Quick question: One thing that was mentioned by the devs in their recent video about EotE was you can play as a force sensitive exile in EotE, add some more force abilities once Age of Rebellion hits and then become a full-fledged jedi once Force & Destiny releases.

Actually, I could see this being handled pretty well by the career/specialisation mechanics. I imagine that AoR will have another universal Force related specialisation (allowing FSE to boost their ability, or AoR characters to start with a Force rating), and then F&D will have "Jedi" careers with specialisations. That way once F&D is released characters can pick a Jedi career (and free specialisation) to start as a Jedi, or existing characters (using the universal specialisation from EotE or AoR) can simply pick up Jedi career specialisations at a slightly higher cost to "become" fully fledged Jedi.

I am not seeing the requirement of being an Order 66 survivor in the fluff, what page is that on? All I saw was a blurb about being an unknown Force Sensitive, bit confused on the fluff now.

What are bonus career skills in the career descriptions for the specializations? Are they just extra skills that are considered career skills for choosing that specialization but you do not get any free ranks in them?

Also, how do you know if you can take a talent more than once? Some of the talent descriptions seem to be worded like you can but do not say how many times you can take it.

What are bonus career skills in the career descriptions for the specializations? Are they just extra skills that are considered career skills for choosing that specialization but you do not get any free ranks in them?

For your first (free) specialisation, you get them as career skills and free ranks. For any subsequent specialisation, you just get them as career skills (cheaper to buy with XP).

Also, how do you know if you can take a talent more than once? Some of the talent descriptions seem to be worded like you can but do not say how many times you can take it.

It's based on the trees you have access to - if it's in the same tree more than once then it is ranked. If the same talent appears in two different trees you have access to, I believe it is only considered ranked if it says so in the talent description (though I haven't yet seen the final book).

I am speaking of the bonus career skills. These are skills outside the 8 normal career skills you get with a specialization. Can you choose from these bonus ones too for putting free ranks in? If you look at a career specialization it lists 8 career skills then under it there are ones shown as bonus career skills. I'm assuming these bonus ones just count as more career skills for you but do you get to put your free skill ranks in those as well as the normal 8?

Also, I am not seeing how force sensitive exile can be had right at the get-go of character creation because the book states you "start with a single specialization within your chosen career" so you would first have to purchase your first specialization in your chosen career, which is free, then I guess you could spend xp from character creation to buy access to the force sensitive exile specialization. This would seem to make you start out weaker than the other starting characters.

What are bonus career skills in the career descriptions for the specializations? Are they just extra skills that are considered career skills for choosing that specialization but you do not get any free ranks in them?

For your first (free) specialisation, you get them as career skills and free ranks. For any subsequent specialisation, you just get them as career skills (cheaper to buy with XP).

Also, how do you know if you can take a talent more than once? Some of the talent descriptions seem to be worded like you can but do not say how many times you can take it.

It's based on the trees you have access to - if it's in the same tree more than once then it is ranked. If the same talent appears in two different trees you have access to, I believe it is only considered ranked if it says so in the talent description (though I haven't yet seen the final book).

So you would first have to purchase your first specialization in your chosen career, which is free, then I guess you could spend xp from character creation to buy access to the force sensitive exile specialization. This would seem to make you start out weaker than the other starting characters.

That's correct, and it's 100% intentional on FFG's part.

One of the biggest complaints about the d20 versions was that it was too easy to have a powerful Force-user as early as 1st level, with Saga Edition being especially notorious for this given the way skills worked vs. defenses, enabling a character with Skill Focus to easily trounce most NPC's defenses at lower levels.

It's very much akin to WEG's Star Wars system, where Force-users start off less powerful (having to spend starting attribute points to purchase the basic Force skills) but can become amazingly powerful after a lengthy period and spending of much experience.

EotE is much the same, where a Force-user is going to be a slight disadvantage. Assuming a Human PC, beginning play with the F/S Exile spec and a basic Force Power is equivalent to increasing a Characteristic from 2 to 3. But as the F/S Exile gains XP, they can unlock more potent effects via Upgrades for their powers, such as dealing substantial damage via Move, mind tricking NPCs via Influence, or eventually becoming a combat demi-god with the Sense Ongoing Effects. But while the Force-user is boosting their powers, the other PCs are boosting their skills and buying talents, so it's a trade-off. Right now, it's probably too early to see how well that trade-off will play out in the long run. WEG ran into issues with Force-users being able to pull off all sorts of crazy stuff once they reached the point of being able to reliably activate their powers, so time will tell if EotE is going to suffer a similar problem. Since Force Powers in EotE are far less open-ended, I don't think it's going to be that problematic, especially as Exiles are capped at Force Rating 2 (barring house-rules or inclusion of fan-created material).

I am speaking of the bonus career skills. These are skills outside the 8 normal career skills you get with a specialization. Can you choose from these bonus ones too for putting free ranks in? If you look at a career specialization it lists 8 career skills then under it there are ones shown as bonus career skills. I'm assuming these bonus ones just counts as more career skills for you but do you get to put your free skill ranks in those as well as the normal 8?

