Star Wars Rules Upgrade

as offered by WEG on their website
In August of 1996, West End Games released Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Revised and Expanded. Aside from the extensive physical makeover of the book, as well as the inclusion of a much needed index, there were only a few changes to the game system.

WEG released a free pamphlet available to those who owned Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition (often referred to as "The Blue Book"), updating the exsisting rules with the few minor changes that had been made for the Revised and Expanded edition.

WEG reprinted the rules upgrade in the official Star Wars Adventure Journal, issue 11. The following is a transcription of that article.


 

The Star Wars Rules Upgrade Contents


The Star Wars Rule of Thumb

All aspects of the Star Wars roleplaying game boil down to a mechanic called the "Star Wars Rule of Thumb."
 

Pick a difficulty number. If the character's skill roll is equal or higher, she succeeds.

 

 

Whenever interpreting the rules during play, keep in mind this basic mechanic. Keep the story moving, focus on the characters, and the players aren't likely to argue about the rules: All they'll care about is the excitement of the game!

Chapter One: Characters

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this is in Chapter One, "Beginning Characters," pages 7-15.

Character Advancement

Clarification: Specializations are considered "separate" skills when they're selected. They improve independantly of the skill upon which they were initially based.

Clarification: A character can only improve a skill one pip between adventures.

Improving Skills

Improving Skills: Character Point Cost: Number before the "D." Training Time: None if the character used the skill in the last adventure. One day per Character Point spent to improve the skill if the character has a teacher; two days per Character Point if the character is training on his own. May reduce training time one day per additional Character Point spent (minimum: one day).

Improving Specializations: Character Point Cost: 1/2 the number before the "D." Training Time: None if the character used the skill in the last adventure. One day per Character Point spent to improve the skill if the character has a teacher; two days per Character Point if the character is training on his own. May reduce training time one day per additional Character Point spent (minimum: one day).

Improving Advanced Skills: Character Point Cost: Two times the number before the "D." Training Time: One week per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher; two weeks per Character Point without a teacher. Characters must train to improve advanced skills.

Note: Some advanced skills have different rules. Check the skill's description.

Improving Attributes: Character Point Cost: 10 times the number before the "D." Training Time: One week per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher; two weeks per Character Point spent without a teacher. Character must train to improve attributes.

Note: The character rolls his new attribute; the gamemaster rolls the attribute maximum listed in the species description. If the character's roll is equal to or less than the gamemaster's roll, the attribute increases; if the character rolls higher, the attribute does not improve, but the character receives half the Character Points back.

Move: Character Point Cost: Number for the current Move. Training Time: One week per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher; two weeks per Character Point without a teacher. Characters must train to improve their Move.

Note: May not be improved above the maximum Move for species.

Force Sensitive: Character Point Cost: Costs 20 Character Points to become Force-sensitive. Characters may not "lose" their Force-sensitivity. Training Time: None
 

Chapter Two: Attributes and Skills
Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was Chapter Four, "Attributes and Skills," pages 72-91.

Knowledge Skills

Use the following general guidelines for selecting difficulties:
 

Scholar

Time Taken: One round to several days.
Specialization: Particular field of study - archaeology, Jedi lore, history, geology, physics.

This skill covers formal academic training or dedicated research in a particular field. Scholar also reflects a character's ability to find information through research. Characters often choose a specialization to reflect a specific area which they have studied. Specializations are subjects often taught at the great universities throughout the galaxy, including archeaology, botany, chemistry, geology, history, hyperspace theories and physics. Specializations can also be topics a character can research on his own.

Scholar represents "book-learning," not information learned from practical experience. Gamemasters can choose to allow players a limited benefit under certain circumstances - the character is applying theory in a real-world situation.

The scholar difficulty is based on the obscurity and detail of the information sought.
 

Tactics

Time Taken: One round to several minutes.
Specializations: Type of military unit - squads, fleets, capital ships, ground assault.

Tactics represents a character's skill in deploying military forces and maneuvering them to his best advantage. It may be rolled to gain general knowledge of how to best stage certain military operations: blockading a planet with a fleet, invading an enemy installation, assaulting a fixed turbolaser battery.

