New GM here. Has anyone developed encounters for PCs to obtain their crystals? I have yet to pick up the FaD GM kit, which I understand has an adventure to do just that. I was thinking that since crystals are special to the Force user, that each PC might want his/her own encounter (with help from the rest of the team) to retrieve a crystal. Any thoughts or resources that can be passed on?

The adventures should be tailored to each PC, yes.

But I believe that the F&D CRB and GM Kit have much more to say on this subject, and I don’t know that I can really add much of anything beyond telling you that I think they are vital to making this process a success.

How many characters are involved? If it's one or two characters then individual collect-a-crystal adventures are feasible, while if it's 5-6 then you're probably better off with a single one that covers them all since after the first few times it's going to stop feeling like something special and start feeling like an extended hoop-jumping exercise.

I'd suggest checking out Nexus of Power. There's a section in the book concerning various 'trials' that a PC can undergo, including a mini-adventure that is built around PCs going on a crystal quest.

As Garran noted, what sort of adventure you run for the PCs to obtain their crystals is going to depend on how many PCs want their characters to have lightsabers. If you've got a party of 5 players and only 1 of them wants a lightsaber, you'll need to keep that in mind so that you can give the other players stuff for their characters to do while the one character is working on obtaining their crystal.

If it's only a small portion of the group, one thing you could do is split the party up, not unlike what ESB did to account for Luke's going off to Dagobah for Jedi training while Han and Leia got involved in various hijinks.

Thanks for the feedback. I was unaware of the Nexus of Power encounters. I'll pick that book up ASAP!

I was also considering a series of solo adventures for personalized crystals, as I have three players, so it would be manageable. Then I realized that maybe one of them even understands the difference between crystals, so they're not going to go a-questing for something unique.

A solution is to have them all go to a location together (I'll be using Ilum, I think), and separate them with illusions and such. They each get their own little Force trial, but I'll try to keep it short and to the point.

49 minutes ago, The Grand Falloon said:

I was also considering a series of solo adventures for personalized crystals, as I have three players, so it would be manageable. Then I realized that maybe one of them even understands the difference between crystals, so they're not going to go a-questing for something unique.

A solution is to have them all go to a location together (I'll be using Ilum, I think), and separate them with illusions and such. They each get their own little Force trial, but I'll try to keep it short and to the point.

As or whether or not to have the PCs go to different planets or just have them go to the same place, do any of the players have designs on crystals other than the typical Ilum crystal?

I think your plan of "one location, three separate encounters" is a solid one, as it cuts down on planet-hopping.

But in light of the newer canon where apparently a kyber crystal is a kyber crystal no matter where it's from, what you could consider if any of the players would like something other than an Ilum crystal is to simply let them choose a type of crystal (GM having final say in case the player goes for something too crazy) from the books and let their found kyber crystal have those traits.

I wound up doing something similar for my FaD campaign, as the one player that wanted to have a lightsaber had asked for a Lorrdian Gemstone, which are in the lore pretty darn rare. So rather than having him going hunting for it, I instead set things up in the adventure where he earned his kyber crystal so that while it might not be a Lorrdian gemstone in name, mechanically it has the same function, with its traits being guided by the character's nature; as befits a Guardian/Soresu Defender, he's more inclined to defend and protect his allies than go on the offensive, so a crystal that improves his defensive skills is quite appropriate.

14 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

do any of the players have designs on crystals other than the typical Ilum crystal?

In my case, not really, no. Of my three players, one has a copy of the core book, and understands the system pretty well. He's the guy who knew he wanted to be a Guardian, and knows he'll be branching into Niman Disciple, because it fits his character. He knows he wants to build a double-bladed lightsaber, and that Move Closer can be devastating with the Linked quality. But that's about it. So far as I know, he hasn't really looked at the various crystals and really put together what each one can do. The other two are pretty much in the dark, despite my best attempts to send them character trees and supplemental info. Of course, I hope that the Shadow has a good look at the Shien tree and the Lorrdian Gemstone, and that the Aggressor checks out the Dragite Gem, but I'm not gonna push them unless they ask for advice.

That said, I've considered the possibility that, while questing for their crystals, that a Triumph or enough Advantage on the final "you've passed the challenges, now let the Force guide you to your crystal" roll will give them a couple options. Either they find a second crystal, so that they can dual-wield or build a double-bladed saber, or they find something other than an Ilum Crystal.

