Star Wars Movies and gaming
Michael Goswick
day. I was greatly angered at the realistic inconsistancies that the
writers and producers allowed to creep into the plot. I would like to take
some time to explain:
1 - Luke is a young boy to start. He has a week maxium to get training from
Obi-wan Kenobi in the ways of the Force. Now if we take a standard learning
l Zen Buddist dogma) we see that the week training that Luke had was insufficent toallow him to perform as he did in the film.
2 - I was also appalled at the way Luke was able to hit a 1meter by 1meter target at the velocity he was crusing at without a targeting computer. I have
broken down the statistics so that I have have come to the conclusion
that Luke had a (according to Han) "one in a million" chance at the shot.
l
it must be noted that the GM (Lucas) fudged the roll for drama's sake.
3 - I was also angered at the silliness of the droids sustaining only minor
injuries despite the poor tactical responses they took. If I were Gming a
l I would have punished the players of said bots harshly for their
tactical ineptitude. I think that C3-PO was a valid target for inter-party
death as well.
4 - Bobba Fett is described in literature as "the most dangerous being in
l but he never actually does any damage to any of his targets on screen.
l again shows Lucas fudging rolls on behalf of his character.
l I think we can all see how the Star Wars movies are the best example of
l
giving the campaign a pulp hero-like space opera feel.
l I wish to put forth my dice-heavy version of the movies:
Star Wars: Leia is blasted away as the large Star Destroyer is more than enough
l but is awarded extra bonuses on his farm skills.
Han Solo and Chewbacca are killed by Gravity forces when they try one of their
newton-flaunting turns.
l
destroy the Rebellion and take over.
Empire Stikes back - N/A
Return of the Jedi - N/A
I think we see that it is much more enjoyable in its realistic and more
grounded simulation form.
l
Judd M. Goswick
Yours
l far in advance technologically and militarily of the Alliance
The Empire
for her small corvette. Luke never leaves the farm on tatooine
In order to comabt this tendancy
why dice in gaming are vital. Lucas lets his heroes get away with anything
With the above examples
l to me
l he dies in a most incerimonious way that
In fact
the Galaxy"
Star Wars scenerio
On a d100 this means he would need to roll a decimal. As this is impossible
curve for a real world skill of similar disposition (in this case
As a gamer
Joseph Teller
a maximum 80 characters across per line if you expect to actually
be read.
John H Kim
ending possibilities for _Return of the Jedi_ (including Luke being
cut in half). Hence, I feel compelled to reply to Mike Goswick's post
which basically suggests that dice are completely inappropriate for
_Star Wars_.
[At least when I got it, Mike's post was garbled in many places. I was
able to reconstruct most of it from context - hence I am going to
quote the whole thing, for those who don't read Garble.]
Michael Goswick <mgos...@ra1.randomc.com> wrote:
>I was shocked to watch the Star Wars movies by George Lucas the other day.
>I was greatly angered at the realistic inconsistancies that the writers
>and producers allowed to creep into the plot. I would like to take some
>time to explain:
>
>1 - Luke is a young boy to start. He has a week maxium to get training
> from Obi-wan Kenobi in the ways of the Force. Now if we take a standard
> learning curve for a real world skill of similar disposition (in this
> case Zen Buddist dogma) we see that the week training that Luke had
> was insufficent to allow him to perform as he did in the film.
>
>2 - I was also appalled at the way Luke was able to hit a 1 meter by 1 meter
> target at the velocity he was crusing at without a targeting computer.
> I have broken down the statistics so that I have have come to the
> conclusion that Luke had a (according to Han) "one in a million" chance
> at the shot. On a d100 this means he would need to roll a decimal. As
> this is impossible it must be noted that the GM (Lucas) fudged the roll
> for drama's sake.
>
>3 - I was also angered at the silliness of the droids sustaining only
> minor injuries despite the poor tactical responses they took. If I were
> Gming a Star Wars scenerio I would have punished the players of said
> bots harshly for their tactical ineptitude. I think that C3-PO was a
> valid target for inter-party death as well.
>
>4 - Bobba Fett is described in literature as "the most dangerous being in
> the Galaxy" but he never actually does any damage to any of his targets
> on screen. In fact he dies in a most incerimonious way that again shows
> Lucas fudging rolls on behalf of his character.
>
>I think we can all see how the Star Wars movies are the best example of
>why dice in gaming are vital. Lucas lets his heroes get away with anything
>giving the campaign a pulp hero-like space opera feel.
Obviously this is a pointlessly sarcastic diatribe, but I thought
I should throw in some comments.
Using dice does not mean a strict adherence to mundane realism.
Try playing the_James Bond_ RPG, _Torg_, or even, say, _Star Wars_.
Note that these support exactly the "pulp space opera" results described.
The PC's can make "impossible" shots *without* the GM having to fudge
the die roll - by spending Hero Point/Possibility Points/whatever.
