[As a pointless sidenote: Anakin and Luke were clearly houseruled in their creation. Both of them, I would argue, have Pilot as their spec, but neither of them has Ace or Smuggler as their career. Luke is probably a Colonist, and Anakin is maybe a Technician?]

Alternatively, if you're playing a mixed game - with EotE and/or AoE - and you wanted to do a slow build-up to Jedi, just take Exile and/or Emergent. Emergent in particular definitely fulfills that function. This is, in fact, basically what Luke and Anakin both do - they start of as a EotE spec, take Force-Sensitive Emergent, and once they've developed that they start getting trained and take one of the Jedi specs. Simple.

[As a pointless sidenote: Anakin and Luke were clearly houseruled in their creation. Both of them, I would argue, have Pilot as their spec, but neither of them has Ace or Smuggler as their career. Luke is probably a Colonist, and Anakin is maybe a Technician?]

I would disagree. It seems to me that Luke and Anakin both start as Starfighter Aces. Full Throttle, Skilled Jockey, Intuitive Evasion, Touch of Fate, and especially Exhaust Port—we can see these talents in use for both of them in Episodes IV and I, respectively. And especially since those films were the first "adventure" for each character...they just didn't have the time for a slow build-up. They jumped right into their galactic hero boots as Force-sensitive emergents, and we don't really see them doing any impressive heroic stuff as "Colonists" or "Explorers."

I agree with awayputurwpn, you need to remember that the names of the careers and specializations are not rigid. The specialization trees provide skill and talents but you don't have to be a bounty hunter to take survivalist for example.

I think this is one of the minor issues with an RPG based on a licensed product, especially a movie. The movie is written to be cool and tell the story the writer wants to tell, there are no game balance requirements and they don't have to worry about how the mechanics would work. This tends to mean that in any RPG based on it there are going to be parts which people have issues with because it doesn't model the films in the way they think it should.

At the end of the day it is all quite personal, we all take something different away from these things.

[As a pointless sidenote: Anakin and Luke were clearly houseruled in their creation. Both of them, I would argue, have Pilot as their spec, but neither of them has Ace or Smuggler as their career. Luke is probably a Colonist, and Anakin is maybe a Technician?]

Alternatively, if you're playing a mixed game - with EotE and/or AoE - and you wanted to do a slow build-up to Jedi, just take Exile and/or Emergent. Emergent in particular definitely fulfills that function. This is, in fact, basically what Luke and Anakin both do - they start of as a EotE spec, take Force-Sensitive Emergent, and once they've developed that they start getting trained and take one of the Jedi specs. Simple.

[As a pointless sidenote: Anakin and Luke were clearly houseruled in their creation. Both of them, I would argue, have Pilot as their spec, but neither of them has Ace or Smuggler as their career. Luke is probably a Colonist, and Anakin is maybe a Technician?]

I would disagree. It seems to me that Luke and Anakin both start as Starfighter Aces. Full Throttle, Skilled Jockey, Intuitive Evasion, Touch of Fate, and especially Exhaust Port—we can see these talents in use for both of them in Episodes IV and I, respectively. And especially since those films were the first "adventure" for each character...they just didn't have the time for a slow build-up. They jumped right into their galactic hero boots as Force-sensitive emergents, and we don't really see them doing any impressive heroic stuff as "Colonists" or "Explorers."

I agree with awayputurwpn, you need to remember that the names of the careers and specializations are not rigid. The specialization trees provide skill and talents but you don't have to be a bounty hunter to take survivalist for example.

I think this is one of the minor issues with an RPG based on a licensed product, especially a movie. The movie is written to be cool and tell the story the writer wants to tell, there are no game balance requirements and they don't have to worry about how the mechanics would work. This tends to mean that in any RPG based on it there are going to be parts which people have issues with because it doesn't model the films in the way they think it should.

At the end of the day it is all quite personal, we all take something different away from these things.

This is part of why I cringe and have to refrain from posting a comment every time I see someone try to explain what happened on screen in RPG terms, as if the movie script were plotted out by rolling dice...

But one should also realize that the game mechanics were built in an attempt to be able to recreate those awesome cinematic moments. Not as a total reverse-engineering, but rather as a "get the feel right" sort of thing.

