Hello fellow friends of move, autofire and the sequel trilogy.

My Sith-Sorceress (Consular, Mystic) is currently preparing a dark ritual to corrupt a force vergence and subdue it to her will.

The ritual is mainly narrative, but finalized by a discipline check, which will be modified by how well I describe her actions throughout the ritual.

My first idea was to recite the code of the Sith.

Piece is a lie.

There is only Passion.

Through Passion I gain Strength.

Through Strength I gain Power.

Trhough Power I gain Victory.

Through Victory my Chains are broken.

The Force shall free me.

And combine every phrase with an action.

My ideas so far:

Piece is a lie.

-> She abducted some guys from their untroubled villages and forces them to kill each other in front of the ritual site.

Through Passion I gain Strength.

-> Probably somehow utilizing Enhance.

Through Strength I gain Power.

-> Maybe go with Unleash, displaying her power with force lightning.

Through Victory my Chains are broken.

-> Her chains are broken, so she begins to break the vergence. The ritual was build up and now gets into the last phase.

She declares her goal and starts to focus her mind fully on the vergence.

The Force shall free me.

-> Intense battle of forces with an uncertain winner.

As you see I still miss these two:

There is only Passion.

Trhough Power I gain Victory.

So does anyone have ideas for those or the other ones? Feel free to brainstorm. And I like unusual approaches.

Thanks!

Regarding the "Through Passion" angle, there are a few directions you could take, depending on if you want to go PG or R(X-rated).

The obvious, and naughty ritual for "passion" would be some kind of sexual, or lust related act. Perhaps she dominates and takes the victor of the afore mentioned blood sport between those people she captured and forced to battle. If she was somehow boosting their emotions, urging them on, she could see which one responds to a push towards a blood-lust reaction, and who is thus likely the victor. She could then "claim" him to some degree, based on your level of comfort with kinky boinkiness. There are plenty of examples in fiction of various cults blurring the lines between sex and violence, and a sith ritual would hardly be an unusual place for it.

If you want to go for something less 50 Siths of Grey Jedi, then you could just have her react when the combatant embraces their rage (thus passion), to win, and harnesses that energy. And since that person used Power to Gain Victory, it would embody the second line you had issue with. Have some ritual lines start to glow when the deathblow is delivered by the person who went all berzerker rage on their opponent, possibly when that blood coats the ritual lines (assuming you draw some of course). Blood of a foe, felled through passionate rage, that passion gave them strength, that strength gave them victory.

If you want to go for something more mental, you could somehow (force visions possibly), have some kind of specter confront someone in the ritual, urging them to embrace their anger. Perhaps a hated rival, mocking them until they lash out in rage. Or a family member that abused them, returned to further the torment, forcing them to lash out, etc etc.

I just wanted to chime in to point out that there are LOTS of kinds of passion, and that Star Wars rarely (pretty much never, really, in my experience of the setting?) focuses on the sexual version.

The primary definition of the word is; strong and barely controllable emotion. Broad passion; caring intensely about something. The use of the word in the Sith Code is not explicitly about sex, not even close. If you want your game to feel like Star Wars, I would recommend not listening to the above advice, and not inserting sex into it, but YMMV there.

To comment further on your premise, I think the peace (you're spelling it wrong) that the Sith Code is talking about is the balance and serenity of the Jedi Code. The opposite of which, IMO, is more chaos and fear. Which while those are side themes of combat, I would make them the main theme for a Sith ritual. You haven't mentioned fear at all and you're completely missing one of the biggest tropes of the Darkside for it. I think the are better ways to evoke that, ritualistically, than making two people fight... Again, YMMV.

Furthermore, if you read the Old Republic novels (which I realize is no longer canon, but is still the best look you can ever get into the Sith and the Sith Code), you get a very clear picture about how the Passion>Strength>Power>Victory "chain" is very literal. Time and again we have examples where Sith Lords use passion and strong emotion; whether that's the fear of others, or their own anger, or their own pain, etc. to generate literal strength and power via the Darkside (basically, Darkside pips in the mechanic). I would have my PC focus on these type of "cycles", and generating those "feedback" mechanisms.

Good luck, have fun.

21 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

The obvious, and naughty ritual for "passion" would be some kind of sexual, or lust related act. Perhaps she dominates and takes the victor of the afore mentioned blood sport between those people she captured and forced to battle. If she was somehow boosting their emotions, urging them on, she could see which one responds to a push towards a blood-lust reaction, and who is thus likely the victor. She could then "claim" him to some degree, based on your level of comfort with kinky boinkiness. There are plenty of examples in fiction of various cults blurring the lines between sex and violence, and a sith ritual would hardly be an unusual place for it. 

You're definitely right and when it fits the narrative I have no problem with "R(X-rated)" content in RPGs but I agree with emsquared, that it's not very STARWARS-y.

I will put it on the list, let's see how many rituals must be done lol.

22 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

If you want to go for something less 50 Siths of Grey Jedi, then you could just have her react when the combatant embraces their rage (thus passion), to win, and harnesses that energy. And since that person used Power to Gain Victory, it would embody the second line you had issue with. Have some ritual lines start to glow when the deathblow is delivered by the person who went all berzerker rage on their opponent, possibly when that blood coats the ritual lines (assuming you draw some of course). Blood of a foe, felled through passionate rage, that passion gave them strength, that strength gave them victory.

Yep sounds good so far. I like the primal vibe. Since she often sees battle, it seems like an adequate approach.

20 hours ago, emsquared said:

I just wanted to chime in to point out that there are LOTS of kinds of passion, and that Star Wars rarely (pretty much never, really, in my experience of the setting?) focuses on the sexual version.

Yeah, it's just not a thing we will ever see in Star Wars. There are some good hints in books and stuff, though.

