I may or may not be playing a Force and Destiny campaign sometime soon, so in preparation I started to think of a character idea. Like in many RPGs, however, I seem to have already run into a problem where my story idea is difficult to mesh into the mechanics of the game. It certainly matters less in this game, since it's fairly easy to re-flavor things on the fly, but I'd still like to start out as close as I can to the basic rules, especially since we're all pretty new to this.

The quick summary of my character is that they're from a fairly typical world in the Star Wars galaxy that just happens to have sword/vibroblade dueling as a major sport. This character was a moderately popular duelist until their Force Sensitivity started to become apparent. Since this is during the Galactic Civil War era and this is a strongly Imperial world, this suddenly became a huge problem for them and they're forced to go on the run.

The problem I'm running into is reconciling their sword dueling skills with their Force Sensitivity with just the Force and Destiny careers. My instinct was to go for a lightsaber specialization, but that leads to a couple of problems. First, we probably won't have lightsabers for awhile, so the lightsaber stuff isn't useful yet. Unfortunately, the Form Technique talents are important for this character. The character is a bit frail and uses skills other than strength to win their sword duels. The Form Technique talents are perfect for this... but only for lightsabers. In another RPG system, I might compromise by giving them a reasonable strength but a low constitution, but Brawn covers both in this game, making it a much more difficult choice.

If I try to find something that represents the connection they have to the Force, on the other hand, I run into the problem that I'm not really representing the actual career they had up until this point in their life. It just feels weird to give them, say, the precognitive abilities they just became aware of, but somehow they're not any better with a sword than anyone else.

In a general sense, I really liked the description of the Mystic. I liked the idea that this character had developed this innate, really spiritual connection to the Force, but I'm not really fond of any of its specializations. Advisor doesn't seem active enough for their backstory, and some of the early talents for Seer feel too wilderness-focused to me for someone who grew up in a city. Makashi Duelist might be okay, but I'm a little worried of it being too focused on just the fighting, and not the Force element (also, it's described as super flashy but this character doesn't like to draw attention to themselves).

I tried to decide in another way, by telling myself I wanted Saber Throw. I discovered that Saber Throw is actually a talent in the game, but I don't like the descriptions of either of the Careers it's available to. The Seeker focuses too much on the wilderness, and the Sentinel keeps talking up stealth and deception, which isn't really a part of this character at all.

The other thing I considered is that the character would dual-wield. This kinda fell apart when I didn't notice any talents that actually use two-weapon fighting, and the two-weapon fighting rules just sound annoying to me. I figure that if I end up dual-wielding, it'll just be something that I roleplay and won't take any mechanical advantage from. I'm mentioning that here anyway just in case it helps.

The most recent thing I noticed is that the Niman Disciple specialization is the only lightsaber-based specialization that has a Force Rating talent. Again, I have my concerns about the lightsaber specializations, but this at least seems to symbolically fit.

I know I'm probably thinking too much about this, but I just wanted to get some opinions. I know I could always pick one career and get a specialization from elsewhere later on, but I feel limited at the moment. A more literal way to represent this character might be to start as a sword-using specialization from a non-Force Sensitive career and then add a Force Sensitive specialization later on, but we're using Force and Destiny at the moment. I also maybe shouldn't worry about the Brawn thing too much, but maybe some veterans have some ideas that I haven't considered.

You mention other skills the character uses, think which characteristic this is and chose the path that best suits. Like you said you can always go across careers for specializations.

You mentioned not having much use of lightsaber skills early on but remember the ancient sword in the FAD book uses the lightsaber ability. Flavour it that this is your character dulling weapon from the ancient tradition and that might work.

Based upon your description, I'd suggest Mystic/Makashi Duelist and arm him with an Ancient Sword . The Ancient Sword uses the Lightsaber skill, but has an actual metal blade, and, thus isn't restricted by the Empire.

Oh wow, I saw the Ancient Sword, but I either didn't notice it used the Lightsaber skill, or I forgot about it by the time I went back to really think about the character. That makes a big difference, thanks!

1 hour ago, Jokubas said:

Oh wow, I saw the Ancient Sword, but I either didn't notice it used the Lightsaber skill, or I forgot about it by the time I went back to really think about the character. That makes a big difference, thanks!

You might struggle a bit at first with dealing damage with a low brawn score, but perhaps that's fitting fort a sport fencer going into actual combat.

There are weapon attachments that can mitigate this and once you get a lightsaber it won't be an issue anymore.

