OOC Chat Thread

Hey everybody, happy to have you!

Here's the OOC chat thread. This thread can be used for any communications that need to occur out of character. No OOC formatting necessary here (please do use the formatting in IC threads).

Whether that's rules discussions, "table banter" that is not immediately relevant to the in character narrative (please do put immediately relevant ooc talk in OOC formatted text in the in character thread), absence notifications would be appreciated here, and other non-game and off topic chats.

If there is a more specific OOC thread for a specific need (like character creation) please use that thread for that type of talk.

Have at it!

Is it required that we use oggdudes or can we use either RPGSessions or the local character sheets on this site? I don’t ask to be difficult but I’m hardly on my computer and usually play by mobile which doesn’t have oggdudes available.

Edit: If it is a requirement I will do my best to get it up and running.

Great questions!

I do want everyone to use the on-site character sheets.

I just provided those links for ppl to use if they need them.

I too primarily (actually, exclusively) do this on my mobile.

And so if you guys use the on-site character sheets it makes it easiest for me to reference.

👍🏾

Rean411 - so your character is Cerean? As it was not obvious for me from your description? But I found this info in character creation thread.

In parallel with the IC story thread, I wanted to strike up a conversation about the Morality system in F&D.

First and foremost, I want to say that you guys generally do not have to be afraid of using dark pips when they come up, in the game.

The strong mechanical tendency/odds are that you guys will rise toward the Lightside, so long as you're not doing lots of "Darkside things" (see: the Conflict Table).

At the end of every Session, you roll a d10, and that is how much you're Morality goes up, minus the Conflict you've earned during a Session.

What they means is that on average you will gain 5.5 Morality every Session. Which means, of you want to use the Force, you have 5 - 6 dark pips you may use every Session, without even having to worry about edging even a little toward the Darkside.

Actions that earn you Conflict can of course shrink that "pool" or "allowance" quickly.

BUT the Rules As Written state that I must warn your when you say you're going to do something that earns Conflict, AND that I must give you the opportunity to not do the thing you said you were gonna do.

And I play by those rules.

The Morality mechanics are not meant to be a "Gotchya!"-mechanic. It's not meant to be a trap. It's meant to be simply a Tool that you may use to help tell the story of your character. Whether you are Dark or Light will remain basically completely within your control.

You will always have a choice whether or not to use dark pups, and you will always have a choice whether or not to take Conflict-earning actions.

What that tends to play out like tho, is just that the Darkside will often be "The Easy Way". And so choosing not to do "Darkside things" every once in a while will always just mean you're choosing to do things "The Hard Way".

That's how Morality is meant to work in this system.

It's meant to make things harder for your character. Exactly the same way that Obligation and Duty are designed to make your character lives harder, in the other two "core settings" of the game. Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion.

Make sense?

So that's how you should look at it. Cost-benefit. You "pay" for things to be a little easier in a moment, by taking Conflict.

Example: say an enemy surrenders to you. The easy thing to do, so that they would never trouble you again, is to just kill them after they surrender right? But if they've surrendered to you, that's Murder, no matter what they've done before that time, and so killing them would earn you 10 Conflict. If you don't kill them, well maybe they become a prisoner which is a headache, maybe you turn them over to "The Authorities" whom they could escape? So on... That's the Lightside thing to do, but it could cause you trouble to do that.

Make sense?

:thumbs up:

Very good explanation! Thanks!
But how do you see thematic-wise using of "dark pips"? Isn't dark side... and pips... well... dark? What if my character don't want to have anything to do with the dark side? Or at least he tries to?

Good question. This gets into touchy territory, as you start getting into, like, the philosophy of the Force. And so interpretation of canon (or Legends) Star Wars portrayals and descriptions, and everyone tends to have their own preferred views on the philosophy of the Force.

So I'll just describe how I reconcile it.

I personally subscribe to a "unified" notion of the Force. Which means, there is no such thing as "The Darkside" of the Force. Nor even a Light Side. There is only The Force. And it's the user and their relationship to the Force that is "Dark" or "Light" - or variable.

This view also hinges on the notion of "The Will of the Force", which is a notion that the Force is kind of this non-anthropomorphized, but yet "omniscient", fate/destiny-like ... well, force... or even an inevitability... that actively pushes the development of the universe toward one end, for some unknowable reason, or another, or possibly for no reason at all. Maybe it's just a poetic description for entropy and the range of physical forces that shape the galaxy. Who knows? That part is less important.

But so, I personally view the use of dark pips as allowing emotions to seep into your Character's "handling" of the Force, which means essentially that the user is resisting the Will of the Force. Their trying to shape the Force with their desires, their emotions.

