Real Force Users Don't Need Parachutes

By Aservan, in Game Mechanics

So like the title says.

In media a prepared (i.e. not stunned or surprised) Force User is able to fall any distance and come away uninjured. This was particularly common in the TV cartoon Clone Wars. It happens in the movies with Yoda after his fight with Palpatine, or when Obi-Wan and Quigon fall from the ventilation ducts in Phantom Menace (just before they board the transport for the planet).

I'm thinking this is simply part of the Enhance power. Specifically the upgrade that lets you jump vertically. A jedi falls until they are in range of "jumping" at the ground.

Does this sound like a reasonable interpretation to folks?

Both of your examples are falls of short range (several meters) or, at the outside, medium range (several dozen meters). That's only one ranged upgrade needed, so one force die is needed to get that: One pip to do the action, and one more for the upgrade to medium range.

-EF

Well, the cartoon examples are more extreme. In one they fall what looks like a mile or so onto a floating base containing a dismantled R2. In another they leap off a 50 meter wall. Each time the clones jumping with them need either TK or jump packs to survive.

Well, "a mile or so" sounds more like extreme range, so that's not going to work with the rules as-is. However, 50 metres could be considered medium range (several dozen metres, 4 dozen metres is 48, so what's 2 more metres between friends, right?).

Heck, if your GM thinks that 50m is medium range, you're still jumping to short, so you're technically only falling 1 range band—shot, so a quick Athletics check (modified by your Enhance power, of course!) will allow you to soak some of the damage from falling. But if there are handholds or something, you can easily reduce the range fallen by 1, so that goes from short to engaged! So no damage from the fall.

Of course, you could actually just use the Move power to move yourself that range instead of jumping :P

-EF

It looks like FFG is trying to stick a bit closer to the what we see in the movies as opposed to what's been seen in the various Clone Wars series. As much as I enjoy watching the 2D version that was released prior to Revenge of the Sith, I really wouldn't want to play a non-Jedi if the Jedi PCs had access to that kind of power. The Clone Wars 3D series was a bit better in that respect, but it was also more about the elite of the Jedi, the type that blew the bell curve for everyone else.

With Enhance and Force Leap, bear in mind the Range Upgrade can be activated multiple times. Since most of the Jedi we saw during the Prequel Era were at least Force Rating 3 (Ahsoka possibly started at 2), being able to rack up enough Light Side points to activate the Range Upgrade a couple more times (once to extend the range to Medium, a second time to extend the range to Long, and the last to extend the range to Extreme) isn't that much of a problem, particularly if they haven't committed Force dice to multiple Ongoing Effects. For Anakin's little stunt in AotC, he probably rolled 3 Force Dice, and scored so many Light Side points that the GM just let him get away with it. Yoda was shaken and roughed up a bit from his fall, but the GM probably let him make an Athletics check to reduce the falling damage, and with the Enhance power and quite a few Force dice to roll, he probably generated a bunch of successes so that he didn't break anything when he landed, possibly from rolling a Triumph to cut the distance down one category.

With Enhance and Force Leap, bear in mind the Range Upgrade can be activated multiple times.

Actually, no. Page 198 says, " The Force user may not avtivate this multiple times. " I thought that at first, but it doesn't work.

-EF

Edited by EldritchFire

I think folks are misunderstanding me. I think you can activate the power while you are falling. The idea is you jump out and let gravity do its thing. When the ground is in range you "leap" to it.

There is nothing in the power that says you have to be standing to do it. It's not really a jump it's more of a telekinetic acceleration.

With Enhance and Force Leap, bear in mind the Range Upgrade can be activated multiple times.

Actually, no. Page 198 says, " The Force user may not avtivate this multiple times. " I thought that at first, but it doesn't work.

-EF

I looked at it quick, and saw a lot of the same wording that you see in other Upgrades that allow them to be activated multiple times and having to make sure you have enough Force Points to activate the basic power too.

I think folks are misunderstanding me. I think you can activate the power while you are falling. The idea is you jump out and let gravity do its thing. When the ground is in range you "leap" to it.

There is nothing in the power that says you have to be standing to do it. It's not really a jump it's more of a telekinetic acceleration.

I would require the character have hit footings to do a leap. It could not be done mid-fall or while prone.

As for it being 'telekinetic acceleration', I'm going to disagree. Force Leap is part of Enhance, not Move.

The Clone Wars 3D series was a bit better in that respect, but it was also more about the elite of the Jedi, the type that blew the bell curve for everyone else.