For now I think I am going to do a Mystic/Makashi Duelist. I hesitated when I realized that it used Presence, since I also imagined this character to not be particularly charismatic and wanting to blend into the background. Thinking further on it, however, I decided that it actually worked fairly well. Your dice pool comes from both directions, and I think that makes this work out. While she may not have a lot of confidence in herself and she's never worked on many social skills (in other words, no ranks in associated skills), having a natural Presence can still work out, especially since I imagine that as a way the Force has manifested for her. I was out of XP when I made this decision, but I decided to switch around a point I had put in Intellect for Presence, since I realized that Intellect wasn't actually necessary for any of the character ideas I had for this character.

One last question I have right now is about gear and equipment. The description for the Datapad implies it has the functions of multiple other items, and it's way cheaper (and more common) than some of them individually. Is picking the more expensive and less convenient items just a matter of narrative/flavor, or is there something I'm missing?

What functions are you thinking?

The second thing the datapad lists that it includes is a holo-messenger.

The datapad only costs 75 credits though, while a holo-messenger on its own costs 250, and its rarer. Looking again, the only thing better about the holo-messenger is that it is less encumbering, but that's a relatively minor point, especially since encumbrance isn't a major rule.

In my games that aspect of datapads have been removed they are more like tablets that you have to plug in.

Another path to consider is Warrior: Shii-cho Knight. That fits a dueler concept quite well and used Brawn (the default) for Lightsaber checks so your main characteristic makes you good at Lightsaber and Melee (though Ancient Sword solves this problem for the most part). Has Natural Blademaster (only spec with this talent as far as I know) that lets you reroll Lightsaber or Melee checks. Shii-cho has 4 instances of Parry, Makashi has 5, both have Improved Parry. The Makashi is the superior dueler all other things being equal but Shii-cho is still good (and is better and fighting outside of dueling and a lot more durable).

2 hours ago, Jedi Ronin said:

The Makashi is the superior dueler all other things being equal but Shii-cho is still good (and is better and fighting outside of dueling and a lot more durable).

Of the two, I've found that Shii-Cho Knight is more durable (focus on Brawn, rank of Toughened, ranks of Second Wind for fast strain recovery) and the talents are more broadly useful, especially as the PCs are more likely to be facing down minion groups than nemeses or even rivals that really need the offensive perks that Makashi Duelist offers.

For Makashi Duelist, the main problem is that one of its two primary defensive talents, Feint, requires the PC to miss their attack in order for it to activate, which is a problem since the system is skewed towards making it easier to hit, thus the talent that should be protecting the Makashi Duelist in a one-on-one fight isn't likely to trigger as often as the player might like.

2 hours ago, Jedi Ronin said:

Another path to consider is Warrior: Shii-cho Knight. That fits a dueler concept quite well and used Brawn (the default) for Lightsaber checks so your main characteristic makes you good at Lightsaber and Melee (though Ancient Sword solves this problem for the most part). Has Natural Blademaster (only spec with this talent as far as I know) that lets you reroll Lightsaber or Melee checks. Shii-cho has 4 instances of Parry, Makashi has 5, both have Improved Parry. The Makashi is the superior dueler all other things being equal but Shii-cho is still good (and is better and fighting outside of dueling and a lot more durable).

Not a great fit if you want to go light on brawn, but Shii-cho is very much a "blademaster" spec otherwise. If you're not too worried about amping up your force rating, picking up the Shii-cho spec in addition to Makashi really let's you amp up the swordfighting prowess, particularly since neither Makashi or Shii-cho are as force rating-dependent as Ataru, Niman or Shien to really shine AND unlike most other forms, Shii-cho's unique fighting talent (Sarlacc Sweep) isn't dependent on any characteristic, so it's perfectly viable to use with Presence if you've picked up Makashi Technique.

But again, no force rating.

BTW, a thing about buying into specs from other careers, you are only buying into the specific specialization, not the career in general, so don't worry about having to adopt, for instance, the wilderness ranger theme from Seeker just because you want to dip into Ataru Striker. The fluff of the careers in generally just that, fluff, and can be played into as much or as little as you want to, but I see your point about it feeling off, as the theme tends to be reinforced by the career skills.

What about the martial artist?

