All the Luck in the Galaxy

Homebrew & House Rules
#1

Greetings fellow GMs and players!

Long story short I wanted to throw a bone to a PC who was (by the nature of the session - a filler) a bit less involved.
I tempted him to a card game against a “Dandy Gambler” (adversary card). After a close game, he noticed the gambler used the Force to win (the topic title ability) and he revealed he himself is Force sensitive too, so they might exchange tricks.

All the Luck in the Galaxy: when making a check to gamble, a Deception check or a Negotiation check, add [Force die] to the check. Each [white pip] result automatically adds [succes] to the check. [2 Dark pips] results automatically add [Despair] to the check]

I let him learn the ability for 10 XP, but upon learning he told me it’s a bit lackluster, especially with higher Force ratings, as the chance of Despair getting bigger, especially as for FR1 Dandy Gambler the solo dark pips do nothing but as RAW 2 dice might get you a despair instead of nothing. I see his point and want to give him some cool, niche ability but I’m afraid I’d overdo it. How would you change it, so it scales better with FR and still worth using it?

#2

Well, technically, it doesn’t say add Force dice up to Force rating, it just says add “[Force die].”
So if you could argue that, per RAW, you can’t add more than one, which fixes your problem.

The problem is simply that this ability was designed to work on an NPC with a Force Rating of 1, and was not intended to scale at all. I suggest simply limiting it to adding a single die, as that’s how the ability is intended to work and it’s entertaining as written.

I would have kept it as an NPC ability though.

#3

You are technically right, though NPC’s abilities usually phrased as flat values corresponding their stats without scaling as they don’t grow, but the rules they use are usually are (see damage for melee/brawl attacks).

I see your point not giving him this power, (lesson learnt? probably not :smiley: ) but at this point I rather not take it back.

#4

I am aware, but it gives you a good excuse. ^_^
Anyway, keeping it at 1 is what I’d suggest. It’s only designed to work with a single die, and it does quite well.

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#5

I’ve wondered this exact same thing, and I can’t believe I never thought of the idea of it being locked to 1 Force die!

Hmm… let’s see if I can come up with anything else…

Ooh! I have something! It’s a gambling ability, right? So let’s make it a gamble. How big you bet determines how big you win… or lose!

All the Luck in the Galaxy: Before making a check to gamble, a Deception check or a Negotiation check, commit (F) no greater than your current Force rating. Then, add (F) to your check. For each [W] result, add [S] equal to the number of (F) committed. [BB] results automatically add [D] equal to the number of (F) committed to the check.

Basically, like Rimsen said, you keep it to rolling 1 Force die to not throw off the odds, but you can multiply the results by “raising the stakes,” as it were :slight_smile: .

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#6

I like this approach, though connecting the results to the number of Force die could get out of hand. Throwing 3 die, and getting only 1 BB would result in 3 despairs. That’s insane :smiley: vice versa, 3 dice with like 4 white pips is 12 success this way.

#7

The idea would be that you only ever roll 1 Force die.

So, as an example, I have a Force rating of 3, and I commit all 3 Force dice for the ability.

Then, I’d roll 1 Force die in the pool as part of the power. The results would be:
[W] - 3 Successes;
[WW] - 6 successes;
[B] - No effect.
[BB] - 3 Despairs.

So it’s your idea, you only ever roll 1 die (to keep the proportions the same), but you can bet more than 1 die’s worth of benefit/loss if you have more dice than the Dandy Gambler has.

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#8

Aaaaah! My bad! Comprehensive reading is hard :smiley:
Great idea! I love it!

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