Noodling with Star Wars and PDQ (part 1)

This isn't going to make sense to anyone who isn't at least a little bit familiar with role playing games and Star Wars.

The Premise
I lurk over at Story Games and I've recently been interested in this thread: If you were to land the Star Wars RPG license, what would you do with it?

Rob Donoghue has written that Risus covers 80% of the situations that will come up in any game. I kinda feel that way about PDQ, which makes sense because both games tread very similar conceptual ground. So, I would probably start with PDQ (actually PDQ#, the swashbuckling variant used in Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies). The system will allow for just about any character you might want to play in Star Wars, and the dueling mechanic will cover everything from lightsaber combat to X-Wings vs. TIE fighters to debates in the Galactic Senate. I'd say that using PDQ# actually brings it up to an 90% solution: most of the game is there, we're just missing a few elements.

The biggest element lacking is the Force. Specifically the Force as a morality meter gauging the distance between Mercenary Smuggler and Heroic Rebellion General or between Jedi Padawan and Sith Lord. Stories of corruption and redemption are what make Star Wars really shine, and any game based on that IP should be able to mechanically address that. Some of the Force's presence is covered by Style Dice, but an additional layer is needed to really make it shine.

Which returns us to that Story Games thread. In it, Daniel Solis mentions his own Split Decision mechanic, which is already based around a 4k2¹ die roll. What does PDQ# use? It uses an Xk2 (or 3) mechanic. Already, we're getting somewhere. Split Decision adds an additional layer of information to the dice roll, so in addition to determining if a character succeeds or fails, the dice can also tell you if the action was Light, Dark or in the middle. The addition of this mechanic to what's already available in PDQ# brings us pretty close to Star Wars gaming nirvana, I think.

The Proposal
Light Side dice are blue, green or very rarely purple. Dark Side dice are always red. Most of the time, you'll be rolling just two dice: one Light and one Dark. Most regular PDQ# rules apply. Players may earn and spend Light Side Force dice (also blue or green) in exactly the same manner as style dice are described in S7S and the free version of PDQ#: by doing heroic things or otherwise having (interesting) misfortune befall your character.

Then there are Dark Side dice. Maybe you gain Dark Side dice by acting villainously. Maybe you get them for acting, not necessarily villainously, but impulsively or aggressively. Or maybe you get them just for asking or whenever the GM decides to offer them. The Dark Side is quicker, easier and more seductive, after all. When you roll your two dice (I'll get to duels and their extra die in a moment), plus any Force Dice you choose to spend, you get to keep any two dice, rather than just the two highest. The colors of the dice you keep, however, matter.

If you keep one Light Side die and one Dark Side die (remember without any additional dice, you're always rolling one red die and one blue die), nothing happens, you're not directing the Force, you're letting it do it's own thing. You succeed or you fail, and you can narrate your the results of the action however you feel is best. If you keep two Force (blue) dice, however, you mark one tick on your character sheet towards the Light Side and narrate your action appropriately. If you choose to keep two Dark Side (red) dice instead, you mark one tick on your sheet towards the Dark Side, and include details about your character's corruption in your narration. Ticks are mutually exclusive, meaning you could move towards the "center" if you were already leaning in one direction.

Next Time
Learning Points, Duels, Consequences and Problems I Don't Yet Have Solutions To

1: "4k2" means roll four dice and keep either the highest two, or just the two you like best. I assume most nerds will recognize Xd6 notation, but "XkY" is less common and I never pass up an opportunity to over explain something.