Firstly, Happy Birthday to me. Not every day a fella becomes the answer to life, the universe, and everything after all now, is it? (yeah, that's not the least bit egotistical)
Been a while since I last posted an update to this blog of mine, so indulge me a brief summary of what's been going on since I last posted before I get to the "good part."
Since I posted those revisited PCs back in May, my friend Eric (known as oghen in some places) has been running a Star Wars campaign set in the era of The Force Awakens, taking place shortly after the events of the movie. In this campaign, I'm playing a further revised version of Valin, who is still a Sentinel/Shien Expert, but his backstory has changed a bit; there's no Empire hunting him, and he's now packing a training lightsaber (still hasn't been used in a fight as of yet), but he was still on his own for most of his life and only had a modicum of Jedi training. Also seeing play is Jade, whose re-write my adopted big sis Linda liked enough to use as her PC. We're only two sessions in, due to a number of delays that our Friday Night Skype group have jokingly suggested were ploys by the First Order to keep two teenage Force-sensitives from embarking upon their respective journeys; after all, it's a known fact of the setting that teenage Force users are the bane of militaristic regimes seeking galactic domination.
As I'm sure any fellow Potterheads will know, the script for the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been published in book form. While the book was a very quick read (it's comprised mostly of stage directions and dialogue), it was still an enjoyable read, and if this is indeed the last story to feature Harry Potter and company, then I think it was a pretty good note to go out on. In a way, it was very much like visiting old friends that you'd lost touch with after many years, seeing how they're doing and how things have changed for them. I've heard some complaints that too much of the action focus on Albus, but to me that makes sense as Harry's already had his grand adventure and settled up with most of his old demons.
I've also been reading through my hard copy of the 2nd edition corebook for 7th Sea. I had a lot of fun playing the 1st edition, even if the mechanics were a bit loopy in several places (skills and knacks, I am looking directly at you) and the metaplot could be rather heavy-handed. Thus far, I've only been able to run a single session and play in a single session, and I had a lot of fun both times. I really like how the system has evolved, and that dice rolling is toned down in terms of how often you're making dice rolls. One thing I have noticed is that being a Swordsman and having a Dueling School on your character sheet makes one's PC a terror in combat. I'd run some test battles using a revamp of an old 1st edition PC of mine, one Estevan Santiago de Montoya, and even as a starting PC the boy can decimate brute squads like there's no tomorrow. Sorcery is also very interesting, and while much more viable in the early going as compared to 1e, it still has its limits in what a player can accomplish (especially since it's fueled by spending Hero Points, which are a fairly rare resource for players); the Hexenwerk sorcery is suitably creepy, and Sorte is potent but not overwhelmingly so. One minor gripe I have is that with regards to Villains, fighting them can begin feel like a grind, not unlike fighting Solo monsters in the early days of D&D 4e. I am thinking of a house rule to either halve the number of Dramatic Wounds a Villain can withstand before they become Helpless, or simply halve the number of wounds needed to inflict a Dramatic Wound. But beyond that, I love how this system works in terms of dice results and how vastly different one PC can be from the next. Maybe later this month I'll post up the various characters that I've written up.
So that's that, and now onto the main course.
Off and on, I've been updating, revising, reworking, further revising, and so forth with what would essentially be the second edition of my old Ways of the Force fan supplement. Now, I knew from the very start that WotF would have a definite shelf life, being a stop-gap to provide some more options for Force usage until the release of Force and Destiny. But rather than let it fall completely to the wayside, I felt that some of what I had created still had merit, and that what it really needed was an overhaul and an update to account for the new rules and material regarding Force users during the time frame of Fantasy Flight Games' most excellent Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
To be perfectly honest, a large part of why this took so long was that I went through numerous versions of the Jedi Initiate universal specialization. The one thing that I wanted to avoid was making this a "gotta have it!" spec for any PCs that were interested in being lightsaber wielders, especially those who started out with one of the six Lightsaber Form specializations in Force and Destiny. While I'm currently pretty happy with how the version published here has shaken out, I'm still concerned that this could be a very dominate spec, seeing as how it offers both a Force Rating talent and the Improved Parry talent. I tried to balance this by putting those talents on very separate paths in the spec, as well as having Improved Parry be rather buried in the tree, making it much more expensive to acquire than it would be in the other specializations it appears in, as well as kind of burying the ranks of Parry and Reflect so that a player won't get those talents too quickly. Still, I feel like I've broken some sort of cardinal rule by including both those talents in the same spec, so if anything I would suggest to GMs that they require a PC looking to acquire this spec have undertake some measure of quest before they can purchase it, and that it certainly cannot be purchased at character creation for games set after the fall of the Jedi Order.
Another portion that I struggled on and off with was the new lightsaber crystals. I wanted to introduce some new options for PCs, making them different enough from the already published crystals that they didn't all feel like retreads but not so different as to possibly unbalance the game. I posted earlier drafts of some of those new crystals here on my blog a while ago, as well as guidelines for constructing a synthetic lightsaber crystal, which I've touched up a bit. I ultimately opted to treat a synthetic kyber crystal as being the same as the Ilum crystal, and figure that the Sith were so hung up on synthetic crystals being "superior" to natural kyber crystals was a combination of their inherent hubris and that a freshly created synthetic kyber crystal would have the potential to have some of its modification options added during the creation process, making it "better" than a stock Ilum crystal.
One thing I had been going back and forth upon including was a "Beast Master" universal specialization, incorporating elements of the Pathfinder specialization as well as the Beast Rider specialization from Stay on Target. I ultimately axed the idea upon the announcement of Savage Spirits, but upon acquiring the book I may revisit that idea down the line. To be honest, a lot of the proposed intent for the Beast Master was taken from the Legends version of the Dathomir witches, who were capable Force users that bonded with and rode beasts (notably rancors). As is often the case with home-brew specializations, the trick was not doing too much cherry-picking for this proposed specialization in terms of talents.
In terms of Force powers, that section was surprisingly easy to update. I completely chucked the Force Techniques idea and the various powers I'd created. While it's entirely possibly that the upcoming Sentinel sourcebook Endless Vigil will have some kind of Psychometry power, I put together my own take, one that I feel captures the essence of the power without it becoming too much of a potential game breaker, especially for adventures that revolve around solving mysteries or learning hidden truths.
Well, enough blathering on my part, so here's the goods.
Ways of the Force, Version 2.0
Hopefully you find this newest (and possibly final) version of Ways of the Force to be a useful, either in whole or in part, at your gaming table as your characters learn and explore the mysteries of the Force in a galaxy far, far away...
Showing posts with label The Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Force. Show all posts
August 12, 2016
January 31, 2016
Forging Synthetic Kyber Crystals
So back on Christmas, I posted up an article listing out a number of homebrewed kyber crystals for use with a character's lightsaber in Fantasy Flight Game's Force and Destiny RPG. And overall, they seemed to be pretty well received.
One thing that did come up was "how do I create a synthetic kyber crystal?" And by extension, how would a PC create a compressed synthetic crystal, which is supposed to be a 'flawed' version of the typical synthetic crystal.
As I noted in the comments section of that post, at the time I wrote those crystals for inclusion an update of my Ways of the Force fan supplement, we didn't really have any sort of constructions rules. However, with the release of the Force and Destiny GM Kit as well as Keeping the Peace, we've actually got rules for building things, specifically lightsaber hilts and sets of armor.
Well, after reviewing both sets of rather different rules, I opted to take the route that best adhered to the long-standing principle of "Keep It Simple Stupid." So, going the path of the construction rules for lightsaber hilts, I've put together this fairly simple process to enable a PC to try and construct their own synthetic kyber crystal.
Creating a Synthetic Kyber Crystal
The process of creating a synthetic kyber crystal requires a geological compressor, which is often far easier to obtain under false pretenses due to its primary usage of replicating geological conditions in a laboratory. The raw materials to form the crystals are also easy to obtain, costing approximately 900 credits with a Rarity of 4. Once acquired, the raw materials are placed within the compressor and essentially left to bake for a period of roughly three days. During this time frame, the Force user creating the crystal would meditate upon it through the Force, guiding the formation of the crystal and increasing its potency. The level of control required over the formation process of the synthetic crystal often proved daunting to raw initiates; perhaps the difficulty and degree of control required lead to the Sith preferring to use synthetic crystals in contrast to the naturally-formed crystals used by most Jedi in their lightsabers?
When a character attempts to create a synthetic kyber crystal, they need to make either a Mechanics of Discipline skill check at a Formidable (dddd) difficulty, adding Force dice equal to their Force Rating to the check. Each Force Point generated can be used to add either success or advantage to the check result.
If the check is successful, then the character has created a synthetic kyber crystal. If the check succeeds with a Triumph or 3 advantage, the player may choose one modification option of their choice to be included with the crystal when it is installed into a lightsaber hilt (it still counts as a successful modification when determining the difficulty of future modifications to the crystal). If the check is successful but generates 3 threat, then the character has created a compressed synthetic crystal. If the check succeeds but generates a Despair, then the character has created a flawed kyber crystal. A failed check results in a crystal that is unsuitable for use in a lightsaber, requiring the character to start over from scratch.
Under most conditions, the synthetic kyber crystal does not have an inherent color until it has been attuned through the Force for installation into a lightsaber hilt. However, if the creator is a dark side Force user, then the lightsaber's blade will default to a shade of crimson, usually the blood red for which the Sith are known and feared. However, the dark side can spend a Triumph from a successful check to create the crystal to have the lightsaber blade be of a different color, though for most followers of the dark side, a red-hued lightsaber is seen as both mastery and commitment to the dark side of the Force.
One thing that did come up was "how do I create a synthetic kyber crystal?" And by extension, how would a PC create a compressed synthetic crystal, which is supposed to be a 'flawed' version of the typical synthetic crystal.
As I noted in the comments section of that post, at the time I wrote those crystals for inclusion an update of my Ways of the Force fan supplement, we didn't really have any sort of constructions rules. However, with the release of the Force and Destiny GM Kit as well as Keeping the Peace, we've actually got rules for building things, specifically lightsaber hilts and sets of armor.
Well, after reviewing both sets of rather different rules, I opted to take the route that best adhered to the long-standing principle of "Keep It Simple Stupid." So, going the path of the construction rules for lightsaber hilts, I've put together this fairly simple process to enable a PC to try and construct their own synthetic kyber crystal.
Creating a Synthetic Kyber Crystal
The process of creating a synthetic kyber crystal requires a geological compressor, which is often far easier to obtain under false pretenses due to its primary usage of replicating geological conditions in a laboratory. The raw materials to form the crystals are also easy to obtain, costing approximately 900 credits with a Rarity of 4. Once acquired, the raw materials are placed within the compressor and essentially left to bake for a period of roughly three days. During this time frame, the Force user creating the crystal would meditate upon it through the Force, guiding the formation of the crystal and increasing its potency. The level of control required over the formation process of the synthetic crystal often proved daunting to raw initiates; perhaps the difficulty and degree of control required lead to the Sith preferring to use synthetic crystals in contrast to the naturally-formed crystals used by most Jedi in their lightsabers?
When a character attempts to create a synthetic kyber crystal, they need to make either a Mechanics of Discipline skill check at a Formidable (dddd) difficulty, adding Force dice equal to their Force Rating to the check. Each Force Point generated can be used to add either success or advantage to the check result.
If the check is successful, then the character has created a synthetic kyber crystal. If the check succeeds with a Triumph or 3 advantage, the player may choose one modification option of their choice to be included with the crystal when it is installed into a lightsaber hilt (it still counts as a successful modification when determining the difficulty of future modifications to the crystal). If the check is successful but generates 3 threat, then the character has created a compressed synthetic crystal. If the check succeeds but generates a Despair, then the character has created a flawed kyber crystal. A failed check results in a crystal that is unsuitable for use in a lightsaber, requiring the character to start over from scratch.
Under most conditions, the synthetic kyber crystal does not have an inherent color until it has been attuned through the Force for installation into a lightsaber hilt. However, if the creator is a dark side Force user, then the lightsaber's blade will default to a shade of crimson, usually the blood red for which the Sith are known and feared. However, the dark side can spend a Triumph from a successful check to create the crystal to have the lightsaber blade be of a different color, though for most followers of the dark side, a red-hued lightsaber is seen as both mastery and commitment to the dark side of the Force.
December 25, 2015
Merry Xmas! And Some Lightsaber Crystal Options!
First off, a very Merry Christmas to my fellow Star Wars fans out there. While it is true that most of us got our Christmas gift early in the form of The Force Awakens (more on that in a later blog post), today's still a day to be spent in the company of friends and family, even if gifts aren't formerly exchanged.
Well, In time for the holiday season, here is an assortment of lightsaber crystals for use with the Force and Destiny branch of FFG's Star Wars RPG. Most of these come from the Legends side of the fence, and were things that I'd been working on and revising/tweaking pretty much since the Force and Destiny core rulebook came out earlier this year.
Compressed Synthetic Crystal
On occasion, when attempting to create a synthetic kyber crystal, the crystal's structure is over-compressed. The end result is a crystal that produces a blade that is thinner and thus more precise than a standard lightsaber blade, which in turn enables the user to better bypass their opponent's defenses.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. When the target uses the Parry talent against an attack made with this lightsaber, reduce the amount of damage negated by 1. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Reduce the damage negated from the Parry talent by 1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 2 Item Quality (Vicious +1) Mods.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 12,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
Flawed Kyber Crystal
Found among both naturally-formed and synthetic crystals, a flawed kyber crystal is less than ideal for usage in a lightsaber, as the minute imperfections tend to create an unstable blade that literally crackles with barely restrained energy. Extra precautions need to be taken, as a flawed kyber crystal is much more susceptible to cracking than a perfectly formed crystal.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1, Sunder, and Vicious 1 qualities. The difficulty of all checks to modify or repair a lightsaber using this crystal are upgraded once. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Damage +1 Mods, 3 Item Quality (Vicious +1) Mods.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 7 (R)
Rubat Crystal
A type of kyber crystal once used in the construction of lightsabers by the Jedi Order, rubat crystals were most commonly found on the remote world of Phemis in the Corellian Sector. While not as powerful or receptive to the Force as the crystals of Ilum, rubat crystals gave the blade a much sharper and defined appearance, allowing the wielder to strike at their opponents with greater speed.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 6 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 1 Item Quality (Accurate +1) Mod.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
Note: To be honest, I was disappointed that the rubat crystals offered in the GM Kit adventure "Hidden Depths" was just a re-flavored Ilum crystal. So this version is presented as an alternative for GMs to make use of in their games.
