Hi all. I bet this has been covered 1.2 million times before, but I didn't see it in a search, so I will ask again, because I'd like help building my starting character.

Joining an in-progress campaign soon, at present it is just the GM and a player. I believe the GM is just working with the EotE core rulebook, but seems open to let us use other books in the event that we actually buy them ourselves. I'd prefer not to go that route, because money is tight. I'm thinking about being a young Wookie who takes on a life debt to the other PC, an protocol type droid.

As I understand it, the campaign has been running 2-3 sessions, it seems like a lot has happened for it to only be one session, I'm not sure. Anyhow, long story short the Droid PC gained sentience and met R5D4(!), an NPC who I suspect is just there to get him into hyperspace and maybe act as an outlet for the GM to be annoying. The droid duo proceeded to rescue a lot of Wookie slaves from the Death Star, then they stole a shuttle, which was shot to pieces in the battle of Yavin, possibly by rebels. They limped into hyperspace, towards Kashyyyk and an uncertain future.

So, I'm making a Wookie, and I'd like him to have the force power Sense. I really liked sense back in the days of the WEG versions, and would like this character to have it as well. I'd also prefer not to have to buy any extra books, if at all possible.

What is the best way to get hold of it using the EotE core rule book? I assume I need to buy Force Sensitive Exile (20xp) and then I can get sense (10xp). Is that correct? Would I be better off buying it at character creation, or should I save up and just buy it later on? Or should I just skip it because sense isn't as good as I remember? Perhaps some other option would serve me better?

Thanks in advance!

50 minutes ago, DrNate said:

Wookie

*Wookiee

As a general rule, you should spend as much character creation XP as possible on characteristics. Now, it might make sense to grab the Force-Sensitive Exile at Character Creation (for narrative reasons) but I would wait on developing Force powers.

51 minutes ago, DrNate said:

What is the best way to get hold of it using the EotE core rule book? I assume I need to buy Force Sensitive Exile (20xp) and then I can get sense (10xp). Is that correct?

Pretty much yeah. It's one of the first powers published, so it's in EotE, and you can obtain it by buying the Exile tree as a secondary specialization tree. Once you have Force Rating 1 (which you get for buying Exile), you can then buy any and all Force powers you want (that you meet the requirements for).

53 minutes ago, DrNate said:

Would I be better off buying it at character creation, or should I save up and just buy it later on? Or should I just skip it because sense isn't as good as I remember? Perhaps some other option would serve me better?

Thanks in advance!

This is a less clear answer, as it depends on how efficient you want to be with your starting XP. It's generally recommended by most people (even the developers) to invest as much of your starting XP into characteristics as you can, as character creation is the only time you can just spend XP on characteristics however you want. AFTER character creation, the only way to further improve characteristics, is either with cybernetics (which can be expensive), or by buying the talent Dedication, located in just about every tree (some don't have it by design). However this talent is pretty much always at the bottom of the tree, which means yo uhave to spend a LOT of XP to get down to it.

Since that starting XP is the only time you can freely spend it to boost your characteristics, I would say, it's probably better to hold off buying Exile and Sense, until later, and dump as much of your XP into characteristics. Now, thematically, do whatever you want, but from a strict mechanical viewpoint, if you feel the starting Wookiee stats need boosting for the concept you have, then focus on that, and branch out into Exile later.

Best way to start is to double your obligations to get enought xp spend all on attributes....

On the other hand, if im the GM, im only allowing a user to be force sensitve from the start thus insuring that you forfeit the extra attribute and making sure that your entire groups cant just decide sudently to be imbued with the force....

As someone said before, for narative/logic purpose you should already be force sensitive

I suggest you spend all your starting XP on characteristics, and just RP the Force stuff until you can purchase the specialization ingame. You can confer with your GM and play events that foreshadow your Force sensitivity, maybe even set up some catalyzing event that precedes you actually manifesting Force sensitivity.

Or just acknowledge that all new characters have Starting Point Syndrome. "Yeah, my character should have SKILL X, but I don't have the points to make it happen. Lets just handwave it, say it was there the whole time and I'll drop the first 30 points into buying it."

2 hours ago, Desslok said:

Or just acknowledge that all new characters have Starting Point Syndrome. "Yeah, my character should have SKILL X, but I don't have the points to make it happen. Lets just handwave it, say it was there the whole time and I'll drop the first 30 points into buying it."

