Most helpful. Thank you very much. The sidebar information was extremely useful as well particularly the guidance from Chapter 8. This video prompted me to think about a few of the rules sections I will review. There is some complexity around the mechanics and I think there are some ways that we are using force powers in our game that I may have missed some of the nuances from the rules. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I am glad you got some benefit from the video. I appreciated the question as a topic; I think it's one many people share.
I've always wanted to run an Imperial game where one person is playing a Sith, and this gives me confidence that it can be done without overshadowing or alienating the troopers and officers. Thank you.
I am blessed to be running a robust FFG Star Wars RPG campaign (based 10 years after the Battle of Endor) with engaged players. I really love the FFG Star Wars RPG, a truly unique game. Your videos are quickly becoming a valuable resource to me as a GM. Thank you very much. With that said, I do have some challenges. I would really love to hear your insights on what criteria you use to determine what material you will bring into your games from different Star Wars material sources. I have a player who would like to see a character from the Star Wars comic books brought into our game. I have another player who would like to have a lightsaber crystal from a Star Wars novel available to be quested for. I have another player who would like to see a starship from a Star Wars video game be available to trade for. I have another player who would like to visit a location from an West End Star Wars RPG scenario book. Have you dealt with anything like this with your players? What criteria do you use to determine what you bring in? How do determine a “credible” Star Wars material source? A video on this would be great. Thank you.
It's a fun game to run and play, isn't it? I addressed your question briefly in an early video about starting this campaign with this group, but the idea could use some attention and further examples from play. I will give it a shot~
The biggest mistake a lot of people make when it comes to managing force sensitive characters is how they handle committed force dice, because there is one tiny little caveat to the way committed force dice work that makes a huge difference. You are only allows to un-commit force dice at the end of your turn. This is an absolutely essential rule that is easily overlooked. If you allow people to un-commit force dice whenever, and then immediately use them there is basically no reason to not always have force dice committed to have all sorts of fantastic buffs on your character, and then the second you need your powers you just un-commit and use them. Doesn't work that way though. There is always at least one turn of cooldown between getting your dice back and being able to use them again, so you have to be a heck of a lot more deliberate with using those powers. They aren't just a nice place to park your dice while you're not using them, because those dice are stuck there for one turn when you do need them!
+Aetrion You can commit or release Force Dice as an incidental, on your Turn. That offers some flexibility, but is distinctly different than as an out of turn incidental. Abuse or misunderstanding of this point can add to a Force Sensitive seeming to be overpowered, as you note.
I my last two Star Wars campaigns, we're talking close to 20 sessions, I have been confronted with this situation. To me it's not a problem but a perception situation. Our game was using a generic system and every character was worth roughly the same amount of points. At one point we had a very interesting and active discussion about Force users. Some players felt they were too powerful because some exhibited the usual "Precognitive Parry" ability, or the skill to bounce off blaster shots with the lightsaber. I had to remind my players that 20 points spent just in Beam Weapon (Blaster) made you an excellent shot, like very good, but being able to bounce off blaster shots purely by instinct (the Force) costed like 75+ points. Higher cost = higher ability. In this example that would leave the gunslinger with an extra 55 points could buy plenty of awesome abilities the jedi won't have: Contacts, a signature Starship, a powerful Patron, etc. In the end, we all agreed that, like in the movies, "Jedi Business" was a thing. Force users tend to fight off other Force users. In other genre, the ninja types will always close in to have their sword duel, the gunslingers will always try to have a showdown, the gamblers will always try to solve their problem at the card table, etc. To me it's not a real problem once you understand the tropes.
I do wonder how solo forget about the countless Jedi Knights during the clone wars :P So would you say that Fantasy Flight Does a good job at repersenting the party balance of the original triology? Yes, Luke was a force-user and later a jedi; But Han and Leia, chewie, and r2d2 and c3po all had moments to shine in the three movies.
The game does a great job in offering distinction between Careers and within a Career, and even in approach to developing in a Specialization of a Career. If a group cannot find those distinctions reflected in cool moments for the characters, one or more of them would have to be making errors, or ignoring their Talents and Skills. Everyone has something to contribute and ways to do so. On top of that, there are the dice, which help keep the narrative in tune with the nature of the films. Sometimes you kill a Rancor, sometimes you get your arm lopped off. Sometimes you chase the Stormtroopers, and sometimes they chase you~
In my experience the game does not favor force sensitives in the way other games might. Having only Force related abilities and talents really doesn't work well early in the game, the character will not be able to take challenges like other characters without Force abilities. A character with Force abilities pretty much has to invest in non-Force related abilities, further slowing their progress. Even when a character advances far enough, they will not catch up in specialized fields of a non-force sensitive.