The narrative dice are not game mechanics that exist in a vacuum; they are tools to help tell a collaborative Star Wars story. So while of course the story writers weren't rolling dice, there are—all the same—moments of Triumph, Despair, Success, Threat, Failure, and Advantage in the Star Wars franchise.

Yes, this is true but they can't work miracles. Everyone sees something different in Star Wars, everyone has a different viewpoint. Personally I loathe Jar Jar but have no real issues with the PT apart from that, but I know people who hate all things PT. I don't believe that non-Force users should be able to safely use Lightsabers or that they should be available without major work (as in epic story arc reward), but F&D is designed so that a character should be able to have one fairly quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I love the FFG system for the most part, I think that the starship rules are a little woolly and I find some parts of the Force rules a little OP, but the main part of the game is quite elegant.

Probably my biggest grip is that I tend to GM it so rarely get the chance to play it lol. Thankfully a friend might be running an AoR game soon.

Probably my biggest grip is that I tend to GM it so rarely get the chance to play it lol. Thankfully a friend might be running an AoR game soon.

You might try a PbP! That's how I get any playing done. Otherwise, I am the same...perpetual GM

I'm mildly surprised there wasn't a Universal, non-career 'Initiate' style spec in Force & Destiny.

The force-user equivalent 'Recruit' as it were, something that covers the basics while the career specs cover the specifics... without being a 'must-have' for every character.

Huh, interesting.

Grants you Force Rating 1, just like Exile and Emergent. Maybe something that in one column gave you Lightsaber and Discipline as a Career skill, one rank of Parry, one rank of Reflect, one rank of Defensive training, and something at the 25xp tier that connects it to the other three columns. Have those columns filled with useful but not too specific talents; handy stuff, but not Spec defining.

They could have called it "Force Sensitive Initiate"

So, if you're playing a pure F&D game, why would you want to start with this sort of character - why would you not just start with a low XP spec from one of the main trees? If there was some sort of "generic initiate" spec then surely everyone would just start out the same?

Alternatively, if you're playing a mixed game - with EotE and/or AoE - and you wanted to do a slow build-up to Jedi, just take Exile and/or Emergent. Emergent in particular definitely fulfills that function. This is, in fact, basically what Luke and Anakin both do - they start of as a EotE spec, take Force-Sensitive Emergent, and once they've developed that they start getting trained and take one of the Jedi specs. Simple.

[As a pointless sidenote: Anakin and Luke were clearly houseruled in their creation. Both of them, I would argue, have Pilot as their spec, but neither of them has Ace or Smuggler as their career. Luke is probably a Colonist, and Anakin is maybe a Technician?]

AoR stats that luke starts as Ace

Anakin seems to be indeed a Technician and most likely some sort of driver or pilot. Quite a lot XP for the little kid.

Theoretical they could get some XP off-screen in some other adventure before. Though Anakin sounds more like a start character got more XP to start with. Hmm. Or just an odd builded Ace Pilot/Ace Rigger start character. Double specialisations work relatively fine for starting characters if you can neglect all offensive combat skills and attributes.

So...yeah, there is a little bit of XP that Anakin should have starting out. Here's my thinking on the matter.

Were I the GM who was running the Phantom Menace campaign, I would have started Obi-Wan (a Guardian) and Qui-Gon (a Consular) out at Knight Level as my only two players. Their first session would have been getting to Naboo. Along the way, the next session or two they pick up some new PCs...at least R2-D2 (a Technician: Slicer/Mechanic), and possibly Jar-Jar (a Colonist: Performer).

When they finally get to Tatooine, they've got some serious XP under their belt...perhaps as much as 200. It'd feel weird starting Anakin (a Warrior: Starfighter Ace) out at 0 XP. So he gets Knight Level, too. At least. He grabs Mechanics as one of his human free skill ranks, and then with his bonus XP he grabs Rigger as a talent tree so that he can advance his Mechanics skill up to level 3 for cheap (that seems about right for Anakin). He spends his Knight-Level credits on a podracer and calls it his Signature Vehicle, and probably buys right down the middle of the Rigger tree.

Later on, his fully realizes his Warrior career.

This is pretty tangential to the topic, isn't it

I am not sure I will ever use this but here is what I wrote up: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14k5j4iKFgmDAlVmIXoDLFXJesRybp6DaryKueN03aUY/edit?usp=sharing