Hey!

So, I have a player in my soon-to be tabletop group I'll GM for, that's got an interesting idea for his backstory.

The issue is, it includes something I think he will regret later.

He came up with this story about growing up in a backwater world imprisoned with his mom and dad, but they both die.

Then there's this religious temple of sorts, housing an artifact, and a Jedi who left the Order shows up looking for it.

This Jedi retrieves it and attempts to help him escape, but an Inquisitor shows up and kills him, but not before he opens the thing (it's a holocron of sorts).

This thing contains an alien symbiotic thing much like the one that attached to Peter Parker in Spiderman.

The inquisitor attempts to kill him too, and chops one of his arms off, then the symbiont saves him and acts as his new arm, and he escapes the Inquisitor.

During the time the Jedi was there he learns a few things about the Force and that's how he gets his powers.

So far so good, he'd just have a weird arm. But he wants to include a restriction that the symbiont doesn't let him use the Force on anything but himself, like no Move power for instance.

And he wants the Heal power, but with this restriction he wouldn't be able to heal anyone else... Sounds a lot like a Dark Side thing to me but moreover, I feel like it'd be too much of a restriction in gameplay, long term.

I came up with an idea to let him do a quest to get rid of the symbiont or something to that effect, but then he'd still be missing an arm (but this is Star Wars so he could then quest for a mechanical prosthetic and all that).

What do you guys think?

Lol that's funny. But not helpful at all. Care to elaborate?

Like I said above, I'm not really feeling that his idea really fits with Star Wars or with the rules. Either way, make it his issue to make it work, not yours. Make him follow the rules and let him fluff it however he likes. For example, if he believes that he can't use powers beyond himself, so be it - but he's actually under no such restrictions. If he believes his arm is actually an alien symbiote, let him - but it's no different from his normal arm in any way unless he purchases a cybernetic or makes it different within the rules.

I also don't like it because he's trying to make up a character that has a more active backstory that most characters develop within a campaign. Starting with complications this front loaded is usually a sign of somebody that wants the campaign to be all about his character and rarely do they like to share time with other characters.

I also don't like it because he's trying to make up a character that has a more active backstory that most characters develop within a campaign. Starting with complications this front loaded is usually a sign of somebody that wants the campaign to be all about his character and rarely do they like to share time with other characters.

Ok now THIS, I can relate to. This is almost exactly how I feel about it. Yeah I'll just let him sort it out and have the rules control it for me. Great advice.

By the way, playing Dark Side PC's is perfectly viable in this system. I probably wouldn't suggest it to this Player since they may make life hard for you. No one actually has a method of determining another characters Morality remember. So a selfish or careless Force User can fit amongst do-gooders so long as the group of players can play nice. An overly violent PC may be a bit harder to manage.

If he is adding a restriction to his powers then I wouldn't have any concern with it. It would be the same as if a player bought the force powers but choose to never use them on anyone but himself. I wouldn't give him any extra for that limitation since you mentioned a quest to remove it.

Weird symbiotic things were not uncommon with the Vong around and the Vong and the Force did not mix, so giving him a weird mutant arm that interferes with his force powers really wouldn't be that surprising in that context. But you're probably playing in a Vong-free environment so that's not really an option. However, I don't really see the point.

Why not just get a robotic arm later in life that would have no (pun intended) mechanical interference? Being 2/3rds robot didn't stop Vader from being an absolute terror and as far as I'm aware doesn't interfere with his use of the Force at all.

I think there's more to this that the Player is implying the "symbiote" should be capable of and I think that will end up coming up in your game when your player tries to do something Venom would be capable of, but is completely out of place in the Star Wars universe.

I'd tell him he can have a robotic arm, no questions asked. If you're playing in an era with the Vong present, getting an Arm made from Vong bio-crafting is NOT a benefit. He'd have a monstrous, completely abnormal looking arm that would give him penalties to social-interaction checks, but might provide bonuses to physical checks and of course, interfere with his ability to use the Force.

Either way: establish the absolute limits of what this thing can do right at the start. No more, ever. No less, ever.

Let him have it, bit keep showing people in his path that he will want to and wish he could use the Force on.

Same as any other advice, really -- hit him in the dump stat.

Edit: You are suspended from the ceiling, your legs bound and stuck in place. You see your lightsaber on the ground several feet away, but you also see... the wampa.

If only you had the ability to reach out with the Force and pull your weapon to you. Alas, as the beast closes in, you scream your last breath away, and the monster eats you in two solid champs.

Well the first thing that came to mind was this:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Orbalisk_armor

So there are examples of Sith Alchemy biocrafted creatures acting like armor or limbs.

So basically he wants to be Venom Jedi Knight...

I'd treat it as a Sil 0 creature if he wants any real control over it He needs to get animal bond.

Until then I would go you have a force rating of 0 as its commited to keep chompy from devouring you.

Now its intelligent feeds on his force rating and has its own powers.

I'd give it move, misdirect, sense, enhance and harm.

Here's my rule of thumb, if there are going to be regrets just say no. The backstory is whack anyway.

Yeah my concern was that he'd be too weak, not being able to use any powers that affected anything other than him. The group would hate him if they were all dying in a fight and he wasn't able to help them because of the stupid arm (considering that their characters KNEW that's the reason he couldn't use his powers on them or for them).

He's given up on it now, I argued that having a symbiote attached to him that was able to manipulate how the Force behaved when he called on it, would mean that this symbiote had a power so great, that it would be stronger than the Force itself. Nobody commands the Force like that, not even the strongest Jedi/Sith we know of, were capable of such a thing (and in my opinion, nobody in the SW universe should be able to do something like that).

