Star Wars Force powers Divine Favor

[mehrkat]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about tackling Star Wars Force powers with a very similar style to the ones found in Star Wars D6.

The powers will be split like D6 did
Control
Sense
and
Alter
and maybe another split or two.

You will have to buy all three if you want the most flexibility. You will have to follow the code of the light or the dark to get your powers and for basic effects you roll like Divine Favor.

You can then buy specialized affects within each area that are easier to accomplish.

However, before I stat all this up I thought I would see if someone else had the same inspiration. If not I will post it as I go.

[starslayer]

Force powers as divine favour seems interesting, but I don't think anyone has done it before.

The reason I would state as why is the same reason why I am unsure its the right approach: Force powers were reliable most of the time, and conformed more to the 'limited power with super effort' for the rest of the time.

Darth Vader never had problems choking someone out with the force.

Luke never had trouble snapping his lightsaber to hand.

Luke may have used super-effort, or a power stunt, on his precognition to aim the torpedo that blows up the first death star.

Yoda may have used super-effort when he lifted the X-wing out of the swamp (or Yoda might be able to casually throw about X-wings if he was in a bad mood).

[PK]

I have to agree with SS. In my opinion, "Force powers" are one of the archetypes of science-fiction psionics. In fact, I've lost count of how many times I've heard a gaming newbie ask, "What does 'psionics' mean?" and had someone respond, "They're basically force powers -- y'know, picking things up with your mind, reading minds, controlling minds, that sort of thing."

If you want to model this as Divine Favor, I'll definitely be interested in seeing what you come up with -- but I'm afraid I have no advice for doing so, as I honestly don't think DF is the way to do this.

[Dragondog]

I've considered using Divine Favor for Force Powers myself, but never gotten around to it. One of the things I like about it is that the Jedi, if he doesn't have a certain power as a learned prayer, can use a general or a specific prayer instead. Which I find to be very much in line with what we see in the movies.

I wouldn't split the Force up though. I'd use one Divine Favor advantage and learned prayers as specific force powers.

And though effects "may be withheld or revoked at any time", that is up to the GM and depending on the GM may work just fine.

I don't have any of the Psionic books for 4e, so I don't know the details of that implementation. But implementing the Force with DF doesn't seem like a problem to me. I would personally not use it to implement psionics in general though. For while the Force gives a Jedi their power, psionics in general comes from within.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by PK

I have to agree with SS. In my opinion, "Force powers" are one of the archetypes of science-fiction psionics. In fact, I've lost count of how many times I've heard a gaming newbie ask, "What does 'psionics' mean?" and had someone respond, "They're basically force powers -- y'know, picking things up with your mind, reading minds, controlling minds, that sort of thing."

If you want to model this as Divine Favor, I'll definitely be interested in seeing what you come up with -- but I'm afraid I have no advice for doing so, as I honestly don't think DF is the way to do this.

Were I do to it, I think Learned Prayers only is the way to go for most abiliites. Very powerful users could borrow Antoni's use of Compartmentalized Mind to have more than one force power going at once.

[Gnome]

For my star wars games, I separated Force Sense from Force Manipulation. Any ability in one category could be bought as an alternative ability of another ability in the same category. The quintessential Force Sense ability is Precognition (I required starting Jedi to buy Danger Sense at least), while the quintessential Force Manipulation ability is Telekinesis (all Jedi start with at least one level).

I used a single Talent to cover all uses of the force. I made it a 20 point talent that covered the force power as well as:
Autohypnosis, Blind Fighting, Body Control, Breath Control, Esoteric Medicine (Force), Force Sword, Flying Leap, Hypnotic Hands, Light Walk, Mental Strength, Mind Block, Power Blow, Precognitive Parry, and Push.

I created a bunch of templates and character creation guidelines for my game as well the Force power; PM me and I'll gladly send you the .pdf.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Were I do to it, I think Learned Prayers only is the way to go for most abiliites. Very powerful users could borrow Antoni's use of Compartmentalized Mind to have more than one force power going at once.

Except Learned Prayers are all Alternate Abilities of Divine Favor, so you can't use more than one at a time. Unless I've missed some (officially sanctioned?) fudge allowing the use of Compartmentalized Mind to bypass the Alternate Abilities one at a time limitation?

[mehrkat]

My idea is to use mostly learned abilities but allow a force user to occasionally "call on the force" in a more general sense.

My beginning thoughts are as follows.

I will mine this website for learned abilities.
http://www.lostknightsrpg.org/wiki/i...R:Force_Powers

The "areas of power" are:

1- Control
Use of the Force to master ones own self and ones own body.

2 - Sense
The expansion of your perceptions into the universe.

3 - Alter
Your connection to the universe and the force is so vast that it allows you to manipulate and alter the world outside yourself.

4 - Aether
Your connection to the universe had become so vast that it allows you to step outside of the universe and back in allowing several interesting affects

Each power comes in level 4 through 16. This is the die roll used to access the power when you are simply reaching out into the universe and enhancing your connection to it. However, most of the time students of the force perfect multiple trained techniques within this that are much more dependable.

[mehrkat]

To answer some of the questions raised.

More powerful force users or force users that use the same ability over and over tend to move the power out of the alternative ability and allows you to use more than one ability at a time.

Also some abilities require levels in multiple abilities (heal others is one example requiring both control and alter) from the Star Wars D6 philosophy. These abilities must meet the minimum of both abilities.

Disadvantage: Must meet minimum level for both. Advantage may select which ability is shut down when using.

[PK]

Originally Posted by SCAR

Except Learned Prayers are all Alternate Abilities of Divine Favor, so you can't use more than one at a time. Unless I've missed some (officially sanctioned?) fudge allowing the use of Compartmentalized Mind to bypass the Alternate Abilities one at a time limitation?

For DF, it's simplest just to rule that different comparments can have different AA configurations going on at once. Think of it as mental Duplication. Antoni Ten Monros came up with an elegant CM build in his Saintly Power-Ups article specifically for this.