This skill may also be used to determine the best response to an opponent's move in battle: what to do if the enemy entraps your ships in a pincer movement, how to proceed in the assault should reinforcements arrive, what to do if a unit becomes trapped behind enemy lines.

Although tactics rolls might reveal how to best handle military situations, the final outcome of a battle hinges on other skill rolls - command for the leader, and the combat rolls of both forces.

Tactics difficulties should be based on various factors in a battle: how many units are involved, the setting, and the difference in training and equipment between units.

When rolling this skill, characters are often seeking ways to deal with military situations. The better the result, the more hints a gamemaster should give to help the character win the battle. Hints can take the form of reminders about different moves the enemy can make, suggestions on how to maneuver the character's forces, or (for especially good rolls) risky and unanticipated moves which could throw the enemy off guard.

Mechanical Skills

Astrogation

Time Taken: See chapter seven, "Space Travel and Combat."
 

Jet Pack Operation

Time Taken: One round.

This skill represents a character's skill at using jet packs. Jet packs rely on pulling in surrounding atmosphere and mixing it with fuel, so they can only be operated within atmosphere.
 

Rocket Pack Operation

Time Taken: One round or longer

This skill represents a character's ability to use personal, self-contained rocket packs. These backpack units contain all the chemical thrust componants for propulsion and maneuvering, and can be used in zero, low, and high atmospheric conditions.

Strength Skills

Brawling

Clarification: Brawling has a difficulty of Very Easy unless the target parries.
 

Lifting

Lifting difficulties depend upon the weight of the object to be lifted.
 
Weight Difficuty Level Weight Difficulty Level
10 kg Very Easy 1 metric ton Heroic +10
50 kg Easy 1.5 metric tons Heroic +20
100 kg Moderate 2 metric tons Heroic +30
200 kg Difficult 2.5 metric tons Heroic +40
500 kg Very Difficult 3 metric tons Heroic +50
750 kg Heroic N/A N/A

Increase the difficulty based on how long the character wishes to lift the object:
 

Time
Difficulty Level
Increase
1 - 6 rounds
(up to 30 seconds)
No increase
7 round - 3 minutes +1 difficulty level
Up to 10 minutes +2 difficulty levels
Up to 30 minutes +3 difficulty levels
Up to 1 hour +4 difficulty levels

After the first hour, the character must make a new lifting or Strength roll every hour at the same difficulty as for one hour. If the character fails the roll, he must rest for twice as long as he was lifting the heavy weight.
 

Technical Skills

Using Repair Skills

Repair times, difficulties, and costs are generalizations. They may be customized as needed in game play.

The first repair roll is made after 15 minutes of work. Additional repair roll times are noted in the skill's description and altered depending upon the situation.

The costs are always a percentage of the item's original value. If someone else does the work for the characters, double or triple the cost.

Drives: A Difficult repair roll is needed to replace a destroyed drive. The cost is 35% of the craft's original value.

Hyperdrives: A Moderate repair roll is necessary to fix a damaged hyperdrive.

Manueverability:
 

Maneuverability
Dice Lost

Repair
Difficulty
Repair
Cost
-1D
Easy
10%
-2D
Moderate
15%
-3D or more
Difficult
20%

Move or Space: To repair lost "moves," check the chart below for difficulties and costs.
 

Moves
Lost
Repair
Difficulty
Repair
Cost
1
Easy
10%
2
Moderate
15%
3
Difficult
20%
4
Very Difficult
25%
5
Drive destroyed
and must be
replaced.
100%

Shields:
 

Shield
Dice Lost
Repair
Difficulty
Repair
Cost
-1D
Easy
5%
-2D
Moderate
5%
-3D
Difficult
5%
-4D
or more
Very Difficult
10%

Weapons: Difficulties depend on how badly weapons are damaged. The repair cost is a percentage of the weapons's original cost, not the cost of the vehicle it's mounted on.
 

Damage
Repair
Difficulty
Repair
Cost
Lightly
Easy
15%
Heavily
Moderate
25%
Severly
Very Difficult
35%
Destroyed
May not
be repaired
N/A

Improving Vehicles, Vessels, and Weapons


Modification Limit: Stats may only be increased one "pip," one move level or one hyperdrive level at a time.