_Theatrix_ takes the same approach with its "Plot Points".
Even without these, the aspects you are talking about have very
little to do with dice. If you put a "realistic" learning curve into a
diceless game, you still have the problem of #1. The unbalanced power
on the PC's side can be contained purely in stats - with the Force strong
in him, Luke has a lot greater ability than he should have "realistically".
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
>
>I wish to put forth my dice-heavy version of the movies:
>
>Star Wars: Leia is blasted away as the large Star Destroyer is more than
> enough for her small corvette. Luke never leaves the farm on tatooine
> but is awarded extra bonuses on his farm skills.
>
> Han Solo and Chewbacca are killed by Gravity forces when they try one
> of their newton-flaunting turns.
>
>The Empire far in advance technologically and militarily of the Alliance
>destroy the Rebellion and take over.
>
>Empire Stikes back - N/A
>
>Return of the Jedi - N/A
>
>With the above examples I think we see that it is much more enjoyable
>in its realistic and more grounded simulation form.
Well, Mike - the *exact same thing* is true if you run the
scenario dicelessly in a "realistic" manner: the GM judges that
realistically, the droids should be destroyed walking through the
crossfire as the ship is boarded.
If, OTOH, the GM and the rules both say that this is a pulp,
hero-like, space opera universe - then you get different results whether
or not you use dice.
Say, for example, Hans fumbles his hyperspace navigation roll
going to Alderaan, and they end up lost at some other planet. There
they here rumors about the Death Star and they know that communications
have been lost with Alderaan. Thus forewarned, they are not captured by
the Death Star, but have to contact the Rebellion on their own. Rather
than a desperate assault, they concoct a plan to infiltrate the Death
Star to exploit the weakness, and save the princess at the same time.
Many other examples can be given on request (if I can run with
Luke being chopped in half, I think I can try a lot of other
possibilities).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kim | "Whatever else is true, you - trust your little finger.
jh...@columbia.edu | Just a single little finger can... change the world."
Columbia University | - Stephen Sondheim, _Assassins_
OLY Account 4
Michael Goswick <mgos...@ra1.randomc.com> wrote:
>l I was shocked to watch the Star Wars movies by George lucas the other
>day. I was greatly angered at the realistic inconsistancies that the
>writers and producers allowed to creep into the plot. I would like to take
>some time to explain:
>
>1 - Luke is a young boy to start. He has a week maxium to get training from
>Obi-wan Kenobi in the ways of the Force. Now if we take a standard learning
>
>2 - I was also appalled at the way Luke was able to hit a 1meter by 1meter target at the velocity he was crusing at without a targeting computer. I have
>broken down the statistics so that I have have come to the conclusion
>that Luke had a (according to Han) "one in a million" chance at the shot.
>it must be noted that the GM (Lucas) fudged the roll for drama's sake.
>
>3 - I was also angered at the silliness of the droids sustaining only minor
>injuries despite the poor tactical responses they took. If I were Gming a
>tactical ineptitude. I think that C3-PO was a valid target for inter-party
>death as well.
>
>4 - Bobba Fett is described in literature as "the most dangerous being in
>l again shows Lucas fudging rolls on behalf of his character.
>
>l I think we can all see how the Star Wars movies are the best example of
>l
>giving the campaign a pulp hero-like space opera feel.
>
>
>Star Wars: Leia is blasted away as the large Star Destroyer is more than enough
>
>Han Solo and Chewbacca are killed by Gravity forces when they try one of their
>newton-flaunting turns.
>
>
>Empire Stikes back - N/A
>
>Return of the Jedi - N/A
>
>grounded simulation form.
>
>Judd M. Goswick
>Yours
>The Empire
>for her small corvette. Luke never leaves the farm on tatooine
>l to me
>l he dies in a most incerimonious way that
>In fact
>the Galaxy"
>Star Wars scenerio
Did anybody ever tell you that you missed the point of these movies?
M.J. Lush
Michael Goswick <mgos...@ra1.randomc.com> wrote:
>l I was shocked to watch the Star Wars movies by George lucas the other
>day. I was greatly angered at the realistic inconsistancies that the
>writers and producers allowed to creep into the plot. I would like to take
>some time to explain:
>
>1 - Luke is a young boy to start. He has a week maxium to get training from
>Obi-wan Kenobi in the ways of the Force. Now if we take a standard learning
>l Zen Buddist dogma) we see that the week training that Luke had was
>insufficent toallow him to perform as he did in the film.
<Rarther a lot of stuff deleted>
(To the tune of the Dwarven Gold song)
Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll....
In the unlikley event Mr Goswick was for real, he sould note the
High output Reality Compensators (tm) which are fitted as standard to all
ships and planets in the StarWars Universe.
--
Michael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NPC rights activist | Nameless Abominations are people too!
Scott A. H. Ruggels
Alliance
>destroy the Rebellion and take over.
Hurrah! Long live the empire!!!
Scott