He then lost it, asking to create his own species (he wants to play a Zabrak but he doesn't like that they get a "Coerce" bonus, he wanted something else for the racial bonus). This was when I really put a stop to it saying, if one player is more high maintenance than all the other players put together, then this might not be a player I want at my table.

So now, he's given up on the symbiote and made peace with the Zabrak bonus, and picked a career and everything is ok. Lol

I also don't like it because he's trying to make up a character that has a more active backstory that most characters develop within a campaign. Starting with complications this front loaded is usually a sign of somebody that wants the campaign to be all about his character and rarely do they like to share time with other characters.

(Subtitle: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney objecting to a claim in court)

As one of those players who utterly loads down a character's history with kidnappings and parental death and tragedy and whatnot, I reject the claim that I'm wanting to hog the spotlight! Do I like occasional games that drive a characters story forward? But I don't expect the world to revolve around me week after week.

Besides, I just like filling out the background as much as I can. It gives the GM tons to work with and makes them more three dimensional to me.

(Now, that said, I'm not a fan of the Venom Symbiote. Seems a little - well, it doesn't seem Star Warsy to me.)

I also don't like it because he's trying to make up a character that has a more active backstory that most characters develop within a campaign. Starting with complications this front loaded is usually a sign of somebody that wants the campaign to be all about his character and rarely do they like to share time with other characters.

(Subtitle: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney objecting to a claim in court)

As one of those players who utterly loads down a character's history with kidnappings and parental death and tragedy and whatnot, I reject the claim that I'm wanting to hog the spotlight! Do I like occasional games that drive a characters story forward? But I don't expect the world to revolve around me week after week.

Besides, I just like filling out the background as much as I can. It gives the GM tons to work with and makes them more three dimensional to me.

(Now, that said, I'm not a fan of the Venom Symbiote. Seems a little - well, it doesn't seem Star Warsy to me.)

I did say 'usually' and penguins tend to be unusual...

That said, "kidnappings and parental death"--really? As a GM those give me way less to work with than living happy families.

I wouldnt have objection to the backstory and ive played with gms that like a full backstory. Some like it mundane some like it a little 'high fantasy" im good with both.

As for the limitations , I would let him limit himself but as long as he realises its a limitation of his own making. I would certainly throw situations that challenge him though play to this"motivation" and also give out dark side points liberally for inaction as its his choice not to act. So its effectively a self imposed delusion.

If a player wants to play a force user that intends to internalize abilities then there are abilities they can choose that are self only like sense, enhance etc. When it comes to heal dark siders are the only ones that are limited to using heal on themselves. So you could point out that if he starts with 29 morality theb this fits his profile also.

If he doesnt want to be a darksider then I guess he will soon become one note on the confict page in the gm section it mentions selfish use of powers can increase the conflict of using darkside points. This also applies to darksiders. So if you use a DS pip for something selfish its 2-6 conflict per point depending on GM feat.

I'm happy to see so many positive examples of negotiating his powers. Congratulations on being the kind of GM in whom players feel confident to try really creative ideas.

My general impressions are that this player wants their character to be aligned with the Dark Side. He chose a 'venom'ous symbiotic beginning character (at Knight Level play, yes?). Despite a rich backstory, he has nothing except the darkness in or on him. His next species choice feels like another nod to the Dark Side via Darth Maul. What career tree has he taken? (I predict: Executioner from 'Savage Spirits.') What is his current Morality?

Most importantly, how has he reacted with the new character, and are you having fun? Remind him that the rule book(s) you have bought have enough information in them to make a surprising number of unique and viable characters for Star Wars. As he plays, he may better know what skills and talents he enjoys and wants to improve mechanically and organically with experience.

This reminds me of a book about giving cookies to a mouse...

Sounds like a spotlight stealing special snowflake drama queen in the making, so I fully agree with HappyDaze's posts about how this could very easily shape up to be a big problem down the road.

The symbiote thing is a bad idea to allow, as this sounds like the type of player that's going to try and expand what it can accomplish so that he can bend if not outright break the rules the rest of the PCs have to abide by. At best, I'd leave it as a fluff description as to why his PC can use the Force, but that he has to adhere to all the same rules as the rest of the group.

If he wants to self-impose a limit on who he can effect with his Force powers, that's his call but he shouldn't get any special bonuses or preferential treatment for it, as it's not much different from a standard FaD PC opting out of using dark side pips to fuel their Force powers.

How about he was captured and experimented upon he suffered amnesia and doesn't know how he escaped and his listed story is what he believes what happened.

In truth he was the Jedi Knight, he lost his arm in battle with the Inquisitor and the Empire used him as a guinea pig for this unusual form of exotic bio-technology.

It drained him of force potential dropping him from 2 to his current rating of 1 and the restrictions are because its influencing him with its own goals and most importantly it was responsible for his escape the whole background he's remembering was constructed from its point of view.

So we have an amnesiac Jedi Knight on the run from his former captors stuck with an alien bio-tech arm that has its own mind but like Revan this character hasn't fallen into the darkness yet so can be saved maybe if he involved the other characters in his introductory story it might help keep him from dominating the story...

Weird symbiotic things were not uncommon with the Vong around and the Vong and the Force did not mix, so giving him a weird mutant arm that interferes with his force powers really wouldn't be that surprising in that context. But you're probably playing in a Vong-free environment so that's not really an option. However, I don't really see the point.

He was a Vong Shaper who belonged to a Vong scout party. Some shaping tests with the local flora led to a horrible bio weapon. He contained it but during the process his comrades died, his shaper hand rotted away and some little brain damage caused amnesia. Then he was found by locals who just mistake him for an another helpless alien dude, not a threat.

(Now, that said, I'm not a fan of the Venom Symbiote. Seems a little - well, it doesn't seem Star Warsy to me.)

Some people tried, some people tried...

He could be also the symbiote all along....