Experimental House Rules

This page is for house rules I'd like the players to think about and consider experimenting with without committing to.

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Unleash the Force

Daily Force Points

As found on Page 16 of the Jedi Academy Training Manual, in lieu of per-level Force Points, you gain a number of Force Points per day based on your level as follows:

• 1-5: 1 Force Point per day
• 6-10: 2 Force Points per day
• 11-15: 3 Force Points per day
• 16+: 4 Force Points per day.

Additionally, the Force Boon feat grants an additional Force Point per day.

Force Points gained by achieving a second-tier stunt act like the old Force Points, and stay with you until you level up. You can use them at any time, but you may want to hang onto them for the purposes of Force Focus (below).

Force Focus

The normal rules for the Force Focus talent (pg. 101 Core) are that you can spend a full-round action and a DC 15 Use the Force check to recover one spent power from your Force Suite. Instead (for now), you gain a number of Force powers equal to the number of Force Points you have.

Force Reactions

There is a cumulative -5 penalty applied to all rolls of the Use the Force skill as part of any reaction; this is not merely limited to uses of the Block and Deflect talents.

Optional Rules

Saber Locks

Similar to the optional rule in JATM on page 33, when a roll made to deflect a lightsaber (or another weapon which resists a lightsaber, such as a Sith sword or a cortosis vibroblade, or if the Jedi doing the deflection is using a non-lightsaber melee weapon that will resist the attacking weapon) exactly equals the attack roll, a saber lock occurs. Sparks fly and combatants lock together. The attack is negated, and both involved characters make an opposed Initiative check. The character who wins this check automatically scores an unarmed melee attack against the other. Natural weapon strikes (such as a Cathar's claws) may be substituted instead.
A character who makes a Deflection roll that exceeds the attack roll by 1 or greater may choose to lock or simply negate the incoming attack at their discretion.

Feats

New Feats

Last-Moment Shot

Prerequisites: Point Blank Shot, Dexterity 14
Many sapients react to the fear of impending doom in many different ways. Some flee, some cower, some beg for mercy, some stand their ground, firing their weapons until their magazines run dry or their last breath comes, whichever is first. When a character with the Last-Moment Shot feat makes an attack with a ranged weapon that would otherwise draw an attack of opportunity, such as firing a two-handed weapon whilst an enemy is in melee range, the character(s) entitled to attacks of opportunity declare their attack of opportunity, but the results of the attack which drew it are resolved first. If the character(s) entitled to the attack(s) of opportunity fall on the condition monitor as a result of the attack, take any damage as a result of the attack, or if they make use of any reactive power to defend themselves against the attack, the attack of opportunity is aborted, and that use of the attack is wasted in that round.
Additionally, a character with the Last-Moment Shot feat is entitled to make attacks of opportunity with two-handed ranged weapons.

Force Chain (Feat)

Prerequisites: Force Bond with partner, Force-sensitive.
Force Bonds are formed by two people sensitive in the Force who share a passion for one another. Considered detrimental by the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, these bonds are undoubtedly risky; they require that two Force-sensitives open their hearts to one another. This sort of bond is unavoidable between the single master and single student, but it also occurs between lovers, siblings, long-term, close partners, and, on occasion, mortal enemies who become obsessed with one another to a degree that triumphs over their discipline.

Force Chain goes beyond Force Bonds. It's a rarely-seen power, because it requires a degree of intimacy that the Jedi of the Old Republic discouraged, and a degree of trust that is abhorrent to the Sith. It is worth noting that the Force Chain has never been observed emerging in the non-Jedi traditions. Force Chains are dangerous, potent intimate connections. They pose risks to those employing them, and there is the fact that those who share such bonds have, by necessity, very strong Force Bonds; and by extension, passions, so those who share the connection must beware the Dark Side. However, when shared by two who trust their instincts instead of discipline, who listen to the Living Force as opposed to the Unified Force, a Force Chain is a monumentally strong bond.

Both parties to the Force Bond must take the Force Chain feat at the same time. If one party does not have the ability to take the feat at the time the other does, they may gain the feat early, and are obligated to spend their next applicable feat to pay for it.