Synthetic Kyber Crystal
During the time of the Emperor's rule, most of the known sources for kyber crystals were either destroyed or kept under strict Imperial surveillance. In response to these draconian measures, those students of the Jedi looking to construct their own lightsaber had to rely upon the practice of growing synthetic crystals. While easier to procure than natural kyber crystals, the difficulties that come in properly forming the synthetic crystal still made them difficult to acquire.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 6 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 3 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 3 Item Quality ( +1 Vicious) Mod.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 9 (R)
Velmorite Crystal
Found on the planet Velmor in the Halori sector of the Mid Rim Territories, these crystals were prized by Jedi duelists for the fine, thin blade that resulted when attuned for use in a lightsaber. Such a blade was particularly conducive to the graceful and fluid movements of the Makashi Form of lightsaber combat, although many Ataru adherents found the blades just as useful for their own style of combat.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Accurate 1, Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 3 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Item Quality ( +1 Accurate) Mod, 1 Item Quality (Defensive +1) Mod
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 15,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
Well, In time for the holiday season, here is an assortment of lightsaber crystals for use with the Force and Destiny branch of FFG's Star Wars RPG. Most of these come from the Legends side of the fence, and were things that I'd been working on and revising/tweaking pretty much since the Force and Destiny core rulebook came out earlier this year.
Compressed Synthetic Crystal
On occasion, when attempting to create a synthetic kyber crystal, the crystal's structure is over-compressed. The end result is a crystal that produces a blade that is thinner and thus more precise than a standard lightsaber blade, which in turn enables the user to better bypass their opponent's defenses.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. When the target uses the Parry talent against an attack made with this lightsaber, reduce the amount of damage negated by 1. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Reduce the damage negated from the Parry talent by 1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 2 Item Quality (Vicious +1) Mods.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 12,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
Flawed Kyber Crystal
Found among both naturally-formed and synthetic crystals, a flawed kyber crystal is less than ideal for usage in a lightsaber, as the minute imperfections tend to create an unstable blade that literally crackles with barely restrained energy. Extra precautions need to be taken, as a flawed kyber crystal is much more susceptible to cracking than a perfectly formed crystal.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1, Sunder, and Vicious 1 qualities. The difficulty of all checks to modify or repair a lightsaber using this crystal are upgraded once. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Damage +1 Mods, 3 Item Quality (Vicious +1) Mods.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 7 (R)
Rubat Crystal
A type of kyber crystal once used in the construction of lightsabers by the Jedi Order, rubat crystals were most commonly found on the remote world of Phemis in the Corellian Sector. While not as powerful or receptive to the Force as the crystals of Ilum, rubat crystals gave the blade a much sharper and defined appearance, allowing the wielder to strike at their opponents with greater speed.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 6 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 2 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 1 Item Quality (Accurate +1) Mod.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
Note: To be honest, I was disappointed that the rubat crystals offered in the GM Kit adventure "Hidden Depths" was just a re-flavored Ilum crystal. So this version is presented as an alternative for GMs to make use of in their games.
Synthetic Kyber Crystal
During the time of the Emperor's rule, most of the known sources for kyber crystals were either destroyed or kept under strict Imperial surveillance. In response to these draconian measures, those students of the Jedi looking to construct their own lightsaber had to rely upon the practice of growing synthetic crystals. While easier to procure than natural kyber crystals, the difficulties that come in properly forming the synthetic crystal still made them difficult to acquire.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 6 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 3 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Decrease the weapon's critical rating by 1 to a minimum of 1 Mod, 3 Item Quality ( +1 Vicious) Mod.
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 9,000 credits
Rarity: 9 (R)
Velmorite Crystal
Found on the planet Velmor in the Halori sector of the Mid Rim Territories, these crystals were prized by Jedi duelists for the fine, thin blade that resulted when attuned for use in a lightsaber. Such a blade was particularly conducive to the graceful and fluid movements of the Makashi Form of lightsaber combat, although many Ataru adherents found the blades just as useful for their own style of combat.
Base Modifiers: Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 7 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Accurate 1, Breach 1 and Sunder qualities. If the crystal is ever removed, the lightsaber loses these qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.
Modifications: 3 Damage +1 Mods, 1 Item Quality ( +1 Accurate) Mod, 1 Item Quality (Defensive +1) Mod
Hard Points Required: 2
Cost: 15,000 credits
Rarity: 10 (R)
August 21, 2014
My thoughts on FFG's Force and Destiny Beta
So it's been a week since I purchased my copy of the Force and Destiny Beta at GenCon.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun at GenCon, even at those times where I was literally just walking the halls in search of neat and/or interesting costumes to take pictures of (and there were a lot). I got to play FFG Star Wars under several different GMs, from d20 Radio co-host Phil "DarthGM' to FFG lead developer Sam Stewart, and quite a few other folks in-between. With one exception, all of the sessions I played were fun, even the Force and Destiny demo which I did twice (mostly to get a chance to play the Soresu Defender character the second time around).
But onto the meat of this post, that being the twice-mentioned Force and Destiny Beta rulebook. I was able to snag a copy on opening day thanks to being a VIG companion and thus getting early access to the Exhibit Hall, but I didn't get a chance to really sit down and read the book until much later in the evening. I'm not going go into a blow-by-blow breakdown of every element of the book, and instead will just be discussing my thoughts on each portion as I get to it.
On first brush, I was pleasantly surprised by the introduction of the Morality mechanic. Instead of the typical "dark side score" mechanic used by both the D6 and d20 versions of Star Wars, FFG opted to go for a scale not all that different from the Dark/Light scale used in the KOTOR video games; the lower your Morality, the closer you are to falling to the dark side, while the higher your Morality, the more in-tune you are with the Force. It's rather interesting how your actions, particularly the darker ones, can generate what are called Conflict points, and at the end of each session, a PC would roll a d10 and compare it to their Conflict total (which gets reset) to see if their Morality moves up or down. Unlike prior systems which simply punished Force user PCs that got out of line, the Morality system can very much reward those players who adhere to the ideals of the Jedi Order and thus generate little to no Conflict points during a session. While there is the typical "fallen to the dark side" range of the Morality scale (less than 30), there's also a corresponding "paragon of the light side" range (higher than 70), with each extreme having an effect on the party's Destiny Pool at the start of the game as well as an impact on the character's Strain Threshold.
Where EotE offers characters the chance to increase their Obligation or AoR characters to decrease their Duty in order to start with more XP or more importantly additional credits, F&D instead has each player start at 50 Morality and gives a list of options for +10 XP, +2500 credits, or +5 XP/+1000 credits, all without having to alter your Morality score. There is the option to drastically reduce or increase your starting Morality, putting you on the cusp of either falling to the dark side or being a light side paragon.
The species included only had one real surprise, in that they made the Mirialans a separate species instead of just a Near-Human (and thus falling under the rules for Humans), but the rest weren't a big surprise, such as Cerean, Togruta, Nautolan, Kel Dor, and Zabraks, with Twi'leks and Humans getting a reprint from the prior core rulebooks. The species shook out quite a bit differently than what Cyril and I had done for the Unofficial Species Menagerie, which was a welcome surprise.
On the careers, I will admit to being surprised to not see an actual Jedi career, although interestingly six of the seven Forms of lightsaber combat are represented (the only one missing is Juyo/Vaapad, which makes sense as it was a very rare Form even during the height of the Jedi Order, with Vaapad being Mace Windu's personal creation and only shared with a very small handful of individuals). The character creation chapter makes it pretty clear that the PCs are not Jedi, but instead are Force users that in some cases have managed to scrap together a few bits and pieces of Jedi training (such as a Lightsaber Form).
About the Lightsaber Form specs, I was at first disappointed to see that only the Niman Disciple has the Force Rating talent, but upon further consideration I came to agree with the decision. The Form specs are each dedicated to a means of enhancing a character's prowess with a lightsaber, making a dangerous weapon even more so in their hands, so it stands to reason that for most of them, they'd be focused more on physical combat than on Force usage.
I'll admit to not being crazy about the Ataru Striker being attached to the Seeker career, but that might be more due to my namesake Jedi PC from the d20 system being an Ataru master and his core concept not being at all in line with the Seeker and what it offers for career skills; Dono is really more of a Warrior in terms of career than a Seeker, seeing as how he started life as a Jedi Guardian in the OCR.
One element I do like about the Form specs is that all of them bar Shii-Cho Knight has a talent that lets you use a Characteristic other than Brawn when using the Lightsaber skill, going beyond the expected range of either Brawn or Agility for attacks.
I will admit to being surprised at how the designers opted to handle blaster deflection, as well as cutting down on the "first hit wins" problem that lightsabers had in EotE and AoR. The book introduces the Parry and Reflect talents, each of which allows the character that's equipped with the appropriate weapon to suffer strain to reduce the damage of a melee (Parry) or ranged (Reflect) attack by a set amount. I must admit it's astonishingly simple, and I can vouch that it works quite well from first-hand experience. There's also Improved versions of each, which allow the character to make a counter-attack when they use the corresponding base talent to mitigate the damage taken. I've got a few qualms with how the talents are laid out, particularly in that some of the Form specializations don't have blaster deflection, such as Ataru and Soresu, both of which have their iconic characters (Qui-Gon/Yoda for Ataru and Obi-Wan for Soresu) making pretty frequent use of reflected blaster fire to attack their enemies.
Speaking of lightsabers, a major change is that the stats of your basic lightsaber have been reduced dramatically, going from Damage 10 and Crit Rating 1 to Damage 6 and Crit Rating 2, along with the 2 ranks in Vicious being removed; this I truly do think makes a lightsaber are far more balanced weapon, and I wish it had been implemented during the EotE Beta. I know that I'll be using the basic lightsaber stats from here on out. But even with the reduced values, a lightsaber is not available as starting gear, or at least a lightsaber with a working crystal (you can pick up a basic lightsaber hilt for 300 credits, but it's not viable as a weapon until you can obtain an appropriate focusing crystal).
But what's also interesting is that FFG opted to go with a "crystals as weapon attachments" mechanic, though thankfully they've made it so that you only get one crystal as opposed to the KOTOR video games where you could slap multiple crystals and upgrades into a lightsaber to twink the hell out of it. Each crystal comes with a default rating for damage, crit rating, and weapon qualities, and the character can then further modify the crystal to improve it. Fun fact: if a PC manages to fully modify an ilum crystal (the default crystal for all lightsabers), their lightsaber will have the same stats as the lightsaber found in the EotE and AoR core rulebooks.
Another interesting element is the option of what they're calling Knight-level play, which provides the character with 150 additional XP (which is specified as not being able to be spent to increase Characteristics) and either a basic lightsaber or 10,000 credits' worth of gear. For those groups that want to skip the "training wheels" stage of character play, this is right up their ally. The one drawback though is that character advancement is going to slow down a bit, as the PCs are going to be able to delve pretty far into their specialization's talent trees. It also doesn't specify if the "no more than 2 skill ranks" restriction still holds, something that may need to be addressed, as it could be abused to max out the ranks in a key skill for the character.
The new talents are pretty interesting, such as the Parry and Reflect that I mentioned previously. Each of the new specializations has something interesting to offer, such as the Artisan's Imbue Item talent that lets him commit a Force die to instantly jury-rig a piece of nearby gear, or the Pathfinder and their ability to obtain an animal companion.
The big draw in the equipment chapter is of course the lightsabers, which as I've noted earlier have been reduced in power quite dramatically, to the point where a GM doesn't have to feel bad if they put their party up against a lightsaber-wielding foe. Aside from the basic model, there's also the double-bladed lightsaber as well as the short lightsaber aka shoto, with other melee weapon offerings being cortosis weapons and the electrostaff as used by General Grevious's MagnaGuards in RotS. There's not as many ranged weapons in this book, with many of the Ranged (Heavy) entries from EotE and AoR having been removed. There's a couple of new armor options, such as the Concealing Robes (think standard Jedi robes from the prequels) that make it harder for others to identify or even notice you, a handy thing for a Force user trying to stay off the Empire's radar, and Armored Robes (think the get-up that Jedi Knights wear in the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO). There's nothing super-special for most of the Gear chapter, except for rules on holocrons and a few sample Force talismans (both good and bad). There are a couple of new attachments even for the non-lightsaber crowd, such as the shadowsheath (checks to detect the weapon are much harder) and the stun pulse (gives the weapon the Stun active quality).
There are a handful of lightsaber focusing crystals to pick from, ranging from the basic Ilum crystal to the potent Krayt Dragon Pearl, as well as a number of lesser modifications such as dual-phase emitter and curved hilts, as well as the Superior Hilt Customization to cover the character fully personalizing their lightsaber, enough to grant the Superior quality to the weapon, which is a pretty big deal since it's extra damage and a free Advantage on checks, though it's just as expensive.
The combat and starship chapters are largely unchanged from the rules presented in the prior core rulebooks, although the Vehicle Profiles chapter does offer a few new options, such as a passenger landspeeder (one pilot and 4 passengers) and the Gallis-Tech 48 Roller wheel bike, similar to what Grevious used in RotS (though without the funky leg things or on-board weapons). In terms of starships, there's the Delta-series, such as the Delta-7 Aethersprite (which is astoundingly close to what I posted on this blog a while back in terms of stats). For transports we have the G9 Rigger and the HWK-290 (for which FFG was a bit more generous overall than I was in the version I created), as well as a couple other options such as the Simiyar light freighter (a Mon Cal design) and the ZH-25 Questor, the later of which would be perfectly viable for an EotE group looking for something other than a YT-1300 to start out with.
The Force chapter not only collects the five prior powers (Enhance, Foresee, Influence, Move, and Sense) from the prior books, but also introduces several new ones. On this point, I don't think I was even remotely close. For instance, FFG rolled Force-based healing and damage into a single power, and made resisting a power something that anyone can do, though rebuking a power has been rolled in with a Force lightning type of effect (though you need a very high Force Rating to select said power). What's interesting is that several of the new powers have different effects depending on whether you used Light Side pips from the Force die to generate your Force points or if you converted those Dark Side pips. For instance, the Bind power simply lets you hold a person in place, but if you used any Dark Side pips to generate the necessary Force points then the target also takes damage, which effectively makes this Vader's Force choke. Many of the new powers require a Force Rating of 2 or better, putting them in the hands of experienced PCs only. I must say this is a very interesting idea, and it certainly curtails the number of new powers that a PC would need to purchase while also offering them some pretty brutal options to deal with foes if they simply make use of the dark side aspects of those powers.
Back to Morality for a moment, the GM chapter offers a handy little chart that lists what how many Conflict points certain courses of action are, ranging from earning 1 point from resorting to violence as the first solution to a problem (even if that problem is stopping a bunch of bandits from shooting and burning a camp of innocent tribesman) up 10 points for torture or the murder of a helpless person. Interestingly, many of what would be seen as "standard operating procedure" for adventuring groups will net you some Conflict points, making you more likely to slip closer to the dark side of the Morality scale, which I think does an excellent job of reflecting how the light side/dark side paradigm operates in the films; Obi-Wan probably only nets a point or two of Conflict each session at most, while Anakin in his rush to resolve problems through the most expedient means possible likely generates several points each session (unless Obi-Wan's around to reign him in). Also, the Fear check mechanics have been updated to account for Morality, as rolling a Despair on a Fear check generates a point of Conflict, a nice nod to the line of Fear leading to Anger.
The Adversary chapter has a number of new NPCs as well as returning favorites such as stormtroopers and street toughs. There's a number of generally low-grade Force user NPCs, most of whom only have a minor ability along with being at Force Rating 1, though a couple are Nemesis-tier foes such as the Murderous Fugitive (FR 3 and a Force Lightning effect). Most of the droids are new, such as the IG-100 MagnaGuard (Nemesis tier and a freaking brute in melee combat). New monsters are included, such as an Acklay (the thing Obi-Wan fought in the gladiatorial pit in AotC) which is pretty nasty (not quite Captured Rancor nasty, but not that far off either) and even the Vornskr and Ysalamir (which simply negates all Force effects within Short Range of it).