Well that's just it. It's fine to pick a first tree that doesn't advance your force rating, narratively the awakening to the force can be covered by increasingly weird dreams of forces moving in the shadows and they first become properly aware of it proper when agents attempt to gain entry to her apartment, beings cloaked in shadow with blades of a red. I find that a really good force and destiny campaign should always enforce tension of potentially clashing with the inquisition, who seem to home in now and again on a particular area, but maybe aren't precisely certain what they are looking for "because the signal is faint, but the ripple is there. We are not far behind." At least that was what I characterised that fear as the Rodian, when he first encountered them the first two times he wasn't aware of what an inquisitor was; all he knew that he had bad vibes coming off from them and they wanted him dead. Or maybe have a more subtle leaving where the character has a strong urge to just leave; but isn't sure what to expect other then her school of fighting being "Put into immediate administration", despite having been financially sound. The empire as an entity controls the information well, but indicating in your backstory that there is a predatory presence that seems to always be three steps behind the party really enforces the oppressiveness of the empire, the narrative and the gm sometimes chucking in a freebee is really where your initial insights should come from; just the force powers help actually channel these vague warnings into something a bit more tangible.

Of course, a lot of that is in the domain of the GM really so it might be best to check with the person to say "I know the Empire had inquisitors acting in this area, would this type of backstory contribute to this?", she or he may have different plans but I'm generally a plan of putting players in situations that I'm not sure they can overcome. Clearly an inquisitor is much too much for a early game party to handle and sometimes the players have to be told "I am introducing this antagonistic force now, you feel in your bones that at this moment in time you would incur great loss to confront this figure now." but introducing a villain before a character is capable of dealing with them is a fantastic way to give those villainous NPC's a good sense of identity. Perhaps an inquisitor interviewed your character, but because her awakening was so recent that he hadn't identified the little ripple to be associated to her.

In any case, talk to the GM about what kind of story you can tell; I find getting on board with the narrative you want to tell out of the gate makes a much stronger initial set of sessions.

I haven't got a great deal of mechanical suggestions, most of those sound covered already. If your character is the duellist type, then having a strong willpower and presence is useful, the former enforces strict discipline to principle which is useful when having to defend your area from attacks while presence is your ability to control the field. Aside from being a duelist though, what is she? A member of some high society duelling club who duels both for prestige, easy money and the chance to get her name spread? Or is this gladiatorial where she's effectively a low born individual that might not necessarily know their family line who is fighting to earn enough money to have somewhere to own for once in her life? That information is important to give to the gm but leave enough blanks for them to introduce new plot hooks into. I feel asking yourself those questions can form an impression of who she is, thus what skills she would have focused in up to this point.

I've actually spent more time on that than anything else. Years of joining tabletop RPG campaigns that never got off the ground has led me to treating creating a character as the main game.

She's from a planet I invented (I planned on elaborating on an existing world but I couldn't find what I was looking for with a brief search) that isn't heavily settled for vague but defining reasons, but it's close enough to the Core Worlds to benefit from a lot of money and technology. Dueling is a major sport on this planet (and in the era of the Jedi, they prided themselves on being completely independent from the Jedi). It's not a high society sport in the sense that getting involved is exclusive, but high society also engages in it so it's very well respected. My character comes from a relatively well-off family and has a relatively famous name in the world of dueling.

The main gaps I've left for the GM are the details of the complications that put her on the run. She wasn't aware of her Force Sensitivity herself until it manifested in a relatively public way. This drew some immediate attention and she survived an attempt on her life only due to luck (and maybe the Force), forcing her to go into hiding. The idea I have for that right now is that it involved a bounty hunter, but the GM has some ideas involving bounty hunters so I'm leaving that open right now.

The reason I imagined it as a bounty hunter ties back into the details I've written for the planet. Despite being a solidly Imperial world, it's also a fairly out of the way world that no one pays much mind to. Even the Imperial loyalists on the planet don't really want to draw too much attention to themselves, because they've come to value a relatively cushy job and a secure peace of mind. In other words, they don't want to be known as a world who let a Jedi get away, but they also don't want to rock the boat too much and risk stirring up the Rebellion in the area.

So I'm imagining that someone hired a bounty hunter to take care of this new Force Sensitive as a way to give whoever it was a layer of plausible deniability for however things turn out.

Rule of thumb: If the character is "outed" as a Force user, it won't be bounty hunters the Empire sends after him or her. It's the Imperial Inquisition.

17 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Rule of thumb: If the character is "outed" as a Force user, it won't be bounty hunters the Empire sends after him or her. It's the Imperial Inquisition.

Depends if it is confirmed. Telling the imperials someone is a force user is different than them seeing it. They might send bounty hunters until it is confirmed.

