The Ever Growing List of Force Powers

By MuttonchopMac, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

How about that nifty power where you become a one-with-the-Force ghost when you die?

Or Sidious' "stop people from dying" power?

Or Palpatine's "transfer life" power he used in the EU to transfer himself to a younger clone?

First One - 100% plot device

Second One - Sidious was lying out his arse to con Anakin into joining him

Third One - Plot device from a really asinine story that largely undid the bulk of Vader's sacrifice and Luke's personal journey in RotJ.

Ok then let's change the usage of the transfer. How about animating something? Like a Golem?

You use Move to put a monster together and then use (put new power here) to breathe life into it and it becomes your temporary tank in a battle?

Ok then let's change the usage of the transfer. How about animating something? Like a Golem?

You use Move to put a monster together and then use (put new power here) to breathe life into it and it becomes your temporary tank in a battle?

I think we're moving away from the Star Wars feel of the Force and more into standard magic spells.

Yeah let's talk about that. What IS Star Wars feel?

Because if by that you mean we can only do in game, things we've seen on canon material, I say that's not very cool because it's too limiting for a RPG.

Kylo Ren did at least two things we'd never seen before and it still felt pretty Star Warsy to me. (holding the blaster shot in the air, and the extract things from a person's mind deal)

I'm pretty sure we'll also see plenty of new "powers" when we see Luke training Rey, too.

Why not animate a monster (or, fine, a droid) with the Force? Or do whatever else you might want to do as a Force user, for that matter.

Furthermore, think about a Mystic in this setting. I explain to players, when asked, that a Mystic is a non-tradicional Force user who might even believe in the Force as some sort of religion and even call it a different name.
So, to this unusual Force user (unusual to US, because we're used to Jedi), what is the Force if not, possibly, magic spells?

I did suggest a Force power to slice things, a couple posts earlier... nobody commented on that. Do we already have a power to do this? What do you guys think?

Edited by baterax

Yeah let's talk about that. What IS Star Wars feel?

The Force isn't magic spells that you sling off and it does everything and anything. Typically when it's portrayed like magic (as has been the case in some EU sources) it's not done well or received well.

Because if by that you mean we can only do in game, things we've seen on canon material, I say that's not very cool because it's too limiting for a RPG.

Kylo Ren did at least two things we'd never seen before and it still felt pretty Star Warsy to me. (holding the blaster shot in the air, and the extract things from a person's mind deal)

Actually no he doesn't use new powers. He uses old powers with narrative flair. The blaster bolt is just Protect with narrative embellishment. The mind extraction info this is just Influence, with more narrative flair. That's the problem, people keep thinking everything is new as opposed to seeing how it's just a different spin on stuff we've already seen.

Why not animate a monster (or, fine, a droid) with the Force? Or do whatever else you might want to do as a Force user, for that matter.

Ok look do whatever you want for your game. But I can tell you upfront ... animating the dead is not a Force type thing. It's more a D&D magic spell thing. And you are likely not going to see that kind of power in this game.

So, to this unusual Force user (unusual to US, because we're used to Jedi), what is the Force if not, possibly, magic spells?

Now you're just debating semantics. Whatever the PC's themselves call it ... is immaterial. It's all the Force. But when I say you're talking about spells instead of the Force I'm not talking about in game explanations for the Force I'm talking about the inspirational difference between the Force itself and a D&D spell book.

I did suggest a Force power to slice things, a couple posts earlier... nobody commented on that. Do we already have a power to do this? What do you guys think?

Honestly didn't comment because it was just another power that didn't really come off as the Star Wars feel. More Shadowrun technmancer than Star Wars Force user.

Hmmm. All you're saying makes sense, except I didn't say animate DEAD, more like animate otherwise inanimate stuff, and I guess in the case of a Droid, this would overlap with the other power I'm talking about, the slicing one. I seem to remember something in the old D6 rules where you COULD manipulate technology with the Force but it was considered a Dark Side power...

I'm just trying to figure out like, how to guide players with their ideas. I'd like to have a better reason for not allowing them to do something, than just "that just doesn't feel like Star Wars".

You know?

Ok so let's look at the 4 careers and their archetypes we have coming out that are likely to have Force Powers within them, this is my take:

Consular: An intelligent and social character, but calm mastery of The Force is important too. A Force Power focused on Knowledge could fit here, something like Enhance for the mind.

Mystic: the Sorcerer, following intuition and letting the Force guide you is important for this character... I have no idea! Seek, Sense and Foresee cover much of this. Possibly Force Meld though, allowing groups of Force Users to work together and assist each other with Force Power checks.

Sentinel: Investigators, Psychometry would fit very well

Warrior: Fighters are the least Force Power focused characters, it's possible this book won't have one. If it does then I really can't think of a Power that enhances the combat abilities of a person that's not already in the system.

I personally think a psychometry-type power would fit the Mystic book best. Although that could just be my bias for the awesomeness that is Mystics showing.

One thing that could be in the Warrior book is a power for Vapaad: have Juyo be a spec, and then have Vapaad be a Force power. It would do things like expand what you can spend Threat on targeted by combat checks. Maybe spend Threat to disorient/immobilize/stagger the attacker?

Maybe? No? Well, I tried! :P

Maybe Telepathy for Mystics, something like this for Sentinels, and something akin to Battlemind for Warriors.

Many of these suggested "powers" have lost the essential Star Wars feel. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, why not have talent trees that replace or modify force power upgrades? A simple tree that replaces one block of text with another.

Bind could benefit with an ability to hold a blaster bolt as an out of turn incidental, influence could benefit from persuading someone to give up information or feelings etc.

Edited by StoningCrows

Many of these suggested "powers" have lost the essential Star Wars feel. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, why not have talent trees that replace or modify force power upgrades? A simple tree that replaces one block of text with another.

Bind could benefit with an ability to hold a blaster bolt as an out of turn incidental, influence could benefit from persuading someone to give up information or feelings etc.

You can already do the hold blaster bolt thing. Holding a blaster bolt in the air is just narrative flair for the use of either Bind or more appropriately Protect. Influence can already be used to persuade people to give up information or feelings.

We don't so much need a new talent tree to do any of that. We don't need to swap out abilities. For most of it we don't even need new powers. We just need to stop reading things so literally and be creative in how we describe the action in play.

This is a system that strives on out of the box thinking on what the dice rolls mean.

I see a sith alchemy mother Toazin sorcery power for mystic.

Psycometry for sentimel.

In a product line that clearly encourages inventiveness (see "Special Modifications" as an example), I wonder if we may get rules to create our own Force powers.

In a product line that clearly encourages inventiveness (see "Special Modifications" as an example), I wonder if we may get rules to create our own Force powers.

Strongly doubt it.

With the item creation rules in Special Modifications, there's still various restraints on what a PC can build (for instance, no Breach weapons), as well as an investment of credits and time.

As I think this thread and many others have shown, too many folks are too quick to jump to the conclusion that something new shown on screen in terms of Force usage is "obviously" a new Force power, with Kylo Ren's antics in TFA (stopping a blaster bolt in mid-air while paralyzing Poe and mind-probing captives) being prime examples, when the truth is both of those are handled quite well under the current system already (Bind with a narrative twist and Influence respectively).

In a product line that clearly encourages inventiveness (see "Special Modifications" as an example), I wonder if we may get rules to create our own Force powers.