Lightsabers may be powerful: But in an obligation based system it's highly detrimental to carry one in the same way it should be determinal to weild a heavy autofire weapon openly. Personally not all weapons were created equal; weapons with autofire are heavy anti-personal weapons that is fully capable of clearing out a room in terms of the heaviest weapons. Thus it is up to the DM to engineer situations where those weapons are restricted in use. Wacking a bounty on them for excessive use is well within the rights of the DM: Though as a plot elment a lightsaber should be treasured as a oppertunity up to the point it's being abused.

That being said; I have had much more problems with autofire weapons then I have lightsabers. I find them discusting weapons that make combat trival for everyone involved.

I personally believe that letting the players "quest" for their sword is always better than making it easy. It will be more memorable them. Not to mention it is like giving your player a vorpal weapon at second level.

There are those players who will always argue that it is printed int he books tat they can get one... remember the rules are guidelines.

I agree 100% with this. Buying is the American way when things get hard just throw money at it: pay 2 win. In this system it is a viable option as the rules state. But so much more fun and memorable to quest for your LIGHTSABER. Make the next adventure about finding the the first piece. It can be subtle...maybe a big battle and narrate the force user being split up and maybe crash landing or being separated without hope of rescue for a small time. Wondering through an ancient cave or swamp-- an echo of something faint but somehow familiar. He can than battle or have a mini JEDI trial of your choosing and he ends up finding X piece of the LIGHTSABER...end that small part of his adventure with "you feel the force call to you...the weapon of the JEDI...you know what to do next..." Or something to that effect and the other players swoop in to rescue him -- beaten and battered the force user has completed his first quest for his saber.

It will make that weapon so much more valuable to him when he completes it. The other players can examine the pieces but without the force they WILL NOT and DO NOT understand how this piece can make a LIGHTSABER-- it looks like a piece of random junk to them but the force user is 100% sure (reassure him/her) that it's a piece. Reassure the no force users they do not understand why he risked his life for junk...it's JUNK!

When you introduce the separation have small intervals of the other group in action break and than have a small scene with the force user back and forth until they can reunite.

Again to add to my rant-- EP 1-3 make lightsabers just sorta things the characters can just pump out at will. Obi comes flying in and tosses Anakin a spare LIGHTSABER...I think windu throws obi and Anakin spare lightsabers...it robbed the magic of what lightsabers were. Mystical and rare JEDI only weapons.

Ep 4-6 were that magical weapon. One was given to Luke but because it was a keepsake obi had of Anakin his old friend who turned evil. When Luke lost his hand and and LIGHTSABER he had to learn how to make one...it took a whole new movie to MAKE one not just been given a spare that Yoda had on the spare LIGHTSABER rack. It was something special to him made in time. I believe those movies take place a year later from that one or ten? I can't remember off the top of my head as I rant. That's what made it magical for me...that it took so long and only he could do it because he was a JEDI. That was the magic of those movies. Not...force push force jump ...grevious with a bajillion lightsabers and dumb Yoda fights. It was that first time you saw Luke wiggle that LIGHTSABER in the ice and pull it to him. HOLY HELL- did you see that?! He pulled it 3 feet outta mid air!!

Rant continued:

Keep the magic that made Star Wars Star Wars...just because something is broken down into a stat doesn't mean "lose the magic".

Rant continued:

Keep the magic that made Star Wars Star Wars...just because something is broken down into a stat doesn't mean "lose the magic".

sure, but when the jedi has no lightsaber, while the pilot has a Y-wing, the commando has his heavy rifle/grenades/etc., and the engineer has his own lab, it doesn't really feel fun for the jedi. I prefer to blend the better movies (EP 4-6) with the game to arrive at a satisfying event for everyone.

One of my players went shopping and spent 8000 credits on a nice looking jewel. (She made a Daunting Streetwise check when shopping at a shop with exotics) they don't even know it is a crystal that can be used for lightsabers... and the player isn't even force sensitive... another player is (FS Exile).

make it odd things that are picked up over the course of a campaign. Crystal(s), power source, super conductors, hilt, emitter, modulation circuts.. and plans or guide to building.

But it should be something worked out between the player and GM. Sometimes if you are running a F&D game that would be the first or second adventure.