Increases in the charts below reflect modification above the original stat. Using these rules, no system may be improved more than +1D+2, or more than four moves.

A new improvement roll can be made every month of game time. As with repairs, the costs are a percentage of the item's original value; if someone else does the work, double or triple the cost.

Hyperdrives: The difficulty and cost depends upon the old hyperdrive modifier compared to the new one.
 

Old/New
Difficulty
Cost
x4/x3
Easy
10%
x3/x2
Moderate
15%
x2/x1
Very Difficult
25%
x1/x0.5
Heroic
35%

Failure on these modification repair rolls could permanently damage hyperdrives, or cause them to function sporadically.

Maneuverability:
 

Pip Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+1
Easy
5%
+2
Moderate
10%
+1D
Difficult
15%
+1D+1
Very Difficult
20%
+1D+2
Heroic
25%
Move or Space:
 
Move
Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+5
Moderate
10%
+10
Difficult
15%
+15
Very Difficult
20%
+20
Heroic
25%

To boost a starship's Space stat, use the chart below. (The ship's new Move can be found on the chart "Ships in an Atmosphere" on page 110 of Star Wars, Second Edition.)
 

Space
Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+1
Moderate
10%
+2
Difficult
15%
+3
Very Difficult
20%
+4
Heroic
25%

Shields:
 

Pip
Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+1
Easy
15%
+2
Moderate
25%
+1D
Difficult
30%
+1D+1
Very Difficult
35%
+1D+2
Heroic
50%

Weapons: Can improve fire control and / or damage.
 

Pip
Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+1
Easy
15%
+2
Moderate
25%
+1D
Difficult
30%
+1D+1
Very Difficult
35%
+1D+2
Heroic
50%

 
Range
Increase
Difficulty
Cost
+5%
Easy
5%
+10%
Moderate
10%
+15%
Difficult
15%
+20%
Very Difficult
20%
+25%
Heroic
25%

Chapter Four: The Rules

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was Chapter Three, "Basic Mechanics," pages 52-54 and 58-60.

The Wild Die

If a "1" comes up on the Wild Die, the gamemaster may choose to just add up the dice normally (instead of having a complication occur or subtracting a character's other highest die).

Clarification: The Wild Die rule applies to all rolls, including damage rolls in combat!

Difficulty Numbers

The highest difficulty level is Heroic, covering any difficulty number above 30. Some situations specify to add a number to the Heroic difficulty: "Heroic+10" means a difficulty number of 41-50, "Heroic+20" means 51-60 and so forth.

Scenes and Rounds

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was in Chapter Two, "Gamemastering," pages 27-30.
 

Rounds

Each round has two phases:
 
  1. Initiative
  2. Roll actions

1. Initiative. The character with the highest Perception on each side rolls his Perception. High roller gets to choose whether his side goes first or last.

2. Roll Actions. The first side acts now. Acting in Perception order (highest to lowest), every player tells you, the gamemaster, how many actions his character is making (so you can assign the multiple actions penalty). Each player rolls his character's first action.

This process is repeated for each character on the second side. After every character has taken his first action, the characters on the first side take their second actions. (Characters without second actions are skipped.) Then the characters on the second side roll their second actions.

This continues until every character on both sides has taken all actions.

Reaction Skills. When a character gets attacked, he can use "reaction skills" to get out of the way. See "Reaction Skills" under "Chapter Five: Combat and Injuries."
 

Gamemaster Tips


Combined Actions. Combined actions are used when groups of characters work together to accomplish a single task.

Aside from working on the task, the only other thing a combining character can do is use reation skills.

The character with the highest command or Perception is the leader. He can only command as many characters as he has command skill dice.

If he's supervising only, he rolls his full command skill. If he's commanding and working on the task, this counts as two actions and he suffers a -1D penalty to his command roll.

Select a command difficulty based on the difficulty of the task, the skill of the characters involved and how well they work together. (Use your judgment.)

If the command roll is successful, the combined action bonus is +1D for every three characters combining. Add a +1 for one "extra" character and a +2 for two "extra" characters.

