In my Old Republic Campaign we have several force sensitive characters and due to the veteran RPers in the group we've got a lot of high end players especially with access to ancient tomes and high end gear due to it being full on war. We also don't plan for this universe to ever stop. If a player dies he remakes with an EXP bonus depending on what he rolls.

So in order to give out an additional layer of individuality and indeed reward we have some extra rulings that I thought i'd share.

When a character wishes to attempt to use or learn a new force power they must first roll a D-100 to see if their character is capable of it adding their force rating x 10 to the figure.

Example:
In this example Luahk Cim, a force rating 3 character, is trying to use the force to reinvigorate his body and regain some much needed strain and is trying to use flow.
‘Luahk takes a deep breath attempting to draw the very energy of the force into himself in order to replenish his reserves of strength’

Since Luahk has a force rating of 3 he adds 30 to the pool meaning he gets a total score of 103 meaning he can use flow to draw strain back into him and now can begin attaching experience to the skill in order to use it permanently.

However had Luahk failed to get the prerequisite scoring for Flow he would not be able to attempt to use the skill again until he improved his force rating.
Narratively once young Cim’s connection to the force grows stronger he may be capable of things that previously were impossible to him.
This serves to add a degree of individuality to each player’s progression and skill set.

Players with force rating 1 thus can use all the “basic” skills without needing to roll and so on and so forth. Thus a more powerful character can more easily access more advanced force techniques.
But it also does not limit brand new characters from having a chance to use a particularly rare skill.
Narratively this would be the padawan who at an early age displays the rare ability to use battle meditation or the darksider who in a fit of rage drains the life from a foe.

Move/Sense/Enhance 11-20

Bind/influence/Supress 21-30

Seek/Imbue/farsight 31-40

Misdirect/fear 41-50

Protect/Unleash 51-60

Specific foresight Heal/Harm 61-70

Foresee 71-80

Battle meditation 81-90

Ebb/Flow 91-100


In addition to this I added the rule that to use a level of technique you must have pips appropriate to it. This is to avoid too much min-maxing and characters who at conception are instantaneously experts at a particular force power without being that powerful in the force.

Each force power tree goes down 5 ranks and to access a power upgrade you must be capable of forcepips equal to the level. In other words a force rating 1 character cannot use/purchase an upgrade that is on the third rung.

I wondered if anyone else does any home rulings to limit their players rather than enhance them.

Ummm why? The rules work fine RAW.

I must admit, this feels like using fiddly new rules to contain characters who have grown too powerful.

The Force rules actually work pretty well, so I've never seen a need to change them.

Wouldn't you be better off with a re-spec with less XP and tone things down a little?

Adding an extra dice roll when most already need a check to use the powers seems a bit much. If the characters are too powerful then you really need to fix that problem, not come up with rules to restrict them.

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I wondered if anyone else does any home rulings to limit their players rather than enhance them.

Yes, but it's a more of a campaign thing. Exiles and Emergents are limited to their specific force powers, and all characters are limited to their career specs. It allows characters to grow without letting them take the 'best' specs from every career, and eliminates cheesy builds like Marauder/Doctor. And it functions entirely within the rules without need for extra rolls.

Or things like 'only Sensitives can use lightsabers'.

Is not a bad idea, it reminds me Lord of the Rings (red cover 90's edition). Try to simplify it a bit more and can be a nice one, BUT...

...as people said, the main problema is the reason. Why do you need to limit them with a rule?

If you don't want that a character advance so fast, first, talk with your players and put some off game "restrictions". Also, don't let anyone (powers or not) just pick up a Skill/Talent/Power just because has de needed XP.

So don't care if you have 3.000 XP available, you cannot upgrade your "Tailoring" skill without a proper justification. This explanation can be a "between campaigns" or even "while we are in Hyperspace I study..." but before design a houserule, first, discuss with your players and expose your arguments and reasons, after that TOGETHER look for alternatives and sollutions and you can add your idea as an option, as I said, is not a bad one, but i would prefer that players advance thanks to their characters wisdom and experience, not just a "lucky roll". There is enough randomness in a roleplaying to put some more on character creation and developement (from my point of view).

Hope it helped

Hey Josep, where you been?

Seems like it's been ages since I saw you around!

