Star Wars: Space Ships, Hyperspace Travel, Blasters, ST

[samd6]

1. Make it so lightsabers require force powers to use. Not everybody has force powers, therefore not everybody can wield a lightsaber. Blasters can be scaled up and mounted on vehicles and starships. I do not think the same can be said for lightsabers. (Starship lightsaber jousting anyone?)

3 Spaceships has worked just fine for me, though I haven't been doing SW. Restrict everybody to a few systems (e.g. weapons are restricted to Lasers, Missiles, and EMP, everybody uses the same engine, but more of them means you go faster) and lots of the complexity disappears.
Take a look at the Spaceships spreadsheet page.

4 They travel at the speed of plot.

5 It really depends on how much time you spend on ship-to-ship combat. If you don't really have much ship-to-ship combat, than don't bother with the movement rules at all. If you have lots, use the map rules from SS3

[JackRackham]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

How about: Make effective Light-Sabre weight be calculated based on the user's BL. Make 'break' results indicate that a strike was so forceful that it gets through the parry (partially or fully, either as a penalty, or as minor, glancing damage to the target)?

I think I like the sound of this.

Originally Posted by samd6

1. Make it so lightsabers require force powers to use. Not everybody has force powers, therefore not everybody can wield a lightsaber. Blasters can be scaled up and mounted on vehicles and starships. I do not think the same can be said for lightsabers

Done. I should really have mentioned long ago that I already have a few houserules in place. Those will now be going in the OP.

[vicky_molokh]

While we're at it, you might want to add this to your house rules for some extra-long, flavourful duels.

[JackRackham]

I've updated the Original Post with some of my houserules and a few additional questions. @Vicky, that's a cool idea, but it's probably a layer of complexity we don't need for now, as we're ALL new to GURPS and we're still pretty low point-buy by Jedi standards (only one of the PCs so far will be a Jedi, and only two are force-sensitive).

If/when we get more comfortable with GURPS and reach higher power levels, this seems like a great idea, though.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by JackRackham

I've updated the Original Post with some of my houserules and a few additional questions. @Vicky, that's a cool idea, but it's probably a layer of complexity we don't need for now, as we're ALL new to GURPS and we're still pretty low point-buy by Jedi standards (only one of the PCs so far will be a Jedi, and only two are force-sensitive).

If/when we get more comfortable with GURPS and reach higher power levels, this seems like a great idea, though.

Oh, no need to rush indeed. But you might find a moment where you're looking for an excuse to save a PC from a single crit leading to a total party kill, and that might be an opportunity to introduce the houserule.

[JackRackham]

True enough.

[pnewman]

Maybe parring a strong blow from a much stronger lightsaber wielder costs a point of fatigue. Eventually you'll be low on fatigue and the fatigue penalties will make you fail a roll - and then you'll probably die.

Just give Vader a STR based cinematic technique that will require opponents who parry to spend a fatigue point (unless their parry is a critical success) and he'll be able to wear them down.

[JackRackham]

Originally Posted by pnewman

Maybe parring a strong blow from a much stronger lightsaber wielder costs a point of fatigue. Eventually you'll be low on fatigue and the fatigue penalties will make you fail a roll - and then you'll probably die.

Just give Vader a STR based cinematic technique that will require opponents who parry to spend a fatigue point (unless their parry is a critical success) and he'll be able to wear them down.

....Yeah, this could also work.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by samd6

1. Make it so lightsabers require force powers to use. Not everybody has force powers, therefore not everybody can wield a lightsaber.

That's practically canonical anyway. In the movies, to use a lightsaber effectively nearly does require Force abilities. Otherwise it's more dangerous to the user than the attacker, because it has no weight (the blade, that is) and no inertia.

You can use one as a cutting tool or something without Force abilities, as Han Solo does in The Empire Strikes Back, but as a weapon/shield, you need the Force.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

That's practically canonical anyway. In the movies, to use a lightsaber effectively nearly does require Force abilities. Otherwise it's more dangerous to the user than the attacker, because it has no weight (the blade, that is) and no inertia.

You can use one as a cutting tool or something without Force abilities, as Han Solo does in The Empire Strikes Back, but as a weapon/shield, you need the Force.

There's also people who used certain forms of spice - particularly andris spice - to use a lightsaber effectively, even going so far as to parry blaster fire, WITHOUT the use of the Force. It's a rare case, true, and probably requires the Chemical power modifier instead of any Force power modifier on their ETS, but it is canon.