Standing atop the train, without the benefit of the speeder’s windshield, El-Isara was forced to lean into the wind to avoid falling – most likely to her death – her knee forced down to touch the train’s outer metal skin. Wind continued buffeting her, as she looked over towards the speeder. Briefly she monitored the direction of the droid’s blaster, an action she mostly did when it appeared to others that her guard was down. Thankfully this time, it wasn’t pointed at her. She watched the speeder bank upwards in order to move to a higher altitude above the train, as was their plan. A momentary loss of concentration made her loose her stance and she was forced to steady herself with her arm extended onto the roof. Suddenly she sensed a disturbance below her; men, specifically Imperials, and they were not in the slightest bit friendly. Worse however was the dread she felt from the statue that they had made all this effort for. El-Isara could feel the pull of the artifact’s influence through the Force, calling out to seemingly mock her presence. Obviously, they had the right train.
The Padawan instinctively drew her lightsaber from her belt, and turned its ignition sequencer towards the roof of the train. Suddenly El-Isara realized that the rush of excitement, mixed with the adrenaline pumping through her veins had somehow clouded her senses, as an intense feeling of dread overwhelmed her. She knew this was not a feeling that was wise to ignore; a feeling she was ever too familiar with. It was a sense of danger.
Instinctively her head snapped forward, her eyes widening in horror. Ahead, an oncoming tunnel rocketed towards her position. There was little room for her to remain atop the train, lest she become a smear against the plasticrete walled entrance. Microseconds could matter and without further thought, El-Isara activated the blade against the hull. Immediately the mixed smells of burning metal and ozone assaulted her senses. She ground her teeth in frustration as she looked for the weaknesses in the carriage’s reinforced plating, ever aware of the approaching tunnel. The gaping maw grew closer, and fear once more crept into her thoughts. It was now not only a question of how she was going to get into the train, but how long it was going to take her to get through…
The excitement of watching a Jedi wield a lightsaber conjures images of swashbuckling heroes atop tall ship masts, or Conan-esque battles between mighty combatants in an open arena. Recently on the Order 66 Podcast (Episode 70 in fact), a question sent in by yours truly pondered the notion of using lightsabers in a manner that they were not always originally intended, specifically as a “magical” door opener. My group often calls lightsabers their “all in one shaving device,” a quote from a game session years ago where they attempted to convince an Imperial officer, who had recognised the weapon, that it was not as he had so wrongly assumed, but it was in fact a somewhat fancy toiletry device. Lightsabers though are much more than that, in that they fill the role of both weapon and tool.
Often players will wish to burn a hole in the roof or floor of a ship similar to the way Yoda does against a Trade Federation Tank in the Clone Wars Animated Series, or as Luke does in The Empire Strikes Back against the AT-AT on Hoth. Unfortunately, the rules in the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games are silent on this issue, but the rules do provide some guidance on how to proceed.
Our first response would normally be to examine the attributes of the weapon, specifically the Breach weapon quality which states that the weapon ignores 1 point of Armor, or its equivalent of 10 points of Soak. Unfortunately this would be a mistake unless the intent of the wielder is to use the weapon to do damage to the vehicle in question. Using our scenario, the intent is merely to make an opening, rather than attacking the craft. Only a small portion of the hull, something which may have little to no effect on the vehicle itself, is to be affected, and so we look more to what abilities the wielder may have, rather than the qualities of the weapon itself.
The type of substance being cut through though must still be taken into consideration, for instance, cutting through the door to an apartment would be much easier than breaching the reinforced hull of an armored hover-train. Other things can come into play such as having studied blueprints to know the weak spots of a vehicle, environmental effects such as wind, rain and in some instances, space. “But these are handled through boosts and setback,” I hear you say, “Just make it an attack roll.” If you got to that conclusion, you would be halfway there. Instead, the best way to handle this situation is through the use of a Skill Challenge.
The concept of the Skill Challenge is something which comes from the likes of Dungeons and Dragons 4E and Star Wars RPG Saga Edition. A number of successes are required to be rolled before a number of failures. In this case, the number of successes required would be equal to the target surface’s armor rating x2, with a minimum of 1 success required. This is of course assuming that time is of the essence. If time in not an issue, or there are no other dramatic effects that would impact the story, the GM would be best to say, “It takes some time, but you eventually cut through,” and then move on with the story. But if you have a scenario similar to the one involving the young Padawan El-Isara above, you can add tension by asking for a check to determine the length of time it takes to get through. The bonus to using this is that a Skill Challenge can be used cumulatively across multiple rounds rather than just the one attack roll requiring a success or failure result coupled with tracking Hull Treshold and the like. The GM can also add setback dice for added strength to the hull, or perhaps full upgrades for magnetically shielded walls. The possibilities are endless.
The Difficulty for this type of action should be an Average (
) Lightsaber check, or what would normally be required to use a lightsaber.
from the roll can be used to add 
to further attempts if required, additional maneuvers to jump through the hole once it has been created, or preventing alarms being triggered when the hull is breached.
Conversely, 
can be used to trigger alarms, cause strain, and set about other complications such as burn damage from touching the sides of the hole just created, and in extreme cases, having the lightsaber blade fuse temporarily to the hull.
can be used to circumvent the need for further checks, accidentally disabling other systems by cutting through cables near the surface of where the hole was made, or upgrading further attempts to cut the hole.
can be used to short out the lightsaber and render it useless until repaired, cause emergency shielding to activate or providing the enemy behind the opening to get off an attack early.
The thing to consider here is that the check made to create the hole or damage the device is not an attack. A lightsaber is an instrument/weapon that slices through limbs like butter, and with the right technique, can even melt away heavy blast doors. Unless the player character is attempting to damage a vessel or person, damage should not be considered, nor should the true armor rating of the device. Use the armor rating as a guide for how many successes are required (see above), and only concern yourself with tallying the number of successes made throughout each roll. This approach will make your game move more quickly, and remove any frustration that you or your players may face.
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- The Dice Pool Podcast’s – Interpret This! #4 - May 24, 2018
I loved being part of the discussion of this on the Interwebz, but I love even more that you have shared the final outcome! Outstanding, and thank you Hoolie – well told, I really got the feeling of being there on the top of the train with them.