My PCs (2 of them, including a Gand) have taken the Force Sensitive talent tree. This is causing me some difficulties, and I'm turning to the community to figure it out.

How does one uses the Force? I mean, mechanically.

Say the PC has a Force Rating of 1.

I know the Force dice will be used (one per Force Rating), but I'm at odds to figure when and how to use it. I will need to understand before sending Dark Side Adepts hunting for them!

What powers do they have? Or do they yet? In which case the answer is easy, they don't do anything......

They can't do anything with that Force die unless they buy a Force Power or invest in a Talent on the FS Spec tree that involves using a Force die.

I mean you can always narratively give them visions if you want but they never needed to have a FR for you to do that.

Actually, whatever the powers, I really need to figure out how that mechanic works

One has Basic Move, the other Basic Sense (or something similar, I don't have my Core rule book at the moment)

Edit: yes, I understand, they have to have at least one of the basic talents; they've invested a couple of xps into their trees.

Thanks, but how does the mechanic works:

"The 2 Stormtroopers are standing guard at the prison door"

PC: "I use the force to move some rocks on the other side of the valley in order to distract them"

What do I do then? roll your force rating and you can use the force dots?

Yes you have him roll his rating in force die, then he can spend the dots as he wishes. His action is basically to concentrate enough to use the force, like when Kenobi steps out from behind a rock and holds out his hand to focus on smashing a droid before maneuvering back behind the rock. Note that should he keep using dark dots, you should have the dark side rear its ugly head.

Iif he only has the basic force move then he's pretty much spending his action hovering the rocks over, assuming they are silhouette 0. He would need at least 2 dots, one for the base action and the other for Range, to disrupt something far away from him.

So he'd need to roll those dice every time he wants to use a force power? Or once per Round?

Yes you have him roll his rating in force die, then he can spend the dots as he wishes. His action is basically to concentrate enough to use the force, like when Kenobi steps out from behind a rock and holds out his hand to focus on smashing a droid before maneuvering back behind the rock. Note that should he keep using dark dots, you should have the dark side rear its ugly head.

Iif he only has the basic force move then he's pretty much spending his action hovering the rocks over, assuming they are silhouette 0. He would need at least 2 dots, one for the base action and the other for Range, to disrupt something far away from him.

Thanks!

So he'd need to roll those dice every time he wants to use a force power? Or once per Round?

A Force power is an Action so he can only use one per round regardless. You have to generate enough Force points to accomplish whatever it is you are attempting to do per the applicable power and if there aren't enough points it just doesn't happen. Like Luke couldn't get his X-wing outta the swamp.

Quick note, dude. You can only use the white dots for powers normally. If you want to use black dots, you have to suffer a point of strain and flip a destiny point.

Just to add one thing:

You have Active and Ongoing effects of the force powers.

The active effects work, as stated by other, by rolling the Force rating in force dice. One action, one roll, one effect of the force power.

The ongoing effects work by dedicating a part of your force die pool to the power.
So if you Force Senses guy choose to use his ongoing effect defense, he dedicates a force die to it. Having only force rating 1, his pool is now zero, making him unable to use other force powers until he chooses to end the ongoing effect (as an incidental).

Here's the long and short of it.

With a FR 1, you can't do much. Mechanically, the best thing to do with Force Rating 1 is to buy Sense and the first upgrade to Sense that allows you to Upgrade the first shot against you in a round. The reason is that Ongoing Effects just happen when you dedicate your force rating to them. You don't need to get lucky.

If you look at the force die the number of white pips is the same as the number of black pips. They are not distributed evenly, however. 7 of the 12 faces show dark side while only 5 show light side. 3 of the 5 light side faces have 2 white pips while only one dark side face has 2 black pips.

Probability favors rolling at least one dark side point on your lone die.

To toss an opponent with the Move power requires several things. The most important is a lot of XP spent on Move. To throw a human sized opponent requires at least one strength upgrade (so you can affect a Silhouette 1 object), the Control upgrade that lets you attack (you need to be able to move them fast enough to do damage – without this upgrade the best a character can manage is to float someone gently through the air), and at least two white pips on the force die (one to activate the base power and one to upgrade the strength to man-sized object).

On a single Force die that means a PC who spends his action to use Move has only a 25% chance to successfully activate the power. If he does then he needs to make an attack roll using his Discipline skill (which means you can still miss). All in all not something an intelligent PC wants to attempt. There is a reason Luke uses a blaster in the first movie. It takes a while to get good enough to use the force as a weapon.

This is all about Yoda's comment that the dark side is "quicker, easier, not more powerful."

Everything changes as a force user gets more Force Rating. By three force points it's probable that a PC can get enough light side points to toss a foe. More Strength upgrades allow larger objects to be hurled about. A Force Rating of 2 and the right Sense upgrades make the force user upgrade the first 2 attacks twice each round, and allow him to upgrade his attack twice. Not too shabby.

Force users ramp up well as they increase in experience, but it is a bit of an investment early in a campaign. You will spend a lot of XP and not see much for your expenditure.

Getting back to Force Move, as I understand it...

