You don't touch sword blades most of the time you use them either. It is lighter, but nothing a few practice swings couldn't get you used to. I see no reason why at least a little melee or lightsaber skill should transfer between them.

Actually, many sword techniques do use hand on blade, especially those for European 2-handed swords. Then again, most European swords weren't particularly sharp, either - they work by concentration of force, like an axe, rather than by sharp-cutting. Rapiers and Smallswords, however, tended to be sharpened near the tips. Plus, many swords were single or one-and-a-half edged. (The latter having two edges, but one side only half the blade length.)

Plus, many swordsmen are trained to be slapping opposing blades if their shield is absent or disabled; it's quite a viable technique for making your opponent's swing hit something other than you.

And for comparison, most SCA Heavies have a bit of a roguh time transitioning to Rapier - the rapier is about half the weight and half again the length, and the abrupt change makes them clumsy with it for weeks. And those are both melee weapons. (They learn the footwork faster, tho'. And already have the needed awareness of opponent.) It's not an impossible task for them to transition, but it isn't a "just a few swings"...

And the Lightsaber is much further difference.

I'm not sure I agree that Agility would be used for a lightsaber. You use melee for a knife and that's not much heavier. Is that an official stance?

Can we all agree that lightsabers are super cool?

Lightsabers are super cool until you put a dozen on them on screen at the same time and then somehow they're more boring than blasters.

Completely disagree with that, though.

The reason that was done, not allow Melee to be used (even partially) with a lightsaber was probably a balance factor given how powerful a lightsaber already is. Now figure that since you'd be allowing the most potent melee weapon in the game to be used with Melee, that opens up every talent that functions off of a Melee roll, such as Ferocious Strength (adds damage on Brawn and Melee rolls) and Knockdown, just to name a couple. Yes, you could extend the house-rule to exclude those various talents, but you're making more work for yourself by house-ruling your house-rule.

Alternatively, if you want a character's Melee ranks to play a roll in a character's proficiency with a lightsaber, allow them to purchase the Lightsaber skill at the career cost rank, but only up to the character's ranks in Melee. So a character with Melee 2 could buy up to two ranks of Lightsaber at the career skill cost (or 15 XP), but would have to pay 20 XP for that third rank of Lightsaber, since it exceeds their Melee skill.

Honestly, I'd probably let them apply Ferocious Strength and stuff to their lightsaber, BUT only if they decided to use Brawn for their Lightsaber skill, not Agility. It would make sense with more powerful heavy handed combat styles. I know it could be a balance issue, but most balance issues can be resolved by giving the other party members equally badass things and making them tackle harder challenges! .

That is another interesting idea, though, with the career cost if you have melee ranks. I may consider doing that instead if I think about it.

Actually, many sword techniques do use hand on blade, especially those for European 2-handed swords. Then again, most European swords weren't particularly sharp, either - they work by concentration of force, like an axe, rather than by sharp-cutting. Rapiers and Smallswords, however, tended to be sharpened near the tips. Plus, many swords were single or one-and-a-half edged. (The latter having two edges, but one side only half the blade length.)

Plus, many swordsmen are trained to be slapping opposing blades if their shield is absent or disabled; it's quite a viable technique for making your opponent's swing hit something other than you.

And for comparison, most SCA Heavies have a bit of a roguh time transitioning to Rapier - the rapier is about half the weight and half again the length, and the abrupt change makes them clumsy with it for weeks. And those are both melee weapons. (They learn the footwork faster, tho'. And already have the needed awareness of opponent.) It's not an impossible task for them to transition, but it isn't a "just a few swings"...

And the Lightsaber is much further difference.

Oh totally. I completely understand that the weapon is drastically different. That's why, even with 5 ranks in Melee, I would only let them count as having two ranks in lightsaber. But if you have 5 ranks in melee, then you're a weapon's expert that has spend most of your life honing your skills and you're deadly with just about anything you pick up. I think letting them count as having two skill with a lightsaber from that makes sense, since even if it isn't a vibrosword, it is close enough that some of your fundamental skills can be used still.

Yea, in the book (not sure what page) they say that you can use lightsabers untrained with your Brawn or Agility. That would imply that the skill, if custom made, would be able to be keyed to one or the other.

Also, it seems to be a general homebrew idea that people could use one-handed, 1 encumbrance value melee weapons with Agility and Melee instead of Brawn if they wanted, so a vibroknife could be used with more finesse than with brute strength, given its size and how you could definitely use it.

