Starting Morality - why not be a light side paragon?

By gribble, in General Discussion

At first glance, having read through the book, I have to say I'm loving most of the content. Generally I like the way morality works, I like the careers and specialisations, I really like that the various styles are specialisations and I like the lightsaber crystal rules.

However, I did notice that there doesn't really seem to be a big drawback for a "light side" jedi to just start at 70 morality and grab the extra XP and/or credits. Unlike being dark side, there are only mechanical bonuses for being a light side paragon (I think that's what 71+ Morality is called - don't have the book at hand), so if you're planning on being a light side Jedi, moving towards 71+ morality is kind of a no-brainer. Why wouldn't you just start at 70 Morality and grab the char gen bonuses?

I'm kinda wondering this also.

Maybe they should install, that each generated Force Pip via Dark Side symbols costs 2 strain and the charakter gains +2 conflict

You don't get the bonuses if you start at 70. The choices are modify your score (to either 70 or 30) OR get extra XP and/or credits. If you want some extra XP, you're gonna be starting at 50

Perhaps it is to customize flavor. Though I feel like that should be an option, like the starting credits. Either you get +10 starting xp, or 2500 credits, or add/remove 30 to/from your morality. That way a character that wants to play up either side can do so at char creation. Then again, maybe it is just a mechanic to get your juices flowing and solidify your character? Light sider's aren't often game breakers. It isn't easy to maintain that level of "good". It may give them further to fall, but that might end up making them reckless.

Maybe my book is different, but mine says you can start at +/- Morality OR get XP/Credit bonuses. Not both...

Perhaps it is to customize flavor. Though I feel like that should be an option, like the starting credits. Either you get +10 starting xp, or 2500 credits, or add/remove 30 to/from your morality. That way a character that wants to play up either side can do so at char creation. Then again, maybe it is just a mechanic to get your juices flowing and solidify your character? Light sider's aren't often game breakers. It isn't easy to maintain that level of "good". It may give them further to fall, but that might end up making them reckless.

Thanks that's what I thought to begin with but then I read it like a moron I guess.

Hopefully now i can read it as it should be read :)

Actually - numbers a little off, add/remove 20 from your starting morality of 50, and there's an option for 5xp and 1k credits. At least according to page 34 in the one I'm looking at.

I mentioned this in a thread I made but it applies here. On page 219 (found it!) it reads, "A PC is considered to be one of “the good guys” until his Morality drops below 30, after which he falls to the dark side. A starting character might begin the game on the brink of falling, in exchange for both XP and starting credit bonuses. The PC’s tenuous position can be emphasized if the GM and player collaborate to define how the character might have used the dark side to earn the extra XP and credits".

Coupling this with the aforementioned bit, I'm confused. :)

My guess is the guidelines reflect a previous version of the rules that weren't updated when the chart was changed in character creation. (The chart is in an obvious spot, the paragraph above isn't).

For reference, the chart is:

+ Credits

OR

+ XP

OR

+ Credits and XP

OR

+/- Morality

Or it is meant to be in the chart? It's not a passing bit of GM advice, it's a decent chunk of text on Morality. In any case I'm just bringing it up so it can be clarified. I tend to lean toward your view for two reasons: 1) a Light Side adept can get money and XP for being good and 2) it "screws" the good guys, mechanically.

Edited by Alderaan Crumbs

Yeah, gonna agree that it's probably left-over from a preious version of starting Morality. Can any of the early playtesters comment on this? Maybe with as few details as possible in order to not get in trouble?

Yeah, gonna agree that it's probably left-over from a preious version of starting Morality. Can any of the early playtesters comment on this? Maybe with as few details as possible in order to not get in trouble?

They probably can't as most playtesters have to sign an NDA that prohibits them from discussing the "alpha" material no matter what the company is. At best they might be able to get away with saying "well, the material's quite different than when I did the play-testing," but even that might be pushing it. I made an off-hand comment in my blog a while back about doing some play-testing for a company (no details or specifics given), and I got a sincerely polite request to remove that tidbit lest I wind up in legal trouble down the line (apparently my feedback was deemed of enough value that they wanted to keep me around a bit longer).

Yeah, gonna agree that it's probably left-over from a preious version of starting Morality. Can any of the early playtesters comment on this? Maybe with as few details as possible in order to not get in trouble?

They probably can't as most playtesters have to sign an NDA that prohibits them from discussing the "alpha" material no matter what the company is. At best they might be able to get away with saying "well, the material's quite different than when I did the play-testing," but even that might be pushing it. I made an off-hand comment in my blog a while back about doing some play-testing for a company (no details or specifics given), and I got a sincerely polite request to remove that tidbit lest I wind up in legal trouble down the line (apparently my feedback was deemed of enough value that they wanted to keep me around a bit longer).

This is correct, play testers are not permitted to talk about stuff in the alpha that isn't also in the beta, be it mechanics, talents and gear, or snarky comments Sam left in the margins.

We can say it was surprisingly hard work, and a hell of a lot of fun.

You don't get the bonuses if you start at 70. The choices are modify your score (to either 70 or 30) OR get extra XP and/or credits. If you want some extra XP, you're gonna be starting at 50

Ah, right. Must have misread. That makes a lot more sense... although I have to say that you'd really want to have to play a dark side force user for RP purposes then. Currently it's a strictly inferior option mechanically, as you'd be giving up extra XP and/or credits to be further down a path that mechanically hurts you and the party... unless there is some mechanical benefit for being fallen to the dark side that I'm missing?

Edited by gribble

You don't get the bonuses if you start at 70. The choices are modify your score (to either 70 or 30) OR get extra XP and/or credits. If you want some extra XP, you're gonna be starting at 50

Ah, right. Must have misread. That makes a lot more sense... although I have to say that you'd really want to have to play a dark side force user for RP purposes then. Currently it's a strictly inferior option mechanically, as you'd be giving up extra XP and/or credits to be further down a path that mechanically hurts you and the party... unless there is some mechanical benefit for being fallen to the dark side that I'm missing?

Well, you get a little more consistency from your Force dice, and some different uses for your Force powers. That can be a significant boon if you want to be using Harm, "choke", or Unleash.

Also when starting at knight level that 10xp isn't as big a deal.

Well, you get a little more consistency from your Force dice, and some different uses for your Force powers. That can be a significant boon if you want to be using Harm, "choke", or Unleash.

True. Although I wouldn't necessarily call any of that strictly mechanically better, I do see why (especially the access to different force powers) could be appealing to some.

Also when starting at knight level that 10xp isn't as big a deal.

XP is always a big deal! :P

Yeah, gonna agree that it's probably left-over from a preious version of starting Morality. Can any of the early playtesters comment on this? Maybe with as few details as possible in order to not get in trouble?

I can't go into details of what went on in play testing but I can say I am seeing people raise issues that popped up. All I can say is beta test the crap out of it. You'd have to be an absolute stump to think all of us play testers agreed with every design decision. That's not putting out details, it's just that I don't want people to not mention something if they think it's an issue because maybe something we few mentioned didn't get air time, however if they get 500 beta reports that all raise the same issues they might give things another pass.

I didn't follow the EotE or AoR betas, because I didn't start playing until after AoR was already mostly done with its beta. How much did things change based on player feedback during the process? Is there anything from Edge or Rebellion that a lot of people really wanted changed that didn't?