It's true. The game gives a lot of flexibility to creative players of Force-sensitives, but manages to do so through a flow of choices which enhance some abilities and leaves others fallow.
How have you delt with mixing Obligation with Duty and Morality? I am a bit concerned about this and how it will work when you have to mark charts for Obligation and Duty for the characters.
I add the other traits to the Obligation list, and I have it set to trigger multiple things from time to time in addition to Obligation. Our master list has all three traits on it. Everyone has Obligation and it will trigger or not. Duty is felt by only two characters, and sometimes it will trigger with an appropriate Obligation roll and is always something their characters should consider in play for character and rank reasons. Morality is possessed by only 1 PC so it comes up rarely and we treat it very seriously when it does. We used to do a conflict roll every session, but as this is not an F&D campaign, there was little justification for that. We now roll only when Conflict is gained.
Thanks for this video, that was exactly my concern as I am starting a new campaign as a GM and one of the PC would like to play a force sensitive. Thank you for all these insights (and the list of limitations at 7'00 !). I have just a question, don't know if you can answer it... My party will orient in playing Age of Rebellion characters. The one wanting to play a Force Sensitive intended to play a specialization and carreer of Force and Destiny. In Age Of Rebellion, you have to take a career and a (main) specialization THEN buy an additionnal specialization (Force Sensitive Emergent in this case for example). If he takes all of a sudden a carreer and specialization of Force & Destiny, wouldn't he be a little bit "overpowered" (since he doesn't have to pay for the additionnal specialization)? Do you know if the specializations of F&D mix well with those of AoR, if they are balanced? Thank you for your time and your videos once again Keep on doing them! Christophe
I am glad that you found this video to be helpful. I know that a lot of people worry about this point. The short answer to your question is that you can easily import careers from any of the three games into any of the others. There is no problem mechanically. You can do this without worrying about balance or other system issues. You will have to worry about campaign planning, however, which leads us to the long answer. The long answer is that you will have to make a choice. You can run the game as a purely AoR game, or you can run it as an AoR game with the Force mechanics from F&D. The second choice is a little more work and puts more attention on the player with the force sensitive character. If you choose to run it as an AoR game, the most expedient way to do that is to use the Force Emergent universal specialization. You do not need to deal with Conflict and Morality, you do not need to consider the wide range of light saber modifications and crystals, and you do not need to worry about the chance of accidentally making it look like the force sensitive is more important than the others. The player can choose any of the AoR careers and instead of taking one of the three specializations associated with that career, can take the Emergent specialization. The player should be aware that doing so means that they do not get the additional career skills a normal specialization provides, but it does allow the character to use the Force. I think most players start with a normal specialization and add Emergent after earning some Experience Points. The problem with using the force in an AoR-only game is that the player will want to earn a third force die fairly soon, and AoR does not provide any options for this. You could house-rule it, perhaps by allowing Force Rating as a Signature Talent for Emergent, or you could - at that point - allow specializations from F&D into the game. Once every character has been established, this inclusion is less demanding. I would recommend doing it this way as it will allow you to learn the core of the game with fewer distractions, and it will help establish additional drives beyond Duty for the characters. Seeking out sources of training can work well with a lot of different mission profiles in AoR and connect with quite a few Duties and Motivations. If you choose to run it as AoR with F&D elements, then there will be differences in focus as you play. The careers in F&D are built around a campaign that focuses very tightly on the Force and Force Users. Although not Jedi, they slowly are able to rival and then exceed what we see Luke and Vader do in the films, which may - if your group is concerned about canon - bother some players. In addition, the inclusion of Morality and Conflict on top of Duty will draw attention to the force user more often than other characters will receive it from Duty alone. In my campaign this is not a problem, but in my campaign we did not add in Morality and Conflict until well after a year of play. You do not have to include in your campaign all the force-user-specific gear that F&D provides, but you will have to consider how training will work and how important you want the character's progression in the force to be. If any of this answer seems confusing, please let me know. I am happy to talk about it further~
