Read First: Character Creation Discussion

I like it. I especially like that we've got a pretty mixed bag of folks, covering quite the gamut. It'll be fun to see how this all shakes out.

Since you appear to be reviewing people's characters, I want to update my character a bit with the correct morality bonus (took extra credits instead of XP so I could afford the droid and the armor but i'll need to add some more credits since i was supposed to get 2500 extra instead of just 1000.

Given the flurry of player activity, posting, developing a new Sith history, hammering out new mechanics for Dark Side Morality, setting up the Library, etc, its been a whirlwind the last few days. I'll admit it's been hard to be my usual meticulous self.

If I do miss things, please let me know. That being said, before the narrative begins I will do a thorough check of everyone's characters to make sure they are up to (Sith) code. :)

This group seems pretty solid so far, and I'm guessing that mistakes will be few, if any.

I am sure I can fix that ;-)

ON ENCUMBRANCE AND THE INVENTORY SHEET

I've updated everyone's inventory sheets to show a space for encumbrance. We're going to be fully tracking it as it adds value to the Brawn characteristic, as it should, and it just makes sense. That said, we're not going to worry about food and water. We'll assume that anyone who has a backpack going into an environment where sustenance isn't available will have 1 week's worth of rations (really small self hydrating meals or what not). I don't want to make encumbrance a technical burden, but we'll be using it for the other stuff. Please start tracking it and make the necessary adjustments on your sheets.

Also, moving forward, all aspects of your gear, from head to toe, will be tracked on the forum character sheet threads. This means equipment stats, mods, etc, everything. I've made adjustments to your character sheets to reflect this, showing the proper format to follow and creating spaces for all your inventory needs (please follow the entire format, bold type, italics, as it makes sheets easier to read via cohesion for me).

A NOTE ON MOVING AHEAD

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving (at least for me) and the weekend is approaching as well. However, if we can continue to be active during this setup phase of character creation, etc that's great. I also understand that it isn't our active period after Thursday, so it isn't expected. For those of you who are interested in being more active outside of our usual Monday-Thursday period, I, for one, am really enjoying the discussions and the process, so will be actively participating throughout the weekend.

In the future, posts like these would be placed in the Absences thread, but I simply want to make sure that, with so much focus on this thread, nobody misses it.

Since tomorrow may be a holiday for some of you as well, I don't expect participation. Please post in the Absences thread if you plan on being active tomorrow, allowing the rest of us to gauge participation levels.

Take a look at your ship. Some deck plans and fluff images to give you an idea of what your new home is like.

Let's see if I can workout how to roll this

Guess I have to go again

AN AESTHETIC NOTE ON LIGHTSABERS:

Everyone has a red saber. Perhaps some of you won't like this, but it fits very well with canon, making the imagery of Light vs Dark clear. And, I don't want to head down the road where everyone has a special color to start. I'm not much of a fan of Mace Windu's purple saber, or the menagerie of colors introduced by video games. Rather, if you want to go for something more to your liking, seek out some crystals given the opportunity. I'll allow some more unique aesthetics via your RP, but not as granting them at game start.

It does make the most sense for this stage of the game. Lightsaber colors are created when a force user at tunes a crystal to them self and the force. Since the sith empire doesn't have access to force crystals they synthesize lightsaber crystals which almost always results in a red color.

I'm perfectly fine with her having a red saber. It just feels so much more....Sith. I didn't mind the purple as much. I don't know that I would be seeking out any other crystals for hers (at least not for a color change purpose), not as a standard use. Perhaps acquiring a green or a blue saber if we have to do some infiltrate-y type action.

You're right to an extent. They have access to crystals, as Akrultos is permeated by the dark side, but not caves of them. They have found the occasional rare crystal, but finding them is like finding a very rare diamond. Some of the Sith Lords have actual crystals.

Different crystals can also upgrade your saber.

REGARDING FORCE POWERS

In my campaigns Bind requires a force rating of 3. It's very powerful, perhaps OP, and if you do choose to acquire it later on down the line than we'll discuss it first. Mrvain, I know you wanted this, but it just is a power closer to greater skill in the force. The game designers aren't perfect, and here I think they went light on the requirements.

Battle-Meditation: won't be used. While I have enjoyed some video games a long time ago where it exists, some games and other venues of recreation get really carried away with force powers, going far beyond what Yoda, Palpatine, etc could do. Which brings us to...

Move: The RAW (rules as written) will allow that some of you could eventually pick up star destroyers and throw them. Even when I played video games where that happened, I laughed, as in my opinion, it's just nonsense. The masters you see in the movies don't come anywhere close to that. However, admittedly, we don't see them try. At the same time, we do have a few moments where we seem them exerting themselves to move larger objects (Yoda vs Dooku in Episode 2, Yoda lifting the Luke's ship out of the swamp).

What I'm willing to allow, however, is that with the force, moving massive objects is possible, but takes a supreme degree of mastery, and maybe we just never saw Yoda and similar masters lift starships. Again, I think the game designers make it far too easy for characters that aren't even at Knight level to throw around starships.

So, a home brew rule. To make it possible, but very challenging, requiring one to be strong in the force.

In FFG it is far too easy to be able to throw around freighters and such with just a few strength upgrades. I've been tinkering with the idea of a homebrew rule to align force move with something more like what is seen in the movies.

The strength upgrades are still purchased as normal, but the number of ranks you have only determines the maximum silhouette size of what can be moved (so, two ranks in strength allows for moving size two objects). When moving objects however, more force points are required depending on the size of object being moved.

Size 1 costs 1 additional point.
Size 2 costs 3 (size 1 + size 2).
Size 3 costs 6 (s1 + s2 + s3).
Size 4 costs 10 (s1 + s2 + s3 + s4).

see Library

Anyway, to me it creates a more believable SW galaxy to enjoy. It would require six force dice to have a chance of lifting a light freighter (1 for base power + 10 for size), whereas it would require a master to reliably throw around size 2 speeders, or senate boxes like Palpatine in Episode III.

Beyond that Move works as described. In sum, lifting a freighter should be hard. The power it allows is monumental. After lifting it, you could simply throw it at your foe, dashing them to pieces, which would be an extraordinary feat.

The only "special" stuff I want for Hawke's saber is fluff for the handle. More specifically, I'm thinking that the outer shell was made from one of his parent's femurs...I like the mental image of bone lightsabers and it fits in with Hawke's madness.

I'm perfectly fine with those adjustments. Lexi's focus in Move is less for the whole ability to through star destroyers at people (as awesome as that could be as a player) and more for minute control and small movement in combat (manipulating ship's controls in flight, throwing small crates and toolboxes around, etc).

As you craft your own sabers, I'm fine with this as it is only aesthetic. And it is a really nice touch for your character!

Sure. But as the force is a concept associated with the mind and your ability to tap into the currents of the force, which do fluctuate, I wanted to make it possible, while being a level of accomplishment you really had to work towards.

Battle Meditation, in my opinion, is just silly. Plain silly.

Regarding Lexi, she can't manipulate ship precise/fine controls yet. That would require that bottom rank in the tree, allowing manipulation as if it was your hands doing the work. I'd allow that you could pull some levers, though.