Yeah, sorry, I can see how my first post may have been confusing. The skills listed under your career, plus the skills listed under the first (free) specialisation you pick are both your career skills and the skills that you can allocate your starting ranks to. The skills listed under any additional specialisation you pick up only add to your list of career skills - you can't allocate your free ranks to these skills.

DM answered the second part of your question.

Thanks for the info Donovan. I can totally see why FFG went that route for a starting force sensitive character and I like it.

So given all this would you all say it is preferable at character creation to take a career and your free specialization and spend the xp to pick up the force exile spec as well if you eventually want to become a full-fledged jedi OR wait until later on after the campaign begins to pick up the force sensitive exile spec?

And gosh I wish the YT-2200 was one of the ships you could choose for your group at character creation but alas it costs 130,000 credits, 10,000 more than the limit of 120,000 you can use for starting ship.

I am not seeing the requirement of being an Order 66 survivor in the fluff, what page is that on? All I saw was a blurb about being an unknown Force Sensitive, bit confused on the fluff now.

There is no such requirement. I can certainly see a player make a case that a Force Sensitive Exile might have been a youngling who somehow survived Order 66, but such a character could as easily be any of the Force-sensitive individuals who must have been born during the Clone Wars or the years leading up to them (when the Jedi were, after all, preoccupied), or during the Dark Times.

So given all this would you all say it is preferable at character creation to take a career and your free specialization and spend the xp to pick up the force exile spec as well if you eventually want to become a full-fledged jedi OR wait until later on after the campaign begins to pick up the force sensitive exile spec?

Up to you really. Obviously if you want to pick up any FSE talents or Force Powers at character creation, then you need to pick up the specialisation. Otherwise I'd say it comes down to how soon you *do* want to pick up FSE talents or Force Powers, and whether you'd rather pick up the specialisation early to help build towards those sooner, or would rather spend the XP on something more immediately useful.

I hope you will be updating your useful reference sheets for the beta to the release version soon, gribble. Thanks for providing those.

Another thing for characters aspiring to be force users in rp terms the force is not like a STD you just do not wake up one day and go "well i hope im not force positive today."

I ask every player in my group before making a character if they have any hopes of being force sensitive because the empire sure as snow on hoth can (because of crapy G cannon) find out if you have a abnormal amount of force in you.

One more question. I was just told the following: "FSE is a universal specialisation, meaning it doesn't cost extra XP to pick up (cost is the same as a career specialisation - new total number of specialisations x 10XP"

Is this correct? I had assumed it would cost 10 x # of specs you would have with the new one + the extra 10 xp for not being a career spec.

The answer is already in the thread above, but yes its like a career specialisation, only [number of specialisation you will have]x10 - so 20xp if its your second, 30xp if its your third. It's all laid out above.

Another thing for characters aspiring to be force users in rp terms the force is not like a STD you just do not wake up one day and go "well i hope im not force positive today."

I ask every player in my group before making a character if they have any hopes of being force sensitive because the empire sure as snow on hoth can (because of crapy G cannon) find out if you have a abnormal amount of force in you.

I actually disagree with this. Yes, there are ways of determining one's force potential. But it's a big galaxy. FSEs can be found on the Outer Rim planets specifically because it's the fringe of civilization. No one's running blood tests out there(which is why Anakin wasn't found at an early age as was typical of Jedi in the Old Republic). Without telltale signs of "sorcerous ways," there's nothing for the Empire to track.

And without the Jedi to train you, you could go your whole life without knowing how to actively access the Force.

There was some crappy device in the Kevin J Anderson series that could detect sensitives... if you at all want to use his work as a reliable and guiding source, I know I wouldn't (just like Troy Denning; never let that person write another star wars novel again, its literary faecal flotsam, not to mention bad star wars).

Also, from a discussion on the Order 66 podcast with Sam Witwer (who has worked on a few star wars related things like the clone wars and TFU I & II) it seems Lucas envisioned force sensitivity and strength kind of like a metaphysical muscle that can be trained to become stronger, but something that also needs upkeep otherwise it will deteriorate and wither away... it can still be re-learned but the general idea is that its not an on-off button. I'd also think that a lot of force sensitives not trained as Jedi due to too low "strength" in infancy might become stronger and train their sensitivity later in life.

So it's not an STD of sorts no, but I'd think that you could due to some event; traumatic or just extreme, unlock and become aware of your own sensitivity to something "else"... not too far fetched in an rpg at least. still this is up to individual groups and players I guess... being sensitive won't get you hunted in my games, but showing force sensitivity, using powers and stuff like that will most likely result in investigations, jedi hunters and general badness for the player

I am speaking of the bonus career skills. These are skills outside the 8 normal career skills you get with a specialization. Can you choose from these bonus ones too for putting free ranks in? If you look at a career specialization it lists 8 career skills then under it there are ones shown as bonus career skills. I'm assuming these bonus ones just count as more career skills for you but do you get to put your free skill ranks in those as well as the normal 8?

Also, I am not seeing how force sensitive exile can be had right at the get-go of character creation because the book states you "start with a single specialization within your chosen career" so you would first have to purchase your first specialization in your chosen career, which is free, then I guess you could spend xp from character creation to buy access to the force sensitive exile specialization. This would seem to make you start out weaker than the other starting characters.