If the commander fails the roll, subtract -1D from the bonus for every point the roll failed by. (A bonus cannot go below 0D.)

The combined action bonus is added to the character with the highest skill who's working on the task.

If a group of characters are combining actions on a combat task, the bonus can be split between the attack roll and the damage roll. If a task requires two or more skill rolls, the bonus can be split up among any of these rolls.

Character Elements


Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was in Chapter Three, "Basic Mechanics," pages 54-58.
 

Character Points


Clarification: Characters may spend two Character Points for skill or attribute uses, including attacks.

Characters may spend five Character Points on specializations, when dodging or parrying (including vehicle and starship dodges, and lightsaber parries), or when using Perception or control to resist other's Force powers.

Clarification: Characters may use Character Points or a Force Point in a round; they may not use both.

Character Points and Force Points may be spent at any time.

Chapter Five: Combat and Injuries


Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was in Chapter Three, "Basic Mechanics," pages 60-68.

Reaction Skills


Characters use "reaction skills" to block or avoid attacks. The game's reaction skills are dodge, melee parry, brawling parry, and lightsaber (if your character is wielding a lightsaber). Repulsorlift operation and other vehicle skills can be used to perform a "vehicle dodge" to avoid enemy fire. Capital ship piloting, space transports and starfighter piloting can be used to perform a "starship dodge" to avoid attacks.

When someone attacks a character, the target character declares the reaction and must roll the skill before the attack roll is made. The reaction skill roll is the attacker's new difficulty number and is in effect for the rest of the round.

The character can use up any remaining actions for a reaction or have the reaction be an extra action, accepting a higher multiple action penalty for the rest of the round.

Combat Modifiers


Called Shots. Attackers can make a "called shot" against a small target. Add +1D to the difficulty for a target 10 to 50 centimeters long. Add +4D to the difficulty for a target one to 10 centimeters long. Add +8D to the difficulty for a target less than a centimeter long.

Scale


The scales, from "lowest" to "highest," are character (creature), speeder, walker, starfighter, capital and Death Star.

The scale modifiers reflect the differences between smalle, fragile targets (like characters) and large, tough targets (like Star Destroyers).
 

Scale
Modifier
Character
N/A
Speeder
2D
Walker
4D
Starfighter
6D
Capital
12D
Death Star
24D

Example: A landspeeder (speeder-scale) is firing at an AT-AT (walker-scale). The landspeeder has a modifier of 2D; the AT-AT has a modifier of 4D. The adjusted modifier is 2D.

Lower Against Higher. When a "lower" scale character or vehicle is shooting at a "higher" scale character vehicle:
 


Example: The landspeeder fires at the walker. The landspeeder's blaster cannon has a fire control of 2D and a damage of 3D+1. The walker has no maneuverability (0D) and a body strength of 6D.

The landspeeder gets to add the adjusted modifier of 2D to its roll to hit. If the landspeeder hits, the landspeeder rolls the cannon's normal damage of 3D+1. However, because the walker is of a higher scale, it gets to add the adjusted modifier of 2D to its body strength of 6D: it rolls 8D to resist damage.

Higher Against Lower. When a "higher" scale character or vehicle is shooting at a "lower" scale character or vehicle:

Example: Assuming the walker survived the blast (and that's a pretty safe assumption), the walker's commander decides to return fire.

When the walker fires, it uses its fire control normally. The landspeeder, because it is a lower scale vehicle, adds the adjusted modifier of 2D to its maneuverability to dodge the attack.

If the walker hits with its blast, the walker adds the adjusted modifier of 2D to its normal weapon damage. The landspeeder only rolls its normal body strength to resist damage.

Damage

The Second Edition Character Damage Chart is still used, but there's a new level of damage: "wounded twice."

Wounded. A wounded charac who's wounded a second time is wounded twice.

Wounded Twice. A character who's wounded twice falls prone and can take no actions for the rest of the round. The character suffers a penalty of -2D to all skill and attribute rolls until he is healed. A wounded twice character who is wounded again is incapacitated.

Mortally Wounded. A character making a Moderate first aid total can "stabilize" a mortally wounded character. The charac is still mortally wounded but will survive is a medpac or bacta tank is used on him within one hour (Moderate first aid total); otherwise, he dies.

