Strength Attribute, as there is no arm wrestle skill, and the highest total wins. All ties go to the PC over any NPC. If PC’s tie, re-roll. In some cases the GM may decide one character has an advantage over another, and may assign bonus or penalty like +2 to one side for example, just add that to your roll total. Most actions take one combat round, or five seconds, to accomplish. Some skills may take longer like starship repair. Your GM will let you know when this is the case.

Taking Actions in Combat

Taking an action like using a skill in combat is traditionally as simple as taking the five second round to complete and your turn is over. But there are actions you may take that affect the outcome of that skill. For example, you may wish to prepare for the action to ensure its success. Preparing takes a full round, but the next round when you execute the prepared action, you gain 1D more to your roll. But you may only take the prepared action on the next round, or you lose the benefit of preparing it. Everyone can move five meters by walking in their turn as a free action, but if you would like to run, you may run up to ten meters, though running is an action. This is where we need to discuss taking multiple actions in a single combat round. For every extra action you take, after your first declared action, you subtract 1D from each. So if you want to Run then fire your blaster, your run counts as your first action, and firing your blaster is your second action, and it is penalized by 1D. If your Blaster Skill is 4D, you would roll 3D instead, for example. This 1D cost applies to each extra action. So if you fire three times, you are penalized 2D to all rolls, as you are using two extra actions in one combat round. When trying to accomplish more than one action at a time, they all suffer.

The Combat Round

Let’s cover combat rounds next. As previously mentioned, a combat round is approximately five seconds, in which you may take one action. Combat rounds are broken down into Segments. This abstract sequencing clarifies what happens when, in any given round. This may get a little confusing so please stick with me here. First is your decision segment where the PC’s and GM decides what they or the NPC’s are going to do in that round. Second is the declaration segment where the GM will ask everyone what their PC’s are going to do, and tell them what the NPC’s are going to do. Third is the first action segment where each character takes the first action they declared. You cannot change your decisions at this point, so make sure you really think about what you want to do in the decision segment. This is typically a movement, skill or attribute use. Fourth is the second action segment, where if the PC or NPC declares more than one action, they will now take their second action. And we proceed to subsequent actions if declared.

There is no official Initiative, as everything is happening at the same time. The reason combat is broken down in segments is because the PC’s and NPC’s roll indicates which happens first in the segment affecting their opponent. For example, If the PC and NPC are going to fire at each other, and then the NPC is going to run for cover, in the first action segment, both the PC and NPC fire at each other simultaneously. If either one of them is wounded, they lose all of their actions for that combat round. Both the PC and NPC will roll their blaster skill, and if both beat the necessary difficulty number of their range, or distance from each other, the highest roll total hits first. If the NPC instead declared they were running first, then firing, the NPC would roll their dexterity attribute, as there is no running skill, at the same time the PC rolls their blaster skill. Again, the highest roll total would go first, possibly stopping their opponent.

Damage

In Star Wars, most weapons cauterize as they wound, so bleeding out or infections are rare. Every form of attack has a damage code. This tells you how many D6 to roll if you successfully hit your target. There are no hit points in this TTRPG, instead they use Wound Statuses which build on each other. These are identified as Healthy, your default state. Stunned, falling prone, unable to do anything for the remainder of the combat round. Wounded has the same effects as Stunned, and your Skills and Attributes are reduced by 1D. If Wounded again, you are Incapacitated. If incapacitated, you fall prone and are unconscious until healed. And finally Mortally Wounded, having the same effect of Incapacitated, but now you must roll 2D every round, and if the total is ever lower than the number of rounds since you were mortally wounded, you die.

To determine how you are affected by a successful attack, the attacker rolls the damage code, and the defender rolls their strength attribute. Then you compare the two. If the Strength roll is greater than the Damage roll, they are Stunned. If the Damage Roll is greater than the Strength roll, they are Wounded. If the Damage roll is two times greater than the Strength roll, they are incapacitated, and if the Damage roll is three times greater than the Strength roll, they are Mortally Wounded. 

