Quote:
Originally Posted by Kalzazz
I will note that enemies not using combat options or defending definitely played squarely to Dun's wheelhouse, really minimizing the issue of his encumbrance and low skill . . . . if enemies aren't going to defend, then you don't need any deceptive, and since they weren't defending,they also didn't go for range -0, All Out Attacks against his face either once he rushed to meet them!
The reach 1,2 of force swords is pretty killer here, if you can get next to someone at reach 1, even if they take a step back away as part of a step and attack they are still at reach 2 and can get them! Convenient!
GURPS cover rules have always annoyed me greatly, so your quick example here has shown more use of cover then has been in games I've run or played in in years
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If I have noticed one thing over the years of running GURPS, it is that if you want a game to feel cinematic, use the cinematic rules. Putting the enemy right next to the PCs really helped too. Consider that Kendra probably could peg people 100 yards away pretty reasonably (Acc +5 with skill 17 -10 for range = 12), but it would take Dun ages to reach them. And their shots wouldn't really penetrate his armor until they took aimed shots at his face and, not using any options, they won't do that.
That said, the prime way to get around their armor was aimed shots, which penalizes accuracy, while Dun's forcesword is more than effective enough to just attack anywhere, anyplace, anytime, without worrying about those fussy details, and to legitimately slaughter whomever he fights.
So, the answer to the question of "How do you make a force sword matter" is this: First, it's far more effective at penetrating armor than any other blaster (if I were to introduce fusion weapons and x-ray lasers, or pulsars and disintegrators, then the force sword stops being an effective option. I didn't); second, never introduce armor that a force sword can't handle: he's not fighting guys in dreadnought armor, but combat hardsuits; third, never put the enemy out of his reach. This last one is interesting because I was just playing Knights of the Old Republic, wherein I noticed an interesting option. Force Leap explicitly brings you in contact with the enemy if you have a light saber. In retrospect, the ability to jump is used by jedi to close ground and ensure they can bring their epic weapons to bear against guys with rifles. You can still set someone "too far away" (a guy with a field jacketed X-ray lasers can literally shoot at you from a mile away, though Jedi typically have "danger sense" to compensate for that somewhat), but what most people will accept as "reasonable encounter distance" never involves distances that highly mobile jedi cannot overcome.
This particular playtest, and the characters, reminded me a lot of very early, 3e-sort of GURPS. Everyone was 150-200 points, the fight is kind of a mess, we don't worry about tons of details, the advantages are a bit of kludge but get us to where we want to be, more or less, which is why I say "It works." It does, but it's not my preferred way of playing anymore. The campaign frameworks really spoiled me, and changed how I see GURPS now.