In light of the precedence somewhat set by the Beginner Game pregens, does anyone here have any plans for addressing players who would like to start with similar characters and most notably with a lightsaber? Yes, I am aware that in general pregens from the beginner games are often not 100% to the rules and these are a very obvious case of this. Regardless, Jedi and their signature lightsabers are a very iconic and often heavily desired piece of Star Wars and there will always be people wanting these types of characters and items.

Would you allow them to start with one if they had an background similar to any of those characters... basically, a mentor gave it to them, taught them how to make it or they found it in a dusty old tomb and managed to fix it up. Would you assign some form of starting credits value to it, perhaps similar to the training saber or to a blaster? Or would you require these players start with the training saber specifically and/or acquire the materials or lightsaber itself through their play?

It depends on the campaign assumptions. Some games are about the journey of discovery, and others are about what you do afterwards. It won't break the game if you do.

That said, I would give everyone the same opportunity to have one (or not).

I would also say it depends on the kind of game you want to play. If you want to go with a you force users rediscovering the jedi way, it's probably not the best to start out with a saber. If you want to go for jedi rebels fighting the empire, sure, give them lightsabers to start out with. With or without, there's enough you can do to put them in trouble. If there's a character that won't apply to, give him something else. A ship, a droid, an experimental blaster, whatever might fit. I wouldn't really try to weigh that towards credit values but rather see what they might need to do their job. A smuggler with a ship makes sense. A bountyhunter with good equipment makes sense. A jedi with a lightsaber makes sense.

Absolutly not! At least bring the astromech droid to the old hermit who lives in the desert first!

I'm with MatrixQ on this one.

I think it's going to depend largely on the campaign.

If it's a purely Force and Destiny group and the rest of the PCs are on-board with the idea, then having a PC be able to start with a lightsaber isn't too bad, especially as the FaD version of the basic lightsaber is far less potent than the EotE/AoR monsters were. For the Beginner Box, it's fine because the PCs are using severely gimped versions of the spec trees and are very limited in what Force powers they develop and even how those powers develop. Though perhaps instead of having a mentor or ship as the group's starting resource, you could have the group resource be a readily-accessible source of kyber crystals.

If it's a mixed group using careers and specs from all three books, then I'd be a lot more hesitant, especially if there's only a single PC that would have the lightsaber. Compared to a heavy blaster pistol or blaster rifle, the damage output of a lightsaber, even the basic ones in FaD, is pretty nuts since you're ignoring the soak value of pretty much every enemy you're going to wind up facing. And simply modifying the crit rating down to 1 means that you'll be murder against minion groups, since you're all but assured to take out at least two minions per swing with just 1 success and 1 advantage.

I've been playing a Shii-Cho Knight in a friend's AoR game, and my PC just recently broke out the lightsaber (we were at Knight Level XP when I introduced the PC, so having the 'saber wasn't a big deal). She's running Dead in the Water, and my PC pretty much obliterated whatever he went up against, as the 'saber had been modified to Damage 8, Crit 1 with 3 ranks in Lightsaber and Brawn 3 to hit stuff. Tore through minions and rivals like tissue paper, and got crazy upon reaching Sarlacc Sweep so that I could use auto-fire (of a sorts) to rip through multiple minion groups in the same turn.

Or, you could simply have the first adventure the PCs undergo provide them with a kyber crystal as a reward to allow the character to then construct their lightsaber. They'd really only be going one or two sessions before they got the 'saber, which in the long run is pretty much zilch in terms of a character's lifespan.

True, a smuggler often has a ship, but in EotE the ship is technically a group resource that is shared amongst the PCs. AoR has Alliance Assets in the form of either a handful of Y-Wings, a base with an extra 1K credits of gear for each PC, or an Imperial shuttle. A lightsaber is pretty singularly something for the Jedi-to-be, and not likely to be passed around the group. And if the GM isn't going to enforce the setting element of "openly brandishing a lightsaber and ID'ing yourself as a Jedi is not a smart thing to do," then the player may be very quick to break out the lightsaber in every combat and just tear though baddies with a speed that other PCs are going to be hard-pressed to match with their starting gear.