This is something that bears keeping in mind... even if we look back at the prequels (specifically Attack of the Clones) for a look at "Jedi power levels" versus what's depicted in the original trilogy (exclusively Luke, Vader and Palpatine), apparently the Jedi casualties at Geonosis were something like six out of seven , the Jedi VIPs that we think of were among the few survivors... and I'm pretty sure that Episode III also mainly featured the "highest of the high" (that is, the highest end besides the "elite four" of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda)... and of course, even for them, Order 66 happened. :P

Well, THE CARTOON EXAMPLES ARE MORE EXTREME. In one they fall what looks like a mile or so onto a floating base containing a dismantled R2. In another they leap off a 50 meter wall. Each time the clones jumping with them need either TK or jump packs to survive.

I capitalized the important part here. Take the cartoons as serials of what REALLY happened. Our realworld heroes often do things in movies based on their lives that are highly exaggerated over what actually occurred.

With Enhance and Force Leap, bear in mind the Range Upgrade can be activated multiple times.

Actually, no. Page 198 says, " The Force user may not avtivate this multiple times. " I thought that at first, but it doesn't work.

-EF

I looked at it quick, and saw a lot of the same wording that you see in other Upgrades that allow them to be activated multiple times and having to make sure you have enough Force Points to activate the basic power too.

No worries, it's hard to keep straight which powers have upgrades that can be activated multiple times and which don't. I only double checked because I wasn't sure, and it was germain to the discussion.

After reading my post again, it looks to contain snark that I didn't intend. It was the end of my shift, and I was going home for the day, so I was a bit rushed. Sorry if it came off as harsh >_<

-EF

Well, THE CARTOON EXAMPLES ARE MORE EXTREME. In one they fall what looks like a mile or so onto a floating base containing a dismantled R2. In another they leap off a 50 meter wall. Each time the clones jumping with them need either TK or jump packs to survive.

I capitalized the important part here. Take the cartoons as serials of what REALLY happened. Our realworld heroes often do things in movies based on their lives that are highly exaggerated over what actually occurred.

I think I recall reading that the 2D Clone Wars series was an in-universe serial created by that kid on Dantooine, who being a big fan of the Jedi, made them "larger than life heroes," particularly Mace Windu. Kinda like the framing story of the movie 300, with Delios going around to various Greek campfires and telling the story of the Battle of Thermopoly, with the story "growing in the telling" each time he told it, adding more embellishment as he went.

So the 2D Clone Wars series is not anymore "canon" as far as "indicative of prequel-era Jedi power levels" and was retconned to being an in-universe story? I mean, obviously the movies are highest canon, but still... interesting .

Reminds me of the Jedi Prince book series apparently (thanks to that one Polyhedron 103 article having been accepted-in-lieu-of-subsequent-retcons-to-the-contrary) being Leia's "bedtime story retelling" of what actually happened. :P

Edited by Chortles

I would require the character have hit footings to do a leap. It could not be done mid-fall or while prone.

As for it being 'telekinetic acceleration', I'm going to disagree. Force Leap is part of Enhance, not Move.

So?

Enhance is a form of self-telekinetics. It's the only way to explain the stuff we see in the movies. I don't want to go all physics, because it's not really useful. Trust me that there is no way to "make yourself stronger" and leap like that. There are traction issues, acceleration issues, damage to surface issues, etc.

Reaction-less magic acceleration is the least damaging way to accomplish this. I push my limbs to make my self more agile. I push them to make them hit harder. I lift myself to jump farther and faster. This is much simpler than the force-juicing explanation.

They are two separate powers because they functionally different not because the root causes are different.

It should be noted that the Force Jump technique is categorized under the Alter aspect, suggesting that it shares something in common with other telekinetic abilities.

What pages did the Alter/Control/Sense talk rear up its ugly head on?

No ugly head. I'm not sure what you're saying here; I was just making the point that there's some connectedness.

No ugly head. I'm not sure what you're saying here; I was just making the point that there's some connectedness.

Whew, here I was worried that the unholy trinity of Alter, Control, Sense (as opposed to the existing specializations and individual powers as just that, individual powers) had been mechanically canonized...

yeah, interpreting the Move power as the only means of telekinesis is, I think, an unfortunate byproduct of an absolutist approach to the 3 Aspects.

The slow fall ability wasn't just in Clone Wars. Anakin did it in the "Attack of the Clones" while they were chasing the changeling.

In both clone wars and rebels I've seen them push out with there hands right before they hit the ground. To me that looks like they were activating the push power.