Jedi Counseling 104

The Last Word on Saga Edition, and Lots of Words on Commander Effects

By Gary M. Sarli

Welcome to the 104th installment of "Jedi Counseling," our regular column in which we answer your rules questions about the Star Wars Miniatures Game and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. If you have a question, send it in through the link at the end of this column, and check back here for the official answer.

Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition

This installment of Jedi Counseling concludes our series previewing the new Saga Edition. Today, we focus on answering some of the concerns and observations made by you, the players, after seeing our previews and sneak peeks over the last few months. Thus, we return to the beloved question-and-answer format that has been sorely missed for roleplaying game questions since Jedi Counseling 99.

Q: Are you trying to "dumb down" the new game?

A: No, we aren't. While some have perceived the changes as simplifying or "dumbing down" the rules, the truth is that our objective from day one has been to streamline the rules, for two reasons. First, we wanted to speed up gameplay so it's less plodding and more cinematic in feel. Second, we wanted to speed up the "bookkeeping" part of the game so you could spend more time actually playing and less time auditing character sheets.

Let's look at these two objectives one at a time. First, streamlining for the sake of speeding gameplay: Why is this important? Well, put simply, for a game to feel like Star Wars, it doesn't merely need all the background details of the universe, such as lightsabers, Wookiees, and Star Destroyers. It also needs to capture the same pace of cinematic storytelling that makes Star Wars so engaging. While it would be impossible for a roleplaying game to move as fast as a movie, we still want it to move as quickly as it can. We don't want you to spend an hour simulating 30 seconds of combat, and even half an hour is really pushing it.

"I do wish this game was faster . . ."

To keep the game moving, we looked at mechanics that add extra rolls, asking if they were really necessary or if they could be combined into a single roll. A good example of this is the way that area attacks (such as grenades) work. Instead of making an attack roll, determining scatter on a miss, rolling damage, and then having everyone in the burst radius make a Reflex save for half damage, we've cut it down to two rolls -- one attack roll against every Reflex Defense in the target area, and one damage roll. Mathematically, this doesn't change the outcome very much, but it drastically increases the pacing of the fight.

In fact, we eliminated iterative attacks for similar reasons. At higher levels (that is, a base attack bonus of +6 or higher), virtually everyone has an incentive to stay in the same place and make multiple attacks. That slows down the game by making each player's turn take longer to finish. But it also makes combat less dynamic because hardly anyone will take more than a 2-meter step each round as long as they have a target to attack. The new rules speed up gameplay and encourage movement to try to capture the cinematic, swashbuckling feel of the movies. (Sure, there are still reasons to stand in one place and/or make multiple attacks, but they're designed to be a matter of deliberate choice, with appropriate tradeoffs, rather than the default best response.)

Second, let's look at bookkeeping. Certainly, some rules are simpler in the most basic sense. You don't have to keep track of a hundred or more skill ranks over your career, all Defense scores advance at the same rate, and class progressions are generally simpler (that is, you get a talent on odd levels and a bonus feat on even levels). Did we make these changes because we thought players weren't smart enough to handle a complicated system? Not at all. If there's one thing we know about gamers as a whole, it's that they can handle the nuances of extremely complex rules systems quite well.

However, that still leaves an important question: How much time do you want to spend keeping your character sheet up to date? If the average game session lasts from three to six hours, how much of that time are you willing to devote to going up a level? In developing Saga Edition, our goal was to simplify the mechanics of advancement (such as implementing new bonuses and abilities) so that you could spend more time focusing on the choices of advancement (such as choosing which classes, prestige classes, feats, and talents you'll take).

This change also promotes variety and versatility in a group of characters. With the new system, you can have a party of four heroes who all have the same class but who are completely different from one another. For example, an "all Jedi, all the time" campaign can be much more interesting than it might have been in the past.

Of course, the other major beneficiary of this change is the Gamemaster. Because it's now easier to construct new characters, even high-level ones, the GM can spend less time rolling up NPCs and more time building good encounter settings, adventures, and campaigns. Every hour the GM doesn't have to spend crunching numbers is an hour he can spend weaving the background and story elements that help the game come alive.

Q: Is the new system really just a ploy to sell miniatures? Is it just a beefed-up version of the miniatures game?

A: No. The Saga Edition rules don't depend on miniatures any more than the rules in the Revised Core Rulebook or the original Core Rulebook did. The Gamemaster can easily abstract all the rules on movement, attacks of opportunity, and so on if that kind of game is preferred. However, we include rules for using miniatures or other tokens on a battle grid so that players who prefer that style will have everything they need. Roleplaying games have their roots in miniatures wargaming, and today a substantial number of players still use miniatures in their games. Ignoring that part of the community by omitting rules for using miniatures on a battle grid would be a terrible disservice to them.

I can understand how someone might be confused by the use of miniatures in the examples in the combat chapter, or by the fact that speeds and such are measured in squares. But that doesn't mean that Saga Edition is meant only for players who use miniatures. For example, we use squares to measure distances in combat for several reasons.

