I just received my copy of the core rulebook in the mail today and I am already planning my first campaign as a GM. One thing I notice is that there seems to be relatively little advice in the book about how to handle the specifics of PCs receiving and learning to use lightsabers. All the classes have one specialization that teaches the Lightsaber skill, and much of the game seems themed around PCs acting as quasi-Jedi (much of the artwork depicts lightsaber users), but there are no rules about, say, whether PCs can start with lightsabers, or under what circumstances they ought to gain them. In fact, Lightsabers are listed as Restricted in the equipment chapter, meaning players can only have them with GM permission. The starting adventure has PCs gain some of the materials needed to construct their own, with the rest of the process promised in the adventure in the GM kit, which I don't have yet.

So my question, speaking mainly to those who have run the game either in Beta or in full release, is: how do you handle the logistics of gaining, and training with, lightsabers? What do you think are good ways for players to gain lightsabers that don't feel hokey or contrived? After all, there are only so many opportunities to miraculously discover caches of lightsabers sitting around waiting for Force-sensitive adventurers to find them. So it seems to me that one would need to construct an adventure or series of adventurers around finding lightsabers or the materials to make them... either that, or just bite the bullet and let players start with a lightsaber if they want one. So, experienced GMs, any advice on this subject? How did your PCs gain their lightsabers, if at all, and how did it work out?

You can buy a training lightsaber at character creation. It can be updated to a real ligthsaber by getting a different crystal (e.g., a lightsaber hilt is a lightsaber hilt so you really just need a new crystal).

The GM section says that a Knight-level Character (defined as any character who's achieved at least 150XP after character creation) should have attained a real lightsaber by this point. A starting Knight-level character can start with an Illum lightsaber.

As for an explanation for how players will get a lightsaber...

Let the players figure out how to get one! Juts be responsive to their efforts.

Maybe their character has a non-functioning lightsaber (or training lightsaber) explained in their background and they can pursue getting it functional.

Maybe specific parts can be gained from a patron who is helping the group.

Maybe Obligation can be gained to get a lightsaber (or parts like a crystal) from an archeologist, educational/museum institute, etc.

Maybe the player(s) want to go to Illum to get crystals (or some other planet).

If there are a bunch of players in the group that want lightsabers then maybe the Mentor is a good option - someone who can help them not only train in the Force but get what they need to construct lightsabers (or send them on missions to get them).

Maybe there's a Jedi Temple or Enclave lost to history the Mentor (or someone else) knows about that houses functional (or nearly functional or crystals) in it's armory.

The pregen adventure in the back of the book is about getting a lightsaber, and the GM kit goes into more detail on lightsabers. The GM kit includes a second adventure that can build on the first, where PCs can get the crystal that is the heart of their lightsaber.

I have always found that constructing your own and finding/bonding to the crystal is better than just finding a premade lightsaber. However, I ran a story where the players were Jedi that were trying to escape the temple during order 66 (or pre order 66) and there was a hidden chamber deep within the temple that contained "apocrypha" lightsabers. Very unique and strange lightsabers.

In the FFG game lightsabers can be any color. Usually blue or green but others are known to be out there. I also like to suggest a color based on the PCs main stat (or a hue combination if tied). Red for Brawn, Orange for Agility, Green for Wisdom, Yellow for Cunning, Blue for Intellect, Purple for Presence.

The parts for a lightsaber hilt aren't that uncommon, other than perhaps the diatum energy cell. I would highly suggest looking at Knights of the Old Republic as a good example for cool names for the parts needed. Inspiration can be drawn from the Legends books "Young Jedi Knights "Lightsabers" or I, Jedi" In addition, for the crystals part I suggest watching the Clone Wars Episode "The Gathering". Best of luck.

I've done a few different things myself. In one game, a player found a lightsaber in a "Glamdring in the Troll Cave" type way. In another, a PC killed a dark Jedi and took his saber from him.

I've also had "advanced level" games where the PCs all started with lightsaber (and one had a San-Ni Staff).

I've never actually run a game where a PC built their own lightsaber! So that'll be fun.

In our last session, our doctor discovered he was force sensitive (bought FSE),learned Move, and swiped a lightsaber pike from a Shadow Guard. Will be interesting to see where this goes.