Whereas I think a Jedi would tell you that peace should guide your use of the Force - that a Jedi surrenders to the Will of the Force, they are at peace with whatever happens at that's the Will of the Fierce, and so a Jedi tries to not allow their own will or their own desires to guide how the Force manifests.

And so, what we arrive at is that the Darkside, as described in the lore, is essentially emotion. And so using dark pips is really just the very human(oid) action of having emotions and being unable to separate your emotions in the moment, from how you use the Force.

And so you're only truly Darkside when that use of emotions to shape the Force is what dominates or defines your relationship to the Force.

Which is represented in the game by a character dropping below 30 Morality at which point they cease taking Strain to use dark pips, and instead are strainers by white pips/surrendering to the Will of the Force.

So, imo, a character never ever accesses some evil, dark entity or manifestation of the Force. That doesn't exist. All they're doing is experiencing emotions, and failing to fully surrender to the Will of the Force. And it's only when they're relationship to the Force is dominated by a desire or need to control the Will of the Force that the user is truly Darkside.

So, if you can accept that your character sometimes has emotions, and that sometimes they're just unable to fully separate them from the way in which they use the Force, then you should be able to sometimes allow your character to use dark pips.

Thanks a lot for providing your view. I - of course - respect it completely. But personally I don't "buy" the idea that Darth Vader and Palpatine were... just emotional guys ;) I know that I'm simplify your statements a LOT right now. And I'm not claiming that I know completely what you mean. Just wanted to state that for me there is something like fundamental evil and you can do good things or bad things and you usually feel when they are bad. Emotions are also bad or good, and you should at last try to control the bad ones. But the emotions are not the most important. But I know that this is very popular idea in our "modern" world today... that they are the most important. For me: it's your free will. But I don't see "bad" things about unconditional love(emotion), that doesn't expect anything in exchange. That's how - or similar to it - always was thinking about what Force could be/work in fictional world of Star Wars, that of course is the product of people leaving in our "reality":) And I think my character have similar believes about the nature of Force. Light Side is "an entity". And the dark one is the lack of light, corrupted and twisted for the benefits of bad entities. And turning to dark force is almost always an easier way(at the beginning), tempting, but leading to your ultimate "demise" of your true being.
It would be easier to presume the black pips are just the raw "force of nature" that you can/should use sometimes, but ultimately control. But as they are "black"/"dark" I think there is always this aspect of something bad in them. So my character will use them only as last resort. I think.
But you are right it is more a philosophical subject then... gamey one:) As I feel I already didn't give the "Justice" to this subject and this discussion is probably for some other time:)

Yea, that's not what I said.

I would encourage you to read the Jedi Code and the Sith Creed.

But I agree, it's probably not a conversation that we should have now.

Yes. I know it's not what you said:) Just wanted to show some extreme that this direction(not yours) of reasoning could lead someone. So I'm glad you didn't took my words as offense or try to imply something. They were not that:)
Maybe when we get to know each other better someday we will get back to the discussion on this simple matters: like purpose of life and nature of reality:)
Thanks for your insight in the subject!

Any suggestions on how I should go about using the in-site character sheet for my talent tree? Other than writing it all up as notes I’m not sure where it goes.

Well, there's a Talent section of the character sheet. And I just put the "title" of the Talent in the main text box, and then you can add the description of the Talent in the notes section if you want. And just list them out in the order you buy them? Doesn't have to be fancy, just needs to hold information.

Hey gang, I'm gonna be traveling this week for the holiday.

Probably won't be getting any posting in.

Have a happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!

Thx to getting us know. Have a great time!

You have a happy Thanksgiving as well! :D

Thanksgiving, unexpected workload, now I have (since last Thursday) a kid with the Flu.

Sorry gang, having trouble finding the brain space to post at the moment.

Bear with me please!

Don't worry. I will be here. Waiting. :) Family is most important! But looking for the next events when you will be available.

I wanted to take this out of the IC story thread to elaborate Vespin.

So, what I am referencing, with the collapsing wall, is the way the basic dice mechanics work.

You said you've played Genesys, right?

It's the same here.

If the Enemy rolls Threats or Despair, the Players may "spend" those Narrative Symbols to complicate whatever it was the Enemy was doing.

So, spending 3 Threats to collapse a wall would not represent one of you guys using the Force to collapse the wall.

It would represent the Enemy messing up in some way, or even just a coincidence/having very bad luck. In the case of the collapsing wall: they generated the Threat while trying to Stealth, right? So if the Threat were spent to collapse the wall on their Stealth check, that could manifest in the narrative by, for example, one of their number stumbling and placing their hand on some loose corner-stone in the nearby wall - dislodging the some, and collapsing the wall. Or it could manifest as a tremor just happening to strike the area in that moment and causing the collapse.

The dice can and does generate/drive the narrative in this system, just as surely as the players.