Two little questions, and one is cheese/munchkiny, so I'll apologize, in advance:

1: I think I can see the benefit, or at least the justification, in making Defensive something to get the lightsaber later, through a Talent, perhaps, to reflect the training the user has burned, but then what is the deal with getting to keep it on the vibrosword? What's so much easier about blocking a weapon with that weapon than the lightsaber, once one has overcome the added expense of training with the lightsaber? I don't see why the vibrosword can keep it, when the similar shaped, even if more complicated weapon, the lightsaber, now cannot.

2: (MUNCHKIN ALERT!!!)  So, eventually you might actually be able to use a lightsaber to block an incoming attack. In that case, might there be a way to activate the Sunder ability the lightsaber already has? It's not a tricky argument, at least to me, that anything hitting a lightsaber should be treated as if it was hit by the lightsaber. No one in the movies charges a Jedi, swinging their melee weapon, usually because, unless it, too, is a lightsaber (or made of phrik, Mandalorian Iron, laced with Cortosis), it won't survive, whether it is because the Jedi flicked their wrist, and snapped the weapon in half with the lightsaber, or just because it hit it, and biffed it. While this is certainly also another illustration of how a lightsaber might be problem in your game (it can render all other melee weapons useless against a Jedi, which, in many ways, is true in Star Wars; only Jedi really use melee weapons, and the occasional Hutt thug, while everyone else attacks from the "relative" safety of blaster range), mechanically, could it be possible? Curious, thanks.

venkelos said:

On question one, probably a case of lightsabers being decreed as "way too awesome," and FFG trying to scale it back a bit.  Though I do agree with the sentiment that a weapon with negligible mass would be a lot harder to use defensively than a more typical weapon design with weight/mass spread throughout the weapon.  On an official rules front, I suggested that the Defensive and Deflection qualities be kept but have an added note under lightsabers that you only get access to them when trained.   Unofficially, I just created a Lightsaber Defense talent to add those back in, at a rate of 1 rank in each for each rank you have in Lightsaber Defense.

For question two, not really, although the Despair option of dealing damage to a weapon or tool could be used to reflect this, but that requires you to have forced your opponent to roll challenge dice.  But since Sunder is pretty cheap to activate (1 Advantage per damage level), I don't think it really needs to be something the player can trigger at will when their attacked, as that would push lightsabers back towards the broke-tastic end of the scale.

gribble said:

It is in the introduction for GM to read to the players the adventure in the book. It refers to the first Death Star just having been destroyed.

DERP… two different posts… bloody tabs making me loose track of what I was replying to.

Doc, the Weasel said:

I think part of the thing is to explain why it is so unique in the background (or at least was in the original films). Other than that most passing of use (and the user looked scared while using it) we don't see any non-Jedi use the things. Why not? It could be down to effectiveness, as no one but a Jedi is actually going to be able to deflect blaster bolts with it, and if you are not doing that you are generally going to be at a disadvantage against someone with a blaster. Or it could be due to rarity. Almost no one knows how to make the blasted things, and so they are very hard to get hold of (and those that people do have are probably considered items in a prized collection, rather than personal weapon). Or it could be because it is extremely difficult to use, and dangerous to the untrained.

The second doesn't really seem to apply after the prequels. Jedi seem to spam the buggers out as needed. Ok, I know the EU has something about Force powers being needed to activate the crystals or something, but why no force users churning them out for general use? The first could apply of course, but then why is Han scared of the thing while using it? That leaves the third reason, or more likely, a combination of the various reasons.

Let's not forget Lightfoils, folks. 

It IS possible to craft a "contained-plasma-blade-focused-by-a-crystal" melee weapon without any connection to the Force whatsoever.  The original Lightfoils (that were crafted by Force sensitives) were discoverd by young Tapani nobles - who started wearing them to duel with.  They were often called Saber Rakes.  But then the Republic stepped in and confiscated them all.  But not before other noble houses caught on, and started mass producing the things.  These later reproductions were noted as "knockoffs" of original designs, and nowhere near as deadly or energy efficient as a true lightsaber.  But they killed things the same way.