Character Creation Coaching

Any and all questions for character generation should go here. I'm going to use this space to explain both the rules and the rules for bending the rules. Feng Shui has a strong bend towards going with whatever's cool, whatever's fun and being willing to bend the rules to make players and GMs happy. This can apply in character generation. Since we're adapting this system to Star Wars there's already going to be some adaptation. I'm going to demonstrate how and why things could be changed.

Later on, in this same thread I'll be explaining how you double up on Sorcery schticks to make characters more specialized when it comes to powers. These are optional rules so if any of you feel like running your own Feng Shui games just remember that the system encourages house rules and customization. Unlike a lot of other systems it's very, very hard to break this one unless you set out to do it on purpose.

I'll use the creation of my characters as examples. Most of you won't need to adapt much but if you have very weird or specific characters something like this can help you really nail a concept to stats conversion.

We'll start with Ian Maxwell. For his archetype, I've chosen Magic Cop.

Bod 5
Chi =2 (Mag =8)
Mnd 5
Ref 5

Add 6 to primary attributes, spending no more than 3
points on any one attribute.

Skills: Guns +7 (=12)
Info/Occult +7 (12)*
Police +3 (8)*
Sorcery +5 (=13)

* For crusading priests, replace with Info/[Your
Specific Religion] +6 (11)

Add 8 Skill Bonuses. Swap Guns and Sorcery if desired.

Schticks: 2 gun schticks

Sorcery Abilities: Summoning, plus your
choice of Divination, Fertility, or Heal

Seems pretty straight forward at first. Attributes will look like this then.

Bod 6
Chi =2 (Mag =8)
Mnd 7
Ref 8

A = on a stat or skill means that it is -stuck- at that level. It cannot be improved, lowered or changed.

Skills:
Martial Arts +7 (=12) I want a character who is melee focused so Guns is swapped out for Martial Arts. They are both combat skills and neither one has a clear edge over the other so why not? Again, the = means that this value cannot be changed. Even though 3 points were added into Reflex in character generation the value of the skill does not change during character generation. It can only be done with XP later on.
Info/Hutt Space +7 (14)* Ian is from Hutt Space and is not a very good student. Thematically it makes more sense for him to know more about the Hutts and the people who live under them than for him to be a strong academic.
Computers +3 (10)* Swapping out Police for Computers makes sense. Unfortunately personal computers were not really a huge thing during the 70's and barely in the 80's so no skill was ever made for Feng Shui. Police is a information gathering skill that helps gather clues. Trading it out for another skill that does something similar, albeit through different methods is fine.
Sorcery +5 (=13) Again the almighty = prevents any changes.
Intrusion +4 (12)
Fix-It +1 (8)
Sabotage +1 (8)
Deceit +1 (8)
Leadership +1 (8)

So what we end up with is a very varied character that sacrifices specialization for being able to have some bonuses at a bunch of different things with skills.

Schticks: Signature Weapon: Lightsaber, Eagle Eye

Sorcery Abilities: Movement, Blast (Force, Thrown Objects, Telekinetic Grip)

Again, these shticks fit the specific theme better for Ian. In general abilities that cost the same XP are tradeable. That should give everyone a pretty good idea of how to customize the archetypes. As I said before, this system is pretty difficult to break. Damage is capped based on stats which are fairly controlled. And I'm sure you all noticed how the combat skills on all archetypes are capped at chargen.

Is this based on the rules as written? My understanding is if I increase Ref, then any Ref based skills go up in the character creation step.

edit: just realized that it was because of the = sign, but my character doesn't have that, so his skills can go up right?

are lightsabers considered a gun skill or a martial arts skill?

Lightsabers are considered Martial Arts but if your archetype has Guns you can swap to Martial Arts, they are both combat skills and are swappable. If you want both then you can use skill points to add in. You are correct that if there's no = or Max number then raising a attribute raises the skill.