Hey all,

Apologies for raising this topic - which I know has come up once or twice in the past. I'm hpong that things may have changed or solidified since the last post I could find.

I'm about to have my players create their lightsabers in an F&D game and I have a couple of (silly?) questions for you fine folks.

1. Is there a consensus amongst the GMs here as to whether they prefer to have Lightsaber colours be dictated by the crystal (Legends) or by attuning to the character (Canon)?

2. If you prefer attuning for colour - is there a good guide for what colours mean what or an actually official canon stance on that? (I've seen a couple of interpretations but they seem so hackneyed I think they must be unofficial)

I typically just let my players pick their color. It's just flavor text, after all.

49 minutes ago, SanguineAngel said:

Hey all,

Apologies for raising this topic - which I know has come up once or twice in the past. I'm hpong that things may have changed or solidified since the last post I could find.

I'm about to have my players create their lightsabers in an F&D game and I have a couple of (silly?) questions for you fine folks.

1. Is there a consensus amongst the GMs here as to whether they prefer to have Lightsaber colours be dictated by the crystal (Legends) or by attuning to the character (Canon)?

2. If you prefer attuning for colour - is there a good guide for what colours mean what or an actually official canon stance on that? (I've seen a couple of interpretations but they seem so hackneyed I think they must be unofficial)

27 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

I typically just let my players pick their color. It's just flavor text, after all.

@kaosoe nailed it. Regardless of whether you go the canon or Legends route, it's up to the player what color his or her character's lightsaber blade is. To answer the specific question, however, I do go by canon as to how the crystal gets said color.

Bring a color wheel to the session and let everyone pick what they want.

To be clear, this means that only the bad guys get red blades via corrupted crystals, and they all get red blades.

Yeah, pretty sure the original intent was a combination of Effects tech limitations, and Green/Blue making a good "good" contrast to "evil" red.

Samuel L Jackson fixed it when he demanded that he get a Purple blade so the audience could find him in scenes like the Geonosis Arena.

These days the best solution is let the player decide, though having NPCs carry blue, green or , if evil, red is probably the way to go.

11 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

Yeah, pretty sure the original intent was a combination of Effects tech limitations, and Green/Blue making a good "good" contrast to "evil" red.

Samuel L Jackson fixed it when he demanded that he get a Purple blade so the audience could find him in scenes like the Geonosis Arena.

These days the best solution is let the player decide, though having NPCs carry blue, green or , if evil, red is probably the way to go.

As I understand it, it was supposed to be Blue Good, Red Bad, and those were the only two colours. Then they came to do Return of the Jedi, tried rotoscoping Luke's lightsabre in the fight at the Sarlacc and realised that the blue blade didn't show up well enough against the sky, so they made it green.

I use the canon explanation, with attunement describing the blade's color. Then I tell the players to make their lightsaber whatever color they want it to be.

For NPCs, though, I stick pretty firmly to blue/green/red, depending—the PCs should always be special, after all. I also prefer that whatever color the blade originally was is the color it remains, no matter if it becomes attuned to a new user. For example, one of the PCs in my last campaign used her mother's lightsaber, which was green. Even once it became attuned to her (as opposed to her mother) it stayed green. The PC eventually found her own lightsaber crystal, which created a gold blade when attuned.

The exception is purifying a corrupted crystal, in which case the blade will change color from red to the player's choice.

I force my players to pick a colour; the name of the colour has to have the same number of syllables as the damage rating of their lightsabers. I guess that means it'd change when they upgrade the damage rating, but for whatever, it seems the players have don't really want to do that anymore for some reason...

7 minutes ago, penpenpen said:

I force my players to pick a colour; the name of the colour has to have the same number of syllables as the damage rating of their lightsabers. I guess that means it'd change when they upgrade the damage rating, but for whatever, it seems the players have don't really want to do that anymore for some reason...

Interesting method. What do you think about calculating the numerological value of the player's maiden name and translating that into hexadecimal color codes?

Even canon has opened up beyond red/blue/green and purple by adding pale blue (looked white to me), white, yellow, and one black. I'm fairly confident that this will eventually go back to everybody having their own snowflake color.

I want mine invisible.....ha! You thought it wasn't on!