Thank for your long and very instructive answer! I really intend to play it as an AoR game, and most of all like you said NOT making it look like the force sensitive is more important than the others. I am very fond of your option of taking an AoR careers and no specialization associated but instead take the Emergent specialization! I'll do that :) except if he prefers to take a normal specialization, THEN later in the game take the emergent additionnal spe. Concierning the second point in force rating (notwithstanding the fact that the Force-Sensitive Emergent do have a talent "Force Rating" increasing it at the bottom of his talent tree), I intend to incorporate F&D mechanics later in the campaign, as you advice. When everybody is at ease with its character (and I with the mastering!), more complicated approaches can be conceivable :) it will me more fun for the force sensitive player to deal with conflict and dark side and so on (I am not very informed about morality, but I guess it is the "duty of F&D PCs" ^^) "You do not have to include in your campaign all the force-user-specific gear that F&D provides, but you will have to consider how training will work and how important you want the character's progression in the force to be." considering this point, I think it will be great if we could come up with some progressive includes of concepts by sharing thoughts with the PC in question (and other players as well but moderately). Last question : I saw your video about lightsabers but... I do not think it would be wise to give one to my force sensitive PC, at least not from the start. The thing is that the lightsaber of AoR (already modded as you explained) have breach 1. And I think it is just too much to ignore soak at this level >.< the boss of my first campaign have 20 wound treshold with 6 soak ; so it's only a two shot for the force sensitive lightsaber equiped ; quite not a worthy opponent as a Nemesis! Do you think it is actually broken for new players? I'd prefer to add it later in the game, when players start to get cocky and well trained and that this difference is no longer so pronounced (maybe during the initiation quest that he will perform in order to have his second specialization). What do you think of it? Thank you very much for all these insights, these are great to start! See you and good job :) (P.S : btw I love your prose and the way you split sentences with short punchlines then brillant enumerations ^^ )
I think that attaining a lightsaber as a result of play is a very cool and satisfying experience, so I prefer to handle it that way rather than having PCs start with them. It is nice to be able to make each one special. In Force & Destiny, I would handle it a little differently, because we can't all have Uncle Ben hand us a lightsaber. I do not think ligtsabers are broken or overpowered for beginners, because I think they are very dangerous in the hands of inexperienced users. As the GM you do not have to make the lightsaber skill available, and finding a teacher does not have to be easy. In an Age of Rebellion game set at the time offered by the core book, I think it might be interesting if the force sensitive character could earn (through Duty) time speaking with Luke, and access to his advice and training. If you do not want to include Luke, a similar set-up could be produced through older trainers who remember legends, lore, and past military missions.... such as a potential source of kyber crystals... ;) With no lightsaber skill, it will be hard for the force sensitive to use the lightsaber in combat and a large number of Threats, or a Despair could easily indicate a Critical Injury on themselves. Also, to use it in the first place, they will need to close to Engaged with a target, and that does not have to be easy or safe - especially through concentrated blaster fire. If they risk it and get to the target? I think they deserve the victory of easily chopping the NPC in half, don't you? If you do make the lightsaber skill easily available, you will find that at all levels of experience, it is capable of quickly dispatching opponents (just like we see in the films), so it is necessary to get good description from the player of what they are doing with it. I am glad you are enjoying my channel, I hope the game goes well!
+Runeslinger I'm intrigued by the concept of the risks of a character wielding a lightsaber; F&D alludes to it multiple times but without providing mechanics (that I recall, at least). What are your guidelines for manifesting this in your campaign? You mention here that for a character with no lightsaber skill, a large # of threats, or a Despair, could indicate a self-inflicted Critical Injury. What about characters *with* lightsaber skill? Is this risk still manifested for skilled users? For skilled users do you still use a large # of Threats, or a Despair, to indicate they've inflicted themselves with a Critical Injury? Some other method of manifesting the risk? Thank you for your thoughts & kudos for your many insightful videos. mtfbwy
As the GM, you are responsible for much of the tone and threat of the game. To keep the game playing quickly and engagingly, the Spend Symbol charts are something to work on internalizing so you can apply them on the fly with confidence in your decision and confidence from the players about your decisions. Ultimately, anything that happens in combat is tied to the dice, and the only set aspect of the rulings in the dice are success/failure. Everything else is set up with a chart of examples. Nothing is set in stone, the text in the charts is there to provide guidelines. If I have a character using a lightsaber without training, and especially without Sense and the lightsaber skill, then when I set the Difficulty for attacks I adjust it with that in mind. The pool should be able to produce multiple threats, or a Despair. Generally speaking, however, for speed, rather than increasing the Difficulty by 1, I will upgrade one of the Difficulty dice by spending a Destiny Point. This sends a clear message, it is fair, it can happen a limited number of times, and it adds dramatic tension. Once a character has earned the lightsaber skill, I am much less inclined to spend Threats/Despair on self-inflicted injuries, and more inclined to use them to affect the lightsaber itself. This follows the 'keep them hungry' principle that underlies Edge of the Empire, but also reinforces the loneliness and self-reliance necessary in force sensitives in the period in which the core games are set. Thanks for the questions~
The same rationale applies to all eras. If the group members all want to play Force Sensitives, use Force&Destiny. If not, use Edge of the Empire as it has more 'old' gear and ships. If the campaign is to be military focused, though, use Age of Rebellion. You will need to use your own resources for setting, gear, appropriate Obligations, and so on. If you have force users who are Jedi, you will need to consider how to represent that in character generation and progression.
