The Force
The force is a barely understood energy field that binds all living creatures in the galaxy together. Some see it as a reflection of the collective consciousness of the sentient living creatures in the galaxy. Others see it as a means to an end. To some it is a constant companion that walks every step of a person’s life. Others it’s a curse. All of these can be true, depending on your perspective.
Now the Edge of the Empire core rulebook has an entire chapter on the force and I strongly encourage you to take a nice long read of that chapter before we go any further. I am going to let the book explain to you how dangerou the force is for a person. There are a lot of extremely dangerous things that will come into the shadows looking for a force sensitive character. You have been warned, friends.
Force Powers
Like we said last week, the Force is a powerful resource for a character and the character’s Force Rating determines how capable they are of manipulating or using the force in any given situation. Most characters playing in Edge of the Empire cap out at around a Force Rating of 2, but the Force and Destiny book adds a bunch more options and can help you raise your Force Rating much higher.
Force Powers give you a use for all of that raw ability. Being able to channel the force because your character has a Force Rating isn’t that helpful without having the powers to go with it. Force Powers represent specific abilities that a character can utilize with enough practice (mechanically buying the power with experience points). They can even expand this ability with more practice, (spending more experience points) to unlock additional aspects of the Force Power. Let’s take a closer look at the Influence and Move Force Powers (the other two core force powers in the Edge of the Empire Core rulebook.) If you’re looking for more powers (and really, if you’re going for being a force user, you should be, be sure to check out Force and Destiny for more options to expand your character’s connection to the Force.
Force Power Breakdown
Let’s take a look at the actual nuts and bolts of a force power. Each Force Power has its own sheet (sort of like the Specialization trees) that details how a power works and it lets you track your progress with that power. I strongly encourage you to make copies of the ones you are working with, they make it much easier to track than individual notes.
Basic Power
This is the most basic version of the ability granted by selecting a force power and often gives the character a very simple view of the power and how it works. Each basic ability gives you a specific mechanical description of what’s needed to activate it and the benefit it provides.
Upgrades
As mentioned above, each Force Power can be customized by the character by purchasing upgrades to the power. These all cost experience points, but expand the Force Power in some fundamental way. There are five key types of upgrades.
Strength
A strength upgrade powers up the basic ability by making it more potent than the basic version.
Magnitude
A magnitude upgrade powers up the basic ability by allowing the user to affect more targets than the basic version.
Duration
A duration upgrade improves the basic ability by allowing the power to last longer than the basic version.
Range
A range upgrade allows the power to be used at a greater distance than the basic version.
Control
A control upgrade allows the user to add new or different effects, or modify the existing effect (this can change how a character activates the power or give new way to spend force points).
Now each of these upgrade works differently based on the power they are modifying, but they all represent a fundamental improvement in the way the power works. Let’s take a look at a Specific example this week, and then we’ll finish up the other two next week
Force Power: Influence
Influence is a fundamental ability of the Force. Using it, a Force User can affect the mind of another living creature, whether the traditional Jedi Mind Trick or something else entirely. It’s a dangerous power, and can lead to the dark side of the Force. At it’s most basic, the power of Influence causes stress to another creature, leaving them incapable of acting against the Force User.
Basic Power:
Spend 1 Force Point to guide or shaper the thoughts of another living creature. The character can actually use dark side results on the force power activation test to shape negative emotions, while light side results can generate positive emotions. Mixed emotional states can be generated with points from either.
Spend 1 Force Point to stress the mind of another living creature, causing them 1 strain.
Now From this basic power, there are three intersecting paths that develop the usage of this power. The first path leads to a control upgrade and range upgrades, the second path converges with the first on a control upgrade, but features magnitude upgrades instead of range. The final path features a control upgrade, a strength upgrade, and four duration upgrades. Let’s take a closer look.
Path 1
The first upgrade (a range upgrade) extends the ability out a range band, if the Force User spends a force point. This stacks with other range upgrades of this power.
This leads to a control upgrade that allows the character to roll an Influence power check (rolling Force dice) as part of a Coerce, Charm, Deception, Leadership, or Negotiation check. Light side Force points generated from these force dice can be spent to gain success or triumph results.
Next on the path is a range upgrade that extends the ability out a range band, if the Force User spends a force point. This stacks with other range upgrades of this power.
The end of this path is another range upgrade that extends the ability out a range band, if the Force User spends a force point. This stacks with other range upgrades of this power.