I'm not sure I agree that Agility would be used for a lightsaber. You use melee for a knife and that's not much heavier. Is that an official stance?

from wookepedia: Those who used Form IV could move at high speeds and could rain strong blows, jumping and attacking through the air. Powerful and quick spinning attacks could be utilized from all angles, either from ground or air. A master in Ataru combat could appear like a blur to their opponents, attacking from all directions—the front, the sides, overhead, or behind. The Force not only allowed them to perform athletic feats not possible otherwise, but it also helped guide their actions and movements in combat

sounds like agility to me

another form: Form V required a higher level of physical strength than the other lightsaber forms, due to its focus on complete domination of its practitioners' opponents.^[1] It was considered the most physically demanding of all the forms.^[11]

sounds like strength to me

A Form VII practitioner was said to maintain a calm exterior appearance, but they were also stated to experience significant internal pressure, while using the Ferocity Form.^[11] In addition, it was described as sometimes paradoxical and unpredictable

for this one im focusing on the words "paradoxical and unpredictable" for my interpretation, but i interpret that to mean you use cunning as well as force sensitivity to work this form. i would understand if guys said it sounds like you use willpower in this form. but whatever. im just saying it sounds like different forms use different abilities to function is all im saying.

For my group that I have started GMing for, we have agreed to avoid force sensitive characters for EotE, focussing on the Black Sun angle. The idea is that we are using a few of the pre-made scenarios at first to get to grips with the rules and the post Episode 4 setting.

After a few more sessions I will move them on to a custom campaign and I have considered using the forsaken jedi as one of the end bosses to a string of missions given to them from an Imperial Officer trying to gain favour with his superiors. Finding and killing a jedi and presenting the light sabre as proof of their victory.

Of course, in Empire Strikes back, Han Solo (who I believe that even in expanded universe is never a Jedi) is shown using the light sabre to slice open a Tauntaun. Of course, it helps that the creature wasn't a moving target and was already dead making the cut a lot easier than it would have been for Han to use it in combat.

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.

Father of the year

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").

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.

Well, when using a lightsaber, a Wookie would almost certainly prefer to use Brawn, while a Bothan would very likely prefer to use Agility. There will be exceptions to that general rule, of course, but it probably won't change for a given character after they make that initial choice.

Rather than be punitive to players who want to do things that the GM doesn't want them to do, why not just not introduce any Lightsabers in the first place?

It seems like people are trying to solve a problem that they themselves would have to create.

I have had situations where the party have dealt with a force user (Jedi/Sith) as part of the story which meant that a Lightsaber will have hit the deck. And in an Old Republic game I ran a Soldier was determined to keep the weapon. Also, it is less to do with the players doing something I don't want them to do and more to do with my thoughts as to what should happen if a non force user gets hold of one and tries to use it.

E

My prior character (just died in epic fashion) in our Saga game would have fought hard to keep a found lightsaber. Not because it's an awesome weapon, but because it's an incredibly useful *tool*. It's faster, and more precise, than a plasma torch when it comes to cutting through bulkheads and the like, and is *very* useful to a mechanic for exactly that reason.

If it works for you then fantastic. My thoughts were more based around the weightless nature of a lightsaber.

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.

Well, I guarantee you that since Age of Rebellion is going to be a whole new core book, itwill have a whole slew of specializations for Alliance personel. You will have infantry, mounted units, drivers (Snowspeeders), pilots (with perhaps specific fighter specializations [X-Wing is very different from Y-Wing for instance]), leaders, diplomats, spies, etc. So, we can expect a good number of specializations in Force and Destiny. Though, there may be upgraded Colonists who work to rebuild the Republic and Jedi would be it's own class with 3 specializations.

Since Lightsabers are so rare and restricted, I thought it would be interesting to run a campaign where a Force-Sensitive PC stumbles across Luke's Lightsaber on Bespin (if they roll a Triumph at the right time). This all depends if anyone WANTS to be Force-Sensitive in my group.

Since Lightsabers are so rare and restricted, I thought it would be interesting to run a campaign where a Force-Sensitive PC stumbles across Luke's Lightsaber on Bespin (if they roll a Triumph at the right time). This all depends if anyone WANTS to be Force-Sensitive in my group.

If your players are fans of EU, that would probably initiate true AU mode. In EU canon, the lightsaber is found and Darth Vader shows up to get it... So taking the lightsaber is definitely a situation where Vader being introduced is a strong possibility.

Obviously, if that's not what you want the game to be about, they could stumble upon the lightsaber and just have it.

I like to use a simple formula for calculating a players effectiveness with a lightsaber and how they gain the lightsaber skill.

It can be used by force sensitive and non force users alike(since Boba Fett was able to use one).

First I have the player pick brawn or agility as their associated characteristic with the weapon. So say a player chooses brawn. I have them subtract their characteristic score from 6, and they Start with that many black di to their pool.

So brawn 4 with light saber = 2black, 4green, 2purple since its a melee engaged weapon.

However if the player does not take the time to practice with the saber outside of combat, I upgrade both difficulty dice.

That way the danger of using a saber is present, but not so much if they take time to learn the skill.