Okay, well, dangit, now ya got me thinkin'. For each character, I'll probably make a short list of crystals that would go well with their strengths. Depending how they do on their search, they might be able to choose from one of them. Actually, I might take a page from Gabe over at Penny Arcade, and make up a little stack of cards. Extra successes and advantages will allow extra card draws, but you can only pick one from what you draw, except for the "Doubles!" card. That one will probably say, "Draw another Crystal. You find two of this crystal in the same formation, their Force energies resonating together." It's quickly becoming very "Dungeon Crawl Board Game" in my head, which could be a blast if done right.

Now that I've mentioned it, I feel like I should really post a link to some of what Gabe did when he jumped into D&D. Realize, this guy was a pretty brand new GM, diving gleefully into 4e. Yeah, he's creative for a living and presumably has a large nerd budget set aside, but this is why I love new players. Click me!

Didn't one of the graphic design gurus on this board create stat cards for all the crystals? You could drum those up and print them out. They were very well done, as I recall.

16 hours ago, rogue_09 said:

Didn't one of the graphic design gurus on this board create stat cards for all the crystals? You could drum those up and print them out. They were very well done, as I recall.

I don't think I've seen those, but now I wants them.

One factor you should consider in regards to where to do the Crystal test is that Ilum is very much inaccessible , more so than almost any other planet that might have lightsaber crystals, since it is not only firmly interdicted by the Empire, with garrisons right in front of the temple (which itself has been sealed), but it's also been strip mined by the Empire, and potentially being turned into Starkiller Base. Thus, I would definitely suggest alternative sources.

One thought might be the players finding their crystal(s) while searching the remains of Jedha post its destruction by the Death Star...

On 3/24/2017 at 1:01 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

One factor you should consider in regards to where to do the Crystal test is that Ilum is very much inaccessible , more so than almost any other planet that might have lightsaber crystals, since it is not only firmly interdicted by the Empire, with garrisons right in front of the temple (which itself has been sealed), but it's also been strip mined by the Empire, and potentially being turned into Starkiller Base. Thus, I would definitely suggest alternative sources.

ehh... First, I think Starkiller Base is stupid and it will never be a thing in my games. Second, as noted in Nexus of Power , the Imperial forces there don't exactly take the blockade seriously. It's at the butt-end of the Galaxy, and they're under firm orders to guard a ball of ice at which nothing has happened for almost 20 years. The officers are the dregs of both the Army and the Navy, and the soldiers are too young to know what the hell a Jedi is. What's more, the Army and the Navy are outright hostile toward each other, and everyone is just trying to get back to civilization. Seriously, you think Tatooine is a remote, desolate place? They at least have strong drinks, scantily-clad dancing girls and an up-and-coming Jazz scene.

So you have the worst the Imperial War Machine has to offer, add 20 years of boredom, the worst climate, backstabbing and rivalry from your allies, and equipment that's barely functional. Screw the Interdictor mass shadow generators, the techs here are going to keep two things in working order: Life support and late-night Cinemax.

Of course, a group that knows nothing about this might blunder right into the blockade. Those guys might be in trouble, if they don't make a really fast 180 and high-tail it out of the system, as, yes there's a lot of ships and firepower in orbit. But someone aware of the situation could plan ahead, slip past the blockade, make planetfall, and hopefully find a way in to one of the many cave networks without the Empire ever realizing they were there.

Close related to the question, there was once on old forum a "questionaire" about what color lightsabaer crystal will be; i started on those questions to build the adventure for my single Jedi

Whole party was blocked inside a cave, where Jedi and not Jedi was separated. Jedi has to face some climbing, going through narrow passages and keep pushing forward (this was built around his morality, using some hint from FaD kit)

Then he faced a caped figure who asked him several question (what's the Force for you? what make Jedi great?) after then, caped figure removed his cape and revelead to be the characther, then faded leaving a crystal on his spot. Crystal color was granted by response on those questions (he got a bright blue crystal, btw)

sorry i cant' found old questionaire link :\

Kayla's Lightsaber Color Quiz Found at this thread .

On 3/24/2017 at 4:06 PM, The Grand Falloon said:

I don't think I've seen those, but now I wants them.

I Google it and got this as a start for ya: https://kainrath.wordpress.com/category/lightsaber-crystals/