Rant continued:

Keep the magic that made Star Wars Star Wars...just because something is broken down into a stat doesn't mean "lose the magic".

sure, but when the jedi has no lightsaber, while the pilot has a Y-wing, the commando has his heavy rifle/grenades/etc., and the engineer has his own lab, it doesn't really feel fun for the jedi. I prefer to blend the better movies (EP 4-6) with the game to arrive at a satisfying event for everyone.

THAN it's answered-- it's appropriate now to give the JEDI his quest for a LIGHTSABER.

Kinnison has the right idea. Things happen for a reason and the force works in mysterious ways. They are building a LIGHTSABER and don't even realize it.

FAD can easily be worked in. Younglings or padawans must construct their LIGHTSABER before graduating to full fledge JEDI. FAD is cool because you can literally have them do all the Jedi trials and learn to make their lightsabers.

But without a Jedi master a PC should not know how to make one. But the adventure can easily tell a story of the force guiding the Force sensitive into creating one regardless. Ancient weapons and hokey religions...that's what this is...ancient weapon that no one bothers to use because-- good blaster at your side.

Furthermore you could have the PC stumble across an ancient holocron that recognizes that he's a FS and will unlock. Could be a dark Jedi or Sith or Jedi...mix or match it will be a great adventure plot seed anyway. He can teach the FS about constructing a weapon. If you want to make it a twist make it a dark Jedi or Sith who maybe tricks the PC into inserting the crystal found in the holocron at the end of construction-- but little does he know the crystal is the memory bank of the dark Jedi or Sith and once activated the LIGHTSABER takes control of the PC (another cool plot seed) or maybe it unleashes a force ghost that escapes and does a voldemort-- tries to reconstruct a physical form and now you have another plot idea who becomes a Nemesis in the making.

And the other idea above that I mentioned ...I can keep shooting you ideas if you like but this gold farm is running low...I think I gave some pretty nifty gems that STOP you from saying "cough up 1k cred and its yours...oh and 500 cred for the DLC yellow black crystal...

In my current game, players have earned around 100xp. The ranged characters are using heavy blaster rifles, and the ace has his own Y-wing (in addition to the groups transport ship). Is this around the right time to award the Force user a lightsaber?

They currently use an ancient sword. I'm just wary, because the AOR lightsaber was so OP that it wasn't balanced to give them it, at that point. I know the F&D lightsaber is more balanced, but is it about where it should be?

Until the players steal the plans from the only imperial library in the galaxy that has the info on building one (if it wasn't destroyed) or building one..

In my current game, there are two of us that have lightsabres. My character quested for his, as a solo thing, but the last section of the solo mission included interaction with the other lightsabre-wielding character, who ended up taking the 'sabre crystal instead of me. It was quite annoying to have come so far and, for character reasons, mind you, to give up the crystal. So my character is stuck with the other character's training emitter, whilst he slices and dices.

By all means make the players quest, but at least make it worth it. Don't leave them hanging.

In my current game, there are two of us that have lightsabres. My character quested for his, as a solo thing, but the last section of the solo mission included interaction with the other lightsabre-wielding character, who ended up taking the 'sabre crystal instead of me. It was quite annoying to have come so far and, for character reasons, mind you, to give up the crystal. So my character is stuck with the other character's training emitter, whilst he slices and dices.

By all means make the players quest, but at least make it worth it. Don't leave them hanging.

That's rough. I would have words with the player and/or the GM.

Tbh it dependa on the group whether an adventure is appropriate for a LS crystal. With mine we are so involved with the alliance and the underworld we just don't have time to do that.

Then again, my character is both the only force sensitive and not a Jedi, he had obtained his first lightsaber from a long deceased Sith as a side note and has yet to search for a crystal. He doesn't know the difference in between them side from the colours. He's just a mechanic that was chosen by this evil artifact, yet thus far has remained a paragon

In my current game, there are two of us that have lightsabres. My character quested for his, as a solo thing, but the last section of the solo mission included interaction with the other lightsabre-wielding character, who ended up taking the 'sabre crystal instead of me. It was quite annoying to have come so far and, for character reasons, mind you, to give up the crystal. So my character is stuck with the other character's training emitter, whilst he slices and dices.

