Saturday, May 5, 2018

Healing Wounds and suffering Strain

I'm not a fan of stimpacks. Really not a fan of healing potions in general, but they feel extra out-of-place in Star Wars. With that thought, I'm considering taking a page from the new L5R rpg, and allowing characters to heal themselves by taking certain actions in combat.

Essentially, you would make a Resilience roll against a difficulty of 2 (probably). Each success would heal a single Wound, though you can't reduce it below half your threshold. Advantage can be spent as usual, so you might be able to recover Strain while you're at it, or concentrate on Defense while you catch a breath.

This has the added bonus of making Resilience a much better skill. Because honestly, it hasn't come up much. Maybe at all.

On to Strain!

As it stands, if you exceed your Strain threshold, you basically pass out.

How boring.

Let's take another page from L5R, this time with the Unmask mechanic. When you exceed your Strain threshold, you can respond in several ways. Each will have some drawbacks, because it really shouldn't be a good thing, but in some cases it might actually save your bacon. I don't have mechanics worked out for any of these, they're just ideas.

First, you can retreat. In a social situation, this would basically mean you head to the punch bowl and sulk. In a combat situation, you probably turn and run. In any case, you're pretty much done contributing to the scene. You'll probably suffer Conflict for abandoning your friends and allies.

You may also decide to stand firm. This is gonna be a tough choice, and it may well mean you die taking a last stand. Your actions will not be dictated, but you'll have some fat penalties.

Finally, we pull ourselves a scene from Return of the Jedi, as Vader taunts Luke:

"So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side... then perhaps she will!"

I think it's safe to say that Vader rolled enough successes on his Coercion roll to push Luke over his threshold. Luke's player decides to Give in to Your Anger and lays a healthy beat-down. Taking this option will cause a lot of Conflict, and and any Crits (incoming or outgoing) will be much more severe. This is a dangerous option. You may kill your enemy, but you may also get slaughtered.