Rules¶

Game sessions will follow the guidelines of the Star Wars 5^th Edition Player's Handbook.

While these are the official game rules, they will primarily be used as guidelines in our games. The most important part of roleplaying is the players having fun, not the accuracy of every calculation nor the adherence to every rule.

The documents on this website will summarise and link to important parts of the rules, as well as explain any variant rules and custom rules that we'll be using.

Character creation¶

Combat¶

Combat encounters are typically a clash between two opposing groups of characters; chaotic blaster fire, a flurry of weapon swings, feints, parries, footwork, Force-casting, and tech-casting.

• Combat is organised into a cycle of rounds and turns
• During a round, each participant of a battle takes a turn
• After each participant's turn, a new round begins unless either group has been defeated

Step-by-step¶

1. Determine surprise. The GM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised.
2. Establish positions. Given the adventurers' marching order or their stated positions, the GM decides where all characters and their adversaries are located, and which directions they are facing.
3. Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative to determine initiative order.
4. Take turns. Each character participating in battle takes a turn in initiative order.
5. Next round. When each combat participant has taken their turn, the round ends. Repeat step 4 until the fighting ends.

Surprise¶

If no one is attempting to be stealthy, characters automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the GM determines who might be surprised by comparing:

1. The Dexterity (Stealth) checks for anyone hiding
2. The passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each opposing character

Any character that doesn't notice an opposing character is surprised:

• They cannot move or perform an action during their first turn of combat
• They cannot perform a reaction until that turn ends

A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

Turns¶

Each participant takes one turn per round. During their turn, a character can:

• Move a distance up to their walking speed or flying speed
• Perform an action
• Perform a bonus action
• Perform an object interaction
• Include a flourish

Players decide whether their character moves first or performs their action first.

Characters may perform a reaction outside of their turn.

Movement¶

Characters can move a distance up to their speed. They may use as much or as little of their speed as they choose.

Movement can include jumping, climbing, swimming, and flying. These different modes of movement may be combined with walking, or they may constitute an entire move.

Breaking up movement¶

Characters can break up their movement. For example, with a speed of 30 feet, a character could move 10 feet, perform an action, then move another 20 feet.

If a character has more than one speed, such as a walking speed and flying speed, they may switch between each during their movement.

Any character movements are subtracted from all of their speeds.

Difficult terrain¶

Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot to move through. This holds true even when multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain.

The space of another character, whether hostile or not, counts as difficult terrain.

Actions¶

During their turn, characters can perform:

• An action presented by the action reference below
• An action gained from their class or a special feature
• An action that they improvise

Many characters have their own action options in their character sheets.

Bonus actions¶

Characters can perform an additional action during their turn, called a bonus action, when a class feature, special ability, power, or some other feature of the game states so. Otherwise, a bonus action is not available.

• Only one bonus action may be performed per turn
• Characters choose when to perform a bonus action during their turn, unless the bonus action's timing is specified
• Anything that prevents performing actions also prevents performing bonus actions

Object interactions¶

Characters may interact with one object or feature of the environment at any time during their turn, even during their move or action.

To interact with an additional object, characters can choose to use their action or bonus action. Some enhanced items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.

The GM may require that an action is used if the interaction needs special care or if it presents an unusual obstacle.

Flourishes¶

A turn can include flourishes that require neither an action nor a move.

Characters can communicate however they are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as they take their turn.

Reactions¶

Certain special abilities, powers, and situations allow characters to perform a special action called a reaction. A character's reaction can occur on any character's turn, typically as an instant response to a trigger of some kind.

• After performing a reaction, characters cannot perform another until the start of their next turn
• Characters with two or more reactions can only perform one per turn

Attacks¶

Variant rules¶

There are a number of variant rules offered by SW5E, some of which we will adopt for gameplay convenience or for narrative flavour.

Milestone levelling¶

Instead of receiving experience for every encounter and levelling up at odd times, the GM chooses when player characters level up, typically between game sessions. This avoids the potential for level disparity between different player characters.⁴

Bonus action consumables¶

Most consumable items require an action to use during combat, which makes sense when applying them to others.

However, a common adjustment in D&D 5^th Edition is to allow administering such consumables to yourself as a bonus action. This only applies to consumables that confer a positive benefit, such as a repair kit or medpac.⁶

Dismemberment¶

Some characters, and their players, take great pleasure in using their weapons to potentially maim their foes.

When a character scores a critical hit with a weapon that is capable of removing a limb, such as a lightweapon or vibroweapon, they roll an additional d20. If they roll higher than 10, they successfully remove a limb, or potentially slay the creature outright.⁷

The character should then roll percentile dice and consult the Dismemberment table below.

If a creature is immune to the damage dealt by the weapon, it can not be dismembered by that weapon. If the creature is resistant to the damage dealt by that weapon, when you roll the second d20 to determine whether or not you remove a limb, you do so with disadvantage.

If you roll a result on the Dismemberment table, and the creature lacks the chosen limb, you instead deal additional damage equal to the attack's governing ability modifier.

A creature with legendary actions can use its Legendary Resistance to avoid dismemberment, instead taking the additional damage equal to the attack's governing ability modifier.

Custom rules¶

A number of custom rules will be used specifically for this saga.

Stims and adrenals¶

Medical items that enhance abilities for short periods of time are available from specialist vendors.

Bud Blunto's 4d20¶

If, for any reason, a player needs to roll 4d20 and rolls four natural 20s, the entire party and their ship will be teleported to a weed planet by Stoner Master Bud Blunto³. The remainder of the session will consist of the player characters getting high, eating copious snacks, and probably some combat with disadvantage against creatures in ancient, weed-laden caves.

"Woah. You've done it my dudes. Here I was, meditating, searching for the perfect stoner buddies, and... here you are."

— Stoner Master Bud Blunto