Becoming a Master

"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design."
   –Emperor Palpatine 

The Star Wars®: Force and Destiny™ roleplaying game offers players the chance to experience the epic adventures of Force-sensitive outcasts living in the time of the Galactic Civil War. As a Game Master, however, you undertake a different sort of endeavor. You guide players in wielding the Force and seeking their destinies; you may even devise the paths along which they travel. You bring the unforgettable characters, villainous adversaries, exotic worlds, and thrilling battles of the Star Wars galaxy to life. 

Today’s preview of Force and Destiny is for those fearless and resourceful souls among you who have chosen to become Game Masters. It looks at some of the information and tools that the Core Rulebook and Game Master’s Kit offer you for preparing game sessions and even campaigns. Player characters may want proceed carefully beyond this point, lest you learn too much about the surprises that await you on your adventures.

Inside the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook you’ll find guidance on every aspect of Game Mastering, from running a campaign’s first session to managing group dynamics and split parties, from awarding experience points to dealing with PCs that have fallen to the dark side. There are suggestions on how to craft fast-paced single-session adventures and how to join those adventures together into a fulfilling and suspenseful full-length campaign. In addition, there are instructions for combining characters and material from Force and Destiny with its two kindred Star Wars roleplaying systems, Age of Rebellion™ and Edge of the Empire™.

The Galaxy’s Great Expanse

The Core Rulebook provides Game Masters extensive and rich information about the Star Wars galaxy, from its bright and mysterious deep core to the great trans-galactic hyperlanes and the wildernesses of the Outer Rim. A section on Sith Space discusses various locations of importance to the dark side, while a list of forgotten Jedi temples offers places for your PCs to explore on a quest to learn more about the outlawed Jedi Order and the ancient ways of the Force. Several worlds are given full-page profiles, including the legendary Jedi pilgrimage site of Ilum, the marshy and unpopulated world of Dagobah, and the desolate Sith homeworld of Moraband.

The Jedi and the Sith

On their adventures your PCs may visit the abandoned ruins of Jedi temples, meet people who remember the Jedi from the days before the Order was outlawed, or hear stories about the ancient origins of the Jedi and Sith. An entire chapter is dedicated to the age-old conflict between these two Orders, from their mythical beginnings to the involvement of both in the Clone Wars. It provides an account of what life can be like for Force sensitives living under Imperial Rule and discusses what positions Force users might occupy within the structure of the Imperial government. You’ll also find details about alternate Force traditions, such as those of the Baran Do or the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and a catalog of famous and long-lost artifacts of the Force such as Jedi holocrons and Sith scrolls.

Minions, Rivals, and Nemeses

An integral part of any roleplaying adventure are the NPCs that your group interacts with. In the Star Wars universe the various NPCs and adversaries you encounter come from a vast number of species and droid types with an immense range of capabilities. PCs can communicate easily with adversaries like protocol droids or provincial law enforcers, but they may also find themselves surrounded by a pack of feline jakobeasts that lack language but possess Force powers.

Adversaries are helpfully divided into three groups: minions, rivals, and nemeses. A single minion constitutes no major threat, but these common NPCs tend to operate in small groups. Imperial stormtroopers, street toughs, and analysis droids are all minions. Rivals are more difficult for PCs to deal with and more fully fleshed out. The Dandy Gambler, for example, has ranks in Deception and Skullduggery along with the ability to use the Force to manipulate his own luck. He’s not quite as skilled as a PC but he can definitely frustrate your characters’ plans. Nemeses, however, may be markedly more powerful than PCs and are identical to PCs in virtually every respect of character function. Among the nemeses described in the Core Rulebook are an Imperial Assassin and a fallen Force user, a Murderous Fugitive and a Hutt Slave Dealer. One of these nemeses may be pivotal to an adventure or campaign, and your PCs may believe they have defeated their nemesis only to meet him several sessions later and find him fully recovered.

Lessons from the Past

Concluding the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook is a complete adventure, Lessons from the Past, designed specifically for PCs just beginning to develop their powers. The adventure begins when an old friend at a renowned university contacts the PCs, seeking aid in investigating a mysterious talisman. Soon they find themselves fleeing under surveillance and traveling to the wreckage of an star cruiser dating back thousands of years. There, they will encounter unknown dangers and discover invaluable treasures. Throughout Lessons from the Past you’ll find detailed descriptions and useful suggestions to help you keep the adventure moving forward, whatever unexpected choices your PCs may make. 

Hidden in Plain Sight

To accompany the Core Rulebook, we’ve also created the Force and Destiny Game Master’s Kit, designed to help you keep your cunning plans secret and keep you from missing anything. It includes a GM screen featuring full-color thematic art on the outside and easy-to-interpret charts on the inside that provide you with essential information about combat maneuvers, weapons, critical injuries, vehicle silhouettes, and more. 

You’ll also find in the GM Kit rules for crafting custom lightsabers in game, and guidelines for knight-level play, in which the PCs start the game with advanced skills, talents, and Force powers, allowing them to perform truly incredible feats and take on even deadlier adversaries. Finally, the GM Kit also includes an adventure, Hidden Depths, that can follow up Lessons from the Past or stand entirely on its own. In Hidden Depths, the PCs discover a rare source of lightsaber crystals – and realize that they are being jealously guarded by Imperial forces. When played one after the other, Lessons from the Past and Hidden Depths prepare PCs to face more incredible dangers ahead, as well as providing them with everything necessary for constructing their own unique lightsabers. 

Their Destiny Is in Your Hands

Game Mastering offers you great power and great responsibility. You aren’t merely asking your players to make skill tests or deploying adversaries against them – you are taking control of their characters’ destinies. For both experienced Game Masters and entirely new ones, it is an undertaking that can be immensely challenging and immensely rewarding. The Force and Destiny Core Rulebook and Game Master’s Kit provide you with ample material, tools, and guidance so as to make that undertaking less challenging and more rewarding. They place the full power of the Force and the great expanse of the Star Wars galaxy right in your hands. 

The Star Wars®: Force and Destiny™ Core Rulebook and Game Master’s Kit will be available soon.