Let say you pick a human (anyway there are all equivalent somehow)
Stats : 2-2-2-2-2-2
110 XP to spend

You can therefor upgrade for 90 XP
3-3-3-2-2-2

The thing is, you're left with 20 XP which can be use to unlock your force sensitive or upgrade some stats...but not enough to upgrade another ability

Although, you could instead tack on +10 Obligation for +10 XP

Now with 30 xp left, you can upgrade another skill

3-3-3-2-3-2 which is awesome

Our GM didn't allowed us to do that when i came up with the idea...as everyone in the team would have done that....obviously

As a GM, instead i would have offered the choice....either you tack on another skill point but you won't be able to be force sensitive or you unlock force sensitive....make player think about it... now it doesn't become so obvious anymore

As a GM, in my next campaign I plan to let people spend xp on characteristics after character gen, but only up to the same level as you could have at character gen.

Nice thing is that Oggdude's already works like that, and it limits the characters fairly, without forcing them to prioritise stats over talents, skills, specializations or force powers.

First of all, it absolutely should be fine for a character to become Force Sensitive over the course of the game. Expecting a starting PC to fork over 20xp to ever have the chance to be FS is just wrong per how this game is structured.

If its an absolute -must- that the PC be force sensitive, then this is a case of petitioning your GM for extra XP across the board.

Really though, it should be that this is a character, like Luke in ep. 4, who is on the cusp of realizing their heroic destiny.

Good thinking Darzil, but would you allow that total with the obligation bonus or without it?

Kommissar, it depends, it is similar of saying in Bilbo the hobbit with the 13 dwarfs that they would suddenly decide to all become a wizard like Gandalf.... you'd be like....yeah, that doesn't work...but I guess it depends also where you'd want to go with your story

10 minutes ago, Mefyrx said:

Good thinking Darzil, but would you allow that total with the obligation bonus or without it?

With it, same as at character generation. Totally balanced and supported by Oggdudes and indistinguishable characters after a few sessions.

Edit - Also not my idea, read it somewhere on these boards, but like it.

You could always take an F&D career and spec, if the GM allows. Even if you don’t have the F&D rule book, there are PDFs of all of the spec sheets for all three lines, as well as DoR, here. The only other thing you would need is the Moralities and Motivations to choose from and I’m sure there are people here who could help you with that. The only other differences between an F&D character and EotE or AoR is with the free ranks in starting skills. In exchange for starting with a rank of Force Rating, you only have six career skills to choose from instead of eight, and only get one free rank each in three of them instead of four. Also, each spec only has four additional career skills, and you only get one free rank each in two of them from your first spec. Everything else is the same. Lightsabers have more options too.

16 hours ago, Mefyrx said:

Kommissar, it depends, it is similar of saying in Bilbo the hobbit with the 13 dwarfs that they would suddenly decide to all become a wizard like Gandalf.... you'd be like....yeah, that doesn't work...but I guess it depends also where you'd want to go with your story

First of all, those characters are easily in the 200-300xp spent range; they've already decided they weren't going to be playing wizards. They aren't anywhere near the point that a starting PC in the SW RPG line is supposed to be.

Second, access to specializations is still something the GM can veto. My point is more that it shouldn't be required that you pick up an FR at char-gen. More that the player should inform the GM of their desire to play a force sensitive character, the GM then agreeing that this is where they want to take the game, and eventually the player spending future XP on the spec. That awakening to the force can then be played up in a narratively interesting and appropriate way, while also not unduly burdening the player with their XP expenditures at char-gen.

The vetoing of taking a FR spec occurs when its quite clear the player is just picking it up for meta-gamey purposes, which frankly, is the sort of problem that should be noticed a lot more quickly than at that point. It shouldn't require burdening the system with all this junk to prevent metagaming.

17 hours ago, Mefyrx said:

Kommissar, it depends, it is similar of saying in Bilbo the hobbit with the 13 dwarfs that they would suddenly decide to all become a wizard like Gandalf.... you'd be like....yeah, that doesn't work...but I guess it depends also where you'd want to go with your story

As an aside, “wizard” in LOTR is as much a racial thing thing as anything else. All the wizards in Middle-Earth are Maiar. Non-Maiar could never become something “like Gandalf”.

1 hour ago, nameless ronin said:

As an aside, “wizard” in LOTR is as much a racial thing thing as anything else. All the wizards in Middle-Earth are Maiar. Non-Maiar could never become something “like Gandalf”.

Good thing this isn't Middle Earth so that doesn't matter

5 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Good thing this isn't Middle Earth so that doesn't matter

Just wanted to point it out. “Suddenly becoming a wizard like Gandalf” is more like “suddenly being able to breathe under water like a Mon Cal” than “suddenly becoming Force-sensitive”. We have Leia as a canon example, after all. Not that she became Force-sensitive from one moment to the next, but she shows that it’s perfectly possible not to get to use the Force until later in life.

lol @ that Wizard talk

This aside

Yeah, well the new Disney trilogy is a disgrace, so to me any cannon from Disney is irrelevant information.... and as a community, we shouldn't even bother with those retards writing movies...