With one white pip and two control upgrades, a PC can disarm an enemy and send their weapon behind the PC (still within short range of the PC, but not necessarily short range of the enemy). Now, there are some limitations to this tactic (XP cost, failure to get a white pip still costing an action, having to be within close range), but it still seems awfully powerful. If I understand it right, the ability to pull objects from an opponent's grasp or from secure mountings means the PC can tear apart blaster turrets, disarm lightsaber-wielding opponents, or rip the head off an NPC droid. It can't be that powerful, though, can it?

Also, it's my understanding that the range upgrades only affect how far a PC can move an object from the starting point. I thought that you could only lift objects within short range, but can then fling them as far as the number of range upgrades you have available. The wording on that's just vague enough that I could see range upgrades affecting the starting point as well as the ending.

Summary:

Using any Force power (including activating ongoing Force powers) is an action, unless otherwise specified.

Your dice pool is usually made up of your Discipline skill/Willpower characteristic and Force Dice equal to your Force Rating.

Using the Move power is a ranged attack, so you must succeed at the skill check in addition to generating enough Force Dice to activate the power in order to hit with it.

Influence is an opposed Discipline check, so use your opponent's Discipline skill to set the difficulty dice.

My player levitates enemies and then lets them go. We use the falling damage rules. It's pretty powerful. From Short range, a person falling takes 10 wounds and 10 strain, and the strain cannot be soaked. It's almost instant knockout. And you don't need to purchase the Control upgrade to hurl an object.

I'm toying with the idea of forcing a Discipline roll whenever using Move with the goal of injuring people, but for a human-sized target, that's still only a difficulty 1 task.

If he's picking them up and dropping them, they should be getting an Average Athletics or Coordination check to reduce the damage and strain as per EotE page 215.

Good point. Still, that won't do much when he buys the next range band and drops them from Medium height. Pretty much takes out any Nemesis I have. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to deal with this.

Have you been flirting with this character's fall to the dark side? Because it seems to me like that's a pretty awful thing to do to people. Good guys just don't do such a terrible thing, IMHO.

Don't forget about long range which is an instant kill plus 30 strain. Hard to make a check to reduce damage when the damage isn't expressed by a number. They gotta hope for Triumphs to reduce the range band.

Good point. Still, that won't do much when he buys the next range band and drops them from Medium height. Pretty much takes out any Nemesis I have. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to deal with this.

Rocket pack or an anti-grav chute, maybe?

Rocket boots, hovering mechanisms, etc.

Ha, I give all my villains rocket boots and it's obvious that an escalation is happening. I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face. And if I passive-aggressively let him tear through all competition until there's no drama, then he feels guilty, like he's done something wrong, and eventually starts disrespecting the rules. It finally ends with him facing off against a Sith lord, and they alternate rounds Force dropping each other until one passes out. Thrilling.

Yep, I agree with ccarlson101's post and seek a narrative solution instead of a mechanical solution to the problem. Using the force to move a person into the air is certainly not subtle and is likely to get the PC noticed by all the wrong people. Also, start tacking on Obligation. You won't have to worry about him purchasing the next range band for his Move ability when no one in the party can spend XP.

Just don't fight outdoors. Can't lift someone high if you're stuck in a cramped starship or Imperial base.

Also, start tacking on Obligation. You won't have to worry about him purchasing the next range band for his Move ability when no one in the party can spend XP.

This is wrong. Obligation is not intended to be used like that:

However, unless the characters frequently ignore opportunities to reduce their Obligation, the GM cannot normally force the players to take on additional Obligation beyond the start. The choice must be theirs as an exercise in risk vs. reward. - EotE Core Rulebook, page 309.

You can inflict consequences, but not Obligation. So you can have a bounty hunter show up, but that's not a Bounty Obligation unless the player accepts such in exchange for a reward of some kind. Likewise a character can make a promise in-game and it's not a Responsibility Obligation - unless the player accepts such in exchange for a reward of some kind.

Also, start tacking on Obligation. You won't have to worry about him purchasing the next range band for his Move ability when no one in the party can spend XP.

This is wrong.

Oh no! How can I live if I'm wrong on the Internet!

Ok, fine. Snapeye: Have a calm, rational discussion with your player about the type of game that you want to run. If you are uncomfortable with his PC's actions, let him know and let him know why. Consider as a possible consolation that he can continue the PC's actions with the risk of taking on a Dark Side (or Criminal, or whatever) Obligation and possibly drawing unwanted attention to him or to his companions. Now, it becomes his decision to take on that Obligation.

But hey, if adding and increasing Obligation due to PC's deliberate actions and decisions is wrong then man, I never wanna be right.

Consider as a possible consolation that he can continue the PC's actions with the risk of taking on a Dark Side (or Criminal, or whatever) Obligation and possibly drawing unwanted attention to him or to his companions. Now, it becomes his decision to take on that Obligation.

But hey, if adding and increasing Obligation due to PC's deliberate actions and decisions is wrong then man, I never wanna be right.

If it's his decision, what is he getting in exchange for taking on that Obligation?

What if he declines to take on the Obligation but still takes the action(s) you don't like?