3 hours ago, MrTInce said:

Depends if it is confirmed. Telling the imperials someone is a force user is different than them seeing it. They might send bounty hunters until it is confirmed.

Also, the inquisition probably only comes out to play if the information comes all the way up the food chain of command (the mixed metaphor seems appropriate to the empire for some reason) to reach them. A local commander on a lower level might try to deal with it himself in an attempt to win favor from the higher ups. This person is most likely desperate or woefully uninformed on how Vader deals with failure in these matters.

Or you know, how he deals with any outcome in any matter. He is nothing if not consistent, our man Vader.

Anyway, this could explain a force sensitive having a more limited run-in with the empire that doesn't end in a galaxy-wide inquisitorial manhunt. If the local commander takes it upon himself to capture her and fails, he might be in serious trouble for not reporting it immediately and thus hushes the whole thing up and quietly dispatches bounty hunters. Because the only way he's getting out of it un-Vadered is if he can bring her in before someone catches wind of his cover-up.

This means you have a bad guy with access to imperial resources, but can't just throw endless amounts of them at the PCs, can't really call in reinforcements from someone else's command and can't stir up to much of a mess outside his own turf, lest other imperials start wondering what's going on.

8 hours ago, MrTInce said:

Depends if it is confirmed. Telling the imperials someone is a force user is different than them seeing it. They might send bounty hunters until it is confirmed.

Nope. The Inquisition will investigate even rumors or suspicion of Force sensitivity. To quote:

Quote

Although the exact number of Inquisitors was kept secret, there may have been as many as twelve.[36] Inquisitors utilized a Zeta-class shuttle, the Infernum in 18 BBY, and also commanded Inquisitor Troopers,[24] an elite death squad of clone troopers.[19] Due to the nature of their mission, Inquisitors had the power to commandeer any required Imperial Militaryforces, and all officers were to obey their orders.[37][32][6] Any officer who came into contact with Force-sensitive beings was to immediately contact an Inquisitor to investigate the situation. [3] Also, some Imperial officers disliked the interference of Inquisitors with some, such as Admiral Kassius Konstantine, dismissing them as "mystics."[7] When the Inquisitors became part of the Inquisitorius, they left behind their former names and took up new names, with Brother or Sister denoting their sexes.[26]

23 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Nope. The Inquisition will investigate even rumors or suspicion of Force sensitivity. To quote:

Uh, Tramp, you even highlighted a section that supports MrTInce's comment helping Jokubus build out the background of the character. Besides, it's perfectly viable to create a story that runs counter to whatever wiki page you can conjure up (even if in this case you happened to back-up the story). Also, the entry you quoted provides all sorts of juicy ways to build "avoiding Inquisitors" into a story (or include them if you want to).

In theory the Inquisition must investigate any rumours or suspicions of Force Sensitivity. In practice reluctance to inform the inquisition from some Empire officer or just plain inefficient bureaucracy that made the information about Force Sensitivity getting lost, could easily explain why the Inquisition didn't get involved.

Or the Inquisition might not have enough inquisitors to send one at every rumours or suspicions of Force Sensitivity. So the Inquisition could delegate the investigation to local Empire authority and only send and inquisitor when there's an high probability of some Force Sensitivity activity beyond just a rumour or suspicion.

It could also "explain" why no inquisition members went after Luke despite waving a glowing stick around.

17 hours ago, WolfRider said:

Or the Inquisition might not have enough inquisitors to send one at every rumours or suspicions of Force Sensitivity. So the Inquisition could delegate the investigation to local Empire authority and only send and inquisitor when there's an high probability of some Force Sensitivity activity beyond just a rumour or suspicion.

That's how I play it. My group ran afoul of an ISB task force who ferret out Force sensitives. If they can't manage the situation on their own, they call in the Inquisitors.

So a group that "may have been as many as twelve" is supposed to investigate every rumor or suspicion of force users? In the entire Empire? The entire galaxy?

...

If this is the case, I'm thinking the average force user is more likely to win the lotto every week for a year than ever seeing an inquisitor. And considering that they A) Seem to team up quite often B) Probably spend a lot of time on wild goose chases and checking up false rumors, I think it's not that often Inquisitors actually run in to an actual force users either.

No, whatever our self-appointed loremaster chooses to believe, I think this strengthens the notion that actual inquisitors would only show up once a rumor is positively verified or there is very compelling evidence.

We also have to remember that Inquisitors can use the force so may be able to use the "seek" power to confirm a rumour...