Chapter 6: Modified Rules

Part One: The Modified Skill List

Several new skills exist to recreate what people knew during the early days of the Republic.

Dexterity Skills:

Beamer
Specializations: Laser pistol, laser rifle, stun rifle, or any other weapon type.
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers all high-speed energy weapons, including lasers, stunners, and flame guns.

The difficulty is determined by the range of the weapon, as listed under the description under each weapon.

Bolter
Specializations: Pistols, rifles, shotguns or any other weapon type
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers all weapons that fire solid projectiles, excluding archaic weapons, including pistols, rifles, gauss guns, air guns, and shotguns.

The difficulty is determined by the range of the weapon, as listed under the description of each weapon.

Shield
Specializations: Large shield or small shield
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers the active use of shields in combat to deflect melee and ranged attacks.

Vehicle Gunnery
Specializations: Heavy bolter cannon, bolt autocannon, medium beam cannon, light beam cannon, or some other piece of heavy weaponry
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers all mounted weapons of Speeder or Walker scale, including bolters, blasters, and beamers. It also covers Speeder or Walker scale weapons mounted on starships.

Mechanical Skills:

Airplane Operation
Specializations: Specific airplane type
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers the operation of all propeller-plane, fixed-wing, swept-wing, VTOL, and jet airplanes. Airplanes range from single-person prop planes to enormous jumbo jets with hundreds of passengers.

Airship Operation
Specializations: Specific airship type
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers the operation of all slow lighter-than-air airships, including blimps, balloons, and dirigibles. It can also be used to pilot very slow-moving repulsorlift vehicles such as sail barges.

Gyro Operation
Specializations: Specific helicopter, gyrocopter, or similar vehicle
Time Taken: One round

This skill covers the operation of all helicopters, gyrocopters, vertical turbine vehicles, and vertical jet-thrust vehicles. Gyros, unlike airplanes, are capable of hovering in place, floating backwards, and other feats, though they are usually considerably slower. Gyros serve as troop transports, gunboats, and spy vehicles.

Light Sail Operation
Specializations: Specific light sail vessel type.
Time Taken: One round

Light sails are massive in order to soak up as much light as possible, though the craft itself is very small. They maneuver slowly and are entirely unfit for combat, but they are common in primitive regions that have not developed more advanced space flight, or as the luxury craft of the phenomenally wealthy.

Technical:

Bolter Repair
Specializations: Bolter pistols, surface-to-surface, heavy bolter cannon or other specific weapon type.
Time Taken: In general, fifteen minutes, then one hour, then two hours. May be customized to circumstances.

The cost and difficulty to repair weapons depends on how badly it is damaged.

Weapons also require maintenance, but this type of activity is normally done “off-camera” (outside of game play) rather than taking place during adventures.

Bolters can also be improved and modified to cause more damage, to fire at longer ranges, to have increased ammo capacity and numerous other factors; however, this section only covers increasing damage.

The “pip increase” is from the bolter’s original value.

Bolters may not be improved (using these rules) more than 1D+2 past their original value. If the character wants to have someone else improve the blaster, the cost is at least doubled, although it can be much more because of the highly specialized knowledge needed—improving bolters is often illegal, so prices may be even more inflated.

Cybernetic Repair
Specializations: Specific cybernetic system
Time Taken: In general, fifteen minutes, then one hour, then two hours. May be customized to circumstances.

The cost and difficulty to repair cybernetic systems depends on how badly it is damaged.

Cybernetics also require maintenance, but this type of activity is normally done “off-camera” (outside of game play) rather than taking place during adventures.

Cybernetic Repair cannot be used to improve existing cybernetic systems. This feat requires Cybernetic Engineering.

Cybernetic Engineering
Specializations: Specific cybernetic system
Time Taken: One month per rank to design a new system; one week per rank to build the system.
Advanced Skill – Requires Medicine of at least 1D or Cybernetic Repair of at least 5D

This skill is used to design and build cybernetic systems. The difficulty, time, and cost depend on the type of system, and whether the engineering is designing the system from scratching or merely building one from a preexisting blueprint.

Absent Skills:

The following skills are not available in the Dawn of the Republic setting.

Bowcaster: Unavailable. Wookiee bowcasters have not yet been invented, nor are Wookiees known to the galactic community.

Firearms: Superseded by Bolter.

Vehicle Blasters: Superseded by Vehicle Gunnery.

Capital Ship Shields: Unavailable. Starship shielding has not yet been invented.

