So, I'm running a campaign where the characters are servingthe Empire as a special forces squad. They've met with some good initial success, and I figure at this rate they may end up being utilized by Vader to hunt down the Falcon.

However, there is a wrinkle to this: the team leader is a force sensitive that just recently realized his connection to the force. He's been hiding this fact from the Empire because he doesn't want to become an Inquisitor and lose his squad. Obviously, if he comes facetoface with Vader the jig is up, but what about over holocommunications? We know Vader can choke people remotely, how far can he sense people?

There are side bars on this in the force chapter. Though they are more narrative than specific.

Maybe Vader's first thought might not be "execute", but how can he use this to his advantage? What happens is everything is business as usual and the characters get lots of special work and maybe even special favor, and then suddenly the team gets assigned to a no-win mission.

He can sense people as far as *plot*. He didn't sense Luke even though he was on the Death Star. Only when trying to take him out did he realize. It's possible he only senses it when there's a potential for conflict or he's actively looking (e.g.: "why is this pilot harder to track?")

I've heard that originally Lucas felt that anyone could learn the ways of the Force, that it was more a matter of dedication and training than lineage or biology*. So perhaps it only becomes apparent through actions and usage. You should feel free to play it however you see fit, IMHO Force Sensitives aren't necessarily detectable unless there is a good reason.

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* I'm not trying to insert a midichlorian debate here. I'm sure lineage and heritage play to more compelling archetypes, and Lucas was all about archetypes, hence the change.

It's worth pointing out Vader went 3 whole movies without realizing Leia could use the Force. Soooooooooooo he's not always one to sense such things all the time.

I'd say, for ease of the campaign, he can't sense the Force sensitive over the comms. That, or the Force sensitive guy maybe makes an excuse to not be in the room when Vader calls.

One thing...Active force use ripples the pond as it were. The bigger the use the bigger the ripple.

This pretty much sums up my view:

He can sense people as far as *plot*.

Beyond that, in my "head canon", it's pretty difficult to detect a force-user when they're not actively using the Force, especially if they're weak. So, if your player has a character that's a budding Force-user, if he's not using Force powers and talents, I doubt Vader would sense him/her even if he was standing right in front of them.

Shroud learn it love it use it. Solves all those pesky can he sense me problems.

I think if one is aware of one's force ability? It is hard to keep in check. For example he could sense Luke alot easier once Luke started training. Whereas Leia wasn't detected because she herself wasn't aware of her ability. It would be a hard thing to hide if all you could think about it hiding it. Do they have to meet Vader?

Vader was only able to sense Luke for the first time when he was actively using the force to enhance his piloting skills. After that, it might have been easier for him to look for that "signature". I wouldn't expect him to sense force-sensitivity when the character isn't actively using the force at that moment, expecially with new-found powers. A full-trained Jedi, strong in the force might be different and actually "radiate" something. But a new emerging force-sensitive? Not so much.

I also believe that the main reason Vader could sense Obi-Wan's presence aboard the Death Star was because they knew each other really well. With someone less familiar I imagine it would require either a deliberate attempt to sense something about them, or being close when they were actively using Force powers or Force talents.

And it's not like he gets an instant feeling that someone is there. Obi Wan made it onto the Death Star with out Vader immediately sensing him.

And it's not like he gets an instant feeling that someone is there. Obi Wan made it onto the Death Star with out Vader immediately sensing him.

Vader was less than twenty feet away from Ben's hiding spot on the Falcon. It's only a guess, but I think that Ben might have reached out to Vader, either deliberately or unconsciously. Alternatively, as others have said, as soon as Ben started using the Force Vader zeroed in on him.

And it's not like he gets an instant feeling that someone is there. Obi Wan made it onto the Death Star with out Vader immediately sensing him.

Vader was less than twenty feet away from Ben's hiding spot on the Falcon. It's only a guess, but I think that Ben might have reached out to Vader, either deliberately or unconsciously. Alternatively, as others have said, as soon as Ben started using the Force Vader zeroed in on him.

Yeah but the story is very contradictory on the entire matter. It really does seem to be the case that people sense others when the plot says so. Palpatine went unnoticed by everyone. Then in Clone Wars Maul senses Sidous approach. Meanwhile Dooku isn't able to put two and two together that Palpatine and Sidous are the same person. Vader never picks up on Leia and while Luke is concerned that Vader might be able to sense him as they sneak onto the moon of Endor Vader still misses him. People only pick up on other Force Users when it's appropriate to the drama of the scene.