16 hours ago, CaptainRaspberry said:

I use the canon explanation, with attunement describing the blade's color. Then I tell the players to make their lightsaber whatever color they want it to be.

For NPCs, though, I stick pretty firmly to blue/green/red, depending—the PCs should always be special, after all. I also prefer that whatever color the blade originally was is the color it remains, no matter if it becomes attuned to a new user. For example, one of the PCs in my last campaign used her mother's lightsaber, which was green. Even once it became attuned to her (as opposed to her mother) it stayed green.

You say you use it, but it's the legends version.

12 hours ago, penpenpen said:

I force my players to pick a colour; the name of the colour has to have the same number of syllables as the damage rating of their lightsabers. I guess that means it'd change when they upgrade the damage rating, but for whatever, it seems the players have don't really want to do that anymore for some reason...

Hmmm... Black, White, or Pink.... I can't decide.

While I haven't had to GM any force users YET, I think I would go with the attunment method simply because I like the slightly more arcane process of attunment.

The Force has always been something that I consider to the be the "fantasy" in this science fiction story, and so having some things that are not dictated by research and science helps to maintain the mystery of the galaxy. I like when there are questions that can't be answered, and so i like the Force and the methods of the Jedi and Sith to be more arcane. Plus, if a blade's color is presented through attunement the play feels more possession over it. It stops being just another weapon in the arsenal and becomes a physical extension of themselves.

I know, that's probably putting way too much weight behind a weightless blade, but hey, that's how I roll.

10 hours ago, 2P51 said:

I want mine invisible.....ha! You thought it wasn't on!

One of my PCs was blinded, so I gave him an invisible lightsaber crystal - now he can't see the blade, but neither can anyone else...

8 hours ago, kaosoe said:

Hmmm... Black, White, or Pink.... I can't decide.

I like that you didn't go for the obvious choice of Air Superiority AuroMetalSaurus .

20 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

Interesting method. What do you think about calculating the numerological value of the player's maiden name and translating that into hexadecimal color codes?

Interesting idea, but I don't trust my players with numerical concepts that they can't handle by counting their fingers. Or anything flammable, for that matter.

16 hours ago, Rimsen said:

You say you use it, but it's the legends version.

The only real difference between Legends and Canon , when it comes to lightsaber colors is that In Legends , Each crystal had a predetermined color already inherent to it, whatever color that was. By contrast, in the new Canon , the crystal starts out perfectly clear, and only gains a color when it is first attuned to a given Force user.

The current canon explanation is that Blue attunement is common among Jedi who are guardians and warriors, and focus on the martial aspects of the Force, while Green is found among those who are stronger in the mystical aspects of the Force. Mace's Purple crystal while unexplained in canon beyond "showing his enemies that they faced a Master of the weapon" has been referenced as being a symbol of his unique connection to his lightsaber form, wherein he uses the power of emotions focused into powerful strikes. This "flirting with the Dark Side" has produced his normal Blue attunement to shade towards a Dark Side users Red, producing the amethyst hue of his Purple. Red is produced whenever a crystal is taken and attuned by one who is consumed by the Dark Side of the Force, while White is the result of a Light Side Force user reclaiming the Red crystal of a Dark Side user and purifying it. Yellow crystals have no canon attunement requirements, but are only found in canon sources among the Jedi Temple Guardians who are stated as having ancient a baroque armor and weapons, indicating that the Yellow crystals are from an ancient practice and inherited. Finally, the single black crystal is from the Darksaber, which was attuned by a unique figure entirely, that of the only known Mandalorian Jedi, and reflects his personal view on the Force presumably not repeated since.

I use this as a baseline for the crystal colors, and allow my players to choose from the list to show to each other and me what they see their characters motivation as. I enjoy this practice, because understanding how a player views his characters connection to the Force allows me to narrate things as their character would understand them, and makes for a more engaged experience. I find every chance I have, getting players to establish their character histories and personalities through little things like this helps them grow in their connection to the character and makes storytelling easier on both of us.

On 1/15/2019 at 8:23 PM, penpenpen said:

I force my players to pick a colour; the name of the colour has to have the same number of syllables as the damage rating of their lightsabers. I guess that means it'd change when they upgrade the damage rating, but for whatever, it seems the players have don't really want to do that anymore for some reason...