Starship Shields: Unavailable. Starship shielding has not yet been invented.

Swoop Operation: Unavailable. The ion technology necessary for swoop production has not yet been invented.

Part Two: Optional Rules

Optional Rule: Defaults

A default allows a character to use one skill in place of another, similar skill. Only normal skills default, not Specializations. It is possible to have multi-level defaults. For example, Starfighter Piloting defaults to Space Transports at –2D, and Space Transports defaults to Capital Ship Piloting at –2D, so a character can use his Starfighter Piloting to fly a capital ship at –4D. Obviously, defaults that would drive a character’s skill below his basic Attribute level don’t apply; just use the Attribute instead.

If a character wishes to advance a skill with a default that’s higher than his Attribute, he purchases the skill at the higher level. So, if a character with Dexterity 4D and Bolter 8D+1 (which defaults to Blaster at –1D) wants to learn Blaster, he buys the skill as if it were 7D+1 (7 CPs), not 4D+1 (4 CPs).

Dexterity Defaults:

Archaic Guns and Bolters default to one-another at –1D. Beamer and Blaster default to one-another at –1D. Bolter and Blaster default to one-another at –1D. Brawling Parry, Melee Parry, and Shield default to one-another at –2D. Vehicle Blasters and Vehicle Bolters default to one-another at –1D. Grenade and Thrown Weapons default to one-another at –1D. Brawling Parry and Brawling default to one-another at –2D. Blaster Artillery and Vehicle Blasters default to one-another at –1D. Bolter Artillery and Vehicle Bolters default to one-another at –1D.

Knowledge Defaults:

Alien Species and Planetary Systems default to one-another at –3D. Business and Value default to one-another at –3D.

Mechanical Defaults:

Airship Operation and Gyro Operation default to one-another at –3D. Airship Operation, Repulsorlift Operation, and Starfighter Piloting default to one-another at –2D. Archaic Starship Piloting, Space Transports, and Capital Ship Piloting default to one-another at –3D. Capital Ship Gunnery and Starship Gunnery default to one-another at –3D. Capital Ship Piloting and Space Transports default to one-another at –2D. Space Transports and Starfighter Piloting default to one-another at –2D. Ground Vehicle Operation and Hover Vehicle Operation default to one-another at –3D. Hover Vehicle Operation and Repulsorlift Operation default to one-another at –3D. Powersuit Operation and Walker Operation default to one-another at –3D.

Perception Defaults:

Bargain and Con default to one-another at –3D. Command and Persuasion default to one-another at –3D. Con and Gambling default to one-another at –3D. Hide defaults to Sneak at –2D.

Strength Defaults:

Brawling defaults to Brawling Parry at –2D.

Technical Defaults:

Capital Starship Repair, Space Transports Repair, and Starfighter Repair default to one-another at –1D. Capital Starship Weapon Repair and Starship Weapon Repair default to one-another at –1D. All Repair types default to one-another at –2D. Droid Programming and Droid Repair default to one-another at –3D.

Optional Rule: Wealth

A person’s Wealth is rated from 1-5.

0: Items of nearly negligible value, worth only a few credits. Snacks, pens, lighters, beverages, razor blades, in-town public transport.
1: Common, inexpensive items, worth about 10 credits. Knives, swords, holdout pistols, crude tools, poor (-1D) guns, basic clothes, out-of-town public transport, datachip, glow rods, portable cameras, bad food and coffin hotels.
2: Typical items, worth about 100 credits. Vibro-weapons, bolt pistols and rifles, blaster pistols, typical armor, interplanetary transport fare, data pads, communicators, standard cameras, audio recorders, small vidscreens, breath masks, medical kits, cheap food and tacky motels.
3: Expensive items, worth about 1,000 credits. Lightsabers, blaster rifles, heavy weapons, heavy armor, motorcycles, ground cars, interstellar transport fare, long-range communicators, video recorders, large vidscreens, standard food and typical hotels.
4: Very expensive items, worth about 10,000 credits. Turret-mounted weapons, powered armor, speeders, airships, very cheap freighters or transports, classy food and luxurious hotels.
5: Astonishingly expensive items, worth about 100,000 credits. Luxury speeders or airships, high-class freighters or transports, top of the line food and hotels.
6: Corporation-level wealth, with objects worth about 1,000,000 credits. Advanced starfighters, assault corvettes and similar vessels, large high-end freighters, small space stations.
7: Objects worth about 10 million credits. Super-advanced prototype starfighters, massive star freighters, light destroyers and frigates, mid-sized space stations, personal asteroids.
8: Objects worth about 100 million credits. Colony ships, mid-range destroyers and cruisers, large space stations, lifeless personal moons.
9: Objects worth about one billion credits. Massive colony ships, star cruisers and battleships, massive starports, personal moons.
10: Objects worth an indefinitely large amount of money. Top of the line battleships and dreadnoughts, battle stations, starship construction facilities, personal planets.