Those who share a bond tight enough to be a Force Chain benefit from their mutuality very strongly:

• They add +3 to the effectiveness of their aid another actions made to support those they share a chain with. They may make aid another checks on all skills they or their partner are trained in as if they were trained, even if they are not. Normal restrictions on aiding another as far as proximity are observed.
  • They may make aid another actions as a free action to support their chain-partner's Use the Force actions, taking a -5 penalty on all subsequent Use the Force actions until the end of their next round. As long as they may perceive the partner's existence, they may aid another on Use the Force checks, regardless of where they are.
• A partner may spend a Force Point to invoke a Force Power their partner knows, discarding the invocation of one power that remains in their Force power suite in turn. The power they invoke from the partner need not be available to their partner (it may have been used previously) for invocation in this manner; its invocation is being "paid for" by the sacrifice of one of the invoker's own powers. This Force Point does not count against the normal limit of Force Points spent in one round.
• By spending a Force Point at the time of invocation, a partner may share the effects of any self-enhancing power, or other-enhancing power they use on themselves or their partner. This expenditure does not count against the normal limitations of the number of Force Points spent in one round. This benefit may be shared as long as the invoker can perceive their bonded. This includes specifically any power which enhances the self, either very briefly (such as Surge or Battle Strike) or for the length of the scene (such as Dark Rage). For powers with an extremely brief duration (such as Surge or Battle Strike), the partner upon whose turn it was not to invoke the power is treated as if they had invoked it at the beginning of their next turn.
• By spending a Destiny Point, a partner may permanently enhance their capabilities by learning a feat their partner knows (as long as they meet the non-class prerequisites), a Talent their partner knows (as long as they meet non-class prerequisites), a Class Ability of any of the Jedi Class traditions (such as a Jedi Master's Serenity feature or a Force Secret known to the Master, a Jedi Knight's Force Techniques, a Sith Lord's Temptation ability), regardless of prerequisites, or a number of Force Powers or Starship Maneuvers known to the other partner equal to your own Wisdom modifier, as thought you had taken the Force Training or Flight Tactics feat drawing upon only a pool known to the partner. (The Force Training and Starship Tactics feats cannot be learned in this manner.) This training is not normally instantaneous.
• Any powers which establish perception and communication among those linked by a Force Chain (such as Telepathy or Farseeing) automatically occur two ways, with only one partner needing to spend the power to invoke the perception.
  • To "perceive" one's partner for the purposes of the Force Chain feat, one must be able to perceive their presence, if not necessarily communicate with them. This may be made by means such as the Telepathy or Farseeing powers, but also by means such as holocomm real-time communications across the galaxy, voice communications between cockpits, viewing a partner on a security monitor, and so forth.

However, Force Chains are not without drawbacks. They carry their risks.

