Star Wars is a cinematic game where heroes can dodge blaster bolts and fight through hordes of minions. The rules for damage and healing reflects this – not only is it possible to avoid blaster fire; you could actually survive multiple hits from a weapon that can kill and armored trooper with a single blast. It’s not realistic, but it’s heroic.

VITALITY

Vitality is an abstract measure of how tough you are to kill. The common people you meet on the street won’t have very many vitality and are easily killed by blaster or lightsabers, whereas heroes have that little extra something that keep them from getting killed or incapacitated.
Damage: How much damage you’ve taken from various sources. You track this on your character sheet. Damage remains until healed. Base vitality minus damage equals current vitality.

Bloodied: When you’ve taken damage equal to or greater than half your vitality you are bloodied; you’re a bit bruised and battered, but basically still OK. Some feats, talents, and action are only applicable if you’re bloodied (such as using healing surges).

0 vitality: Characters reduced to 0 vitality (you can’t have negative vitality!) moves -5 steps on the condition track and fall unconscious. If the hit that reduced you to 0 vitality equals or exceeds your damage threshold you are instead dying (minions are killed instead). Spending a Force point will prevent you from dying in this manner; you’re just knocked out and down to 0 vitality.

Dying: Heroic characters that are ‘killed’ expire after 1d6 rounds. If the GM deems it appropriate a dying character could come around for long enough to utter some dying words. Successful first aid (Medicine DC 25, bonus if using advanced medical gear) can prevent a dying character from dying; he remains at 0 vitality and his condition is unchanged, but he doesn’t die.

Death: Dead characters normally remain dead; unless resuscitated or brought back using the Force for example.

SURGES

Every character (be it a PC or NPC, minion or heroic) has a number of surges per day (based on your classes and your CON bonus). Each surge normally heals damage equal ¼ of your total vitality. You can only use surges if you are A) resting or B) bloodied. After a good night’s sleep you regain spent surges (it’s also a good time to expend unspent surges if you have taken damage). Less than full night of comfortable uninterrupted rest will give you less surges back.

Second wind: If you’re in a fight and bloodied you can use a surge by taking the Second wind swift action. You can normally (unless you’ve a feat or talent that allows for more) use Second wind only once per fight! Spending a Force point will also allow you to use an additional Second wind. Non-heroic characters do not usually have a Second wind unless they have a feat/talent that allows it.

Resting: Whenever you’re out of combat you can spend healing surges more freely; as long as you have time to rest the GM will allow you to use 1 or more surges (10 minutes of relative peace and quiet should be a minimum for one surge). Even minions can heal in this way (the Minion class as 2+Con bonus surges/day).

CONDITION TRACK

Hits that cause a lot of damage, plus some other sources (such as Force lighting and blasters set on stun) can slow you down or even knock you out even if you have vitality left. You use (literally) the condition track to keep track of your condition; it goes from no penalty at all down to unconscious/incapacitated (0-1-2-5-10Incapacitated). Use tick marks to keep track; add once each time you move down and erase one each time you move up

Damage threshold (DT): If a single attack does a lot of damage you could be in trouble even if you have vitality left. Each hit that does damage equal to or greater than you DT drops you one level on the condition track. Your DT is based on Fortitude Defense + modifiers (such as the Improved Damage Threshold feat).

Recover: You can spend three Recover swift actions to move up one step on the condition track; these three swift actions can be spread out over several rounds or take all in the same round. Spending a Force point while recovering allows you to do Recover as a single swift action.

Being incapacitated: If you drop to the bottom of the condition track you’re incapacitated; you fall unconscious and drop prone. After 1 minute (10 rounds) made a DC 10 Constitution check. If you succeed you move +1 step on the track and regain vitality equal to your surge value (but expend no surges). If you fail you remain unconscious for 1 hour, after which you repeat the test (failure by 5 or more means you die instead). You must continue retrying each hour until you succeed, but each time you fail one condition level becomes persistent.  You can use a Force point to avoid becoming incapacitated, except if you were also reduced to 0 vitality by the same attack.

