Star Wars: Light of the Cauldron

[Talosian]

I am interested in playing, but I do have some questions (especially about the Force).

I admit that I'm a bit surprised to see a magic system used instead of the Psionic Powers system (since that really does cover things quite nicely). Would it be correct to assume that this is tied to your intended treatment of the Force? (Meaning: More like the mystical tone of the originals than the "scientific" treatment of the prequels.)

As for the technical bits of the syntactic magic system, it's a bit strange (in Star Wars) to have telekinetic movement split by target, though this shouldn't matter much (assuming that things like force push could also be accomplished with Create Energy). I assume that inappropriate uses/results (Create Animal, for starters, as well as durations on lifted objects...) are by default prohibited from general use? What is the Cost/Casting Time of Self? (If using Move Self for Force Jump, then casting time would presumably be fairly low...) I assume that Energy Reserve is allowed and encouraged?

Does Engineer (Lightsaber) still have Mathematics (Applied) as a prerequisite? I'm guessing that there's some form of exemption here, as I never had the impression that Jedi were all math majors XD

I wanted to clarify the intent of this quote: "Players have 150 points, plus 50 points in disadvantages. This limits includes racial templates and professional template." I'm pretty sure that the intent was to make it clear that the Jedi templates have to be included within the point cost, but on first reading it seemed like it might be saying that template disadvantages counted against the disadvantage limit (which might be appropriate if restrictive for Jedi templates, but would be extremely problematic for racial templates like the Keldor that have to deal with a major Dependency or some such).

Also, it occurred to me that swapping Patron for Rank might allow for a more specific and detailed accounting of the support provided by the Jedi Order (basically, it looked like an excellent opportunity to use Social Engineering: Pulling Rank).

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In terms of what I'm thinking, I'm currently looking at running a Miraluka force user (a member of the Luka Sene, and specifically a Sene Seeker). The Luka Sene are generally pretty academic and reserved, and the Sene Seekers are generally only tasked with hunting down Luka Sene members, so some explanation would be required. There are a couple possibilities:

1: Luka Sene members are quite independent, so my character could be accompanying/working with the Jedi team of his/her own volition.*

2: If appropriate, there could also be rumors of Luka Sene related artefacts (or the Luka Sene could have an academic interest in the artefacts regardless).*

*I could also play up the academic angle and make my character an expert in Jedi/Sith artefacts or some such to make either of these more plausible.

So, character related questions:

Foremost, what's your take on a racial template for the Miraluka? I've got some material from the unofficial GURPS Star Wars netbook that I've tweaked to be more accurate:

Spoiler:  

Miraluka

Advantages:
360° Vision (Panoptic 2, +60%; Force, -10%) [38]
Dark Vision (Force, -10%) [23]
Detect (Force Users) (Vague, -50%; Affects Insubstantial, +20%; Force, -10%) [6]
Empathy (No Skill Bonuses or No Lie Detection, -70%; Force, -10%) [3]
Force Sensitivity 0 [5]
Injury Tolerance (No Eyes) [5]
Penetrating Vision 1 (Force, -10%) [9]
See Invisible (Force) (Force, -10%) [14]

Disadvantages:
Blindness (Mitigator (Force), -80%) [-10]
Colorblindness [-10]
Selfless (12) [-5]

Vision abilities are all based on the Miraluka's force sight. It's unclear if 360° Vision is the default assumption for this, but I included it because there's no clear reason that they would have a limited field of view. Dark Vision is self explanatory. I'm having a hard time finding my source for Empathy (limited to solely allow the first impression ability), but I think the idea was originally based on the KOTOR version showing a characters Light Side/Dark Side status, so it seemed appropriate (easy to remove). Detect is sourced from the Miraluka page on Wookieepedia ("This vision was so strong that if a Miraluka looked upon a Jedi or Sith, they could "see" Force radiating off them."), though it might make sense to redesign this as an expansion to the effects of Force Sensitivity 0. Penetrating Vision is sourced from the Force Sight page. Colorblindness is also sourced from the Force Sight page (shouldn't be an issue existing with Blindness, as the two will almost never overlap). Selfless is also sourced from the Miraluka page ("They had little interest in personal gain or glory."), though this depends on how you feel about species-wide mental traits.