I am blessed to be running a robust FFG Star Wars RPG campaign (based 10 years after the Battle of Endor) with engaged players. I really love the FFG Star Wars RPG, a truly unique game. Your videos are quickly becoming a valuable resource to me as a GM. Thank you very much. With that said, I do have some challenges. I would really love to hear your insights on what criteria you use to determine what material you will bring into your games from different Star Wars material sources. I have a player who would like to see a character from the Star Wars comic books brought into our game. I have another player who would like to have a lightsaber crystal from a Star Wars novel available to be quested for. I have another player who would like to see a starship from a Star Wars video game be available to trade for. I have another player who would like to visit a location from an West End Star Wars RPG scenario book. Have you dealt with anything like this with your players? What criteria do you use to determine what you bring in? How do determine a “credible” Star Wars material source? A video on this would be great. Thank you.
![Improvised NPCs [FFG Star Wars]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fp1YuVKzBT4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Improvised NPCs [FFG Star Wars]](/img/tr.png)
Love your videos on the Star Wars RPG. Thank you!!!
My pleasure~
You're like the Yoda of FFG videos
+tomfurstyfield I hope when 900 years old I reach, look as green, I will not~
Most helpful. Thank you very much. The sidebar information was extremely useful as well particularly the guidance from Chapter 8.
This video prompted me to think about a few of the rules sections I will review. There is some complexity around the mechanics and I think there are some ways that we are using force powers in our game that I may have missed some of the nuances from the rules. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I am glad you got some benefit from the video. I appreciated the question as a topic; I think it's one many people share.
Excellant video good sir. I am running a game at our local convention this weekend and will have mixed PC's so this was a great help.
+John Polack Glad to hear it was helpful! Have fun at the convention~
I've always wanted to run an Imperial game where one person is playing a Sith, and this gives me confidence that it can be done without overshadowing or alienating the troopers and officers. Thank you.
+TheEndKing My pleasure. If the characters start together or are built with equal XP, there will be no problem.
I am blessed to be running a robust FFG Star Wars RPG campaign (based 10 years after the Battle of Endor) with engaged players. I really love the FFG Star Wars RPG, a truly unique game. Your videos are quickly becoming a valuable resource to me as a GM. Thank you very much.
With that said, I do have some challenges. I would really love to hear your insights on what criteria you use to determine what material you will bring into your games from different Star Wars material sources. I have a player who would like to see a character from the Star Wars comic books brought into our game. I have another player who would like to have a lightsaber crystal from a Star Wars novel available to be quested for. I have another player who would like to see a starship from a Star Wars video game be available to trade for. I have another player who would like to visit a location from an West End Star Wars RPG scenario book. Have you dealt with anything like this with your players? What criteria do you use to determine what you bring in? How do determine a “credible” Star Wars material source? A video on this would be great. Thank you.
It's a fun game to run and play, isn't it?
I addressed your question briefly in an early video about starting this campaign with this group, but the idea could use some attention and further examples from play. I will give it a shot~
The biggest mistake a lot of people make when it comes to managing force sensitive characters is how they handle committed force dice, because there is one tiny little caveat to the way committed force dice work that makes a huge difference.
You are only allows to un-commit force dice at the end of your turn. This is an absolutely essential rule that is easily overlooked. If you allow people to un-commit force dice whenever, and then immediately use them there is basically no reason to not always have force dice committed to have all sorts of fantastic buffs on your character, and then the second you need your powers you just un-commit and use them. Doesn't work that way though. There is always at least one turn of cooldown between getting your dice back and being able to use them again, so you have to be a heck of a lot more deliberate with using those powers. They aren't just a nice place to park your dice while you're not using them, because those dice are stuck there for one turn when you do need them!
