Sorthlador said:

I fully agree with you on the first half of the post.  As to this half, I kinda like it the way it is… for starters there are limits to speed/awareness, for another, I adore the fact that no matter how powerful you get, storm troopers never become pudding snacks, they always remain a threat.  Very savage worlds-ish.  Just my .02, but I can see yours as well.

Shakespearian_Soldier said:

If you're referring to the section on Defense on page 134, I think that's more a case of separate types of defenses don't stack.  So if you're wearing armored clothing (providing Defense 1) and wielding a lightsaber (Deflection 1, which is effectively 1 rank of Ranged Defense), you don't wind up with a Ranged Defense of 2 against a blaster bolt.

However (and this might change in a later update), the wording on Defensive is that it gives you the quality's rating as an increase to your melee defense and ranged defense at the cost of a maneuver.  So in this case, I'd say that the ranged defense boost provided by using Defensive would stack with that of Deflection, making a lightsaber one heck of a useful means of protection against ranged attacks, as you'd have a Ranged Defense of 3 (with an added +1 if you've taken the Sixth Sense talent from Force-Sensitive Exile).

So yes, based on the current wording, they would stack.

Thanks for the clarification. :)