Critical Miss: Issue 4 (GM's and Jedi Knights)

GM's and Jedi Knights

Confused As Hell...

"The target character's perceptions are altered so that he senses an illusion or fails to see what the user of the power doesn't want him to see. The power is used to permanently alter a character's memories so that he remembers things incorrectly or fails to remember something. This power can also be used to alter a character's conclusions so that he comes to an incorrect conclusion."

Excerpt from page 79 of The Star Wars Roleplaying Game

The above power is pretty self explanatory. Affect Mind. You remember in the movie when Ben tells the Stormtroopers; "these aren't the droids you're looking for." This was the power he used. I think you get the same idea my players had.

I don't remember the actual gist of the conversation, but it probably went something like this:

GM (me): "Ok, you stop on the engineering deck and when the doors slide open you come face to face with six Stormtroopers, all pointing blaster rifles at you. The lead trooper says; "No access on this level, head back up immediately!"

Player 1: "Ok, your character uses the Force to tell him that we are engineers and we need to um, ah, run a safety inspection on the hyperdrive."

Player 2: Yeah! Tell the Stormtrooper to let us pass... and tell him his Mother mated with a wookie!"

Player 3: "HaHa! Tell them they all should leave their weapons on the floor and run to the other side of the ship, no wait! Tell them to strip out of their armour and run around the ship, naked!"

GM: "Uh guys, they won't leave their weapons..."

Player 1: "It says right here they have a misperception about what they see or hear. I tell them that we are weapon safety inspectors and they need to leave us their weapons and armour!"

After much dice rolling and several naked Stormtroopers later...

Now, as I mentioned, we were all fifteen, and rampant abuses of the rules are pretty much par for the course with any games run by fifteen year olds. To better help you as a GM, and for those players out there who actually enjoy making their GM's life a little easier, here are some helpful tips on how to better prepare yourself for a player who chooses to play a Jedi character. Or at least, this will help you avoid getting your favourite villain sliced and diced like a tomato when he foolishly enters into melee combat with man (or woman), wielding the Star Wars equivalent of a huge, honking Ginsu knife...

It slices! It dices! And it still cuts through a blast door!