There's a number of different ways that a PC could go about obtaining lightsabers. The adventures in the GM Kit and the back of the FaD Beta book are set up to allow PCs to obtain suitable crystals for lightsabers. The adventure in the corebook has a sidebar to suggest providing a couple of basic ligthsabrs to the PC, and that one is pretty much set to be run for a group of starting PCs.

As for the PCs having lightsabers and being able to practice with them, it's a matter of secrecy. Look to Star Wars Rebels, where two of the lead characters (Kanan and Ezra) both have lightsabers, but they only break them out when facing off with another lightsaber-wielding adversary, such as the Inquisitor (Season 1) and Lord Vader (Siege of Lothal). The PCs should generally exercise a similar degree of restraint, and save the lightsabers for when things have gotten bad enough that being outed as a Jedi won't make things any worse (also known as crossing the Godzilla Threshold), or that there are few to any credible witnesses that would act against the PC. Case in point, when a friend of mine was running our AoR group through the Dead in the Water module from the AoR GM Kit, my Shii-Cho Knight was pretty open with using his lightsaber while aboard the Alliance ship, both because he was pretty sure the Rebels on board wouldn't turn him in to the Empire and because the main opponents of Act 2 were all droids. The GM figured that if ever there was a time for my PC to break out the ever-glowin' beatstick, that was it.

And if the PCs are reckless with breaking out the lightsabers, don't be afraid to call down the heat. Kanan was too bold for his own good in Spark of Rebellion, leading to an Inquisitor being dispatched to Lothal to investigate, and that Inquisitor proved to be a very dangerous opponent for the Lothal Rebels until the very end when Kanan had his epiphany. Don't be afraid to unleash a similar threat if the PCs are being too open with lightsabers and/or Force powers; the Empire sees Jedi and by extension Force users as a significant threat if said person isn't in the Empire's service already.

For my Knight-level game with the kids, everyone will begin with a lightsaber.

Should anyone in my Friday night game begin as a Force-sensitive, they are going to have to work for it. It's like getting that cool magic item in D&D, the experience should be a memorable one.

I made my players work for it. One, a Driver/FSE, just received one last session after pretty much devoting the last half of the campaign to tirelessly chasing down leads on her father's death. She was rewarded with a box that was entrusted to her father's friend years ago, which contained a lightsaber that belonged to her mother.

At this stage, she still doesn't have all the information she needs. She doesn't know whether or not her mother was a Jedi. She doesn't have a teacher of any kind who might instruct her in the ways of the Force or how to use a lightsaber, and I've said she can't buy into a Force and Destiny Specialization until she finds one. Finally, without said teacher, I told her that using the lightsaber is as dangerous to herself, if not moreso, than it is to anyone she might try to use it on.

What I don't know yet is whether or not she'll be able to mod the crystal, since it's not attuned to her. I'm thinking that, because it belonged to her mother, it may be a slightly more difficult Mechanics check. Either Average or the standard Easy but permanently upgraded to a Challenge die.

In the game in which I'm a player, we all received our lightsabers after locating an ancient crystal cave with a barely functioning caretaker droid and undergoing some pretty serious trials of the mind. We've used them fairly often, though at least my character and one other tend to leave theirs behind, since they attract a lot of unwanted attention.

Small note - looked at the Training Lightsaber entry in F&D and it says you'd also need to get a new power generator (and a new crystal) to turn it into a real lightsaber. Power generators are not listed as gear so that can be handled narratively.

Yeah, Jedi get their first sabers from their masters, and, since you probably won't have one, getting that first one, now, is meant to be a bit harder than "save up the credits, and go to the shop, down the street", or even "sneak into the Imperial armory, on that base, and get out with one. I'd be happier about it if the lightsabers were like the other books, where they were a cut above most other weapons, but they are still fearful, and the system of improving them does give them a "part of your evolving character" feel, and eventually make them a terrifying weapon, even if you probably won't be able to fully pimp it up, what with increasing difficulty, and failure costing you that upgrade, permanently. Still, they are the iconic Star Wars weapon, and while having one, as a weapon, is cool, they also have a mystique about them, and advertise you for what you probably are; a Jedi, even if the truth is very different. This brings a lot of attention to you, when you maybe don't want it; they should be hard to get.

