Hey, everyone! Apologies if this has already been asked, but I was just wondering about how you guys treat the Guardian, Consular and Sentinel careers in the Clone Wars setting. For example, do you think it makes sense for a Guardian PC to be a "Jedi" character, even though they aren't of the Jedi career? Does anybody do it a little differently, restricting the Jedi Order to the Jedi career, specifically? Or, on the other hand, does anybody allow all of the F&D careers to represent members of the Jedi Order?

Not really an urgent or particularly important question; I'm just wondering how different DMs do things.

Yes the Jedi order has people who are not a Jedi knight. So I'm open to the player being a Jedi even if they are not in the Jedi Career.

They're just names.

In terms of game mechanics, Anakin is probably a Warior who started out in the Starfighter Ace specialisation, and later on took Agressor, Knight, and some Lightsaber specs. Obi-Wan would probably be a Guardian. Yoda is definitely a Mystic in my book.

Jedi prototype Luke Skywalker's career progression is probably something like Ace/Pilot/Force-Sensitive Emergent/Recruit/Padawan/Knight/Hermit/Master.

There doesn't have to be any relation between what a character's career/spec is called, and what he actually does. A Smuggler/Gunslinger can make a fine living hunting people for money while never taking a single Bounty Hunter specialisation. It stands to reason that there are a lot of people in the Jedi Order who in-universe are Padawans, Knights, Generals, Masters... but in terms of game mechanics have never taken any Jedi Career specialisation at all.

2 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

They're just names.

In terms of game mechanics, Anakin is probably a Warior who started out in the Starfighter Ace specialisation, and later on took Agressor, Knight, and some Lightsaber specs. Obi-Wan would probably be a Guardian. Yoda is definitely a Mystic in my book.

Jedi prototype Luke Skywalker's career progression is probably something like Ace/Pilot/Force-Sensitive Emergent/Recruit/Padawan/Knight/Hermit/Master.

There doesn't have to be any relation between what a character's career/spec is called, and what he actually does. A Smuggler/Gunslinger can make a fine living hunting people for money while never taking a single Bounty Hunter specialisation. It stands to reason that there are a lot of people in the Jedi Order who in-universe are Padawans, Knights, Generals, Masters... but in terms of game mechanics have never taken any Jedi Career specialisation at all.

For example, in a campaign I'm GMing right now, all of the characters are bounty hunters (lowercase). Two are Soldier: Commando, one is Hired Gun: Marauder, and the other three started with Bounty Hunter. Then, everyone has the Death Watch Warrior universal spec (cuz MANDOS!), but two of them have personal vendettas against Death Watch, another one has a Death Watch deathmark, and the other three are no fans, and have operated in direct opposition to Death Watch a few times, meaning that they were definitely not Death Watch Warriors at any point in time.

All in all, ~25% of the specs match the character's actual job description ("~" because there are a couple third specs that would complicated the math while not changing it much).

39 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

They're just names.

In terms of game mechanics, Anakin is probably a Warior who started out in the Starfighter Ace specialisation, and later on took Agressor, Knight, and some Lightsaber specs. Obi-Wan would probably be a Guardian. Yoda is definitely a Mystic in my book.

Jedi prototype Luke Skywalker's career progression is probably something like Ace/Pilot/Force-Sensitive Emergent/Recruit/Padawan/Knight/Hermit/Master.

There doesn't have to be any relation between what a character's career/spec is called, and what he actually does. A Smuggler/Gunslinger can make a fine living hunting people for money while never taking a single Bounty Hunter specialisation. It stands to reason that there are a lot of people in the Jedi Order who in-universe are Padawans, Knights, Generals, Masters... but in terms of game mechanics have never taken any Jedi Career specialisation at all.

I probably have a tendency to get way too hung up on little details, wanting everything to be all neat and make perfect sense, but your explanation really puts things in perspective! Thanks!