But the capstone to this chapter is the Inquisitor creation guidelines. And after putting a few of these big bads together, let me say that they can be very nasty, even if they don't have any active Force powers or use a lightsaber. This section also has a sidebar discussing the option to allow a major NPC that's going solo against a group of 4 or more PCs to get an extra turn each round, making them more of a threat against a group (who might otherwise simply bury a lone villain with the sheer number of attacks per round they'd get).
The book wraps up with an adventure, called Lost Knowledge. I've not read this in-depth, but for the most part it's not really anything special, although the final encounter does have an interesting wrinkle to it and part of the rewards offered for completing the adventure is a new type of lightsabrer focusing crystal; it's not as good or modifiable as an Ilum crystal, but it beats not having a lightsaber at all. From what I could tell, it's geared towards starting level characters, as Knight-level PCs are going to likely crush the opposition as they're written. Still, it looks pretty solid, and I'll probably wind up running it at some point.
A bit disjointed, but those are my thoughts on the Force and Destiny Beta. I've been looking forward to this book every since the product line was announced, and I must say it didn't disappoint. Even the few things that I didn't totally agree with didn't detract from my enjoyment of the material, and most of those are either so minor as they can be overlooked or I've started up threads in the F&D Beta portion of the FFG forums to discuss proposed changes to the material. Note I said changes, not fixes. The material as it's written works very well, and some of the changes I've in mind for the material could very well fall into the realm of "personal preference." Though going by the number of likes I've gotten on some of those threads, the proposed changes seem to be pretty darn popular. And since a number of FFG folks recognized my forum handle, at least there's a good chance that the designers will see these proposed changes and consider them for implementation. Hey, my suggestion of changing Knowledge (Galactic Civil War) to Knowledge (Warfare) made it into the AoR core rulebook, so you never know ;)
Now that being said, there is the matter of Ways of the Force. While it probably won't go away, there won't be a "version 1.41," but rather a "version 2.0" to account for how Force and Destiny handles a number of things. Top of the list to go bye-bye are going to be the Jedi Initiate and Deflect Blasters, as well as the Healing, Injure, and Rebuke powers. I will probably also tweak the Force Techniques section to make them into things that anyone with sufficient Force Rating and appropriate powers can do but without needing to pay an XP cost as well as adding a couple effects. Not sure on where the Force Mystic or Dark Side Acolyte are going to wind up, but I got a feeling that other than loosing at least one rank of Uncanny Reactions and Uncanny Senses each, they'll still be around. As for those lightsaber-related talents I created, that I'm not sure on. I'd promised myself that I wouldn't fall prey to the lure of creating a Jedi career, but now that the curtain's been pulled back on dedicated Force users with Force and Destiny, that means that I have a lot more tools to make use of for creating a Jedi career system. How it'll shake out, I frankly have no idea.
I'll likely be posting some of the various characters I've made using the F&D Beta rules over the next few days, as well as a recap on my GenCon experience (which again was well worth the money spent). So until then, remember...
The Force will be with you, always.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun at GenCon, even at those times where I was literally just walking the halls in search of neat and/or interesting costumes to take pictures of (and there were a lot). I got to play FFG Star Wars under several different GMs, from d20 Radio co-host Phil "DarthGM' to FFG lead developer Sam Stewart, and quite a few other folks in-between. With one exception, all of the sessions I played were fun, even the Force and Destiny demo which I did twice (mostly to get a chance to play the Soresu Defender character the second time around).
But onto the meat of this post, that being the twice-mentioned Force and Destiny Beta rulebook. I was able to snag a copy on opening day thanks to being a VIG companion and thus getting early access to the Exhibit Hall, but I didn't get a chance to really sit down and read the book until much later in the evening. I'm not going go into a blow-by-blow breakdown of every element of the book, and instead will just be discussing my thoughts on each portion as I get to it.
On first brush, I was pleasantly surprised by the introduction of the Morality mechanic. Instead of the typical "dark side score" mechanic used by both the D6 and d20 versions of Star Wars, FFG opted to go for a scale not all that different from the Dark/Light scale used in the KOTOR video games; the lower your Morality, the closer you are to falling to the dark side, while the higher your Morality, the more in-tune you are with the Force. It's rather interesting how your actions, particularly the darker ones, can generate what are called Conflict points, and at the end of each session, a PC would roll a d10 and compare it to their Conflict total (which gets reset) to see if their Morality moves up or down. Unlike prior systems which simply punished Force user PCs that got out of line, the Morality system can very much reward those players who adhere to the ideals of the Jedi Order and thus generate little to no Conflict points during a session. While there is the typical "fallen to the dark side" range of the Morality scale (less than 30), there's also a corresponding "paragon of the light side" range (higher than 70), with each extreme having an effect on the party's Destiny Pool at the start of the game as well as an impact on the character's Strain Threshold.
Where EotE offers characters the chance to increase their Obligation or AoR characters to decrease their Duty in order to start with more XP or more importantly additional credits, F&D instead has each player start at 50 Morality and gives a list of options for +10 XP, +2500 credits, or +5 XP/+1000 credits, all without having to alter your Morality score. There is the option to drastically reduce or increase your starting Morality, putting you on the cusp of either falling to the dark side or being a light side paragon.
The species included only had one real surprise, in that they made the Mirialans a separate species instead of just a Near-Human (and thus falling under the rules for Humans), but the rest weren't a big surprise, such as Cerean, Togruta, Nautolan, Kel Dor, and Zabraks, with Twi'leks and Humans getting a reprint from the prior core rulebooks. The species shook out quite a bit differently than what Cyril and I had done for the Unofficial Species Menagerie, which was a welcome surprise.
On the careers, I will admit to being surprised to not see an actual Jedi career, although interestingly six of the seven Forms of lightsaber combat are represented (the only one missing is Juyo/Vaapad, which makes sense as it was a very rare Form even during the height of the Jedi Order, with Vaapad being Mace Windu's personal creation and only shared with a very small handful of individuals). The character creation chapter makes it pretty clear that the PCs are not Jedi, but instead are Force users that in some cases have managed to scrap together a few bits and pieces of Jedi training (such as a Lightsaber Form).
About the Lightsaber Form specs, I was at first disappointed to see that only the Niman Disciple has the Force Rating talent, but upon further consideration I came to agree with the decision. The Form specs are each dedicated to a means of enhancing a character's prowess with a lightsaber, making a dangerous weapon even more so in their hands, so it stands to reason that for most of them, they'd be focused more on physical combat than on Force usage.
I'll admit to not being crazy about the Ataru Striker being attached to the Seeker career, but that might be more due to my namesake Jedi PC from the d20 system being an Ataru master and his core concept not being at all in line with the Seeker and what it offers for career skills; Dono is really more of a Warrior in terms of career than a Seeker, seeing as how he started life as a Jedi Guardian in the OCR.
One element I do like about the Form specs is that all of them bar Shii-Cho Knight has a talent that lets you use a Characteristic other than Brawn when using the Lightsaber skill, going beyond the expected range of either Brawn or Agility for attacks.
I will admit to being surprised at how the designers opted to handle blaster deflection, as well as cutting down on the "first hit wins" problem that lightsabers had in EotE and AoR. The book introduces the Parry and Reflect talents, each of which allows the character that's equipped with the appropriate weapon to suffer strain to reduce the damage of a melee (Parry) or ranged (Reflect) attack by a set amount. I must admit it's astonishingly simple, and I can vouch that it works quite well from first-hand experience. There's also Improved versions of each, which allow the character to make a counter-attack when they use the corresponding base talent to mitigate the damage taken. I've got a few qualms with how the talents are laid out, particularly in that some of the Form specializations don't have blaster deflection, such as Ataru and Soresu, both of which have their iconic characters (Qui-Gon/Yoda for Ataru and Obi-Wan for Soresu) making pretty frequent use of reflected blaster fire to attack their enemies.
Speaking of lightsabers, a major change is that the stats of your basic lightsaber have been reduced dramatically, going from Damage 10 and Crit Rating 1 to Damage 6 and Crit Rating 2, along with the 2 ranks in Vicious being removed; this I truly do think makes a lightsaber are far more balanced weapon, and I wish it had been implemented during the EotE Beta. I know that I'll be using the basic lightsaber stats from here on out. But even with the reduced values, a lightsaber is not available as starting gear, or at least a lightsaber with a working crystal (you can pick up a basic lightsaber hilt for 300 credits, but it's not viable as a weapon until you can obtain an appropriate focusing crystal).
But what's also interesting is that FFG opted to go with a "crystals as weapon attachments" mechanic, though thankfully they've made it so that you only get one crystal as opposed to the KOTOR video games where you could slap multiple crystals and upgrades into a lightsaber to twink the hell out of it. Each crystal comes with a default rating for damage, crit rating, and weapon qualities, and the character can then further modify the crystal to improve it. Fun fact: if a PC manages to fully modify an ilum crystal (the default crystal for all lightsabers), their lightsaber will have the same stats as the lightsaber found in the EotE and AoR core rulebooks.
Another interesting element is the option of what they're calling Knight-level play, which provides the character with 150 additional XP (which is specified as not being able to be spent to increase Characteristics) and either a basic lightsaber or 10,000 credits' worth of gear. For those groups that want to skip the "training wheels" stage of character play, this is right up their ally. The one drawback though is that character advancement is going to slow down a bit, as the PCs are going to be able to delve pretty far into their specialization's talent trees. It also doesn't specify if the "no more than 2 skill ranks" restriction still holds, something that may need to be addressed, as it could be abused to max out the ranks in a key skill for the character.
The new talents are pretty interesting, such as the Parry and Reflect that I mentioned previously. Each of the new specializations has something interesting to offer, such as the Artisan's Imbue Item talent that lets him commit a Force die to instantly jury-rig a piece of nearby gear, or the Pathfinder and their ability to obtain an animal companion.
The big draw in the equipment chapter is of course the lightsabers, which as I've noted earlier have been reduced in power quite dramatically, to the point where a GM doesn't have to feel bad if they put their party up against a lightsaber-wielding foe. Aside from the basic model, there's also the double-bladed lightsaber as well as the short lightsaber aka shoto, with other melee weapon offerings being cortosis weapons and the electrostaff as used by General Grevious's MagnaGuards in RotS. There's not as many ranged weapons in this book, with many of the Ranged (Heavy) entries from EotE and AoR having been removed. There's a couple of new armor options, such as the Concealing Robes (think standard Jedi robes from the prequels) that make it harder for others to identify or even notice you, a handy thing for a Force user trying to stay off the Empire's radar, and Armored Robes (think the get-up that Jedi Knights wear in the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO). There's nothing super-special for most of the Gear chapter, except for rules on holocrons and a few sample Force talismans (both good and bad). There are a couple of new attachments even for the non-lightsaber crowd, such as the shadowsheath (checks to detect the weapon are much harder) and the stun pulse (gives the weapon the Stun active quality).
There are a handful of lightsaber focusing crystals to pick from, ranging from the basic Ilum crystal to the potent Krayt Dragon Pearl, as well as a number of lesser modifications such as dual-phase emitter and curved hilts, as well as the Superior Hilt Customization to cover the character fully personalizing their lightsaber, enough to grant the Superior quality to the weapon, which is a pretty big deal since it's extra damage and a free Advantage on checks, though it's just as expensive.
The combat and starship chapters are largely unchanged from the rules presented in the prior core rulebooks, although the Vehicle Profiles chapter does offer a few new options, such as a passenger landspeeder (one pilot and 4 passengers) and the Gallis-Tech 48 Roller wheel bike, similar to what Grevious used in RotS (though without the funky leg things or on-board weapons). In terms of starships, there's the Delta-series, such as the Delta-7 Aethersprite (which is astoundingly close to what I posted on this blog a while back in terms of stats). For transports we have the G9 Rigger and the HWK-290 (for which FFG was a bit more generous overall than I was in the version I created), as well as a couple other options such as the Simiyar light freighter (a Mon Cal design) and the ZH-25 Questor, the later of which would be perfectly viable for an EotE group looking for something other than a YT-1300 to start out with.
The Force chapter not only collects the five prior powers (Enhance, Foresee, Influence, Move, and Sense) from the prior books, but also introduces several new ones. On this point, I don't think I was even remotely close. For instance, FFG rolled Force-based healing and damage into a single power, and made resisting a power something that anyone can do, though rebuking a power has been rolled in with a Force lightning type of effect (though you need a very high Force Rating to select said power). What's interesting is that several of the new powers have different effects depending on whether you used Light Side pips from the Force die to generate your Force points or if you converted those Dark Side pips. For instance, the Bind power simply lets you hold a person in place, but if you used any Dark Side pips to generate the necessary Force points then the target also takes damage, which effectively makes this Vader's Force choke. Many of the new powers require a Force Rating of 2 or better, putting them in the hands of experienced PCs only. I must say this is a very interesting idea, and it certainly curtails the number of new powers that a PC would need to purchase while also offering them some pretty brutal options to deal with foes if they simply make use of the dark side aspects of those powers.
Back to Morality for a moment, the GM chapter offers a handy little chart that lists what how many Conflict points certain courses of action are, ranging from earning 1 point from resorting to violence as the first solution to a problem (even if that problem is stopping a bunch of bandits from shooting and burning a camp of innocent tribesman) up 10 points for torture or the murder of a helpless person. Interestingly, many of what would be seen as "standard operating procedure" for adventuring groups will net you some Conflict points, making you more likely to slip closer to the dark side of the Morality scale, which I think does an excellent job of reflecting how the light side/dark side paradigm operates in the films; Obi-Wan probably only nets a point or two of Conflict each session at most, while Anakin in his rush to resolve problems through the most expedient means possible likely generates several points each session (unless Obi-Wan's around to reign him in). Also, the Fear check mechanics have been updated to account for Morality, as rolling a Despair on a Fear check generates a point of Conflict, a nice nod to the line of Fear leading to Anger.
The Adversary chapter has a number of new NPCs as well as returning favorites such as stormtroopers and street toughs. There's a number of generally low-grade Force user NPCs, most of whom only have a minor ability along with being at Force Rating 1, though a couple are Nemesis-tier foes such as the Murderous Fugitive (FR 3 and a Force Lightning effect). Most of the droids are new, such as the IG-100 MagnaGuard (Nemesis tier and a freaking brute in melee combat). New monsters are included, such as an Acklay (the thing Obi-Wan fought in the gladiatorial pit in AotC) which is pretty nasty (not quite Captured Rancor nasty, but not that far off either) and even the Vornskr and Ysalamir (which simply negates all Force effects within Short Range of it).
But the capstone to this chapter is the Inquisitor creation guidelines. And after putting a few of these big bads together, let me say that they can be very nasty, even if they don't have any active Force powers or use a lightsaber. This section also has a sidebar discussing the option to allow a major NPC that's going solo against a group of 4 or more PCs to get an extra turn each round, making them more of a threat against a group (who might otherwise simply bury a lone villain with the sheer number of attacks per round they'd get).