Persistent conditions: Some injuries are too severe to just go away like this; they are called persistent conditions. Mark persistent conditions on the track using a cross instead of a tick mark. It you already have non-persistent conditions; add the persistent condition on top of the track and make an equal number of non-persistent ticks further down.

STUN/ION DAMAGE

Setting a blaster on stun/using another stun weapon (ion weapons for vehicles/ships/droid) can incapacitate without killing. After rolling damage halve the result. There may be an additional effect: If the target is reduced to 0 vitality it moves -5 on the condition track it knocked unconscious, but without any chance of dying. Even if the target isn’t reduced to 0 vitality there is a -2 move on the track if rolled (before halving) damage equals or exceeds DT.

Damage and healing example: E’tan encounters some droids. There is a brief, but violent struggle before the droids are dispatched. During the process E’tan takes a few hits, including one that exceeds his damage threshold. As a result he drops -1 step on the condition track and has a -1 penalty to his actions and defenses. With 55 damage vs. 72 vitality he is also bloodied. He decides to play it safe; on his next turn he uses his sole Second Wind (swift action) for this scene. His surge value is 18 so he recovers 18 vitality, leaving him with 37 damage. Still bloodied (half of 72 is 36). He opts to use a Force point for another second wind. That’s another damage removed, leaving him with only 19 damage. That’s two swift actions this far this round. He uses another Force point to Recover as a Swift single action, concluding his actions for this turn. On the next turn one of the droids gets in a lucky shot with a blaster set on stun. It rolls 3d6 for 18 damage, halved to 9. Not nearly enough reduce E’tan to 0 vitality. But 18 (rolled damage) is greater than E’tans DT, so he moves 2 steps down the track. Good thing he recovered; he would have been a -5 rather than -2 had he not! E’tan dispatches the last few droids. He’s used 2 Force points and two surges, leaving him with 6 FP and 7 surges. After a brief rest he uses another surge, putting him at only 10 damage (19+9-18) and with 6 surges to go. He has no persistent conditions so he erases all marks on his track. E’tan is ready for his next fight.

Leaving Omar behind the Light of Reason heads towards Rigelia, which is the closest civilized Republic system from Omar. Still damaged, but now more or less functional, the ship still has a defective primary hyperdrive and the subspace communicator array is also offline. Reaching Rigelia is key if word of the Separatist plans and Sith involvement is to be sent back to the Jedi Order and the Republic Senate.

While underway Padawan Janna Deshler has several Force visions of Oona Dio. The Master is alive, but in captivity. With the Force as her guide Janna is able to point out the world of Consovor as the place where the Master is held. Consovor is a surveyed world, but no records exist of it ever having been settled. Not of any official settlements anyway.

As the Light lands on Consovor E’tan embarks on a little adventure of his own – taking the Oracle with him he departs with one of the utility speeders. He finds the perfect spot to settle down and hide – unfortunately the Separatists have also found this the perfect spot for their hidden base. The speeder is shot to pieces with the Oracle still aboard and E’tan is captured and taken down into the mountain…

Leaving a skeleton force to defend the Light (with orders to flee if things go badly) the remaining Jedi and Clone Troopers follow Janna’s lead and infiltrate the Separatist base. E Leet encounters the Oracle. She got of the speeder before it blew up. She conveniently points out a hidden entrance. E Leet leads a team into the mountain base and manages to free both Master Dio and E’tan – and the missing Force-Sensitive children. Together they make good their escape – only to find that Darth Tempos has counterattacked and driven away the rest of the Republican forces!

Fearing the worst Master Dio and her team race back to the Light. Fortunately the ship is safe – either the Sith does not know its location or she doesn’t have the resources to mount an attack. Taking stock of the situation it becomes clear that things are grim – another all-out attack on the base is out of the question. With only a platoon of Troopers there is no way such an attack can succeed. And more importantly – word must be brought back to the Republic, and the children and the Orcale must be taken to Coruscant.

Dio can sense that her Padawan is alive and in pain; realizing full well that it is likely a trap she nevertheless decides to try and save her. Acting on sage advice from E’tan Master Dio dispatches the ship to go to Rigelian – while she and her two apprentices, E’tan and E Leet, remain behind. Perhaps sending the ship away will even distract Darth Tempos from their true intent…or maybe not.