Honestly, you might just be better off letting all the PCs start at Knight Level. That way, the ones that want a lightsaber can have one, and those that don't can get a very healthy assortment of gear that works for their character.

In my campaign 3 of my players are padawans that survived the initial attack on the temple and went into hiding with a mysterious jedi master and Quinlan Vos before he retired. They continued their training for 3 years before one of the other padawans turned on them and revealed their location to an Inquisitor. They then escaped barely after watching one of the other padawans die as well as the mysterious master. Quinlon instructed them to seperate and go into hiding. They each picked up a non F&D specialization as well as other skills to survive. After a disturbance in the force got each of their attentire they came out of hiding and found one another. They also found another force sensitive pc and joined up withe a daughter of a Jedi Master who died in the end of the clone wars.

They all started out with a lightsaber, but unless they kill all enemy combatants and leave no witnesses they are using them as their second resort and sometimes last. They are secretly working for Organa and the resistance that will one day become the Alliance. Hasn't been an issue for me, but I'm also running a very high powered game where the players started with 200 bonus XP for F&D and 100xp for their Age of Rebellion specialization and skills.

I don't see the problem, so long as their first instinct is to go for their blaster and not their lightsaber - like Luke in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back .

Now, I'm not saying that the use of the lightsaber should be overly punished - they are still highly effective weapons in melee and anybody lucky enough to possess one (and carries it), Force training or no, is going to be ready and willing to use one when things get up close and personal, as it's basically a pocket sword... that can cut through just about anything. So using a lightsaber won't necessarily grab the attention of every Imperial authority in the sector, but it will almost certainly get somebody's attention (thieves and local criminals, Hutts, the bounty hunters' guild, thugs looking to make a name for themselves by killing somebody who seems like a BAMF - like somebody carrying a lightsaber, eccentric men and women of wealth and power who might desire such relics for their collections and might be willing to pay ridiculous sums for them and literally will not take no for an answer, &c.).

Maybe their father found it while scavenging a battlefield and it lived in the attic. Maybe they found it amidst the detritus of a decades old battlefield, or an ancient tomb, or half-buried in a pile of rusted and rotten crap in a junkyard. Maybe they are a survivor of Order 66 or they befriended someone who did. Maybe their father and/or mother was a bounty hunter or mercenary working for the separatists and once took down (or helped take down) a Jedi and got their lightsaber as a keepsake and passed it down when the PC came of age.

So long as their possession makes sense for the character and the character's use fits the campaign, again, I don't think it should be a problem.

I would definitely agree that publicly visible use of a lightsaber is likely to get some kind of attention, based on what I saw in the Rebels TV series even most imperials are reluctant to believe there is such thing as a Jedi. They might take particular interest in finding out more about anyone who buggers up their plans and carries a lightsaber, but at the same time they're not all that likely to jump to the conclusion of: OMG Jedi! Call in all the reinforcements in the sector, alert every Inquisitor! It's likely to take some time to get enough notoriety to gain that kind of attention.

Thanks for all the input so far everyone!

I would let a player have a light saber IF they are willing to give up the possibility of extra Credits/XP and give up all other equipment and credits they start with (Minus a Slug Pistol they will auto receive too). This forces the character into a Spartan way of playing, and I will make it clear that using said weapon in public will draw upon many unfriendly faces. Also said light saber will be a basic one from FaD.

Basically, if you want a glow stick, you need to be a burden for the other people in the group.

I really think it depends on the campaign. Give the scoundrel a transport ship. Give the scout a great air speeder. As long as each player has something that the other doesn't everyone should be having fun. Unless you are making your game a campaign that doesn't give your players some part of what they want for their characters nothing you give them is going to destroy the game. I have 3 players all with lightsabers and the only cost I gave them is the roleplaying aspect of deciding when to take them out or to leave them concealed. Also because I gave them lightsabers and extra XP I have it worked out that an NPC owns the Starship they are on and they have to work for her since her ship is a lot better than whatever they could acquire.

