LostKnightsRPG.org

[Liquidprism]

Here it is, as up to date as I could get it... a comprehensive list of all the changes to the old rules. Feel free to make comments...

This first post is just the index btw, the actual written out stuff is in the next post. i did this to help a bit with the finding of stuff. Hope it helps.

Changes to the Basic Rules
-Prone
-Called Shots
-Cover and Concealment
-Hardness and Object Durability
-Misc. Modifiers (The Descriptive Bonus)
-Reactions
-Full Reactions
Enhancing Actions
-Character/Force Points
-The Cinematic Dodge
Training Time
-Skills
-Attributes
-Force Skills
-Force Powers
Revised Skills
-Skill Types
-Skills
-Lightsaber Techniques
Revised Racial Trait
-Multiple Limbs

[Liquidprism]

BASIC RULES CHANGES
The following section is comprised of several formal changes to the basic rules. These changes are meant to help streamline the system, and provide both players, and storytellers with a more efficient base from which to play games.

USING SKILLS UNTRAINED.
A character may use a Basic Skill untrained (without the skill on his sheet) by rolling the governing attribute of that skill and taking -5 penalty. A character may use a Complex skill untrained by making the same roll as listed above with a -10 penalty to the roll. An advanced skill may not be used untrained.

PRONE CHARACTERS
A character that is prone loses -1D from all his skill die codes when attacking, and avoiding attacks at point-blank range or closer. When attacking or avoiding attacks at close range or longer the character instead adds +1D to his skill rolls. A character may go prone in this way as part of a reaction.

A character that is unwillingly knocked prone receives -1D to all his skill rolls for a round, and counts as stunned. It requires an action for a character to get up from a prone position. A character may attempt an Easy Acrobatics check (with the penalty) to stand up as part of an action. Doing this counts as 2 actions (with multiple actions penalties being applied to skills after the Acrobatics check).


CALLED SHOTS
Like most of the other modifier types in this system ’called shots’ are getting a minor over haul. Their penalty to skill roll(s) is being converted into a straight numeric bonus. The exact penalty is determined by the size of the object being targeted as follows:
-Large- -2 to roll: portable heavy weapon, average sized packing crate, through a window
-Moderate- -6 to roll: blaster rifle, swords/axes/etc,
-Small- -10 to roll: blaster pistol, knife, lightsaber hilt, microbinoculars
-Tiny- -14 to roll: wristwatch, jewelry, headset, commlink

COVER AND CONCELMENT
Instead of adding dice, which are random, it is easier to just add flat modifiers to these situations. Characters add these modifiers to the difficulty of being hit. The roll just adds its amount to the standard difficulty if the character chooses not to react, or the character adds the modifier to his reaction die rolls made each round. This modifier never decreases due to pile on penalties, so it always protects a character.

CONCEALMENT:
-Light Smoke- +3
-Thick Smoke- +7
-Heavy Smoke- +14

DARKNESS:
-Poor Light- +3
-Moonlight- +7
-Complete- +14

COVER:
-1/4- +3
-1/2- +7
-3/4- +14
-Full Cover- Cover must be eliminated.

HARDNESS AND OBJECT DURABILITY
Most obstacles that can be used as cover can be damaged, and taken away as such. Every object or material has a harness value, which determines how well it stands up to damage over the course of a battle. As an object takes damage, and loses its structure it provides less cover. These rules apply to homogenous objects, and structures for the most part. The following examples are meant to be guides-lines they do not cover every possible object that could provide a cover bonus.

-Light- 5: Flimsy, plastic or wood sheeting
-Moderate- 10: A standard door, normal sized trees, or fragile stone
-Hard- 15: A metal door, thick stone, or big trees
-Reinforced- 20: A wall, riot barriers, or heavy doors
-Shielding- 35: Blast-doors

When an object takes damage, roll the weapons damage dice. The amount over the objects listed hardness determines the damage dealt to the object. Consult the chart below to determine the extent of the damage dealt to the object.
0-3 No appreciable damage; 4-7 lightly damaged; 8-11 moderate damage; 12-15 heavy damage; 16-20 severe damage; 21+ object is destroyed.