+Aetrion You can commit or release Force Dice as an incidental, on your Turn. That offers some flexibility, but is distinctly different than as an out of turn incidental. Abuse or misunderstanding of this point can add to a Force Sensitive seeming to be overpowered, as you note.
I my last two Star Wars campaigns, we're talking close to 20 sessions, I have been confronted with this situation. To me it's not a problem but a perception situation. Our game was using a generic system and every character was worth roughly the same amount of points.
At one point we had a very interesting and active discussion about Force users. Some players felt they were too powerful because some exhibited the usual "Precognitive Parry" ability, or the skill to bounce off blaster shots with the lightsaber. I had to remind my players that 20 points spent just in Beam Weapon (Blaster) made you an excellent shot, like very good, but being able to bounce off blaster shots purely by instinct (the Force) costed like 75+ points. Higher cost = higher ability. In this example that would leave the gunslinger with an extra 55 points could buy plenty of awesome abilities the jedi won't have: Contacts, a signature Starship, a powerful Patron, etc.
In the end, we all agreed that, like in the movies, "Jedi Business" was a thing. Force users tend to fight off other Force users. In other genre, the ninja types will always close in to have their sword duel, the gunslingers will always try to have a showdown, the gamblers will always try to solve their problem at the card table, etc.
To me it's not a real problem once you understand the tropes.
It's not about what your character cannot do; it's about what you can add to the session with your character~
I do wonder how solo forget about the countless Jedi Knights during the clone wars :P
So would you say that Fantasy Flight Does a good job at repersenting the party balance of the original triology? Yes, Luke was a force-user and later a jedi; But Han and Leia, chewie, and r2d2 and c3po all had moments to shine in the three movies.
The game does a great job in offering distinction between Careers and within a Career, and even in approach to developing in a Specialization of a Career. If a group cannot find those distinctions reflected in cool moments for the characters, one or more of them would have to be making errors, or ignoring their Talents and Skills.
Everyone has something to contribute and ways to do so.
On top of that, there are the dice, which help keep the narrative in tune with the nature of the films. Sometimes you kill a Rancor, sometimes you get your arm lopped off. Sometimes you chase the Stormtroopers, and sometimes they chase you~
In my experience the game does not favor force sensitives in the way other games might. Having only Force related abilities and talents really doesn't work well early in the game, the character will not be able to take challenges like other characters without Force abilities.
A character with Force abilities pretty much has to invest in non-Force related abilities, further slowing their progress.
Even when a character advances far enough, they will not catch up in specialized fields of a non-force sensitive.
It's true. The game gives a lot of flexibility to creative players of Force-sensitives, but manages to do so through a flow of choices which enhance some abilities and leaves others fallow.
How have you delt with mixing Obligation with Duty and Morality? I am a bit concerned about this and how it will work when you have to mark charts for Obligation and Duty for the characters.
I add the other traits to the Obligation list, and I have it set to trigger multiple things from time to time in addition to Obligation. Our master list has all three traits on it.
Everyone has Obligation and it will trigger or not. Duty is felt by only two characters, and sometimes it will trigger with an appropriate Obligation roll and is always something their characters should consider in play for character and rank reasons.
Morality is possessed by only 1 PC so it comes up rarely and we treat it very seriously when it does. We used to do a conflict roll every session, but as this is not an F&D campaign, there was little justification for that. We now roll only when Conflict is gained.
Thanks for this video, that was exactly my concern as I am starting a new campaign as a GM and one of the PC would like to play a force sensitive. Thank you for all these insights (and the list of limitations at 7'00 !).
I have just a question, don't know if you can answer it...
My party will orient in playing Age of Rebellion characters. The one wanting to play a Force Sensitive intended to play a specialization and carreer of Force and Destiny.
In Age Of Rebellion, you have to take a career and a (main) specialization THEN buy an additionnal specialization (Force Sensitive Emergent in this case for example). If he takes all of a sudden a carreer and specialization of Force & Destiny, wouldn't he be a little bit "overpowered" (since he doesn't have to pay for the additionnal specialization)?
Do you know if the specializations of F&D mix well with those of AoR, if they are balanced?
Thank you for your time and your videos once again
Keep on doing them!