Marcy

Hi Marcy and everyone! I answered via PM but in general: work, my last player went to live to another distant place, political revolutions in Catalonia and girlfriend XD

That's the summary of what I done this days XD Have I missed anything interesting on the forums?

To reply in short to both.

It's not an issue of being too powerful as much as giving more reason to be focused in something and allowing people to be more individual.

Also since it takes it out of my hands/descion as the GM the players have a more objective system.

I get the speed of progression idea and me managing that better but I am not particularly generous with the exp.

So far it's worked well.

Hmmm... interesting and a lot of things to answer XD

- About individuality: Well, here are "two options". You can personalize your character thanks to tons of talents and options. If none of them satisfy you, you can always give "GM Grants" and give them a special (or unique) Talent or Power. But give something "special" thanks to a lucky roll, personally, I don't like it so much. I would prefer that players do great roleplaying or design an awesome character instead leave this to mere luck.

- Objectivity: Well, I personally don't believe in objectivity, because always there is the point of view of someone (developers, players, GM, our points of view and philosophy), but returning to the idea: just argue and agree with your players. If do you personally believe that are beeing so "intrusive" in your player choices, ask them if them are feeling comfortable with that. Like in relations: communication and sincerity is the base of everything. You are the master, you have the power... because they consent it So just agree with your players.

- About speed and progression: Again, look for an agreement with your players. Roleplaying isn't a competition between a clever guy who tries to kill players PC's XD is about elaborate a cooperative story between players and GM's. In my games (the advanced ones with PC's with more than 2800XP) I don't give XP to them, we just agree. My player ask me that If i can give him XP or a talent (XP for it) because he believes that his PC deserves it.

As I said, the idea itself is not a bad idea, I like as a concept. In Lord of the Rings book this was used to learn new spells. It wasn't a bad idea but, consider if do you really need this before other options.

Hope it helped

PS: About objectivity, I had this discussion long time ago about companions that had the same dilemna. They use to believe that they don't want to interfere, but as GM you are the one who decide if behing blastdoor 1 there is a stormtrooper, a pair of them or a rancor with an oboe XD so, as GM, you are the objectivity there XD

I see. I will consider the bit you put about xp. That intrigues me. Can you go into more detail?

About XP and PC progressions do you mean?

Here is my gaming idea.

At the first game stages I use to give for a completed "scenario" (part of a campaign) between 0 and 15 XP on the easiest ones, on a moderate scenario I give 5 - 20 XP and on really important ones 10 - 25 XP. In all cases I always consider to give them special things or rewards but instead give them Talents or other special on game features I reward them with special events, NPC's or info.

When PC's arrive at high levels (or really high ones), we just continue gaming and advancing, without caring about XP BUT when players asks for it or even somtimes when I suggest it, we just upgrade or add a Talent, Skill or else (or giving the necessary XP for it). Even sometimes giving them Talents that actually he can adquire.

Game isn't calculated for reaaaaaaaally long them gaming (I refer to more tan 15 years of playing XD). So, at a advanced part, you have to forget XP and Specializations and just focus on pure PC design. Also, on high levels, PC's doesn't use to advance so much in their strong fields.

My player's PC with more tan 2.800XP had his main Skills and Talents at 4 or 5, but always there are ton of other good options to rise them up.

Do you want that I explain anything in special?

Thank you for the information.

As others have said your problem seems more with having very high EXP PCs and this is an issue with all RPGs that use this kind of open, non-Leveling based advancement. If you're planning on running a game for longer than say 15-20 sessions the best way I've found to deal with it over the long term is to have a bump in EXP in the early part of a campaign and slowly reduce the amount of EXP given as the game progresses. For example in the first few sessions I give 1.5x EXP and then level out at the normal recommended amount until the PCs are around 500EXP I start to scale back, by 1000EXP they will be getting about half the recommended amount. This keep things from getting too crazy and forces Players to choose their PC's path a little bit more carefully.

When dealing with PC death and having new characters enter the game I don't just give them the same EXP. One of the great things about this system is that a PC's, unless you are a numbers freak, EXP has little to do with the enjoyment of the game, a PC with 150EXP and no less fun to play than one with 500EXP. So I have Players build their "new" PC's normally then give them a bonus of about half of what the rest of the PCs have then dole out extra EXP to them over several session until they catch up. I do this because it's very easy to optimize a build if you get to spend EXP all at once rather than build it over time and that can lead to less interesting characters IMO.

Thank you