Read First: Character Creation Discussion

I understood fully. I was initially inclined to say that your gear from character generation was what you had before the Conquest was announced, and that you couldn't unbuy it, etc, as it would add a little more realism to the game. I considered letting you pawn it at half price as well. Then I just decided it's not worth it, especially as your idea could be the precedent for many like it.

Besides, you may need all the help you can get.

My apologizes. I misunderstood by misunderstanding your understanding.
Like binoculars that can see through walls, right?

That's always a comforting statement, coming from your GM.

My requisitions:
In-Helmet Scanner
Rarity 4
Price 750
Hard Points Required 1
Adds a general purpose scanner to the user's helmet. The scanner allows the user to remove 1 setback die imposed on any checks due to darkness or environmental conditions such as smoke or fog. It also allows the user to detect heat sources and motion within medium range.

Helmet Comlink
Rarity 1
Price 200
A long-range comlink is integrated into the helmet.

That leaves all of my 600 illegal funds left as well as 350 of the legal funds, all of it added to group purchases. I couldn't find anything Restricted that struck me as something that Hawke would get within his price range.

That reminds me, I'll contribute my $166 of illegal cash to the group pool, as well. If everyone does so we might be able to buy something useful or two.

Edit: If we can reach $2000, we can buy an AX-108 "Ground Buzzer" Surface-Defense Blaster Cannon attachment for our ship, with GM permission. Or if we somehow manage to reach $2800, we can get that Aratech 57-D Speeder Bike we sacrificed for the ECUL.

AX-108 "Ground Buzzer" Surface-Defense Blaster Cannon (Fly Casual)
Rarity: 5
Price: 2,000
Hard Points Required: 1
Base Modifications:
Adds one AX-108 Surface Defense Blaster Cannon weapon
Can fire automatically with a Ranged (Heavy) skill of 2 and an Agility of 0
Optional Modifications:
2 Increase the weapon's automated Ranged (Heavy) skill by one Mods

In addition to my initial items, I will distribute my 800 legal / 850 illegal as follows:

SKZ Sporting Blaster Rifle (600 cr)
Group speeder purchase (834 cr)
2x Extra Reload (50 cr)
Personal Transponder (100 cr)

Donate 66 cr. to the ship's coffers.

Since we went with the single speeder option, that leaves me with a little bit extra. 1141 total remaining credits. Can't think of anything else I might want to get for the moment at least. Most of the stuff I want to get is for improving the droid's security fuctions (make him a better shot, improved weapons, etc) and that is fairly expensive for now. If it matters, I still have the 350 restricted credits in there.

Unrestricted: 791
Restricted: 350

So far, we have $1391 ($791 + $600) in unrestricted group cash, and $932 ($350 + $66 + $350 + $166) in restricted group cash, or $2323 in total group cash. If the remaining two (if my counting is correct) players have at least $477 between them, we can pick up the speederbike in addition to the ECUL. If not, we can get the ground-defence blaster cannon, or any other purchase the group feels is worth it. Or we can always just save the money, too.

A key aspect of the description of that scanner is "Depending on the specific model..." I'll grant the standard version of heat source detection. However, if you want to add motion detection capabilities, which are worth much, much more than the book's suggested price, it will bring the cost of the In-Helmet-Scanner to 1250 credits. It's a really nice piece of tech, and the price should reflect it.
The Helmet Comlink is fine.

I don't see any issue with the AX-108.

Just heat sensing is fine with me. I'll keep the holo-communicator in his inventory on the off chance it becomes necessary.

Just to be clear, heat sensing won't work through solid objects (like the infranoculars do). It will be useful for conditions with reduced or zero visibility.

DARK SIDE MORALITY TRAITS

Given the nature of the traditional Morality mechanic in F&D, some of it's not going to work for the Dark Side. We'll still be using conflict, and the table I'm developing for Dark Side conflict will be part of that (e.g., Merciful acts will earn you conflict as Sith, risking your life to help others will do so as well, etc.). However, given the dichotomy of the Morality choices in conjunction with Sith cultural values, selecting a traditional Morality pairing isn't going to work or make sense (e.g., Bravery/Anger, Pride Arrogance). The Sith would be fine with someone who is Brave and quick to Anger, or Proud and Arrogant. There are some weaknesses here, but not enough to really add the same feel as the intended Morality rules did.


What we'll do instead is this:

Dark Siders are driven by emotion, it helps fuel them for better or worse. As such, their emotional strengths will also be their emotional weaknesses. Each of you should choose one Morality trait from the following list that most defines what draws your character to the Dark Side of the force. Are they quick to Anger? Reckless? Full of Hate? Cruel? Your choice, pick one. I may occasionally reduce conflict accrued, or reward a very small amount of extra experience for those of you who roleplay their character well.

