So I have this character in my game right now. The player is trying to be a light side Force user, but keeps making awful decisions.

He's been party to the murder of a Sith witch, and taken her evil holocron. He felt the evil in it, and still meditated with it yelling at him ancient, foreign, dark Force secrets.

Killed a former Jedi and took his lightsaber. The saber had become, thanks to the fall of said Jedi, an implement of the dark side. He keeps trying to attune it to the light, but he's not gotten far at all.

In a desperate situation which bordered on self defense and murder (he was opposed to the fight, but mostly due to timing), he used the blade. Made him roll a discipline check against one purple and one red. No successes, one advantage, and a despair. Three strain ignoring soak, and now for the half mechanical, half narrative bit...

I told him, "Until you manage to find the light again, whenever combat breaks out, you must roll Discipline. If you fail, the check becomes more difficult until you rest, and you must use your lightsaber regardless of any other considerations save for vehicle combat."

Thoughts on that ruling?

What is his morality score at?

He is doing the right things as far as defeating evil (killing the sith witch and fallen jedi) but are you even trying to meet him half way on the rewards for doing so. Take the light saber, for example, the crystal is the expensive and rare bit, the rest is around 300 credits to make. Maybe have him do a quest of some sort to purify the crystal and then make a new saber for himself (treat the newly purified crystal as a Illum crystal).

The Holocron is another story, using a dark holocron to learn from is not an evil act. Acting on those teachings may be. One of the many faults of the Old Jedi order was that it refused to study or learn from their enemies fearing that those that did would fall to the temptation. This left them out of the loop when it came to their tactics.

I think it is kinda awesome. Threaten him with removing the 'save vehicle combat' part if he rolls another despair.

What is his morality score at?

He is doing the right things as far as defeating evil (killing the sith witch and fallen jedi) but are you even trying to meet him half way on the rewards for doing so. Take the light saber, for example, the crystal is the expensive and rare bit, the rest is around 300 credits to make. Maybe have him do a quest of some sort to purify the crystal and then make a new saber for himself (treat the newly purified crystal as a Illum crystal).

The Holocron is another story, using a dark holocron to learn from is not an evil act. Acting on those teachings may be. One of the many faults of the Old Jedi order was that it refused to study or learn from their enemies fearing that those that did would fall to the temptation. This left them out of the loop when it came to their tactics.

I think the lightsaber is more a cursed berserking sword than the character having a low morality

Maybe give him a break. If the only saber he has access to is some evil cursed thing you're dangling something in front of him sort of. This is the whole 'keep them hungry' philosophy. To me hungry players do what they feel they have to because they have no other avenue. It's not terribly realistic to expect him to stick to one path or the other and not reward that, it just leads to muder hobo-ism and loot mongers.

Without details of murdering the Sith witch can't really judge that but maybe you should have had her hiding a Jedi Holocron.

Maybe the fallen Jedi had a spare crystal laying around.

If all you provide him is dark side stuff he's going to try to use it.

The Holocron is another story, using a dark holocron to learn from is not an evil act. Acting on those teachings may be. One of the many faults of the Old Jedi order was that it refused to study or learn from their enemies fearing that those that did would fall to the temptation. This left them out of the loop when it came to their tactics.

According to the current canon if the OP cares about following that at all, one needs to use the darkside and the negative emotions that come with it to access a Sith holocron.

Cited source:

Accessing them yes, but what he does with that knowledge will determine his end out come.

The process of splitting an atom is not in and of itself good or evil. Using it to make bombs and using them without justification is evil, using it to make power plants is not

Studying how to make Sulfuric Acid is not evil, using to disfigure people, dispose of bodies, or using it as a gas to burn out people's lungs is. Using it in wet cell batteries to create power or many other uses is not.

Yet Star Wars paints a very clear picture that bad is bad no matter the reasons or the justifications behind it.

The mechanics of how conflict and the morality system of FaD reflect that pretty clearly. You tortured an Imperial officer for information on the next bombing run against civilians? Well you got the info but you still tortured a man. You gain conflict.

You used the dark side to move your ally back onto the platform instead of watching them fall? Well you used the dark side, so conflict.

You used the dark side to open a holocron? You still used the dark side, which earns you conflict.

Good Jedi don't play with evil darkside artifacts. It's really that simple. What is he expecting to gain from the Sith holocron? It's all dark knowledge, even if it sounds not-so-dark, that's the point! The Sith often lured you in with something that seemed reasonable and worked their way up to truly evilness later on; after of course revealing to you just how far you'd fallen. Further, you don't "purify" evil things without some seriously ultra-powerful jedi master and even then that begs the question, why would he want to? Is he just desperate to get a lightsaber? That's bad Jedi juju.

Being party to the murder of darksiders isn't a bad thing for a Jedi. I mean, unless you're arguing that all a Jedi should be allowed to do and "stay good" is sit around meditating. If that's the case be up-front that you don't feel your player should actually be playing the game and tell him to make a new character. Taking darksider stuff isn't a bad thing, provided he locks it away in a chest never to be seen again.

