Well, the thing is that all three books were supposed to be contemporaneous; so F&D is apparently appropriate to set in the OT era between 4 and 5. Perhaps this is an aspect of the new canon - that there are more force users running around, even with the glowsticks of doom. And while all of your suggestions do seem quite an interesting way to start a campaign, the Force is a nice explanation - the Force brought the players together for mutual training and reinforcement, out of their original lives and into one of adventure.

I've limited it to one in my games and have had no problems. I do it because Force users are supposed to be rare during this time and I want to get that feeling across.

Wow..

some really really interesting points.

The reason i ask is in my current campaign i have it planned to bestow via narrative and the aid of a training device, one of the players with a free emergent specialization as part of my plot arch.

But i am wondering now if this may cause issues.

This seems like too much special treatment. If you offer similar opportunities to the rest of the players, though, it's not a problem. Perhaps the group has committed to joining the Rebellion, and so you give each player either Recruit or Force-Sensitive Emergent for free after an appropriate "training montage".

If a player would rather stay on the fringe, you could substitute an additional in-Career Specialization for those who don't want Recruit or FS Emergent.

One Word Jen'saari campaign, also the exact number of Jedi to escape Order 66 is unknown.

the funny thing is in Knights of the old republic nobody freaks out if the party is 3 jedi and 1 scoundrel or 1 trooper. and the 1 jedi never freaks out when hes got 2 troopers and a scoundrel in party, the only time those guys ever freak out is if the part takes too long to get through the flashpoint. wonder why perceptions are different in an MMORPG vs a P&PRPG.

the funny thing is in Knights of the old republic nobody freaks out if the party is 3 jedi and 1 scoundrel or 1 trooper. and the 1 jedi never freaks out when hes got 2 troopers and a scoundrel in party, the only time those guys ever freak out is if the part takes too long to get through the flashpoint. wonder why perceptions are different in an MMORPG vs a P&PRPG.

Are you referring to the "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMO?

Wow..

some really really interesting points.

The reason i ask is in my current campaign i have it planned to bestow via narrative and the aid of a training device, one of the players with a free emergent specialization as part of my plot arch.

But i am wondering now if this may cause issues.

This seems like too much special treatment. If you offer similar opportunities to the rest of the players, though, it's not a problem. Perhaps the group has committed to joining the Rebellion, and so you give each player either Recruit or Force-Sensitive Emergent for free after an appropriate "training montage".

If a player would rather stay on the fringe, you could substitute an additional in-Career Specialization for those who don't want Recruit or FS Emergent.

DOh, when put like that i see how my initial post was not clear...

I wont be giving it to the player by my chosing.

The party will be finding a Device that will help a player, The party must decide who will use the device (holocron) and in doing so that player as a benefit would get the Spec after extensive roleplay..

OF course the other players would be hansomly rewarded XP wise.

the funny thing is in Knights of the old republic nobody freaks out if the party is 3 jedi and 1 scoundrel or 1 trooper. and the 1 jedi never freaks out when hes got 2 troopers and a scoundrel in party, the only time those guys ever freak out is if the part takes too long to get through the flashpoint. wonder why perceptions are different in an MMORPG vs a P&PRPG.

Are you referring to the "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMO?

He is, and I'm not sure what relevance it has to the topic. The context I've been assuming for the OP was within the 4-5 OT timeframe; having 4 or 5 jedi running around together in the days of the Old Republic might have been a little odd, but in the Rise of the Empire/ Dawn of Rebellion era, it would be downright unheard of.

Anything can be explained given thr right motivation. Player characters, being the heroes of the story, are always the exception.

Anything can be explained given thr right motivation. Player characters, being the heroes of the story, are always the exception.

While this is certainly true, FFG seems to have gone to great lengths to demonstrate that the GM has final say on the story elements they want to include/ run. Sure, one could make the argument that you could be the one Chiss who decided to become a mercenary - but I as a GM will not allow a player to pick the Chiss race unless I think they could do it 'right'. (Worth noting I've yet to meet said player.)

I did it in both WEG and WOTC.You shouldn't have a problem as long as you keep control of the player/character. Not letting them get out of control is key.

I guess i just dont want to have a bunch of these running around....

Awesoooome...so awesome....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtxKO0KAIc0

It's easy for me, as I only run solo games for my spouse, but if I did run for 4-5 people, I would allow more than 1 force user. Doesn't seem fair to me to only let one player realize their character dream.

I used to prefer to limit Jedi in WeG, but that was mostly for balance reasons. They could get pretty overpowered late game. At first blush FaD looks pretty balanced, so I'm all for letting anybody who wants to play in the sandbox. Of course we're starting an Old Republic Campaign so there's Jedi on every corner, and I think you can buy lightsabers in convenience stores.

Anything can be explained given thr right motivation. Player characters, being the heroes of the story, are always the exception.

While this is certainly true, FFG seems to have gone to great lengths to demonstrate that the GM has final say on the story elements they want to include/ run. Sure, one could make the argument that you could be the one Chiss who decided to become a mercenary - but I as a GM will not allow a player to pick the Chiss race unless I think they could do it 'right'. (Worth noting I've yet to meet said player.)

A majority of GMs have the final say on the games they run. Since they do a majority of the work, they deserve to. I try to work with players and whatever oddball constructs they come up with and create a game that they with their character choices can enjoy. I am not so stuck in the "canonverse" that I feel the need to stop people from playing characters because it doesn't fit my Star Wars concept just because I am GM. I think some of the best games come from oddball mixes.

