Hi!

In one of my sessions, there was a crashed ship tangled up in the trees. The player characters wanted to use the Force. (They're all Force-sensitive.) None of them had "Move", but they did have banked XP. One of them decided to purchase the "Move" power right then and there, and we just described it as the Force kicking in at the right time.

It made me realize that there isn't an explicit rule about *when* players can spend their XP. If there really is no rule about this, how do you handle it? The above example is plausible, but I'd find it odd if a character jumped in a gunner seat for the first time in his life, invested his banked XP--saved as contingency--into Ranged (Gunnery), and then picked off TIEs with ease. I mean, it could be a "Star Wars Moment", surprising the audience with that character's hidden talents, but still. It feels a bit meta when players save some XP "just in case".

If it can be explained away as the Force guiding a character at a moment of need or something I’d accept it too, but generally we spend XP between sessions. My players often have 5-10 XP in the bank because whatever they want to spend it on next costs more and they need to save up for it, but otherwise they don’t hoard it anyway. XP doesn’t help them, skills and talents and powers help them. Which made me wonder a bit about your situation too: the Move basic power costs 10 XP but doesn’t let the character do a great deal without upgrades: Silhouette 0 objects at short range without any fine control only. Did you fudge the limits of the power a bit rule-of-cool style, or did that player have enough XP to upgrade the power as well?

I’d allow it.

I would probably also need the player to spend one or more destiny points to do so.

I think it was the brilliant Dice for Brains Podcast that had the following house rule which I really liked: They allowed players to spend XP mid session by flip of a light side destiny point. This encourages players to normally spend XP outside of sessions rather than hoarding XP to buy talents when they need them, but it still allows for cinematic scenes where a character learns an ability right when they need them, making it a special moment, the characters destiny!

I would say it is up to the player to narrate how the character learns or improves an ability in that moment. It could be the force guiding them to try the move power for the first time or it could be that the gunner suddenly finds out that they need to press that big red button in order to fire the gun by accident when they set down their coffee mug on that button!

30 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

Which made me wonder a bit about your situation too: the Move basic power costs 10 XP but doesn’t let the character do a great deal without upgrades: Silhouette 0 objects at short range without any fine control only. Did you fudge the limits of the power a bit rule-of-cool style, or did that player have enough XP to upgrade the power as well?

The character didn't interact with the ship directly, but rather the vines and branches around it, after succeeding a Survival check to figure out which points to push. It was a cool moment for everyone, at least.

10 minutes ago, GM Fred said:

I think it was the brilliant Dice for Brains Podcast that had the following house rule which I really liked: They allowed players to spend XP mid session by flip of a light side destiny point. This encourages players to normally spend XP outside of sessions rather than hoarding XP to buy talents when they need them, but it still allows for cinematic scenes where a character learns an ability right when they need them, making it a special moment, the characters destiny!

I would say it is up to the player to narrate how the character learns or improves an ability in that moment. It could be the force guiding them to try the move power for the first time or it could be that the gunner suddenly finds out that they need to press that big red button in order to fire the gun by accident when they set down their coffee mug on that button!

Flipping a Destiny point sounds like a great idea! It's thematic and adds more color to a scene. Thanks for that.

1 hour ago, Redwense said:

The character didn't interact with the ship directly, but rather the vines and branches around it, after succeeding a Survival check to figure out which points to push. It was a cool moment for everyone, at least.

That’s all that matters. I was mostly curious about whether your players had banked 20 XP or more, that would never happen with mine but each group is different.

On the one hand, it seems a bit of a cheat to go "I've got 80 points! I want to raise my Computers to 5 to hack this upcoming roll!"

On the other hand, it seems a logical extension of the Force, where you really really need to get your lightsaber off the ice cave floor before the monster comes and eats you. "Can I buy move, please?"

I would let the Rule of Cool carry the day on a case-by-case basis. Generally I wouldn't, but if it was awesome and cinematic (and you flip the point), I could probably be talked into it.

There's the learn as you go rules in the Keeping the Peace sourcebook for Guardians in the Force & Destiny line. that can work in a limited sense. I allow my players to buy up into something mid-session if they will have enough by the end of it. For instance, a player just bought super far down the Heal tree using up 70 of his 85 available xp (some of it saved from before) so he could use the mastery and bring his fallen ally back from the brink of death.

I would definitely allow what you described. But if someone wanted thirty minutes to flick through books looking for a new spec to get them no, definitely not.

basicly if the game doesn’t have to stop, and it’s part of the story then I’m cool with it.

On 3/5/2018 at 9:48 AM, Redwense said:

It made   me realize that there isn't an explicit rule about *when* players  can spend th  eir  XP    .             

Stumbled across it today and remembered this topic :

There is a rule for when to spend XP on page 35 EotE-CRB: "Players can spend experience points during character creation and at the end of each game session when they receive additional experience points."

I still stand by my statement that I allow to buy a talent or raise a skill during play for flip of a destiny point.

I actually allow it. Mostly players use the XP on stuff they used where they felt lacking, so it makes sense.