By all means make the players quest, but at least make it worth it. Don't leave them hanging.

Sounds like both the player and GM failed the D.B.A.D. rule on this one.

I second what kaosae said, have a talk with the GM about how you feel you got ripped off. At the very least, he should have provided a 'saber crystal for both characters.

I'm playing a Seeker/Ataru Striker in a friend's campaign modeled on the WotC Dawn of Defiance campaign (rest of the group went with EotE careers even though AoR careers were available).

We didn't start off at Knight Level, but the GM allowed my character to have a "synthetic replica crystal" that wasn't as good as your standard Ilum crystal (Damage 5, Crit 3, Breach 1, Sunder, Mods: +1 Damage, -1 Crit, +1 Vicious), but with the understanding that as this was several years prior to the Battle of Yavin (I think the time frame is set about 6 years before, or 13 BBY), if I was too open about brandishing that lightsaber, the proverbial hammer would fall.

And it worked, as my PC only broke out the beatstick in very desperate situations, such as needing to save another PC from a pair of stormtroopers, or facing down a whole bunch of Imps while sneaking/storming a remote Imperial prison facility. Though by the end of the fourth session, my lightsaber and crystal wound up getting destroyed (GM rolled double Triumphs on using Move to disarm my character and used them to smash it against a very hard stone wall), but as our PCs are now at Knight Level in terms of XP (GM is fairly generous with the XP awards), I'll be running my guy through a "solo quest" to obtain a proper kyber crystal (suspecting it'll be Ilum just for simplicity's sake).

I'm playing a Seeker/Ataru Striker in a friend's campaign modeled on the WotC Dawn of Defiance campaign (rest of the group went with EotE careers even though AoR careers were available).

We didn't start off at Knight Level, but the GM allowed my character to have a "synthetic replica crystal" that wasn't as good as your standard Ilum crystal (Damage 5, Crit 3, Breach 1, Sunder, Mods: +1 Damage, -1 Crit, +1 Vicious), but with the understanding that as this was several years prior to the Battle of Yavin (I think the time frame is set about 6 years before, or 13 BBY), if I was too open about brandishing that lightsaber, the proverbial hammer would fall.

And it worked, as my PC only broke out the beatstick in very desperate situations, such as needing to save another PC from a pair of stormtroopers, or facing down a whole bunch of Imps while sneaking/storming a remote Imperial prison facility. Though by the end of the fourth session, my lightsaber and crystal wound up getting destroyed (GM rolled double Triumphs on using Move to disarm my character and used them to smash it against a very hard stone wall), but as our PCs are now at Knight Level in terms of XP (GM is fairly generous with the XP awards), I'll be running my guy through a "solo quest" to obtain a proper kyber crystal (suspecting it'll be Ilum just for simplicity's sake).

To be honest IIum is still one of the better crystals; the burn one is completely useless; inflicting concussion is decent but situationally useful, though the defensive lightsaber is pretty good. I find that though the Kryt Dragon and Worm Crystals are both improvements; I find that they are not that much greater then a normal Ilium Crystal; just cooler in origin and cheaper to modify!

Cilionelle: And yeah, I would have a quick word since going from a training crystal to a lazor sword is a huge step (he's no longer subject to soak). Though couldn't you wield a different weapon in the time being? Though then again; I guess it depends what your lightsaber stat is at and whether either your brawn or agility is that good. Currently though my character has two lightsabers, I find that he often finds that the sorcerious ways are often no match for a blaster at his side.

My toon was completely unarmed up til that point (had a hilt, but no crystal, because Story; said story was going to allow him to have some sort of combat capability). He only had YG in his lightsabre pool but has become a Makashi duelist since then (now at YYGG). We'll get there, but he's very magnanimous, so is happy for his new found friend (even if the player isn't!). The other upside of the solo play was my character got an Imperial officer's uniform and valid identity card (Influence FTW...). So not (at) all bad!

Sadly there have been other instances of similar stuff happening in-game -- one player who had his character tooled to Gunnery and a Heavy Repeating Blaster is gimped in the first session by the GM because he could only find a holdout blaster to use...

We have had a chat before (he's a new GM in the system; I was the previous GM) about stuff like that, but it's taking time because I don't want to ruin his game for him, and I'm hardy enough to roll with it.