Wealth starts at 1 for all characters. During character creation, Wealth can be increased by 1 per 1D worth of skills.

Wealth and Purchasing:

A character can buy one item of his current Wealth level per week. He can buy ten items per week of one less Wealth level, one-hundred items per week of two less Wealth levels, and so on. After that, a competing Bargain check is required to purchase an item.

It is possible to buy something of one greater Wealth level, but this requires a competing Bargain check with a penalty of –1D per Wealth level, failure resulting in the character’s Wealth being reduced permanently by one.

Large Purchases:

Characters can combine their Wealth to purchase a single large object. The main buyer uses his basic Wealth, and everyone else adds +1 to effective Wealth. This allows a group of characters to, for example, own a starship together. Only one such combined purchase can be made.

Improving Wealth:

A character can improve his Wealth if three conditions are met. First, to supply the actual assets, the character must have come into a large supply of money: a treasure cache, a great bargain, or something similar. Second, to make sure that the character can properly manage those funds, the character must make a Bargain check, with a difficulty equal to 10, +5 per the character’s current Wealth level. Third, to keep the money around, the character must spend one Character Point per point of the character’s current Wealth level.

If the character comes into money and cannot make the check or spend the CPs, the character receives a short-term Wealth bonus ranging from +1 to +10 depending on the size of the money supply: this can be spent on one purchase or many, but will eventually be used up entirely.

Optional Rule: Weapon Ranges

By default, a ranged weapon hits on an Easy check. This becomes Moderate at medium range. Difficult at long range, and Very Difficult at extreme range. At point-blank range (1-2 meters), the difficulty is Very Easy.

All guns are given a range increment—a standard bolter pistol has an increment of 10 meters, for example. Anything within the first range increment is short range. Anything within the range increment x2 is medium range. Anything within the range increment x4 is long range. Anything within the range increment x10 is long range.

Optional Rule: Stun Damage

Roll stun damage normally. A Stunned result applies as normal. A Wounded result incapacitates a character for 1D rounds. An Incapacitated result incapacitates a character for 1D minutes. A Mortally Wounded result knocks the character into a for 1D hours and causes a Wound. A Killed result knocks the character into a coma for 1D days and causes Incapacitation.

Automatic Weapons:

Any weapon listed as “automatic” is capable of performing three separate attack styles: three-shot burst, full auto, and suppressive fire.

Three-Shot Burst:

A three-shot burst is an optional firing mode. It fires three shots at a single target. All three shots suffer a –1D penalty to hit. Someone shooting a weapon capable of firing a three-shot burst can choose whether to shoot normally or in burst mode.

Full Auto:

Firing on full auto uses up a weapon’s entire ammo supply. Full auto cannot be used if the weapon’s clip is less than half full. A full auto attack grants a +3D to hit and damage at point-blank range, +2D at short range, +1D at medium range, no modifier at long range, and –1D at extreme range.

Suppressive Fire:

Suppressive fire prevents characters from moving into a certain area. The default area is a one-meter radius, though this can be increased by one meter per –1D to hit. The character makes a regular attack roll. Anyone attempting to move through the area must beat that roll with a Willpower check or he will be unable to enter. Anyone who enters the area or attempts to move through it has the normal chance of being hit by a single attack.

Suppressive fire chews up a number of ammo points equal to the character’s attack roll; this can be voluntarily lowered on a one-for-one basis. A character’s attack roll with suppressive fire is obviously limited to his current maximum ammo.

Equipment Toughness:

As a general rule, small items (pistols, daggers) have a Strength of 1D to resist damage. Mid-sized items (rifles, swords) have a Strength of 2D. Large items (heavy weapons, greatswords) have a Strength of 3D.

Wounded: Light Damage (-1)
Incapacitated: Heavy Damage (-1D)
Mortally Wounded: Inoperative, may be repaired. (Broken blades are at –2D to hit and -1D to damage.)
Killed: Destroyed. (Broken blades are shattered and useless.)

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