Dark Side Force Artefact - temptation

By mwknowles, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Hi,

This has probably been done before but . . . . . i have had a Force User PC find half the Mask of Darth Nihilus and i would like ides on how to tempt the PC and also the effects it will have on them.

IE: +1 DARK SIDE FORCE POINT to all checks BUT also +1 conflict (pretty boring but its mechanics) BUT Also thinking of having nightmares where they fight the force wrath of Nihlius and hear a voice whispering to them. Also showing them dark side powers.

Any and all ideas welcome as usual! Thanks!! :)

Have the wearer have the innate Force Power of Harm and call it Consume. Maybe give him constant prodding about hunger, to feed, to consume every living thing around him (discipline checks to resist it, setback if he doesn'T do as it says and fails the check) +dark side points or force dice for using this power.

Edited by Rimsen

You can't really tempt the player in a real way unles the player is already inclined to go dark with the character anyway, or is willing to roleplay being seduced against their will without needing bonuses for that.

Tempt the character. Make the mask an NPC with very high Charm/Negotiate/Coercion that is constantly whispering in the player's ear, having the mask make a social attack on the character every once in while, possibly overriding the character's actions or choices if succesful. This somewhat undermines player agency, but walking around with cursed dark side items should take away some of that anyway.

Meanwhile still have the mask provide a significant benefit (extra force rating or use of bonus Force powers or something like that, nothing specifically darkside-ish) that can be used without any other penalty or cost at all.

55 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

You can't really tempt the player in a real way unles the player is already inclined to go dark with the character anyway, or is willing to roleplay being seduced against their will without needing bonuses for that.

Tempt the character. Make the mask an NPC with very high Charm/Negotiate/Coercion that is constantly whispering in the player's ear, having the mask make a social attack on the character every once in while, possibly overriding the character's actions or choices if succesful. This somewhat undermines player agency, but walking around with cursed dark side items should take away some of that anyway.

Meanwhile still have the mask provide a significant benefit (extra force rating or use of bonus Force powers or something like that, nothing specifically darkside-ish) that can be used without any other penalty or cost at all.

I like the NPC mask approach. Neat.

Thematically would make more sense (to me) to give "dark side-ish" bonus.

30 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

Thematically would make more sense (to me) to give "dark side-ish" bonus.

Something that is obviously evil and gives evil powers is never going to be very tempting for good aligned characters, no matter what benefits it provides. Something that can seemingly be used for good without any real consequences on the other hand...

Just now, micheldebruyn said:

Something that is obviously evil and gives evil powers is never going to be very tempting for good aligned characters, no matter what benefits it provides. Something that can seemingly be used for good without any real consequences on the other hand...

Yes not tempting. However why would a sith lords artifact help you do good? If the players are not interested in sith artifacts shouldn't give them. Just let them get something good aligned.

A Sith artifact could be designed to trick the user into thinking it could be used for good or evil. Or the user could be drawn to using it, compelled to use it.

3 hours ago, Rimsen said:

Yes not tempting. However why would a sith lords artifact help you do good? If the players are not interested in sith artifacts shouldn't give them. Just let them get something good aligned.

It helps them to do whatever they want, while at the same time influencing them to want to do evil or at least severely morally ambiguous, conflict-creating acts. It' Sauron's Ring all over again.

It of course would work better if the players do not know that it is a dark side artifact.

mwknowles wants to tempt a PC with a dark side artifact. That is going to be a lot easier if you do not volunteer the information that this is a dark side artifact instead of a more neutrally aligned artifact.

Also, Sith Lords would still be very interested in creating and using artifacts that make themselves more powerful, without that power specifically needing to be used for evil.

2 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

It helps them to do whatever they want, while at the same time influencing them to want to do evil or at least severely morally ambiguous, conflict-creating acts. It' Sauron's Ring all over again.

It of course would work better if the players do not know that it is a dark side artifact.

mwknowles wants to tempt a PC with a dark side artifact. That is going to be a lot easier if you do not volunteer the information that this is a dark side artifact instead of a more neutrally aligned artifact.

Also, Sith Lords would still be very interested in creating and using artifacts that make themselves more powerful, without that power specifically needing to be used for evil.

It's the signature of that character.

Your reasoning doesn't make any sense. The question wasn't about giving the players an omnitool, it's giving the player's a given character's artifact. It should have the flavour of that character which is what I described.

If you want to tempt anyone (even with metagaming) you have to create dire situations where the object in question would provide a significant bonus.


If you want to do that to some good-aligned Force user via sith-artifact, it has to be very powerful with very little danger attached to it (which will grow over time).
Give it Bonus-Force rating or a free force power tree (maybe even maxed out) and start the "evil" with minor consequences like dark side pips or a bit of conflict (if you use morality) to create a sense of low risk - high reward.
From there, you go to more power with more risk like another Force Rating and a "Mentor" that talks to them via the artifact, but all rolled pips turn to dark side pips, make it good so people at least think about using it and start to weigh the benefits against the danger.


Create the "I Win Button" attach some slowly growing risks, and throw pretty harsh situations at them where it often seems to be the only solution to use the artifact...


If they give in - awesome. Next will be a story of falling to the dark side and whatever comes after


If they crawl through all that and stay strong - great. They probably suffered a lot and even sacrificed a few things on the way, but they earned the "paragon of light sticker"

4 hours ago, Malashim said:

If you want to do that to some good-aligned Force user via sith-artifact, it has to be very powerful with very little danger attached to it (which will grow over time).

I feel the "which will grow over time" is the key point. Sure, the first time you use it it only causes 1 conflict, but, if the conflict added from using the artifact causes a dark side shift (say roll of 4 with 3 other conflict and 2 specifically from using the object) then after that it is 2 conflict, with another failure 3, etc. This would be even better if the PC didn't keep track of their Morality themselves and only received guidance from the GM, or have to have another force user assess your Morality. Lots of great options here!

20 hours ago, Rimsen said:

I like the NPC mask approach. Neat.

Thematically would make more sense (to me) to give "dark side-ish" bonus.

Yes, thanks this is a very cool idea especially as the PCs (or enemy) will eventually want to go after the other parts to complete the set - meaning it will grow with power!

On 10/20/2020 at 2:01 PM, Rimsen said:

Have the wearer have the innate Force Power of Harm and call it Consume. Maybe give him constant prodding about hunger, to feed, to consume every living thing around him (discipline checks to resist it, setback if he doesn'T do as it says and fails the check) +dark side points or force dice for using this power.

This too is brilliant and along the lines of what i want - with the NPC idea it'll be fun getting the PC to want to use the dark side!

5 hours ago, mwknowles said:

This too is brilliant and along the lines of what i want - with the NPC idea it'll be fun getting the PC to want to use the dark side!

Hey guys, im going to stat the artefact but really making it up as i go along with guesswork - if i post it on here, would you be so kind as to review it please??

B: 1, A: 1, I: 4, D5, W: 4, P: 3

Deception: YGGGG

Adversary: 1

Force Rating: 1

Force Power: Consume (as heal/harm - but they can heal themselves by drawing the life out of another living thing (of significance)

That's basically it - its v late here so not making much sense. Any ideas welcome!

Edited by mwknowles