You can even take damage from falling or colliding into objects. Refer to the Falling and Collisions table for the Damage Code based on falling distance or velocity of the collision. As you can see, being hit at the very least, stops you from acting in a combat round, so it’s important to stay out of the way of incoming attacks, and getting healed. 

Healing

There are a number of ways you may heal your wounded character. But in combat there is only one: Medpacs. Any character with the Medicine Skill can attempt to treat an injured character. First you will need a Medpac, and second it will take a full combat round to treat the wounded. The difficulty number for treating them depends on the severity of the wound. If the character is Wounded, it is ten, Incapacitated is fifteen, and Mortally Wounded is twenty. If your roll is successful, you reduce the wound status by one. Mortally Wounded to Incapacitated, Incapacitated to Wounded, and Wounded to Stunned.

In the Star Wars Universe there are also Rejuvenation Tanks, or Bacta Tanks. The character must be submerged in the bacta for a duration based on the wound status. Wounded is 2D hours, Incapacitated is 2D Days, and Mortally Wounded is 2D Weeks! It may take some time, but when you come out, you are healthy again. Of course you may also heal naturally. You may make a Strength Attribute roll once a day. Though you may only naturally heal Wounded or Incapacitated status in this way. If you’re wounded and your roll is under six, you become Incapacitated. If your roll is over twelve, you are now Stunned. If you are incapacitated and your roll is under eight, you die. If it’s over fourteen, you are now Wounded.

Advanced Combat

There are some advanced actions you may want to consider in a Combat Round as well. The first are reactions. Reactions are not required to be declared, but they do count against your total actions in a round, reducing all subsequent actions by 1D. Reactions take the form of Dodge, Melee Parry, or Brawling Parry. So if you acted in the first segment, but in the second segment you are going to dodge, that dodge roll and all future actions will be reduced by 1D. However you only need to take a single reaction for the entire combat round! You roll your dodge, melee parry, or brawling parry skill and your total is added to the difficulty number the enemy needs to meet or exceed in order to hit you. Apply that same reaction skill roll total to all future skill checks in the same combat round.

In addition to walking five meters or running ten meters, you can also change your stance in combat. As long as your attacker isn’t in point blank range, you can fall prone and add five to the difficulty number of your attacker. Falling prone doesn’t take an action, much like walking, but standing up is an action like running. You can also move while prone at a speed of two meters a round, but moving while prone is an action like running as well. 

As mentioned earlier, attacking with a ranged weapon means you need to exceed the range difficulty number. But attacking with a Melee weapon or brawling uses the difficulty number of the weapon instead. The damage you inflict is based on your strength for brawling and your strength and the damage modifier of the weapon for the melee weapons. Weapons like Lightsabers, Grenades and Thermal Detonators use specific rules, and will be addressed in future videos. At times a PC or NPC may be wearing armor. The armor’s modifier increases their strength code for incoming damage rolls only. It also reduces their dexterity by the same amount. 

You may set your blasters to stun. This will knock a target unconscious without killing or injuring them. It doesn’t take an action but it will reduce your rolls for the rest of the combat round as if it were. If you hit a character with your blaster set to stun, the following wound status changes are in effect: Stuned has no effect, Wounded is stunned for two combat rounds, Incapacitated or Mortally Wounded is knocked unconscious. If struck twice, you are automatically knocked unconscious. You may draw your weapon from a holster, which, like setting it to stun, does not count as an action, but it does reduce your roll as if it were.

There are optional combat related rules for using maps, miniatures, and more in a virtual tabletop or VTT scenario rather than the default theater of the mind play style, but that will also have to wait for another video.

Outro

Thank you all for tuning in. We invite you to subscribe to this channel and click the bell to get notified about our next video. You can now join the Infernal Brotherhood through YouTube Memberships, and pick up some of our custom designed Star Wars apparel by following the links in the description below .

Until the Infernal Brotherhood convenes again my fellow scruffy looking, nerf herders “May the Force be with you.”

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