Heading back towards the Separatist base they find signs of battle. Several dead clones – and the dead body of Navik Nix. From now on E’tan will carry his lightsaber (his own now being in the possession of Darth Tempos). They also find Tito Jax, badly injured but alive. After resting the night and receiving such Force healing as can be mustered they small group continues the next day.

After ascending the mountain Tito reveals himself to draw the defenders out. The rest of the Jedi quickly deal with the gun turrets and the droids sent up to face them. Then they quickly take the turbolift down to the main hall and stage a surprise assault on disorganized droid forces. Now they must find Darth Tempos and free Janna!

The Jedi now (more or less involuntary) pursue a different path – the wounded Jax guards the exit, E’tan goes looking for the droid control center, E Leet searches for Janna, while Oona heads towards a disturbance in the force – Darth Tempos. With the Sith out of the equation Oona figures her apprentices will be capable of both dealing with droids and freeing Janna.

E Leet’s rescue goes rather poorly; he isn’t able to locate Janna. E’tan has no luck either, getting entangled in a mass of droids, including one very big and nasty spider droid. But he is determined if nothing else, eventually forcing his way into the control center. Unfortunately disabling the droids isn’t quite that easy and E’tan is forced to go look for another solution to the problem. He descends by turbolift down to the magma lake that provides the base with power, then proceeds to sabotage the shielding protecting the power generating equipment.

Oona finally manages to confront Darth Tempos; in cavern with a view to the lave lake far below. She is given a choice – see her apprentice fall to a fiery death, or give herself up. Oona need not make up her mind; her other apprentices – E leet, E’tan and Jax – snatch Janna away. Next is an epic clash of sabers. The apprentices are way out of their league, but working with their master they finally overwhelm Tempos – SHE is the one that eventually fall into the fiery lake below.

Getting out quickly now has top priority. E’tan’s sabotage has overloaded the base generators and it’s about ready to blow. They get out in the nick of time – the Light of Reason is waiting for them and they blast away just as the hidden base goes up in flames behind them. With their cargo of force-sensitive children and an Oracle they continue towards Rigelia.

After escaping the Separatist forces at Arcuuna the Light of Reason heads along a little-explored hyperspace route to the fringe world of Omar. Since the navicomputer is inoperable it is up to Master Oona Dio’s Force sense to guide the ship safely to its destination. The damaged databanks aboard hold very little information, but E’tan is able to recall a few details – that it is an out-of-the-way place that’s not aligned with either the Republic or the Separatists, and that the locals follow a religion that forbids droids and other advanced technology. Still the place does have a spaceport, however meager, so the Light must land and seek assistance.

They are greeted by High Hierophant Aldermaan and the Church Elders. They are not wanted here – Omar is a neutral world. But Master Dio turns out to be quite persuasive. The Light will be allowed to stay for emergency repairs. They will have supplies brought and medical aid will be given to the wounded. But they must stay aboard the ship and not attempt to leave or interact with anyone. Meanwhile another ship, a largish transport named the Sixth Star, lands and starts disembarking its cargo – refugees from the war who have come to Omar to start new lives. The Durois crew seems to be well known to the locals and not subject to the same restrictions as the Light of Reason.

Meanwhile E’tan has snuck away from the ship. Catching a cab, driven by one Dirk Strider, he heads to the city – Orlist, the capital of Omar. The place turns out to be a sad affair, a very affluent and well-kept city center, great estates in the old sea-cliffs and surrounding hills, and massive slums as far as the eye can see. He arranges for accommodations and takes trip to see the Temple Hill, the seat of religious power. Seeing the great robed statues that line the way to the Great Cathedral he gets this nagging feeling that he should know who they are (they are the likenesses of the Jedi Founding Fathers).

That very night Master Dio has a Force vision alerting her to a great evil. She decides to send her apprentices undercover into the city. All save Jax who will remain with her aboard the Light. E’tan and E Leet go with Dirk Strider to see a local religious leader, while Janna and Navik decides to look into the priesthood, the church and the history of Omar’s founding.

