Stamina for Soak

[Ning Leihrec]

I let my players roll their stamina (up to their racial strength max) to resist damage. This allows them to toughen up a bit without spending 20+ cp on their Str attribute, and keeps them alive through minor combat without making them too powerful. This has always seemed fair to me. Thoughts?

[Naaman]

I like it. It's a good way to give value to the skill without making it overly necessary.

I can think of a few variations on this idea, but this way does well to allow for players who want a character that is survivable without having to put an un-thematic amount of dice into strength, especially if it does not fit their character concept to do so.

[garhkal]

Being one can raise stamina easier than Str, this seems an easy way for low Str pcs to get tough. Is it only applied to PCs, or all?
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[Ning Leihrec]

I've applied it to npc's as well. I give most lead stormtroopers an extra D of stamina for example.

[CRMcNeill]

Another possibility is to use the D6 Space rules for Strength Damage. Rather than rolling their Strength dice to damage, the value was halved (3D became 1D+2, 4D became 2D, etc). A character could substitute their Lifting skill in place of Strength, but the value would still be halved.

In this case, I would suggest using either Strength dice or half the value of the character's Stamina skill.[/list]
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Naaman]

Interesting that lifting (of all skills) was allowed for damage. Seems like brawling would be more appropriate, but, whatever.

1/2 stamina seems like a reasonable trade off instead of regular stamina capped at species maximum... though in this case, it could artificially inflate the value of the stamina skill: we may end up seeing characters with 10D stamina, while their "main" skills are still sitting at 5D or 6D... but at only half the skill total, maybe it would still be better to juat buy some armor.

Either way, the OP or this idea seem pretty reasonable.

[CRMcNeill]

Or you could allow both. If you use the RoE optional damage rules, the attacker picks up a bonus to his damage roll based on how well he rolled his attack skill. I use a 3/1 ratio, personally.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Naaman]

3/1 seems ideal. I've always felt that 1/1 is way too powerful and 5/1 is barely noticable.

[Whill]

[Ning Leihrec]

I agree that dodge is a more realistic skill to focus on, which is why I only allow stamina to be used to resist damage up to the racial str max. Dodge is not limited in that way. Toughness is not the same as brute strength. A character's ability to take a beating and dish one out should not be represented by the same dice.

[garhkal]

[Naaman]

That's how I'm interpreting it, too. Makes it fairly balanced, in my opinion. Some campaigns just don't work well with low STR characters, and having the option to boost toughness a bit, I think, is great.

If it begins to get overpowered, I might say that the character can add 1 pip to soak for each D he has in stamina (over the attribute). The max allowed is the max attribute.

So, if a character with 2D Str has 4D stamina, he gets to roll 2D+2 to soak.

When he has 6D stamina, he gets to roll 3D+1 soak. And 8D stamina lets him roll 4D soak.

Of course, it all matters what style of game he's playing and whether it makes the game more fun, more playable. That's really the bottom line, after all.

[Ning Leihrec]

That is correct Garhkal. It's merely a way for characters to toughen up without having to raise their whole STR attribute. It's not going to allow them to become invincible.

That's an interesting option, Naaman. Pretty straight forward for anyone who finds my method unbalanced but still wants to effect soak with stamina.

[Merrick]

Combat is dangerous and it should be. My players try to avoid it if possible which I find adds a bit of simulated realism to the game. Most people try to avoid dangerous situations.

It seems like this would make characters too strong right out of the gate, but if it works for your campaign and you are having fun, that's what counts.
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"Maximum firepower!"

-General Veers

[garhkal]

Namman's option is a great compromise
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!