Hello,

Does the Double Bladed Lightsaber require two crystals, one for each blade? Can they be separate colors?

Can you mod both crystals, if so, what does that look like? What if you have two very different crystals installed? Do both hits from linked have different damage? Or is it like dual welding where you would pick the stats from one?

Just looking for some clarity here.

Technically, yes, it has two crystals.

Practically, the game treats this as one big crystal that costs double the amount of cash to aquire or upgrade. And that also means you can't give the two blades different upgrades.

It's in the weapon descrion of the double saber in the F&D core book.

With all that being said, visually speaking, I see no reason for it to have the same color. Go wild. It's just visual flavor.

It's a single crystal by the rules, but IMO, if you had two of the same crystal, with the same mods, I don't see why you couldn't have two.

It's more to prevent people from gaming the system.

For example, in my game I added a "coupler", it takes up 1HP on both lightsabers. You can mode each saber and crystal differently, but when connected one becomes the "slave" of the other and uses the primary crystal's properties. It's mostly to allow a little more versatility without gaming the system too much.

41 minutes ago, False God said:

It's a single crystal by the rules, but IMO, if you had two of the same crystal, with the same mods, I don't see why you couldn't have two.

If you want to get technical about it, the rules say it's two crystals that are mechanically treated like one, double-sized crystal.

1 hour ago, False God said:

For example, in my game I added a "coupler", it takes up 1HP on both lightsabers. You can mode each saber and crystal differently, but when connected one becomes the "slave" of the other and uses the primary crystal's properties. It's mostly to allow a little more versatility without gaming the system too much.

This is an excellent solution. It costs something (1 HP on both weapons) to allow crystal versatility.

I would suggest removing the Linked and Unwieldy traits when they are uncoupled.

I would also not remove the cost associated with attachments. You still have to double the cost of any attachment, regardless of whether you put the attachment on just the "slave," or just the "primary," or both.

I fondly recall the last time one of my players asking about the requirements in acquiring a double bladed light saber.

In my particular campaign my players need to first find a more accommodating GM if they want a double bladed light saber.

5 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:

This is an excellent solution. It costs something (1 HP on both weapons) to allow crystal versatility.

I would suggest removing the Linked and Unwieldy traits when they are uncoupled.

I would also not remove the cost associated with attachments. You still have to double the cost of any attachment, regardless of whether you put the attachment on just the "slave," or just the "primary," or both.

Yes, when uncoupled they lose the Linked and Unwieldy quality. And yes, you have to pay for the attachments twice, and do the modding checks twice. However, since my players have a stupid amount of money (my fault really but hey whatever they're having fun) I allow them to buy "fully upgraded" mods and they can complete quests for upgraded crystals (because in my games, those things just aren't sold at every corner market).

3 hours ago, Mark Caliber said:

I fondly recall the last time one of my players asking about the requirements in acquiring a double bladed light saber.

In my particular campaign my players need to first find a more accommodating GM if they want a double bladed light saber.

The double-saber is really the bridge too far?

7 hours ago, False God said:

The double-saber is really the bridge too far?

It's not "The" only bridge.

Being flung off of an actual bridge into a 100+ foot pit into a maneto shield barrier where your body not only gets vaporized, but the dark energy trapped by your vile evil body radiates the ensorcelled darkness melodramatically and THEN to find out your not actually dead because a hack writer/director who's trying to resuscitate a failing reboot trilogy is ALSO a bridge too far.

Also getting cut in half by a perfectly functional single bladed lightsaber and falling down another bottomless pit and then getting a spider body attached to somehow pretend that your cranium would survive falling damage at that height? ALSO a bridge too far . . .

I have lots of bridges in the Star Wars universe that I won't cross.

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

Being flung off of an actual bridge into a 100+ foot pit into a maneto shield barrier where your body not only gets vaporized, but the dark energy trapped by your vile evil body radiates the ensorcelled darkness melodramatically and THEN to find out your not actually dead because a hack writer/director who's trying to resuscitate a failing reboot trilogy is ALSO a bridge too far.

He's really just an undead spirit possessing a cloned body.

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Also getting cut in half by a perfectly functional single bladed lightsaber and falling down another bottomless pit and then getting a spider body attached to somehow pretend that your cranium would survive falling damage at that height? ALSO a bridge too far . . .

Also, one of the best villains in all of Star Wars. With a lot more personality and depth than anything the movies have to offer.

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I have lots of bridges in the Star Wars universe that I won't cross.

How are you on the subjects of heavy blasters, repeating blasters, and tricked out swiss knife Mando armour? Where is the line? Basically just nothing thought of after 1983?

9 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

He's really just an undead spirit possessing a cloned body.

. . . still a bridge too far. Aliens 4 sucked for all the same reasons. Lessons should have been learned already (sigh).

9 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

Also, one of the best villains in all of Star Wars. With a lot more personality and depth than anything the movies have to offer.

Personality? He had THREE lines! (I'm not looking him up. It may have been more but not by much. No, NO! DO go look up how many lines he had in the Phantom Menace. Please enlighten me ). He stood there, looking menacing, stood some more, fought well, and then died! Where was the personality?

Maul was a throw away character! Literally! They threw him off a ledge into a 'bottomless' pit! Where he died!

