In the adventure that comes with the GM Kit, I know that the players can get their own Kyber Crystals. Based on this, are the crystals typically colored, do they change, etc.? I have heard many different versions in the lore.

Also, should I determine the color of the crystal (which dictates the lightsaber blade color) for each character or does the player?

Thanks!

The only thing I believe is canon is that Ilum crystals come exclusively in blue and green (which is why nearly all Jedi lightsabers are those colours). Other than that I don't believe there are any specific rules on the subject anywhere, at least not that I've seen.

According to the StarWars.com databank , which is as close to canon as we can get:

A lightsaber crystal is colorless until first attuned and connected to a Jedi -- at which times it glows either blue or green, or in some rare instances, another shade. From that point on, it retains that hue.

My take on it is, give the players the option of green or blue. If they really want another color, have them ask you and give you a very good reason as to why they think their blade should take on a different color. Keep it subject to your approval, and maybe tell them "no for now," but let them have it eventually, after some quality game play.

I personally take the attitude that each colour is attuned to the unique personality of the being who first claims it. Each individual is different, and this is reflected in how their crystal takes shape and what colour it displays as. Thus, it can be any colour - the Force is mysterious like that. I've put together a handy guide on the different colours of blade and how I feel they reflect certain traits, which I can post if there's interest.

Off-topic: this sort of discussion is why I like Star Wars and actually have come round to Legends. With no established canon outside of the movies and the ever-more-varied tv shows, you can make a lot of your own judgements. Hence why everyone above had their own judgement to make.

Why is lightsabre color a big deal? Does the color really matter? Why would a person need GM approval for a color outside of blue and green? It's not like the canon setting maintains that those are the only ones possible. It seems such a minor detail that I don't really get why anyone would have to work to have a different colored lightsabre.

I'm shocked that people get worked up over saber color. I usual just pick a random D6 out of my die bag (and I have many, many, many, many die to choose from) and go with that. Sometimes it's cool and weird, sometimes it's boring and sometimes it gets thrown back when I don't like the color - but it's never had an impact on the game.

People get worked up over weird things. It shouldn't really matter, but this is perhaps the most iconic weapon in fiction we're discussing. So if you want a rainbow blade that should be allowed!

I've told players that Ilum crystals are only green and blue, and that Dantari crystals are green, blue, purple, or yellow. I then follow that statement with, "But the game's happening in your mind, so it can be any color you **** well please, just be consistent about it." Most of my players are only interested in green or blue anyway.

The only ones I rule out are black (because I think it's weird) and white (I want my Imperial Knights to be special, dammit).

I've told players that Ilum crystals are only green and blue, and that Dantari crystals are green, blue, purple, or yellow. I then follow that statement with, "But the game's happening in your mind, so it can be any color you **** well please, just be consistent about it." Most of my players are only interested in green or blue anyway.

The only ones I rule out are black (because I think it's weird) and white (I want my Imperial Knights to be special, dammit).

You know, with the "new" explanation as to why saber colors are the way they are, it really does lend a bit to why Imperial Knight crystals are white. Either they...

A) are like Ahsoka, and are white due to their own Force tradition and teachings

or

B) are synthetic, and because they're synthetic maybe the Force doesn't give them hue.

Something to ponder...

Why is lightsabre color a big deal? Does the color really matter? Why would a person need GM approval for a color outside of blue and green? It's not like the canon setting maintains that those are the only ones possible. It seems such a minor detail that I don't really get why anyone would have to work to have a different colored lightsabre.

If a player asked me that question, I would counter, "Why is it so difficult to answer the question, 'What makes you different?'"*

If tens of thousands or Jedi who came before you all had blue or green lightsabers, and you are one of the incredibly few to have a crystal that gives you a blade of a different color, why is that ? I would have thought the answer might lead to some really cool personality development, or clarify some event in the character's past.

*As a generally non-confrontational person, I would probably phrase the question in a more tactful manner

If a player asked me that question, I would counter, "Why is it so difficult to answer the question, 'What makes you different?'

"Because I'm a PC. Duh."

Why is lightsabre color a big deal? Does the color really matter? Why would a person need GM approval for a color outside of blue and green? It's not like the canon setting maintains that those are the only ones possible. It seems such a minor detail that I don't really get why anyone would have to work to have a different colored lightsabre.

If a player asked me that question, I would counter, "Why is it so difficult to answer the question, 'What makes you different?'"*

If tens of thousands or Jedi who came before you all had blue or green lightsabers, and you are one of the incredibly few to have a crystal that gives you a blade of a different color, why is that ? I would have thought the answer might lead to some really cool personality development, or clarify some event in the character's past.