No "weaker" than any other character taking a second spec at chargen. It allows you access to more talents and career skills at cheaper costs.

You just have to ask yourself if you want to specialize in one spec, or broaden your abilities. There's nothing "weaker" about it.

-EF

Another thing for characters aspiring to be force users in rp terms the force is not like a STD you just do not wake up one day and go "well i hope im not force positive today."

I ask every player in my group before making a character if they have any hopes of being force sensitive because the empire sure as snow on hoth can (because of crapy G cannon) find out if you have a abnormal amount of force in you.

I actually disagree with this. Yes, there are ways of determining one's force potential. But it's a big galaxy. FSEs can be found on the Outer Rim planets specifically because it's the fringe of civilization. No one's running blood tests out there(which is why Anakin wasn't found at an early age as was typical of Jedi in the Old Republic). Without telltale signs of "sorcerous ways," there's nothing for the Empire to track.

And without the Jedi to train you, you could go your whole life without knowing how to actively access the Force.

Its not that you can go unnoticed its just for consistancy. For example your group gets to the inner rim and gets captured not a stretch to think they woukd test a prisoner just in case.now there are ways to become force sensitive such as the well of the jedi (i think thats the name) that can make anyone unnaturally FS but only a handfull have ever used it.

I doubt the Empire tests every prisoner for Force sensitivity - to me that seems weird and a bit of a stretch to assume. In some cases sure, but I think they'd need a reason to; being a criminal and from the outer rim does not qualify in my book. But hey, that's me.

I doubt the Empire tests every prisoner for Force sensitivity - to me that seems weird and a bit of a stretch to assume. In some cases sure, but I think they'd need a reason to; being a criminal and from the outer rim does not qualify in my book. But hey, that's me.

I agree with that. When Luke Skywalker founded his academy he didin't test every smuggler in the outer rims.

He followed rumors and trails, I think the empire tracked down force sensitive the same way.

Only full fledged jedi's or advanced apprentices were hunted down, only during those chases did they test whole cities.

That's my guess.

I don't know if this has been mentioned (I've only read the first and third pages), but it does say on p.276 (the description of the FSE);

"The FSE is not just any Force Sensitive being; he is one who survived the purges. He may have been a young Padawan or even a minor Jedi who managed to flee the Empire and hide. He may also have been a child, hidden by friends and family."

It is something that will require some thought on how to properly execute (perhaps an errata on the subject might be warranted). Instead of the example listed above (Smuggler-Pilot-FSE) I would say given the established fluff it would be reversed (ie FSE-Smuggler-Pilot) to represent his new life as (something else). If a player wants to play a PC that was a Padawan Learner when the Order 66 Purges started, and was able to escape he wouldn't have any previous experience in another profession as he would have been taken into the Temple as a child.

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth. I have barely scratched the surface of the core rulebook...but, it looks like I maybe house ruling this a bit. Unless something official comes up.

Except, as the continuity itself has shown, there were a large number of Force users who did just stop using their powers, and forgot how to use the Force.

Also, the specialisation says nothing about the FSEs being survivors of Order 66 - it actually says that the Emperor, and those forces engaged in Order 66, were too busy tracking down true Jedi and their descendants and allies, and that Force Sensitives still exist on the fringes of space. It actively implies that FSEs aren't, and never have been, Jedi.

Well, I see where you're coming from, but the text n the FSE description is pretty ambiguous.

"The FSE is not just any Force sensitive being; he is one who survived the purges. He may have been a young Padawan or even a minor Jedi who managed to flee (...)" (pg. 276, last paragraph) at least hints at my reading. Which is not to say that your way of reading it is wrong.

Nevertheless the rules speak for themselves and I like the reduced power level that comes with them.

As far as the reference to the EU ... meh, my Star Wars consists of 2 trilogies and a TV series. Maybe the odd computer game.

But your mileage may vary.

I don't know if this has been mentioned (I've only read the first and third pages), but it does say on p.276 (the description of the FSE);

"The FSE is not just any Force Sensitive being; he is one who survived the purges. He may have been a young Padawan or even a minor Jedi who managed to flee the Empire and hide. He may also have been a child, hidden by friends and family."

Just while I was typing, you point it out as well.

Thing is, if you take FSE as a starting specialisation you have no career and no career skills, no freebies. And buying into any other specialisation is going to be considered non-career, thus more expensive.

Consider the fluff you refer to, it would be reasonable to assume - in my opinion - that over the last two decades or so the character has been getting by as a Pilot (following your own example), most likely not using much force powers or skills during this time due to the Purge and all. This means that skills in force use has deteriorated. For all intents and purposes this means that his career is as a Pilot, now when the character is starting his adventuring with a group and stuff, picking up the FSE specialisation will cost some xp - where's the problem with that? He could have been force sensitive all along, but this will mean he has less experience to put in other stuff.

I just think you put way too much emphasis on a piece of fluff text. If the character was a young padawan, a child or whatever, he would have been laying low not overtly showing off force powers and skill, or s/he'd be dead by now, or in the Empire's service...