So, we know Lightsabers are technically in the game. They are a restricted item, so you can't get them at character creation, and they should be very hard to find during play with a rarity of 10 (!). It's hard to imagine even someone selling one, although I think it's possible.

We know that Lightsabers are powerful weapons (10 damage), and can easily score a Critical Hit (you only need 1 Advantage), They have no Hard Points, which I think is interesting because you would think they would be customizable (although of course such mods aren't available in Edge of the Empire). They have the Breach quality, which will basically mean that soak is useless against lightsabers. They also have Sunder, which means on 2 Advantage you can break an item or a weapon with it. And they have Vicious 2 which means Critical Injuries with a lightsaber are a lot more deadly (+ 20!).

And, finally, they are very expensive, assuming you find some rare merchant who is selling one. A lightsaber will put you back 10,000 credits.

But that's not the final word on lightsabers so far, is it? There's one other really interesting aspect about them.

They are governed by their own skill. The Lightsaber skill. I noticed this first looking through Adversaries, there's a Forsaken Jedi (or some such name) with the Lightsaber skill. Of course it's also listed on the GM screen.

The thing is ... I've been wondering: what Characteristic governs the lightsaber skill?

Brawn? Agility? Willpower even?

To me Agility would make the most sense, as lightsabers don't seem to have a lot of weight to them. On the other hand in the original trilogy, or at least in Episode IV, there was a concept that they were very heavy.

Or will there be some other mechanic for building a Lightsaber dice pool?

And shouldn't they have Hard Points for focusing crystals and all that jazz?

What are your thoughts?

Personally, I'd love to see other ideas on this. I have a player who is definitely wanting to be on the path of jedi with future books and such. I sort of told him at this point, I want to encourage you to play the way you want.

So the deal I cut right now is if he can work his way to that force rank 2 talent, acquire maybe a certain rank of melee skill we can call it good. Only out of not wanting to have to work in new skills at this point in time.

Personally, I'd love to see other ideas on this. I have a player who is definitely wanting to be on the path of jedi with future books and such. I sort of told him at this point, I want to encourage you to play the way you want.

So the deal I cut right now is if he can work his way to that force rank 2 talent, acquire maybe a certain rank of melee skill we can call it good. Only out of not wanting to have to work in new skills at this point in time.

Using the standard character sheet, I suppose Lightsaber would be a custom skill. I wouldn't use Melee for it--the rules definitely indicate it is it's own skill.

Of course you can do whatever you like as the GM

Oh yeah no definitely it is it's own skill. I just haven't thought of a way to implement it with any particular stat much like you so I just went for the simple way for right now.

But yeah now that I look at the forsaken jedi chart, that is a good question as to how to build the pool for it.

I'm allowing it to be either Brawn OR Agility based, depending on how they use their weapon. If they are using a more heavy-handed fighting style like Darth Vader, I would allow Brawn. If they were using a more acrobatic lightsaber form like Darth Maul, I would allow Agility. Either way, I wouldn't add Brawn to their damage rolls.

I'm also letting anyone take skill points in Lightsaber as a non-career skill if they wish. Certain plot developments might grant Lightsaber use as a career skill, but that will totally depend on if they find something that would do that for them.

I'm also letting people trade Lightsaber and Melee skill ranks for a 50% effectiveness (rounded down). So, if someone had a 2 or 3 in Lightsaber, I would let them count as having a 1 in Melee (unless their melee was higher, in which case they could just use that. Likewise, if they had a 4 or 5 in Melee, I would let them count as if they had a 2 in Lightsaber. I mean, obviously using a lightsaber is much different than using a regular sword, but there's only SO MUCH difference. A master vibroswordsman could very conceivably pick up a lightsaber and do some reliable damage with it, and a seasoned jedi could also feasibly transfer some of their lightsaber skills directly towards using more conventional melee weapons.

How I am doing it:

Light Sabre Skill + Agility.

Mine has no hard points, but has 1 weight available (inside the handle), which can be used to "modify" how it operates (focus crystals, etc.). I also will give the group bonus Obligation (bounty) points if anyone ever sees them with it who has the slightest reason to report them as Jedi, traitors or terrorists (which is nearly everyone), but them's are the breaks for anyone flashing around illegal and hunted goods.