Dark Side Emotional Strengths and Weaknesses
Pick the one that most defines your character.


Anger

Arrogance

Coldness

Cruelty

Fear

Greed

Hatred

Jealousy

Obsession

Recklessness

Lexi is going to take Hatred. Given the amount of time she spent with the Eyes, and in general with the Grand Cathedral, the central teaching of the Divine that the Jedi are despised cretins has suffused her very being. She holds her hatred in front of her like a torch, guiding her choices.

Illuminating, to say the least. Definitely looking forward to kicking things off with this group. It will be a very different kind of game, your characters doing things that are way outside the norm for your typical Star Wars group. Fueled by emotion, rather than 'the dogmatic view of the Jedi', it will be interesting to see what you all do with the freedom.

Have a couple of questions as I’m deciding about my list of purchases. Also I’m fine with donating toward the vehicle. So, first question, when it comes to rare force objects, would anything be heirlooms that are passed down? Secondly if not, would there be any discounts in purchasing or acquiring some force objects, like a demon mask or meditation focus. Last, since we are part of the Sith military, would there be any discounts toward armored robes. Sorry for asking for all of the things outside of my price range, but I was just thinking about what sort of force like things might be at my disposal that would give any sith warrior an advantage over his enemies.
Armored Robes
Defense:1
Soak:2
Hard points: 2
Cost : (R) 4,500
Rarity: 8
Enc: 5
MEDITATION FOCUS
Many of the Force and religious traditions throughout the galaxy develop some form of meditation focus, whether it be the prayer beads of the Solaran FHer- metic Order, the Cosmic Wheel of the Voss Mystics, or Dagoyan incense. Although varied in form, these foci are allied in function, and aiding the user in finding inner peace and enlightenment.
A Force-sensitive character who has a meditation focus increases his strain threshold by 2 while he is a light side paragon.
Price (R) 4,000
Encu. 1
Rarity 10
(of Course a dark side version of this)
DEMON MASK
Every species and culture has scary stories of monsters with supernatural powers. While the stories are—usually—only stories, disciples of the dark side throughout history have found value in adopting the imagery of the mythical demons to spread fear in their enemies and fearlessness among their followers. FHaving been worn by these adepts for generations, some demon masks have become imbued with the dark side of the Force, and grant their wearers certain powers
A Force-sensitive character wearing a demon mask increases his wound threshold by 2 while he is a dark side Force user. Furthermore, characters making Discipline checks to resist fear caused by a character wearing a demon mask add ■ equal to that character’s Force rating.
Price (R) 4,000
Encu. 1
Rarity 10
-This is the most preferred item I’m seeking, perhaps an item passed down the family line or even a gift given to Krosus. Barring that, hopefully something that can be purchased for a cheaper price.

Interesting ideas, but no free heirlooms. If you can afford them, that's fine. But it would have to come from your resource pool, which is intended to be everything your character could access in prep for conquest, whether from family, friends, illegal contacts, etc. The 'credits' you gained from the gathering check was simply representative of all your assets combined. No discounts.
Again, no discounts. While I can appreciate your logic here, the reason I granted you all a massive multi-skill check to gather resources using everything at your disposal was to simplify the whole process, allowing you to decide what was valuable to you and go from there. Initially I had considered granting you gear, but I figured you guys would like some control over that, and it also seemed like a realistic path toward prep for conquest. It only makes sense that with the support of the local populace boosted, and launch day on the horizon, all of you would make efforts to prepare to the fullest.

You guys are like the first expeditions crossing the oceans here. Not being ready for your expedition would be very, very, bad business indeed.

Please ignore the above post for some reason it was not posting everything.
Secondary options for Krosus would be to upgrade the critical rating and weapon damage of his light saber. This would cost about 300 credits. In addition I would like to purchase some poisons that might come of use to the party.
SYNTHETIC NEUROPARALYTIC
Poisons that paralyze a target but leave higher cognitive functions intact (and do not kill the target) are difficult to create and administer. Certain types do exist, however, and are popular among Rebels tasked with infiltration and targeted kidnapping of Imperial officials. This poison may only be introduced into a target via injection, as with an applicator or dart. Any dose size has a Hard difficulty. The poison immobilizes the target for three rounds if the target fails the check. In addition, each generated inflicts 1 strain on the target, and the GM can spend ^ to make the target test against the poison again during the next round, as the poison remains in his system.
Price: (5) dose (R)75
Encu. 0
Rarity: 6
Total cost: 375
SYNTHETIC ANESTHETIC
This is a general anesthetic produced on many worlds for medical procedures and designed to render the user unconscious. This poison may be introduced into a target’s body via aerosol deployment, food ingestion, or injection via an applicator or dart. A single dose has an Average difficulty, while two or more doses combined into a single application have a Hard (♦♦♦) difficulty. The poison inflicts 5 strain if the target fails the check. If the check generates one to two, the target must also give up his free maneuver during his next turn [he may still take two maneuvers, however); if it generates or more, he’s staggered during his next turn. Finally, the GM can spend to make the target test against the poison again during the next round, as the poison remains in his system.
Price: (5) dose 35
Encu. 0
Rarity: 4
Total cost: 175