Dirk takes the two Jedi to see Josh'ah Dest, a local Durosi religious leader. He fills in a lot of gaps – telling them that all is not well on Omar. That the current regime is quite oppressive and not very pious. That Omar was settled by war-weary refugees led by equally war-weary Jedi, leading to the world’s peculiar pacifist religion. While they are speaking to him Omarite Templars move in to arrest Josh’ah – his vocal opposition to the regime will no longer be tolerated, and definitely no talking to outsiders. The Jedi flee while Josh’ah is arrested. But his captivity is short-lived as E’tan and E Leet join with Dirk to liberate him before he can reach Temple Hill.

Returning to the hotel they find a handful of Durosi mercenaries waiting for them in the main hall. Wasting no time the Jedi draw sabers and go on the offensive. Soon the villains all lie dead. This prompts the Jedi to go looking for Hedja Mooh and his cronies. They find his Seacliff apartment and break in there. Another fight ensures, in which the Jedi capture Mooh’s lieutenant Rara Nimpo. Unfortunately she doesn’t know when to quit and is killed before she can reveal anything. A starfighter attack on the apartment puts an end to that line of investigation.

Meanwhile Janna and Navik have snuck onto Temple Hill and recorded a most revealing meeting between Hedja Mooh and High Hierophant Aldermaan. The High Hierophant is demanding that something be done with the Oracle. Her visions are turning increasingly hostile to Aldermaan’s rule and he wants her replaced with someone more docile. Only he cannot act openly against her, or he would lose all legitimacy. So Mooh must go there and seize her. Janna sends word to Master Dio, who takes an airspeeder and heads downtown to pick up her Jedi. Then they set course of the mountain monastery of the Oracle.

The airspeeder is intercepted halfway by two Durosi starfighters dispatched from the Sixth Star. After some near-death acrobatics by E’tan he manages to seize control of one fighter and shoot the other one down. The rest of the trip is rather less eventful, until they spot the Sixth Star parked on the platform outside the Monastery. Shrouded by the Force they lands safely and quickly take out the guards Mooh has left outside. Quickly they make their way inside and start looking for the Oracle.

Inside the situation is chaotic. Encouraged by the words of the Oracle the monks have put up a spirited resistance against Hedja Mooh’s crew. And the monastery itself is a warren of old passages and hallways. The Jedi and their troopers make their way to the Oracle and secure her. Then the situation changes for the worse – contact is lost with the Clone sentries outside, and Oona can feel the Dark Side approaching. Ordering her apprentices to carry the oracle to safety Master Dio confronts the Sith. E’tan, headstrong as ever, does not listen and joins the fight. But he is not yet a Padawan, much less a true Jedi, and his feeble skills are no match of the Sith. Finally E’tan heeds his master, hobbling after the others, injured, but alive.

While Master Dio keeps the Sith occupied E Leet and E’tan escort the Oracle out of the temple. And about time – in the skies above Separatist Vulture droids are getting ready for a bombing run. E Leet jumps into the cockpit of the captured Durosi starfighter and takes off to confront the enemy while the injured E’tan leads the Oracle and the remaining clones board the air speeder. E Leet buys enough time for the airspeeder to get away, but he cannot prevent the Separatists from blowing up both the temple and the Sixth Star – presumably with both the Sith and Master Dio still inside! Later turns out the Sith defeated Master Dio, then spirited her away by way of another exit before the bombs fell.

Due to Separatist air supremacy the Jedi are forced to dump their vehicles and hide. They hide in the bush while the Separatist land their droid legions and seize control over Orlist. Making their way down-river they finally manage to contact the Light of Reason. It has not been destroyed at all. It fled the spaceport as soon as the Separatist ship appeared, and then hid beneath the surface of the ocean.

A period of healing and waiting follows, but eventually the Separatist warships move on. But they have badly miscalculated the fighting spirit of the Omarites. Learning that the Oracle is safe and that Aldermaan is a villain they rise in rebellion and defeat both the droid garrison and the Templar forces. Josh'ah Dest becomes the new High Hierophant and Dirk Strider leader of the Omarite Militia. The Omarites ask that the oracle accompany the Jedi to Coruscant, where she can be tested and taught – and petition for Omar to join the Republic.

