Dual Wielding: Jar'Kai for the Jedi Guy

So in researching outside material for this game, I've noticed that there seems to be some gaps in the rules for fighting with two weapons, and no real agreement that I've been able to find as to how to fill them. Mostly, it has to do with how you interpret the attack to be happening; the disagreement lies in whether the off-hand weapon is an active part of the roll-to-hit.

So today, let's take a look at Dual Wielding. Rules as written, the gaps, and how you can interpret what's there to fill in what isn't.

How to Two-Weapon Fighting in a galaxy far, far away

So, doing the thing itself isn't that hard; other games make it a lot more painful, requiring levels worth of investment to even be baseline good at it. Usually, this means all your buddies are Power Attacking or Magicking everything to death before you can really do much more than get both your swords out. In FFG Star Wars, it's much more practical and requires no extra investment on your character sheet.

First, the player determines a primary weapon. This is important, and the rulebook's wording is kind of important to consider: "When making the combined check, he will be attacking with this weapon." The other weapon is considered the secondary. Player then determines skills and characteristics used by the weapon skills of both weapons.

Then (and here's a part that gets me thinking the secondary weapon is more involved) you use the worst of both skill and characteristic for both. Meaning if you're using Brawl/Brawn and Ranged (Light)/Agility, and you're not built to do both very well, you could be looking at an ugly roll here. This rule gets thrown out if both weapons use the same skill - you just roll on the standard check value.

Now, you determine the standard difficulty for what you are trying to do. If the weapons you are trying to use are the same type, you increase difficulty by 1; if they are different, you increase difficulty by 2. Again, evidence that the off-hand weapon is doing something here that matters, and not just sitting idle until you have two advantages to use. If it weren't, why would the check be harder?

You then make your roll; success is determined as normal, with the off-hand weapon being a hit at the cost of 2 advantages. From there, weapon qualities can be activated as normal. Now, it's interesting, the wording on that bit in the book; it would seem that if both weapons don't hit, you can't activate their other qualities. Check that shit out for yourself; everything I just related can be found in the core rulebooks, in the "Additional Combat Modifiers" section of the "Conflict and Combat" chapter.

Weapon Attachments, Mods, and Special Qualities

Really, it's not an unfair system at all; it compares to Autofire favorably, though Autofire can, of course, pump out WAY more rounds on a good roll. Dual Wielding is limited to two hits (at least under RAW) and so suffers a little on damage.

But, this can be mitigated a bit, depending on how you interpret the next bit. See, the rules are...hazy, let's say, on how to handle some weapon attachments and qualities. Specifically, things that alter the attack roll, and other passive abilities.

This is where the whole thing I did above is handy - I pointed out at the three ventures where the rules differ from a standard attack, what these changes imply about the nature of the attack. Yes, you dictate a primary weapon; but from there, the attack roll is much harder and can wind up with very strange skill/characteristic combinations determining your dice pool.

I choose to interpret this as your off-hand weapon being active in the attack, even if it not the first one to hit. This is fine - when you swing two things at someone, one of them will almost always hit before the other. Simultaneous strikes are not as strong a tactic. 

So, what does this mean for weapon attachments and qualities? Well, really, it means that they work, most of them, but some of them work in ways that are harder to parse. Really, you have to follow a simple rule of thumb - if it affects damage, it only applies to that weapon. If it affects the roll itself, it likely just works with little consideration.

Weapon Qualities

• Any (Active) quality can be activated, after the off-hand hit, at their standard cost. Any that depend on the damage of the attack use the damage dealt by the weapon that owns the quality.
• Autofire gets singled out, because it must be dictated before shooting. It works as normal, but can only be paid for after the normal cost of Dual Wielding. Also, don't forget that +2  difficulty - it stacks. Dual Wielding Autofire pistols is...not really advisable.
• Accurate and Inaccurate apply. If the off-hand weapon is making the roll more difficult, absolutely the quality of the weapon's make should matter.
• Defensive and Deflection apply fully to off-hand implements; otherwise, the riot shield would be pointless. Not coincidentally, the mere existence of the shield informed much of this ruling.
• Superior applies the advantages to the initial roll. The +DAM from Superior is applied individually to the damage output of the weapon that owns it.
• Breach and Pierce only apply to the damage of the weapon that owns them.
• Vicious applies globally to crit rolls, regardless of handedness; one crit roll is all you get, anyway, and the rules for Dual Wielding don't expressly change that.

In Closing

I think this about covers this topic. It's really important to get straight, because once you hit mid-level, if you aren't throwing people things with your mind or swinging a big rifle, dual wielding is kind of a big deal in terms of your damage output. If Han were an EotE character, he would probably dual wield. Then he would shoot first and second.

I'd be happy with that.


EDIT, NOVEMBER 7

So, in reviewing dev answers to corner case questions, I found that their official take on dual wielding is a little different - specifically, they claim that (most of) the qualities of the off-hand weapon do not apply. I take issue with this for a couple of reasons.

-It's clear that the off-hand weapon matters for more than just "pay two advantages, get extra damage" being as your attack is more difficult, and may in fact be using that off-hand weapon's skill or related stat to determine the roll. If the off-hand weapon makes the attack harder, why does the quality of that weapon not take effect? It really seems stupid to me.
-The way the ruling works, one could main a Nova Viper blaster pistol (Ranged Light, Accurate 2) and off-hand a J7-B Beam Drill (Melee, Inaccurate 2) and simply not give a shit that his off-hand weapon is basically a half-step up from an improvised weapon. I fucking hate this, even if my players will likely never, ever do it. There shouldn't be circumstances in which this fairly crippling penalty just doesn't matter.