The book wraps up with an adventure, called Lost Knowledge. I've not read this in-depth, but for the most part it's not really anything special, although the final encounter does have an interesting wrinkle to it and part of the rewards offered for completing the adventure is a new type of lightsabrer focusing crystal; it's not as good or modifiable as an Ilum crystal, but it beats not having a lightsaber at all. From what I could tell, it's geared towards starting level characters, as Knight-level PCs are going to likely crush the opposition as they're written. Still, it looks pretty solid, and I'll probably wind up running it at some point.
A bit disjointed, but those are my thoughts on the Force and Destiny Beta. I've been looking forward to this book every since the product line was announced, and I must say it didn't disappoint. Even the few things that I didn't totally agree with didn't detract from my enjoyment of the material, and most of those are either so minor as they can be overlooked or I've started up threads in the F&D Beta portion of the FFG forums to discuss proposed changes to the material. Note I said changes, not fixes. The material as it's written works very well, and some of the changes I've in mind for the material could very well fall into the realm of "personal preference." Though going by the number of likes I've gotten on some of those threads, the proposed changes seem to be pretty darn popular. And since a number of FFG folks recognized my forum handle, at least there's a good chance that the designers will see these proposed changes and consider them for implementation. Hey, my suggestion of changing Knowledge (Galactic Civil War) to Knowledge (Warfare) made it into the AoR core rulebook, so you never know ;)
Now that being said, there is the matter of Ways of the Force. While it probably won't go away, there won't be a "version 1.41," but rather a "version 2.0" to account for how Force and Destiny handles a number of things. Top of the list to go bye-bye are going to be the Jedi Initiate and Deflect Blasters, as well as the Healing, Injure, and Rebuke powers. I will probably also tweak the Force Techniques section to make them into things that anyone with sufficient Force Rating and appropriate powers can do but without needing to pay an XP cost as well as adding a couple effects. Not sure on where the Force Mystic or Dark Side Acolyte are going to wind up, but I got a feeling that other than loosing at least one rank of Uncanny Reactions and Uncanny Senses each, they'll still be around. As for those lightsaber-related talents I created, that I'm not sure on. I'd promised myself that I wouldn't fall prey to the lure of creating a Jedi career, but now that the curtain's been pulled back on dedicated Force users with Force and Destiny, that means that I have a lot more tools to make use of for creating a Jedi career system. How it'll shake out, I frankly have no idea.
I'll likely be posting some of the various characters I've made using the F&D Beta rules over the next few days, as well as a recap on my GenCon experience (which again was well worth the money spent). So until then, remember...
The Force will be with you, always.
May 26, 2014
He's no Jedi... at least, not yet.
It's always a satisfying moment when a character you've created so long ago at last takes that major step towards realizing their full potential.
As some may know, way back during the Edge of the Empire Beta, my friend Ben "Cyril" Erickson proposed a one-shot scenario to try out FFG's new system. This was done as one of our players (Rikoshi) had some scheduling conflicts on Sundays with his Shadowrun group, and by running EotE this allowed the rest of us a chance to game without putting Rikoshi's character on the bench for a session.
As has been tradition since I first played a Star Wars RPG (WEG 2nd edition way back in 1993), I wanted my first character to be a Force user of at least some type. Well, seeing as how FFG hadn't pulled back the curtain on Jedi as playable characters, that left me with the option of the Force Exile. I was tempted to use the Morningfire surname as I'd done many times in the past, with my first WEG PC being a Young Jedi named Ryu Morningfire (hey, I was big into Street Fighter II at the time, sue me). My first OCR PC being a Jedi Guardian named Donovan Morningfire, from whom I've pretty much taken my fan community handle (it's reached the point that more people know me as Donovan or Dono than by my proper first name), and was carried over to the RCR as well. The first Saga Edition character that I played that wasn't a conversion from the OCR/RCR was Zayne Morningfire, a Legacy Era descendent of Dono that wound up becoming an obscenely powerful Force user thanks to a combination of unusually good dice rolls and a homebrew talent that didn't look anywhere near as broken on paper.
So yeah, the temptation was there to once again use the Morningfire surname for this EotE character. But, this character wasn't a Jedi, hadn't really even been trained as a Jedi, so my using Morningfire for a character that wasn't a Jedi just didn't feel right. A leafing through some old WEG characters that I'd created by never played provided the right inspiration at the right time, and so Valin Starsmore, a Force-sensitive street rat (Human Smuggler/Scoundrel/Force Exile) was created.
Well, as I noted in a prior post, Valin has made his return to active play as part of a new campaign, this one blending elements of Edge of the Empire with Age of Rebellion, with the young Force user having found himself keeping company with a group of Alliance operatives. While we've yet to really strike a major blow against the Empire (yet), that's mostly as the GM has been running us through the Long Arm of the Hutt module, taking us through the events on Ryloth and Geonosis aboard the YT-1300 that we'd appropriated at the end of the first adventure (Escape from Mos Shutta) but have since retro-fitted, repaired, refurbished, renovated, and rechristened the Rascal's Folly. According to Rala, our Chiss field officer, there's a story behind the name, but we're still waiting on the details.
However, the past couple sessions have seen us taking a detour from the events of LAotH, first with a trip to Nar Shaddaa to satisfy an Obligation we'd incurred during the prior session, with events quickly spiraling out of control (and it was NOT Valin's fault in the slightest!) and us having to make a hurried departure with Ubese hunters and ISB operatives on our trail, simply because we'd agreed to ferry a Bothan historian to an undisclosed location (that one can be blamed on Kyun, our Sullustan tramp freighter 'captain' who agreed to the charter without getting input from the rest of us).
Well, our most recent session was this past Saturday, and it started off with the Bothan, a rather timid-seeming yet excitable fellow by the name of Lorik Feryess revealing that our destination was the planet Tython... which drew a bunch of blank stares from the entire party (nobody passed the Knowledge: Lore check the GM asked for). A bit dismayed, Lorik revealed that Tython was said to be the birthplace of the Jedi Order, and had served as the Order's home in the aftermath of the Sith Invasion and the following Galactic Cold War. With Valin's interest in the Jedi and his own limited training in the Force, that part got his attention.
As a team of archaeologists, our party needs a lot of work. Getting to Tython wasn't too hard as Lorik was able to provide astrogation coordinates, though the data was horrifically outdated and gave Kyun fits trying to properly chart a course (took him several hours due to all the Threat he'd rolled on his Astrogation check, and that's counting his Galaxy Mapper talent). Finding the temple in question that Lorik wanted to investigate was another matter. As the temple was located quite a ways off and there wasn't anyplace to park the ship, we wound having to walk, though we at least didn't get lost. After some run-ins with the native fauna (including a bunch of savage mutants that called themselves Flesh Raiders) we finally made it to the temple itself.
Said temple was really more of a training outpost, one located on a rocky outcropping with barely enough room to land a landspeeder much less a YT-1300. Lorik seemed content to explore the grounds around the area while leaving it to us to explore the temple proper. And so we ended up on what amounted to a dungeon delve, leading most of the group to conclude that Lorik sent us ahead because he was too frightened to go himself. Of course, the exterior wasn't exactly danger free as Valin had inadvertently triggered an archaic training droid, forced into a brief sparring match using what Lorik identified as an archaic training lightsaber. It was a weapon that Valin felt oddly comfortable using in spite of having never seen it's type before, though he noted it was similar to the sparing sticks he'd used during self-defense lessons with his mentor, the man that had helped Valin gain a basic understanding of the Force and whom the young lad suspects may have been a Jedi that survived the purging of the Jedi Order.
After dealing with various pitfalls, we reached the "heart" of the temple, which was where ancient data recordings the group had salvaged lead us to believe the major archeological find would be located, and even picked up a few other items along the way. However, the problem we soon ran into was that the access doors to the main "treasure trove" were sealed tight and any attempts to force them open failed, up to and including our sassy demolitions expert trying to use a shaped detonite charge. As most of the group tried to figure out a way in, Valin opted to do a bit more exploring on his own, and came across the remains of a library, with the "books" having long since succumbed to the ravages of time and the lack of a controlled environment.
However, something in the room was able to recognize that Valin was Force-sensitive (or just noticed that he was the only one carrying one of those training 'sabers) and revealed a well-hidden door as a recorded voice instructed "Approach the entry Padawan, and be tried." Not sure if anyone else would have been able to enter, but based on an intuitive feeling (which he's come to trust), Valin stepped through the door and embarked on what I can only take to a set of Trials. This itself was handled as a one-on-one session between me and the GM, with the rest of the players observing from the sidelines if they wished (a couple of them had gotten to wondering where Valin had wandered off to, and found the library just in time to see Valin step through the door before it slammed shut behind him).
I have to say, going through these Trials was an interesting experience, with each Trial reflecting some facet of the Jedi Code (which Valin had long ago learned and taken to reciting portions of during stressful situations), and I think lead to some character growth as he was put in situations that forced him to really consider what those sentences meant. He succeeded, though the Third Trial was rather nerve-wracking, and was rewarded with the means to open those impenetrable vault doors (a rather hefty ornamental sword) and perhaps more precious, a crystal of a type quite similar to the one he wears around his neck, but larger, in pristine condition and noted as being suited for usage in constructing a lightsaber.
The main treasure for the adventure was apparently an ancient Jedi holocron along with a host of other historical items pertaining to the lore and history of the Jedi Order. You know, the sort of stuff that belongs in a museum; I even had Valin make a remark about how someone he'd met briefly on his travels, a Bothan archaeologist named Priska, would have been thrilled with a find of this caliber (you're welcome Linda). Attempts to reach Lorik via comlink weren't working (presumably something was interfering with the signal down here), so we grabbed the holocron and a few other portable items and headed out.
Sadly, it seems that we weren't quite as adept at covering our tracks when fleeing Nar Shaddaa as we'd hoped. We exited the temple just in time to see Lorik being gunned down by a combined force of Ubese hunters and Imperial stormtroopers, with the Imperial agent in charge ordering his troops to take us out. They failed, though we were able to learn from one of the few surviving Ubese that they'd been ordered to kill Lorik and his associates, then plant a series of beacons that would allow the Vindicator-class heavy cruiser that was in orbit to make a pinpoint tactical strike and ensure the temple and any traces of the Jedi Order were obliterated. Against Kyun's opinion, we opted to salvage as many of those books and cultural items as we could from the reliquary, figuring we could use the troop transports our enemies had used to ferry the goods back to our ship. We had just managed to clear the immediate area when destruction rained from the skies in the form of turbolaser fire; apparently enough of the beacons had been placed to give the Imperials in orbit enough data for an accurate firing solution. The return trip was a lot faster, and we did manage to escape, though we had to outrun that Vindicator (callsign appropriately being "Merciless" with some jokes about Captain Ming being in charge) and half a dozen TIE fighters in the process, but we escaped without too much damage to our ship.
After escaping, we had to figure out what to do next, particularly as Lorik was the one who knew where we were going to deliver the various historical items we'd found (and get paid, which Kyun insisted was the important factor). Apparently Lorik had some foresight that he might wind up dead on this trip, and left us a recording on the ship's computer that gave us our next destination and point of contact, those being the planet Dac aka Mon Calamari and an eldery Mon Cal woman by the name of Plashi Wul. She'd take the recovered items off our hands and provide the agreed upon credits along with a bonus for any significant finds.
Later that night, Valin opted to privately inspect the holocron, which to this point he'd avoided touching. As he figured, the device "awoke" when he tried to reach out to activate it via the Force, and Valin got a brief and unexpected lesson on the Jedi, having some actual facts to now work with instead of the half-truths and suspicions he'd been working from. Of course, Rala had figured he'd do something like this, but given the rather dismissive attitudes most of the group held towards the Jedi at least understood why Valin wasn't forthcoming with his abilities. She did make it clear that as far as she was concerned, the holocron was going to be among the items turned over to whomever Lorik's backer was, since that was part of the agreement they'd made with the now-dead Bothan.
So, what does all this mean for Valin in game terms? Well, he's got that archaic training lightsaber to work with, and the GM is allowing Valin to gain the Lightsaber skill as a career skill, effectively allowing me to replace Insight from the Force Emergent specialization with the Jedi Training talent from my Ways of the Force fan supplement, granting him both Discipline (which I'd gotten from Insight to begin with) and Lightsaber as career skills. Between the session's length and the bonus I got for Valin's motivation coming into play, it was enough for him to increase his Force Rating to 2 and take a rank in the Lightsaber skill. Plus, the GM will allow Valin to learn enough from the holocron to eventually construct his own lightsaber as well as pick up any of the Force Powers in the two core rulebooks (EotE and AoR Beta). And with a suitable crystal in hand, two of the major hurdles to Valin building his own lightsaber (the first being learning how) have been met. Of course, there's still plenty to spend XP on even without Force & Destiny being released yet, such as honing his Discipline and Lightsaber skills and bolstering his Force Powers (thinking of picking up Foresee next though Enhance is awfully tempting, plus I need to snag some Strength Upgrades for Move and the offensive Control Upgrade for Sense). But I got a feeling it won't be too many sessions for Valin trades that heavy blaster pistol of his to another PC.
Of course, one very interesting element to Valin's background that got revealed was that the small crystalline pendant he carries was of a similar type to the lightsaber crystal he'd earned through those Trials, raising a serious question about just who his parents were and how they'd have come into ownership of a lightsaber crystal.
So after several sessions in this campaign and a number of "Infinities" adventures, Valin has finally taken that big step into a much larger galaxy. While there is a certain level of excitement on my part that he's finally on track to becoming a Jedi, there's the knowledge that such power is going to result in our group earning the notice of people we'd rather didn't take notice of us. After all, there's still Teemo the Hutt out there, and he seems to have posted a sizable bounty for the heads (just the heads) of three members of our group (Valin's not one of them). Plus there's that Imperial cruiser that's probably got us on file now, and the Imperial in charge of the ship who was quite keen on wiping out traces of the Jedi Order, even ones that were thousands of years old. Yeah, that's not going to be an issue later on in the campaign, not one bit *cue rolling of eyes* And there's still his Bounty Obligation to contend with, as I'm sure the ISB's going to take notice that a person that's wanted for connections to a "known terrorist and fugitive" was sighted fleeing from the sight of a ruined Jedi temple just prior to its destruction, so there's that to deal with as well.
Truthfully, this kind of felt like Valin's "day in the limelight" episode. For most of the campaign, he'd kind of been playing second fiddle and simply going along with what the group wanted, so it was nice to have an objective that he as a character would be really interested in completing. I'm really hoping that Valin doesn't wind up being a full-time spotlight character as a result of the changes this last session has introduced, and have communicated that to the GM. And while Luke has been and probably will always be my favorite character from the original Star Wars movies, I'm really not keen on playing a rehash of his story from the movies. Though at least I can safely presume that Valin's current love interest (Jynx, a cute and flirty Mirialan Hired Gun/Demolitionist) isn't a blood relation of any sort.
