This past Thursday I ran the beginner game and the pcs seemed to breeze through since the players that have lightsabers sliced through all opponents easily. Did I do something wrong? Do players begin the "core" game with lightsabers?

Be default, the players do not begin the core game with a Lightsaber. Every player is given 500 starting credits to buy whatever gear they need. A basic lightsaber is 9300 credits and restricted. Even if a player takes the morality option that grants additional credits, he or she will still be unable to purchase a lightsaber.

There's an option for GMs to allow characters to start with additional XP and a basic lightsaber (or 9000 starting credits in lieu of a lightsaber) to simulate advanced characters, but it's entirely up to the GM to decide if they want to do that.

Ok, that's good to know. So how would you handle a situation where someone wants to carry on a premade character from the beginner game to the core game.

There's nothing RAW to help you, but if they wanted to keep their lightsaber, I would start the game out at Knight-level play.

You're going to want to re-build that character anyway so they have more room to grow beyond what's presented in the beginner game. Knight-level play starts a character with 150 XP after character creation (which just means they can't spend the XP to bump up their characteristics), plus a lightsaber or 9000 credits.

OR, you could exchange their lightsaber with a training saber. It kind of nerfs the character, so you'll need to get the buy-in of the player first.

Yep, if you're running the Beginner Game, then let them play though that and the follow-on adventure.

After that is done, Knight Level should be a good place to start. Treat your next adventure as an "Episode II," so they can start with fresh skills, talents, equipment, etc.

I've been thinking about this a lot because I'm about to start Gming a game. But basically, not only are they going to be hard to find/construct and make the PC's a target for the Empire, but I was also thinking of upgrading the difficulty to Daunting and reducing their die number to their force rating (usually 1) and PC's must spend a force point to use the lightsaber for defending or attacking. I was also going to make the skill cost a lot of xp, less if they have a mentor/holocron. That way, they can quest to find/make one, but even then, they have to train for a while to be able to use a lightsaber.

The problem I run into is that Lightsaber is a career skill in some of the trees, so I was going to say they can also take Melee as a career skill and use a sword or vibroknife/vibroaxe where applicable. Maybe players that train in melee receive a boost die when they finally get a lightsaber and use it.

I figure, Padawans build their own lightsabers as part of their trials, and it took Luke a while to learn how to effectively use his lightsaber and he had Yoda and Ben training him. But then does that take the fun out of the game?

My other concern as the gm is constantly maiming and/or killing pc's if my npc's have lightsabers, and cortosis armor can't be worn by everyone all the time right? The PC's would loot the bodies and then be invincible, ya?

If you really want to make lightsabers rare, I don't suggest making the changes to the way the rules work, as they sound really harsh. Instead just ban them from starting with a lightsaber, or the lightsaber skill. Then they will need to find one via plot (as you don't just buy them off the back of a van), and you can tell them "Lightsaber skill is now unlocked" when you are ready to let them.

Truthfully I think if you are playing that kind of game, Edge of Empire is a better bet, just with Force and Destiny as a sourcebook, rather than the core of the game,