There's no reason to give the PC a defective sabre.

I mean unless they WANT one, for roleplaying richness purposes, right.

My character started with a blaster that was malfunctioning and didn't work right, because he was from planet without any major technology.

It was funny.

See? THIS.

*sighs*

yes but you don't need a mechanically inferior weapon to actually have that fun. If the reason you want to do something is role play then do it. You don't need some kind of -2 to your dice role so that you can say your gun malfunctions. Just play out the fact that it malfunctions. You don't need +5 bonus XP points to role play out that your parents were killed at an early age and the trauma has made you turn into a masked vigilante at night. Just play it out. My gripe is that people think adding some kind of mechanical defect to their stat or weapon or whatever is good role play. It's not. Good role play is just role playing out that malfunction. In a D&D game I currently play in my character is surrounded by things that he clearly has no understanding of. In this game people from earth have been transported to Athis with their current knowledge of the real world and the plot of the game is discovering how centuries ago Athis was destroyed by advanced tech. All the other PC's in the game are from Earth prime. I'm the only native to the planet. But I don't take some kind of mechanical hit to my character to represent how he doesn't always understand whats going on. I just actually role play out the fact that he doesn't understand whats going on, often time with humorous results for the party.

I question whether or not you're actually trying to role play if you are just looking for some kind of mechanic to reflect how much something sucks. Just play it out. That's what role playing is supposed to be. Not a negative -2 when using this blaster because it was made on the wrong world. Just adding in the flavor as you play the character.

You don't need to hand people a mechanically bad anything to get them to role play something. Just ... role play it out.

That's not it though. The mechanic is supposed to control the randomness of the effect and this adds storytelling power to dice, which is always a good thing.

If you leave it to the player to choose when his weapon will malfunction, he will never do it. But then of course, I'd do it. But we know this makes for arguments if I pick a time where the malfunction turns the tide of combat, or other crucial moment.

So, I make a rule and then I have sort of an excuse for the player to be bound by it. Dice rolled the % malfunction, can't do anything about that. Roleplay that **** now. You know?

That's not it though. The mechanic is supposed to control the randomness of the effect and this adds storytelling power to dice, which is always a good thing.

If you leave it to the player to choose when his weapon will malfunction, he will never do it. But then of course, I'd do it. But we know this makes for arguments if I pick a time where the malfunction turns the tide of combat, or other crucial moment.

So, I make a rule and then I have sort of an excuse for the player to be bound by it. Dice rolled the % malfunction, can't do anything about that. Roleplay that **** now. You know?

Again if you need a negative anything to tell you when to do something then you're not really role playing. It would fall under the category of roll playing. Which isn't bad. It's just not what you're claiming. I have nothing against roll playing. But you're not really in the role itself when that role is basically determined when the roll comes up negative.

Besides malfunctions that are the best are the ones that occur narratively. The Millennium Falcon is a great ship until it's not. But under normal circumstances the ship functions just fine. Until the story needs it not to function just fine. Then the hyper drive doesn't work. But the ship itself, it's stat block would be just a normal YT 1300 which the player and GM say breaks down from time to time and always at the worse possible moment in the story. I don't need my YT 1300 to have a negative anything for the hyper drive to crap out on me as I'm trying to escape Hoth. Instead we just role play out it going wrong because it makes the narrative more interesting and we are role playing.

Relying on your equipment having negative stats in order to role play ends up with characters who really don't role play out the negative aspects of anything until there is a bad role, which may or may not occur when it makes sense. It's like people who took Flaws like Nightmare or Phobia or so so so so many other lame stuff in World of Darkness who pretty much ignored the trait except for that one time the dice rolled poorly when they started the session but otherwise the character gained a bunch of free points for something that is supposed to add "role play" value but is really just free points that occasional come up whenever the player rolls badly. Your character has nightmares but they don't impact you in anyway even though it's nightly except on today because I rolled a 1. But if you're only role playing when the dice roll badly for you can you really say your doing it for character enrichment? Character enrichment is an ongoing process, not something that only occurs when the dice don't agree with you.

After many years of watching people take negative traits and add penalties to their equipment for role playing purposes I've observed that most of them are never actually role playing out that aspect. It becomes secondary in most day to day interactions of the PC.

Have seen them all, those negativ traits with so "powerfull" story enrichment (sarcasm) espacially those beloved alergics to substances like: Gold, silver, platin, ultra-rare-spice, never-in-a-life-time-encountered-fruits, or things like see-sickness (in a desert/mountain game); phobias of gree-snails, 5-headed-cats and fish-desserts; And of course Rassisem traits against any species that will appear very seldom by nature; beeing very small or very big

All of these thinks are mostly forgotten in the second or third sessions... and espacially by the players that chooses these ultra flaws for rollplaying reasons...

If you really need to go with a flaw on the lightsaber (even so any charakter will replace the Hilt as soon as possible...) make it like on heavy Blaster for each or the GM can decide that the powercell went of and has to be replaced before using the saber again. Needing a mechanic action out of battle or a mechanic action during battle and call it a day.

Kael, you make a good point and I totally agree.

