Hello everybody.

So I felt compelled to create some new rules for Kyber Crystals. I always loved the idea of Synthetic Kyber Crystals in the Legends canon and wanted to bring it back for this game system. Using DangerShine Designs Eote Module Template (Kudos to them!) I made a supplement in a style hopefully roughly reminiscent of an actual sourcebook.

Contained within are a list of all lightsaber crystals I could find the statistics for with a short description. After which is a section for GMs to apply several states to Kyber Crystals that players have located or refined. This is followed by Corruption and Purification rules, then finally the book finishes off with rules to create Synthetic Kyber Crystals. As some may notice I attempted to meld the Legends and current canon for Kyber Crystals as best I could.

Download it here: Lightsaber Crystals version 1.6

Any feedback is welcome.

EDIT: Fixed a few typos here and there.

Made some balancing changes.

Made more balancing changes.

Very nice! Downloaded and will read later today. Very glad my template was useful

Edit: You should post this in the Compiled Resources thread and tag @Nate so it's not just listed in this thread that may ultimately get buried a few pages down.

17 minutes ago, DangerShine Designs said:

Very nice! Downloaded and will read later today. Very glad my template was useful

Yeah, yours worked well. I would've preferred to use a F&D based template for something like this but I could never find one.

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Edit: You should post this in the Compiled Resources thread and tag @Nate so it's not just listed in this thread that may ultimately get buried a few pages down.

Roger Roger!

Looks interesting!

If you have access to them, then I suggest adding the crystals from Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic.

It would be useful to list the sourcebooks in which each specific crystal can be found. (Including the Ilum, which is not just in FaD, but also in RotS and CotR.)

I also caught a few spelling, etc. issues (this was just a super quick skim, not an in-depth check).

9 hours ago, Bellona said:

Looks interesting!

If you have access to them, then I suggest adding the crystals from Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic.

It would be useful to list the sourcebooks in which each specific crystal can be found. (Including the Ilum, which is not just in FaD, but also in RotS and CotR.)

I also caught a few spelling, etc. issues (this was just a super quick skim, not an in-depth check).

p. 3 under Ilum: "the icy planet Hum" should be "Ilum" instead.

p. 4 under "Saphim": should be "Sapith" instead.

p. 6 under Varpeline: I'm pretty sure that the dagger symbol is standing in for a different one.

Thanks. Added the Crystals and fixed the typos.

Thank you for sharing this resource :-)

Two things I noticed

1) p. 5, 6 the 2nd Tainted Nightsister Crystal is the Thontiin Crystal.

2) p. 2 the Christophsis Crystal is misspelled Crystophsis Crystal.

On 3/26/2020 at 6:10 PM, Rogues Rule said:

Thank you for sharing this resource 🙂

Two things I noticed

1) p. 5, 6 the 2nd Tainted Nightsister Crystal is the Thontiin Crystal.

2) p. 2 the Christophsis Crystal is misspelled Crystophsis Crystal.

Thanks, fixed.

What I really need feedback on is the balance. I wanted to create something that brings back Synthetic Lightsaber Crystals, and in the process I ended up just expanding Lightsaber Crystals in general. I didn't want to make anything that unbalanced the game though. Well, any more than the crafting system in this game typically does at least.

I had a close look at those sections just now, and in my opinion it is very overpowered and unbalanced.

As you say, the crafting system can be used by skilled mechanics to unbalance or even break the game. You can get weapons and armor that are better than anything in the books.

But here a powerfull crafted lightsaber hilt is combined with a crafted or refined crystal. And the crystals are normally already very powerful and can even be made more potent by modifications. And on top of all of that come now those extra boni.

Concussive for example might be the most powerfull quality in the game. In the crafting rules you need 2 triumphs to be able to add it to a weapon. Integral attachment, which most people use to add superior to the weapon, requires two triumphs as well.

Here light side attunment can add concussive for just two advantages. Everyone will use this. How is a GM supposed to design an encounter when everyone is stun locked into infinity?

And just 4 advantages or a triumph to add superior to the lightsaber. This all is way more powerfull than the already existing crafting rules.

I realy like your refining and corruption/purification ideas. They are great story wise and for character developement and they intensify the story how a player character finally gets his lightsaber. But mechanically I would not add more than a boost die.

Concerning the synthetic crystals, I think the material costs and the costs for compressor are fitting nicely and it is a great alternative for a character to get his crystal in a galaxy ruled by the empire. The blade break ability is too strong in my opinion. I would require two triumphs for something that powerfull. With just one triumph it would happen too often and I think it would be a disapointing encounter if the nemesis loses his lightsaber in round one.