Hard to believe this campaign's only been going for only seven sessions, and that Valin's come so far between the campaign's start and where he currently stands. And with Force & Destiny on the horizon (allegedly a Beta will be released at GenCon, and the final book will like drop around this time in 2015), there's still plenty of room for Valin to grow as a character while pursuing his motivation of eventually becoming an actual Jedi Knight. And I really do hope this campaign lasts long enough to realize that particular ambition. And I'm already looking forward to how the rest of this particular adventure plays out. Call it veteran gamer's instincts, but I think there's going to be at least one more Force-related surprise in store for our group and Valin in particular.
As some may know, way back during the Edge of the Empire Beta, my friend Ben "Cyril" Erickson proposed a one-shot scenario to try out FFG's new system. This was done as one of our players (Rikoshi) had some scheduling conflicts on Sundays with his Shadowrun group, and by running EotE this allowed the rest of us a chance to game without putting Rikoshi's character on the bench for a session.
As has been tradition since I first played a Star Wars RPG (WEG 2nd edition way back in 1993), I wanted my first character to be a Force user of at least some type. Well, seeing as how FFG hadn't pulled back the curtain on Jedi as playable characters, that left me with the option of the Force Exile. I was tempted to use the Morningfire surname as I'd done many times in the past, with my first WEG PC being a Young Jedi named Ryu Morningfire (hey, I was big into Street Fighter II at the time, sue me). My first OCR PC being a Jedi Guardian named Donovan Morningfire, from whom I've pretty much taken my fan community handle (it's reached the point that more people know me as Donovan or Dono than by my proper first name), and was carried over to the RCR as well. The first Saga Edition character that I played that wasn't a conversion from the OCR/RCR was Zayne Morningfire, a Legacy Era descendent of Dono that wound up becoming an obscenely powerful Force user thanks to a combination of unusually good dice rolls and a homebrew talent that didn't look anywhere near as broken on paper.
So yeah, the temptation was there to once again use the Morningfire surname for this EotE character. But, this character wasn't a Jedi, hadn't really even been trained as a Jedi, so my using Morningfire for a character that wasn't a Jedi just didn't feel right. A leafing through some old WEG characters that I'd created by never played provided the right inspiration at the right time, and so Valin Starsmore, a Force-sensitive street rat (Human Smuggler/Scoundrel/Force Exile) was created.
Well, as I noted in a prior post, Valin has made his return to active play as part of a new campaign, this one blending elements of Edge of the Empire with Age of Rebellion, with the young Force user having found himself keeping company with a group of Alliance operatives. While we've yet to really strike a major blow against the Empire (yet), that's mostly as the GM has been running us through the Long Arm of the Hutt module, taking us through the events on Ryloth and Geonosis aboard the YT-1300 that we'd appropriated at the end of the first adventure (Escape from Mos Shutta) but have since retro-fitted, repaired, refurbished, renovated, and rechristened the Rascal's Folly. According to Rala, our Chiss field officer, there's a story behind the name, but we're still waiting on the details.
However, the past couple sessions have seen us taking a detour from the events of LAotH, first with a trip to Nar Shaddaa to satisfy an Obligation we'd incurred during the prior session, with events quickly spiraling out of control (and it was NOT Valin's fault in the slightest!) and us having to make a hurried departure with Ubese hunters and ISB operatives on our trail, simply because we'd agreed to ferry a Bothan historian to an undisclosed location (that one can be blamed on Kyun, our Sullustan tramp freighter 'captain' who agreed to the charter without getting input from the rest of us).
Well, our most recent session was this past Saturday, and it started off with the Bothan, a rather timid-seeming yet excitable fellow by the name of Lorik Feryess revealing that our destination was the planet Tython... which drew a bunch of blank stares from the entire party (nobody passed the Knowledge: Lore check the GM asked for). A bit dismayed, Lorik revealed that Tython was said to be the birthplace of the Jedi Order, and had served as the Order's home in the aftermath of the Sith Invasion and the following Galactic Cold War. With Valin's interest in the Jedi and his own limited training in the Force, that part got his attention.
As a team of archaeologists, our party needs a lot of work. Getting to Tython wasn't too hard as Lorik was able to provide astrogation coordinates, though the data was horrifically outdated and gave Kyun fits trying to properly chart a course (took him several hours due to all the Threat he'd rolled on his Astrogation check, and that's counting his Galaxy Mapper talent). Finding the temple in question that Lorik wanted to investigate was another matter. As the temple was located quite a ways off and there wasn't anyplace to park the ship, we wound having to walk, though we at least didn't get lost. After some run-ins with the native fauna (including a bunch of savage mutants that called themselves Flesh Raiders) we finally made it to the temple itself.
Said temple was really more of a training outpost, one located on a rocky outcropping with barely enough room to land a landspeeder much less a YT-1300. Lorik seemed content to explore the grounds around the area while leaving it to us to explore the temple proper. And so we ended up on what amounted to a dungeon delve, leading most of the group to conclude that Lorik sent us ahead because he was too frightened to go himself. Of course, the exterior wasn't exactly danger free as Valin had inadvertently triggered an archaic training droid, forced into a brief sparring match using what Lorik identified as an archaic training lightsaber. It was a weapon that Valin felt oddly comfortable using in spite of having never seen it's type before, though he noted it was similar to the sparing sticks he'd used during self-defense lessons with his mentor, the man that had helped Valin gain a basic understanding of the Force and whom the young lad suspects may have been a Jedi that survived the purging of the Jedi Order.
After dealing with various pitfalls, we reached the "heart" of the temple, which was where ancient data recordings the group had salvaged lead us to believe the major archeological find would be located, and even picked up a few other items along the way. However, the problem we soon ran into was that the access doors to the main "treasure trove" were sealed tight and any attempts to force them open failed, up to and including our sassy demolitions expert trying to use a shaped detonite charge. As most of the group tried to figure out a way in, Valin opted to do a bit more exploring on his own, and came across the remains of a library, with the "books" having long since succumbed to the ravages of time and the lack of a controlled environment.
However, something in the room was able to recognize that Valin was Force-sensitive (or just noticed that he was the only one carrying one of those training 'sabers) and revealed a well-hidden door as a recorded voice instructed "Approach the entry Padawan, and be tried." Not sure if anyone else would have been able to enter, but based on an intuitive feeling (which he's come to trust), Valin stepped through the door and embarked on what I can only take to a set of Trials. This itself was handled as a one-on-one session between me and the GM, with the rest of the players observing from the sidelines if they wished (a couple of them had gotten to wondering where Valin had wandered off to, and found the library just in time to see Valin step through the door before it slammed shut behind him).
I have to say, going through these Trials was an interesting experience, with each Trial reflecting some facet of the Jedi Code (which Valin had long ago learned and taken to reciting portions of during stressful situations), and I think lead to some character growth as he was put in situations that forced him to really consider what those sentences meant. He succeeded, though the Third Trial was rather nerve-wracking, and was rewarded with the means to open those impenetrable vault doors (a rather hefty ornamental sword) and perhaps more precious, a crystal of a type quite similar to the one he wears around his neck, but larger, in pristine condition and noted as being suited for usage in constructing a lightsaber.
The main treasure for the adventure was apparently an ancient Jedi holocron along with a host of other historical items pertaining to the lore and history of the Jedi Order. You know, the sort of stuff that belongs in a museum; I even had Valin make a remark about how someone he'd met briefly on his travels, a Bothan archaeologist named Priska, would have been thrilled with a find of this caliber (you're welcome Linda). Attempts to reach Lorik via comlink weren't working (presumably something was interfering with the signal down here), so we grabbed the holocron and a few other portable items and headed out.
Sadly, it seems that we weren't quite as adept at covering our tracks when fleeing Nar Shaddaa as we'd hoped. We exited the temple just in time to see Lorik being gunned down by a combined force of Ubese hunters and Imperial stormtroopers, with the Imperial agent in charge ordering his troops to take us out. They failed, though we were able to learn from one of the few surviving Ubese that they'd been ordered to kill Lorik and his associates, then plant a series of beacons that would allow the Vindicator-class heavy cruiser that was in orbit to make a pinpoint tactical strike and ensure the temple and any traces of the Jedi Order were obliterated. Against Kyun's opinion, we opted to salvage as many of those books and cultural items as we could from the reliquary, figuring we could use the troop transports our enemies had used to ferry the goods back to our ship. We had just managed to clear the immediate area when destruction rained from the skies in the form of turbolaser fire; apparently enough of the beacons had been placed to give the Imperials in orbit enough data for an accurate firing solution. The return trip was a lot faster, and we did manage to escape, though we had to outrun that Vindicator (callsign appropriately being "Merciless" with some jokes about Captain Ming being in charge) and half a dozen TIE fighters in the process, but we escaped without too much damage to our ship.
After escaping, we had to figure out what to do next, particularly as Lorik was the one who knew where we were going to deliver the various historical items we'd found (and get paid, which Kyun insisted was the important factor). Apparently Lorik had some foresight that he might wind up dead on this trip, and left us a recording on the ship's computer that gave us our next destination and point of contact, those being the planet Dac aka Mon Calamari and an eldery Mon Cal woman by the name of Plashi Wul. She'd take the recovered items off our hands and provide the agreed upon credits along with a bonus for any significant finds.
Later that night, Valin opted to privately inspect the holocron, which to this point he'd avoided touching. As he figured, the device "awoke" when he tried to reach out to activate it via the Force, and Valin got a brief and unexpected lesson on the Jedi, having some actual facts to now work with instead of the half-truths and suspicions he'd been working from. Of course, Rala had figured he'd do something like this, but given the rather dismissive attitudes most of the group held towards the Jedi at least understood why Valin wasn't forthcoming with his abilities. She did make it clear that as far as she was concerned, the holocron was going to be among the items turned over to whomever Lorik's backer was, since that was part of the agreement they'd made with the now-dead Bothan.
So, what does all this mean for Valin in game terms? Well, he's got that archaic training lightsaber to work with, and the GM is allowing Valin to gain the Lightsaber skill as a career skill, effectively allowing me to replace Insight from the Force Emergent specialization with the Jedi Training talent from my Ways of the Force fan supplement, granting him both Discipline (which I'd gotten from Insight to begin with) and Lightsaber as career skills. Between the session's length and the bonus I got for Valin's motivation coming into play, it was enough for him to increase his Force Rating to 2 and take a rank in the Lightsaber skill. Plus, the GM will allow Valin to learn enough from the holocron to eventually construct his own lightsaber as well as pick up any of the Force Powers in the two core rulebooks (EotE and AoR Beta). And with a suitable crystal in hand, two of the major hurdles to Valin building his own lightsaber (the first being learning how) have been met. Of course, there's still plenty to spend XP on even without Force & Destiny being released yet, such as honing his Discipline and Lightsaber skills and bolstering his Force Powers (thinking of picking up Foresee next though Enhance is awfully tempting, plus I need to snag some Strength Upgrades for Move and the offensive Control Upgrade for Sense). But I got a feeling it won't be too many sessions for Valin trades that heavy blaster pistol of his to another PC.
Of course, one very interesting element to Valin's background that got revealed was that the small crystalline pendant he carries was of a similar type to the lightsaber crystal he'd earned through those Trials, raising a serious question about just who his parents were and how they'd have come into ownership of a lightsaber crystal.
So after several sessions in this campaign and a number of "Infinities" adventures, Valin has finally taken that big step into a much larger galaxy. While there is a certain level of excitement on my part that he's finally on track to becoming a Jedi, there's the knowledge that such power is going to result in our group earning the notice of people we'd rather didn't take notice of us. After all, there's still Teemo the Hutt out there, and he seems to have posted a sizable bounty for the heads (just the heads) of three members of our group (Valin's not one of them). Plus there's that Imperial cruiser that's probably got us on file now, and the Imperial in charge of the ship who was quite keen on wiping out traces of the Jedi Order, even ones that were thousands of years old. Yeah, that's not going to be an issue later on in the campaign, not one bit *cue rolling of eyes* And there's still his Bounty Obligation to contend with, as I'm sure the ISB's going to take notice that a person that's wanted for connections to a "known terrorist and fugitive" was sighted fleeing from the sight of a ruined Jedi temple just prior to its destruction, so there's that to deal with as well.
Truthfully, this kind of felt like Valin's "day in the limelight" episode. For most of the campaign, he'd kind of been playing second fiddle and simply going along with what the group wanted, so it was nice to have an objective that he as a character would be really interested in completing. I'm really hoping that Valin doesn't wind up being a full-time spotlight character as a result of the changes this last session has introduced, and have communicated that to the GM. And while Luke has been and probably will always be my favorite character from the original Star Wars movies, I'm really not keen on playing a rehash of his story from the movies. Though at least I can safely presume that Valin's current love interest (Jynx, a cute and flirty Mirialan Hired Gun/Demolitionist) isn't a blood relation of any sort.
Hard to believe this campaign's only been going for only seven sessions, and that Valin's come so far between the campaign's start and where he currently stands. And with Force & Destiny on the horizon (allegedly a Beta will be released at GenCon, and the final book will like drop around this time in 2015), there's still plenty of room for Valin to grow as a character while pursuing his motivation of eventually becoming an actual Jedi Knight. And I really do hope this campaign lasts long enough to realize that particular ambition. And I'm already looking forward to how the rest of this particular adventure plays out. Call it veteran gamer's instincts, but I think there's going to be at least one more Force-related surprise in store for our group and Valin in particular.
March 22, 2014
Ways of the Force, Version 1.3
Wow, four posts in the same month. One might start to think the owner of this blog actually remembered that it exists ;)
It'd been quite a while since I'd last updated my Ways of the Force fan supplement. I'd been working on altering a number of things, such as largely doing away with the minor Force powers and expanding two of them into full-fledged Force Power trees.
Ways of the Force, Version 1.3
I've also made some major revamps to the Force Powers, new and old, in light of clarification from FFG's own Sam Stewart in regards to how Force Power effects were activated. To simplify, my understanding was incorrect, and that in light of that understanding, Injure and Healing were vastly more powerful than I was comfortable with. There was also the matter that they had gotten perhaps too complicated, particularly Healing and my attempts to keep it from being too useful to a group but not so restricted as to make it nearly useless. I think I've struck the right balance this time around with both powers, making them effective but not game-breaking.
The Jedi Initiate has also gotten a substantial change in layout. I opted to go back to the original focus of this being a specialization that focuses on becoming a competent lightsaber duelist as one of it's primary aspects, and that improved Force usage isn't quite as major. That's not to say that someone taking Jedi Initiate won't be slackers in the Force, but rather that lightsaber prowess is going to be a major part of the specialization. So folks that are looking to be a Jedi but don't want to bother with the lightsaber talents, I'm afraid you're going to have to look to other Force-sensitive specializations to scratch that particular itch.
I've also recanted a bit on my earlier statement about not having any kind of skill check to construct a lightsaber. For this version, I've settled on making it a single Discipline check, partly to avoid the issue of "how would my PC know how to build a lightsaber if they're not trained in the skill?" had I used the Lightsaber skill, but largely as a nod to Saga Edition and having it be a Use the Force check to accomplish that task. Plus, Discipline ties into it being an important skill for Force users to have as well as the concentration and focus needed for a task that's noted as requiring a combination of great delicacy and precision. However, that's not to say that it's an automatic thing either, especially if the player is impatient, as the check starts at Daunting, and only gets harder the quicker a PC tries to accomplish the task of building the 'saber; get too greedy and your Jedi-in-training could find themselves having to start completely from scratch.