My players don't yet know any of this (well, they might now if they read the forums), but I plan to tempt them with it, when / of they get most of their current obligations paid down.

Yes, it says in the description that the player chooses brawn or agility for the characteristic. Are you a power swinger or do you prefer grace?

I definitely like the idea of using the fighting style to decide which stat this falls on.

I also like the idea of trading ranks but the only thing I would have against the melee/lightsaber conversion is that you'd essentially be letting them get free ranks in the skill. Which could work out ok, but might be unfair to a player who prefers blasters and they look at Ranged(Light)/Ranged(Heavy) as similar situation of how different are these two skills and are you going to reward one player over another?

Yes, it says in the description that the player chooses brawn or agility for the characteristic. Are you a power swinger or do you prefer grace?

Wait, what? It actually mentions this somewhere? Can you give a page reference?

Neverrmind, I found it. Page 167. It says that players use it untrained, and that they can use either Brawn or Agility.

It also says if the GM allows it, you can use Lightsaber as a custom skill and allow your players to gain ranks in it. It also says Lightsabers can't be sundered.

My 7 year old son is playing a Star Wars RPG with me and he wants to play a Jedi with a lightsaber so he will play a Jedi (or as close as this game can get to one) with a lightsaber.

The campaign backstory is that my son's wookiee FSE was trained by a Jedi that survived Order 66. The Jedi is killed by a Trandoshan bounty hunter and the BH steals the lightsaber. The first quest (which they are currtently on) is finding the Trandoshan and getting the lightsaber back. At that point the wookiee will have a lightsaber.

I will be letting him use the melee skill for the lightsaber. Right now he uses a vibroaxe and will probably still use the axe sometimes after he gets the lightsaber so I would like for him to use the same skill for both. There will be time for the lightsaber skill when the other core books get released.

Now I just need to play more. The group is my two sons and they have been busy every night in the past week and the older one is going to camp tomorrow and will be gone almost two weeks. So I may do some solo stuff with the 7 year old while his brother is away.

1. ^^^ best dad evar.

2. Seem obvious they're going to let Lightsaber use Brawn or Agility, whichever is better.

3. I'm hoping they don't do a whole bunch of trees for Jedi. They did a good job with the FSE (and other trees) of giving two distinct paths that blend at the end. Sometimes, less is more. Give us essential mechanic effects so we can flavor it however we like.

I'm fortunate that my group hates the idea of playing jedi. They hated it in the previous SW RPGs also.

I'm guessing it will be some time before any of them even try any force powers.

If any of them started pushing for a lightsaber, I'd throw the old cortosis wild card into the mix and suddenly the enemy is immune to the saber and more resiliant against other attacks also. In other words the introduction of 1 lightsaber will make the combat much harder for everyone when the majority of the high threat enemies suddenly have cortosis weapons and armor.

Can you jury-rig a lightsabre? Would that mean a crit every time?

Nevermind... took my own advice...

Obviously we'll see more in FoD, but I'm actually suprised that no one hase suggested using any of the other stats. i could see using either Willpower or Presence for Force users, maybe even Cunning for darkside acolytes. Depending on what all they do with force users, and i'm expecting a lot of material on them, any of the different chatacteristice could reflect a users chosen style/form of preference.

i kind of like the idea of tying the forms to the characteristics, allowing someone to switch between the forms as needed, but expressing the difficulty of "mastering" more than a few.. Possibably have talents/force powers that benefit from different forms.

how does a rarity of 10 factor into the game? Like, when should you present the possibity of obtaining a lightsaber to the players?

Say one of the players chooses the FSE tree. Eventually, he'll want a lightsaber. Any recommendations for WHEN to present him with the opportunity

RAW. the rarity would make the basic check Formidable (5). Depending on where they are making the check, meaning coreworld, new colony, deserted planet etc. The check can be modified from -2 (meaning Hard) to +4 (meaning WTF?)

