I'm deep in the process of reading through the Force and Destiny rulebook, and I must say that I am extremely impressed by the design of this game.

Because this system is quite unique in a lot of ways and because there's a lot of good information scattered across these forums, I thought to start a thread to bring together some discussion about best practices (both in general and in Force and Destiny specifically). As I read a new rule system, I can't help but think about possible characters that I might want to play or NPC opponents that I could one day throw at a group. However, being totally new to the system, I'd like to ask for some context.

In particular, I'm interested in best practices for balancing specializations, skills, force powers, etc. as you gain experience. I would imagine that a common practice might be to aim for two specs: one combat spec (like a lightsaber spec) and one non-combat spec to really round out a character. The specializations in F&D seem pretty well-suited to this sort of build, with a range of lightsaber and non-combat specs to mix and match to really put together some interesting combos.

Is that a common approach? When is a good time to take on a second spec (assuming that you're starting fresh)? How do you balance all of the different things on which you can spend XP, especially Force Powers (which are really a separate track from talent trees and skill building)?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!

It really depends on the kind of character and campaign that's being run, to be honest. The game is pretty supportive of social or combat lite games, so taking specializations or assigning XP to talents/skills/powers depends on the needs of the campaign, the character in question, and the wants of the player. I would say there's no truly 'one right' way to develop a character.

Somebody will tell you that you should always spend most of your starting XP at raising the maximum characteristics. I dont necesserly agree with the statement but it's a way of doing it.

If you're gonna play the full Force and Destiny experience, It a good thing to have at least a normal specialization to raise your force rating and a lightsaber specialization.

I found useless to buy too much in a Force power when you only have a force rating of 1. I had a player who bought the entire move power tree in the first couple of sessions. With only one force dice to roll, he pratically never activated the upgrades he bought. Realizing that, he ask me if he could change his character a bit and with that, he bought only a couple of Move upgrades and he went to the "increase your force rating" talent in his specialization with the rest of his XP

If you're a GM: Be open and honest with Conflict. During session 0, impress upon them that it's a story-building tool, not a penalty. And make sure you tell your player if things will generate conflict before they take the action. Put the choice in their hands.

While spending as much starting XP on characteristics as possible can be beneficial it's by no means a necessity or even really a best practice. It's a benefit in that, after you complete character creation you can't just spend XP on characteristics freely anymore so this immediately puts something of a cap on your dice pool in a way. That being said, an extra upgrade die or two, while definitely useful, isn't going to completely break the game either. So I would encourage players to build the character in the way they feel works best for them. The starting focus on Characteristics means you have a better pool in more skills it also means those dice pools will all be pretty even with fewer upgrade dice in them until you get XP to start spending on the skills you want because you wont be starting with many. You also wont start with many force powers or force upgrades or specialization talents. It basically has the effect that your character feels very much like an untrained, unpracticed, beginner.. alternatively, you can have lower starting characteristics but more skills, talents and force powers making you feel more capable in your chosen areas earlier on. It just becomes increasingly harder to improve those areas later on.

PC's need to be comfortable giving into the Dark Side sometimes, it's baked into the system. 0 Conflict can be just as damaging to the fun of a session in the wrong group as 1 full on murder hobo in a party of saints. The average roll an a D10 is 5, if you have less conflict than that at sessions end then you're probably a good person, if you have more your probably not that good, if you have more than 10 your an Evil Monster.

And Jedi hardly exist in the Rebellion era, not everyone has to be a O66 survivor, there are other Force Traditions and plenty of Force Sensitives who don't know what they are doing.

As for advancement (or planning advancement, which I always try to do to avoid having to ask for respec), I usually have a big scheme in mind (say, which trees I'll purchase), then work with milestones when spending XP. E.g., the +1FR milestone, the Improve Social Skills milestone, the Move Power(s) milestone, etc. Once I achieve one, I move into another, depending on the campaign or character's needs.

So, there are options here. In the group I played in, we have only one PC with a combat spec, and the other two of us are/were non-combat. Sure, we could fire blasters or something, but we weren't built for the intention of combat.

In that game, the GM ran into issues with scheduling and his new job, so I have taken over as GM, and my character is now an NPC that I'm trying to have fade into the background.

We are hoping that the former GM will be able to come back as a player, but we are just going to have to see how things work out.

While spending as much starting XP on characteristics as possible can be beneficial it's by no means a necessity or even really a best practice. It's a benefit in that, after you complete character creation you can't just spend XP on characteristics freely anymore so this immediately puts something of a cap on your dice pool in a way. That being said, an extra upgrade die or two, while definitely useful, isn't going to completely break the game either. So I would encourage players to build the character in the way they feel works best for them. The starting focus on Characteristics means you have a better pool in more skills it also means those dice pools will all be pretty even with fewer upgrade dice in them until you get XP to start spending on the skills you want because you wont be starting with many. You also wont start with many force powers or force upgrades or specialization talents. It basically has the effect that your character feels very much like an untrained, unpracticed, beginner.. alternatively, you can have lower starting characteristics but more skills, talents and force powers making you feel more capable in your chosen areas earlier on. It just becomes increasingly harder to improve those areas later on.

I would however say spending a decent portion of your starting xp on the primary attribute for your career is a really good idea.

Generally speaking in SWFFG system, skills are far more important to the play style shown in printed adventures and encounters. Talents and force powers are there to reinforce genre, stereotypes and cool wooj for you to enjoy

Generally speaking in SWFFG system, skills are far more important to the play style shown in printed adventures and encounters. Talents and force powers are there to reinforce genre, stereotypes and cool wooj for you to enjoy

Agreed, skills are the core ingredients, talents and force powers are the special sauce.