Stun Damage. Weapons set for stun roll damage normally, but treat any result more serious than "stunned" as "unconscious for 2D minutes."

Healing

Natural Healing. Characters who are wounded twice must rest for three days before rolling to heal. Use the chart for wounded characters to determine whether they heal.
 


Chapter Six: Movement and Chases

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was Chapter Five, "Movement," pages 92-98. Partial Moves. After picking a "move speed" (cautious, cruising, high speed or all-out speed), a character or vehicle can move anywhere between half and the full move speed.

Acceleration and Deceleration. Characters may increase or decrease their movement speed up to two levels per round.

Vehicles may increase or decrease their movement speed up to one level per round.

Long-Distance Movement. All-out movement takes its toll after extended periods of time.

Characters or animals going all-out must make stamina rolls every minute. The first difficulty is Very Easy; increase the difficulty one level for each additional roll. If the character fails the roll, she must rest for twice as long as she was moving all-out.

High speed movement requires stamina rolls once every 10 minutes. The first roll is Very Easy and increases one difficulty level for each additional roll.

Vehicles going all-out must make body strength rolls every 10 minutes. The first difficulty is Very Easy; increase the difficulty one level for each additional roll.

If the vehicle fails the roll by 1-10 points, it's suffering strain and must "rest" for twice as long as it was moving all-out. If the vehicle fails the roll by 11 or more points, the vehicle has suffered a mechanical failure and requires a Moderate repair roll and at least one hour of work.

High speed movement requires body strength rolls once every hour. The first roll is Very Easy and increase one difficulty level for each additional roll.

Maneuvers. The movement difficulty includes basic maneuvers: straight-line movement, a couple of turns and other simple movements.

For more complex maneuvers, add the difficulty modifiers as needed:
 
+1-5 Maneuver is fairly easy.
+6-10 Maneuver is somewhat difficult and requires a certain amount of skill.
+11-15 Maneuver is very difficult and requires a very talented (or lucky) driver or pilot.
16+ Maneuver appears to be almost impossible. Only the very best drivers can pull off a maneuver of this difficulty.

Character Movement Failures. Movement failures remain as listed in Star Wars, Second Edition, page 95 except as noted below.

7-10. Fall. The character falls halfway through her Move, but manages to catch herself and is now kneeling. She may take no actions for the rest of the round and suffers a -2D penalty to all actions for the next round

11-15. Minor Tumble. The character falls one-quarter of the way through her Move. She may take no actions for the rest of the round and the next round.

A character moving at all-out takes 1D damage; characters moving at slower speeds take no damage.

Collision Damage. Collision damage depends on how fast the character or vehicle was moving.
 

Move
Character
Damage
Move
Vehicle
Damage
Cautious
1D
Cautious
2D
Cruise
2D
Cruise
4D
High Speed
3D
High Speed
6D
All-Out
4D
All-Out
10D

Ramming. Add +10 to the movement difficulty for the ramming vehicle. Ramming counts as a separate action: the pilot suffers an additional -1D penalty.

If the pilot beats the new difficulty number, he rams the target. If the pilot rolls below the original difficulty number, he suffers a "movement failure." If the pilot rolls above the original difficulty number, but below the new difficulty number, he crosses the terrain safely, but the ramming attack fails.

Vehicle Damage

Vehicle Damage is modified as follows:
 

Lightly Damaged. Roll 1D to see which system is damaged.

1-3. Vehicle loses -1D from maneuverability. (If the vehicle's maneuverability has already been reduced to 0D, the vehicle suffers -1 Move.)

4. One on-board weapon was hit and destroyed.

5-6. Vehicle suffers -1 Move.
 

Heavily Damaged. Roll 1D to see which system is damaged.

1-3. Vehicle loses -2D from maneuverability. (If the vehicle's maneuverability is 0D, it suffers -2 Move.)

4-6. Vehicle suffers -2 Move.
 

Severely Damaged.

3. Overloaded generator. The engine or generator begins to overload and will explode in 1D rounds, completely destroying the vehicle.
 

