I'm sure I'm not the only one to think of this, and for all I know it's written into a later book (running core EotE only), but it seemed like a good idea that I thought might be worth sharing.

My players were at a public gathering of political dissidents on an Imperial world. They knew the Empire was going come in with a show of force and arrest the keynote speaker to send a message that dissent will not be tolerated. They had prepared an elaborate escape plan to whisk him away when the stormtroopers showed up.

Unfortunately they had taken actions to annoy the Imperials, and the show of force was greater than expected - stormtrooper squads blocking the streets out of the park and more forming a ring around the gathering, closing in slowly. As they step forward to arrest the speaker, the players were forced to act or allow him to be taken (and disappeared). Things get hairy real fast and a shot is fired. From a roof two blocks away, by the sniper player, killing the Imperial leader on the scene instantly.

I'm then faced with a question: how does a squad of stormtroopers pushing against an increasingly hostile crowd react to a gunshot from an unknown location that blew the head off their leader right in front of them?

I had the player who took the shot roll the Force Die. He rolled two black pips. Extra dark side.

So, I figure they react with maximal badness. Confusion and the fog of war set in, and they open fire on the crowd and everything goes to **** real fast. After the dust clears, dozens of civilians are dead or injured.

The rest of the session isn't relevant, but there it is. In my mind the reaction could have gone either way and I didn't have a strong opinion on where to take it, so I used the Force Die to inform the direction of the story.

Thoughts on this?

The GM in the AOR game I play in had a creative use for a Force Die the other session.

We were in a cantina and a player asked if his character knew anyone in the room. The GM rolled a Force Die, and it came up with two light side pips, so he said "You know two people in here, and they're your friends."

And proceeded to integrate the two friend NPCs into the scene. I thought it was very cool.

That's actually a pretty interesting way of doing things. My only concern with using the Force die for "reaction checks" is that it's ~58% (7/12) dark side pips, so you're more often than not going to get a negative reaction. On the plus side, you're slightly more likely to get double light side (3/12) than single light side (2/12) pips.

In your case, though, having their squad leader taken out in such a manner would indeed lean towards hostile action, so it worked! Maybe flip/flop when a positive reaction is expected (dark side pips becomes good reactions, and light side pips become bad reactions) and you might have something there.

-EF

As long as you bear in mind that the Force dice are weighted to dark side results and are ok with that.

My only concern with using the Force die for "reaction checks" is that it's ~58% (7/12) dark side pips, so you're more often than not going to get a negative reaction. On the plus side, you're slightly more likely to get double light side (3/12) than single light side (2/12) pips.

The Law of Murphy says that at least 11 of those faces should be black, but then fiction is supposed to make sense.

This is a great idea, a way to fill in the gaps between skill check riders and what-not.

My only concern with using the Force die for "reaction checks" is that it's ~58% (7/12) dark side pips, so you're more often than not going to get a negative reaction. On the plus side, you're slightly more likely to get double light side (3/12) than single light side (2/12) pips.

The Law of Murphy says that at least 11 of those faces should be black, but then fiction is supposed to make sense.

This is a great idea, a way to fill in the gaps between skill check riders and what-not.

Murphy's a prick…just sayin'

-EF

As long as you bear in mind that the Force dice are weighted to dark side results and are ok with that.

I wasn't aware of this, but knowing my players it will only lead to hilarious cascading failures.

As long as you bear in mind that the Force dice are weighted to dark side results and are ok with that.

I wasn't aware of this, but knowing my players it will only lead to hilarious cascading failures.

There's a handy table on page 12 that shows the various dice and what faces they have.

-EF

There's a handy table on page 12 that shows the various dice and what faces they have.

-EF

Oh I know - that knowledge hole was really more a result of us never using the force die any other time. No force users in the group and we use the dice app to role destiny at the start so we literally never pick it up otherwise.

Good page with comparisons and what not.

http://maxmahem.net/wp/star-wars-edge-of-the-empire-die-probabilities/

My only concern with using the Force die for "reaction checks" is that it's ~58% (7/12) dark side pips, so you're more often than not going to get a negative reaction. On the plus side, you're slightly more likely to get double light side (3/12) than single light side (2/12) pips.

The Law of Murphy says that at least 11 of those faces should be black, but then fiction is supposed to make sense.

