Since we're on the subject, I came up with some houserules for making the mentor mean more both in roleplay and in game mechanics. In addition, it's a way for non-Force Sensitives to benefit from mentors too!
I threw these together mostly for Force Sensitive PCs as I've so far run EotE games in which some players have branched into F&D stuff. Those characters are generally behind the rest of the group in terms of ability due to having to split their XP not just between skills & talents but between skills, talents & Force powers. Generally these PCs have access to a Holocron but not a living, breathing Jedi to train them & the Holocrons rarely ever come up in the narrative of the game because of the way they are written in the book. So not only are all my holocrons filled with AI gatekeepers, there is now a reason for the players to interact with them within the game.
However, these are perfectly usable for non-Force Sensitives, all it requires is a mentor (NPC that has the skill rank or talent, Force power, or power upgrade you're planning to acquire next), is willing to train you and as long as you both have the in-game time to go about the training process.
Learning from a teacher:
Once per session, you may attempt to learn your next skill rank, Force power, Force power upgrade or talent from your teacher at a lowered xp cost. The attempt to learn is based on a skill check with a difficulty equal to the cost of the talent or power upgrade divided by 5 or for a skill, the difficulty is the skill rank number you’re trying to learn. Doing this signifies you are buying that ability at the end of the session, regardless of success and requires you have enough xp to buy the ability normally.
This applies for any character who knows an NPC who can teach them, such as a holocron gatekeeper, a trained Force user, an old war veteran, an ace pilot, anyone who has those abilities and is willing to teach the PC.
The check takes 24 in-game hours & represents your character taking time & effort towards learning from their teacher. This amount of time can be broken up over the course of several in-game days. You will benefit from this once the in-game time requirement is up or you reach the end of that game session, whichever comes first (abilities you gain access to before you have spent the xp to buy them between sessions apply the “Learn As You Go” rules). Depending on how well you train you could master that new ability quickly. Additional successes, failures, advantages, threats, triumphs & despairs can be applied narratively & mechanically to show how well or how bad the training goes, how long it takes, if any strain is recovered or taken or if you suffer an injury during the process.
Dice result breakdown
Success represents your training going well and allows you to purchase that new ability for 5xp less (minimum 5xp). Additional successes reduce the time taken by 1 hour per success, to a minimum of 6 hours.
Failure means you must still buy the ability but at the normal xp cost. Additional failures add 1 hour per failure to the training time taken.
Advantage represents a relative ease in grasping the concept, technique, finding your center, staying calm & collected, and so on. This can be narrative as well as add 1 boost die to your next skill check, per 2 advantage results.
Threat represents a challenging time grasping the idea, technique, method, having a hard time keeping focused, & so on. This can be narrative as well as add 1 setback die to your next skill check, per 2 threat results.
Triumph means you are exceptionally quick to master the new ability and results in the new ability costing no xp whatsoever. This means you have an innate talent in learning that ability.
Despair represents something going horribly wrong with the training. You roll a d100 & suffer a critical injury based on the critical injury chart. Alternatively, you suffer a number of strain equal to half your threshold.
Edited by GroggyGolem
