Force Sword Techniques -

[Mailanka]

None of these would actually work in GURPS RAW, as a force sword takes a full second to coalesce, and all of these techniques rely on an assumption of instantly turning the force blade on or off (Well, most of them)

Flicking a blade on and off in less than a second is actually a very useful technique, but Star Wars doesn't seem to support it, nor does GURPS.

[Joseph Paul]

Fast Draw doesn't negate that readying time?

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Fast Draw doesn't negate that readying time?

A force sword may be activated as it is being readied on
a successful Fast-Draw roll. Otherwise, it takes a Ready
maneuver to activate it. In either case, it takes one second
for the blade to form and stabilize.

So, as I understand it, to activate a force sword requires:
-Ready (Draw)
-Ready (Activate)
-Attack (it takes the full second to fully form)

With a fast-draw, you could:
-Ready/Activate (Fast-Draw)
-Attack (After the full second to activate)

Unlike with a sword, you could not:
-Ready/Attack (Fast-Draw)

And you certainly can't:
-Feint-deactivate-attack-activate
or
-parry-deactivate-counterattack-activate

Or whatever else those things are doing. Not RAW.

[Joseph Paul]

Hmmmm. Easy enough to house rule that out but....Anyone got any thoughts on how to make the on-off-on-gack! attacks work by the rules? An advantage or perk?

As an aside how do hard time limits of equipment interface with ATR?

[DouglasCole]

requires some interpretation, but

Turn of ignition: Reach C
Turn after ignition: Reach C, 1 or Reach 1

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Hmmmm. Easy enough to house rule that out but....Anyone got any thoughts on how to make the on-off-on-gack! attacks work by the rules? An advantage or perk?

I could see charging an Unusual Training Perk or similar for Trakata. I've got some houserules (heavily influenced by Setup Attacks) for Feints and similar bouncing around in my head, and the way I did Trakata upthread is more-or-less a "sneak peak" of that. Essentially, one part of it is that you can penalize the setup skill for an attack (Fast-Draw to Ready your weapon, Acrobatics when doing an Acrobatic Attack, and so forth) as a virtual Setup Attack (enemy defends normally, albeit without "using up" a defense) to penalize your foe's defense against the attack itself. Just as you need a Perk to be able to pull off Acrobatic Feints and the like, a Perk for something like this would also be appropriate - call it Iai for Fast-Draw (Sword), Trakata for Fast-Draw (Lightsaber), and so forth.

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

As an aside how do hard time limits of equipment interface with ATR?

Up to the GM (and, arguably, the way ATR is justified), but typically speaking ATR doesn't get around hard limits. A character with an RoF 50 weapon can only fire 50 rounds per second, even if he gets 5 turns every second (each turn would only be able to shoot 10 rounds). A character with a Force Sword still has to wait a full second for it to fully activate before he can use it as well.

Of course, I'd argue that Star Wars is a setting where lightsabers are activated instantly and don't take a second to form. In the original trilogy, Obi-Wan seems to activate his weapon and attack pretty much instantly in the cantina (although I may be misremembering that bit), and in the new trilogy Yoda activates his weapon and decapitates two Clone Troopers pretty quickly. Trakata (which would require instant activation) is a fan creation, but if memory serves it was made (semi-)official in the SAGA edition of Star Wars d20. I don't think Star Wars will really lose anything important by leaving out Trakata and sticking with GURPS Force Sword mechanics, however, so it's ultimately up to the GM.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

requires some interpretation, but

Turn of ignition: Reach C
Turn after ignition: Reach C, 1 or Reach 1

Hmm. Is this predicated on the idea that changing the length of the blade takes no time right down to it being a couple of inches long? Then BAM! full length?

[Joseph Paul]

For purposes of guiding the discussion I need to make it clear that I am not concerned with Star Wars canon but rather with exploring what can be done with lightsaber analogues in GURPS. My personal gaming interests will include run ins with cultures that have used these for a long time and I would like to have a better set of strategies worked out for them. That said what has come from SW is interesting as an example of other peoples design decisions and very welcome.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Hmmmm. Easy enough to house rule that out but....Anyone got any thoughts on how to make the on-off-on-gack! attacks work by the rules? An advantage or perk?

If it's a limitation of the equipment then you need better equipment. That's all there is to it.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Anders

If it's a limitation of the equipment then you need better equipment. That's all there is to it.

+100% cost for " rapid blade coherence?"