Another major change has been to the Deflect Blasters talent. I feel there comes a point that when you need more than a single paragraph to cover the effects of a talent, then you've reached the point of needing to split it into two talents. And given some of the unexpected issues that cropped up, such as a PC using the talent to deflect a single shot from auto-fire weapon and then trigger auto-fire (something that was never intended), the split was needed. So while it now takes two talents to allow a Jedi Initiate to deflect and reflect blaster fire (presuming they've acquired a lightsaber in the first place), both talents are better balanced, with the minor bonus that deflecting ranged attacks is now something that the character could start knowing how to do; after all, it's one of the first lessons that Luke learned on his path to becoming a Jedi Knight.
The two new powers are Rebuke (expanded from Resist Force) and Message (expanded from Projective Telepathy). As for Sense Force, that's simply been moved to a sidebar (found under the Force Mystic) and is pretty much a function of the Sense power.
With Message, I had toyed with the idea of creating some kind of "battle meditation" effect, but I felt that such an ability was best left as a plot device type of thing, particularly with FFG having kept the uses of the Force in the powers they've published much closer to the general feel of the films while mostly averting some of the crazier stunts that have been seen in the Expanded Universe. While Sense covers the "picking up thoughts" aspect of telepathy, Message is more in line of what folks think when one mentions "telepathy," though like Saga Edition I kept the power's effects fairly simple, with the intent that any conversations would be very simple; something akin to Luke contacting Leia and sending a general sense that he was in danger and that he was "underneath Cloud City," and hoping that she'd be able to take it from there to rescue him.
As for Rebuke, one complaint I've often seen is that there was no real way to defend yourself from a Force power. It's not a major issue with Move (since any defensive traits that work against ranged attacks would apply), but it becomes a bigger on with Influence and Injure, both of which as written don't give the target any way to stop the damage inflicted. I opted to keep the opposed Discipline check that Resist Force had, though this isn't too big of an issue for most powers (especially as I scrapped the opposed check that was part of Injure in the last version). I've also broken out it so that the basic effect is simply to negate the effects of a power; if your Force user wants to pull a Yoda and hurl those bolts of Force lightning back, you'll need a Control Upgrade to do it. One potential concern is that with enough ranks in Discipline and the way Rebuke's Strength Upgrades operate it could become very easy for a Force-user with this power to shove an offensive power right back down their opponent's throat. Admittedly, this is offset somewhat by needing a Triumph on the opposed Discipline check and the chance for a Despair against more potent Force users as well. I also opted to include the ability to absorb/negate energy attacks as the "capstone" ability of Rebuke, using the same general mechanics, such as the Force user making an opposed Discipline check, only this time the difficulty is the shooter's combat skill. You could potentially use this to redirect a blaster shot with your bare hands, but by the time that most characters gain that particular Control Upgrade, they should be facing some pretty potent adversaries.
There have been a few other lesser tweaks here and there, but those are the highlights. And, barring any major typographical errors, this will probably be the final revision to this document.
With a Force & Destiny Beta having been teased as coming out later this year (presumably at GenCon), that brings to a close the reason I created this supplement in the first place; namely as a way to provide players with further options to play Force users in and Edge of the Empire or an Age of Rebellion campaign. A number of folks wanted some way to play an actual Jedi, not a "let's pretend" version that had either the Force Exile or Force Emergent specs and a few ranks in the Lightsaber skill, as well as an ability to perform Force-based feats that we saw in the movies but weren't covered by Edge of the Empire. While some folks chose to focus exclusively on creating a Jedi career, I opted to split the difference and create a Jedi specialization as a nod to the limited training available during the Rebellion Era as well as create additional Force powers.
But, with Force & Destiny having been teased to cover Jedi and other Force-users, the need to add new material or revise the existing material becomes less and less. Then again, I knew this was going to happen eventually, and thus had a degree of "planned obsolescence" from the very start. After all, when it comes to choosing between officially published material and some random guy's fan work, most gamers are going to lean towards the officially published material. And I'm okay with that. On a personal level, I'm interested to see how different in the design and application of things like blaster deflection and rebuking enemy Force powers my stuff and FFG's stuff will be. Amusingly, around July of last year, I'd been working on building an "enhanced movement" and "farseeing" power, and laughed with giddy joy at seeing that the Enhance and Foresee powers in the Age of Rebellion Beta were along very similar guidelines; my stuff would have gotten to that point in another month or two. Part of me hopes I'll get to experience that a second time around with the Force & Destiny Beta.
In the end, I can only hope that in the time frame between when I first web-published Ways of the Force and when the Force & Destiny core rulebook gets released next year, folks have found the material I've created to be useful for their games, either in whole or just select parts of it.
Edit: For some reason, Dropbox disabled the previous link. I've put a new one up.
It'd been quite a while since I'd last updated my Ways of the Force fan supplement. I'd been working on altering a number of things, such as largely doing away with the minor Force powers and expanding two of them into full-fledged Force Power trees.
Ways of the Force, Version 1.3
I've also made some major revamps to the Force Powers, new and old, in light of clarification from FFG's own Sam Stewart in regards to how Force Power effects were activated. To simplify, my understanding was incorrect, and that in light of that understanding, Injure and Healing were vastly more powerful than I was comfortable with. There was also the matter that they had gotten perhaps too complicated, particularly Healing and my attempts to keep it from being too useful to a group but not so restricted as to make it nearly useless. I think I've struck the right balance this time around with both powers, making them effective but not game-breaking.
The Jedi Initiate has also gotten a substantial change in layout. I opted to go back to the original focus of this being a specialization that focuses on becoming a competent lightsaber duelist as one of it's primary aspects, and that improved Force usage isn't quite as major. That's not to say that someone taking Jedi Initiate won't be slackers in the Force, but rather that lightsaber prowess is going to be a major part of the specialization. So folks that are looking to be a Jedi but don't want to bother with the lightsaber talents, I'm afraid you're going to have to look to other Force-sensitive specializations to scratch that particular itch.
I've also recanted a bit on my earlier statement about not having any kind of skill check to construct a lightsaber. For this version, I've settled on making it a single Discipline check, partly to avoid the issue of "how would my PC know how to build a lightsaber if they're not trained in the skill?" had I used the Lightsaber skill, but largely as a nod to Saga Edition and having it be a Use the Force check to accomplish that task. Plus, Discipline ties into it being an important skill for Force users to have as well as the concentration and focus needed for a task that's noted as requiring a combination of great delicacy and precision. However, that's not to say that it's an automatic thing either, especially if the player is impatient, as the check starts at Daunting, and only gets harder the quicker a PC tries to accomplish the task of building the 'saber; get too greedy and your Jedi-in-training could find themselves having to start completely from scratch.
Another major change has been to the Deflect Blasters talent. I feel there comes a point that when you need more than a single paragraph to cover the effects of a talent, then you've reached the point of needing to split it into two talents. And given some of the unexpected issues that cropped up, such as a PC using the talent to deflect a single shot from auto-fire weapon and then trigger auto-fire (something that was never intended), the split was needed. So while it now takes two talents to allow a Jedi Initiate to deflect and reflect blaster fire (presuming they've acquired a lightsaber in the first place), both talents are better balanced, with the minor bonus that deflecting ranged attacks is now something that the character could start knowing how to do; after all, it's one of the first lessons that Luke learned on his path to becoming a Jedi Knight.
The two new powers are Rebuke (expanded from Resist Force) and Message (expanded from Projective Telepathy). As for Sense Force, that's simply been moved to a sidebar (found under the Force Mystic) and is pretty much a function of the Sense power.
With Message, I had toyed with the idea of creating some kind of "battle meditation" effect, but I felt that such an ability was best left as a plot device type of thing, particularly with FFG having kept the uses of the Force in the powers they've published much closer to the general feel of the films while mostly averting some of the crazier stunts that have been seen in the Expanded Universe. While Sense covers the "picking up thoughts" aspect of telepathy, Message is more in line of what folks think when one mentions "telepathy," though like Saga Edition I kept the power's effects fairly simple, with the intent that any conversations would be very simple; something akin to Luke contacting Leia and sending a general sense that he was in danger and that he was "underneath Cloud City," and hoping that she'd be able to take it from there to rescue him.
As for Rebuke, one complaint I've often seen is that there was no real way to defend yourself from a Force power. It's not a major issue with Move (since any defensive traits that work against ranged attacks would apply), but it becomes a bigger on with Influence and Injure, both of which as written don't give the target any way to stop the damage inflicted. I opted to keep the opposed Discipline check that Resist Force had, though this isn't too big of an issue for most powers (especially as I scrapped the opposed check that was part of Injure in the last version). I've also broken out it so that the basic effect is simply to negate the effects of a power; if your Force user wants to pull a Yoda and hurl those bolts of Force lightning back, you'll need a Control Upgrade to do it. One potential concern is that with enough ranks in Discipline and the way Rebuke's Strength Upgrades operate it could become very easy for a Force-user with this power to shove an offensive power right back down their opponent's throat. Admittedly, this is offset somewhat by needing a Triumph on the opposed Discipline check and the chance for a Despair against more potent Force users as well. I also opted to include the ability to absorb/negate energy attacks as the "capstone" ability of Rebuke, using the same general mechanics, such as the Force user making an opposed Discipline check, only this time the difficulty is the shooter's combat skill. You could potentially use this to redirect a blaster shot with your bare hands, but by the time that most characters gain that particular Control Upgrade, they should be facing some pretty potent adversaries.
There have been a few other lesser tweaks here and there, but those are the highlights. And, barring any major typographical errors, this will probably be the final revision to this document.
With a Force & Destiny Beta having been teased as coming out later this year (presumably at GenCon), that brings to a close the reason I created this supplement in the first place; namely as a way to provide players with further options to play Force users in and Edge of the Empire or an Age of Rebellion campaign. A number of folks wanted some way to play an actual Jedi, not a "let's pretend" version that had either the Force Exile or Force Emergent specs and a few ranks in the Lightsaber skill, as well as an ability to perform Force-based feats that we saw in the movies but weren't covered by Edge of the Empire. While some folks chose to focus exclusively on creating a Jedi career, I opted to split the difference and create a Jedi specialization as a nod to the limited training available during the Rebellion Era as well as create additional Force powers.
But, with Force & Destiny having been teased to cover Jedi and other Force-users, the need to add new material or revise the existing material becomes less and less. Then again, I knew this was going to happen eventually, and thus had a degree of "planned obsolescence" from the very start. After all, when it comes to choosing between officially published material and some random guy's fan work, most gamers are going to lean towards the officially published material. And I'm okay with that. On a personal level, I'm interested to see how different in the design and application of things like blaster deflection and rebuking enemy Force powers my stuff and FFG's stuff will be. Amusingly, around July of last year, I'd been working on building an "enhanced movement" and "farseeing" power, and laughed with giddy joy at seeing that the Enhance and Foresee powers in the Age of Rebellion Beta were along very similar guidelines; my stuff would have gotten to that point in another month or two. Part of me hopes I'll get to experience that a second time around with the Force & Destiny Beta.
In the end, I can only hope that in the time frame between when I first web-published Ways of the Force and when the Force & Destiny core rulebook gets released next year, folks have found the material I've created to be useful for their games, either in whole or just select parts of it.
Edit: For some reason, Dropbox disabled the previous link. I've put a new one up.
September 2, 2013
Ways of the Force, version 1.1
Firstly, happy Labor Day for those of us enjoying a day off in the U.S.
Kind of fitting that after a couple month's worth of labor, consisting of a substantial amount of review and revision, I now present the latest version of my Ways of the Force fan supplement:
Ways of the Force v1.1
There's been some pretty substantial changes, the foremost of which is the restructuring of the Jedi Initiate talent tree. The intent with the change was to allow for character with this specialization to not be overly penalized for not becoming an expert at using a lightsaber, though mastery of the lightsaber still remains a major focus of this specialization. So if all you want to do with your Jedi Initiate is buff up their Force Rating and not once pick up a lightsaber, you can easily skip all those lightsaber-related talents.
I also removed and revised some of the Minor Force Powers, as well as removed a talent (Force Leap) from the Jedi Initiate. If you've managed to snag a copy of the Age of Rebellion Beta, then you'll understand way. If not, let us just say that my thoughts when developing some of these elements came very close to those of FFG's design team.
Part of the reason why there had been such a lengthy delay between versions was that back in July, I decided to develop the Force Leap talent and the "Search Your Feelings" minor power into full-fledged Force Powers, with a Basic Power and various Upgrades. I actually had a decent layout for the power trees for what I was calling Enhancement and Farseeing.
Enhancement built upon my Force Leap talent by allow a Force Die to be rolled to add successes or advantage to various Brawn and Agility based checks, such as Athletics, Coordination, Stealth, and Resilience, as well as a movement-based effect that drew upon lessons learned from an ill-fated attempt at creating a "Force Speed" power tree in months prior. The bulk of the power tree were Control Upgrades, with the base power starting at Athletics, and broadening the skills affected with each Control Upgrade on one side and a "Force Speed" effect on the other, with Range Upgrade to allow the user to cross additional Range Bands.
As for Farseeing, the basic power allowed a brief but fuzzy snapshot of events in the near future, with Strength Upgrades to allow more details, Duration Upgrades to look further into the future, and Control Upgrades to look into the past as well as to see the future/past of someone else, or multiple someones if you had enough Magnitude Upgrades. A base framework, but one that needed a great deal more refinement before they were ready to publish.
Well, as I mentioned in my prior post, I wound up being very pleasantly surprised when I (finally) cracked open my copy of the Age of Rebellion Beta (had to wait until after an EotE run by Sam Stewart before I could retreat to the VIG lounge to actually read the book), and wound up laughing quite a bit at how close I'd gotten in most aspects to what FFG had published, a sentiment that GM Chris of the Order 66 podcast and lead designer Jay Little were both glad to share, and I'm sure a few other folks will too. To paraphrase Jay, it says something about how simple and intuitive the design of their Star Wars system is when someone totally unrelated is able to independently design concepts that mirror those that the official design team has come up with.
So that fun little anecdote aside, a couple other changes you'll find is that I've broke the new weapons and new gear out into separate pages, adding a few more lightsaber variants such as the double-bladed lightsaber and training lightsaber to the weapons listing. For the Force-related items, both of the new entries are very heavily slanted towards the Jedi, those being Adegan/Ilum crystals (useful for building one's lightsaber) and the coveted Jedi holocron (which can be damn handy both as an information resource and instructional aide to burgeoning Force-users).
The "Sense Force" minor power has been simplified, with the "sense disturbances" aspect broken out into a separate side bar and being something anyone with a Force Rating of 1 or better can do. New to this section is the "Resist Force" power, which provides experienced Force-users a way to protect themselves from enemy powers. That's probably the one element of this latest version that will most likely be in need of further revision or clarification, but I think the core functionality is solid even if it does add yet another measure of complexity to using the Force.
So, hopefully the changes and updates made in this latest version prove agreeable to your group.