Christophe
I am glad that you found this video to be helpful. I know that a lot of people worry about this point.
The short answer to your question is that you can easily import careers from any of the three games into any of the others. There is no problem mechanically. You can do this without worrying about balance or other system issues.
You will have to worry about campaign planning, however, which leads us to the long answer.
The long answer is that you will have to make a choice. You can run the game as a purely AoR game, or you can run it as an AoR game with the Force mechanics from F&D. The second choice is a little more work and puts more attention on the player with the force sensitive character.
If you choose to run it as an AoR game, the most expedient way to do that is to use the Force Emergent universal specialization. You do not need to deal with Conflict and Morality, you do not need to consider the wide range of light saber modifications and crystals, and you do not need to worry about the chance of accidentally making it look like the force sensitive is more important than the others.
The player can choose any of the AoR careers and instead of taking one of the three specializations associated with that career, can take the Emergent specialization. The player should be aware that doing so means that they do not get the additional career skills a normal specialization provides, but it does allow the character to use the Force. I think most players start with a normal specialization and add Emergent after earning some Experience Points.
The problem with using the force in an AoR-only game is that the player will want to earn a third force die fairly soon, and AoR does not provide any options for this. You could house-rule it, perhaps by allowing Force Rating as a Signature Talent for Emergent, or you could - at that point - allow specializations from F&D into the game. Once every character has been established, this inclusion is less demanding.
I would recommend doing it this way as it will allow you to learn the core of the game with fewer distractions, and it will help establish additional drives beyond Duty for the characters. Seeking out sources of training can work well with a lot of different mission profiles in AoR and connect with quite a few Duties and Motivations.
If you choose to run it as AoR with F&D elements, then there will be differences in focus as you play. The careers in F&D are built around a campaign that focuses very tightly on the Force and Force Users. Although not Jedi, they slowly are able to rival and then exceed what we see Luke and Vader do in the films, which may - if your group is concerned about canon - bother some players. In addition, the inclusion of Morality and Conflict on top of Duty will draw attention to the force user more often than other characters will receive it from Duty alone. In my campaign this is not a problem, but in my campaign we did not add in Morality and Conflict until well after a year of play.
You do not have to include in your campaign all the force-user-specific gear that F&D provides, but you will have to consider how training will work and how important you want the character's progression in the force to be.
If any of this answer seems confusing, please let me know. I am happy to talk about it further~
Thank for your long and very instructive answer!
I really intend to play it as an AoR game, and most of all like you said NOT making it look like the force sensitive is more important than the others.
I am very fond of your option of taking an AoR careers and no specialization associated but instead take the Emergent specialization! I'll do that :) except if he prefers to take a normal specialization, THEN later in the game take the emergent additionnal spe.
Concierning the second point in force rating (notwithstanding the fact that the Force-Sensitive Emergent do have a talent "Force Rating" increasing it at the bottom of his talent tree), I intend to incorporate F&D mechanics later in the campaign, as you advice. When everybody is at ease with its character (and I with the mastering!), more complicated approaches can be conceivable :)
it will me more fun for the force sensitive player to deal with conflict and dark side and so on (I am not very informed about morality, but I guess it is the "duty of F&D PCs" ^^)
"You do not have to include in your campaign all the force-user-specific gear that F&D provides, but you will have to consider how training will work and how important you want the character's progression in the force to be." considering this point, I think it will be great if we could come up with some progressive includes of concepts by sharing thoughts with the PC in question (and other players as well but moderately).
Last question : I saw your video about lightsabers but... I do not think it would be wise to give one to my force sensitive PC, at least not from the start.
The thing is that the lightsaber of AoR (already modded as you explained) have breach 1. And I think it is just too much to ignore soak at this level >.< the boss of my first campaign have 20 wound treshold with 6 soak ; so it's only a two shot for the force sensitive lightsaber equiped ; quite not a worthy opponent as a Nemesis!
Do you think it is actually broken for new players?
I'd prefer to add it later in the game, when players start to get cocky and well trained and that this difference is no longer so pronounced (maybe during the initiation quest that he will perform in order to have his second specialization). What do you think of it?
Thank you very much for all these insights, these are great to start!
See you and good job :)
(P.S : btw I love your prose and the way you split sentences with short punchlines then brillant enumerations ^^ )
I think that attaining a lightsaber as a result of play is a very cool and satisfying experience, so I prefer to handle it that way rather than having PCs start with them. It is nice to be able to make each one special. In Force & Destiny, I would handle it a little differently, because we can't all have Uncle Ben hand us a lightsaber.