Arcuuna is a massive brownish gas-giant in the Mid-Rim region, located along a remote finger of a sub-branch of the Corellian Run. Although uninhabited as such, the planet is orbited by a massive space station called Arcuuna Station. The station operates a fleet of large automated scoops that dive through the gas giant's atmosphere, extracting and compressing the atmosphere, before delivering it to the station for Tri-Helium (used in many commercial power generators) processing. The system is otherwise uninhabited; consisting of only some icy asteroids and comets, as well as an extensive array of inhospitable moons and moonlets around Arcuuna.

Arcuuna Station is run by Arakyd Industries, which is supposedly aligned with the Techno Union, and thus technically part of the Separatist Alliance. Chief Executive Dermov, the leader of the Arcuuna facility, had divergent ideological views, and sent a petition to the Republic asking for help to defend the station in return for supplying the Republic with Tri-Helium. Republic Intelligence promptly sent a team to investigate, but they failed to report back (they were murdered by the assassin droid IEEI-901, a Separatist covert agent). In an act of desperation the chief Executive sent a new and more urgent call for aid, this time using an open channel.

A Jedi Knight called Aslar To'ung picked up the call and set course for the station, intending to pose as a freelance prospector in search of work. With the help of his Cerean Padawan, E Leet, he soon found clues pointing towards IEEI-901 (masquerading as a worker droid), but as they prepared to confront the droid Aslar was killed by a sudden explosion. Then the station came under attack by Techno Union warships carrying not only battle droids, but a group of Trandoshan mercs in Separatist employ. Their leader, Colonel Boroosh (an old Trandoshan bounty-hunter turned Separatist), had been sent by General Grievous to claim the station for the Separatist cause. Not only is the Tri-Helium production valuable, but the station once had a much greater resident population manning massive foundries; if these could be re-activated, it would be a great boon to the Separatist plans for this area of space. There was some surprisingly heavy fighting during the assault; it turned out that Executive Dermov had re-activated some old foundries and re-equipped his droids as a makeshift droid army to oppose the Separatist droids! The station also boasted some old, but potent, space-weaponry, enough to blow up one frigate right away and force the other five to back off.

The Jedi Council also got the distress call, and being unaware of Aslar’s intentions, decided to send a Jedi Master to investigate and negotiate with Chief Executive Dermov (enter the Light of Reason and Jedi Master Oona Dio). Expecting some trouble, they sent with her some promising young Jedi warriors, carried aboard a fairly powerful warship backed by a full company of veteran clone troopers. Unfortunately the Jedi ship was ambushed by a Union warship as it approached the station in hyperspace. After a fierce space battle that included droid boarders getting onto the Light, the Jedi were able to disengage and make it to the station.

Spotting a light freighter sitting in a docking bay Master Dio led a team of Jedi and Clones over. Another battle soon ensued – droid forces were aboard the station and had orders to keep the bay clean of enemies. Padawan E Leet and his band of workers and droids raced came to the rescue, falling upon the droids from the rear. Victory was swift and complete. After assessing the situation the Jedi made their way to the Command Sphere – retreat is not an option, the Separatists cannot be allowed to gain control over the station. That would allow them to expand their influence from the Elrood sector and into the Erberus sector, which would again allow them to threaten the Corellian Run (key to the Republic war effort in this region of the galaxy).

Finding the command sphere devastated they hook up with Chief Executive Dermov – in the form of a protocol droid. More machine than man anyway Dermov downloaded his consciousness into a droid body before the destruction of the command sphere. This explains why the station is still making it hard for the Separatist force to reach their objectives. Given the overwhelming number of Separatists there is only one solution – the stations must be destroyed. Dermov knows how – destroy the primary and backup power regulators on the power core, then jam open the power feeds to their maximum setting. That will cause a massive energy buildup in the core that will eventually cascade out of control and take with it the entire station.