Kind of fitting that after a couple month's worth of labor, consisting of a substantial amount of review and revision, I now present the latest version of my Ways of the Force fan supplement:
Ways of the Force v1.1
There's been some pretty substantial changes, the foremost of which is the restructuring of the Jedi Initiate talent tree. The intent with the change was to allow for character with this specialization to not be overly penalized for not becoming an expert at using a lightsaber, though mastery of the lightsaber still remains a major focus of this specialization. So if all you want to do with your Jedi Initiate is buff up their Force Rating and not once pick up a lightsaber, you can easily skip all those lightsaber-related talents.
I also removed and revised some of the Minor Force Powers, as well as removed a talent (Force Leap) from the Jedi Initiate. If you've managed to snag a copy of the Age of Rebellion Beta, then you'll understand way. If not, let us just say that my thoughts when developing some of these elements came very close to those of FFG's design team.
Part of the reason why there had been such a lengthy delay between versions was that back in July, I decided to develop the Force Leap talent and the "Search Your Feelings" minor power into full-fledged Force Powers, with a Basic Power and various Upgrades. I actually had a decent layout for the power trees for what I was calling Enhancement and Farseeing.
Enhancement built upon my Force Leap talent by allow a Force Die to be rolled to add successes or advantage to various Brawn and Agility based checks, such as Athletics, Coordination, Stealth, and Resilience, as well as a movement-based effect that drew upon lessons learned from an ill-fated attempt at creating a "Force Speed" power tree in months prior. The bulk of the power tree were Control Upgrades, with the base power starting at Athletics, and broadening the skills affected with each Control Upgrade on one side and a "Force Speed" effect on the other, with Range Upgrade to allow the user to cross additional Range Bands.
As for Farseeing, the basic power allowed a brief but fuzzy snapshot of events in the near future, with Strength Upgrades to allow more details, Duration Upgrades to look further into the future, and Control Upgrades to look into the past as well as to see the future/past of someone else, or multiple someones if you had enough Magnitude Upgrades. A base framework, but one that needed a great deal more refinement before they were ready to publish.
Well, as I mentioned in my prior post, I wound up being very pleasantly surprised when I (finally) cracked open my copy of the Age of Rebellion Beta (had to wait until after an EotE run by Sam Stewart before I could retreat to the VIG lounge to actually read the book), and wound up laughing quite a bit at how close I'd gotten in most aspects to what FFG had published, a sentiment that GM Chris of the Order 66 podcast and lead designer Jay Little were both glad to share, and I'm sure a few other folks will too. To paraphrase Jay, it says something about how simple and intuitive the design of their Star Wars system is when someone totally unrelated is able to independently design concepts that mirror those that the official design team has come up with.
So that fun little anecdote aside, a couple other changes you'll find is that I've broke the new weapons and new gear out into separate pages, adding a few more lightsaber variants such as the double-bladed lightsaber and training lightsaber to the weapons listing. For the Force-related items, both of the new entries are very heavily slanted towards the Jedi, those being Adegan/Ilum crystals (useful for building one's lightsaber) and the coveted Jedi holocron (which can be damn handy both as an information resource and instructional aide to burgeoning Force-users).
The "Sense Force" minor power has been simplified, with the "sense disturbances" aspect broken out into a separate side bar and being something anyone with a Force Rating of 1 or better can do. New to this section is the "Resist Force" power, which provides experienced Force-users a way to protect themselves from enemy powers. That's probably the one element of this latest version that will most likely be in need of further revision or clarification, but I think the core functionality is solid even if it does add yet another measure of complexity to using the Force.
So, hopefully the changes and updates made in this latest version prove agreeable to your group.
May 31, 2013
Blaster Deflection 101 for Edge of the Empire.
Howdy, and a happy Friday and end-of-the-month to you.
Hopefully a fair number of folks that are interested in such things have checked out the latest version of my Ways of the Force fan supplement for FFG's soon-to-be released Edge of the Empire RPG.
There were some significant changes between the initial release version and the current version (1.02), and I'm planning on at least one more revision, which will be shortly after the actual EotE corebook gets released, and will consist of updating the page references (and possibly some talent names) to match said corebook rather than the Beta rulebook.
One of the bigger changes was a total revision of how the talent Deflect Blasters worked. And it's met with a few questions on why the change, both in forums and direct/private messages. So I thought I'd try and shed some insight.
The whole notion of a "blaster deflection" talent got it's start thanks to Chris "GM Chris" Witt of the Order 66 Podcast, the first podcast dedicated solely to Star Wars RPGs. Chris had started a forum thread over at the d20 Radio forums about his ideas for a "blaster deflection" talent. There was quite a bit of back and forth between him, myself, and other posters such as Awayptyrwpn and Phil "DarthGM" Maiewski, with different suggestions and approaches on how to reflect such a classic Jedi ability within the framework of EotE's rules.
For reference, here's the effect text for my take from version 1.0:
Once per round, when the character is targeted by a ranged attack, upgrade the difficulty a number of times equal to character’s Lightsaber skill rank. If this attack was made using a blaster and generates 2 Threat or 1 Despair, the character can deal the weapon’s base damage to a single target within Medium range. The character must be actively wielding a lightsaber staggered (see pg141) in order to activate this talent. This talent cannot be used against a ranged attack made using a starship-scale weapon.
Okay, first problem is that by the time the Jedi Initiate gets this talent, they've probably got at least 4 ranks in the Lightsaber skill, if not 5 by this point. So this means once per round, the Jedi gets to force a bunch of difficulty upgrades on a single target, turning what could be a very simple shot at medium range (base of 2 difficulty dice) into a very difficult shot, with the difficulty now being 3 challenge dice (assuming 4 ranks in Lightsaber) plus 2 setback dice from Lightsaber Defense. And that's not counting other means of increasing the difficulty of a ranged attack, such as Dodge (which also activates as a reaction to being attacked) or Side Step (does require a maneuver to set up), or most likely for a Jedi-in-training, the "danger sense" Control Upgrade for the Sense Power, granting at least one difficulty upgrade, or maybe two if the Strength Upgrade has been purchased. In a one-on-one fight, the Jedi has a huge advantage over a ranged attacker, and with that many challenge and setback dice, having the attack miss and provide the necessary Threat or Despair to trigger a free attack is a pretty sure thing.
So yeah, this was turning out be problematic, and fell into the category of being "too good to pass up." In the v1.0 set-up for the Jedi Initiate talent tree, I buried Deflect Blasters in the top row away from the Force Rating talent, but that just delayed the inevitable of a pretty broken talent entering the game. Based on feedback I'd gotten from the FFG and d20 Radio forums, I decided to start from scratch on designing my Deflect Blasters talent. I'd initially balked at the notion, but the more I read the dice rules in the Beta rulebook, the more sense that using a competitive check made. It was simple to apply (no extra difficulty upgrades), and simply relied upon the Jedi scoring on more success than the guy shooting at them to succeed. I did a brief bit of playtesting and some dice math review, and overall this looked to be an ideal solution to the dilemma of creating a talent that allowed for ranged attack deflection and blaster attack reflection, but wasn't super-powerful. And here's the current text:
Once per round, when the character is targeted by aranged attack, the character can activate this talent to make a competitive check against the same base difficulty, using their Lightsaber skill against the attacker’s combat skill, with a successful check resulting in the attack not dealing any damage. If the attack was made using a blaster, then on a successful check the character can choose to target a single target within Medium range, dealing damage equal to the damage value of the original attacker’s weapon, with each remaining success adding to the damage total. The character must be actively wielding a lightsaber and aware of the attack in order to activate this talent. This talent cannot be used against starship-mounted weapons
Now, looking at the text I wrote with slightly fresh eyes, I can see where some concern might come up that my current version of Deflect Blasters looks too weak, especially when compared to the prior version. After all, a really good marksman has a decent shot at beating out a Jedi Initiate on that opposed check... but I also think that's how it should be. Granted, in a lot of the Star Wars media we see Jedi casually deflecting blaster fire like it's no big deal, but consider most of the time the Jedi in question are A) fighting mooks who barely pose a threat, and B) the Jedi in question are either seasoned Knights or gifted prodigies, so of course it's going to look easy.
Maybe a few in-game examples of how this would work out might help to demonstrate why I think this current version of Deflect Blasters works a lot better and isn't quite as weak as some might think. For this example, I'll be using a vastly experienced version of my initial EotE PC, a young Jedi Initiate-on-the-run by the name of Valin Starsmore. His relevant stats are thus:
Agility 3
Soak Value 3 (Brawn 2 + heavy clothing)
Lightsaber 4 (he's gotten pretty good at this point)
Lightsaber Defense 2 (giving him a +2 bonus to melee & ranged defense)
Deflect Blasters (recently acquired)
Quick Draw (his staring career/spec is Smuggler/Scoundrel)
Sense Power with the "danger sense" Control Upgrade and the Duration Upgrade.
Example 1: Valin is snooping around the streets near a crime-lord's private estate, looking to find out what happened to his friend Gizmo, a slightly odd Twi'lek bounty hunter that has been missing since she went to the crime lord's estate. His Jedi senses (pretty well-honed thanks to 2 ranks each in Uncanny Senses and Uncanny Reactions) alerts him to the presence of a trio of guards (stats as per Apprentice Hunter on pg201 of the Beta, but equipped with heavy blaster pistols and having Perception as one of their skills). Seeing as how the guards have their blasters drawn and pointed at Valin, he wastes little time, drawing and igniting his lightsaber (an Incidental thanks to Quick Draw) then activating his combat awareness (activating his Control Upgrade to let him upgrade the difficulty twice of two separate attacks against him each round). The guards are at Medium range currently, but the foliage that Valin was hoping would obscure him also counts as difficult terrain; he won't be charging into the fray just yet.
The minion group of guards now get to act, and they waste little time in taking aim with their blasters and opening fire on the young Jedi. They're at Medium range, so they're base difficulty is 2 purple dice, with 2 setback dice applied from Valin's two ranks in Lightsaber Defense. Not wanting to get perforated with blaster fire quite so soon, Valin opts to use both his Deflect Blasters talent and his danger sense ability. The minion group will be rolling 2 proficiency, 1 ability die, and 1 boost die (Agility 3 for base of 3 ability dice, two upgrades for each minion after the first, and a boost die from aiming) against a difficulty of 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty die, and 2 setback dice. Valin meanwhile will only be rolling against 2 difficulty dice with a pool of 3 proficiency dice and 1 ability die.
Results are:
Valin: 4 successes, 1 failure, 2 advantage, 3 threat (net result = 3 successes, 1 threat)
Guards: 2 successes, 1 failure, 3 advantage, 5 threat (net result = 1 success, 2 threat)
Valin wins with 2 successes, but suffers a point of Strain (from the 1 Threat) as he frantically intercepts the incoming blaster fire, managing to deflect one of the bolts back to deal 9 damage to the minion group. That's enough damage to drop one of the guards (Soak 3, Wound Threshold 5), with GM applying the 2 Threat as a setback die to the group's next attack roll. One down, two to go, but Valin knows he's going to have to act quick before reinforcements arrive...
Example 2: Having dispatched those pesky guards, Valin has now found his way inside the crime lord's main villa, but has found proof that Gizmo is on the premises; the busty Twi'lek hunter is in trouble, and Valin's not about to let down one of the few friends he has. The Force is with Valin, and he finds both the crime boss and Gizmo, with the Twi'lek lashed to some type of automated torture rack while the Bothan crime boss is leisurely sipping from a wine goblet while asking a series of questions, with a surly-looking Trandoshan standing not too far off. Deciding it's time to act, Valin activates his lightsaber, the distinctive snap-hiss of the weapon getting the attention of both the Bothan crime boss and the Trandoshan. Luckily Valin was already prepped for a fight (having activated the Control Upgrade for his Sense Power), as the crime boss manages to score more successes than Valin on their respective Vigilance checks, though Valin does have 2 advantage that the GM lets him spend to give himself a boost dice on his next roll.
The crime boss (a Nemesis) has Agility 3 and 3 ranks of Ranged (Light), as well as the Quick Draw talent, enabling him to stand up (maneuver), draw his heavy blaster pistol (incidental) and fire at the interloping Jedi, who is at Short Range (1 difficulty). Again not wanting to get shot, Valin applies one of his two uses of danger sense towards the crime boss' shot as well as his one use of Deflect Blasters (the lack of an obvious blaster and the oversized vibrodagger on the Trandoshan's hip suggests a melee threat).
The crime boss' dice pool is 3 proficiency dice, 1 challenge die, and 2 setback dice. Vallin's dice pool is 3 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, 1 boost die, 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty and 1 setback die. The crime boss has two ranks in Adversary, and Valin's Lightsaber check is targeting him, so the talent would apply, plus the crime boss has armored clothing to grant a free rank of defense . Valin decides to bolster his chances by flipping a Destiny Point to upgrade his remaining ability die to a proficiency die.
Results are:
Valin: 1 triumph, 4 successes, 2 failure, 3 advantage, 1 threat (net result = 3 successes, 2 advantage, and a triumph result; i.e. the kid got one hell of a good roll)
Crime Boss: 4 successes, 1 failure, 1 advantage, 3 threat (net result = 3 successes, 2 threat)
Since Valin and the crime boss got the same number of successes, it's a draw. In this case, Valin didn't get hit, but neither did he get to redirect the blaster shot back at the crime boss. The crime boss suffers 2 Strain from the Threat, while Valin uses his 2 Advantage for a free maneuver to engage the crime boss in melee, and that Triumph to narrate that instead of hitting the crime boss, the deflected blaster shot instead pegged the torture rack that Gizmo is on, giving her an upgrade to whatever skill check she wants to make to escape. Which might be good since that Trandoshan's got a nasty sneer as he reaches for his vibroknife...
Example 3: With some help from a badly injured Gizmo, the crime boss and his Trandoshan bodyguard have both been dispatched, though Valin suffered a few cuts from the big lizard's vibroknife during the fight. Now, they need to get to the villa's speeder hanger to steal a ride so they can make a quick escape and rendezvous with Omaha and his YT-1300.
Unfortunately, Valin's Obligation came up prior to the start of the adventure, and the Bounty on his head has caught the attention of a Journeyman Hunter (pg201 of the Beta) who traded out his disruptor rifle for a blaster rifle and has a pair of Street Toughs (pg199) packing blaster pistols.for some added muscle; after all, the Empire pays good credits for Jedi renegades, and the toughs were dim-witted enough to accept only a fraction of the reward on Valin's head.
Valin's Force senses alert him to the danger a few scant second before the bounty hunter opens fire (his Vigilance check beat the hunter's Cool check by a wide margin), so he's got just enough time to draw his lightsaber and activate his danger sense while quickly moving behind some foliage for cover. The bounty hunter spends a maneuver to Aim before squeezing the trigger on his rifle.
The bounty hunter and Valin are at Medium range from one another. Figuring the bounty hunter's the bigger threat than the pair of street toughs, Valin is going to yet again use Deflect Blasters (while wondering why everybody is so keen on shooting at him today) as well as his danger sense to make the hunter's shot that much harder. However, the GM decides to spend a Destiny Point to upgrade one of the hunter's ability dice for this shot.