*snip*

A majority of GMs have the final say on the games they run. Since they do a majority of the work, they deserve to. I try to work with players and whatever oddball constructs they come up with and create a game that they with their character choices can enjoy. I am not so stuck in the "canonverse" that I feel the need to stop people from playing characters because it doesn't fit my Star Wars concept just because I am GM. I think some of the best games come from oddball mixes.

Whereas I'm the opposite - I've spent 2/3rds of my life pounding the EU canon into my head (to where it occasionally worries my friends the minutiae I can pull out at a moment's notice. example - Luke's favorite food is tomo-spiced ribenes ). The universe has spun to where it's 'just so' and while there's plenty of space for new adventures to flesh out the empty spots, I'd rather not see something I have great respect for done poorly. This occasionally makes me into something of a canon tyrant - I've accepted that, and my players have as well.

That said, the odd concept can occasionally work out great - I have a Trandoshan 'ninja' in my EotE game who dumped most of his starter XP on agility.

I'd say in A New Hope that Obi Wan is a FnD character and Luke is a Fringer who bought one of the Universal Force specs.

I think that the official FFG stand is that Luke's career/starting spec was ace:pilot and that he bought into force sensitive emergent. At least that was the impression I got from the AoR core book.

the funny thing is in Knights of the old republic nobody freaks out if the party is 3 jedi and 1 scoundrel or 1 trooper. and the 1 jedi never freaks out when hes got 2 troopers and a scoundrel in party, the only time those guys ever freak out is if the part takes too long to get through the flashpoint. wonder why perceptions are different in an MMORPG vs a P&PRPG.

Are you referring to the "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMO?

He is, and I'm not sure what relevance it has to the topic. The context I've been assuming for the OP was within the 4-5 OT timeframe; having 4 or 5 jedi running around together in the days of the Old Republic might have been a little odd, but in the Rise of the Empire/ Dawn of Rebellion era, it would be downright unheard of.

That's what I was thinking too. In the Old Republic Jedi and Sith are everywhere.

That said, the odd concept can occasionally work out great - I have a Trandoshan 'ninja' in my EotE game who dumped most of his starter XP on agility.

That conjured up quite a mental image.

I'd say in A New Hope that Obi Wan is a FnD character and Luke is a Fringer who bought one of the Universal Force specs.

I think that the official FFG stand is that Luke's career/starting spec was ace:pilot and that he bought into force sensitive emergent. At least that was the impression I got from the AoR core book.

IMHO FFG is cherry picking the builds that best represent the character for each scene/movie. As evidence, when they gave us Lando they specified that it wasn't a full profile, which is why he was missing the Pilot skill. Also, they are fitting the characters into the classes for the game, so for an EotE game Luke would be Fringer/Exile while in AoR he would be Ace/Emergent. If they ever start giving us more of the characters I'm sure that we'll see several different profiles to portray each one for each movie/scene/game line combination. I'm sure ESB Luke on Hoth would have a different build than ANH Luke on Tatooine.

IMHO FFG is cherry picking the builds that best represent the character for each scene/movie. As evidence, when they gave us Lando they specified that it wasn't a full profile, which is why he was missing the Pilot skill. Also, they are fitting the characters into the classes for the game, so for an EotE game Luke would be Fringer/Exile while in AoR he would be Ace/Emergent. If they ever start giving us more of the characters I'm sure that we'll see several different profiles to portray each one for each movie/scene/game line combination. I'm sure ESB Luke on Hoth would have a different build than ANH Luke on Tatooine.

Or possibly just more XP - he was known as a pretty fair pilot in his T-16 even in ANH. If I ran an epic campaign like ANH and they wound up destroying the most dangerous superweapon the Empire had yet fielded, They'd easily be getting 50-60 xp at the conclusion of the arc - not to mention the xp from the sessions during the 'movie'.

IMO as a GM, it's alright for the GM to ask the players to work with him to get a mix of characters that fits the story the GM wants to tell, the same way it's alright for the players to ask the GM to work with them to fully realize the character they want to play.

If the GM's story calls for only one Jedi, for whatever reason, then the GM should feel comfortable working with his/her players at the start of the story to get a group of characters that suits his purposes. I've done this at the start of several Star Wars campaigns I've run, and never had any back-lash from my players. I just make it clear that the story I'm planning to tell will work best a certain mix, and they understand it's for their benefit.

Basically, If the GM has no reason to limit the the number of Jedi, don't. If the GM does have a reason to limit the number of Jedi, talk to your players at the start.

Wow..

some really really interesting points.

The reason i ask is in my current campaign i have it planned to bestow via narrative and the aid of a training device, one of the players with a free emergent specialization as part of my plot arch.

But i am wondering now if this may cause issues.

Depends on players' motivations in playing. For the power-fantasy types, it can really ruffle feathers. For players who are more about the story and characters, they can be fine with it. I would be.

Anyway, I don't hold with these modern notions that a GM has to be fair or nice. In the unlikely event that I get lots of people wanting to be jedi, I will likely do the same and say only one person gets to be it. Multiple Force-wielders doesn't fit my setting or what I want to run.

Personally when i start doing this RPG i am going to ask every player if they WANT to be a force user.. Just to understand their opinions.

Then i will roll a die and judging by the number will choose which of them will be force sensitive wether they actually wanted to or not. Just because i think you wouldn't normally get to choose wether you are force sensitive.

But at some point will probably get them to create new characters specifically for F&D where they are all Jedi. Kind of like a way of introducing another part of the story.

I say:

Just Deal With It.

Let the players play what they want to play. The system is designed to handle all kinds of party types. Nothing's going to explode. What you're talking about is your own personal hangups regarding canon and 'specialness'.