Path 2
The first upgrade (a magnitude upgrade) allows the Force User to affect an additional target by spending an additional force point.
This leads to a control upgrade that allows the character to roll an Influence power check (rolling Force dice) as part of a Coerce, Charm, Deception, Leadership, or Negotiation check. Light side Force points generated from these force dice can be spent to gain success or triumph results. (This is the same control upgrade from Path 1)
Next on the path is a magnitude upgrade that allows the user to affect an additional target, if the Force User spends a force point. This stacks with other magnitude upgrades of this power.
The end of this path is another magnitude upgrade that allows the user to affect another target, if the Force User spends a force point. This stacks with other magnitude upgrades of this power.
Path 3
The first upgrade (a control upgrade) allows the character to roll an Influence power check (rolling Force dice) as part of an opposed Discipline vs. Discipline check. If the user spends a force point, and succeeds at the check, they can force the target to adopt an emotional state for 1 round, or force them to believe something untrue for 5 minutes.
This leads to a strength upgrade that improves the basic strain causing power of this ability. This allows the character to cause 2 strain whenever they use the basic ability of this power.
Next on the path are a series of 4 duration upgrades. Each one increases the duration of the abilities of this power by a number of rounds or minutes equal to the number of duration upgrades, if the user spends a force point.
This power can be extremely useful once it’s fully powered up. This is a common theme with Force powers, but don’t overlook the interactions between sense and influence. They have similar ranges and targeting capabilities when fully upgraded, and can be powerful tools for the Force User.
Force Power: Move
Move is the other iconic force ability. It’s telekinesis, and allows the Force User to move objects without touching them. Move is the least subtle of these powers and can be used in a variety of creative manners by a thoughtful Force User.
Basic Power:
A Force User with this Force can do the following:
Spend 1 Force Point to move an object of Silhouette 0 that is within short range to his or her maximum range. (The default maximum range is short range).
Now From this basic power, there are four paths that develop the usage of this power. The first path is a series of magnitude upgrades. The second path is a series of Strength upgrades.. The third and fourth paths feature a series of range and control upgrades that intersect in a few places. Let’s take a closer look.
Path 1
The first upgrade (a magnitude upgrade) allows the Force User to increase the number of items affected by the number of magnitude upgrades by spending a force point. There are three more magnitude upgrades after the first, meaning a Force User with all four can spend 1 force point to affect five different targets.Path 2
The first upgrade (a strength upgrade) allows the Force User to increase the silhouette of an item affected by the number of strength upgrades acquired by spending a force point. There are three more strength upgrades after the first, meaning a Force User with all four can spend 1 force point to affect a target that is Silhouette four or smaller (Like a Firespray, for example).
Path 3
The first upgrade (a range upgrade) allows the character to spend a force point to increase the power’s range by a number of bands equal to the number of range upgrades purchased for this power.
This leads to a control upgrade that allows the user to move objects fast enough to injure another creature. This requires a Discipline check combined with a Move power check. This deals damage equal to 10 times the Silhouette of the object hurled. (this is also on the Path 4 upgrades).
Next on the path is another control upgrade that allows the user to pull items free from either a secured position or from the grasp of another creature.
Finally, this path’s final upgrade allows the character to finely manipulate items as if they were in their hands. He uses the power at the normal range of this power (including any range upgrades purchased). This is also the final upgrade on Path 4.
Path 4
The first upgrade (a range upgrade) allows the character to spend a force point to increase the power’s range by a number of bands equal to the number of range upgrades purchased for this power.
This leads to a control upgrade that allows the user to move objects fast enough to injure another creature. This requires a Discipline check combined with a Move power check. This deals damage equal to 10 times the Silhouette of the object hurled. (this is also on the Path 3 upgrades).
Next on the path is another range upgrade that allows the user to spend a force point to increase the power’s range by a number of bands equal to the number of range upgrades purchased for this power.
Finally, this path’s final upgrade allows the character to finely manipulate items as if they were in their hands. He uses the power at the normal range of this power (including any range upgrades purchased). This is also the final upgrade on Path 3.
This power can be extremely useful in the hands of a creative thinker. It’s also the power most likely to draw unwanted attention to you and your non force using friends. Be careful.
Conclusions
Now that’s a fairly concise write up for the nuts and bolts of Force Powers and how they work in Edge of the Empire. Next week we’ll start talking about vehicles and starships. We’ll see all of you then, Game On, Game Fans.
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