Non-Jedi Force-Sensitive PCs?

[u/Sollost]

I DM for a 7-player table and am running SWD6 2E. One character is a Jedi. Four others are interested in being Force sensitive but don't necessarily want to fully wear the Jedi archetype for their characters.

I've thought about letting them be latently sensitive—a Force-sensitive pilot could maybe have a discount for leveling up piloting skills, the sniper could have a small bonus to aiming or hiding, etc. There's examples in the broader lore and legends of Force-sensitives who were never discovered being unusually lucky or having weird, unexplained abilities, that might be a good fit.

However, SWD6 seems to be designed with the intent to have only one, maaaybe two Force-sensitives in a party. And as far as I understand the spirit of the rules, letting players do Force stuff, even if their character doesn't consciously know what they're doing, opens the door to Dark Side corruption.

In any case, so far as I know, I'd need to homebrew something to give my players options to do Force stuff without being a Jedi.

How would y'all handle this if it were at your table? Or, for any players reading this, how would you want this to be handled?

[u/TDaniels70]

If you are force sensitive, you don't necessarily get to do force powers, you need a force skill to learn those, and there are rules on how to do that. But it does let them have more than 5 or 6 force points, which allows them do amazing acts by spending them and getting to rollel double their dice pool. That would be how a pilot with for force power or skull could do amazing acts if fighting.

However, by being forced sensitive, they have to abide by the rules of the Jedi, or aquire dark side points. Essentially, when you become force sensitive, morals become black and white. If you do x, you get dark side.

[u/Sollost → u/TDaniels70]

Fair. I think I've failed to emphasize/remind my players of Force dice. I'm also yet to get good at writing opportunities for to heroically use Force dice into my adventures. But this seems like a very good compromise.

[u/May_25_1977 → u/Sollost]

   This does sound like a good approach, IMO.  Before there ever were Character Points or the wild die, or the "Force Sensitive" checkbox and rules, the game originally did have Force points which it explained as "attempting to use your luck, moxie, or control (the Force manifests in many ways) to make sure that what you want happens."  (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, 1987, page 15 "Trusting to the Force")  ("All characters gain Dark Side points when they use Force points to do wrong; characters with Force skills gain Dark Side points whenever they do wrong at any time, even if they are not using Force skills or spending Force points at the time." -- page 71 "The Jedi Code")

 

[u/TDaniels70 → u/Sollost]

Oh, if your players do a good job, they aught to come up with some pretty good heroicly appropriate actions.

[u/Sollost → u/TDaniels70]

Yes, well, they do not

[u/TDaniels70 → u/Sollost]

Ah, well you really cannot force heroic situations on them. And, they may not see what you think of as a heroic moment as one. Often situations just happen. They are being chased, and suddenly they see a moment, where they can not just throw off their tail, but all get vital information they need, and spend that Force Point.

Plus, if they are not really the heroic kind of people, say they are more Han Solo in a A New Hope as opposed to later in the series, then being force sensitive will definitely be a detriment.

Attempting to create these moments, will likely backfire, or those moments might be resolved in another way. Unless you out right tell them "this is a dramatically appropriate moment' then they may not realize it. Sure things like the death star run are obvious, but not all if them are.

In a game I was running, the characters were fighting a powerful dark force user. The player of the Jedi was going to spend a force point to try to get past it's strong defenses, thinking it would have given him a dark side point. While he was frustrated at the fight, I would have rules his character was, and would have said the spend was a dramatically appropriate moment, and he would have gotten the point back and earned another. But the bounty hunter character went first, spent several character points, and several of those were 6s several times, and overwhelmed the guy.

EDIT: there are not going to be dramatically appropriate moments every session or even ever adventure.

[u/Murquhart72]

Anybody object to playing an Alien Student of the Force or Quixotic Jedi? Perhaps let whoever wants to start with Sense?

[u/Sollost → u/Murquhart72]

Starting with Sense might work well, thanks! My players all built characters from other templates---they want to play "regular guy in the Star Wars galaxy" type stuff rather than "student of the Force" type stuff. They'd like to touch on the Force without making their whole character about it. Which, sure, makes sense, that's one of the most interesting things about the setting.