*As a generally non-confrontational person, I would probably phrase the question in a more tactful manner

By virtue of being a PC they are different. The fact that they are training to be a Jedi in an era in which the Jedi are all dead they are different, unique, and rare. By the time the story is done beinj told they would have more than proven why they are different from thousands of Jedi before them. Maybe the player doesn't have the answer up front but when the campaign is over he'll be able to more than explain what makes them so different that they'd get a different color.

Hell the different color could forshadow their future greatness.

Also Ashoka randomly started using a yellow saber as her backup. She wasn't exactly the shows most unique and different character.

My favorite would be the blacklight lightsaber blade color created by the crystals of Memphis. Perhaps the party finds them with the black velvet jedi robes and the rhinestone encrusted hilt.

I think that colours should be up to GM and player agreement. On the other hand, some players don't have a particular wish - and there is something to randomness that can help a PC find their way or get a feel for their character.

Based on the idea that randomness and character actions should or could affect the colour, I wrote up these rules to generate a colour, but still allow for choice.

Might have some assumptions involved by color...

A Lore check of...a difficulty I haven't decided yet...would tell you Red is aligned with the Empire, and any other color belongs to those guys who are under order 66.

My favorite would be the blacklight lightsaber blade color created by the crystals of Memphis. Perhaps the party finds them with the black velvet jedi robes and the rhinestone encrusted hilt.

Also very popular at Temple raves.

All of my players stuck with green, blue and yellow except for one who went with red, but he had a good reason for it. My game is set during the Old Republic and he is a zabarak who came from a Sith family. The red lightsaber crystal is a family heirloom that he took with him when he escaped Imperial space to join the Jedi. I have warned him that some people will not take kindly to that color.

If a player asked me that question, I would counter, "Why is it so difficult to answer the question, 'What makes you different?'

"Because I'm a PC. Duh."

Kael and Desslok, I think you missed the point of my question. It wasn't, "What makes you so special?" The question was designed to bring out some interesting character development points, like I elaborated on my second post above. The question, again, is, " What makes you different?" As in, an in-universe explanation. I'll take just about any explanation that doesn't involve cheesy game language.

I'll agree that PCs should be different and special. But I'd like the players to be able point to something for their characters and say "here's where I'm different. When I put my crystal into the lightsaber, and ignited it, it turned a bright orange. I don't know what it means, but I think that the Force has something in store for me. Before now, I didn't think the Force even had a will, but now I'm starting to believe it does..."

Now. Was that so hard? Not a metagame answer, but a metanarrative answer, definitely.

I would also accept "I disagree with the Jedi Code and their hypocritical philosophies. I am dedicated to justice in the galaxy, and my lightsaber blade is white." Or, "I was a Temple dropout, and escaped Order 66 with some of my service corps buddies. We banded together, and when we constructed our lightsabers, they all shone a brilliant silver. Not a Jedi color, but something that we could identify with...a different kind of symbol to rally around, I think."

Also Ashoka randomly started using a yellow saber as her backup. She wasn't exactly the shows most unique and different character.

Sure she was. She was a main character...by virtue of being a main character she was different, unique

Seriously though, she dueled Grievous as a neophyte padawan and survived. That's something that many Knights and Masters can't claim to have done (cuz they're dead). She fought Asajj Ventress to a standstill. She had much insight for such a young one. And she was apprenticed to the Chosen One.

Obviously she had a great destiny, as we can see in later episodes of TCW.

Her new yellow blade was made after she performed many heroics (such as defeating a ship full of brain-invaded allies, and without killing them all; getting the drop on Bossk, Boba Fett, and Aurra Sing all at once and helping Plo Koon take the former two into custody, after presumably killing the third...and much more).

She made is (I presume) for added defense against Ventress and Greivous, should she meet with them again, but in the making it turned yellow, saying perhaps something about her personality, convictions, duty, and/or role as she continued to defend the Republic and become who she is destined to be. (and anyway, yellow isn't even that strange a color. It features heavily in EU sources, where it is one of the "standard" colors of the Jedi Order, after green and blue)

Kael and Desslok, I think you missed the point of my question. It wasn't, "What makes you so special?" The question was designed to bring out some interesting character development points, like I elaborated on my second post above. The question, again, is, " What makes you different?" As in, an in-universe explanation. I'll take just about any explanation that doesn't involve cheesy game language.

No I got your point. I just don't see a point in your question. They are different by virtue of being PC's. There is no need for a metanarative. Is the player who comes up with this deep reason for why he's different more deserving of a different color than the one who simply wants it because their favorite color is purple? Mace Windu didn't have a purple lightsabre because he answered the question "What makes you different?" That was determined after the fact. He got a purple lightsabre so that he would stand out during the arena scene. No metanarrative.

A person who simply wants it because they like the color is just as deserving as the one who thinks their character is different. Why does a Jedi need a metanarrative for a cosmetic choice? Are all his cosmetic choices going to require some in universe explanation?