As an object takes damage its hardness rating drops, meaning it provided less protection. Each level of damage drops an object’s hardness by -3. If an object is destroyed in a single hit the attack goes on to hit the character using it. However, the damage from such attacks is decreased to some degree depending on the type of cover.

-Light- -1D from damage dealt to character
-Moderate- -2D from damage dealt to character
-Hard- -3D from damage dealt to character
-Reinforced- -4D from damage dealt to character
-Shielding- -5D from damage dealt to character

MISCELLANEOUS MODIFERS (THE DISCRIPTIVE BONUS)
There are countless circumstances, which may arise during the course of a story that may require ad hoc bonuses and penalties to what a character is doing. In these situations it is up to the storyteller to make a decision. However, there is a special circumstance we want to try and cover here.

Many cinematic games offer incentive to players willing to get into the moment, and describe with detail, and style the actions their characters are taking. Why should Star Wars be any different? This style of storytelling gets players involved in what might otherwise be seemingly mundane fights, and die rolling.

As a general rule the more descriptive the action is, the better the bonus should be. It’s probably wise to limit character bonuses received in this way to no more than +1D. Any action should be allowed to receive this type of reward, whether it’s a duelist attempting to feint against an opponent using footwork and flare, or a grease monkey banging on a power generator trying to squeeze out that last bit of juice. The stars are the limit as they say.

ENHANCING ACTIONS WITH THE FORCE
Characters may spend both Character Points, and Force Points to increase their ability to perform certain actions. There are limitations, and guidelines for doing this however, in order to keep the game smooth, and cinematic.

CHARACTER POINTS:
-A character may not spend more than 2 Character Points to increase a single Skill or Attribute roll at a time.
- A character may not spend more than 2 character point to increase the damage of a single attack.
-A character may spend Character Points to increase a Skill or Attribute for an entire scene, but the bonus is lost if the character does anything else in that scene.
Force Points:

FORCE POINTS
Force Points are spent to dramatically increase a character’s chance of success for the duration of a single action. When a character spends a Force Point that character adds his Force attribute die code to a single skill or attribute roll. As long as this is done to achieve a cinematic or heroic action then the character should get the point back at the end of the session in which it was spent. If the action taken is mundane, or just selfish the point is lost for good. If the character does something truly exceptional when spending a Force Point that character should immediately receive a Force Point (this is in addition to getting the Force Point he spent back at the end of the session).

THE CINEMATIC DODGE
In order to facilitate a more cinematic flare in the Star Wars system an optional rule has been created to allow a combat to feel a bit more like it does in the moves. Basically, a character can spend a Character Point after an attack roll has been made against them, but before they make a reaction roll, to negate the effects of the attack outright. This can be used to combat any hostile action, including Force Powers. The character must be able to reasonably explain how the feat is accomplished. Also a character may not do this more than 3 times in any given combat.

In addition a character may spend a character point to avoid instant death. If a character receives an injury result that results in that character's death, he may spend a Character Point, and reduce that result to Mortally Wounded. A character may only do this once per session.

DEFENSIVE ACTIONS (REACTIONS AND FULL REACTIONS)

REACTIONS
When a character makes a reaction he rolls his reaction skill, and replaces the difficulty of an attack with the result of the roll. However, even once that roll is resolved the defense rolled by the character continues to replace the difficulty of similar attacks against him for the rest of the round. In order to help mitigate this weird rule, we have created a special Pile On penalty for resolving multiple attacks against the character.

Basically for each attack after the first being applied against a character’s defense score subtract -2 from that score. While this penalty can get pretty sizable a character may, in response to any attack, make a new reaction roll. This will incur the normal penalties for multiple actions, but it wont receive a Pile On penalty until the next attack made against the new defense score.

FULL REACTIONS
When a character takes a Full Reaction he is focusing his whole attention on avoiding attacks to his person for the entire round. Making a Full Reaction is the only action a character can perform in a round this type of action is taken. There are several benefits to taking a Full Reaction during a round.