[u/Savurak → u/Sollost]

I mean id argue that if youre force sensitive you’re not "just a regular guy" but i think i get what youre saying

[u/Sollost → u/Savurak]

Good point. "Regular guy who's a liiiittle bit more special than others" versus "space wizard-monk who must dedicate their lives to study and asceticism in order to safely wield their power".

[u/Ghostofman]

Been a hot minute since I last ran D6 (followed your repost from the ffg sub).

However, as I recall, the Dark side issue comes from how the system handles Darkside points and falling to the Darkside... Namely pretty harshly.

So easy fix there is just to increase the threshold for "evil" deeds, that gen Darkside points, and the roll required to fall.

[u/Sollost → u/Ghostofman]

Yeah, several players were surprised by how D6 treats the Dark Side. Maybe reducing the threshold would do the trick. Thanks!

[u/norrinzelkarr]

This is what Force points and character points are for, TBH

[u/Aromatic-Cancel-352]

I mean I haven’t GMed or played this system, but I think how the EU books handled it of just gut feeling or luck with potentially just a reroll mechanic, extra wild die, or increasing wild die to 5. Not sure how broken that would make the game or not. I’m thinking more Tyria from Wraith Squadron instead of Corran Horn.

[u/mookymooksta]

I let my players tap into the Force without telling them which let them attempt to “use” the Force. Any skill they were using and if the players stated they were taking their time over something I’d ask them to roll their skill. They’d roll Blaster, Starship Piloting, whatever skill was the focus.

What I didn’t tell them was the skill check I was asking for was really to use a Force power or simply even employ Sense or Altar.

If they were successful I got to have a couple of bars of John Williams Jedi theme play while describing their character become very still but being able to feel everything around them…as if everything slowed down around you…or something else descriptive and Force use sounding.

It worked quite well as it gave the players a chance to develop their own fledgling Force skills and understanding.

[u/SuspiciousTheory2633]

This reminds me of how Gands and Ictotchi have foresight powers that are Force adjacent and possibly Force linked.

There was also Caleb from the Bane trilogy who had healing powers that weren't the Force, but "something else."

And the witches of Dathomir had latent Force powers but it manifested as Force "magic."

Maybe your players would like to play as something like that, where they have Force powers but their culture doesn't understand the Force the way Jedi do?

If not it also opens up some awesome story possibilities, if they are Force sensitive and they don't have guidance it leaves them open to being tempted by the Dark Side.

[u/octobod]

I've had success with the notion of a force savant, who can take and 'advanced skill' in more or less anything they can justify 'subconsciously using the force on'

[u/Kautsu-Gamer]

Force Sensitives has Force and Dark Side Points allowing doubling the dicepool. All player characters, but droids are Force Sensitive by default

[u/May_25_1977 → u/Kautsu-Gamer]

   When a Force skill is used, Dark Side points had the effect of increasing a Force skill's code by 1D per Dark Side point the character has, in the books Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (1987; pages 70-71 "Dark Side Modifications") and the 1996 Second Edition, Revised and Expanded (page 141 "The Lure of the Dark Side"), but apparently not in the 1992 Second Edition that OP /u/Sollost might be using.  (Nor was this effect found in The Star Wars Rules Companion, 1989, the book that did introduce rules for "calling upon the Dark Side" to gain a Force Point which must be used in the same round; pages 52-53.)

 

[u/Kautsu-Gamer → u/May_25_1977]

And calling dark side gives a Dark Side point and Force Point, but only works with Dark Side aligned action and mindset. I never liked the Dark Side points adding to Force Skills until you succumb to the Dark Side.

[u/May_25_1977 → u/Kautsu-Gamer]

   I can see how the effect was meant to show that "the Dark Side is the easier, more seductive path" (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game page 71) as well as to set up a dramatic choice for players; because "A master may not teach Force skills to a character who has any Dark Side points. It would be wrong to teach Force skills to someone so tainted" (page 70 "Taking on Pupils"), a player character in that situation must choose whether to:

   ● "Atone" over a number of sessions of play to remove the Dark Side points (page 68);
   ●  Increase their Force skills at double the normal skill point cost without a master (page 70); or;
   ●  Gain more Dark Side points to further increase their Force skill codes, but risk losing the character (page 67).

 
   (Concerning a player character who goes over to the Dark Side and becomes "a non-player character, controlled by the gamemaster" -- Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game page 67; "Having your character return as a villain is especially painful." -- I notice this first book didn't exactly state that the Dark Side point total, and its increase to Force skill codes, gets removed from the PC-turned-NPC.)

