Hey everybody, I know it's been a while since I've posted,but I am in need of a few Knowledge Checks and Assist Maneuvers.

As the title implies the subject is Younglings, but more specifically I am planing on running my next campaign with the party playing a group of Younglings during the Clone Wars.

So my main question is what adventures can the group go through? Obviously the Gathering, which I would split into two adventures. One for the time sent on Ilum finding there Crystal and another for constructing their Lightsaber and the trip back. But honestly I don't want that to be the first thing they do. I'm currently of the mind set that there will be at least one or two adventures/sessions at the Jedi Temple before they get to the Gathering. I figure this time will be filled with training in a variety of subjects and time for the players to get comfortable with their Character as well as develop them. So what do I do with them after the Gathering, I don't want to get into them becoming Padawans because that just splits the group and ends the party. That's not to say that Younglings instantly become Padawans after the Gathering, but they would end up going right back into training and I really don't want that to get repetitive. Just so it's out there, I am COMPLETELY fine with ideas that separate them from the Temple and/or the Jedi Order. But to my current understanding the Younglings pretty much only leave the Temple for the Gathering and not really anything else, which makes my window pretty small... PLEASE HELP ME!

Next is the question of Career and Specialization. I feel that the Jedi Career is an obvious choice, but what about Specialization, I know there is a Padawan Specialization, but is it really that easy, that second Force Rating feels like too much for a Youngling (But it does make sense for Padawan)

Third, should there be any hard limits or rules due to the fact that the characters are all children 10 and under. Obviously there are plenty of narrative limits and rules, but what about more on the "mechanical" side? The only one I have thought of is a limit on the Brawn Characteristic, which would be 3. This is probably a good time to state that I currently see no reason I have to adjust Starting Species Characteristics/ Stats.

Just like always, thank you to every one for thoughts, suggestions, and help. May the Force be with You!

All comments, questions, and thoughts pertaining to the subject are ALL welcome, please share!

Jedi career, Padawan specialization. I wouldn't allow starting XP (except maybe the extra 10 XP option you can choose for a starting character) to represent them being young and not having much experience and not being fully developed in their bodies or life experiences. Still let them having the starting ranks in skill from career and specialization though.

Have their normal starting XP be a threshold for the game to be the process of them growing out of the youngling stage and becoming full-fledge padawans (culminating in the Gathering). Maybe only award 10 XP per adventure to stretch it out a bit.

Allow them to increase characteristics until they hit their starting XP threshold and after that they would need Dedication as normal. I would say their starting age is just shy of being teenagers.

First idea for at the temple sessions: Live fire exercises.
"The clones are attacking the temple? That wasn't what I was expecting for today's exercise. Remember your training younglings! Show 'em how it's done."
"Err... are you sure?"
"See, it's definitely just a drill, Anakin is leading them."
"OH MY FORCE THEY JUST KILLED JUKA!"

Species starting values and starting XP:

First point: If you nerf the PCs, even very low difficulty challenges will be very difficult. But that does make sense, so it's up to you as a GM to not make things too difficult.

Here's what I'd suggest for Characteristic building: All Characteristics -1 to a minimum of 1. They get full starting XP, but Brawn is capped at +1=3 and Intellect is capped at +1=3. All Characteristics are capped at 4 after CharGen.

So for a Human, that looks like 111111 with 110 XP. So a build of 2s is possible, but more likely you'll get something like 132221 or 131321.
With a Zabrak, that looks like 111121 with 100 XP. So maybe something like 212231.

I know you said you see no reason to change species starting values, but if you leave them as it is, the players can't build the characteristics to fit their vision for the character and will all be generalists. Human becomes pointless as it doesn't get 3 in anything, and species with fewer starting Characteristic points are heavily disadvantaged.

WT and ST are halved, rounded up. Toughened is +1, Grit is +1.

The characters are Sil 0.

Every so often, increase their WT or ST to be closer to their Species starting value and increase their Characteristics one at a time towards their natural values, which simultaneously increases their caps. So if Cunning is starting +2, you increase starting until it equals the species starting value.

Specializations/careers:

Don't start them out in Padawan, they'll have nothing differentiating them until they pick up a new spec. I'd suggest allowing them to select whatever career and specialization they want, with GM guidance and veto power.

Force Rating should still be 1, but you could perhaps limit it to 1, delaying the effect of the Force Rating talents as you find appropriate.
Then limit any Force powers as you find necessary.

It's hard to balance the various concerns here, so I would not suggest staying in the youngling years for too long.

What to do, what to do?

If your party is heavily RP, you can relive middle school, but with the Force this time. I have been reliably informed that most meatbags have had bad experiences with middle school, so that may not be the best suggestion.

But there are various things they can do to train, such as sparring contests with training sabers, practicing against remotes, tournaments, Force exercises, et cetera. Then have various things happen at the temple. They don't have to be galaxy shaking events, just something that would be big to the characters involved. "Someone has been [verb] [noun], and we have to find out who!" "We have to complete this scavenger hunt Force challenge before [name of rival youngling group] does!"

In order to get the conflict/team exercise that makes this sort of thing interesting, you'll likely need to frame a lot of these events as competitions. Emotional Strengths/Weaknesses will be very important here, as most kids lack self-control and foresight and will very easily embrace their Emotional Strengths/Weaknesses.

Is this intended to be a long term campaign, or a few sessions of fun?

If you really want to drive home that they're young and untested, I agree with Superwookie, it's worth tweaking things so they start at a lower power level than usual. Starting with 0 XP is probably a good one. I might even avoid giving them a career and specialization.

Instead, you might be able to start them with just a few skill ranks, maybe do a dungeon world style bit of backstory generation. Ask each of them a handful of questions, and give a skill rank that represents their response.

"What's the most trouble you've ever gotten into in the temple?" Maybe they beat up another Youngling, and get a rank in Brawl, or broke into the kitchen at night for a snack and get a rank in Stealth.

"What is your favourite lesson at the temple?" This one's fairly easy. Maybe they like meditation and get a rank in discipline, or they like lightsaber training and they get a rank in lightsaber.

Rather than award XP at the end of a session, award them specific skill ranks or talents based on things they accomplished, and lessons they learned. Don't give them anything too flashy. The 1st rank of a talent like Parry, or confidence, is probably a reasonable reward. I would avoid awarding skill ranks above rank 2, to get them to "Starting character level".

Once they undergo the Gathering, maybe do a one-year time skip, during which they get to spend starting XP on characteristics and choose their specialization, as they rise to fully-fledged padawans.