One could argue that some individuals had the Force hiding ability but the sheer number of times in the movies and both animated series of Force users not picking up on other Force users until the plot required it indicates that there isn't like an auto sense thing going on here.

In general I don't think a PC has anything to worry about except for when being obvious about it.

Yeah, I wonder if Vader's ability to sense other Force-sensitives is reliant upon that person actively using the Force.

Obi-Wan was probably doing something to see what kind of trouble was out there in the hanger bay when the Falcon got dragged aboard the Death Star; something along the lines of "just how many stormtroopers are out there waiting for us?" via the Sense power to sense living things (plus some Range Upgrades), and it was this active usage that Vader noticed. Luke being barely introduced (and likely only focused on the combat side of the Sense power) wasn't actively using the Force, and thus escaped notice.

Later in ANH, when Luke is actively using the Force to line up his shot to take out the Death Star, that's when Vader twigs to the fact that this pilot is something special.

Leia was never trained to use the Force during the course of the movies, and in game terms probably didn't even have a Force Rating, with her Force-sensitivity being more of a background story element (and justification for her to later pick up either Force Exile or Force Emergent later on if she wanted).

One thing...Active force use ripples the pond as it were. The bigger the use the bigger the ripple.

This is how it is portrayed in the movies guys, why does Luke sense his friends Foresee. How does Vader sense Luke originally you might ask, Luke most likely was using a massive amount of Force Powers on that Trench Run that is the only way that shot could be made, additionally you can't sense someone who is not yet begun the training, Luke's training began with Obi-Wan on the Falcon. Also why would the character lose the squad if he became an Inquisitior if I was GMing I would say he becomes an Inquisitor and the rest of the group becomes his bodyguards/underlings.

Or flip his thinking and make being an Inquisitor desirable. After all, if a PC gets good enough, perhaps they could pull a Galen Marek and be a secret apprentice.

Obi Wan was making good use of shroud and misdirect.

Personally I would make it a Perception test with the difficulty based on range and down graded by force rating.

So it would be an impossible roll at close planetary scale, daunting at extreme range, Hard at medium, Average at short and easy at engaged. You of course upgrade the difficulty if there is some kind of other disturbance in the force like the Dark Side cave on Dagobah,

Or the Emperor can recruit him to be a hand which is even more fun.

Vader might notice, but being a force sensitive isn't necessarily detrimental. After all; vader is particularly tasked with killing Jedi and being that enforcing fist. His task isn't to kill every force sensitive necessarily; indeed a force senstive commander might be a very useful tool if he's looking to tutor him to hunting particular types of prey or to preform missions. I mean; Luke Skywalker is with them, that alone might preswade him to allow this commander to florish a little within his role provided he meets very strict regulations on his development. As mentioned before; in the same way that Palp has many hands, Vader might want to cultivate a few of his own; admittedly his plans for them will be very short and direct.

For most part though; even if Vader becomes aware of the talent he might allow it to stand provided it doesn't compromise the effectiveness of the squad though likely if the character suddenly starts developing upon the path simliar to that of Jedi, words would be had.

That being said as stated; the force is highly inconsistent in detection of untrained and trained sensitive. This character could quite easily be undetected for a long time, though usually when detected it's at the worst possible moment for one or the other.

One thing...Active force use ripples the pond as it were. The bigger the use the bigger the ripple.

This is how it is portrayed in the movies guys, why does Luke sense his friends Foresee. How does Vader sense Luke originally you might ask, Luke most likely was using a massive amount of Force Powers on that Trench Run that is the only way that shot could be made, additionally you can't sense someone who is not yet begun the training, Luke's training began with Obi-Wan on the Falcon. Also why would the character lose the squad if he became an Inquisitior if I was GMing I would say he becomes an Inquisitor and the rest of the group becomes his bodyguards/underlings.

Well then how does Vader still miss Leia? Luke reaches out to Leia and Leia uses the Force to locate Luke. Though she doesn't realize she's doing that. But if we consider the range at which Leia was away when Luke reached out to her, and the sheer size of Cloud City I think Leia's use of the Force would qualify as a massive amount of Force power. Leia should have pinged on Vader's radar if she was using the Force as he would have been close enough to sense her being that if Luke could reach her and she reach him through the Force then Vader's proximity to Cloud city during this scene should make him close enough.

Aside from just plot reasons there isn't a real reason why Leia should have escaped Vader's notice in that instance being as how she would have to used to Force in order to find Luke before those Tie fighters caught up with them.

One thing...Active force use ripples the pond as it were. The bigger the use the bigger the ripple.