Most of the crafting options here are way too powerfull as well. You can add +1 damage only once under the normal crafting rules - here it is multiple times, for example.

I would get rid of all options except "exact replica" and maybe "convincing fake". Getting an Illum crystal like this without having to roam the galaxy or one crystal of your chosing for two triumphs seems quite balanced to me. With the modifications of the crystal itself and all those mods for the hilt it would be just way too powerful, when these three components add up.

As a plan B you could substitute the hilt crafting and some mods for your rules, but all of them is just too much.

For the Purification and Corruption qualities, I used Vicious for the Corruption added quality because it's a rather violent quality, as for Concussive it's the most "peaceful" quality I could find, as a Lightsider with a purified Crystal could use it to disable rather than kill opponents. I'll make it add a couple strain damage with attacks instead.

I tried to design things so that players could use Synthetic Crystals to create Crystals that could match or slightly exceed natural ones. As Kyber Crystals can have a damage of as high has 9 I didn't think Strong Focus being two would be much of a problem, but I'll raise the number of advantages it requires. I also threw in things like the Lightsaber Breaking and Unstable Synthetic/Compressed because they are actual qualities that Synthetic Crystals have in Legends, but I'll change it to two Triumphs. I also tried to balance the positive results of both tables out with negative ones, such as putting Weak Focus as a 1 threat result to counter damage increases, but I'll alter things a bit.

18 minutes ago, immortalfrieza said:

I'll make it add a couple strain damage with attacks instead.

Against Rivals and Minions that is just extra damage, so you might want to reconsider. Perhaps Disorient is a good compromise?

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Against Rivals and Minions that is just extra damage, so you might want to reconsider. Perhaps Disorient is a good compromise?

That'll work. Got anything else?

1 hour ago, immortalfrieza said:

That'll work. Got anything else?

This isn't really my cup of tea. Haven't even read the supplement you made. I just saw that and figured I should mention it.

On 3/28/2020 at 10:11 AM, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Against Rivals and Minions that is just extra damage, so you might want to reconsider. Perhaps Disorient is a good compromise?

If it were me, I would think a Light Side attuned crystal would benefit the wielder more than harming an opponent. My first thought is strain healing or mitigation, but that just kinda steps on the Dantari Crystal's toes.

Maybe an automatic advantage or success on a Force power check?

10 hours ago, StriderZessei said:

If it were me, I would think a Light Side attuned crystal would benefit the wielder more than harming an opponent. My first thought is strain healing or mitigation, but that just kinda steps on the Dantari Crystal's toes.

Maybe an automatic advantage or success on a Force power check?

I was thinking of that, but being attuned already provides a Force Pip and I wanted an actual weapon quality that was good for helping to nonlethally take out opponents.

3 hours ago, immortalfrieza said:

I was thinking of that, but being attuned already provides a Force Pip and I wanted an actual weapon quality that was good for helping to nonlethally take out opponents.

Fair enough. Adding Defensive/Deflective +1 might fit too.

There was a forum post a couple of years ago that included the issue of Synthetic Crystals that boiled down to handwavium. Based on the crafting templates for other things, I created a template for crafting synthetic crystals.

Basically, you chose a crystal type - basic, defensive, offensive, or utility. This establishes the basic functionality of the crystal - damage, crit, sunder, breach, and any specials like defensive or accurate.

Next you purchase the optional mods - for example, the basic Ilum crystal and an basic synthetic crystal are the same, but to get all of the optional mods available on the Ilum crystal, you would have to score 7 Advantages on a Knowledge(Lore) check. Note that this just gives you the optional modification potential, you would still have to perform the actual mods themselves. In general, this will create crystals that is less potent when fully modified, but still usable initially.

One of the things people were concerned about was that being able to make crystals would be license to print credits, the down side to trying that is that the crystals themselves are still going to be Restricted and there are very few buyers - and inquisitors looking for them.

Synthetic Crystals.odt

On 7/16/2020 at 3:42 PM, tinkerghost said:

There was a forum post a couple of years ago that included the issue of Synthetic Crystals that boiled down to handwavium. Based on the crafting templates for other things, I created a template for crafting synthetic crystals.

Basically, you chose a crystal type - basic, defensive, offensive, or utility. This establishes the basic functionality of the crystal - damage, crit, sunder, breach, and any specials like defensive or accurate.