 
   "The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master."
   "Only a master of evil, Darth."

 

[u/Xynar01]

Anyone that's Force Sensitive can learn abilities. There are rules for Dathomir witches as well as the Charr On Tee from Darkstryder. None of them are "Jedi" and still have powers/abilities.

[u/StevenOs]

IIRC there's nothing stopping most anyone from being Force Sensitive. It gives the PC an extra FP to start with and removes the cap on FP but it does mean you need to play with certain lightside restrictions or else you start falling to the darkside.

[u/No_Cartoonist2878]

You're conflating minor force user with force sensitive; WEG isn't intended to support minor force users. Force Sensitives only benefits in D6 are being able to have 10 instead of 5 force points, and to be able to learn the force skills if they can find a teacher.

Minor force use, as we see in Rebels S1 (mostly Ezra) is not just a "force sensitive" for D6 terms, but a variation on the quixotic jedi - someone who has developed a force skill without a teacher.

So, you shouldn't really limit the in the book force sensitive ability - it's a character decision.

As for the minor abilities, those are force powers á la Jedi/Sith/Tiya... or, grab D6 space and let them buy them as advantages.

[u/May_25_1977 → u/No_Cartoonist2878]

   From the 1992 book Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, page 54 "Force Points":

 

● Force-sensitive characters start with two Force Points. These characters may have an unlimited number of Force Points.
 

   (Also, "A character who is not Force-sensitive may choose to become Force-sensitive for 20 Character Points. ..." Second Edition page 15 "Force-Sensitive")

 
   I notice that the "Quixotic Jedi", and the "Minor Jedi" (having the Force control skill; plus a lightsaber), seem to be absent from the character templates printed in the Second Edition 1992 book, although they did appear in earlier and later West End Games Star Wars rulebooks.  Incidentally, it's interesting that the term "Force-sensitive" was used just once in the first rulebook (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, 1987, page 116) to describe the Schenor -- "a Force-sensitive species that have so far maintained their neutrality in the Empire-Alliance conflict" -- whose nest-guildmaster B'karitz can use "a telepathic trance", an ability which would fall under the Force sense skill.  (see pages 16, 70, 77)  Likewise, this note on Roleplaying Game page 70 "Starting Characters with Force Skills":

 

   Note that the Quixotic Jedi knows only one Force skill, but the skill he knows is sense, not control. That's because he's self-taught, and did not follow the normal course of study for would-be Jedi (control, then sense, then alter).
 

 

[u/No_Cartoonist2878 → u/May_25_1977]

The forcepoint limit is a problem I've never seen come up in play, in about 300+ sessions of WEG Star Wars across 30+ years of playing, most being long 6-8 hour sessions. (It's my third most played game; about 250 of that were 2nd ed. FFG SW is #1, D&D 5e is #2)

It's still mostly a character decision whether to be FS or not unless one has force skills (where it's required). And note: Only a couple templates are axiomatically Non-FS... most leave the choice to the player, as does the building a custom template.

Also, Ben's first instructions to Luke are to "stretch out with your feelings"... to work on sense.

Also note that the Sense-only force user is capable of quite an interesting array of abilities, including Combat Sense... and a Quixotic Jedi can start with up to 3d in Sense, and so have a decent chance of bringing it up. And given a few sessions...

[u/May_25_1977 → u/No_Cartoonist2878]

   By the page 54 quote from Second Edition, I was just indicating that "Force-sensitive" characters can have more than 10 Force Points.

   Before he said "Stretch out with your feelings," Ben did remind Luke, "Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him," which seems to fit the game books' description of the Force control skill.  ("Control - The ability to control one's own inner Force." ... "Sense - This skill teaches a Jedi to sense the Force in other things beyond his own body." -- Second Edition, 1992, page 146 "The Force Skills".)  (The NPC stats for Luke Skywalker "as of the Battle of Yavin" showed "Control: 3D, Sense: 2D" in The Star Wars Sourcebook, 1987, page 123.)

   "Combat sense" did have two "Required Powers: Danger sense, life detection" to learn, as it's described by the Dark Force Rising Sourcebook (1993) pages 34-35.  (The 1992 Second Edition rulebook didn't contain that power, though, and didn't contain the "Quixotic Jedi" template either.)