Rick

In a superhero game yeah you should define the Reflection as unable to deflect a heavy missile, every day. I treat Star Wars as a Hero type game, in which case I simply say, NO, when my pc's try to do stuff like that. On their character sheet all it says is 2.5d6 HKA "Lightsaber". They just know not to add their str and that it doesn't do any KB. I don't want them worrying about write ups in star wars, just playing.

Well if it's an HKA nnd of lets say 2.5d6. Then we add some martial arts DC's It can easily be 3-3.5d6. Thus averaging around 12 body per attack Killing anything hit hits on an average roll, except for PC's, important NPC's and things W/high body. I know things aren't officially dead till they're negative thier body, but I don't pay that much attention to mooks in my games at zero body they're out. And the low damage count is backed up in the movies by Vader taking a shot of the arm, Ob1 not getting chopped in three by Dooku and it taking four hits to put down the Acklay in the areana on Geonosis. Remember, as you once said, no one appears to have Resistant ed in Star Wars, so in melee combat all a big energy killing attack is ends up being, is a big NND. As far as the not cutting through supes or thor....Yeah I really don't see that as a point besides a wierd meta system debate. I, and DOJ apparently as they wrote up the Lightsaber similarly, don't really care about that to much. And you know what, to hell W/it who says that a Lightsaber can't cut through Superman, as far as I know there is know president set for that...and hopefully there never will be .

Well unless the lightsaber is cutting into a vital system it's not taking down an AT AT. Qui Gon was cutting the hell out of the blast doors and yet only creating a man sized hole (as per hero rules oddly enough ) and I don't let Jedi deflect attacks that are in all rights explosions or other AE: type powers like the AT-AT blaster. I thought that scene was week. If fact I find almost all of the EU to be complete CRAP!!!! So as in all things hero, you need to, as the GM, think about the SFX and and situation everything is happening in.

There are many ways of writing up a lightsaber, it just depends on how you like your games to run. My write up (I've yet to post it) in our game is bit complex but it accomplishes what I want, it allows for combat luck to effect the damage, shields to completely rebuff and it slices through everything and one else.

"I take a minimalist approach to weapons writeups..." That's a quote from you. Everytime you write up a weapon you "impose" a game mechanic on it, that's the point of writing them up. You are absolutly right in that you can take a tact that there is no Resistant ed in star wars. I've no problemW/that, though a 2-3d6 hka W/out str mod would work as well as 5d6 Rka no range. There comes the problem of the saber cutting clean through a blast door (by it's nature Resistant def) and not even effecting a shield. I don't really want my pc's to have 7-10d6 in melee combat in what is basicly a hero game. So I take the tact that Lightsabers are a lower dice W/higher advantage tallies. NND or ALVD.

So we've got 5D6 RKA No Range Reduced Penetration Reduced Stun Multiple (that's a real Lim in 5th, right?) Not vs "force fields" How is that minimal compare to 2d6 nnd does body. When luke hit vader he roled all ones...big deal that's how the rolls go sometime.

Ummm....yeah sure it's neat story wise but Star Wars isn't all that leathal of a world. So anything I can do to take the edge off possibly one of the most powerful personal weapons in fantasy history so as not to have a revolving door for PC's is the least I can do. Trust me people will be nervous enough about the ap/pen nature of the KA.

Are you kidding me...even if you have Jedi in your group one good shot and pop new Jedi character. Trust me I understand why people actually use the NND version in game...it's frickin cool, I'm just a little concerned W/it's outright Lethality.

Remember when Joker took on Supes in the Worlds Finest episode of Batman and Superman...Supes was all but dead.

Sure you can concider things in Star Wars Hardened...but why. Besides the Lightsaber what in Starwars cuts through everything? There is nothing else that is obviously "armor piercing" or obviously "Hardened". Big guns are AE: explosions or AE: hexes W/lot's of dice, blast doors are 20 pts of def: why bog down write ups W/AP and hardened when it's not neccissary. Yeah Lightsabers are definitly NND Killing attacks in the movies. I think however that in game I'll blaze through fewer PC's W/a 3-4d6 ap penetrating KA as opposed to a 3-4d6 NND Killing attack.

Well cinematicly LightSabers are definitly NND/Does Body. In a game though I'd go ap/pen, nothing in starwars is Hardened apparently. I would just consider all Enery shielding hardened.

Cool, thanx for the reply man, as far as the words, I'll just leave it W/I'm a big fan.

I guess the topic line says (asks) it all. I couldn't get to it today. Yours is one of my favorite art sites, it'd be dearly missed if it's gone permanently.

I'll be doing a Cowboy Bebop-esque game.

Yes the Lucas even said himself that the Sith's greatest power is that they can hide their presence. This is how they survived for one-thousand years W/out getting wiped out. Subtrafuge is a fabulous skill.