So the journeyman hunter is rolling 2 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, 1 boost die, 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty die, and 3 setback dice. Valin's rolling his usual 3 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, but 1 challenge die and 1 difficulty die due to the hunter having a rank in Adversary.
Results are:
Valin: 3 successes, 2 advantage, 2 failure, 0 threat (net result = 1 success, 1 advantage)
Hunter: 3 successes, 1 advantage, 1 failure, 3 threat (net result = 2 successes, 2 threat)
Valin's luck runs out, and the hunter clips his shoulder, dealing 10 damage (base 9 for the rifle, +1 for the remaining Success after applying the 1 Success from Valin's check. Given Valin's low Soak Value (he's quick, not brawny, that's gonna leave a mark! Good thing he's got some stimpacks on hand, as he's gonna need them if this keeps up. Gizmo grumbles about this being "some rescue" as she takes aim with the heavy blaster pistol she looted from the deceased crime boss.
So I hope these not-so-little examples show some insight into why Deflect Blasters isn't the end-all and be-all talent that it was initially. While I won't type them out here, I did run each of the above examples using the original version, which for Valin would force 4 difficulty upgrades on his selected adversary. The guards would have been rolling against 4 challenge dice, the crime boss against 3 challenge and 1 difficulty, and the journeyman hunter also against 4 challenge dice. Let's just say the odds greatly favored Valin in each scenario, and out of several test dice rolls, he only took damage once (against the crime boss) while the rest of the time he not only avoided damage, but also got the free attack as the bad guys rolled enough Threat for him to trigger that part of the original Deflect Blasters.
Now, one thing to also consider is that Valin was able to make use of his Sense upgrade as well to boost up his defenses. Granted, things might have gone a bit more in his favor if he had the Strength Upgrade on his Sense power; maybe he'll buy that one with the XP he's earned from this adventure and put that Force Rating talent off for another day...
Hopefully a fair number of folks that are interested in such things have checked out the latest version of my Ways of the Force fan supplement for FFG's soon-to-be released Edge of the Empire RPG.
There were some significant changes between the initial release version and the current version (1.02), and I'm planning on at least one more revision, which will be shortly after the actual EotE corebook gets released, and will consist of updating the page references (and possibly some talent names) to match said corebook rather than the Beta rulebook.
One of the bigger changes was a total revision of how the talent Deflect Blasters worked. And it's met with a few questions on why the change, both in forums and direct/private messages. So I thought I'd try and shed some insight.
The whole notion of a "blaster deflection" talent got it's start thanks to Chris "GM Chris" Witt of the Order 66 Podcast, the first podcast dedicated solely to Star Wars RPGs. Chris had started a forum thread over at the d20 Radio forums about his ideas for a "blaster deflection" talent. There was quite a bit of back and forth between him, myself, and other posters such as Awayptyrwpn and Phil "DarthGM" Maiewski, with different suggestions and approaches on how to reflect such a classic Jedi ability within the framework of EotE's rules.
For reference, here's the effect text for my take from version 1.0:
Once per round, when the character is targeted by a ranged attack, upgrade the difficulty a number of times equal to character’s Lightsaber skill rank. If this attack was made using a blaster and generates 2 Threat or 1 Despair, the character can deal the weapon’s base damage to a single target within Medium range. The character must be actively wielding a lightsaber staggered (see pg141) in order to activate this talent. This talent cannot be used against a ranged attack made using a starship-scale weapon.
Okay, first problem is that by the time the Jedi Initiate gets this talent, they've probably got at least 4 ranks in the Lightsaber skill, if not 5 by this point. So this means once per round, the Jedi gets to force a bunch of difficulty upgrades on a single target, turning what could be a very simple shot at medium range (base of 2 difficulty dice) into a very difficult shot, with the difficulty now being 3 challenge dice (assuming 4 ranks in Lightsaber) plus 2 setback dice from Lightsaber Defense. And that's not counting other means of increasing the difficulty of a ranged attack, such as Dodge (which also activates as a reaction to being attacked) or Side Step (does require a maneuver to set up), or most likely for a Jedi-in-training, the "danger sense" Control Upgrade for the Sense Power, granting at least one difficulty upgrade, or maybe two if the Strength Upgrade has been purchased. In a one-on-one fight, the Jedi has a huge advantage over a ranged attacker, and with that many challenge and setback dice, having the attack miss and provide the necessary Threat or Despair to trigger a free attack is a pretty sure thing.
So yeah, this was turning out be problematic, and fell into the category of being "too good to pass up." In the v1.0 set-up for the Jedi Initiate talent tree, I buried Deflect Blasters in the top row away from the Force Rating talent, but that just delayed the inevitable of a pretty broken talent entering the game. Based on feedback I'd gotten from the FFG and d20 Radio forums, I decided to start from scratch on designing my Deflect Blasters talent. I'd initially balked at the notion, but the more I read the dice rules in the Beta rulebook, the more sense that using a competitive check made. It was simple to apply (no extra difficulty upgrades), and simply relied upon the Jedi scoring on more success than the guy shooting at them to succeed. I did a brief bit of playtesting and some dice math review, and overall this looked to be an ideal solution to the dilemma of creating a talent that allowed for ranged attack deflection and blaster attack reflection, but wasn't super-powerful. And here's the current text:
Once per round, when the character is targeted by aranged attack, the character can activate this talent to make a competitive check against the same base difficulty, using their Lightsaber skill against the attacker’s combat skill, with a successful check resulting in the attack not dealing any damage. If the attack was made using a blaster, then on a successful check the character can choose to target a single target within Medium range, dealing damage equal to the damage value of the original attacker’s weapon, with each remaining success adding to the damage total. The character must be actively wielding a lightsaber and aware of the attack in order to activate this talent. This talent cannot be used against starship-mounted weapons
Now, looking at the text I wrote with slightly fresh eyes, I can see where some concern might come up that my current version of Deflect Blasters looks too weak, especially when compared to the prior version. After all, a really good marksman has a decent shot at beating out a Jedi Initiate on that opposed check... but I also think that's how it should be. Granted, in a lot of the Star Wars media we see Jedi casually deflecting blaster fire like it's no big deal, but consider most of the time the Jedi in question are A) fighting mooks who barely pose a threat, and B) the Jedi in question are either seasoned Knights or gifted prodigies, so of course it's going to look easy.
Maybe a few in-game examples of how this would work out might help to demonstrate why I think this current version of Deflect Blasters works a lot better and isn't quite as weak as some might think. For this example, I'll be using a vastly experienced version of my initial EotE PC, a young Jedi Initiate-on-the-run by the name of Valin Starsmore. His relevant stats are thus:
Agility 3
Soak Value 3 (Brawn 2 + heavy clothing)
Lightsaber 4 (he's gotten pretty good at this point)
Lightsaber Defense 2 (giving him a +2 bonus to melee & ranged defense)
Deflect Blasters (recently acquired)
Quick Draw (his staring career/spec is Smuggler/Scoundrel)
Sense Power with the "danger sense" Control Upgrade and the Duration Upgrade.
Example 1: Valin is snooping around the streets near a crime-lord's private estate, looking to find out what happened to his friend Gizmo, a slightly odd Twi'lek bounty hunter that has been missing since she went to the crime lord's estate. His Jedi senses (pretty well-honed thanks to 2 ranks each in Uncanny Senses and Uncanny Reactions) alerts him to the presence of a trio of guards (stats as per Apprentice Hunter on pg201 of the Beta, but equipped with heavy blaster pistols and having Perception as one of their skills). Seeing as how the guards have their blasters drawn and pointed at Valin, he wastes little time, drawing and igniting his lightsaber (an Incidental thanks to Quick Draw) then activating his combat awareness (activating his Control Upgrade to let him upgrade the difficulty twice of two separate attacks against him each round). The guards are at Medium range currently, but the foliage that Valin was hoping would obscure him also counts as difficult terrain; he won't be charging into the fray just yet.
The minion group of guards now get to act, and they waste little time in taking aim with their blasters and opening fire on the young Jedi. They're at Medium range, so they're base difficulty is 2 purple dice, with 2 setback dice applied from Valin's two ranks in Lightsaber Defense. Not wanting to get perforated with blaster fire quite so soon, Valin opts to use both his Deflect Blasters talent and his danger sense ability. The minion group will be rolling 2 proficiency, 1 ability die, and 1 boost die (Agility 3 for base of 3 ability dice, two upgrades for each minion after the first, and a boost die from aiming) against a difficulty of 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty die, and 2 setback dice. Valin meanwhile will only be rolling against 2 difficulty dice with a pool of 3 proficiency dice and 1 ability die.
Results are:
Valin: 4 successes, 1 failure, 2 advantage, 3 threat (net result = 3 successes, 1 threat)
Guards: 2 successes, 1 failure, 3 advantage, 5 threat (net result = 1 success, 2 threat)
Valin wins with 2 successes, but suffers a point of Strain (from the 1 Threat) as he frantically intercepts the incoming blaster fire, managing to deflect one of the bolts back to deal 9 damage to the minion group. That's enough damage to drop one of the guards (Soak 3, Wound Threshold 5), with GM applying the 2 Threat as a setback die to the group's next attack roll. One down, two to go, but Valin knows he's going to have to act quick before reinforcements arrive...
Example 2: Having dispatched those pesky guards, Valin has now found his way inside the crime lord's main villa, but has found proof that Gizmo is on the premises; the busty Twi'lek hunter is in trouble, and Valin's not about to let down one of the few friends he has. The Force is with Valin, and he finds both the crime boss and Gizmo, with the Twi'lek lashed to some type of automated torture rack while the Bothan crime boss is leisurely sipping from a wine goblet while asking a series of questions, with a surly-looking Trandoshan standing not too far off. Deciding it's time to act, Valin activates his lightsaber, the distinctive snap-hiss of the weapon getting the attention of both the Bothan crime boss and the Trandoshan. Luckily Valin was already prepped for a fight (having activated the Control Upgrade for his Sense Power), as the crime boss manages to score more successes than Valin on their respective Vigilance checks, though Valin does have 2 advantage that the GM lets him spend to give himself a boost dice on his next roll.
The crime boss (a Nemesis) has Agility 3 and 3 ranks of Ranged (Light), as well as the Quick Draw talent, enabling him to stand up (maneuver), draw his heavy blaster pistol (incidental) and fire at the interloping Jedi, who is at Short Range (1 difficulty). Again not wanting to get shot, Valin applies one of his two uses of danger sense towards the crime boss' shot as well as his one use of Deflect Blasters (the lack of an obvious blaster and the oversized vibrodagger on the Trandoshan's hip suggests a melee threat).
The crime boss' dice pool is 3 proficiency dice, 1 challenge die, and 2 setback dice. Vallin's dice pool is 3 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, 1 boost die, 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty and 1 setback die. The crime boss has two ranks in Adversary, and Valin's Lightsaber check is targeting him, so the talent would apply, plus the crime boss has armored clothing to grant a free rank of defense . Valin decides to bolster his chances by flipping a Destiny Point to upgrade his remaining ability die to a proficiency die.
Results are:
Valin: 1 triumph, 4 successes, 2 failure, 3 advantage, 1 threat (net result = 3 successes, 2 advantage, and a triumph result; i.e. the kid got one hell of a good roll)
Crime Boss: 4 successes, 1 failure, 1 advantage, 3 threat (net result = 3 successes, 2 threat)
Since Valin and the crime boss got the same number of successes, it's a draw. In this case, Valin didn't get hit, but neither did he get to redirect the blaster shot back at the crime boss. The crime boss suffers 2 Strain from the Threat, while Valin uses his 2 Advantage for a free maneuver to engage the crime boss in melee, and that Triumph to narrate that instead of hitting the crime boss, the deflected blaster shot instead pegged the torture rack that Gizmo is on, giving her an upgrade to whatever skill check she wants to make to escape. Which might be good since that Trandoshan's got a nasty sneer as he reaches for his vibroknife...
Example 3: With some help from a badly injured Gizmo, the crime boss and his Trandoshan bodyguard have both been dispatched, though Valin suffered a few cuts from the big lizard's vibroknife during the fight. Now, they need to get to the villa's speeder hanger to steal a ride so they can make a quick escape and rendezvous with Omaha and his YT-1300.
Unfortunately, Valin's Obligation came up prior to the start of the adventure, and the Bounty on his head has caught the attention of a Journeyman Hunter (pg201 of the Beta) who traded out his disruptor rifle for a blaster rifle and has a pair of Street Toughs (pg199) packing blaster pistols.for some added muscle; after all, the Empire pays good credits for Jedi renegades, and the toughs were dim-witted enough to accept only a fraction of the reward on Valin's head.
Valin's Force senses alert him to the danger a few scant second before the bounty hunter opens fire (his Vigilance check beat the hunter's Cool check by a wide margin), so he's got just enough time to draw his lightsaber and activate his danger sense while quickly moving behind some foliage for cover. The bounty hunter spends a maneuver to Aim before squeezing the trigger on his rifle.
The bounty hunter and Valin are at Medium range from one another. Figuring the bounty hunter's the bigger threat than the pair of street toughs, Valin is going to yet again use Deflect Blasters (while wondering why everybody is so keen on shooting at him today) as well as his danger sense to make the hunter's shot that much harder. However, the GM decides to spend a Destiny Point to upgrade one of the hunter's ability dice for this shot.
So the journeyman hunter is rolling 2 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, 1 boost die, 1 challenge die, 1 difficulty die, and 3 setback dice. Valin's rolling his usual 3 proficiency dice, 1 ability die, but 1 challenge die and 1 difficulty die due to the hunter having a rank in Adversary.
Results are:
Valin: 3 successes, 2 advantage, 2 failure, 0 threat (net result = 1 success, 1 advantage)
Hunter: 3 successes, 1 advantage, 1 failure, 3 threat (net result = 2 successes, 2 threat)
Valin's luck runs out, and the hunter clips his shoulder, dealing 10 damage (base 9 for the rifle, +1 for the remaining Success after applying the 1 Success from Valin's check. Given Valin's low Soak Value (he's quick, not brawny, that's gonna leave a mark! Good thing he's got some stimpacks on hand, as he's gonna need them if this keeps up. Gizmo grumbles about this being "some rescue" as she takes aim with the heavy blaster pistol she looted from the deceased crime boss.
So I hope these not-so-little examples show some insight into why Deflect Blasters isn't the end-all and be-all talent that it was initially. While I won't type them out here, I did run each of the above examples using the original version, which for Valin would force 4 difficulty upgrades on his selected adversary. The guards would have been rolling against 4 challenge dice, the crime boss against 3 challenge and 1 difficulty, and the journeyman hunter also against 4 challenge dice. Let's just say the odds greatly favored Valin in each scenario, and out of several test dice rolls, he only took damage once (against the crime boss) while the rest of the time he not only avoided damage, but also got the free attack as the bad guys rolled enough Threat for him to trigger that part of the original Deflect Blasters.
Now, one thing to also consider is that Valin was able to make use of his Sense upgrade as well to boost up his defenses. Granted, things might have gone a bit more in his favor if he had the Strength Upgrade on his Sense power; maybe he'll buy that one with the XP he's earned from this adventure and put that Force Rating talent off for another day...
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