• Perception of a partner is greatly enhanced; one partner can to some degree (enhanced by proximity and strength of sensation) perceive the sensations felt by the other. While lovers only consider this to be a tremendous boon, it has it's drawbacks. If one partner suffers an attack which pushes them down on the condition track, if the damage that exceeded their damage threshold also exceeds the other partner's damage threshold, they too slip down on the condition track. If any ability which debilitates without causing hit point damage damage (such as certain talents) causes one partner to slip down the condition track, the other partner also slips down the condition track as if they were subjected to the same effect, with the same check result against their own stats, but always a minimum drop of one. This effect may be shielded against through serenity (spending a Force Point) or channeling the pain into anger (accepting a Dark Side Score increase). Under no circumstances can the phantom effect knock a partner out, however (the lowest they may fall is to -4 on the condition track.) Permanent conditions inflicted are not permanent on the sympathetic link.
  • It's not entirely bad; the phantom pain suffered counts as establishing perception. More than once in the Galaxy's history has a freshly-minted Jedi Knight out in the world been attacked, injured, and their old master back on Coruscant woke up and immediately began aiding their Use the Force checks, resulting in much hurt being unleashed upon those who injured the new Knight.
• If a partner is slain, the effect through the Force is dramatic; the pain and fear inflicted causes the other partner to suffer an immediate Dark Side Score increase, but they also gain a Destiny Point which has their partner's murderer's name upon it; it may only be used for taking vengeance (although this, too, will give the partner of the dead Jedi a Dark Side Score increase). This is, for example, how a Padawan named Obi-Wan Kenobi killed a Dark Lord of Sith named Darth Maul. The deathblow does not drop the partner's condition track; on the contrary, it immediately removes all non-permanent condition penalties they may be suffering; however, gaining the Dark Side Score increase might deny a Jedi Master access to class abilities at a crucial time, and this has been exploited to kill Jedi in the past.
  • Partners who are killed are not necessarily completely gone. Having a Force Bond (and especially a Force Chain) allows a murdered partner to linger on as a Force Spirit. The living one with the Force Bond may still draw upon that connection to posthumously learn from their dead partner, and the dead partner may make aid another checks to bolster the living partner's Use the Force power. While the dead normally cannot do this (and thus, their aid another bonus is +0) a Force Chain allows them to do so, resulting in what is effectively a +3 bonus to the living member's Use the Force check unless they start using the Force in a manner their dead partner would consider wildly inappropriate. However, the Dark Side Score increase from the partner's death cannot be removed while this lingering connection remains, and should the remaining partner not wish this eerie connection, or should the dead partner submerge into the Force, all that remains is an empty hole in the Force - and the living survivor's feat choices. This feat selection may be retrained into any other feat the partner wishes upon their next level-up, or by spending a Force Point and a month of down-time.

Force Powers

Force Regimens

You don't need to buy a bloody feat to use these. If you already did, refund it and buy something nice for yourself. Anyone can use a Force Regimen. Beware: your Force-using foes may well have pre-buffed themselves in this manner as well!

Rewrites

This experimental project is a rewrite of the entire catalog of Force powers in Star Wars Saga Edition, with an aim to make rolling Use the Force not a complete waste of time even with a low roll, and to add in Unleashed options for (almost) all Force Powers.

The entire catalog is found in the link above.

Starships Maneuvers

Starship Maneuver Rewrites and Additions

The GM's attempt at rewriting the entire (meager) catalog of Starship Maneuvers, and adding new ones.

Starship Combat

Colossal (Corvette)

The more I work with the starship systems in Saga Edition, the more convinced I am of the absolute need for a vehicle class between Colossal and Colossal (Frigate).

The Colossal (Corvette) is that distinction. Corvettes are anything roughly larger than the largest true space transports you will find, and smaller than a real frigate such as a Nebulon-B. Corvettes are characterized by a crew of perhaps a few hundred, to as few as a dozen, and they include vessels which have been misclassified as space transports, such as the Gozanti Cruiser, as well as vessels which were previously classified as Frigates, such as the CR90 Corvette.

Fortunately, the size modifier remains -10. Corvettes have a cost modifier of x10; expensive, but not entirely unreasonable. They may not mount combat thrusters, but may mount shield generators of up to SR 100. Corvettes may be built with hangar bays; each installation of the Hangar Bay starship modification gives a corvette a hangar capable of holding and launching up to 2 starfighters or one space transport. Likewise, they may be built with heavy cargo pods, docking clamps, and lifeboats.

Colossal (Corvettes) do not need to pay additional credits to mount point-defense weapons. Any weapon mounted on a corvette which does not have an x5 damage multiplier is automatically a point-defense weapon. Colossal (Corvette) class vehicles are too small for starfighters to get under their shields.

Skimming the Surface

The shields of large capital ships are typically tuned to allow starfighters to pass through, so as to enable the launch and recovery of friendly vessels in combat. This can, and not infrequently is, exploited by hostile starfighters to launch ordinance weapons at the vessel's unshielded hull, or in spectacular cases (such as that of Anakin Skywalker at the Battle of Naboo) within the vessel!

The proximity also permits the pilots to deliver ordnance with unusual accuracy directly to the target's systems, which can disable them in combat. A capital ship completely undefended against starfighter attack is a very, very vulnerable target.