I won't retype it, again, because I choose to believe that no one wants to read it, again, or they can go hunt it down on the beta threads , but in the two instances I've written, more for story than a game I'm in, but it could work there, too, one had to recover his saber, lost at the end of the Clone Wars, and now one of several in the collection of a powerful crime lord, after going through the hopps to learn what happened to it, after the death of General Grievous (involved research, computer hacking, paying off some people, and getting attacked by other unsavories), and the other left his with a friend, knowing she wasn't going to likely still be friendly, if they ever met again, and he got caught by an Inquisitor, tortured for two years, before being saved, and running into her, again; she still had it, and she struck him with the handle, in her way of saying "hi".

Jedi might be told, conflictingly, that this is either your life, or just another tool, no more valuable than any other, and don't form attachments to things, and also "just another weapon", in the collection of your group's gear, but in the whole of things, the lightsaber is special, and getting one should be a milestone, not just another acquisition.

I think finding the parts for the lightsaber is easy. Even the crystal part is one or two sessions, but eventually they'll get what they want. The tricky part is - in my opinion - to find someone who can teach the player how to assemble it. The schematics doesn't tell a jedi how to concentrate the Force to fine-tune the crystal, or don't blow her hand off when she turn on the saber for the first time.

Yet on the other hand, Ezra, in Rebels, crafts his own lightsaber / blaster without assistance from anyone... and we have to assume that is canon, right? Of course, before this, he has seen a fully functioning lightsaber, so that might skew his world view just a bit...

I'll be honest, I've had two PCs that had to work for their lightsaber crystals, and each time the adventure they went through to earn their respective crystals was both enjoyable and memorable, and did indeed feel as though they were undergoing a Trial to see if they were worthy of calling themselves Jedi.

I also remember the first Jedi character I played in WEG, and how the GM all but trivialized my character's acquisition of a lightsaber, as though it were just another piece of gear instead of something that my character had been working/striving towards over the course of several sessions. I was pretty let down that what should have been a major milestone was given the same treatment as the bounty hunter buying a new heavy blaster pistol to replace the one that he'd lost in a prior adventure.

Yet on the other hand, Ezra, in Rebels, crafts his own lightsaber / blaster without assistance from anyone... and we have to assume that is canon, right? Of course, before this, he has seen a fully functioning lightsaber, so that might skew his world view just a bit...

He actually did "quest" for his saber crystal though. It wasn't like Kanan just tossed a spare one to him.

It does sound like the challenge for assembling a lightsaber these days is getting the crystal.

Gotta keep this in perspective though. The EU tended to have a hot dog for all things Force, and previous game systems didn't do a great job of balancing Jedi. So having to do all kinds of silliness to get a working lightsaber made sense back then.

While I suspect we'll get back there eventually, with the canon wipe all that EU bratwurst juggling is in question. Likewise Rebels and Clone Wars both made a big deal out of getting the crystal and a relatively minor deal out of actual saber assembly. Tack on that the saber is good (but not amazballz) in FFG's game and that explains why they don't consider it such a big deal either.

Give it time though. We only need a couple of novel authors with a kielbasa to go back to the Jedi being more Mary Sueish and all things Jedi related being great secrets of the ages.

The one Force-user we have in our group still doesn't have his lightsaber, but the group itself hasn't made it a point to go after it. We're running The Jewel of Yavin right now, however, and the player is suspicious of the jewel itself, thinking it might be able to be cut down and used as a lightsaber crystal * . Unfortunately, he doesn't have anyone to teach him out to make a lightsaber, and he's only seen one briefly, used by his mentor back on Ryloth. His mentor is no longer accessible, and he only has the most mundane notions of how to construct his saber.

It does sound like the challenge for assembling a lightsaber these days is getting the crystal.

Gotta keep this in perspective though. The EU tended to have a hot dog for all things Force, and previous game systems didn't do a great job of balancing Jedi. So having to do all kinds of silliness to get a working lightsaber made sense back then.

While I suspect we'll get back there eventually, with the canon wipe all that EU bratwurst juggling is in question. Likewise Rebels and Clone Wars both made a big deal out of getting the crystal and a relatively minor deal out of actual saber assembly. Tack on that the saber is good (but not amazballz) in FFG's game and that explains why they don't consider it such a big deal either.

Give it time though. We only need a couple of novel authors with a kielbasa to go back to the Jedi being more Mary Sueish and all things Jedi related being great secrets of the ages.