This is how it is portrayed in the movies guys, why does Luke sense his friends Foresee. How does Vader sense Luke originally you might ask, Luke most likely was using a massive amount of Force Powers on that Trench Run that is the only way that shot could be made, additionally you can't sense someone who is not yet begun the training, Luke's training began with Obi-Wan on the Falcon. Also why would the character lose the squad if he became an Inquisitior if I was GMing I would say he becomes an Inquisitor and the rest of the group becomes his bodyguards/underlings.

Well then how does Vader still miss Leia? Luke reaches out to Leia and Leia uses the Force to locate Luke. Though she doesn't realize she's doing that. But if we consider the range at which Leia was away when Luke reached out to her, and the sheer size of Cloud City I think Leia's use of the Force would qualify as a massive amount of Force power. Leia should have pinged on Vader's radar if she was using the Force as he would have been close enough to sense her being that if Luke could reach her and she reach him through the Force then Vader's proximity to Cloud city during this scene should make him close enough.

Aside from just plot reasons there isn't a real reason why Leia should have escaped Vader's notice in that instance being as how she would have to used to Force in order to find Luke before those Tie fighters caught up with them.

Leia wasn't the one using the force. Luke was. And Vader already knew Luke was a force user.

One thing...Active force use ripples the pond as it were. The bigger the use the bigger the ripple.

This is how it is portrayed in the movies guys, why does Luke sense his friends Foresee. How does Vader sense Luke originally you might ask, Luke most likely was using a massive amount of Force Powers on that Trench Run that is the only way that shot could be made, additionally you can't sense someone who is not yet begun the training, Luke's training began with Obi-Wan on the Falcon. Also why would the character lose the squad if he became an Inquisitior if I was GMing I would say he becomes an Inquisitor and the rest of the group becomes his bodyguards/underlings.

Well then how does Vader still miss Leia? Luke reaches out to Leia and Leia uses the Force to locate Luke. Though she doesn't realize she's doing that. But if we consider the range at which Leia was away when Luke reached out to her, and the sheer size of Cloud City I think Leia's use of the Force would qualify as a massive amount of Force power. Leia should have pinged on Vader's radar if she was using the Force as he would have been close enough to sense her being that if Luke could reach her and she reach him through the Force then Vader's proximity to Cloud city during this scene should make him close enough.

Aside from just plot reasons there isn't a real reason why Leia should have escaped Vader's notice in that instance being as how she would have to used to Force in order to find Luke before those Tie fighters caught up with them.

Leia wasn't the one using the force. Luke was. And Vader already knew Luke was a force user.

Luke used the Force to call out to Leia, but Leia had to have used the Force to find Luke. He's on the underside of Cloud city hanging off a random antenna, if she isn't using the Force to locate Luke then how does she find him? It's not like he knows where he is in order to tell her through the Force where to find him.

Actually, at that point, I think Vader was so obsessed with Luke that he might not have noticed someone else. And I don't know, Leia and Luke are twins, maybe their use of the force is so similar, that Vader may have mistaken Leia as Luke?

With imagination one can explain almost any inconsistencies.

If I had to pin something on it, I would say add an addendum to say that using Sense on an area can detect if anyone in that area has any Force Dice committed. -You could also say that Sense isn't even required for this and give it as a "freebie." There's a lot of precedent for sensing when an area or thing is "surrounded" with the Force - the cave on Dagobah, being in the presence of a holocron, etc ... you could just say that a Force User develops an "aura" when they commit Force Dice to powers or talents.

This would fit the movie situations pretty well -

Ben in hanger hiding out - nothing committed

Ben moving about Death Star (possibly even baiting Vader) - Force Die committed to Enhance (Agility for stealth or Brawn if anticipating a lightsaber fight against Vader - maybe even both)

Luke on Death Star - nothing committed

Luke in Trench Run w/Vader on his tail - Force Die committed to Intuitive Evasion

Darth Vader on Executor above Endor - Force Dice committed to Piett for Battle Meditation (we can imagine while he is aboard his flagship he'd be supporting his commander with the Force to improve his aptitude)

This would also explain why no one could tell what was up with Palpatine, as he was wise enough to never commit Force Dice when around anyone who could sense such things (arguably, you could say that he never committed Force Dice unless he was in a battle requiring his Darth Sidious appearance, in which case there was still nothing to correlate to Palpatine).

It also explains why Leia was seemingly "invisible" to Vader. It's also why Maul notices the arrival of his Master, but Dooku wouldn't connect the two identities of Sidious and Palapatine (he knew the presence of Sidious, but never experienced that presence from the guise of Palpatine).