That's another very good angle I haven't thought about yet, Ghostofman. I like that. Are you speaking from experience? And how would you deal with the rest of the group, presumably still "good guys"?

Half experience, half just a love of troubleshooting and brainstorming.

The other players will see this tone change too, but you can go a little more personal if you like.

A thought I had was bounty hunters. If Benny's been enough of a jerk he's probably got a price on his head (you don't need the obligation:bounty for this, the obligation just means it bothers him that he has one). So for an adventure or two have some dirtbag bounty hunters show up. Dirty undisciplined types that have more blasters then brains and are easily defeated by Benny and Co. Then have a team of real pros show up, guys who actually look like military/law enforcement types who clearly know what they are doing. (watch the latest Riddick movie if you need an example, the first group are the dirtbags, the second group are pros).

Now, instead of just charging in guns blazing and going after Benny like the dirtbags, have them lure one of the other players away, so they can sit him down and have a nice civil conversation with him.

"Look... we know you're a good guy. What you're into with Benny? That's not you, you're better then that. Now look... the bounty is on Benny, dead or alive, not on you, you can just walk away from this. Here, I'll even sweeten the pot for ya.. You're in trouble with (insert PC obligation here)... well I just happen to be in good with the guys that handle that... you tell us where Benny is, what kinda backup he's got, and walk away, and I'll put in a good word and lighten that load for ya (-10 Obligation). Oh? If you don't want to cooperate.. no problem... the door's right over there. Just get up and walk out. But this is a one time only thing boyo... you walk through that door and all bets are off. The bounty pays more for Benny alive, but dead will still turn us a nice profit, and if you happen to be in the room when that happens? Well.... that's just an occupational hazard for you isn't it?"

That's one of the nice things about Star Wars, it sticks to archetypes and character types fairly well. The players find that all the guys they are fighting are wearing White hats... they'll figure out that something isn't right... and Benny's black hat might have something to do with it.

Kudos for "boyo". Feels just like a 50s Police Precinct. ^^ Nar Shaddaa Nine Nine. XD

I like that, though. I'm certain the other swill sell him out very fast.

I have to say I feel it's a poor decision to have the character fall to the dark side as a result of learning the nuances of balancing the force through game play. He may end up falling to the dark side, which to me sounds like what you want, but that may not be what he wants. It really would be better to explain it outside of game play, that way he can make an informed choice rather than bumbling into something he did not intend, may not have wanted, and/or has no interest in continuing.

In all honesty: If when you told him his character had fallen to the dark side he decided to quit that character and play another, would you allow it, or would you ask him to play a few more session to see if it "grows" on him? I ask because at this point I get the sense the character isn't so much developing naturally as much as it's being shepherded.

I have to say I feel it's a poor decision to have the character fall to the dark side as a result of learning the nuances of balancing the force through game play. He may end up falling to the dark side, which to me sounds like what you want, but that may not be what he wants. It really would be better to explain it outside of game play, that way he can make an informed choice rather than bumbling into something he did not intend, may not have wanted, and/or has no interest in continuing.

In all honesty: If when you told him his character had fallen to the dark side he decided to quit that character and play another, would you allow it, or would you ask him to play a few more session to see if it "grows" on him? I ask because at this point I get the sense the character isn't so much developing naturally as much as it's being shepherded.

I have some difficulties following your train of thought, so I will simply answer your question: If he wanted to create another character after the old one fell to the Dark side, that would be okay with me. Another Force Sensitive Character? Don't know.

My aim would be to clearly lay out the idea of the Force and warn him about the challenging roleplaying aspects (including upping the difficulty for the entire group as they will be hunted by Dark Jedi). If he wants to take them on, I'd be happy to oblige. And no, I would not try to find a reason every session to railroad him into the Dark Side. I would be just as happy if he could resist the temptation and eventually arrive at the conclusion that the Force and Force powers in Edge of the Empire are a way to unlock a whole new level of roleplay - not ensure easier victories over your enemies.

As far as tempting a PC to the dark side, mechanically there's already one major temptation in place.

At the lower Force Rating levels, there's going to be an awfully big temptation to flip a Destiny Point and suffer some Strain in order to convert those Dark Side pips they just rolled on their Force dice into usable Force Points.

Odds are that Force & Destiny (especially the finished version due in 2015) will go into a lot more detail about incorporating and succumbing to Dark Side temptation into one's game.

