For the Greater Good

A new Force Power for West End Games’ STAR WARS? system

by Carl Sargent

(click on image to enlarge)

    The budding Jedi has a major problem at the heart of his being and role in West End Games’ STAR WARS? role-playing system. As the rule book says, The Force is created and sustained by life, and to kill is wrong. But it is often necessary to kill in self-defense or in protection of others, and for the greater good. This is obviously a painful and difficult dilemma. Weighing up actions for the “greater good” is especially difficult since a Jedi may not always be certain what the greater good is in a high-pressure situation, and as any undergraduate philosophy student could tell you, using the greater good as a universal guide to behavior never works anyway. Of course, the Game Master can help out by giving warnings about possible Dark Side points, but things really shouldn’t get to this stage. The judgments of a Jedi Knight should be governed by less heavy-handed considerations.
    Here, I suggest a new Force power that may help Jedi Knights with this dilemma (at least a little). Some clarification and, expansion of an existing power is also given, to help the Jedi know when he’s up against a really bad guy.

Control + Sense + Alter Power

Alter Damage
   Control Difficulty Number: 10
   Sense Difficulty Number: 10
    Alter Difficulty Number: 5 for incapacitate = wound, 10 for mortal wound = incapacitate
    Effect: This Power may be used only when the Jedi is fighting with his lightsaber, since this totemic weapon is one with which the Jedi strongly identifies and through which Force manipulation is easiest. At the GM’s option, this Power could be used with other hand-held weapons, but modifiers for proximity should be added, plus an additional + 5 (at least) to the difficulty rating for Control and Alter.
    Using this Power, the Jedi may be able to reduce damage inflicted by the lightsaber, which is a truly lethal weapon in the hands of the Jedi with a fair Control skill. By Sensing, the Jedi empathically knows how much life energy (Strength) his opponent has. Control and Alter are used to reduce the damage the weapon’ inflicts, so that a murderous wound may be reduced to one that is less likely to severely damage
the opponent. In almost all cases, it is likely that the Jedi will want to use this Power to reduce a mortally wounding strike to an incapacitating one, so that he does not kill his opponent but only renders him incapable of attacking.
    If Control and Alter checks are made, the Jedi may alter the damage inflicted by the following amount: the damage rolled on his control dice for damage, minus the Alter difficulty number.
    Example: A Jedi with Control Skill of 3D strikes a Stormtrooper with his lightsaber, inflicting a total of 8D damage; 5D are rolled for the weapon for a total of 16, and 3D for Control, for a total of 15—a grand total of 31. Since the Stormtrooper is a real weakling, even with his armor his effective Strength is only 10. The damage exceeds Strength by a factor of over 3, so the Stormtrooper is mortally wounded and will almost certainly die. The Jedi has pity for this unfortunate, who is only conditioned cannon fodder, and he wishes to avoid inflicting such a dire wound. His Alter difficulty number is 10, and a check on his Alter skill allows him to use the Alter Damage power. Since he rolled 15 for his Control when inflicting damage, he can subtract 5 points (15 - 10) from the damage inflicted, so that total damage is 26 points. This leaves the Stormtrooper incapacitated, but nowhere as close to death as a 31-point hit would have left him!
    This Power cannot be used to reduce damage from a parrying defender who cuts himself on a lightsaber, nor to affect the damage from blasters, etc., that is reflected from the lightsaber back at the firers. Modifiers for proximity are not used (obviously, since this power only applies to hand-to-hand combat), nor are relationship modifiers applied—all the Jedi is sensing is some quality of life energy, which is a fairly elemental quality to sense. A practical point is that damage dice for the weapon, and for the Jedi’s Control skill, must be recorded separately!
    A Jedi should be able to use this Power, as befits a power usable only by those who have shown that they have the purity of intention and heart necessary for following the Jedi path.

Sense Power

Life Sense
Clarification/Expansion: Finally, lets consider the other end of the spectrum, after seeing how compassionate Jedi can avoid killing hapless enemies who are really only cannon fodder. The real enemies in the STAR WARS saga are, as the game book rightly reminds us, utter swine, and the worst of the lot are Darth Vader and those who use the Dark Side of the Force. A Jedi should not enjoy killing such swine, of course, but a Jedi certainly need have little compassion for vile enemies. Here, the Life Sense Power from the game book needs extra detailing, since recognition of the arch-enemy is something that a Jedi, as a servant of the Force, should have a good chance of doing.
    First, Life Sense should be reflexive—that is, the player should not need to say that his character is using it in order for it to function. Instead, the GM should secretly check when a user of the Force is in the vicinity.
    Second, if the character being sensed is of the “other side” (a servant of the Dark Side for a Jedi), then the Difficulty Number for detection is reduced by the number of Dark Side points the target has (this could be applied to deliberate sensing of any character, and not just reflexive detection of Vader types). The Jedi should not, however, know exactly whom he is detecting unless that person is very well known to him. The detector simply knows that there is a disturbance in the Force, and that it is caused by one who is evil. Vader may have known that Obi-Wan caused a disturbance in the Force in the first Star Wars movie when he got aboard the Death Star, but this was presumably due to personal familiarity (or logical inference).
    Third, the rule book does not say whether a Jedi with Life Sense has any idea of how far away the person sensed is, or in what direction he is, which are points that certainly require clearing up. I suggest that direction is unknown to the one who is sensing unless he is in close proximity to the target—100 meters or closer-but that the Jedi should have a fair idea of the distance involved (give an error of 0-50% either way, using 1d6 - 1 and multiplying by 10).
    This slight expansion of Life Sense may be important for the Jedi. Knowing that one is physically near and may soon be facing an arch-villain may affect the Jedi’s actions considerably. Clearing up matters of direction and location with Life Sense are important in any event.