So after watching the latest rebels episodes, I started thinking about the Force and Destiny. Ezra manifests force powers (usually move) at emotional times or when it really counts. I believe we've seen this numerous times in the Star Wars universe. A complaint one of my players has about the system is that in Star Wars, Jedi seem capable of many force powers but at great difficulty if they are not masters or Knights and the system doesn't really lend itself to that mentality unless you buy all the powers you want to use. I tend to like the idea of the force being a mystical field that manifests unusual powers that even the weilder doesn't seem to understand.

So I was thinking of making a house rule where if a player desires to use a power he/she doesn't own, they spend a light side destiny point and roll a force die and must pay double the amount to activate whatever basic form of the power they wish to activate. Does that seem broken? I'm looking for thoughts on it.

Thanks!

Yeah... borked. The double Pip cost especially.

Something that others have done that may work better is allowing the player to lock some XP into a force power account. Say 10 or 20. When they are playing and suddenly realize that "OMG I could totally use move really dramatically right now if I only actually had move" then they can use the XP they put into that account to buy it on the spot (instead of having to wait till the session ended).

Once they have a good suite of powers locked in you can end this practice, but for representing a character like Ezra this might help get the player's head in the game.

Also it may just be an issue of "Certain point of View." Imagine running a character that's already supposed to be a grizzled veteran. His advancement isn't so much improvement as just showing off more and fancier stuff he could already. Likewise something like Ezra suddenly manifesting the Move power could easily be the character buying it before the adventure starts but not actually USING it until that moment.

That's one of the problems with stating canon characters as well. We tend to want to apply everything we think they can do as a whole, not what we actually see them demonstrate at any given time.

A complaint one of my players has about the system is that in Star Wars, Jedi seem capable of many force powers but at great difficulty if they are not masters or Knights and the system doesn't really lend itself to that mentality unless you buy all the powers you want to use

Is your player using a Dpoint, strain, and taking one conflict to allow him to use black pips? If he's not, he's his own worst enemy. Unlike other systems, this one assumes the player is willing to do this from time to time. If the player is that scared of the darkside then maybe that's part of the problem.

Destiny points...

Ultimately that is what this player did. He bought his first power as move knowing that he would need it to feel like a force emergent, and simply didn't display it until it was a necessary moment. He played it like he was shocked he could do it as well. It played well actually, but he was the one who put the bug in my ear that it would have been nice to have had a mechanic to cover the emerging force powers without necessarily buying into them from the get go. He would have rather have purchased sense I believe but ended with move just to capture the moment. It works but it still would be nice to have an emerging force power ability. Maybe a talent in the force emergence trees? I assume I'm just being nitty gritty though. Buying a power and failing to activate it does seem to represent this to some degree.

Yeah, that sort of narrative pinnacle thing is just tough to represent in an RPG beyond what you actually did.

I know one of the previous versions of the game could do stuff like that a little better, but usually at the cost of the mechanic acting up somewhere else.

That's just how this system is built though. Force Sensitives that don't know it are a little more challenging to play and take a player that's a little more in tune with the mechanics in order to come out right. The Devs essentially decided that for the most part "intuitive" force use would largely be represented by Force talents like Uncanny X, and Touch of Fate, Intuitive X, and so on. By the time they were using actual Force Powers they are pretty much supposed to know it. There's a few possible exceptions where you can use a power in a specific way and still make it seem like you are just DOING it without knowing it (Enhance, Forsee, Sense). But by the time you're using something like Move, it's assumed you know it.

For what it's worth a major player in my next campaign is going to be an intuitive Force user as well, so this is something I've really been looking at.

Its more cinematic than anything. Mechanics says that is more possible roll a DS Pip than a LS Pip 58% vs 42%.

At those levels, Ezra would have FR 1. In this cases, and due to his lack of experience and confidence he always use to cinematically roll DS.

This could be enough at least for me

There was a good discussion of this here, you might get some ideas:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/125432-overextending-force-use/

I'll echo what others have said, namely that having a PC "spontaneously" develop a new Force Power without paying any sort of XP cost is too beneficial.

Granted, under the OP's suggestion it sounds like the PC would generally be limited to the basic effect of a power, but even some of those are pretty good (Misdirect, Bind and Protect/Unleash) for instance, and once the PC gets to Force Rating 2 or 3, the doubled Force Point cost isn't going to be much of a hurdle to overcome. Plus if the players and GM are doing their part correctly, then Destiny Points should be flowing back and forth fairly regularly.

Either requiring the PC to have a stockpile of XP to spend on "spontaneous" Force Power development is probably the most balanced method, as it doesn't give the PC anything for free, and lets them make use of a power they don't already have at a time when it'd be really handy to have. There's also the notion of requiring them to spend any XP gained from the session to be spent on learning the power after their spontaneous usage, but depending on the power and how much XP the GM awards, that could put the PC in a negative given that some of the powers cost 15 or 20 XP to learn just the basic effect. No matter which method is used, spending a Destiny Point is pretty much a requirement since the PC is essentially "introducing a fact" about the scene, namely that they're able to use a Force power that they've never really demonstrated before.

You might consider letting them spend some of the XP's they're going to get at the end of the session anyway, at a dramatically appropriate time.

You might consider letting them spend some of the XP's they're going to get at the end of the session anyway, at a dramatically appropriate time.

The Beginner Games for AoR and EotE do this. I think it's entirely appropriate. You're just breaking up your 4-hour session into a few 1-hour-ish long sessions.