The Dark Side, BASH Style!

[Dustland]

I think BASH would be a great system for the over the top nature of Star Wars heroes, but I'm wondering how you'd implement the Dark Side.

What I'm thinking is if a character opts to "use the Dark Side", he/she'd gain a free Hero Die that would need to be used that round.

Then the question becomes, what is the negative effect? I suppose I'd lean towards a non-mechanical solution that draws on the idea that the Dark Side forces the character into more situations that require him/her to call upon it again. So the character is more likely to be the target of "random" attacks and just plain bad luck and as the GM, I'd start to describe non-threatening people/pplaces as being threatening (ie You think the guy at the bar keeps glaring at you and appears to be making a move for his blaster...when in reality he's not).

Thoughts?

[MrJupiter]

Cool idea Dustland. I'll think on this one while running errands today.

One thing I'd like to suggest is that you might try renaming the Hero Point to a DARK DIE so that you can separate the inherrant goodly-ness of the Hero Die. Treat it the same otherwise.

[Lindharin]

I always have trouble with thinking about the consequences of the Dark Side in mechanical terms. It really feels more like a role playing element, more than a mechanical one, so I think you're on the right track.

However, the benefits of the Dark Side are fine as mechanical elements. In fact, I'd go further and consider doing something like every X times you call on the Dark Side to get a bonus Hero/Villain/Dark die, you get a free character point, as you progress down the quicker, easier path to power. But once you have gotten a certain number of free character points (maybe 3 or 5?), you count as having completely fallen to the Dark Side and can't call on it for bonus dice any more. And Jedi can still reach the same number of character points, it just takes them longer to earn the experience points needed to do it, which is why the Dark Side isn't stronger, just quicker/easier.

Or that could all be total bunk...

[MrJupiter]

Here's an idea:

If a player becomes tempted to use the Dark Side to gain an instant 'evil' Hero Die, they are then Tainted. From now on the player must spend 1 additional Hero Point any time they try to use a normal Hero Die. Now the player is more tempted to just call on the Dark Side again when they need to get something done.

Questions to resolve:

1/ What effect would many callings of the Dark Side have upon a character? (Maybe five callings causes the player's character to gain some kind of inconvenient Disadvantage - "Dark-Side Taint" or something).

2/ How would a player 'clense' their character from being tainted. (Maybe they have to just blow off 2 Hero Dice for each 'evil' Hero Die/Dark Die called upon.)

[MrJupiter]

I always have trouble with thinking about the consequences of the Dark Side in mechanical terms. It really feels more like a role playing element, more than a mechanical one, so I think you're on the right track.

However, the benefits of the Dark Side are fine as mechanical elements. In fact, I'd go further and consider doing something like every X times you call on the Dark Side to get a bonus Hero/Villain/Dark die, you get a free character point, as you progress down the quicker, easier path to power. But once you have gotten a certain number of free character points (maybe 3 or 5?), you count as having completely fallen to the Dark Side and can't call on it for bonus dice any more. And Jedi can still reach the same number of character points, it just takes them longer to earn the experience points needed to do it, which is why the Dark Side isn't stronger, just quicker/easier.

Or that could all be total bunk...

That’s something I forgot about all-together: The narrator gets a Villain Die when the player gets an ‘evil’ Hero Die to spend.

Maybe, when the player accumulates X number of ‘evil’ Hero Dice they automatically get a free Advantage (which would balance the penalizing Disadvantage they automatically get when accumulating X ‘evil’ Hero Dice)…

Advantage: Dark Side Favored – the player’s hero becomes immune to Villain Die/Villain Point effects as the Dark Side recognizes their fledgling evilness. This means the player will not have to worry that the narrator will use Villain Points/Dice against him/her.

[Dustland]

Advantage: Dark Side Favored – the player’s hero becomes immune to Villain Die/Villain Point effects as the Dark Side recognizes their fledgling evilness. This means the player will not have to worry that the narrator will use Villain Points/Dice against him/her.

I prefer to run the Dark Side as a force that feeds off its own!

Cool ideas guys!

[Dustland]

You got me thinking about using an Advantage to mark some point at which the character "falls to the Dark Side."

Assuming that all force users would have to take the Power Sense (Force) and the use of that power would detect the presence of the Dark Side, would it not be unreasonable for someone that has accumulated enough Dark Side points/dice/? to be "invisible" to the Sense (Force) power? It seems to fit the SW mythology pretty well.

Or should the Sense (Force) power not differentiate between Dark Side and Light Side, only reveal the relative connection a force user might have?

[MrJupiter]

I'm not sure it would be a good idea to have dark force users be able to hide from other Jedi just because they have an "In the Clutches of the Dark Side" advantage.

Some kind of advantage that allows the Hero (or should I say Failing Hero) be able to gain some kind of affinity or kindship from npc evildoers. Kind of like a bonus to Reputation when dealing with those likewise tainted by the Dark Side (even those unknowingly under its influence -- What was it Dr. Smith said in Lost In Space? "Evil knows evil."). This should go both ways: npc good-guys should feel uncomfortable and untreusting around these supposed 'heroes'.

That could work. It would allow tainted heroes to try to better infiltrate enemy strongholds or get better streetwise rolls for information.

When it comes to laying low in terms of creating stirrings in the Force you could have the player make a Stealth skill roll to see if they manage to keep the ripples small enough to be undetected by enemies. You could set the base Difficulty at 10 (Typical) for the player just having his/her character moving about and doing nothing with the Force. Have the difficulty move up a level of difficulty for each power level of any Force power they use (ie using the Force to provide Resistance from the intense cold of Hoth would require a Tough difficulty success to keep quiet).

You could also add situational modifiers to this (like -4 Dice Penalty when hiding from Darth Vader while he is in the same room as your hero, and he’s actively seeking you).

You know, the more I've been looking at the powers in BASH, the more I think that they could form a really good basis from which to build Force pwers in general!