Getting Under the Shields

The first step is getting under the target's shields, which is easier said than done. While capital ships do want to be able to launch and retrieve starfighters and shuttles under hostile conditions, they don't actually want hostile starfighters to get under their shields to cause shenanigans, let alone allow starfighter-sized missiles to penetrate the shields and impact directly on the hull.

You have to end your movement in the square of a target which is Capital (Frigate) size or larger, and make a DC 20 pilot check. If you fail, you accidentally ram the target's shields instead. You may not evade, though it may choose to do so if it wishes and is able. Some vessels, such as the first Death Star, were completely unconcerned by starfighters and so did not tune their shields to prohibit starfighter approach at all. The Empire learned their lesson from that mistake, but chose not to re-tune their shields, feeling that permitting their own starfighters to dip under shields to engage rebel fighters was preferable to allowing daring rebel fighters to slip through and have near impunity whilst friendly fighters crashed into the shields. Unshielded capital warships and capital warships whose shields are not tuned to prohibit hostile starfighters from getting close, including all Imperial capital ships, require only a DC 10 piloting check, and 10 may be taken on this check.

Under the Shields

Very large capital warships tend to have their own gravitational fields, but even if they do not, a starfighter's repulsorlifts will keep it flying in proximity to the warship. To put it in other terms, the starfighter is now occupying a battle map consisting of the hull of the warship, and when the warship moves, the starfighter moves in relation to it. So if you're skimming the starboard hull and the warship makes a sudden turn to starboard, you are not summarily crushed against the warship's hull. The warship's main guns may not attack you at all, and you are so close to the hull that only one point-defense battery may be fired on you in any given round. The best defense against a starfighter under the shields proximity is allied starfighters.

A ship which is under the shields may fire with impunity. If they only care about hitting the target anywhere, the target is considered to have a Reflex Defense of 0 + its Armor bonus. (Reflex Defense of 0, -10 for size modifier.) It's as hard to miss a capital warship that you're skimming close to as it would be to miss an entire planet.

A ship which is under the shields is immune to the effects of Tactical Fire from the ship its surface is skimming.

Trench Run Defense

Pioneered during the Battle of Yavin, the Trench Run Defense is the art of exploiting certain capital ship architectural trends to fly down trenches formed in the ship's sides, trenches in which few, or no, point-defense batteries can fire. Ships that are vulnerable to attacking starfighters availing themselves of the Trench Run Defense are colloquially referred to as suffering from "Trench Run Disease," including, but not necessarily limited to, pretty much anything built by Kuat Drive Yards.

Flying down a trench is tricky work at the best of times, flying down a trench on a moving vehicles, even if your repulsorlifts and its gravity are holding you close to it, is downright hair-raising; yet time and time again, Rebel pilots have proven their ability to do so, and Imperial pilots have been forced to give chase. Flying a Trench Run on an immobile target (a capital ship which is not engaging in combat maneuvers, a stone canyon on a planet) requires a DC 10 piloting check every turn. A ship engaged in combat maneuvers requires a DC 15 check. The check DC may be raised depending on the conditions involved (for instance, flying in the inside of the Death Star).

Whilst flying a Trench Run Defense, few, if any, turrets can be brought to bear at you. A starship may fire only one point-defense gun at you in any given round, which you are free to evade with the Vehicular Combat feat or any other means at your disposal. Note that one gun means one gun; not one battery, one gun. The battery must be dissolved to fire, and each gunnery has only his BAB and the INT modifier of the ship to rely upon.

A ship which is flying a trench run defense is completely immune to hostile tactical fire, whilst enjoying all the benefits of any allied tactical fire.

Attacking Starship Systems

Once a warship's shields are a non-issue, even regular fire may be directed upon its systems specifically, rather than attacking its generic structure to cause a general hull integrity failure. This may be done to facilitate capturing a craft, or it may be done to greatly weaken a vehicle's ability to fight back while you destroy it. Starfighters under the shields are no different.

