In the Star Wars galaxy, there has always been places and items that were particularly strong in either the light or the dark side of the Force. It's been suggested a few times that this makes drawing on the Force easier or harder in such places, depending on your alignment.

Would this be a purely descriptive thing, to help justify poor or good Force Dice results? Or do you think that there should be an effect, minor or otherwise, to help simulate this?

Another, somewhat related question: does anyone else require a Sensitive character to find either a teacher or holocron before learning new Powers, or do they simply allow them to buy into a new Power tree as long as the XP is spent?

Awesome questions.

Personally, I usually just narrate that place 'X' is "Strong in the <Dark|Light> Side of the force". If I wanted to put a mechanical affect on it, here are a few suggestions I might use in my own games:

1) grant boost or setback die to discipline checks made to activate certain force powers. Or just a blanket boost/die to all checks to force-sensitives while in the area.

2) If it was super strong in the dark/light side, I might also temporarily reverse the rules for converting dark side pips to light side pips (As if they were a force user of the opposing side), bit still flipping the lightside destiny point to do convert.

There are the only rules I could think of that aren't as easy to exploit as some others I thought of.

If a place is "strong in the Force", I wouldn't have a problem giving the PC an extra Force die if it makes sense in the story. If a place is strong in the dark side, roll that die separately and all pips are considered "dark side", requiring strain to use.

I don't think the Force Exile powers are significant enough to warrant requiring a teacher or holocron. We'll have to see what's offered in F&D...

I've actually been cobbling together my thoughts for a treasure hunting campaign and was planning to drop a few Force trinkets through the story.

I'd definitely limit their utility or attach costs to them, so that they don't add a permanent boost to a Force user's abilities.

One such item I was considering was an amulet that emitted a small amount of Dark Side energy that might cancel out the Light Side energies of a Force-sensitive, essentially hiding her from Force Sense. On the flip side, if she ever tapped into the Dark Side, the amulet would send out a ripple that would likely be felt by any Force Sensitive in the vicinity. Plus, this being a Dark Side item, there would be some kind of dark temptation involved. I've considered attaching an Addiction Obligation, but haven't made up my mind yet.

With regard to your new Force Powers question, I'd stick to just the mechanical XP expenditure. The players can then be free to RP whatever learning method they used to get there (instinct, teacher, holocron, etc.).

Another, somewhat related question: does anyone else require a Sensitive character to find either a teacher or holocron before learning new Powers, or do they simply allow them to buy into a new Power tree as long as the XP is spent?

Sorry, I intended to answer this question but as I was typing my previous answers, I forgot.

I agree with Spjork and Whafrog, I wouldn't worry about needing a master or holocron to unlock force powers. Ideally, force powers would be something the force sensitive discovers on his journey. The more he or she focuses on his or her gift, the more potential they unlock.

We have a Force Sensitive: Emergent in my game, and this character was trained by a Jedi Padawan that escaped 66. So all the force powers he will be purchasing is stuff that was taught to him by this mentor, but he is just now finally figuring out how to use.

However, a holocron can also be an awesome GM tool, and can help direct the plot should you need. Do not underestimate the power of the Plot Device.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

Why can't droids use the force?

Because the uncanny valley of the Jedi.

This will probably be something discussed in detail in the upcoming Force & Destiny rulebook.

As for handling "places of power," I'd suggest keeping the appearance of such places in your campaign to a minimum. If anything, places aligned with the dark side of the Force seem to occur more often than places that are aligned with the light or are otherwise neutral. Which makes sense as the sudden and violent death of powerful Force-user isn't conducive to creating an "echo" that jives with peace and serenity.

As for game effects... I'd be hesitant to just say "roll an extra Force die," as each Force die rolled imparts a much greater chance of success when activating Force powers, particularly once a character is rolling 3 or more dice. At most, I'd say maybe allow the Force-user to re-roll a single Force die, which itself is a pretty hefty benefit. Or, a free Force Point of a type that jives with the nature of the site; a dark side place of power (like the tree-cave on Dagobah) would provide an extra Dark Side Force Point, while the nexus that the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was built upon (particularly prior to Order 66 and the Jedi Purge) would provide an extra Light Side Force Point.

As for learning new powers... I'd say it's a case by case basis. If the player has provided some element in their backstory that their character has been exposed to or had the basic concepts of a given power explained to them, then I wouldn't require them to find a teacher (or equivalent) once the game's started if they wanted to learn that power. Some powers I figure would come more easily to a Force-user, such as Sense or Enhance, without needing direct instruction, while others (like Move and Foresee) might require the Force-user to at least have someone instruct them in the basics.

Good ideas all.

a free Force Point of a type that jives with the nature of the site

This was going to be my suggestion, and now it is.

Mind you we've not actually played Jedi yet, so this is all conjecture based on reading the rules - I would probably go with the player needing some kind of Source of Knowledge before letting them get new powers. Raise the old ones you have all you want, but to get new ones - gotta have a teacher, kid.

But then I come from the WEG school of Jedi, where you have to monitor that Jedi advancement pony VERY closely or it'll quickly overpower your game.

But then I come from the WEG school of Jedi, where you have to monitor that Jedi advancement pony VERY closely or it'll quickly overpower your game.

I think FFG has managed to avoid some of that, as each power is effectively it's own skill, and getting just the basic power doesn't give you a major power-up. The fact that Force-users in this game need to sink a bunch of XP not only into beefing up their individual powers, but also in moving along their Force-sensitive spec tree to reach the Force Rating talent helps cut down on the amount of monitoring required.

I'm playing a Force-user in a Skype game currently, and it's interesting to see the other PCs becoming far more capable in their skills and talents, where my XP is being sunk mostly into talents so that I can get my Force Rating up to 2, with a few XP here and there into bolstering the Sense power (went the control upgrade route) while leaving Move alone (and thus at the "neat party trick" level) until after I boost up my Force Rating.

Saga Edition had a similar problem with Force-users, due primarily to Force usage being tied to a single skill, not too unlike D6 and only using three skills for Force powers, and really only needing about 5D in each of them to become an effective Force-user since at that point, you'd be able to reliably activate any Force power you had barring a really crummy roll.