I think it's ultimately going to depend on the type of player.

For instance, in a friend's Dawn of Defiance game (where we were pretty much starting characters) I was willing to not break out my character's lightsaber at the first opportunity, and in the first session only used it once at the very end, with no surviving witnesses to take out a pair of stormtroopers that were about to execute a fellow PC. And only while we were already hip-deep in Imperials (raiding their research base on Felucia) did my PC really start openly using his lightsaber.

On the other hand, you've got players that aren't going to want to wait and are going to be eager to break out their lightsabers right away, especially if they've got the full-blown basic lightsabers with Breach 1. For those type of players, you might be better off restricting them to the training lightsabers, which still have the same damage but no Breach and only doing stun damage.

Then again, perhaps a comprise could be made in the form of offering a middle ground between the training lightsaber and the basic lightsaber, with the weapon having the following traits: Damage 6, Crit 3, Breach 1 and Sunder qualities, but cannot be modified. This way, the PC gets a capable weapon that does pretty decent damage, but can't be improved beyond the base traits until the PCs find a viable source of kyber crystals.

Would you allow them to start with one if they had an background similar to any of those characters... basically, a mentor gave it to them, taught them how to make it or they found it in a dusty old tomb and managed to fix it up.

On two conditions:

1. They're starting with a saberist spec, otherwise, why the rush?

2. That the supporting backstory is interesting enough to bring into the game later, probably to much lamentation of the party, but hey, it made things interesting and you got your saber. Thanks a lot! You're welcom... I was being sarcastic! I can't tell anymore. Neither can I...

On the earlier idea of a "starter crystal"....

Was discussing this notion with some friends a couple weeks back, namely that the closest thing the Beta has to a "beginner's crystal" is either the training emitter or the Athiss Cave Crystals which are obtained at the end of the Beta adventure (which itself shouldn't take more than two sessions at most unless the players are really dragging their feet).

So in that vein and after doing a little searching on Wookieepedia, I came up with this:

Adegan Crystal

Often used by the Jedi Order through much of its long history prior to the Ruusan Reformations, Adegan crystals such as relacite and danite were deemed suitable for use as a lightsaber focusing crystal, though not as valued as the rarer mephite and pontite variety of crystal. Despite the name, these crystals can be found outside the Adega system, such as parts of the Cularini asteroid belt, though as with many other kyber crystals they have been outlawed by the Empire.

Base Modifiers : Installing this crystal changes a lightsaber's base damage to 6 and critical rating to 2, and the lightsaber gains the Breach 1 and Sunder weapon qualities. If the crystal is removed, the lightsaber loses those qualities and reverts to its previous base damage and critical rating.

Modifications : 1 Damage +1 Mod, 1 Item Quality (Vicious +1) Mod

Hard Points Required : 2

Cost : 6,000 credits; Rarity : 8 (Restricted)

At its base, the Adegan crystal provides the PC with the default performance of a basic lightsaber from the book and has a couple options to tweak the performance, but it won't go very far past that point, requiring the PCs to either accept the limitations of this crystal or searching other more potent types of crystals. I'd also considered adding the whole bit about "automatically detected when sensing surroundings if within range" aspect of the Mephite crystal, but not entirely sure the Adegan is potent enough to warrant that kind of drawback.

That said, if providing any FaD PCs with one of these crystals, it'd come with either a basic hilt or shoto hilt as standard; any other type of hilt (like a double-bladed hilt) will have to come out of the PC's starting funds. I would probably also consider giving the other PCs a boon in the form of either an item of roughly similar value (such as a superior customization for a weapon) or an extra 3000 credits to purchase equipment with.

Depends on the Era. Not every game is going to be set in the Dark Times or the Rebellion Era.

Suppose somebody wants to set their game in Luke's Jedi Academy...or even the full on NJO?

Or go Clone Wars instead...