Firstly, a character taking a Full Reaction adds the results of his skill roll to the original difficulty to hit, instead of having his skill roll replace the difficulty as normal. The second advantage to taking a Full Reaction is that the character may use any number of his skills to react during the round without receiving a multiple actions penalty. However, a character’s Full Reaction defense score still receives a Pile On penalty for every attack after the first no matter what skill or combination of skills are used.

So a character that decides to take a Full Reaction in response to being shot at can roll his Dodge at no penalty. If he is later attacked with a sword he can roll Melee Combat, Dodge, or Brawling Combat in response without losing any dice from his skill roll. He will however receive a -2 penalty to his roll for the each attack after the first during the round. If the character is using a skill in a way that would normally provide a penalty that penalty is applied as well.

TRAINING TIME

ATTRIBUTES
Training attributes works a little different than it did before. It still costs 10 times the number before the D an attribute’s die code to increase that attribute by a pip. An attribute still may not be increased more than a pip per session. It still takes a number of weeks equal to the character points spent to increase the attribute to train it up, and without a teacher this time doubles.

However, now the more a character uses his attributes the easier they are to increase, up to a certain point. Each time a character uses a skill he should make a note of the attribute, which governs that skill. Each session, in which an attribute’s skill, or skills get used, reduces the time required to train that attribute by a day. The time needed to train an attribute may not be reduced below a week. This rule only affects attributes that have not reached the character’s racial maximum. Attributes at or above the racial maximum follow the standard rules for increasing an attribute. Other than these changes, attribute training still works the same as written (p.34-35 main rulebook).

FORCE SKILLS
Training Force Skills works a bit differently than normal skills does. Simply using them isn’t enough. To improve a Force Skill costs a number of Character Points equal to the number for the D in that skill. The time taken to train the skill up is equal to one day per Character point spent. This time is double without a teacher. However, A character reduces the number of days required to train up his Force Skills by the number of whole dice in his Force Attribute. Minimum time to train a Force Skill is one day. All the other rules for buying up skills apply as normal (p. 34-35, and 140-145 main rule book).

Like other skills however, Force Skills can be bought up ignore these training times, if they are used during the course of play. This works just as though they were normal skills.

In order to learn a Force Skill during play a character must spend 10 character points, and one day in training for each point spent. This time, and cost is doubled without a teacher. This time requirement is reduced by the number of whole dice in a character’s Force Attribute die code (to a minimum of 1 day), and can also be reduced by 1 day per extra Character Point spent. Treat Force Traits as though they were Force Skills using these rules. Force Traits are considered Basic Skills instead of Complex.

FORCE POWERS
Buying a Force Power Specialty works just like buying up a Force Skill, but at half the cost in Character Points (as any other skill specialty). Specialties start at +1 pip higher than the parent skill.

SKILLS
This section will cover several new skills, and the new skill categorization method. It will also go over several new techniques character’s can use with some of their skills.

SKILL CATEGORIES
There are 4 categories of skill in the game now. Basic skills, Complex skill, Advanced skills, and Specialties. Basic skills are the normal base line skills used throughout the galaxy. These skills are easier to train and use, and are thus more abundant.
-(BASIC SKILLS)- These skills are purchased as normal according to the standard rules.
-(COMPLEX SKILLS)- These skills cover a variety of different functions, and are often difficult to master. Complex skills cost double the cost of Basic skills to learn, and increase.
-(ADVANCED SKILLS)- These skills work pretty much as they did before as per the standard rules, but there are several more of them now available. As before Advanced skills add their die code back into the die code of the skill governing them.
-(SPECIALTIES)- These skills also work pretty much the same as they did before, though not all the revised skills have specialties available. These skills cost half the amount of the parent skill to purchase, and increase. The important change to Specialties is that a Specialty dies codes now increase whenever a character increases the die code of the parent skill.

THE SKILLS
Each of the following combat skills has 3 modes of use. These modes: Attack, Parry, and Evasion determine an individual skill’s strengths, and weaknesses. This also allows a player to more quickly reference a skill being used for ease of play.