Sure she was. She was a main character...by virtue of being a main character she was different, unique

Seriously though, she dueled Grievous as a neophyte padawan and survived. That's something that many Knights and Masters can't claim to have done (cuz they're dead). She fought Asajj Ventress to a standstill. She had much insight for such a young one. And she was apprenticed to the Chosen One.

But she wasn't special. That's the thing. She was average compared to the company she kept. Everyone around her was highly heroic. They were all doing great deeds. Ashoka wasn't so much standing out and doing amazing things as she was just in good company. She had to keep up. But she wasn't all that special. More so when you consider she wasn't the chosen one. She had no great destiny, especially when compared to her master. Hell Anakin had a normal blue saber. If we are going to use the metanarrative to justify lightsabre colors then Anakin's should have been different not Ashoka. And yet she got a different color.

The canon sources are very mercurial when it comes to handing out different lightsabre colors. If the people who make the setting are giving different lightsabre colors to characters because it's cool and that's what the person behind the character wants, and then writing in the justification for it after the fact, then why should players be made to adhere to some kind of higher standard. Over a simple cosmetic design. The game makes it no big deal. The setting makes it no big deal. So why do other people make such a big deal?

I make a big deal, firstly, because I care about the cosmetics. I would ask similar questions of players who had PCs with interesting scars, or cybernetic prostheses, or a curious tattoo, or an insignia on her armor pauldron. I ask because I care about the players, and will jump at the chance to get them more invested in their characters.

Secondly, I make a big deal because I care about the setting. Not in a "get your grubby hands off my narrative" way, but in a way that makes me want to get the "feel" right for the games I run. So if I get a player who wants to stand out in a certain way, which he should, I will make sure that he understands that he is standing out. Same as if a Kel Dor had silver irises, or if a Wookiee was best friends with a Trandoshan; there's gotta be story there.

Thirdly, as an aside, all adventures and campaigns, even episodic ones and sandboxes, have a metanarrative. Even if it's completely disjointed. So that's what i was talking about.

I understand if others don't share my values. It'd be weird if everyone did. Cool, but weird

I generally prefer it when the options are limited to blue, green and red, with certain others such as yellow or yellow-green, purple and white being a bit more rare or something to that effect. Quite frankly, I just want to avoid the Rainbow Brigade Effect. But that is just me.

And I do not think being a PC is enough of a reason. PCs may be the heroes of their particular adventure or campaign, but they still exist and act within the confines of this world. And if Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine were not special enough to warrant weird colors or at least different ones (obviously Mace Windu is an exception on account of his being Samuel L. Jackson ), then the PCs are not either, or at least until they prove otherwise. But as I have already said, just the way I see things, my opinion.

Everyone in the Prequels conformed to the big 3 colors. And naturally, the sequels conformed to that too. Green does seem to be a more 'grown up' color then blue for Jedi. Or perhaps a color of greater wisdom.

Yes, yes, Guardian/Consular, but Luke's hand me down was blue and his personal saber was green, so it feels like growing up when he goes green.

Why restrain your imagination? It's a game after all. This movie quote seemed to put things in perspective.

"They're not really rules. More like guidelines..."

I still find this discussion interesting. According to the new RAW (in the GM Kit), the kyber crystal takes it's color from the character's force interaction when the crystal is harvested / attuned. There is no description of color. There is no mention of traditions of color. Having played KOTOR and SWTOR (along with some others), I have a bias towards certain colors and what they represent for the lightsaber user. But that is an outside influence. In the movies, especially the original trilogy, we have very little historical data to draw from. No one says colors match up with a class (read Career). Mostly, Luke's lucky to have one until he learns enough to make his own.

Personally, I take the skittles approach with these things. Use it as an opportunity for the player to tell you what the lightsaber looks like (not just the color... describe the whole thing or find me a picture of what you made). There will be crystals that add in additional effects, so to begin with, you only get basic color choice (no mixing or twirling... no sparks or atmospheric effects). As the crystal is a reflection of the user, I need to believe that the color suits your character. And describe it more than just "it's blue". Is it a light blue, arctic blue white, deep dark blue? Followed by "why?" When I'm satisfied that they really thought about it and are actually owning the color choice, I go through the creation sequence with them describing bringing all the pieces together with the Force.

In most of the Galaxy, if you pull out a red lightsaber, are people really going to act that much different than if you pull out a blue or green one? Mostly, they see you are using a restricted weapon and are either getting out of the way, letting the local Imperials know, or assuming you are going to do bad things to someone and don't want that attention focused on them. Very very few are going to go, "Oh! You have a Green Lightsaber and must be a Good Jedi... right this way, we'll help you!"