Lost Moves

Lost Moves add together. For example, a vehicle that suffers a -1 Move result, then a -2 Move result is at a "-3 Moves."

-1 Move: The creature or vehicle can no longer move at all-out speed; it's limited to high speed.

-2 Moves: The character or vehicle is limited to its cruising speed.

-3 Moves: The character or vehicle is limited to its cautious speed.

-4 Moves: The vehicle's drive is disabled and it cannot move until repaired.

-5 Moves: The vehicle is destroyed.

Vehicle Speeds

In a vehicle Move listing, the "kmh" listing represents its all-out speed. A vehicle's "high speed" is half the all-out speed. A vehicle's "cruising speed" is one-quarter its all-out speed. A vehicle's "cautious speed" is one-eighth its all-out speed.

Chapter Seven: Space Travel and Combat

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section is Chapter Six, "Space Travel," on pages 104-112.

Making Calculations for the Jump to Hyperspace. Calculating a route takes one minute if the character is using a well-travelled route or is using pre-calculated coordinates. (In emergencies, a character can try to jump into hyperspace in one round instead of one minute. The astrogation difficulty is doubled and the character rolls each round until he either beats the difficulty number or suffers an astrogation mishap.)

Calculating a route between known systems takes about half an hour. These calculations take a few hours if the ship has never jumped to the destination system before. If the character doesn't know where he is, it takes one day to determine his ship's current position and then compute hyperspace coordinates.

Starship Movement

Starship movement works just like vehicle movement.

A ship can move once per turn. The pilot picks one of four speeds: cautious, cruising, high speed, and all-out speed. The terrain difficulties are modified by speed, just as in vehicle movement.

Acceleration and Deceleration. Starships may increase or decrease thier speed one level per round.

Maneuvers. Apply the same modifiers as for vehicle movement.

Movement Failures. Use the same results as for vehicle movement failures. If a starship gets a "collision" result and there's nothing to run into, the ship goes spinning wildly out of control for the rest of the round and the next round.

Starship Weapons


Tractor Beams. A captured ship that doesn't resist can automatically be reeled in towards the attacker at five space units each round.

If the target ship resists, roll the tractor beam's damage against the target ship's hull code. If the target ship's hull code roll is higher, the ship breaks free. If the tractor beam rolls equal to or higher than the target ship, find the result on the chart below.
 

Tractor beam damage
roll >= hull roll by:
Space units
reeled in:
Target ship's
damage:
0-3
No change
No damage
4-8
1
-1 Move
9-12
2
-2 Moves
13-15
3
-3 Moves
16+
4
-4 Moves

Starship Damage


Starship damage is modified as follows:

Lightly Damaged. Starships can be lightly damages any number of times. Each time a ship is lightly damaged, roll 1D to see which system is damaged.
 

  1. Ship loses -1D from maneuverability. (If the ship's maneuverability has already been reduced to 0D, it suffers -1 Move.)
  2. One on-board weapon emplacement was hit and destroyed.
  3. One on-board weapon emplacement was rendered inoperative by a major power surge; it's lightly damaged.
  4. Hyperdrive damaged. Double the time to calculate any astrogation courses; if the pilot wants to try to jump to hyperspace in one round, add an extra +10 to the astrogation difficulty.

  5. The hyperdrive may be fixed with one hour of work and a Moderate repair roll.
  6. The ship loses -1D from its shield code. If the ship has no dice remaining in shields, it suffers the controls ionized result.
  7. The ship suffers -1 Move.


Heavilty Damaged. Heavily damaged ships have taken a much more serious amount of damage. If a heavily damaged ship is lightly damaged or a heavily damaged again, it become severely damaged.

Roll 1D to see which system is affected:
 

  1. Ship loses -2D from maneuverability. If its already 0D, it suffers -2 Move.
  2. Ship loses a weapons system in one fire arc. All weapons of one type in one fire arc are disabled by a major power surge or system failure.
  3. Weapons system destroyed. All weapons of one type in one fire arc are destroyed.
  4. Hyperdrive damaged. Increase all astrogation difficulties by +10 until the drive is fixed with a Moderate repair roll and one hour of work.
  5. Ship loses -2D from shields. If it has no shields remaining, it suffers "2 controls ionized."
  6. Ship suffers -2 Move.


