So, a thought.

With the release of the FaD beta we now know how FFG handles starting with a Force Rating: Reduced number of career skills and free ranks.

There may be few good reasons for the following house-rule idea, other than some players might want to go this route, for whatever reason(s).

Basic idea is that a player can start with any career from EotE (or AoR) and in exchange for removing two career skills and reducing the free ranks from career, receives a Force Rating of 1.

Exactly what skills to removed from each career should be considered, I'm not keen on the player picking these themselves necessarily, as it should be a package offer that for some reason the bastard in me don't want to allow (too much) power gaming utility maximisation ...

While there could be some concern with such a house rule in relation to the two force sensitivity providing universal specs, as they'll lose their value regarding providing the force rating, but not much else really. Their talents in themselves makes them very useful. I understand it would require a special set of circumstances and ideas on the part of the player to want to go this way.

Would you allow it? What are your thoughts on this?

Nothing wrong with it in and of itself but to me, but are your players so impatient they can't just wait and spend their first session xp awarded on a rank of a F&D spec or Exile/Emergent? In my mind it's really just a matter of a couple sessions of xp spent to accomplish the same thing without changing the rules at all.

I'd probably just have them buy the spec like normal. What I wrestle with is introducing morality for non FaD force specs.

As far as house-rule ideas go, it's not horrible and it's not really game breaking, at least on on the surface.

The only point of contention is that for the EotE and AoR specs and careers, having a Force Rating has zero impact on them, as none of the talents rely upon the PC having a Force Rating. If anything, it might actually be too beneficial if a PC just wants to snag a couple of Force Powers, like a Bounty Hunter snagging Seek or a Diplomat grabbing Influence or a Marauder with Enhance, or pretty much anyone grabbing Sense and/or Move. After all, losing a starting skill rank and only having six career skills instead of eight isn't that big of a loss for most of the EotE/AoR careers, particularly if you choose a spec that would normally double-up on a skill, like the Smuggler career and Scoundrel spec each having Deception, or Bounty Hunter and Assassin each having Ranged (Heavy). And if the player gets to choose what skills are "lost" as starting career skills, then they can very easily choose skills they have no indication of every purchasing or that are offered by either their starting specialization or a specialization they plan on taking in the future anyway.

If the player really wants his character to start with Force Rating 1, I'd suggest they either take a FaD career at the start, or purchase Exile/Emergent with their starting XP. I speak from experience that only having two Characteristics at a 3 at the start of play isn't going to render the character worthless if the go the "buy Exile/Emergent" route.

It seems unnecessary to me - going from a starting character to someone with The Force costs - what, 50 points? That's - if your GM hands out points conservatively, 5-ish weeks (considerably less if we're talking 15-20 a session). Is that really THAT long of a time?

My own reason for not liking the idea is that I don't want the Force opened up quite so much. I don't want everybody having even easier access to it.

It's really not that bad if you have an EotE character who uses FSE to become Force Sensitive. Sure, it's not min-maxed, but I'm still having fun. For a minute, I considered making my char a F&D Consular, but I'm glad I stuck with Colonist. The crew definitely appreciates stim application (not available in the Healer tree), and with the Force Heal power I get enough Jedi-like healing goodness to suit my needs.

Thanks for your thoughts guys.