Attacking is done as normal, and requires only a skill roll using the listed weapon type. Parry uses the skill to put something between the character and an incoming attack (usually a weapon/limb appropriate to the skill). Evasion means the character is able to use the particular movements inherent in the skill to simply avoid certain attacks outright. This is usually harder than a parry, and only applies to certain types of attack.

The distinction between Parry, and Evasion was made to facilitate certain techniques, and abilities in the Star Wars setting. It also makes for a more versatile combat system.

BRAWLING
The Brawling/Brawling Parry skills will now be merged into a single skill called Brawling Combat (or just Brawling for short). Brawling Combat is a Complex skill.
Attack- Brawling Combat allows a character to fight while unarmed and/or with natural weapons at no penalty.
Parry- Brawling Combat allows a character to parry Brawling, or Martial Arts attacks without a penalty. It may also be used to parry Lightsaber, or Melee attacks with a -10 to such rolls.
Evasion- Brawling Combat lets a character evade Brawling, Lightsaber, Martial Arts, or Melee Attacks at a -5 to the roll. This skill may not be used to parry or evade any other type of attack.

DODGE
Dodge allows a character to avoid incoming ranged attacks as it always has. Any attack made from a distance can be avoided using dodge at no penalty, this includes (but is not limited to): grenades, missile weapons, thrown weapons, blasters, and firearms. Avoiding such attacks is done without penalty. Evading Brawling, Lightsaber, Martial Arts, or Melee Attacks is done with a -5 penalty to the roll.

MELEE
The Melee Combat and Melee Parry skills will now be merged into a single skill called Melee Combat (or just Melee for short). Melee Combat is a Complex skill
Attack- Melee Combat allows a character to use Melee Weapons when attacking at no penalty.
Parry- Melee Combat may be used to parry Brawling, Lightsaber, Martial Arts, or Melee attacks. When parrying Brawling, or Martial Arts attacks a character receives a +10 to his rolls. If a character successfully parries a Brawling, or Martial Arts attack the attacker sustains damage from the weapon used to parry.
Evasion- Melee Combat can be used to simply evade a Brawling Combat, Lightsaber, Martial Arts, or Melee Combat attack with a -5 penalty to the roll. This skill may not be used to evade any other type of attack.
A character may use Melee Combat to wield a lightsaber at a -10 penalty to his rolls.


MARTIAL ARTS
The Martial Arts skill represents formalized unarmed combat training. It is usually reserved to military Special Forces, and other elite units. Each pip in the skill allows a character to choose 1 technique from the list provided. Martial Arts is a Complex skill.
Attack- Martial Arts allows a character to attack while unarmed, and/or with natural weapons at no penalty.
Parry- Martial Arts allows a character to parry Brawling, Lightsaber, and Melee attacks. A character receives a +5 to parry rolls against Brawling attacks, and a -10 to rolls against Melee Combat, or Lightsaber attacks. Certain techniques may be purchased to negate some of these penalties.
Evasion- Martial Arts allows a character to evade Brawling, Lightsaber, and Melee Attacks. Evading Brawling attacks does not receive a penalty, while evading Melee and Lightsaber attacks carries a penalty of -5 to such rolls.

LIGHTSABER
Lightsaber is a complex skill.
Attack- Lightsaber allows a character to attack with any lightsaber weapon, including lightsaber staffs, tonfa, and shoto at no penalty. When attacking a character using Brawling, or Martial Arts a character gains a to the rolls.
Parry- Lightsaber allows a character to parry Brawling, Lightsaber, Melee, and Martial Arts attacks. When using Lightsaber to parry Brawling or Martial Arts attacks a character receives a +10 to such rolls, if the parry is successful then the attacker suffers the Lightsaber’s damage as though from an attack. If the damage results in a wounded or incapacitated result the attacker loses the limb used in the attack. Parrying Lightsaber or Melee attacks is done without penalty.
Evasion- Lightsaber allows a character to evade Brawling, Lightsaber, Martial Arts, and Melee attacks with a -5 to any such rolls.