Which leads me to how they acquire the skill, which is to use the weapon.

Let's start with a force sensitive using one for the first time and its a combat scenario. His pool is 4green, 2black, 2red. He hits with one success and one despair remaining. The hit downgrades one red in his next pools with the light saber. But the despair could mean he dropped it in combat or something. Had he rolled two despair, he may have lost a limb. Non force users need only roll one despair to loose a limb.

Now that he has hit one with his weapon his next pool is= 4green, 2 black, 1red, 1purple. His next hits will remove setback di until they are all gone. Once his pool is= 4green, 1p,1r. He needs only hit one more time to gain the skill Lightsaber.

Had he practiced on junked droids or something no red die would be in play and I would say it takes a certain time to learn the skill.

So .. :

In combat dice pool:

Green= chosen char

Red=2

Black = 6- chosen char

Gaining skill equals number of hits with weapon which is equal to

6-chosen char + 2

Trust me even with brawn or agility 5 your players are going to have to use this weapon a lot more than three times in combat to even unlock the skill lol my player has hit about once a session. It seems to be a fun way to gradually learn how to use the weapon.

Since Lightsabers are so rare and restricted, I thought it would be interesting to run a campaign where a Force-Sensitive PC stumbles across Luke's Lightsaber on Bespin (if they roll a Triumph at the right time). This all depends if anyone WANTS to be Force-Sensitive in my group.

If your players are fans of EU, that would probably initiate true AU mode. In EU canon, the lightsaber is found and Darth Vader shows up to get it... So taking the lightsaber is definitely a situation where Vader being introduced is a strong possibility.

Obviously, if that's not what you want the game to be about, they could stumble upon the lightsaber and just have it.

Actually, without even knowing anything about that, that's exactly what I was going to do. I was going to have the group hired to find something on Bespin, not know what it was until found, and give them a moment of "HECK YEAH LUKE'S LIGHTSABER" before Vader comes to collect it.

I like to use a simple formula for calculating a players effectiveness with a lightsaber and how they gain the lightsaber skill.

It can be used by force sensitive and non force users alike(since Boba Fett was able to use one).

First I have the player pick brawn or agility as their associated characteristic with the weapon. So say a player chooses brawn. I have them subtract their characteristic score from 6, and they Start with that many black di to their pool.

So brawn 4 with light saber = 2black, 4green, 2purple since its a melee engaged weapon.

However if the player does not take the time to practice with the saber outside of combat, I upgrade both difficulty dice.

That way the danger of using a saber is present, but not so much if they take time to learn the skill.

Which leads me to how they acquire the skill, which is to use the weapon.

Let's start with a force sensitive using one for the first time and its a combat scenario. His pool is 4green, 2black, 2red. He hits with one success and one despair remaining. The hit downgrades one red in his next pools with the light saber. But the despair could mean he dropped it in combat or something. Had he rolled two despair, he may have lost a limb. Non force users need only roll one despair to loose a limb.

Now that he has hit one with his weapon his next pool is= 4green, 2 black, 1red, 1purple. His next hits will remove setback di until they are all gone. Once his pool is= 4green, 1p,1r. He needs only hit one more time to gain the skill Lightsaber.

Had he practiced on junked droids or something no red die would be in play and I would say it takes a certain time to learn the skill.

So .. :

In combat dice pool:

Green= chosen char

Red=2

Black = 6- chosen char

Gaining skill equals number of hits with weapon which is equal to

6-chosen char + 2

Trust me even with brawn or agility 5 your players are going to have to use this weapon a lot more than three times in combat to even unlock the skill lol my player has hit about once a session. It seems to be a fun way to gradually learn how to use the weapon.

IMO that is a little absurd for a penalty. At some point you make the weapon far too difficult and dangerous to even attempt to use. Lightsabers are weird to use, but they aren't that hard to swing at people. I mean, come on. How hard is it to not touch the blade, considering you know it is gonna hurt a lot. Do you hit yourself with swords when you swing them? Not unless you suck.

Just don't give them access to the Lightsaber skill unless they find a holocron detailing the ancient lightsaber dueling forms or something.

I think, if i ever will introduce a lightsaber to my group, that i will decrease the base damage to 8 and give force users a base damage bonus. Sith gain cunning+ and jedis gain prescence+. A sith with a cunning of 3 got 11 in base damage with his lightsabre. This represent his attunement with the force. Other than that i will let the player decide what type of style he want and use either brawn or agility to use with the skill lightsabre. Lightsabre will be a non-career skill wich they cannot train above rank 2 until they find a teacher or some kind of holocrons to help them. Further i will also make sure that they wont be able to haste their skill improvment, learning to use a lightsabre the proper way takes time. Maybe they need to spend 50-100 xp between they buy a new rank in lightsabre skill. Further i will always make them roll at least one challenge dice if they are not attuned to the force.

