How to Use the Force in Star Wars RPG

Welcome to Chapter 8 of the Beginner's Guide Series! In this video we cover everything you need to know about The Force, Using Force Powers and buying Force Trees in Star Wars RPG.

**CORRECTION**
Buying the Force Exile or Emergent specialization tree only costs 10 x # of tree, as it is a "Universal Tree". There is no +10 cost.

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Keywords: How to, Star Wars, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Fantasy Flight Games, Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Age of Rebellion, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STAR WARS RPG

#fantasyflightgames #starwars #tabletoprpg

[TheTabletopEmpire]

**CORRECTION**
Buying the Force Exile or Emergent specialization tree only costs 10 x # of tree, as it is a "Universal Tree". There is no +10 cost.

[Durskut]

In the interest of "check the comments, maybe somebody else knows, " I'd like to say the video is correct that committing a Force die/dice is an action.

The confusion, I imagine, stems from a "can't see the forest for the trees" situation. There's no information about what type of action committing a Force die is because it's only one of the two ways Force powers/talents work (F&D p. 280, top left corner).

Basically, using a Force power is an action (F&D p. 282, in bold under "Force Powers") and one of the ways some Force powers are used is by committing Force dice. Therefore, committing dice to a Force power is using the power, which takes an action in structured play.

Note: You're only using a single power each action. So to commit a Force die to increase Brawn via Enhance and commit a die to upgrade relevant attacks with Sense would be two separate actions, one for each power, even though they're both commit uses.

[TheDadalorian]

As always, your videos help me be a better GM for my players. Your explanations help me understand the books material

[ashleyturner]

Thanks for another great video! Great to see resources for new players when it comes to my favorite RPG system.

[brunosnickers]

Thanks for the video, preparing an EotE-Session and one player really wanted to play a force user, so this helps a lot to understand the additional rules.

[katherinewelling]

Thanks for this. Very well explained. 👍🏻

[Molten-Throne]

Simple great video. Really effective at getting the points across. Love the force in this system

[Ebakthecat]

I think it would have been beneficial to mention that the Force Powers you covered may have been the Core Rulebook force powers but there are other force powers from each F&D Sourcebook. Just a thought given that new players may look at your list and think that's all that exists.

[zephyrstrife]

Don't know if it has already been released as a video in this series but...

Knight-level or, more properly, Heroic Tier play is an additional 150xp on top of the base XP you start the game with. Unlike the starting XP, which you must spend before spending the heroic XP, the heroic XP cannot be used to directly purchase characteristic increases.

In most cases this will make characters who are able to handle tougher challenges since the XP investment into career skills, talents and Force Powers... If applicable... Will directly scale up PC survivability.

From ranks of Grit or Toughened to ranks of combat or interaction skills, most PCs will be able to handle rival-tier NPCs with less challenge than starting characters. This is dependent on the types of gear PCs select for their characters as well. Non force-sensitive PCs will start with 9, 000 extra starting credits, which can get a lot of powerful gear, and Force-users will have the option of starting with a Kyber Crystal and functioning lightsaber hilt.

I've not played too many games at Heroic Tier and most of what i have run has mostly functioned off of me using some generous interpretations of challenges outside of direct confrontation because of how fragile PCs always feel in this game.

[ccatterson]

Great stuff! I ran this system quite a while ago and loved it. I'm a huge fan of Edge of the Empire games. Do you have any plans to stream some actual campaigns or playthroughs of Star Wars? That'd be some good content that I would definitely watch since I'll be starting another Star Wars campaign later this summer when I am done with D&D....

[sundnido]

Using a force power being an action, commiting a force dice using a force power is an action unless the power says otherwise.
However, about what you said about not being able to commit to the same power twice in the same time, I disagree because :
- There is clear case where force powers tells to commit multiple force dice to trigger the ongoing effet (for example the ongoing effect of bind) or to commit one or more dice to get an effect per dice commited (for example the control upgrade of misdirect which explicitely requires to commit one or more dice to add a number of threat equal to the number of dice commited to all combat checks targeting the force user)
- The question of commiting multiple force dice for the force power "enhance" was asked to the dev, and Sam Stewart (one of the dev) answered in that direction.