And you're going to try to defend a lazy writer who needs to resurrect a throw away character because they can't come up with a more compelling villain? I remember watching the cartoon where Maul "came back" and I spent the rest of the episode asking a variety of questions that all boiled down to WTF?!?!?!?

Blew me way out of the story!

Stupid! Pure stupidity!

And your reaction is to prop up bad writing? That's a personal problem and there are therapists for that kind of issue. And if that doesn't work, try taking some Literature or Creative Writing classes.

9 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

Where is the line? Basically just nothing thought of after 1983?

I enjoyed the pre-quals. I saw each prequal at midnight on opening night. Btw, the Mando series has some good stuff in it too.

There's a lot of good stuff to sift through and I can generally come up with better creative decisions each week for my Star Wars RPG.

4 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

DO go look up how many lines he had in the Phantom Menace.

As far as I'm concerned, Maul wasn't even in the Phantom Menace.

35 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

Maul was a throw away character! Literally! They threw him off a ledge into a 'bottomless' pit! Where he died!

And you're going to try to defend a lazy writer who needs to resurrect a throw away character because they can't come up with a more compelling villain? I remember watching the cartoon where Maul "came back" and I spent the rest of the episode asking a variety of questions that all boiled down to WTF?!?!?!?

Blew me way out of the story!

Stupid! Pure stupidity!

I believe it was one line, actually.

Skip Maul's "death" for a minute and get straight to the character in Clone Wars. Phenomenal character, excellent arc, really pretty awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I came from the same place as you did originally. There was a comic book dating from before the Clone Wars show that had Maul surviving and eventually coming back during the Clone Wars era, and another one that showed Maul fighting Obi-Wan during his exile on Tatooine. I read both and thought they were okay, but didn't like Maul coming back. I would protest that he should have died.

Clone Wars actually changed my mind on it, and I went in not wanting to like it. Not actively wanting to dislike it, but I wasn't trying to like it.

When you work from Maul in Phantom Menace to the end point, you go "Why was that necessary!?" But when you take him at the totality and work from the end point back through Phantom Menace, I think it holds up pretty well.

As for how he survived, I think it's a very Sith story. He uses the Force to survive his fall, but gets shipped out with the junk. He uses his hatred and pain to keep himself alive, though he goes insane. He lives in the junkfields of Lotho Minor for years, out of his mind and obsessed with Kenobi.

Even if the story ended there, I'd think it was pretty cool. More interesting than just dying on Naboo.

As for lazy writers, I disagree. They took a risk with a multi-episode long arc involving multiple characters, set up well in advance with Savage Oppress. They weren't just "Oh we need a new villain. Maul it is!" If Maul had just reappeared, I might be right there with you. But he didn't, there was a whole lot more that went into it. Could they have made an entirely new character? Yeah, but that would mean they couldn't use Savage and the story would not have been as linked it. They would have to manufacture a connection via backfilling story rather than exploiting an existing connection, and it would not have been as engaging.

Giving Kenobi a villain was a very good choice and led to some of the best episodes in the series.

Also, lets be correct about who we're blaming, Maul coming back was a decision made well before the Clone Wars TV show, and well before the sequel trilogy, by (if I recall) Lucas himself.

I hold Lucas in much the same regard as Tolkein. Good storyteller, not the best writer.

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I hold Lucas in much the same regard as Tolkein. Good storyteller, not the best writer.

Ouch, this one hurts. Don´ t want to start a discussion about it, just need to say that its a bit astounishing to me. As a writer Lucas not even gets close to Tolkien.

Anakin getting all his limbs amputated and surviving being burned to a crisp with lava is a...decent example for how Maul could have survived the end of TPM. Not saying it's at all realistic, but I'm just saying it checks out in a universe where dark space magic fueled by negative emotions is a thing.

The Star Wars universe follows many of the rules you find in comic books, which to me makes sense because I think both draw inspiration from pulp stories. Any death is subject to a retcon if it fits a future writer's plan, and that goes double any time the body isn't recovered. Fall off a cliff, or down a shaft, get swallowed by a creature, get buried in rubble, and so on.

I can't wait for Luke's aunt and uncle to return from the dead.

3 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

I can't wait for Luke's aunt and uncle to return from the dead.

They were completely carbonized skeletons, but you could have clones of them (though who'd go to the trouble to clone nobodies from the armpit of the galaxy) or their deaths could have been faked (though again, who'd go through the trouble).

13 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

I can't wait for Luke's aunt and uncle to return from the dead.

Beings very powerful in the Force continuing on past death as ghosts who may or may not take over alive people, and strong dark siders who manage to survive severely lethal injury through sheer malice and willpower have been a staple of Star Wars for a very, very long time. It didn't start with Dath Maul, it certainly didn't start with Palpatine, and by now it is a common Star Wars trope, not something that is weird.

What was weird is Palpatine randomly coming back off-screen, completely altering the status-quo during the opening crawl, and nobody thinking this is even note-worthy. These things usually have a bit of a build-up.

8 hours ago, atama2 said:

They were completely carbonized skeletons, but you could have clones of them (though who'd go to the trouble to clone nobodies from the armpit of the galaxy) or their deaths could have been faked (though again, who'd go through the trouble).

I mean, I could see Palps or some other nutty Imp doing it just to screw with Luke.