Force power question

By Jeivar, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

I'm about to play a force user for the first time, and I would like a couple of things clarified.

The description of the basic Move power states "The user may not activate this power multiple times". What does that mean? Does it mean that if I fail to pull a lightsaber out of the snow, I can't make another roll the next turn?

What is the significance of certain talents being explicitly listed as Force Talents? If my one Force die is committed to, say, Sense to make incoming attacks more difficult, can I then NOT use Force talents?

Does each upgrade listed with a light/dark symbol increase the number of force points I need to roll in order to use it? Say if I want to sense the current thoughts of two living targets a short distance away, will I need FOUR pips? (basic+control+range+magnitude) If this is the way it's done, then it means Force users are a good deal less potent than I thought. I'm still about 100 XP away from my second Force rank, and there's only a 42% chance of rolling a white pip.

The long story short is that having only one force rating means you are not a particularly potent force user anyway.

You're not meant to be able to draw on the force endlessly with only a small connection to it.

I would say you need 3 (control + range + magnitude). The Control is actually another side of the power, using this one you would not know their emotional state, only their current thoughts.

You cannot activate this power multiple times mean during the same action only. You can't spend another pip to increase the range to medium range for example, you will need the range upgrade for that. If you want to pull your lightsaber from long range, having a single range upgrade, you will need 3 pips (basic power + 2 times your range upgrade). Once you learn your second range upgrade talent, the same action will require only 2 pips (basic power + range upgrade). Anyway with the basic power the speed at wich the lightsaber move is very slow, you will probably need more than one round to move your lightsaber all the distance towards you, and a GM might ask you to spend strain each following round you maintain the power active.

1 hour ago, Jeivar said:

The description of the basic Move power states "The user may not activate this power multiple times". What does that mean? Does it mean that if I fail to pull a lightsaber out of the snow, I can't make another roll the next turn?

It means that when you make a power check if you have multiple Pips to spend then you can't use just the basic power to move multiple objects.

You can never make multiple Force Power checks per turn. If you try the power once then that's it for your action until next turn.

1 hour ago, Jeivar said:

What is the significance of certain talents being explicitly listed as Force Talents? If my one Force die is committed to, say, Sense to make incoming attacks more difficult, can I then NOT use Force talents?

Even if you commit all Force Dice you are still considered Force sensitive and can use Force Talents. If those talents involve adding your Force Dice to a skill check though then obviously you can't do that.

1 hour ago, Jeivar said:

Does each upgrade listed with a light/dark symbol increase the number of force points I need to roll in order to use it? Say if I want to sense the current thoughts of two living targets a short distance away, will I need FOUR pips? (basic+control+range+magnitude) If this is the way it's done, then it means Force users are a good deal less potent than I thought. I'm still about 100 XP away from my second Force rank, and there's only a 42% chance of rolling a white pip.

In that example it's actually 3 Pips, the basic is not required for that control upgrade as the control adds a new way to use the power.

As for Force Users being limited at the start you are correct. In general you should look for ways where 1 pip is enough and a second will just make it better but not be required. Sense is good obviously, so is any power that lets you add the Force Dice to a skill check. Misdirect and Influence are decent too.

13 hours ago, Jeivar said:

If this is the way it's done, then it means Force users are a good deal less potent than I thought.

This is true in general. It's not really spelled out, but the design steers budding Force users to those powers that don't demand a Force die roll, but instead let you Commit for a guaranteed effect, or adds to one of your skills. Enhance and the left side of Sense are set up to attract PCs with FR1. By the time you fill out Enhance so you can jump to Medium range, or fill out Sense do you can get both offence and defence Commit options, you'll want FR2, and then all the other powers become that much more useful.

13 hours ago, Rosco74 said:

You cannot activate this power multiple times mean during the same action only. You can't spend another pip to increase the range to medium range for example, you will need the range upgrade for that. If you want to pull your lightsaber from long range, having a single range upgrade, you will need 3 pips (basic power + 2 times your range upgrade). Once you learn your second range upgrade talent, the same action will require only 2 pips (basic power + range upgrade). Anyway with the basic power the speed at wich the lightsaber move is very slow, you will probably need more than one round to move your lightsaber all the distance towards you, and a GM might ask you to spend strain each following round you maintain the power active.

Wait, I'm a little confused about this. Are you saying I can go beyond my limits by spending extra pips?

51 minutes ago, Jeivar said:

Wait, I'm a little confused about this. Are you saying I can go beyond my limits by spending extra pips?

What they mean is that some upgrades for Force powers, allow you to activate them multiple times. For example:

You are using Move, but you only bought 1 Strength upgrade from the tree. That would normally mean you could only move an object of Silhouette 2 size or smaller. BUT, if you happen to roll several Force pips on your activation roll, you can spend more of those pips to activate that Strength upgrade multiple times. Each new activation of that upgrade (in this case Strength, but others can work this way too), will let you increase the magnitude of what ever variable you are increasing.

**Edit**

Can't stress this enough, make sure you read the full description of the various Talents and/or Force power upgrades, not just the little thumbnail in the tree itself. They frequently leave out a LOT of very important information about how the power works from the thumbnail. But the full writeup makes things a lot clearer.

Edited by KungFuFerret

Exact