Master Oona Dio leads Navik, Jax and the majority of the troopers to deal with the main objective. Meanwhile Janna takes E’tan, E Leet and a couple of clones to the detention area where the Separatists are holding the surviving station crew. After an interesting train ride and a fight with some Trandoshans (who turn out to have swords capable of withstanding lightsaber strikes) the rescue team is captured by the droids. Fortunately they are freed by a militia counterstrike – workers and modified labor droids that refuse to give up. Soon the prisoners have been freed and are herded aboard a train. Destination: the docking bay. Oona and her team have, despite an ambush set by IEEI-901, managed to complete her assignment and the station is set to blow. Unfortunately she was not able to catch the assassin droid and it escapes.

Dermov the droid comes to the rescue again; he’s tracking old IEEI-901 on the station’s internal scanners – the villain is headed for the command sphere. Dermov is certain that he’ll be able to access the station’s main communications array and use it to alert the Separatist warships outside. E’tan and E Leet divert to stop IEEI-901 (and deliver some Republic justice to it). Oona and her team cannot be reached due to interference from the now-unstable core, so the two apprentices must do this on their own. The final showdown takes place in the wrecked command sphere. After surviving a sniper attack and an ambush IEEI-901 makes a critical mistake – he engages the Jedi with Aslar’s stolen lightsaber. Despite his speed, strength and combat training he is no match for the Force.

Well back on the Light of Reason – all the Jedi make it, most of the clones and a fair number of workers and labor droids – there is a complication. With the fall of the command sphere Dermov’s control over the station’s defenses were much reduced, and by now the separatist fleet is surrounding the station. The Light makes a desperate dash for freedom, pursued by no less than three frigates it plunges towards then massive gas giant below. Guided by the Force the little corvette just grazes the top clouds, then slingshots out on the other side. The Separatists are not so fortunate – at least one frigate is sucked down towards the planet’s core even as Arcuuna station blows up, taking with it several more warships and all the Separatist forces aboard. The Light of Reason limps into hyperspace on backups, guided by nothing more than Master Dio’s faith in the Force…

It's been too long since last we played...definitely need to get a new session in soon. But every time we try something comes up! And with the heroes stranded in the wilderness of a distant world, just as its alien slave population rises in rebellion. And what on Rigelian are all those Jedi doing out in the woods? There aren't supposed to be ANY Jedi out there (save the PC of course).

And is Darth Tempos realy really dead?

And will E'Tan manage to get another dark side point?

Yeah, definitely need to play again!

Tonight is Star Wars:  Clone Wars RPG night!

What will E'tan and E Leet screw up today?

Looking forward to it :)

Update to follow...

We did another session of Star Wars the other day. It was great fun. The sensible Cerean E Leet did his best to follow the master's wishes while the impetuous E'tan did all he could to screw up things. Like bringing Clone Troopers to what was to be a peaceful mission. Jumping out of an airspeeder, Anakin style, to attack a pursuing starfighter (good thing he had some Force Points to spend). Charging this Sith warrior, against the direct order of his master, only to botch the attack...go on to be hit twice for lots of damage...try throwing a grenade at her...only to have it returned by a little force push.  Time to run away!

So lookingforward to the continuation...

Earlier this week I finally had the opportunity to sit down and do some PnP roleplaying. That doesn't happen often enough. At any rate it's an old game that I started last year, but we haven't played that many sessions. I think only six so far, and two of those were pretty short and the first one we spent mostly making characters.

For once it's not grim and dark or fantasy. It's Star Wars. Clone Wars. Influenced rather more by the animated series than the (crapcrapcrap) prequels. We started playing using the Revised d20 rules. I think they are pretty good. Very DnD v.3.5. A few tweaks though, but largely the same.

We considering a switch to the Saga edition instead. Saga is something of a cross between DnD v.3.5 and DnD 4E. You can see some of the features from 4E in there, but not all. The result is a much simpler game than the Revised edition, which is mostly a good thing since we want to focus on story and action for our brave Jedi rather than bean counting. So we are presently considering making a transition to this edition. Probably will, but with some tweaks.

The two PCs are Jedi Apprentices. The human Jedi Guardian E'tan is to young, too brash and too quick to fight. His companion is the much more stable Cerean Jedi Guadian E Leet. Together with their Master, her Padawan and two other apprentices they adventure across the galaxy and get into trouble - usually involving Separatists. I'll write more about them later - the point of this post is to attach the first scenario we played: Mission to Arcuuna.