Hello everyone, after almost 300 hours of table play, my party is going against the terrible korriban sith temples to find a sith holocron. The group member literally lost limbs in this adventure: 2 fingers, 2 arms, one eye, a critical NPC.

Now they just faced almost all theirs fears and are about to enter the final room in a sith temple where a sith holocron is. They worked so hard they have to get it. But how would I leave them use it. Sure it gives the holder of the sith holocron the sith lore on there knowledges. But what more should it give them?

Special note : one of the player have an obsession over sith culture and dark force users. He is the most likely to take control of it.

Thank you guys !

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How to handle an sith holocron

With very long tongs.

On 3/19/2018 at 8:07 AM, Storm-Trooper-God said:

Sure it gives the holder of the sith holocron the sith lore on there knowledges. But what more should it give them?

Well Holocrons are all (essentially) the same right? So if a Jedi one is an interactive training simulation of a Jedi Master, then a Sith one would be the same just with a Sith Lord.

So where a Jedi one would be a reference manual and correspondence course for Jedi off in the galactic hinterlands a Sith one would likely be a set of training courses that help weed out the losers not worth the Masters time. Likely with a kind of capstone project or quest at the end.

On 3/19/2018 at 10:07 AM, Storm-Trooper-God said:

But what more should it give them?

The promise of great power

A measure of that power

The craving for more power

Sith, by their beliefs and actions, favor power over all else. Power in the Force, power over others, power over their own destiny. They are defined by the word "selfish". Tho they are selfish, they share a measure of knowledge with their students. This hooks the students in and then they begin to crave more power than they are given.

If the character using the holocron is force sensitive, they acquire some force power(s) and/or upgrade(s) to powers, plot hooks to other things that can increase power (maybe Vergences or Sith temples or weapons of war). Maybe some talents outside a spec tree or a unique ability.

If the character is not force sensitive, the holocron could teach them to wield power and give them the option to become force sensitive at a discount and maybe they start out as a dark side force user or something.

In either case, the promise is greater than the delivery, by design. Hardship and tragedy should befall the character and the holocron should begin to corrupt their thinking. Power above all else, self before all else. That is the way of the Sith.

For me and my group, I had them handle a Sith Holocron on a mission and made the user make multiple hard Cool checks in order to see if they could continue holding it, since I figured that the raw power and dark energy of it would mess with the head of anyone who isn't trained to withstand it.

Following Groggy's line of thought, I would just show them that this kind of raw power is unusable to those without force abilities. Perhaps it could lead in to them finding a way to become force sensitive in order to use it, but I would say to make their lives **** until they do it. This will either A) cause them to seek a way to get rid of the holocron or B) emboldend them to find a use for it so that all the pain will have been worth it.

From a mechanics standpoint, its all going to boil down to how YOU want to run the story and how YOU want for the Force to work within it. I did not feel like magically making the characters be force sensitive for the sake of the plot was a good way to go about it, so I made them fear the holocron, and thus become quick to pass it on for a pretty hefty sum of payment.

If you want to start making the characters force sensitive, then that's a great place to start introducing it.

This is all just opinion, of course, at the end of the day it's you and your groups' campaign!

Depends. While the Sith holocron is undoubtfully evil, it would also actually want people to be interested and arguably quite inviting. Furthermore a sith artifact would actively seek to be put in contact with someone who can actually use it; to the extent of luring inquisitors in who it can formally corrupt into a true sith or use to test the capabilities of it's wielder.

My PC had once dealt with a Sith artifact that removed the strain cost from spending dark side pips to make drawing on the darkside more appealing; yet mechanically as soon as you fall to the dark side it no longer provides a benefit. The problem was it also lured in any nearby inquistors to fight as it was frequently looking to upgrade from it's "Hopelessly materialistic host." who had yet to fully embrace the spirituralism to the darkside. Eventually my PC was defeated and the Lightsaber found exactly the people it hoped to find, though it was destroyed by a party counter attack before it could properly cooperate with it's new host.

Maybe it could give the PC the ability to use dark side pips without spending the strain. But dealing double the conflict while doing so. That'll make the dark side really tempting...

This would lead to the dark side rather quickly, should the PC decide to use it. And once they are a dark side user, the hoocron looses its benefit, (i.e. light side points can now only be used for strain), since the dark side always betrays you in the end...

For now, I will make a minus 2 to all PC strain treshold until the sith holocron is far from them. Also tempting the weakest player into doing harm to others. The one using it the most is a player with an obsession for sith culture. I will make him force sensitive after a while. Also if the person is using it with a critical injury will se the true holocron power. In this case the user will be put to test in selfharm and inflict harm to others. Behavior changing for everyone around it. In order to get the holocron the players had to face their fears then in the final room they had to face their greatest hiding fears that I ask the players to reveal a fear that no one had a chance to see. So it was an awesome game session. But now they understand the power, dark power. If they push further with it I will make more stuff for it. But thank you alot to all of you who posted your ideas. Keep you posted next session.

Lock it in a vault, and don't let anyone near it.

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But if you insist, I recomend + 20 XP per session and 2x conflict generated.

Twice the pride, double the fall.

I made a slow but surely mental drop to every one. Didn't have to push they all fought for it and started to backstab each other. Pull bad mojo and mind trick. It completely destroyed the bond on the group so one player decide to contact the black sun to sell it.... But forgot they had an obligation favor 40 with them so they lost the holocron, but don't have obligation with black sun. Insane way of getting rid of it without pulling it always from them.