Question about new Starpower rules

[infierno]

In the New Beginnings rule set, you lose Starpower d6 by rolling 1, 2, or 3 and reducing Damage at the same time.  This makes sense, but my question is: If I receive Obviously Dead damage and invoke Starpower under the new rules, and I roll all 4s, 5s, and 6s, must I accept the Obviously Dead result?  I assume the answer is "yes" because otherwise there would be no point to rolling, and you would simply reduce damage levels up to your Rep per encounter. 

EDIT - The other alternative that would make sense is taking double Decreasing Rep d6 hits for invoking Starpower two times, triple for three times, etc.

In the previous rules, rolling a 6 was what eliminated each Starpower d6, and it also didn't heal you.  This made sense to me as rolling all 6's is extraordinarily rare and so if that does happen, accepting an Obviously Dead result seems perfectly fair.  In the new system, there's a decent possibility that you'll use Starpower and roll all non-healing scores, which strikes me as being a good bit more brutal than the old system (unless you can choose to re-roll, in which case you might as well just reduce damage up to your maximum Rep).  I guess the sum of my thoughts is this: Was the intent behind the change to make Starpower less forgiving?  Or to streamline and keep the results relatively the same?

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Jan 18, 2022 1:20:36 GMT infierno said:

In the New Beginnings rule set, you lose Starpower d6 by rolling 1, 2, or 3 and reducing Damage at the same time.  This makes sense, but my question is: If I receive Obviously Dead damage and invoke Starpower under the new rules, and I roll all 4s, 5s, and 6s, must I accept the Obviously Dead result?  I assume the answer is "yes" because otherwise there would be no point to rolling, and you would simply reduce damage levels up to your Rep per encounter.  Yes, but there is Cheating Death (page 22).

EDIT - The other alternative that would make sense is taking double Decreasing Rep d6 hits for invoking Starpower two times, triple for three times, etc.

In the previous rules, rolling a 6 was what eliminated each Starpower d6, and it also didn't heal you.  This made sense to me as rolling all 6's is extraordinarily rare and so if that does happen, accepting an Obviously Dead result seems perfectly fair.  In the new system, there's a decent possibility that you'll use Starpower and roll all non-healing scores, which strikes me as being a good bit more brutal than the old system (unless you can choose to re-roll, in which case you might as well just reduce damage up to your maximum Rep).  I guess the sum of my thoughts is this: Was the intent behind the change to make Starpower less forgiving?  Or to streamline and keep the results relatively the same? Results are different in that as you said, you can score a 1, 2 or 3 and reduce damage but this time you lose it as opposed to the other way. I want to make using Star Power, successfully, to cost you something. In the old version you could be bullet proof, now not so much. Also increases the chance of you leaving the fight. 

[infierno]

Sounds good, makes sense to me. Thanks for the answer!

[davidlhsl]

In both the old and new system, rolling all 4/5/6 results in no damage reduction. Thus, obviously dead would remain obviously dead in either system.

The difference between the old and new system relates to how many Star Power dice carries forward after you use them in an encounter, as you might have to use it multiple times when the beef-a-roni hits the fan.

Old system: obviously dead. 5 Star Power: 1/1/4/4/6 = two step reduction obviously dead > out of the fight > duck back (or -1 Rep). 4 Star Power carries forward in the encounter (you lose the 6).

New system: obviously dead. 5 Star Power: 1/1/4/4/6 = two step reduction obviously dead > out of the fight > duck back (or -1 Rep). Only 3 Star Power carries forward (you lose the 2 1s). The rules recommend rolling one die at a time, but I believe that rolling all of the dice at once and only losing the die/dice you need to actually reduce damage has the same effect. Example: I score an out of the fight during ranged combat. I roll 2/2/3/5/6. I only need one die to reduce down to duck back, so I only lose one die and carry forward with 4 Star Power.

I agree that rolling all 6s is extremely rare, though. Would you believe that actually happened to me playing High Moon?

Edit: Ed beat me to it.

[infierno]

Jan 18, 2022 2:07:45 GMT davidlhsl said:

In both the old and new system, rolling all 4/5/6 results in no damage reduction. Thus, obviously dead would remain obviously dead in either system.
...
I agree that rolling all 6s is extremely rare, though. Would you believe that actually happened to me playing High Moon?

Yeah, but theoretically you could re-roll Starpower and take double Decreasing Rep d6 loss with the risk of rolling additional 6's and losing more dice.  (That's how I did it despite not being specified in the rules.) 

Also, I had a similar campaign in Chain Reaction where my main Star had 2 starpower rolls left against the Big Bad and rolled two 6's.  It was quite the blow. 

[brunop]

Concerning the Starpower rules, I'm not sure hpw it works:

"Whenever a Star takes damage, they roll their current Star Power d6". So here it says I roll all of my Starpower dice.

"We suggest rolling them one at a time!". From this I understand that I could choose to stop rolling after 2 dice if I am satisfied with the result.

But the example below indicate seems to indicate that the player must roll all of it's dice:
"Example: A Star with a Rep of 5 is hit by gunfire. He takes one Obviously Dead and one Out of the Fight result. Only the worse damage, the Obviously Dead, is applied. The player rolls 1d6 per point of the Star’s Rep, or 5d6 in this case."

And there's another example that seem to suggest the same thing. Roll all of the dice.
• The results are 2, 2, 4, 5, and 6.
• One “2” reduces the Obviously Dead result to an
Out of the Fight and the d6 is discarded.
• The other “2” reduces the Out of the Fight result
to a Duck Back and the d6 is discarded.
• The 4, 5 and 6 have no effect, but are retained.

So which is it? Do I have to roll all the dice or can I roll the dice one at a time and stop as soon as I am satisfied with the results?

[infierno]

^ If I'm not mistaken, the result is effectively the same either way, isn't it? Doing one at a time just saves you the rolls if you get the desired results right away. So I'd say you can do it however you want.

[brunop]

Not the same. Let's say I am out of the fight. Rep of 5 if I roll my dice all at the same time. Say 2, 2, 3, 1, 5. The first dice reduce damage from out the fight to duck back, the second, from duck back to carry on. The third and fourth dice have no effect on my status, but I still lose them. So I lost 4 dice. 

If I roll one dice at a time. The first is a 2, the second is a 2. And I stop there. I regained the Carry On status. But lost only 2 dice.

[infierno]

Oh yeah, I see what you're saying. I'll let the guru clarify in that case

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

One at a time is best. You can choose to roll as the examples (those are old school examples BTW). You can do it however you like. If you are OD you'll need at least 2d6 Star Power to get to Carry On status, so you choose how to do it. Either way, same result.