Hey all!

So I had an epic adventure finale today in which one of my players characters lost their life (or supposedly did) taking out the Sith Lord. During the adventure I had his character find an ancient lightsaber, a protosaber. A type of lightsaber that has an external power pack attached to the belt connected to the hilt with a cable.

It was revealed at the end of the adventure, that the protosaber was left on the groups ship, by the character who somehow survived and wanted to pass the weapon onto another force user in the group.

How would you stat out a protosaber? I Was considering close to a standard lightsaber with the unwieldy talent as well as the GM caveat that the protosaber's power pack can fail with enough net threat or despair, thoughts?

As I understood the old lightsabers, they were basically like iPhones: you could use them cordless, but they drained battery like crazy. So I wouldn't make it Unwieldy but definitely treat Despairs or enough Threat as a failing power pack, but only if it's been in use: it wouldn't make any sense for it to fail in the first round, assuming it's plugged into the charger whenever it's not in use.

Well I am basing it on the article: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Protosaber

"These lightsabers had limited power life and the mobility of the user was restricted by the cord linking the hilt of the weapon to the power supply.
As technology improved, the protosaber design was abandoned in favor of the modern lightsaber design, with some archaic lightsabers modified to remove the necessity of an external power supply. Some later attempts were made to reintroduce the external power supply using modern technology, trading less mobility for a stronger power source."

That's why I think the unwieldy talent due to the awkardness of trying to wield the weapon due to its power cord. I do think threat and despair should effect the archaic power pack though.

I'm a bit on the fence with Unwieldy; it works, but at the same time I'm not certain if it really fits it correctly. I mean, Unwieldy only impacts if you don't have a high enough dexterity, but with how the item is described, even the best saber combatants had issues.

Personally, I'd use either Inaccurate or Inferior. I like Inaccurate better as it's more along the lines of "It's a pain, but it can work really well!" Inferior could work both narratively and mechanically, as the sabers may not have been as powerful, which is then denoted in reduced damage, but the automatic Threat is an issue.

Perhaps try this:

Protosaber

Damage : 5*

Crit : 2

Range : Engaged

Encumbrance : 2

HP : 4

Price : Not Available For Sale (depends on Era. Could be a priceless antique or cutting edge tech; price accordingly). ®

Rarity : 10

Special : Breach, Sunder. See Notes.

Notes : A protosaber is only functional when attached to a belt-worn power pack with a cable. The power pack and saber aren't as efficient as modern versions, and tend to run into complications during use. Any time the user of a protosaber rolls <T><T><T> or <Despair>, the saber malfunctions until it is repaired.

Should someone attacking the wielder of a protosaber roll <TR><TR>, they may damage the power pack or cut the cable. The cable can be Sundered.

Anyone wielding a protosaber adds a setback die to their rolls due to the awkward nature of the cable.

*Any crystal used in a protosaber has it's damage reduced by 1.

This is just an idea off the top of my head. It may be a bit unbalanced, but an ancient weapon that was experimental only a minor step up from the Force Swords of old (but allowed Breach and Deflection) is bound to have some issues.

Considering this is an ancient weapon, you are going to have a lot of other complications. The battery should not be functional after a very long time. Though if you could find something to charge it with... you might could reactivate it. And that is going to be the hard part... finding something to charge it. In just the short span of electronics that we have used in our modern world, things have changed drastically. You might could get something that worked fifty years ago to limp along without some major modifications. But this isn't fifty years we are talking about... this is hundreds to thousands of years (I'm not exactly sure how long "ancient" is in that galaxy far far away). I would consider that wiring patterns were different, not to mention amperage and even possibly something like at one point everything was direct current and the galaxy is now using alternating current. That would totally hose your device.

It is a cool relic and could show the origins of it and A) Might be worth a lot of money, because "it belongs in a MUSEUM!" or B) it could be canibalized for a crystal that the players do not have access to (if they already have basic ones).

I would be inclined to say that this would be an exceptional crystal from long ago because over time the power sources were vastly improved. As such, pull one of the exotics from the new rules and add some description in for it. But to use it they will have to rebuild the power source and if you are doing that, why leave it connected to an archaic crumbling backpack, just put it in a modern hilt and have fun with the description.

Considering this is an ancient weapon, you are going to have a lot of other complications. The battery should not be functional after a very long time. Though if you could find something to charge it with... you might could reactivate it. And that is going to be the hard part... finding something to charge it. In just the short span of electronics that we have used in our modern world, things have changed drastically. You might could get something that worked fifty years ago to limp along without some major modifications. But this isn't fifty years we are talking about... this is hundreds to thousands of years (I'm not exactly sure how long "ancient" is in that galaxy far far away). I would consider that wiring patterns were different, not to mention amperage and even possibly something like at one point everything was direct current and the galaxy is now using alternating current. That would totally hose your device.

Always remember, though, that Star Wars exists in a state of Technological Stasis, in which the same technologies are being used and adapted, but seldom truly improved upon. We only see leaps in certain branches of technology, and most of them were thousands of years prior to when most campaigns take place.

Besides, if a three thousand year old droid can still function in the Rebellion, I don't think we can claim this idea as accurate.

I'll cite R2-D2 as my example for changing technology. Luke's X-Wing was not updated to keep up with systems and in time only R2-D2 could interface with it. This is a very short period of time when Luke first began to fly an X-Wing to the point where they had trouble interfacing other R2 units to it. Of course, for R2-D2, this constant unchanged interaction allowed him to function more efficiently.

Yes, there are oddities in all of it. There could be things that would work for extremely long periods of time... and droids are very good at it as they are constantly working on themselves and can do self-repair. I'm not saying anyone has to do it the way I suggested, I'm only looking through one viewport at a single event in a fictional galaxy. Logic is not always your best friend there. Story is. Play it how you feel it goes best... and in the long run, so I don't have to juggle all of the info or keep up with a separate handwritten rulebook, I try to keep it as simple as possible.