Killing Jedi in the Star Wars RPG
First, a word from everyone’s favorite assassin droid, HK-47:
ON WEAPONRY:
First, weapon selection is critical. If I see one more idiot attacking a Jedi with a blaster pistol, then I’ll kill them myself. Select grenades, sonic screamers, cluster rockets, and plasma charges. Mines are also effective, since many Jedi will run to meet you in hand-to-hand combat. Silly Jedi. Gas attacks are effective if you can take the Jedi by surprise. Inhalation is less effective than ones that work on skin contact, as some Jedi seem able to hold their breath for long periods of time. Still, don’t rely on it, since Jedi can fight off the effects. It just distracts them, leaving them open to another avenue of attack.
ON DEFENSE:
Do not forget to activate any energy shields you possess. Lightsabers, while powerful, have trouble penetrating most military-issue energy shields, provided they are ENERGY SHIELDS and not those crude Mandalorian melee shields. Countering their other powers is more difficult. I do not fully understand their other abilities, but I do know that many of them require that the Jedi know you are there, and can see you. Thus, sniping and using cover are always advantageous.
ON OTHER METHODS:
A method that Revan used frequently was to attack a Jedi indirectly.This method only works if the Jedi is adhering to the self-destructive path of pacifism and sacrifice. Answer: Kill their allies, or place them in jeopardy. Many Jedi will leave themselves exposed in order to protect another. That is why there are many less Jedi than there were a decade ago. Statistically, over-planning the assassination of a Jedi seems to backfire. There are many theorists who claim that Jedi can see the future, and I do not know if that is true, but it seems impulsive acts are more common than planned incidents. Jedi, like sand-kivers, seem to sense trouble a few seconds before it happens. They are tricky little pests.
ON THE VARIETY OF WAYS TO KILL JEDI:
The odds of me being forced to use such techniques against you has decreased, Master. There are some more methods I could describe, if you wish. Overwhelming odds is a good tactic, master. There are few Jedi that can long hold their ground against a hundred attackers all firing at once…or being turned on by their own troops. But the most effective weapon against Jedi seems to be the erosion of the spirit. Revan claimed that psychological warfare was important because much of their power comes from their state of mind, their connection to this religion called “the Force.” Revan said that many Jedi have the capability to form connections to life around them, although few of them realized the extent to which this is possible. I believe my Master speculated that many Jedi did not fully form such connections because of their discipline, because they never opened their lives to the passions around them. I believe Revan termed it that “one would have to be a human being to develop such connections.” It is something that the Jedi code could not teach. One simply knew it instinctively, or not. He said that you had such capability, master, but it would be your downfall. To tie so much of yourself into others — if they suffer or die, then you would die as well. When a Jedi, or any soldier, suffers doubt, it weakens them. With the Jedi, however, it is more pronounced, since they are extreme examples.
And now from another perspective, the rules for it is done in our Star Wars RPG campaign:
Jedi will sense the threat you pose early enough to react. This can only be bypassed by extremely indirect methods like moondropping, where by time the danger sense is specific enough to warrant attention it is too late.
Jedi will figure out how you intend to kill them. If you have some incredibly contrived plan otherwise, then maybe, but unless it is ludicrously complex, this rule applies.
A technique exists to protect them from any threat short of unimaginable destruction. Running is a technique, and they are extremely good at it.
Given this, there are few techniques necessary to kill one. They come down to overwhelming, overpowering, betraying, and convincing.
For the two former techniques – first, ensure they have no escape route or that they will choose not use it. This is harder than it seems for people who can run up skyscrapers and jump hundreds of meters as well as cut through anything short of ridiculously thick walls.
For overwhelming, you have to establish a series of attacks that cannot be forestalled e.g. crushing the barrels of weapons, blocking liquid tubes, etc, that are either so varied in number that the Jedi cannot apply sufficient defensive techniques to evade all of them. This will be proportionate to their power, as what may be impossible for one is effortless for another. The ideal is to use weapons whose defenses are mutually exclusive, but these do not actually exist. You also have the problem of subtlety, that the more preparation you go through, the more easily the trap will be detected. As such, this is generally only effective against mid-level Jedi.
Overpowering works by presenting them with a greater force than they can defeat. This is why it really helps to have another Jedi on your side. Otherwise, entrap them where they can’t escape or won’t escape, and send ludicrous numbers of forces towards them. You have to, as a necessity, have so many soldiers in combat with them at one time that they need to expend all their efforts defending themselves and cannot spare anything to escape, and you have to keep that many soldiers in combat with them through reinforcements until the Jedi is dead. This will take dozens of extremely skilled soldiers, or thousands of weaker ones. It is often more cost-effective to use cheaper soldiers, but there is a limit to how cheap they can be, given that it is necessary to shield them to the extent that a Jedi can’t mentally take control of enough to present enough resistance to allow their escape. This technique is effective against all Jedi, but against the highest orders, it can be so expensive as to be impractical.
Betrayal is next, and simultaneously the easiest and the hardest. Jedi will shut off or ignore their feelings of apprehension towards those they have developed great trust for unconsciously, be it soldiers they fight beside, friends, family, or lovers. This means each one is an avenue for attack. However, they must still be sufficiently shielded that they don’t broadcast their murderous intent so loud as to overwhelm the Jedi’s desire to believe them trustworthy. This is extremely challenging, as compromising people who truly love them means that the Jedi will most always notice the change in attitudes and mental signature caused by such training, and it is incredibly hard to develop training so strong that the Jedi will not notice their intent to betray, and even more challenging to make such strong training so subtle as to not have its highly visible signature noticed. For this, subconscious triggers are recommended, especially if they can be implanted into existing relations. It is best to have them activate while the Jedi sleeps, especially if it is possible to drug them very slightly, to slow reactions. Do not drug them any more than slightly as they will notice and undo the negative effects. However, where all the conditions apply, the Jedi can be dispatched with a subtlety and efficiency impossible in any other way. This works in general on all Jedi, but it is very specific to the Jedi in question, and if trained operatives are required can be impractically difficult and resource-intensive.
Finally, convincing them to allow you to kill them is the most effective way to kill Jedi of the order, and on occasion, Jedi rogues. It requires the most effective planning and investigation, and must be of the very highest order. You must present them with a circumstance in which allowing themselves to die becomes the preferable option out of the alternatives. This often includes hostages, but can be expanded to vaguer gains, or even ideological prospects. One such use was by Mendak the Reformer, a high-level member of a Mandalorian clan notorious for destroying entire planetary settlements for sport. A Jedi was dispatched to deal with his immediate superior, the leader of the clan, but Mendak offered him another solution. If the leader was killed nothing would change and within the year the raids would begin again, but he made an oath to the Jedi that should the Jedi allow him to kill him, the prestige gained would be enough to allow him to take control of the clan, and in exchange he would stop raids on settlements and restrict himself to inter-clan warfare and legitimate Republican mercenary employment. The Jedi, seeing how many more millions could be saved in such a way, agreed, and deliberately lost a duel to the death.
Utterly critical to the success of this technique is firstly that you are aware of all the options that exist so as not to miss one, secondly that if a better option exists you ensure the Jedi does not realize it, and last and most important of all, that the Jedi believes your honesty. This is extremely challenging given their abilities, to the point that real honesty becomes the only real option, and even then the deeds necessary to place you on the other side of the Jedi are often such that they will never allow themselves to trust you. Regardless of its difficulty and niche usage, this is the most effective technique to kill a Jedi.