I haven't noticed a lightsaber creation roll as instructed in the character creation discussion. See the rules in the Library to construct your lightsaber. Everything you need to know is in there. Your first mod is free. Ilum crystal is your attachment for your hilt (yes, crystals are considered attachments; hence they can be modded). During construction, roll in this thread (to see if you get a Triumph, not for succeed/fail, as you can have as many rolls as need to represent your efforts during training).

After your free mod, then your mods will cost credits and be increasingly difficult to attempt (each attempt costing money). A failed mod attempt means that you cannot try to make that mod again (see Lightsaber construction rules). Rather than roll for the attempts to mod your saber yourself, after initial construction, you may pay 5 times as much to pay some other force using expert tinkerer to mod yours for you, guaranteeing success. Not Hawke. Important to note is that failed attempts have to be noted on your weapon's stats, marking, for example, that your first attempt out of 2 possible damage upgrades failed. Meaning that if you fail one, it's lost forever, but you can still try another. This is why Oggdude;s very carefully has a system for tracking failed mod attempts.
Interesting ideas. I'm fine with your druggery.

PARRY AND REFLECT IN COMBAT: SIMPLIFIED FOR A PLAY BY POST ENVIRONMENT

As a means of making PbP combat move more smoothly, regarding Parry and Reflect...

In a typical table top game, when hit in combat, but prior to damage soak, you would interject and use Parry or Reflect as an out of turn incidental. However, in PbP, this will, given the nature of the group being full of Parry and Reflect, lead to potentially doubling how long combat takes to resolve (and PbP is already notorious fro taking a bit of time in combat).

So, let's do this: we make Parry and Reflect automatic responses for all of your characters. Simply put, if you have enough strain left to Parry or Reflect, you do, to avoid damage. I take care of it for you, moving things along. This makes sense from a mechanical point of view because you can recover strain from rolling advantage, and its generally easier to recover beyond that. Wounds, however, are more difficult to recover from.

However, given the above, I'll be sensible about it. If your soak would catch all the damage, I'll do what any sensible player would do, and choose not to have your character use Parry or Reflect.

I know it takes a little control out of your hands, but it would be a very rare case when someone took damage before choosing to use Parry or Reflect anyway. I am willing to allow you to create a simple 1-2 line command program as well. For example:

(1)If wounds threshold is at 7/14 and strain threshold is at 6/12, only use Parry or Reflect if the attack will cause unconsciousness.
(2)Always use Parry or Reflect when it has the ability to stop a critical hit from doing damage (which prevents the critical hit entirely).

This simple program would be listed directly below your Reflect/Parry ratings on your sheet. One program for both talents, to keep things relatively simple.

Also, you could, during your turn in combat, put a new custom program line in that will override your default setting on your character sheet, until you inform me otherwise that it will return to default (another IF/THEN for your Parry Reflect that you customize for the situation at hand). In fact, this will be probably be a big part of the solution for those of you who want to be that specific as a means of avoiding death. Which I can completely appreciate. It's what I would do, given the option.

I don't want you to create some complex web of programming script for me to follow, but I do want to give you control.

Regardless, my aim is to remove the back and forth of "you're hit for 'x' damage" followed by "I use Reflect". This will double the posts required for most attacks, as I wait for player response. This will make combat extraordinarily cumbersome. We're going to avoid this.

So, the plan is a default program on your character sheet, and the ability to set a new program as desired that stays until you say otherwise. If you choose not to set a program on your sheet, I'll simply assume Parry/Reflect whenever possible.

Any thoughts?

Sounds perfectly good to me. The conditionals get rid of the main argument I'd otherwise have against this (wasting all of my Strain when my life isn't really threatened).

Also, Sense's first Control Upgrade (which I've purchased, I'm on my phone, so I'll post a description later if one's needed) let's me upgrade the difficulty of one attack against me per round. This has a similar "Declare attack, declare defence, resolve attack" back-and-forth, complicated by the fact that I can only use it once per round (so in a fight against multiple opponents, it can't be assumed I'd use it the first time I'm attacked). I'm open to ideas to make this ability flow faster, as well.