This is a great idea, a way to fill in the gaps between skill check riders and what-not.

Murphy's a prick…just sayin'

-EF

Pffft! Murphy was an optimist...

I like the story. Were I the GM, I would have had any advantages, threats, despair, or triumph determine the reaction of the troopers. Regardless, that story sounds pretty good.

I like the story. Were I the GM, I would have had any advantages, threats, despair, or triumph determine the reaction of the troopers. Regardless, that story sounds pretty good.

I would have done the same. There isn't anything particularly wrong with using the Force die, but the mechanic is built in already.

Here's how I used them once. The pcs were being followed one night down the street. There was a confrontation, shots fired and even a couple of civilian casualties. The next day it was all over the news. The players asked if they were seen by any cameras, etc. Enter force dice. 2 white, not in frame. 1 white, in frame no ID. One black, full face. 2 black, named and BOLOed.

I ran a modified version of escape from Mos Shuta. The players had taken the owner out to their crashed ship (i started the session saying they had crashed one of temo's ships and lost the ship and cargo) offering it to him as salvage. He accepted and sent them back to pay his Astromech droid for the part that they wanted (he gave them a reduced price for the salavage of their old ship).

The PCs convinced the Astromec droid to join them and one wanted to loot the shop. To which i reminded him that their had been alot of fighting and temos gaurds were likly on the way. he still insisted on grabing the first thing he saw off of the shelf.

At a loss i decided to let the force dice decide what he found.

I rolled a single force die and came up with 1 negative force pip.

I narrated that he grabed a motion activated fragmentation granade.

everyone survived but it helped encourage them not to linger much longer in one place.

The GM in the AOR game I play in had a creative use for a Force Die the other session.

We were in a cantina and a player asked if his character knew anyone in the room. The GM rolled a Force Die, and it came up with two light side pips, so he said "You know two people in here, and they're your friends."

And proceeded to integrate the two friend NPCs into the scene. I thought it was very cool.

Nothing wrong with the house rule, but that is exactly what the Destiny Points are for.

Not bad made me wonder what you would have done if he rolled light side but I believe that got answered in another reply!

interesting idea!

Not a big fan of 'random' rolls to determine how things go. I'd sooner have the PCs affect what happens and use their rolls. The Triumph and Despair results already cover situations like these, really. And as someone has said, the Force dice isn't equal anyway, so using that alone would result in more bad luck than good.

Maybe flipping a Destiny point or something would be better, but even then I'd sooner let the PCs act.

I have my entire group roll a Force Die and tally the results when I come to an appropriate spot in the story. I fabricated my own chance cube but I like the results of the Force Dice better since I can add both positive and negative elements. Of course I never let this override fun - I only use it to push my story along since I'm usually flying casual when I run.

Not a big fan of 'random' rolls to determine how things go. I'd sooner have the PCs affect what happens and use their rolls. The Triumph and Despair results already cover situations like these, really. And as someone has said, the Force dice isn't equal anyway, so using that alone would result in more bad luck than good.

Maybe flipping a Destiny point or something would be better, but even then I'd sooner let the PCs act.

I get what you're saying. It's a fine line to ride when using random chance cubes to decide how the story plays out. In my case, the advantage/triumph (I don't remember what he rolled) were spent killing the **** out of the stormtrooper leader, and I wanted some inspiration for how the bad guys would react to that.That's all I was doing - getting inspiration. I certainly wasn't going to be bound by it.

I'm not sure I like the idea of adv/triumph from a Ranged - Heavy roll determining the reaction of a second party. In my mind those should be spent to affect the results of the action taken, and this seems to far removed from the original action.

My campaign has been ongoing for more than a year now, so there's a lot of subtle details, connections and stories that've played out over that time that my players have forgotten about. I've started using the Force Die to occasionally jog my players' memories.

So if there is something that I've already told them, but they've forgotten about, and would be relevant to the current scenario, I'll let 'em roll the Force Die.

2Light = "That Hutt Lord from 8 sessions ago said that wanted this ship's Captain taken alive and his cargo seized."

1Light = "Wasn't somebody looking for a ship with this description?"

1Dark = "You feel like you're forgetting something."

2Dark = No hints.

So far, my players are good at disregarding the roll if they get 2Black. If they start meta-gaming the roll, then I may have to change my tactic. We'll see.