Severely Damaged. A severely damaged ship which is lightly damaged, heavily damaged or severely damaged again is destroyed.

Roll 1D to determine which system is affected:
 

  1. Dead in space. All drives and maneuvering systems are destroyed. The vehicle is adrift in space.
  2. Overloaded generator. The ship's generator is overloading; unless it's shut down, the generator will explode in 1D rounds and destroy the ship.
  3. Disabled hyperdrives. The ship's hyperdrives - main and backup - are damaged. The ship cannot enter hyperspace until they are fixed with a Moderate repair roll and one hour of work.
  4. Disabled weapons. All weapons systems lose power. Roll 1D:
  5.  1-4: Weapons are severely damaged but may be repaired.
    
    
    
    5-6: All weapons aboard the ship are destroyed.
  6. Structural damage. This ship is so badly damaged that it begins to disintegrate. The crew has 1D rounds to evacuate.
  7. Destroyed.

Chapter Nine: The Force

Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section is discussed in Chapter Seven, "The Star Wars Universe," pages 138-152.

These rules allow gamemasters a firmer hand in controlling the powers available to Jedi characters.

Tremors in the Force. Jedi cause "tremors" whenever they use the Force; these ripples can be detected by other Jedi.

A Jedi who sparingly uses the Force and then only uses it in a minor way creates the faintest ripples, detectable only by powerful Jedi at close ranges.

However, a Jedi who often uses the Force in grandiose displays creates very noticible ripples which can be detected by other Jedi at vast distances. Those who rely on the Force as a crude instrument of power are very likely to draw the attention of people whom they'd much rather avoid...

Premonitions and Visions. Some Jedi characters experience premonitions, dreams and visions. Such occurences have been known to warn Jedi of impending danger or summon them to "crisis areas" where their unique abilities are needed.

Force Skills

Characters must be Force-sensitive to learn Force skills.

When characters recieve thier first die in a Force skill (control, sense, or alter), they recieve one Force power.

Force Skill. Character Point Cost: Number before the "D." Double character point cost without a teacher. Training Time: One day per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher. Two days per Character Point without a teacher. Training time may be reduced by one day for each additional Character Point spent (minimum of one day).

Force Powers. A Jedi may be taught a new power each time a Force skill is improved one pip. The new power is chosen by the teacher and must use the improved skill (for instance, a Jedi improving control could not learn a power based solely on alter).

A character may be taught a Force power without improving a Force skill, but the character must spend five Character Points.

A power that uses two Force skills counts as two powers when being taught powers.

A Jedi character cannot use a power that has not been learned.

The Lure of the Dark Side. When a character with Dark Side Points uses a Force skill, her skill roll gets a bonus of 1D per Dark Side Point.

A Jedi may refuse this bonus, but the difficulties of all Force powers should be increased by at least one difficulty level to reflect the intense concentration needed to avoid the dark side's temptations.

A character who has gone over to the dark side no longer recieves this bonus.

Intuitive Powers. It is well-known that some beings can push themselves to feats of great strength or endurance. Likewise, Jedi characters, when faced with an incredible challenge, may exhibit powers they had not previously learned.

At the gamemaster's discretion only, characters may be "granted" powers in exceptional circumstances. This reflects the Force's mystic and often unpredictable nature.

Gamemasters may grant the power for "free," require the Jedi to spend a number of Character Points or Force Points to learn the power, or set other conditions. Gamemasters may grant a Jedi a power on a one-time basis to indicate the importance of a particular task, or to "reward" characters who have performed exceptionally well by allowing them to "subconsciously" learn a new power.

Dark Side Characters


Returning to the Light. Dark Side characters can return to the light, but it's not easy.

A dark side character must prove her commitment to the light by spending a Force Point in a selfless manner at a dramatically appropriate time. Often, this requires the character to make a heroic sacrifice.

When a character is redeemed, the dark side exacts a final toll: she loses all Force Points and Character Points. The character's Dark Side Point total drops to five... She must atone to remove the Dark Side Points or else she could very easily fall back under the sway of the dark side.



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