6 hours ago, Oatcakes said:

Hey, everyone! Apologies if this has already been asked, but I was just wondering about how you guys treat the Guardian, Consular and Sentinel careers in the Clone Wars setting. For example, do you think it makes sense for a Guardian PC to be a "Jedi" character, even though they aren't of the Jedi career? Does anybody do it a little differently, restricting the Jedi Order to the Jedi career, specifically? Or, on the other hand, does anybody allow all of the F&D careers to represent members of the Jedi Order?

Not really an urgent or particularly important question; I'm just wondering how different DMs do things.

They're just as valid as using AoR careers for non-clone members of the GAR, either to represent members of the Jedi Order that don't follow the traditional path of Padawan-Knight-Master or as unaffiliated Force users, be it from different traditions (Baron Do Sages, Nightsisters, etc) or simply those that discovered an affinity for the Force but otherwise slipped through the cracks and were never identified/found by Jedi seekers.

As micheldebryn said, Anakin is a prime example of an atypical Jedi, having started out in a F&D career (either Warrior for Starfighter Ace or Sentinel for Racer) before moving into Padawan then followed by a combination of Knight and probably Shien Expert (given his preferred style is Form V). Though he probably had the GM let him cheat at start out with a Force Rating of 2 to account for his "vergeance in the Force" status.

Since it's unlikely that we'll get two more Jedi specializations to round out the Jedi career to six, I think that it wouldn't be amiss to add any two specialization trees from the FaD line to an individual character's pool of potential career specialization trees. Maybe the two extra trees should be from the same career. For example, that could ensure a lightsabre form and one other tree, and that the character's Jedi career would then have the flavour of Guardian (e.g, Protector/Soresu), Consular (e.g., Healer/Niman), or whatever.

If the Jedi General specialization (CotR) seems a bit extreme/non-Jedi in flavour, then that could be swapped out for another tree from the same career as the other two.

A related possibility would be to add the universal Padawan Survivor (DoR) and Force Sensitive Exile (EotE) to the Jedi career, particularly if the character is a padawan survivor living during the Empire.

Or some other combination of these suggestions.

Seems more work than necessary. Just be a bit generous with XP if you don't want players to feel discouraged from taking an out-of-career spec.

4 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

Seems more work than necessary. Just be a bit generous with XP if you don't want players to feel discouraged from taking an out-of-career spec.

Or just waive the 10XP penalty for certain specs.

12 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Or just waive the 10XP penalty for certain specs.

IE for your character x spec is in career. for a different character they can pick a different career

I would almost allow a lightsaber tree and one other spec be treated this way...

I usually count Lightsaber specs as universal...

On 2/13/2020 at 3:11 PM, Donovan Morningfire said:

They're just as valid as using AoR careers for non-clone members of the GAR, either to represent members of the Jedi Order that don't follow the traditional path of Padawan-Knight-Master or as unaffiliated Force users, be it from different traditions (Baron Do Sages, Nightsisters, etc) or simply those that discovered an affinity for the Force but otherwise slipped through the cracks and were never identified/found by Jedi seekers.

Exactly, the PCs are meant to be the freaks and geeks of the galaxy, your archetypal ragtag bunch of misfits fighting for liberty and justice for all.

(And ideally breaking canon, by their actions throwing a monkey wrench into Palpatine's plans before taking the fight to the dark lord himself.)

(Personally on PCs facing Sidious, I'd go with them using a orbital kill satellite, ala Akira.)

In my current game, set pre clone wars with my wife and 7 yr old daughter as the PCs, I don't allow them to start or purchase the Jedi specs.

Instead I use them as story points and rewards at the end of modules.

Such as the Daughter (Pathfinder) will be awarded Padawan once the Wife's PC (Sentinal with Padawan) brings her back to the sector academy cruiser and is inducted in the order.

Similarly, the wife will be gifted Knight once she passes her final Jedi trial of insight, by solving the mystery at the heart of the current adventure they are playing, assuming she becomes one with the force and extends her power (gaining force rating 2).

I see the specs as plot devices that represent levels of attainment, and the skills and discipline gained from academy training, study and tuturing