Below are a sampling of the systems on a starship which may be attacked, and the percentage of HP damage of the ship's main hull which those systems enjoy, as well as the effects of doing so. Half the damage directed at a ship's systems is also dealt to its main hull, unless the attacker doesn't want to damage structural integrity, in which case the Reflex Defense of the ship in question is raised by five.

The GM is the final arbiter of which targets are available for attack and which are not. For instance, while destroying the Second Death Star's core didn't take an awful lot of hurt (one twin-linked proton torpedo impact and two separately-fired concussion missiles) to bring down, Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antillies had the distinct advantage of actually being within the heart of the death star. The reactor compartments on most ships are much less accessible to starfighter attack, let alone external attack.

All attacks are made against a DC of 10 + the ship's armor modifier. Systems which are smaller than Colossal (for instance, a Huge sensor array dish) receive the difference between the inverse of that size category's size penalty and 10 as a bonus. Other destructive effects may be possible: Consult your GM today!

• Bridge: 20% of the ship's normal HP, 100 HP maximum.
  • Effect: All non-heroic bridge crew killed, heroic bridge crew take half damage from all attacks to the bridge and must struggle to reach a survival closet, EVA suit or escape pod, the ship goes out of control for 1d6-1 rounds (minimum one round) while the backup command center assumes direct control.
• Engines: 50% of the ship's normal HP.
  • Effect: The ship's speed drops to 0 for one round, then raises to 1 as damage is bypassed, emergency backups are brought online, and attitude control thrusters are pressed into service as main drives.
• Reactor Core: 200 HP or 1% of ship's normal HP, whichever is less.
  • Effect: The ship moves to the -5 condition step and its condition becomes persistent. The ship explodes violently in 1d6+1 combat rounds. Heroic characters still aboard the vehicle (or aboard vehicles which are themselves still within the stricken vessel) may spend Force Points to extend the time it will take to explode for one combat round.
  • Accessibility: Only when attacking a Death Star or other space station which is still under construction, and be prepared to roll Pilot a lot.
• Sensor Array: 15% of ship's normal HP.
  • Effect: The ship's sensors are largely blinded. All targets benefit from total concealment for one combat round, until the backup sensors come online. The ship's effective INT for any purposes involving sensors, explicitly including but not limited to detecting vehicles and fire control, is reduced to 8.
• Shields: 40% of the ship's normal HP.
  • Effect: The ship's shields collapse, and may not be restored until the shield generators are replaced in a dock.
  • Special: Every hit on the shield generators reduces SR by 10.
• Weapon System: HP Varies depending on the system.
  • Effect: Weapon system disabled.

Collision and Ramming

Consider these rules to be errata to the collision and ramming rules in the Star Wars RPG Saga Edition Core Rulebook found on page 173.

Uncontrolled Vehicle

In the event that the pilot of a vehicle is incapacitated or abandons a vehicle without bringing the vehicle to a stop, what happens depends on whether the vehicle is disabled or not, and whether or not it is a civilian vehicle or a military one. Generally speaking, civilian vehicles have deadman controls. On the pilot's initiative count, the vehicle moves in a straight line based upon the last straight movement it took to reach the square it is in now, and it moves the number of squares it moved in the last round.

A civilian vehicle's safety systems will thereafter kick in, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. If the vehicle is airborne above a planet or other gravity field, it will lower itself to the ground slowly on repulsorlifts, activating an emergency beacon.

A military craft will continue on its course and speed until it hits something or is brought back under control, such as by another character taking the controls or the pilot waking up.

Collision

In broad terms, a collision is the technical term for what happens any time two objects impact; a landspeeder whose pilot fell asleep at the controls may collide with the side of a building, the fist of a Gammorrean may collide with the face of a smuggler who's late repaying his loan shark, an out-of-control Executor-class Star Destroyer may collide with the nearest Death Star.