20 hours ago, emsquared said:

To comment further on your premise, I think the peace (you're spelling it wrong) that the Sith Code is talking about is the balance and serenity of the Jedi Code. The opposite of which, IMO, is more chaos and fear. Which while those are side themes of combat, I would make them the main theme for a Sith ritual. You haven't mentioned fear at all and you're completely missing one of the biggest tropes of the Darkside for it. I think the are better ways to evoke that, ritualistically, than making two people fight... Again, YMMV.

Thanks for correction, English is not my first language.

Actually I worked a lot with fear and deception just recently, so this time there will be a more rough, mundane approach. Also it will be more than two people fighting and being forced to fight against family, friends or neighbours will evoke very different emotions, that can fuel the ritual.

20 hours ago, emsquared said:

Furthermore, if you read the Old Republic novels (which I realize is no longer canon, but is still the best look you can ever get into the Sith and the Sith Code), you get a very clear picture about how the Passion>Strength>Power>Victory "chain" is very literal. Time and again we have examples where Sith Lords use passion and strong emotion; whether that's the fear of others, or their own anger, or their own pain, etc. to generate literal strength and power via the Darkside (basically, Darkside pips in the mechanic). I would have my PC focus on these type of "cycles", and generating those "feedback" mechanisms. 

I only read "Revan" and "Decieved", long time ago. I will have a look again at them again and maybe into Wookiepedia.

Thanks for your answers.

1 hour ago, Vader is Love said:

You're definitely right and when it fits the narrative I have no problem with "R(X-rated)" content in RPGs but I agree with emsquared, that it's not very STARWARS-y.

I will put it on the list, let's see how many rituals must be done lol.

I just toss it out there since every table is different, and their individual level of mature content can very a lot. Though I always find it funny that adding sex is "bad", but rampant mutilation and severing of limbs, slavery, torture, strippers/pole dancers, infanticide (he killed younglings!) and genocide are perfectly ok content "for the kids". But implying people bump their naughty bits for fun and profit is a bridge too far in the terms of "appropriate content" for the franchise.

Play it how you like, I'm just saying I find the distinction amusing personally.

I tossed it out there mainly because the first example that came to mind was from Farcry 3, the "bad" ending if you will. It seemed very "sithy" in it's context, and felt like a fitting part of some sith ritual.

On 2/13/2019 at 10:10 AM, KungFuFerret said:

I just toss it out there since every table is different, and their individual level of mature content can very a lot. Though I always find it funny that adding sex is "bad", but rampant mutilation and severing of limbs, slavery, torture, strippers/pole dancers, infanticide (he killed younglings!) and genocide are perfectly ok content "for the kids". But implying people bump their naughty bits for fun and profit is a bridge too far in the terms of "appropriate content" for the franchise.

Play it how you like, I'm just saying I find the distinction amusing personally.

I tossed it out there mainly because the first example that came to mind was from Farcry 3, the "bad" ending if you will. It seemed very "sithy" in it's context, and felt like a fitting part of some sith ritual.

I tried something like this a while back. My PCs wandered into a Nightbrother ceremony in a Temple on Dathomir. The Brothers were immersing enslaved women into a glowing force pool and allowing them to be possessed by the spirits of deceased Nightsisters. Once possessed, the Nightsister would grab a warrior and start having her way with him on a nearby podium. Their progeny would have been new Nightsisters and brothers of course, how else would they procreate? Well I was going to allow my PCs to either A) take part in this ceremony or B) intervene. At the time they were sort of guests of the Nightbrothers and had nothing against them. In the moment they decided to intervene in the ceremony and miraculously freed the slaves and escaped the temple alive. I suppose you could argue it wasn't very Star Warsy, but it was a lot of fun and my group were all mature players. It was a fun decision point and a pretty exciting moment in the game. I think it was one of my favorite sessions and my players loved it. In retrospect, they wonder what would have happened if they hadn't "done the right thing":)

1 hour ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

I suppose you could argue it wasn't very Star Warsy, but it was a lot of fun and my group were all mature players.

Eh, who cares what others think, it's your table. But I do think the "that's too risky for Star Wars" is a bit weird, considering the stuff that actually is in the franchise that nobody seems to mind. Enslaved clone armies with no choice in their fate to die, and in a certain context they are children soldiers being bred by the millions to die for a republic they've never known. Strippers being pretty much ok. Seriously the number of stripper/hooker Twi'lek females that are used as window dressing in the franchise is just silly. ACTUAL slavery in the form of the Sith, including fun little shock collars to make your pet behave, (Old Republic video game lets you indulge a slave master fantasy...FOR THE KIDS!). Planetary Genocide, small scale genocide (I killed all of them! Not just the men! But the women and the children too!) , hinting at incest, torture/interrogation (Han in Bespin and Poe and Rey in Force Awakens). The list goes on.

Yet somehow, implying that sentient beings have sex is "too far for Star Wars". I mean, personal mileage may vary and all, but I think anyone that draws the line at sex, when all that other crap is perfectly fine, is just being unrealistically prudish about what is the LEAST bad thing of all those things. Sex happens, it's how all of us got here, and probably at least 75% of the aliens in Star Wars too (I'm confident some of them reproduce asexually in some way, it's Star Wars after all) To say that it has no place in Star Wars, soley because it's sex, well that's just silly to me.

While it isn't (and probably never will be) something that is represented in Star Wars movies/TV, it is hinted at in Clone Wars with the Nightsisters and some books have touched on it. I would not add it just to add sexuality to the game but if it has a point as in this ritual then I would say go for it.

It could be a "distant" passion using more of the Force to pull the vitality from the subject to the Sorceress and you get something like the Harry Met Sally scene or if you sorceress. OR if your Sith sorceress happens to be Zeltron then it could be much more physical and hands-on.