Quite frankly, if the player is interested in playing a character that flirts with the Dark Side, talk with them about how they might want to see that reflected in the game. Ghostofman raises some excellent points and suggestions about how a GM might go about tempting a PC with the "quick & easy path" that is the Dark Side. But as also mentioned, don't go for the Paladin Screw-Job and give the Force-user a no-win scenario where the only options they have are "evil" ones. One of the themes presented in Star Wars is choice . Anakin makes the willing choice to become a Sith Lord, and suffers for it. Luke makes the willing choice to refuse Palpatine's offers of power, only fighting back when pushed into a corner, and even then he ultimately refuses to surrender to the dark side. Lando makes the choice to betray his friend Han to the Empire, and winds up losing everything before he does his Heel-Face Turn. After being rescued from Jabba's clutches in RotJ, Han could easily have dropped Leia off and gone his merry way, but he made the choice to stay and finally become part of something bigger and more important than himself.

If the player has zero interest in their PC flirting with the dark side, then don't force it upon them. You could include it as the occasional element in adventures, offering solutions that are "quick and easy but self-serving or vicious" to a given quandary during the adventure's course. But don't hammer the player over the head with such things if they're not interested in exploring that aspect of the character.

I've played a Force-sensitive street rat off and on for several months, and as a trained Force-user (going by HappyDaze's requirement of having at least one Force Power) that's aware of the Jedi Code, if he were presented with a dark side temptation... he probably wouldn't take it; to him, it'd be a betrayal of the code of values that his mentor instilled in him. And if my GM kept trying to force situations to get my character to fall to the dark side even after explaining that's NOT something I'm interested in where the character is concerned, then I'd simply walk away from the game, as by that point it will have long since ceased to be fun.

In short, if you're going to try and tempt a Force-user PC to the dark side, make sure that you've got player buy-in before you make it a constant element of the campaign. Once in a while is one thing, once every encounter is overkill.

I'd include situations where someone does something unpleasant to the PC, maybe pickpockets him as some other posters have suggested. Then, when he catches up, he finds that the person is poor and scrounging for money and food to help his family of a wife and 2 kids living on the streets. What does the PC do? Does he try to take the money back? Does he hurt the guy? Kill him? What if some or all of the money has been spent on food and clothing already?

As another, give him a black and white choice: say, one person approaches the PC/group with a request for some information for a large payment (either credits or some item he's been wanting), but during the course of completing this assignment he finds out that the information is to be used to drive out or kill an honest business competitor, or to take down a legitimate government (the person who supplies the job doesn't like how the government is cracking down on his brand of illegal activity). Or perhaps you're asked to steal something by a criminal group offering a large reward, but when you finally manage to complete the theft, you realize it is medicine being sent to a world currently suffering from a deadly plague--the medicine will surely end the suffering of millions, but all those credits...(not to mention, taking the selfless act means bringing down the wrath of your employer on your head). He could meet two men trying to marry a wealthy merchant--the first loves her, but has been having some troubles because there is a rival suitor who simply appears better than him in every way: he's more romantic, handsomer, has more money, power, prestige...but he just wants to marry the merchant to acquire her business. Maybe the loving suitor even suspects that the other guy will murder her to solidify his hold on her business once they're married. When the PCs approaches the other suitor, he offers the group a stake in the new venture, or even asks for some help dealing with his rival.

On the side of the Force, specifically, if he's using Influence to causes negative emotions, that's one thing.

If he tends to rely on Move, especially, I'd try to put him in situations where he has to make that check--maybe his company is going to fall, or they're all trapped somewhere and the only way to escape is if he Moves something in time. Put time pressure on him to push him toward having to spend those Dark Side pips, because failing to activate the power will have dire consequences. You can even set this up by telling him, "You've only got one shot at this," to indicate the necessity to succeed (make sure that whatever the task is will require him to spend 1 pip/Force rating of his--so if he just has FR 1, and Move, it should be a Silhouette 0 object in close range, while if he has FR 2 and some Move upgrades, it could be a bigger Silhouette in close range, or a 0 at a longer range, or more than one 0 at close range), that way he's guaranteed to be able to succeed if he taps the Dark Side, since that's more likely to come up, but mostly yields single pips. These sorts of scenarios don't have to come up all the time, but they should come up semi-frequently, since, after all, the Force draws people along certain paths, and it would be natural for someone using it to find themselves in stressful situations.

You could also present him with an opponent who sees his potential and tries to turn him to the Dark Side by trying to show him how much easier it is: "You'll never fail!"