Ways of the Force, Version 1.03

Okay,. short and sweet, new version of my "Ways of the Force" fan supplement for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG.

Seeing as how the final version of the EotE rules have been released and the core rulebooks are finding their way into people's hands, I thought a week after the formal release would be a good time to get a spiffed-up new version of my homebrew expansion to the Force out there for folks to see, read, and use if enough of the material tickles their fancy.

Most of the changes are related to formatting to try and bring the look a tad more in line with how talent trees appear in EotE, mostly by adding a tag with the XP cost of a given talent or upgrade rather than an column listing the XP value.  A couple sidebars got revamped, specifically the ones for Healing and about allowing the Jedi Initiate Force-Sensitive specialization in one's game.

Healing also got revised, particularly the ability to heal a Critical Injury.  A couple folks felt that as it was originally written, it was far too powerful, and I do have to agree.  I also hope the sidebar is a little more clear on how the Magnitude Upgrades (renamed from Duration Upgrades based upon my reading and re-evaluation of those Upgrades as presented in the core rulebook).

The major piece of new material that I added a page of new gear towards the very end.  There's not a whole lot there, just some items I thought would be neat additions, such as short lightsabers aka shoto, the wan-shen, and things like force training aids (useful for your self-taught exiles) and a nod to one of my favorite in-universe products.

In other EotE related news, a few more articles of mine have been posted at the Gamer Security Agency, such as Zubesh, a Bounty Hunter/Survivalist/Force Sensitive Exile that's an apprentice Gand Findsman, who was a fun character to build for the ongoing Heroes on Demand column.  There's also a new entry in the Equipment Lab - Exploring the Galactic Fringe segment, and there will be more to come in the following weeks, so stay tuned to the GSA for more articles.

As a good number of you have probably heard, Chris and Dave of the Order 66 podcast have a Kickstarter running to help fund their efforts to replace their aging and increasingly obsolete podcasting equipment with shiny and more modern gear.  They were only looking for $1000, and they are fast approaching the $5000 mark.  Dave has made it pretty clear that the excess money raised will be spent towards further upgrading their podcasting gear and to covering server costs, so if you enjoy not listening to the Order 66 podcast and/or using the d20 Radio Forums, consider tossing a few bucks their way.  Check it out here:

Order 66 Kickstater
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/435243061/the-new-order-66-podcast
Now as part of their stretch goals, I was asked to write an exclusive module for Edge of the Empire as a backer reward.  It should come as no surprise that I said yes (admittedly I did make sure that I'd have the time available to write the adventure; nothing worse than saying you'll do something only to find out it's needed sooner than you have the time to work on it).  Called "Fallen Stars," I hope it will be a fun adventure that's a bit of a break from the typical seedy underworld adventures that have been put together so far.  My particular stretch goal has been met, so I guess I'll need to get writing.

Also on the adventure front, I've been dragging my feet in getting my SWSE-to-EotE conversion of the excellent introductory adventure "A Much Larger Galaxy...:" finished.  I've only got a few vehicle stat blocks to write-up and then it's done, but I seem to keep getting distracted by this wonderful EotE core rulebook that's sitting next to my desk.  Now that the most recent revision to Ways of the Force is completed, that should free up some mental bandwidth for me to get this adventure done and out the door.

And with that out of the way, here's the link to Version 1.03 of Ways of the Force
Ways of the Force, Version 1.03