In game terms, we're most interested in the forms of collision involving at least one vehicle, though theoretically an asteroid might collide with a building and find these rules to be relevant. Generally speaking, there are three types of collision: accidental, unintentional, and intentional. An accidental collision is one in which an unguided, mobile hazard (such as an asteroid or out-of-control vehicle) plows at full speed directly towards a target. An unintentional collision is one in which the pilot (if any) of neither colliding object wishes to collide, and an intentional one is one in which at least one of the pilots intends to collide with the other.

Unintentional vehicular collision

There are many reasons vehicles may collide unintentionally. In civilian life, traffic rage leading a pilot to attempt to pass in too-close quarters are the leading reason for vehicular collisions. Whatever the reason, it is assumed that all guided vehicles involved in the collision are attempting to evade it.

All piloted vehicles involved in the collision are entitled to a piloting check, DC 15, unless otherwise noted. A vehicle which has not yet moved and is not flat-footed gains a +5 bonus to avoid an unintentional collision. If any part succeeds in this piloting check, the collision is averted. If none of them succeed, a collision takes place. Consult the Destruction Table below, both targets take full damage.

Ramming Speed!

Not all collisions are accidental, however. Sometimes, when the chips are down, a desperate sapient realizes that he's piloting a very large, very heavy missile capable of moving very, very quickly, and decides to go all-out. The pilot moves his vehicle into the square of the enemy vehicle and intentionally rams the target.

Make opposed pilot checks. If the target's check exceeds the ramming check, he evades the incoming attack and no collision takes place. If the pilot succeeds, an impact occurs. One of the first steps in ramming another ship, of course, is to ramp up your own shields and tune them for destructive interference with the other ship's shields.

Compare the SR values of the two ships. (Attack pattern maneuvers that impact the SR of a vessel towards another vessel, such as Angled Deflector Shields, apply fully.) The ship with less SR gets its SR reduced to 0, and the ship with more SR gets its SR reduced by that amount. Then the ships impact.

The pilot of the ramming ship decides whether he's piloting his ship in a glancing strike (to minimize damage to his own ship,) a full strike, or a kamikaze (certain destruction of his own ship, but guaranteed to deal a lot of damage to the other guy.)

On a glancing strike, the ramming ship takes half damage (adjusted by any other modifiers; see destruction table, below,) and the rammed ship takes full damage. In a full strike, the targeted vessel takes double ramming damage, and the ramming ship takes full damage. On a kamikaze, the ramming ship is destroyed unless the target is smaller than than it is (In which case the ramming ship takes damage equal to half the target's current hit points,) and it takes a Force Point or a Destiny Point to escape alive. The rammed ship takes the greater of double damage or the ramming ship's full HP, whichever is greater. (The Death Star II took a lot of damage when the Executor-class Star Dreadnaught Executor kamikazed into it.)

If the ramming ship moved between its full speed through double its full speed, multiply the damage by 1.5. If it moved between double its full speed through thrice its full speed, multiply the damage by 1.75. If it moved between thrice and through quadruple its full speed, multiply the damage by 2, and if it somehow moved more than 4x its speed, multiply damage by 2.5.

Destruction Table

Damage is dealt based on the size of the object which moved into another object's square to cause a collision, and is assuming a collision with only one object's velocity in play (the other moving perpendicular to it, or not moving at all.) If both objects moved towards one another in the round in which the collision occurs, double the listed damage. If the colliding object and the collidee moved in the same direction, halve it.

Unless otherwise noted (see Ramming Speed, above,) SR applies for all shielded vehicles.

Size of colliding vehicle or hazard.
Size	Damage
Colossal (Station)	(12d10+STR)x5
Colossal (Cruiser)	(10d10+STR)x5
Colossal (Frigate)	(8d10+STR)x5
Colossal (Corvette)	(6d10+STR)x5
Colossal	(6d10+STR)x2
Gargantuan	(4d10+STR)x2
Huge	(2d10+STR)x2
Large	2d10+STR

Unsecured characters near enough to the impact site of a collision by a smaller object or vehicle take half of the damage before multiplier, while characters who are secured (strapped in, tied down, etcetera,) take half of that. On large vessels, characters who are not near the site of a collision with another ship are merely knocked prone.