Kumar has killed five mooks and Gremane two. That leaves five left to fire. All of them blaze away at the Jedi, but their shots are deflected away uselessly!
The mooks have a skill of 7. However, their blaster carbines spray out a large amount of firepower. Whilst not much good for a skilled gunman, this ‘spray and pray’ firepower give them +2 to hit, so they are firing with an effective skill of 9. Kumar has a Lightsabre of 14, and Gremane 12, and so these are their target numbers to hit. Three fire at Kumar, and two at Gremane. At this point, Kumar and Gremane have the option of spending frames to dodge these attacks, using ‘Active Dodges’ to increase their defences. Active dodges can be taken even when it is not your turn to act, and are very useful. However, Kumar and Gremane are dependant on having lots of frames to act in order to maintain their current superiority over the goons they are fighting, so they decline to spend frames dodging. Note that Kumar and Gremane are still making some effort to get out of the way/deflect shots- this is called ‘Passively Dodging’; it costs nothing and is the reason why the attackers must reach the Lightsabre skills of the Jedi to hit them in the first place.
(Note that the ‘Active Dodge’ is not the only Defensive Action you can take. The Blade Trick Block allows a superior form of Defensive Action against frontal attacks; the Force power Defensive Leap gives you a powerful defence against all attackers, though you must move whilst doing so, and the Force power Reflection, which reflects laser attacks back at your attacker, is also a form of Defensive Action.)
Against Kumar they roll +4, +2, -4, for totals of 13, 11 and 5. One got close but not close enough. Against Gremane they both roll evens, for 9 and 9. He is safe also. The shots are deflected away.
But the gun turrets have acquires their targets and fire also. They have a firing skill of 8, increased to ten because they are also using spray fire (10 is the limit spray fire can take your shots to). They also do more damage than the carbines of the goons. These attacks are more dangerous.
Kumar ducks one volley of fire and deflects another away. Gremane deflects one, amd then dives away but the next comes awfully close to a hit; a shower of sparks explodes on the wall behind him, scorching him slightly.
Kumar thinks Gremane should play it safe with these more dangerous attacks. He does not literally control Gremane but the GM is happy that Kumar would have so trained the little guy, so Gremane takes active dodges against both attacks from the turrets, making his dodge value against those attacks 14, the same as Kumar’s
Against Kumar, the guns rolls -3 and -1. Feeble! But against Gremane they roll -2 and +4- the second result is a 14, and a Hit! The damage of the gun turrets is 13. Added to that is the Outcome of how much it hit by- but this one actually hit dead on, so the Outcome is zero and no extra damage is added at all. Subtracted from this is Gremane’s strength of 8, for a final total of 5 damage. Named characters can take 25 damage before being really wounded and 35 before they are in trouble, so this isn’t really a crippling problem- and so the final effect is described as a near miss, and the GM notes that Gremane has taken five ‘damage’ so far.
Kumar and Gremane, with the remaining mooks now trapped between them, advance forwards- but nearby footsteps herald the approach of more bad guys…
We shall move away from Gremane and Kumar now. They will slaughter those mooks, but more will turn up… You will note, of course, that the two of them- even the young Padawan- were HIGHLY effective against these people. Of course, Kumar is a hardcore combat template, but he could kill these people in his sleep- even the weaker combat templates, therefore, should find this sort of thing easy going.
That is intentional. Jedi ARE that dangerous. But over time, lucky hits will wear the two of them down. Just as in the Arena battle of Attack of the Clones, the Jedi will wipe out uncountable amounts of droids, but will slowly be exhausted over time until lucky hits finish them off. Of course, you will not be fighting (many!) battles on that scale, and with sensible play you should wipe out your foes before being overwhelmed. Some fights are notably more difficult than others though.
Matrix players might be wowed by the ease of mook death (who you knew are mundanes). There are four reasons for this:
1. Mooks are worse in Star Wars. Just the way it is- Matrix players are expected to be more thoughtful with how they handle rooms full of Mooks, using cover etc. Jedi don’t use cover! Star Wars mooks are both lower skill, and require less Outcome to kill.
2. In Matrix, you would be expected to use lots of powers with every move to try and make Mook killing easier. Jedi don’t have to- they have Lightsabres. Lightsabres are very powerful and make this job easier! And then Jedi can add their force powers on top of that- fewer options than Matrix players, but enough to provide a further edge.
3. Blade Tricks- Jedi, with their Blade Tricks, have all the best powers of Matrix Guns and Fu combined, except for not being ranged.
4. The Mooks were not dodging! In Star Wars, battle droids and stormtroopers seem to care less for their lives and don’t get out of the way. In Matrix, all mooks tend to dodge when attacked. Most mooks in Star Wars do not.
However, sometimes in Star Wars I may deploy more Matrix-like mooks (like the Order of Miramar, whom the vets may remember) who, whilst still not highly dangerous, will have higher skills, and will dodge like Matrix mooks, to give you guys a tougher fight.
One thing that can easily undo a Jedi (or at least shorten the length of time he can hold out in a big fight) is being attacked from the sides or rear, where it is harder to use your sabre in defence. However, both Kumar and Gremane have the Blade Trick Total Cover, which eliminates this problem. This is vital for Kumar, whose tactic of leaping into the middle of a fight requires such 360 protection; after a previous bad experience, he hammered this lesson into Gremane as well.
Meanwhile, what have Arin and Marakith been up to?