The GM Kit puts a number on what it takes to make a functioning lightsaber hilt: 300 credits, or an average Streetwise check. It literally says the lightsaber housing can be a "length of industrial piping". You can raid a hardware store anywhere to get the necessary parts. The crystal pretty much seems to be the primary defining element.

Makes sense, mechanically. It's easier for GMs and players to keep track of two parts than six or seven.

You always have the most fascinating metaphors.

Oh... definitely quest for the crystal... and I'm all for questing for pieces for the hilt, especially the power, but also the couplings and any specialized metal. I don't know that I'll have them get to the point of rolling for each step of the process (especially turning metal into a formed hilt), but I definitely want to have an interactive telling of this. It is an iconic moment for the character and it should be special and memorable. There will be a roll at some point... even if it is only for how long it takes (mostly I'm hoping for some threat or despair so I can give a scar to someone...)

Just my two pence here, but the way I'm running the adventure starts them off with the Beginner Game, then takes them through Lessons from the Past and Hidden Depths. As a result they will end up with a crystal and a holocron with the instructions on how to use it (I've decided that the three holocrons from the Beginner Game would count as one with Lightsaber and Knowledge (Lore). My temptation would be to have them simply acquire the spare parts through handwaving of plot, unless any of them want something unique.

Rather than the usual xp reward at the end of Hidden Depths I would instead give them 30xp that they would have to wait to spend. On returning to their hideout or the Temple from the Beginner Game I would have their holocron with the lightsaber instructions flash up and explain to them the merits of each lightsaber form in a cool monologue, culminating in them each choosing one form, with the ability to purchase a rank of lightsaber and a single starting talent. In this way I'd start them down the road to lightsaber badassery.

TL;DR Just the crystal; make components easy; training holocron; enough xp to get them started

The GM Kit puts a number on what it takes to make a functioning lightsaber hilt: 300 credits, or an average Streetwise check. It literally says the lightsaber housing can be a "length of industrial piping". You can raid a hardware store anywhere to get the necessary parts. The crystal pretty much seems to be the primary defining element.

Makes sense, mechanically. It's easier for GMs and players to keep track of two parts than six or seven.

You always have the most fascinating metaphors.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Luke made his own off-screen, and the one Kylo Ren is wielding in The Force Awakens looks like it was cobbled together from spare parts.

The GM Kit puts a number on what it takes to make a functioning lightsaber hilt: 300 credits, or an average Streetwise check. It literally says the lightsaber housing can be a "length of industrial piping". You can raid a hardware store anywhere to get the necessary parts. The crystal pretty much seems to be the primary defining element.

Makes sense, mechanically. It's easier for GMs and players to keep track of two parts than six or seven.

You always have the most fascinating metaphors.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Luke made his own off-screen, and the one Kylo Ren is wielding in The Force Awakens looks like it was cobbled together from spare parts.

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Nice to have something to point at when somebody says they absolutely have to have their lightsaber hilt made out of solid corundum.

Thanks, everyone, for the great tips and stories! I'm thinking the path set out by the adventures in the core book and GM kit may be the way to go. Either that, or I'll let the players use their imagination and show me how they're going to proceed.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Luke made his own off-screen, and the one Kylo Ren is wielding in The Force Awakens looks like it was cobbled together from spare parts.

And Ezra's (from Rebels) IS actually made from spare parts.

There is a difference between most characters and Ezra or Luke. They haven't usually seen, handled and taken apart a lightsaber before. Luke's is also made from spare parts he found in Obi Wan's house where he got the crystal is another question. Kylo apparently had a Holocron that gave him instructions, but he wasn't great at the whole assembly using spare parts.

The game I am running, the PCs (5 in all){2 being F&D beta based jedi} in a EotE game set two weeks after the purge in Ep3. One pc's master was killed outright by clone troopers. The other escaped with his master and picked up a more advanced jedi than the PC who wasn't quite a master, but not a padawan either. (just a plain jedi?) They have basic light sabers given to them by their masters that are in-between a training version and a full version. Both are flawed and I've been waiting for despair result to in essence fry them. However, I game with some solid old school gamers like myself, and with a light saber being a red flag sign of a jedi, they have been very careful about using them till the last part of the first chapter/season of the campaign. And of course they rolled well and never was that an option. One has a flawed crystal and the other a flawed power cell/emitter.

KSW