Personally, if I were to force (heh, force) him to use the lightsaber, I'd make the checks get easier . It's the lure of the dark side. Use the evil artifact, gain power, fall to the dark side...rinse and repeat. If he were smart he'd put the darn thing in a box and never let it out. This guy would be earning conflict all over the board and lots of it.

So you got a doodad he has to use the dark side to use

and his primary weapon he has to use the dark side to use

so please tell me what can he do where he is using light side instead?

Hey, folks, been at work all day, so I couldn't respond, but there's been a lot of great posts so far. Here's a response:

Eliminating the dark side is, I agree, a necessary responsibility for one who wants to be devoted to the light. However, he meets the sith witch and says, "Teach me." She replies with a rejection, so he says, "Okay, we can kill her for the Jedi." He steals the holocron from the now dead woman, feels the evil, is told it's evil, and that using it will teach him of the dark side. Takes it anyway.

The Jedi whom had asked them to eliminate the witch asked for the holocron, said it was important for him to keep it safe. The group refused, then did battle with the Jedi and it was revealed had fallen to the dark side over zealous overbearing duty.

He then proceeded to steal the lightsaber not from the fallen foe, but from his comrades who picked it up, felt the darkness and dropped it out of reaction. The PC in question scooped up the fallen item and refused to give it back when asked.

Since then he has meditated at the holocron twice. I've given him visions of the witch while he sleeps. He's lied, cheated, and smack talked everyone he's come across when the opportunity arose.

They began working for the black sun, and he has gone along with the rest of the team no problem, but only he is trying to "be a good guy." They've kidnapped important people and ransomed them back. Claim jumped a prospector who found rare minerals, and killed without ever once trying to talk his way out or calm down the aggression.

He said, recently, he wants to attune the lightsaber crystal to the light, to redeem the blade of what was once a respected Jedi. When he encountered an old friend of the Jedi they killed, he lied and said he died an honorable death, and that was the shining light in the darkness that he could still "be a good guy."

I feel he's had a lot of chances for how short the game has gone on so far. He's a great guy to play the game with, too. But his character is falling to the dark side, and I thought this was a good way to really demonstrate to him how far he's gone down the quick and easy path.

Read through again, missed a point or two.

He's been informed that the crystal can be realligned. It is more of a cursed item right now, but I don't believe in the notion that bad things are always and inherently bad. I told him that a clear mind and pure heart will win out against the darkness of the crystal within. I also said that if he wants to be a paragon of light, and have the lightsaber follow his example, he needs to act on his intentions and take the more difficult path.

As for murderhobos and dangling items just out of reach... It's only the second adventure for this player. We had one treasure hunt which ended with him getting the saber and them making a new secret ally.

Now we're onto adventure two, and its a kidnapping. Something like 10 sessions in total.

And of course things are held just out of reach. That's the point, isn't it? "Boy that looks fancy. Wouldn't it be cool to have it? How do you get it? What do you do to get it?" That's what makes for fun stories and adventures.

And lastly. So not poor. Just bad with money. Here's a ship. Needs a cleaning, but in full repair. It's got two modifications on it already! The first job pays the group of four 10,000 credits, plus they can keep the ship. The second is paying 7,000 up front to hire a sliced and buy equipment, then 43,000 on completion, and they found a bounty board twice, taken five jobs (only the ones that pay, not the quest-like ones with no cash reward, but a good role play experience) and earned another 7,500 from that.

All of them are broke. They never paid the slicer.

I get dangling somewhat, but maybe a crystal, or a hilt, or a Holocron, just one of them that doesn't need an exorcism would be ok.

I agree don't give PCs everything but I also feel not everything acquired has to be like a colonoscopy in an earthquake level of effort....

I think the holocron should be the sticking point; I would be tempted to treat that like knowingly owning a dark force power (one conflict per session, assuming that the character is actively studying it.)

The lightsaber shouldn't have been corrupted perhaps(I mean, this fallen Jedi sounded like the Diet Coke of evil, falling without intending to fall thus was only mildly evil) personally the best corruption I encountered was a sith saber that taught lessons but did nothing else. but definitely give him shed loads of conflict for the actions he took; he slain the Jedi not knowing he was corrupted, lied to his friend without good reason... His actions speak for himself.

Generally having a little attitude definitely shouldn't lead to the darkside (most Jedi have at least one trait that is negative within that era. Obi was a cynic.) but to me he is letting his weapon dictate his actions, using his status as a Jedi to murder for profit. His actions aren't keeping with his words and as such his slide to the darkness is natural. If he disagrees, then talk about how he can change that as part of it may be not wanting to be the lawful paladin that blocks the party from having their amoral fun.

Summery: not every item has to be an artefact of the darkside, you as the gm have the agency to put whatever you want before him but the players actions aren't really that of a Jedi. That is fine if he wants to fall, but if he really intends to be a Jedi then talk with him about how he wants to reach that goal. His slide to the darkside might not necessarily be entirely his fault.