Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 22:50:23 -0500
From: "Landon C. Darkwood" <darkwood@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: [SW-RPG] Jedi, Killing, and Lightwrenches
Sender: Star Wars Role Playing Game Discussion Group <SW-RPG@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
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Reply-to: "Landon C. Darkwood" <darkwood@BELLSOUTH.NET>
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In the past few days, at different times, various members of the SW-RPG
List wrote:
<snip lots of text>

        Okay. Now that I can breathe, I'll go ahead and say that if we need to
spend this much time arguing about how to kill a Jedi, then we need a hobby
as badly as the guy who came up with the higher end lightsaber cadences.
The Mandalorians did it, I believe, by matters of initiative, surprise, and
overwhelming numbers. Just because a Jedi -can- use Danger Sense and Combat
Sense and a whole bunch of other powers to get himself out of almost any
scrape, doesn't mean he's smart enough to use them. Jedi training is as
much raw ability as it is the insight to use such ability properly. Luke
had an average of 7D in his Force skills in ESB and a crapload of powers to
boot, and he still didn't know squat about being a Jedi, and certainly
couldn't be considered an effective Knight. And just as there are smart
Jedi, there are smart players who know how to take advantage of them, by
forcing them into positions where its either death or the Dark Side. Hey,
it happens. Of course, having a sniper ready to supplement your frontal
assault is also a damn good idea. Or attacking one Jedi with, you know, a
regiment of people...

        About the various lightweapons... whatever floats your campaign. Let's all
shut up about this before Jae comes and cuts the List membership in half.
Thanks. :)

        Finally, here are stats for a weapon that I think is effective against
Jedi. You want to talk about it? Please do so... to me. Not the List.
Thanks again. :)

WEAPON TYPE: Plasma Burst Cannon
MODEL: Irian Armaments Corporation's GS-9 Energy Missile Cannon
SCALE: Character
SKILL: Missile weapons: plasma cannon
AMMO/SHOTS: 15
COST: no standard price
AVAILABILITY: 4, X
RANGE: 3-10/20/35
DAMAGE: 8D
FIRE RATE: 1/2 (needs a round to calibrate the force field for the next
missile)

The GS-9 is a weapon that fires a charged, semi-solid plasma burst toward
its target. Note that, technically, every blaster weapon is a plasma energy
weapon. Blasters merely fire a charge of ionized gas, as opposed to
amplified light. This energy missile cannon differs in the fact that it
really isn't a blaster at all, but fires a charge that is so densely packed
as to almost be considered a solid projectile. Thus, the Energy Missile is
born. The comparison is akin to that of the Wookiee bowcaster, which
actually combines an energy charge with a solid object to increase overall
impact. A better analogy would be like playing ping-pong with a ball of
pure energy. You can hit the surface of this energy mass, actually sending
it off in another direction, and not cause damage to the face of your
racquet. The same principle works with the Energy Missile. The energies
contained within the Energy Missile are contained within a weak force field
that usually ruptures on contact with the target, releasing the energy
explosively. The force field provides the charge with a shape and structure
like that of a large, anti-personnel grenade, causing much of the same
recoil when fired. Therefore, handling and operation of this cannon is
similar to a missile weapon, like a grenade launcher, and really not like
handling a blaster weapon at all.

As previously stated, it is theoretically possible to actually deflect an
energy missile towards another target after firing, but to do so would
require hitting the missile softly enough not to break the force field,
because that would trigger the explosion of the missile. I have seen Jedi
try and deflect these things with a lightsaber, only to have the missiles
explode in their faces (the ultimate anti-Jedi weapon!).

Because the energy release is controlled, to an extent, the energy missile
has a blast radius shorter than one meter.

Game Notes: This weapon, as I have stated, is not a blaster. Therefore, it
must be slung over the shoulder, like a bazooka or something of that
nature. Any attempt to use it as a blaster suffers the usual skill
penalties. The Energy Missile Cannon produces a backblast that can be
damaging if you are dumb enough to stand behind the thing (5D
Character-scale damage to anyone less than a meter directly behind the
weapon).