In this way i probably, game-term ways, will discourage non-force users to be a hobby-jedis. However i think my players are smarter than to run around flashing a lightsabre in public while order 66 is ongoing. If not i'll just punish them for their stupidity

IMO that is a little absurd for a penalty. At some point you make the weapon far too difficult and dangerous to even attempt to use. Lightsabers are weird to use, but they aren't that hard to swing at people. I mean, come on. How hard is it to not touch the blade, considering you know it is gonna hurt a lot. Do you hit yourself with swords when you swing them? Not unless you suck.

Just don't give them access to the Lightsaber skill unless they find a holocron detailing the ancient lightsaber dueling forms or something.

I won't argue that I think that level of penalty is absurd, but...

I've done years of bladework in Silat and I have managed to give my self a few small cuts. Many of these tended to be on the opposite forearm when making a crossdraw with a fixed blade.

Can we all agree that lightsabers are super cool?

I can't agree to that!

Actually, I originally felt very sceptical there were 'no jedi' in EoE.

Now I see what FFG were actually trying to do, and the carnage all those glowsticks would cause, I'm very happy not to use them at all in my EoE/AoE games.

I can't agree to that!

Actually, I originally felt very sceptical there were 'no jedi' in EoE.

Now I see what FFG were actually trying to do, and the carnage all those glowsticks would cause, I'm very happy not to use them at all in my EoE/AoE games.

And that's even before you get into narrative, such as this:

Plus of course, the consequences of "what happens if you're found out with a lightsaber", which can very much change the balance of encounters just by putting your players onto certain NPCs' radar...

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.

I had the same talk with one of my players,(10 year old son). He wanted a lightsaber and wanted to be Force Sensitive, I reminded him of the era we are playing in and all the Jedi's are in hiding and/or on the run. I told him if he gets witnessed using it, that info may get back to the imperials and eventually Darth Vader himself. Now if he wants that kind of attention then swing away. He decided to stick with his blaster for now, I forsee as the other books come out and a Jedi adventure comes into play he may pull the old saber out and get some training.

He also wants to get training from Yoda and I had to explain to him, that he would not know who he is as a young character years after Yoda and other Jedi's have already been in hiding for so long.

Have a character that has a lightsaber. They started the game with it.

And they have been trained how to use it.

How do you like that backstory? (OK. All of the details are missing but hey)

In EotE... narrative > lightsaber

There are many details to keep in mind.

1. lightsabers kill.

2. So do blasters. And they do it from FAR away, FAR FAR away, and FAR FAR FAR away with the right attachments and depending on range.

3. When it comes to killing in EotE you are much better off with a blaster by your side.

4. Being trained to use a lightsaber does not include parrying or redirecting blaster bolts. That requires training in the force.

5. There is no one around to train you how to use the force.

6. A lightsaber is part of an ancient and hokey religion that has fallen into myth and legend. Very few would even recognize it as a restricted weapon.

As Han Solo stated:

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

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.

In a podcast the developers say it is it's own skill. To me the can't be sundered part is because the blade is a beam of energy, I would allow the hilt to be sundered however.

I think, if i ever will introduce a lightsaber to my group, that i will decrease the base damage to 8 and give force users a base damage bonus. Sith gain cunning+ and jedis gain prescence+. A sith with a cunning of 3 got 11 in base damage with his lightsabre. This represent his attunement with the force. Other than that i will let the player decide what type of style he want and use either brawn or agility to use with the skill lightsabre. Lightsabre will be a non-career skill wich they cannot train above rank 2 until they find a teacher or some kind of holocrons to help them. Further i will also make sure that they wont be able to haste their skill improvment, learning to use a lightsabre the proper way takes time. Maybe they need to spend 50-100 xp between they buy a new rank in lightsabre skill. Further i will always make them roll at least one challenge dice if they are not attuned to the force.

In this way i probably, game-term ways, will discourage non-force users to be a hobby-jedis. However i think my players are smarter than to run around flashing a lightsabre in public while order 66 is ongoing. If not i'll just punish them for their stupidity

Why bother going to all this trouble the RAW already stats separate light saber skill, no one to train you in the non-class skill so it's straight characteristic. It's like your saying in my game I'll let you have and use light sabers but then make it totally absurd for you to do it, so why offer it. With 50-100 exp spent in BH your 1 light saber skill means I waste you.

You could always let someone find or build a lightsaber after a few adventures to do so but make it limited. It is simply not the quality of a "real lightsaber" cut the stats in half.

The thing is, ryolacap, if someone takes up the whole Tapani setting as part of their game's background canon then the concept you describe already exists in the form of lightfoils, whose construction methodology is not-completely-private-knowledge and reproducible.