But, what I said is fact at least for the players here... I wish they all thought like you where we could just roleplay defects out in favor of the story, but this won't happen unless I have some kind of rule to back it up. I GMed my first session yesterday and the dice itself REALLY helped with this, I was on fire rolling all sorts of threats all the time, but still... Maybe that'll be enough for this system. I'll have to wait and see.

Kael, you make a good point and I totally agree.

But, what I said is fact at least for the players here... I wish they all thought like you where we could just roleplay defects out in favor of the story, but this won't happen unless I have some kind of rule to back it up. I GMed my first session yesterday and the dice itself REALLY helped with this, I was on fire rolling all sorts of threats all the time, but still... Maybe that'll be enough for this system. I'll have to wait and see.

Again .... if they only role play it out because you made them then I question whether what you're doing is role play. If you need to force people to play up a negative aspect just don't do it. Don't waste time on making the players do things they obviously are not going to do.

Hmmm.

Kael does have a point. If the player thought it would be funny to have a quirk, then they'd play it up themselves. Maybe their character has a speech impediment, so they talk differently in character than out. Maybe they blame the naturally occurring bad rolls to a defective gun. But forcing them to roll Setback every time isn't a quirk, it's a broken gun. And they're probably going to get a new one once the novelty wears out.

Since this is a narrative dice system, how do they players envision obtaining their Holy Grail(s)? A problem with equipment seems like something needing redress at character creation. Perhaps they begin at the Knight Level? Still, storytelling about how a character gets one of the most iconic weapons in the game - and our popular culture - should be something to remember.

If given hastily, perhaps small flaws begin to emerge that prompt a replacement of an otherwise typically-functioning lightsaber.

The players want it, so I submit that you've an obligation to give 'em lightsabers.

As a GM, perhaps remind players that there is no such thing as a 'free lunch.' You could literally write seven movies about all of the unwanted attention being good at using a lightsaber can be, let alone merely having one as generic equipment. Remember, Rey got her lightsaber in Episode VII, riiight before the First Order reigned fire on her location. Do not let players think getting a lightsaber absolves them of responsible and vigilant use.

A + B still = C. By adding a 'free' lightsaber, you simply multiplied all other variables by the same amount (the value of the lightsaber, or "X"). All other storytelling guidelines still work. I hope this feedback helps; I'm new here.

Good points there cimmerianthief. A lightsaber is a powerful weapon, but it brings with it a host of problems too. Pull that thing on the wrong person and Inquisitors start showing up before you can say "Innocent"

Remember- when Luke shows up with a lightsaber, his entire ARMY gets specialized attention from the enemy. The ratio to lightsaber-users to non-lightsaber-users is quite disproportionate, yet that single ONE got Darth Vader's personal attention, including bounty hunters and other mess.

How many characters have lightsabers in your party?

The easy solution is to give players access to a Training Saber. It lets them apply all the Lightsaber dependent talents, without giving away the game with Breach and Sunder. And it still looks like a Lightsaber, which means they'll get just as many funny looks and draw just as much undo attention from Imperials.

Ok so right now we're doing a temporary learning campaign because there's people coming in and out of sessions, everybody is new to the system including myself, and there's even people who never player a single RPG session before (and now they LOVE IT)

None of my players have lightsabers yet. The one session that is going to get continued, is the one where I was DMing the adventure that's included in the Core rulebook and they stopped right as they go to Koler. They just escaped the Library with the amulet. Everything went wrong over there so they had to blast their way in, while running inside and stealing it, then finding an alternate route to escape. At the spaceport they found a smuggler who was going to Coruscant and convinced him to take them to Koler instead. I plan to keep it going with the adventure in the GM's kit so by the end of that, they will have their sabers. But, these are also premade characters I gave them, so, not gonna stick.

By the end of it, most will have a better grasp on the system and I will know for sure who will be staying to play MY campaign. These peeps will make new characters (and they won't start with sabers), and I will take it from there.

But yeah I might do training sabers. It will depend on what they choose as careers.

basically anyone can by raw start with Training Sabres, they are 400credits... dirt cheap. but sounds like your doing the right thing and getting a good feel for the system before you launch into a deep campaign.

basically anyone can by raw start with Training Sabres, they are 400credits... dirt cheap. but sounds like your doing the right thing and getting a good feel for the system before you launch into a deep campaign.

By raw the GM decides what the players can start with, like pretty much every RPG! Training lightsaber emitters are rarity 6. If you feel it serves the need of the plot or makes sense, then they can start with certain items. But it could also be fun for a Force-user to discover how to build a lightsaber hilt as part of an adventure, or from a rediscovered holocron. Don't make gear too much of a concern, your players should know they'll have the chance to get the resources they need to realize their character concepts.

A party where everyone has a training saber will require the GM to run some encounters as easy mode until they get regular lightsabers. Taking no other combat skills in your group and expecting to survive with non-pierce stun weapons against enemies with good soak, high strain thresholds, and plenty of yellow dice is a recipe for disaster.

My players almost got TPK'ed by a Spintir matriarch that kept regenerating strain. Thankfully, that part of the adventure specifically calls for the group to survive even if they lose.

True, but it's also a learning opportunity for them. If they all always walk around with only training sabers, they will soon realize sometimes you need a bigger stick or a gun. So then they go get said weapons and become more lethal, perhaps while dual wielding their sabers so they can still parry and reflect.