Yeah Rogue One was awesome, but it wasn't Disney's writer or whatever...

I didn't watch Starwars 8 and never will.... just asked what was the story, plot and outcome....and yeah it was stupid....someone walking in space....retarted, suposably something worse than Jar Jar bing.....a Sith lord lasting about 2 minutes of screen footage.... and the need for Disney to push their belief of a happy life with diversity and everything above just making a good story..... yeah....will never watch that...

So I have about 7 work colleague who are gamers....love star wars but hated that movie.... all my friends but 2 (those 2 likes anything so ...its not like if it was relevant) ....and anyone else that I've asked dislike to hate that movie.... ....Disney probably paid a good amount of money to have their "review" on imdb go up ..... so much that people had to start a campaign for people to vote 1 star to make the value go down...

Oh yeah and my friend, the one told me know that Star Wars 7 was nice but I shouldn't expect much at the time and he did everything to make sure I didn't have too much hope of a great movie... I entered the theater with no expectations in mind 3 months later.....hated that thing.... small talk that was not even ok, poor acting beside H. Ford, a parody of the 3rd reich, flying the Falcon better than Han Solo after 5 seconds, angry dude who keeps getting angry like a teenager in crisis, using the force like if it was as easy as drinking a glass of water.....I could go on an on about it ....I think I deleted my 10 pages documents....

But my friend was like well give Disney a chance etc....he's more....mellow.....well.... even though I was right....unfortunately....now he sees it my way...after watching star wars 8.... his quote was "it was so shameful that you could hear a fly in the theater because of how people where ashamed of what they were seeing (at the creature worse than jar jar bing)"....of course he said they were nice sequences to the movie, but the poor sequence were so poor that's its the only thing you can remember....

Remember having that discussion with an old friend from college....kind of drifted apart but we had a college reunion....and I remember asking him about both movies....I know he's just more than a fan....more like a fanatic....or at least he was....and he just didn't want to answer......after poking the question a couple of time he got with this answer.... well this is the new era and Disney wants to target kids to get the young generation to get into star wars... and I remember answering...well they have cartoons for that...movies are for grown up....kids got cartoons.... but it staid as is as he didn't to get into it...... oh knowing him....he was probably very displeased to see that but made his peace that this is the new reality.....

So yeah, Star wars died with that last trilogy and i'll live with the past stories....and make up my own as a gm or a player...

Seemed like a good choice for M. Lucas to sell to Disney at the time, but now we know it was the worse... and I remember arguing with my friend (the one who told me to give them a chance) about what M. Lucas said after watching the movie "I wouldn't have done it this way" ..... yeah just read between the lines....it wouldn't be morally acceptable after selling for 4 billions to review their first movie as a disgraced...

..well at least we got Rogue One....

2 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

Just wanted to point it out. “Suddenly becoming a wizard like Gandalf” is more like “suddenly being able to breathe under water like a Mon Cal” than “suddenly becoming Force-sensitive”. We have Leia as a canon example, after all. Not that she became Force-sensitive from one moment to the next, but she shows that it’s perfectly possible not to get to use the Force until later in life.

Not sure what you define as "later in life" as Luke didn't start until 19ish, which is apparently "too old to begin the training" as Yoda put it.

But there's no indication that she didn't at least practice some in the 30 plus years between films. Sure she never made it her profession, as she had other priorities, but come on, you can't tell me if you were told "You're a Jedi Ronin!" that you wouldn't try to do stuff every free chance you had? Come ooooon I mean some of us IRL have tried that shite knowing full well it's a fictional power that doesn't exist, but for her it's real. You KNOW she was trying stuff. *Hand waves at Han* "You want to take out the garbage" *uses Sense* "Kylo!! What have I told you about masturbating in the bathroom!" She totally did that kind of stuff, guaranteed

Luke always had the force... because of the mediclorian

The training is to become a Jedi or a Sith ...which are kind of a religion...which used the force in certain ways...

The Jedi's wants them sooner rather than later to shape their destiny and prevent any "wrong behavior" .....they want them to fit their mold...and therefor control their behavior.....your past defines you but if you don't have any, then the only thing that defines you is the Jedi way...

Restoring the balance in star wars 6 is destroying the last remain from these two religions....to let people born mediclorian create something new....something maybe more "balanced"

(restoring the balance did not meant like the Jedi though (destroying the Sith)....It meant to destroy both of them)

But anyway, yes Komissar, if you have other ways of approving a user to be force-sensitive.... it is good too.

The way I was proposing is more about, you as a playing make a choice between an extra attribute or be force sensitive....so I don't have to do so....the players have their own choice ahead...

While if you approve or deny, then why that person and not the other....depends on the people in your group I guess... and also your story....