Next you purchase the optional mods - for example, the basic Ilum crystal and an basic synthetic crystal are the same, but to get all of the optional mods available on the Ilum crystal, you would have to score 7 Advantages on a Knowledge(Lore) check. Note that this just gives you the optional modification potential, you would still have to perform the actual mods themselves. In general, this will create crystals that is less potent when fully modified, but still usable initially.

One of the things people were concerned about was that being able to make crystals would be license to print credits, the down side to trying that is that the crystals themselves are still going to be Restricted and there are very few buyers - and inquisitors looking for them.

Synthetic Crystals.odt Unavailable

Your attachment is dead.

Thanks. One thing about Synthetic Crystals I have now added as a balancing element was to simply have no modifications at all. A player using this Supplement to create crystals can in theory make a Crystal that is right out of the box as good as any natural crystal, or even with the Exact Replica effect exactly like any natural crystal, but once made that's it, they are set and can't improve in any way. You could in theory end up with something that's just as good as a modified crystal, but unless you're cheesing to get an absolutely absurd amount of advantages you probably won't end up with anything more than slightly better than any natural crystal can get even once modified. It takes quite a bit of dice rolling even with high skill to get something that is even slightly better than what you typically can get after modification with a natural crystal.

As for the license to print credits, I accounted for that with the high difficulty of attempting it and the Obvious Fake result, on top of the obvious "The Empire is after you now" risk. There's also the 1000 credits it takes to make an attempt and I am changing the amount one can get to 3,000, which means that 2,000 is the most profit one can ever get out of it and it takes 24 hours uninterrupted to make an attempt. With this supplement's rules if one can spare the time and resources to try to make print credits by making and selling synthetic crystals consistently you've probably got just as consistent revenue streams going or ones you could be using like crafting by that point anyway.

One thing I've just realized I should probably add is that threats and advantages do not cancel out each other when crafting a crystal, therefore negative effects can cancel out or eclipse positive ones. Now that I think about it, crafting in general would be a lot less broken if one did that.

21 hours ago, immortalfrieza said:

Your attachment is dead.

Huh, it downloaded for me just now - it is a google doc though so it might not load depending on what you are set for. Let's see how it posts:

OK, it seems to post all right, but it seems to be a draft I forgot to mention that you should craft it with Knowledge(Lore) not mechanics - like potions and talismans.

Synthetic Crystals

The standard for Sith as well as Imperial Guards and Inquisitors, and often a last resort for Jedi, synthetic crystals are Kyber crystals forged by force sensitive crafters for use in lightsabers. Depending on the technique used, they can be crafted using common materials and a furnace – as done by Luke Skywalker after the loss of his father's lightsaber on Bespin, or through the use of a geological compressor – the preferred Sith method.

While synthetic crystals are often viewed by Jedi as being inferior to natural crystals, the ability to tweak the crystalline structure and composition during creation often leads them to be more attuned to the specific needs and desires of the creator.

Crafting a synthetic crystal requires 3 things:

1. 1. 1. Materials – various crystalline and minerals

      2. A heat source – a plasma cutter will suffice

      3. A crucible – capable of handling the heat required

The use of a geological compressor downgrades the difficulty of creating a synthetic crystal by 1 step to a minimum of Easy (P)

Syntetic Crystals

** All Kyber crystals have the sunder and breach 1 qualities unless otherwise stated.

++ Select a trait that is either granted (non ranked) or improved (Ranked) – this is subject to GM approval and should be related to either combat or using the Force in general. Examples are ranks in Parry, Bodyguard, Defensive Training, and the like. It should not be Specialization specific like Niman Technique.

Spending A, T, D, and Di on Synthetic Crystal crafting:

Game Notes:

In general, a fully modded synthetic crystal will probably be weaker than a comparable natural crystal, however it will also be more tuned to the characters specific style of play.

Example 1:

Ilum Crystal:

Base Crystal: Damage 6, Crit 2, Sunder, Breach +1

Optional Mods: 4X Increase Damage +1

1X Decrease Critical -1 (min 1)

2X Vicious +1

Basic Synthetic crystal: Damage 6, Crit 2, Sunder, Breach +1

Optional Mods: 7 Advantages

Dantari Crystal:

Base Crystal: Damage 7, Crit 2, Sunder, Breach +1, spend [force] to recover +2 strain

Optional Mods: 1X Decrease Critical -1 (min 1)

2X Damage +1

Offensive Synthetic Crystal: Damage 7, Crit 2, Sunder, Breach +1

Optional Mods: 3 Advantages

1 Triumph – Force trait as part of the base crystal