See Invisible may or may not be appropriate (it's a holdover from the Star Wars netbook template). It does make some sense that Force Vision might be immune to Force-based stealth, but it isn't a necessity, and could easily be dropped (especially as Detect allows for general awareness of nearby Force Users).

The biggest issue is that the template (when built to accurately meet the description) is almost prohibitively expensive. I'm looking for potential ways to cut costs, and especially to add racial disadvantages. I want to include some kind of sense of duty ("In addition all Miraluka were very united by race. They called themselves "brothers" and were considered as members of a great family."), but a Racial SoD would be a much stronger level of devotion than makes sense. I might be able to make something out of this, "Miraluka were a thoughtful, cautious, and deliberative species," but probably not more than a quirk.

Also, the approach to Miraluka vision is wildly different from the system you're using for the Force, which could be problematic. I'm not terribly familiar with the Syntactic system, but if it'd be plausible to convert the above advantages into a "spell," that might be better and cheaper (and Miraluka would just have an absolutely jacked up Sense Verb). The biggest immediate issue I see with this strategy is that it'd need to have a hell of a duration, be affordable, and not take forever to cast. The second issue is what you'd pair Sense with. Really, you should have to pair almost all of the other words, so barring a shortcut of some kind (Sense Force as a stand in, for example), it'd require many, many skills at a very high level. If there is a shortcut here, then some kind of perk (possibly leveled) to make it an effective and viable casting for Miraluka would make sense (a perk to allow skill penalty based duration effects for this specific "spell" could also solve the duration problem).

Second, I'm looking at what would be appropriate for a Luka Sene template. Currently looking at a lower level of Patron (15 points, at a guess), a Duty (Sene Seeker would be Extremely Hazardous, but the exact frequency is questionable), and Moral Guidance ("The Luka Sene disapproved of the dark side and served as guiders and guardians to protect Miralukans from falling to the dark side."). The frequency of the Duty would depend a great deal on the exact nature of the character's involvement with the rest of the team (aka, is it part of the Duty or not).

(I'm also toying with some other character possibilities, to which end I'm curious if Gunslinger is permitted, and wanted to confirm that droids are on the table.)

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EDIT: Naturally, I forgot a question. How strongly are you committed to Light Side/Dark Side powers setup? This has always bothered me a bit, but I can accept that using force lightning on a living creature would have more effect on LS/DS standing than using a lightning gun. Essentially, the main question I have here is how context sensitive/absolute it is in your mind. Would using force lightning on a droid count? Would using force lightning on a circuit breaker to shut off the power count? And so on.
EDIT 2: Wouldn't it make sense to add a Code of Honor to the Jedi template? It might be clearer and more natural than rolling the Code and such into the Duty.
EDIT 3: Since Blasters are based on TL8 weapons, would armor be based on TL8 armor? (EDIT 3b: What would you base hard armors on?)
EDIT 4: Are quirks counted in the -50 point disadvantage limit?
EDIT 5: It occurs to me that Engineer (Lightsaber) would probably (by RAW at least) have to be complemented by Armoury (Lightsaber).
EDIT 6: How are you handling languages? Virtually every species has its own, so there's relatively little chance that an individual alien/near-human's language will be important.
EDIT 7: In exploring other concepts, and in concert with the previous question about Gunslinger, are Trained by a Master and Weapon Master permitted?
EDIT 8: For guns that use a skill other than Pistol or Rifle, should new and matching Beam Weapons specialties be used?
EDIT 9: Sene Seeker has evolved in a more academic direction (aka, not a Sene Seeker) to try and manage points, and is thus more likely to have had a lot of interaction with the Jedi Order. Would Savoir-Faire (Jedi) be acceptable, or would a pre-existing Savoir-Faire encompass the Jedi Order?