I do not think ligtsabers are broken or overpowered for beginners, because I think they are very dangerous in the hands of inexperienced users. As the GM you do not have to make the lightsaber skill available, and finding a teacher does not have to be easy. In an Age of Rebellion game set at the time offered by the core book, I think it might be interesting if the force sensitive character could earn (through Duty) time speaking with Luke, and access to his advice and training. If you do not want to include Luke, a similar set-up could be produced through older trainers who remember legends, lore, and past military missions.... such as a potential source of kyber crystals... ;)
With no lightsaber skill, it will be hard for the force sensitive to use the lightsaber in combat and a large number of Threats, or a Despair could easily indicate a Critical Injury on themselves. Also, to use it in the first place, they will need to close to Engaged with a target, and that does not have to be easy or safe - especially through concentrated blaster fire. If they risk it and get to the target? I think they deserve the victory of easily chopping the NPC in half, don't you?
If you do make the lightsaber skill easily available, you will find that at all levels of experience, it is capable of quickly dispatching opponents (just like we see in the films), so it is necessary to get good description from the player of what they are doing with it.
I am glad you are enjoying my channel, I hope the game goes well!
+Runeslinger I'm intrigued by the concept of the risks of a character wielding a lightsaber; F&D alludes to it multiple times but without providing mechanics (that I recall, at least). What are your guidelines for manifesting this in your campaign? You mention here that for a character with no lightsaber skill, a large # of threats, or a Despair, could indicate a self-inflicted Critical Injury. What about characters *with* lightsaber skill? Is this risk still manifested for skilled users? For skilled users do you still use a large # of Threats, or a Despair, to indicate they've inflicted themselves with a Critical Injury? Some other method of manifesting the risk? Thank you for your thoughts & kudos for your many insightful videos. mtfbwy
As the GM, you are responsible for much of the tone and threat of the game. To keep the game playing quickly and engagingly, the Spend Symbol charts are something to work on internalizing so you can apply them on the fly with confidence in your decision and confidence from the players about your decisions. Ultimately, anything that happens in combat is tied to the dice, and the only set aspect of the rulings in the dice are success/failure. Everything else is set up with a chart of examples. Nothing is set in stone, the text in the charts is there to provide guidelines. If I have a character using a lightsaber without training, and especially without Sense and the lightsaber skill, then when I set the Difficulty for attacks I adjust it with that in mind. The pool should be able to produce multiple threats, or a Despair. Generally speaking, however, for speed, rather than increasing the Difficulty by 1, I will upgrade one of the Difficulty dice by spending a Destiny Point. This sends a clear message, it is fair, it can happen a limited number of times, and it adds dramatic tension.
Once a character has earned the lightsaber skill, I am much less inclined to spend Threats/Despair on self-inflicted injuries, and more inclined to use them to affect the lightsaber itself. This follows the 'keep them hungry' principle that underlies Edge of the Empire, but also reinforces the loneliness and self-reliance necessary in force sensitives in the period in which the core games are set.
Thanks for the questions~
What system do you recommend for an Old Republic campaign?
The same rationale applies to all eras. If the group members all want to play Force Sensitives, use Force&Destiny. If not, use Edge of the Empire as it has more 'old' gear and ships. If the campaign is to be military focused, though, use Age of Rebellion.
You will need to use your own resources for setting, gear, appropriate Obligations, and so on.
If you have force users who are Jedi, you will need to consider how to represent that in character generation and progression.
Thanks!
I am blessed to be running a robust FFG Star Wars RPG campaign (based 10 years after the Battle of Endor) with engaged players. I really love the FFG Star Wars RPG, a truly unique game. Your videos are quickly becoming a valuable resource to me as a GM. Thank you very much.
With that said, I do have some challenges. I would really love to hear your insights on what criteria you use to determine what material you will bring into your games from different Star Wars material sources. I have a player who would like to see a character from the Star Wars comic books brought into our game. I have another player who would like to have a lightsaber crystal from a Star Wars novel available to be quested for. I have another player who would like to see a starship from a Star Wars video game be available to trade for. I have another player who would like to visit a location from an West End Star Wars RPG scenario book. Have you dealt with anything like this with your players? What criteria do you use to determine what you bring in? How do determine a “credible” Star Wars material source? A video on this would be great. Thank you.