On 2018-04-19 at 12:51 PM, DrNate said:

Would I be better off buying it at character creation, or should I save up and just buy it later on? Or should I just skip it because sense isn't as good as I remember?

Actually, Sense and Enhance are extremely useful, especially early on. Having one Force die is kind of difficult to deal with, it's better IMHO to focus on Sense and Enhance where you can either commit the die for a lasting effect, or in Enhance's case, add it to the dice pool of specific skills.

Since the GM has already had a few sessions, maybe he's already granted XP to the other player...and you wouldn't want to be left behind

For human PCs I'm usually a fan of the 3/3/3/3/2/2 split. It puts more tools in the toolkit, and makes that eventual Dedication even more impressive (eg: 4/3/3/3/2/2). The other option is 4/3/2/2/2/2 which leaves a bit of XP for extra stuff, but after Dedication it's 5/3/2/2/2/2 (one-trick pony yawnfest) or maybe 4/3/3/2/2/2, which is a whole pip behind the first option. Believe me, you'll get more mileage in the long run from that extra pip in the first option than from the extra XP in the second.

For non-humans, I've become a fan of leaving their weakness at a 1. It's simultaneously a source of amusement, and a possible character development arc. One caveat though: Wookiees have their 1 in Willpower, and that is the source attribute for Discipline. Discipline is key to using the Force, never mind the Fear check...and there's nothing more sad than a big strong Wookiee who balks at the first sign of trouble. (Think Chewbacca after the garbage pit on the Death Star...which does make for good role-play moments.) However, one of the cheap Talents on the FSEx tree is "Insight", which makes Discipline and Perception career skills. So you can fairly quickly build up your skill in Discipline, knowing that every rank will add a new die to your pool. You may only have one yellow, but 5 dice in a pool is still pretty "wizard"...ahem.

Note also that Willpower is the source attribute for Coercion, so if you're looking to roar in people's faces and have them wet their pants, you'll need to develop that skill too, or bump Willpower to a 2 or 3. Otherwise, your Wookiee bleats like a goat, and it's cute. But this would cost 20-50XP by itself, which doesn't leave much for boosting Brawn. Personally I'd like the challenge of working up to being disciplined and intimidating, but YMMV.

So you didn't say what you'd like your Wookiee to actually be good at, but if he's, say, a warrior-mechanic type then something like 4/3/3/2/1/2 would work, assuming you get the 10XP from Obligation.

Anyway, all that to add to the chorus: build your character spending as much as possible on attributes from the base amount (plus extra Obligation if the GM allows it), and bank the rest for FSEx and Sense (and Enhance...you really want Enhance...).

On 4/23/2018 at 2:46 PM, Kommissar said:

Expecting a starting PC to fork over 20xp to ever have the chance to be FS is just wrong per how this game is structured.

If its an absolute -must- that the PC be force sensitive, then this is a case of petitioning your GM for extra XP across the board.

Eh, if you follow the suggested XP guidelines, you'll probably bag 20-25 points within short order. One session, two for certain. Surely you can say "Yeah, he was sensitive all this time, but he didn't want to show off his flashy force powers in a gaudy display" until that time that you have enough points to buy it.

8 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

I mean some of us IRL have tried that shite knowing full well it's a fictional power that doesn't exist,

No, I do NOT wave my hand at every supermarket door as it slides open for me. Why do you ask?

18 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Not sure what you define as "later in life" as Luke didn't start until 19ish, which is apparently "too old to begin the training" as Yoda put it.

But there's no indication that she didn't at least practice some in the 30 plus years between films. Sure she never made it her profession, as she had other priorities, but come on, you can't tell me if you were told "You're a Jedi Ronin!" that you wouldn't try to do stuff every free chance you had? Come ooooon I mean some of us IRL have tried that shite knowing full well it's a fictional power that doesn't exist, but for her it's real. You KNOW she was trying stuff. *Hand waves at Han* "You want to take out the garbage" *uses Sense* "Kylo!! What have I told you about masturbating in the bathroom!" She totally did that kind of stuff, guaranteed

The Council didn’t want to train Anakin at first because he was 8 at the time and that was too late. “Later in life” is anywhere from 5 until death.

7 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

The Council didn’t want to train Anakin at first because he was 8 at the time and that was too late. “Later in life” is anywhere from 5 until death.

Yes, hence my confusion on what you meant by "later in life" for Leia. Considering her age when we finally see her directly using the Force, I wasn't sure if you were implying that she only then ever used it, or what. My only point is I just don't see any being, when told you have magic powers, and it being demonstrably true, to not try and improve on those abilities, even casually, over time. So even as a rookie, with 30+ years of practice, she could be significantly powerful. Not on par with Luke, or with younger people who have dedicated their lives to improving their Force abilities, but still powerful enough to be a force to be reckoned with.