• We recognize that a solid majority of players do use miniatures and a battle grid, and the fact that miniatures are built to scale makes it easy to visualize distances in a manner that players understand intuitively. When you can visually gauge distances as you do in real life, you don't need to make real-world measurements in the game.
• Including multiple units of measurement (such as meters, feet, and so on) is redundant, adding unnecessary clutter to stat blocks and game mechanics. And it really adds up over the course of a book that contains dozens of stat blocks.
• We have faith that you're all more than smart enough to convert to whatever unit of measurement you prefer, whether that's meters, feet, or even abstractions such as "nearby" versus "over there."

Obviously, we do want people to buy our miniatures; frankly, we'd have to be pretty dumb to make a product and not hope it sells well. Nevertheless, there's a big difference between requiring players to use miniatures and making sure that players who have miniatures get the most possible use out of them. We're trying to do the latter.

The same logic applies to all game supplements and accessories, whether we're talking about sourcebooks, GM screens, terrain tiles, or character sheets. You don't need any of those items to play, but if you choose to use them, we want to make sure they're worth every penny. In fact, since Star Wars Miniatures is a stand-alone game, we hope that miniatures players will like the fact that their collections are immediately useful if they try the roleplaying game. Again, we want all players to feel that they're getting good value out of what they have.

Star Wars Miniatures Questions

Q: I have a question about Komari Vosa's Control Minds Force power. When she activates it, does the resulting commander effect ("Allies who combine fire grant an additional +2 Attack") stack with Baron Fel's commander effect, Bastila Shan's Battle Meditation, or other commander effects that improve combined fire?

A: It depends on the specific commander effect in question. For example, Control Minds would not stack with another commander effect that provides a direct +X Attack to a character combining fire. Battle Meditation fits this description, but its definition in the Champions of the Force rules insert specifically notes that it stacks with any effect that improves combined fire. Thus, commander effects provided by Battle Meditation and Control Minds do stack.

Baron Fel's commander effect is not the same as the Control Minds commander effect. Instead of adding +X Attack to a character combining fire, it actually changes the combined fire mechanic for all followers within 6 squares, providing a bonus of +6 instead of +4. Thus, in the strictest sense, it doesn't grant a bonus -- it changes how the rule works. Thus, Control Minds stacks with Baron Fel's commander effect.

Still, even though these two commander effects stack with the Control Minds commander effect, others that fit the "+X Attack when combining fire" pattern do not stack.

Q: The commander effect for Princess Leia, Hoth Commander says, "Whenever a non-Unique ally would be defeated, with a save of 16, it instead immediately returns to play with full Hit Points." I have a few questions about this wording. First, if an opponent defeats one of Leia's non-Unique allies, and the ally makes the save, does the opponent still score points for defeating that character?

A: No. Technically, that character is not defeated in the situation you describe. Leia's commander effect triggers only if an ally would be defeated.

Looking at the sequence for resolving effects (see the General FAQ or Jedi Counseling 65), Leia's commander effect is resolved at the same step as Avoid Defeat -- that is, right after applying damage and/or the effects of Disintegration. If the ally makes the save, the commander effect is triggered, ending the resolution sequence and returning that character to the set-up area with full Hit Points.

Getting points for defeating an opponent, however, occurs at the next step, when that character is actually defeated (along with all other "when this character is defeated" effects) and subsequently removed from the battle grid.

Q:Does that mean that all other "when this character is defeated" effects don't come into play, either?

A: Correct. Common examples of effects that don't come into play include Self-Destruct (usually with Nom Anor's commander effect) and the immediate attack granted by Mon Mothma's commander effect. This might make these commander effects seem a bit less valuable -- that is, they come into play 25% less often -- but since those non-Unique allies will be in play 33% longer on average, it comes pretty close to evening out.

Q: What other details about a non-Unique ally affected by this commander effect change? Is it considered to be activated, or can it still activate later in the round? Does it recover things like Force Points?

A: If a character is affected by the commander effect of Princess Leia, Hoth Commander, only two details change. First, the character's Hit Points are restored to full, and second, it relocates to the squad's setup area. Nothing else changes. If the character activated earlier in that round, it remains activated. If the character did not activate earlier in that round, it may still activate. If the character has Force Points, the total number remains the same.

Even one-time effects wherein you designate a single character remain in effect. For example, the E522 Assassin Droid's Programmed Target or Yoda of Dagobah's Light Tutor remain in effect if that character was the original character designated with that ability.

About the Author

Gary M. Sarli is a freelance designer, developer, and editor whose credits include the Saga Edition rulebook and Ultimate Adversaries (for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game) and Power of Faerûn and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (for Dungeons & Dragons). He also moderates on the Wizards.COMmunity message boards as WizO the Hutt, cheerfully feeding Code of Conduct violators to the Sarlacc. Gary recently opened GMSarli Games, an online retailer specializing in making non-random miniatures packs designed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.