FYI, the question was :
"The ongoing force powers allow characters to commit force dice to activate benefits. Is it possible to commit more force dice than is listed to receive the a greater benefit from the power? This, of course, provided the power does not explicitly forbid it. Example: A Jedi has Agi 2, Force rating 3, and Enhance with all of it’s upgrades. Is it allowed for the Jedi, with a single activation of enhance’s Agi control upgrade, to commit 2 (or all 3) of his force dice to said upgrade, increasing his Agi from 2 to 4 (or to 5, if all force dice are used). If not, is there any way for the Jedi to use Enhance’s ongoing effects to increase either Brawn or Agility by more than one point."

Sam Stewart answered :
"Unless the upgrade states otherwise, you may commit additional Force dice to increase the power. Thus, in your example, you may increase your Agility by as much as plus three, in the scenario you describe."

[jayfoxx]

Great video. I'm finally running the game next week, and doing my research. lol Question though, the character spends a force point to activate the base power, then additional points to upgrade it. Do they have to spend points moving down the tree, or is it just one point for base power, then one point for an upgrade anywhere on the tree as long as they have that upgrade? (For that Forsee tree for instance, would they have to spend a point on strength in order to activate Duration?

One of my players is going with a force user and I just want to make sure he'll even be able to use all his powers given that he has a force rating of 1. lol

[Vanret]

So if I grab the first range upgrade for move, I need to spend 2 force points to use it, one to activate the base power, and then one to upgrade the range. But lets say I have 2 range upgrades to move, do I need to spend 3 force points to do my new max range (1 for base power, 2 for my new max range) or is it still just two force points?

[Justin-wxio]

One thing that has been a confusing discussion for me is how spending the points work for upgrades if you have more ranks. One of my old players told me that if a character has 4 ranks in Strength upgrade in move, for example, the user spends 1 Lightside to upgrade to silhouette 4, and then can use another point to upgrade to silhouette 8, and so on. Is this how that works?

[LordReginaldMeowmont]

I thought all force powers required a Discipline check. Is that not the case?

[Snurf]

There is no such thing as rolling zero force points. A cursory glance of the dice results table could have confirmed that in case of doubt (which shouldn't be there in the first place as they're used for destiny rolls and you've never seen a player roll zero destiny !). You could find yourself in the situation of only having rolled light side points while being a darksider (or vice versa) and not wanting or being able to use the opposite-side points, but that's quite something else.

Your example at 3:40 doesn't make sense : Foresee's base power and its first control upgrade work differently and cannot coexist. The former is a regular action you could choose to take at any time, the second only comes into play with initiative checks.

A clarification : you suffer one conflict per dark side point used regardless of alignment.

Nothing anywhere says you can't commit more than one force die to a single commit check ergo you may. A character with Brawn 2, the relevant upgrade to Enhance and FR4+ could commit themselves into Brawn 6. If that somehow failed to convince you, cf narrative precedent : Yoda patently does not have high Agility in his day to day life yet is extremely spry in his fights in Episodes II and III, this is explained by an Enhance commit to his Agility characteristic to fuel his Ataru lightsaber style some more.

Apologies for any perceived aggression in tone, I'm a grognard :)
Videos like these are good and help get newcomers interested in the system.

[mike]

Hmm ok, I didnt know that about Force powers.The rules are so unclear.Thats the whole reason why I rewrote some of the rules.👉🏻Like character creation:👈🏻Rewrote that whole thing made it easier.Specially for the ship thing. But I left some of it intact.
👇🏻Personal note:didnt find it fair for the player(s).To select the ship.Where ur givin 120, 000 credits to buy the ship under the amount of money you have in the game.Which also buy the attachment, upgrade/improvement You need.👈🏻So thats was changed.Why should anyone have a clean dinky freighter/patrol boat.When ur npcs have a really good ship that could be a battleship, cruiser/frigate that from the days of clone wars. So I leveled the playing field.
👆🏻Thats my only concern or problem.

[brianomdahl]

Whoa! Hold up!

At 2:03, you state that purchasing the UNIVERSAL: Force Sensitive Emergent or UNIVERSAL: Force Sensitive Exile as your THIRD specialization costs (10 x 3) +10 .... this is WRONG!!!!

Any and all UNIVERSAL specialization DOES NOT COST the "extra" +10 penalty or cost or whatever.

Otherwise, I enjoy your content.