DUAL WIELDING
Dual Wielding is actually three different skills, each corresponding to a specific type of skill. Dual Wielding: Ranged covers the use of both the Blaster, and Firearms skills, Dual Wielding: Melee covers the use of Melee Combat, and Dual Wielding: Lightsaber covers the use of Lightsaber. Dual Wielding: Ranged is a Basic skill, while Dual Wielding: Melee, and Dual Wielding Lightsaber are both Complex skills. These skills are bought just like normal skills of their type, and allow a character to use a weapon in an off hand with the specified skills listed. A character may purchase and use Dual Wielding of either type once for each additional off hand he possesses.

Dual Wielding provides a character with a separate skill pool from which to take certain kinds of actions. Each time the character acts in a round he may take one action with his primary hand, and each of his off hands with which he has the Dual Wielding skill. A character must still declare all his actions at the beginning of a round (including the number which will be taken with each off hand). Using Dual Wielding with different skills during the same action results in a -5 penalty to all the character’s rolls made during that action.

When a character takes an action with Dual Wielding the die code of that hand is penalized with the normal penalties for multiple actions. Each Dual Wielding die code is penalized separate from the character’s other skill pools. Thus, each Dual Wielding die code a character possesses acts as though it were a separate skill from the parent skill(s) being used. Dual Wielding can be used to evade, or parry as a reaction just like with the parent skill(s).

A character utilizing Dual Wielding loses the normal bonus action granted from having multiple limbs. A character utilizing Dual Wielding for different skills, and/or with other skills during the same action receives a -5 penalty to all those rolls. It’s harder to try and coordinate different skill sets than when using the same general principles for each action.

A character’s Dual Wielding die code(s) may never exceed the primary die code of the associated skill. A character’s Dual Wielding die code(s) must also stay within 2D of the primary associated skill die code. If not the primary skill die code is reduced to the highest Dual Wielding die code available.

NEW TECHNIQUES
The following section is dedicated to several new techniques, which can be preformed by characters with the appropriate set of skills, powers, and/or abilities. Mainly these are used enhance a character’s ability when using or defending against a lightsaber.

-(Barehanded Parry)- In order to use this technique the character must be able to activate Absorb/Deflect Energy, and have a Martial Arts or Brawling skill die code of at 5D. The character must successfully activate Absorb/Dissipate Energy, and make a successful Brawling Combat, or Martial Art Parry. This special parry action does not receive the normal penalty for parrying to the roll. Both the skill roll to activate the power, and the skill roll to parry are treated as a single action. If either roll fails the character takes full damage.

-(Blade Lock)- The character makes an opposed skill using his either his Lightsaber or Melee Combat skill + Physique vs. a similar roll from the opponent. Success indicates that the two characters have locked weapons. While the weapons are locked neither character may take any actions, other than those made to either maintain or break the lock. The attacker can choose to maintain the lock each action as long as the opposed check is successful. The defender may try to break the lock as an action. Either character may drop their weapon as part of a reaction. This technique may be used as a reaction.

-(Epic Deflection)- This technique allows a character to deflect and even redirect ranged attacks of a larger scale than normal. Doing this works just like a normal deflection, or redirection except the character takes a penalty of -3 to his skill roll for each scale above character scale. Ranged attacks with a scale modifier larger than Starfighter may not be deflected, or redirected, as such attacks are just too big to stop in this way.

REVISED RACIAL ABILITES

MULITPLE LIMBS
ARMS
A creature with multiple arms may make 1 extra action per extra pair each round without penalty. This means a character with four arms (two sets of limbs) is able to take 2 separate actions without incurring a multiple actions penalty. In addition a character may take Dual Wielding once for each effective hand after the first. Thus, the character mentioned above could take Dual Wielding 3 times, one for each extra hand. A character utilizing Dual Wielding loses the extra action benefit of this trait.

LEGS
Creatures with extra legs increase their base move by 3 for each pair of legs beyond the first.