OK, I have my color

47 minutes ago, Varlie said:

OK, I have my color

"It's not a Red Lightsaber! no no, I'm not the bad guy, can't your eye discern the difference between the "golden gate bridge regulation orange" and Red?"

7 hours ago, Varlie said:

OK, I have my color

Hey, don't knock my orange lightsaber. It's my precious.

What my gm did was take one of those silly questionnaires (what color is your lightsaber blade!) and rewrite it to make it specific (via character bio and named npcs) to each character. It played as a short, interactive vision, so the lack of multiple choice answers helped pin down appropriate character archetypes. If there was a color tie, the blade would be a mix (hence my orange).

In a campaign *I* gm (with several more party members), I picked colors that I thought were in line with characterization, but made the color very faint. So as they make choices and bond with the crystal, the blade color will deepen accordingly, or possibly even shift. <- def not canon, but fun so far. Except for my pink player. But that's fun for *me*, so...

17 hours ago, Kyla said:

The current canon explanation is that Blue attunement is common among Jedi who are guardians and warriors, and focus on the martial aspects of the Force, while Green is found among those who are stronger in the mystical aspects of the Force. Mace's Purple crystal while unexplained in canon beyond "showing his enemies that they faced a Master of the weapon" has been referenced as being a symbol of his unique connection to his lightsaber form, wherein he uses the power of emotions focused into powerful strikes. This "flirting with the Dark Side" has produced his normal Blue attunement to shade towards a Dark Side users Red, producing the amethyst hue of his Purple. Red is produced whenever a crystal is taken and attuned by one who is consumed by the Dark Side of the Force, while White is the result of a Light Side Force user reclaiming the Red crystal of a Dark Side user and purifying it. Yellow crystals have no canon attunement requirements, but are only found in canon sources among the Jedi Temple Guardians who are stated as having ancient a baroque armor and weapons, indicating that the Yellow crystals are from an ancient practice and inherited. Finally, the single black crystal is from the Darksaber, which was attuned by a unique figure entirely, that of the only known Mandalorian Jedi, and reflects his personal view on the Force presumably not repeated since.

I use this as a baseline for the crystal colors, and allow my players to choose from the list to show to each other and me what they see their characters motivation as. I enjoy this practice, because understanding how a player views his characters connection to the Force allows me to narrate things as their character would understand them, and makes for a more engaged experience. I find every chance I have, getting players to establish their character histories and personalities through little things like this helps them grow in their connection to the character and makes storytelling easier on both of us.

Technically, the reason why Ahsoka's reclaimed crystals turned white was because she had separated herself from the Jedi Order. She wasn't a Jedi, and thus, when she re-attuned these corrupted crystals, they turned white. Were a Jedi to have done this, the crystals would have taken on the appropriate hue for that individual.

29 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Technically, the reason why Ahsoka's reclaimed crystals turned white was because she had separated herself from the Jedi Order. She wasn't a Jedi, and thus, when she re-attuned these corrupted crystals, they turned white. Were a Jedi to have done this, the crystals would have taken on the appropriate hue for that individual.

I have to disagree. The only source stating Ashoka's lack of being Jedi was provenance for the white lightsabers was Dave Filoni, who specifically said, "the white blades reflect her non-affiliation with either side." However, this was outside the context of canon and done as a discussion during the design and development of the character for Rebels. It speaks to what he was thinking when he wanted to give her uniqueness.

The canon was what was written in the book Ashoka, which states that the crystals were "healed" and upon being healed emitted a white blade. The book makes no determination that it was Ahsoka's separation from the Jedi that was the root cause, merely the healing of the crystals. While Dave Filoni may have intended that to be the case when he made the design choice for the color, that has nothing to do with the in-universe reason for it. Furthermore, if Dark Side Force users also produce Red blades while not being Sith nor Jedi, then there is no logical iteration that would say a Light Side Force user would produce anything different from a Jedi, unless the process by which the crystal is created affects coloration. This then explains the Red of "wounding" the crystal through Dark Side attunement, and White through "healing" the crystal with Light Side attunement.

edit: Because an "iteration" is not the same as "interation"