You always have the option of saying the technology isn't availabe, but I would probably make this an adventure in its own right, perhaps hearing rumors of a user traveling a dark path, tracking down the "villian" and facing off against a Forsaken Jedi to earn his title? or possibably getting in deep with a Black Sun Vigo to access his "collection" and reclaim the item.

RAW. the rarity would make the basic check Formidable (5). Depending on where they are making the check, meaning coreworld, new colony, deserted planet etc. The check can be modified from -2 (meaning Hard) to +4 (meaning WTF?)

You always have the option of saying the technology isn't availabe, but I would probably make this an adventure in its own right, perhaps hearing rumors of a user traveling a dark path, tracking down the "villian" and facing off against a Forsaken Jedi to earn his title? or possibably getting in deep with a Black Sun Vigo to access his "collection" and reclaim the item.

This is a similar path to what I'll be taking. It's very likely that the item won't even appear at my table during Edge. I also am fortunate that I have a group ready to explore this "chapter" without the usual glowbat fetish dominating the narrative. If one does show up either via a nemesis or artifact collector I'm going to run as RAW as possible for any Force Sensitive dabblers I may end up with. Hopefully they won't cut themselves in half.

how does a rarity of 10 factor into the game? Like, when should you present the possibity of obtaining a lightsaber to the players?

Say one of the players chooses the FSE tree. Eventually, he'll want a lightsaber. Any recommendations for WHEN to present him with the opportunity

Tenrousei answered this, but to be more specific to what I think you are asking: you make checks to find merchants who are selling the items you are looking for. Usually Negotiation checks, although sometimes an appropriate Knowledge check is used instead. A rarity value of 10 is the rarest it gets.

See the chart on page 150.

Obviously we'll see more in FoD, but I'm actually suprised that no one hase suggested using any of the other stats.

I'd rather they keep it to the physical ones for the skill proper. Will gets enough love in the Force, but I could see talents giving a benefit based on another rating (e.g.: "cunning warrior").

how does a rarity of 10 factor into the game?

It is the greatest possible MacGuffin one could have in a SW game. Player with a FSE will walk through molten lava bearing an untammed bantha on his shoulders just to get one. Surely a wiley GM could put that to some use...

My two cents: I would not allow another skill to substitute for Lightsaber. Skills are relatively cheap (once available), and they do provide access to getting 'triumphs'. Access to the Lightsaber skill should be a quest in itself (especially in this setting). They should have to sweat (sacrifice) something to gain it (more than XP that is).

I would however upgrade the difficulty once if an unskilled user was confronting a skilled one. Opponents skilled in a particular weapon are very deft at taking advantage of those untrained.

;-j

I would employ the use of some kind of education to get the skill. Like a Holocron, a PC could find one and inside it has knowledge to how to propely use a Lightsaber.

But that holocron could only give be the basics of it, so the PC can't get over 1 or 2 ranks.

To get higher he would have to seek another source of knowledge concerning Lighsabers. Another Holocron maybe, or a real master etc...

If you wanted to really inspire fear in the unskilled wielder (and give everyone else a concrete reason not to borrow it), just upgrade 1 difficulty die on every unskilled attack: Despair = you hit yourself. That'll put the kabosh on casual saber usage real quick!

Obviously we'll see more in FoD, but I'm actually suprised that no one hase suggested using any of the other stats.

I'd rather they keep it to the physical ones for the skill proper. Will gets enough love in the Force, but I could see talents giving a benefit based on another rating (e.g.: "cunning warrior").

And for balance issues, they just might. Maybe some of these mysterious "advanced Talents" talked of in the explorers book?

I'd be more inclined to go with Agility over brawn, given a sabers flat damage. Yoda didn't look particularly physically strong, but a better spider-monkey fighter I've never seen.

How about cunning representing a style that favors deception, or Presence a style that is very flashy, intelligence a style as calculated as the individual who uses it?

Something to play around with.

how does a rarity of 10 factor into the game? Like, when should you present the possibity of obtaining a lightsaber to the players?

Say one of the players chooses the FSE tree. Eventually, he'll want a lightsaber. Any recommendations for WHEN to present him with the opportunity

Have some random old man in a desert just hand him one in your first session.

Hey, it worked for George Lucas...