bbarlowglamdring said:

I'm going to disagree, but I'll add that this is based off listening to the Order 66 session, and what I feel like I'd enjoy, and not numerous plays of my own.

"Swing and a Miss" gets old. Its one of the more draining parts of any tabletop game. The fact that you almost never see that in EotE is a huge plus, because it keeps things constantly shifting. So, your opponent misses you, but Oh! You take advantage of it and get a maneuver! I'd rather something like that happen a dozen times than just straight misses. And thats all you'd get by stripping out Advantage/Threat symbols--more straight, boring misses.

That doesn't seem superfluous to me, because it allows the combat to be flowing and changing even when its not the target player or NPCs turn, and that keeps people engaged and interested in every roll. If i'm just sitting there wondering if I'm going to take some damage, then I'm not all that invested. If I'm sitting there, hoping for a Despair or Threat to come up on my attacker's roll? Then I am having a much better time in the game over all.

 I encourage you to give it a try.  I thought precisely like you do before I played.  It sounds great on paper, but doesn't translate to the table.  It gets distracting and, ultimately, boring.  YMMV.

Inksplat said:

Agreed. This is why I like how Defense is very scarce in EotE, while Soak is much more prevalent. It's far more exciting when attacks regularly hit. It's thrilling for the players because they get to take out bad guys with greater frequency. It's also exciting because it feels dangerous to get hit, even if Soak eats up some, or most, of that damage. Suffering Strain or Wounds creates pressure and suspense and promotes a sense of urgency. Attacks that miss do very little to add to that, or to move the combat forward.

The one thing I don't want is to have to buy new dice for each of these games, with that in mind they need to have some wiggle room with how the dice function, extra advantages & threats may be dormant now but as the power level increases they may add rules that use them.

A little rules clarification for me please, if someone will be so kind…

When the rules state that you add your extra successes, or that extra successes enable you to certain benefits, do they mean the successes that are counted AFTER the 1 needed to succeed (so if your rolled 3 successes, then 2 count as extra successes), or do they mean all 3 are counted?

An example: in combat, successes are added to damage. Would this mean, for instance that 3 successes would increase your lightsaber damage from 10 to 13, or to 12?

Shakespearian_Soldier said:

I've been reading it as "each success after the first."  So for your example, the lightsaber hit would do 12 damage.

Donovan Morningfire said:

I've been reading it that way as well, but I couldn't help but notice that this (counting degrees of successes) was kinda awkward in Dark Heresy, and they 'fixed' it for Black Crusade, so it could go either way. :)

I feel inclined to do the same: count each success after the first as "additional".

I thought each success added +1 to attack damage. Not each EXTRA success, but each success. Do I have that wrong?

You might not be, as I think I recall the text saying that "successes" rolled add to the damage, not "extra" successes; I'd merely referring to the times when it mentions extra successes, however. :)

 There is an example in the book (out of the house a the moment, so no page number) that says if you rolled 4 successes, you'd deal +4 damage. So the book is pretty clear that it's total successes.

Shakespearian_Soldier said:

I found the text that confused me (page 107, Base Damage (DAM)):

"This is the minimum damage inflicted if the attack with this weapon hits. Each NET [success] generated during the attack check adds one point of damage to this base damage rating."

The biggest complaint my group has with the dice is the fact that advantages and disadvantages seem to come up more often than actual successes and failures.    And it does get taxing to constantly have to translate what the results do when the character just missed.    Now this might be because these were starting characters and once they start getting more dice than the difficulty dice it will be less of an issue.

Inksplat said:

Zar said:

Don't force the narrative interpretations.  There is nothing wrong with regaining/suffering some strain or tossing out some Boost/Setback dice to keep things moving until the next time a situation occurs where a more narrative/exciting approach is warranted.

My experience is primarily coming from WFRP's narrative dice mechanics, but I don't always have a cool or pithy way of describing every exchange in a combat (especially if I've pulled an encounter out of my hooha and didn't come up with raging rivers and debris strewn battle fields that can be used to hang up a PC or give them an advantageous reprieve).  And it is combat where the highest number of rolls occur, resulting in most of the "okay we've got…some more boon results but no damage...".  The easiest way (not necessarily best since this is just imo) I've found of keeping the action going is to just go "okay Rutiger here's a bonus setback die for the very next thing you plan to do" or "tick off a couple strain Luxo."  It's not an A+ narrative interpretation, but then you get to those moments where a more narrative free-form use of Advantage/Threat is warranted.

Another thing that can make using up Threat and Advantage more fun in combat (again imo) is to let the players spend their Advantage and Triumphs (arbitrated by the GM if things seem out of line  or if the players simply have no interest in doing so).  Then let players spend Threat and Despair generated by their opponents (again, arbitrated by the GM if things get out of hand or if the players decline).  Then when the tables are turned we do the opposite (so I spend NPC Advantage and Triumph and assign Threat and Despair results generated by the PCs).  I've found that it helps introduce a bit of strategy into the application of the modifier symbols (in WFRP it's Boon/Bane, Comets/Chaos Stars).

But as Lavar Burton says, "You don't have to take my word for it."