Force attuned character with Jedi Training that hates Wookie

[MattMartin23]

Hi All,

I have a campaign I am running where one of the two lead characters is a Jedi in training. He is rough around the edges and wants to kill Wookiees because he hates them. He has no reason to kill them other than prejudice as they have done nothing to him. I am thinking that his next mention of killing a Wookiee will grant him a dark side point.

He also states he wants to be a Jedi with Sith intentions. I foresee his character will be heading to the dark side as unredeemable. It is really sad actually as I have created force tests, shown him visions, had him surrounded by Jedi Master teachers all motivating him towards good, yet he desires to be tainted and corrupted. Any advice?

Regards,

Matt M

[ZzaphodD]

[CRMcNeill]

I know we've covered this before, but how exactly does the character lose control, as in what actions does the character take while influenced by the will of the Dark Side?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[vanir]

G'day Matt. My view is that how you deal with this largely determines and is determined by your GM style (and in some cases experience), as ZzaphodD states he has a personal style and house rules to deal with just such situations, others have theirs so there are many possibilities to choose from. Have a browse around the forums for more ideas.

My advice is that the scope of the RPG and sourcebooks at this stage allows for GMs to cater to Players controlling the direction of their own characters and adventures which is a desired result for immersion sake.

The Dark Side Sourcebook and Tales of the Jedi Sourcebook allow for GMs to keep PCs which are determinedly interested in exploring the dark side, within gameplay. To me this is the preferred route so I can let players control their characters destiny and cater the campaign to suit.

If you have a number of players, most of which intend to lead a lightside path and one intends a dark side path, then you should apply the NPC rule whereby when the darksider is fully consumed by the dark side, he becomes a campaign villain for the party under GM control as an NPC and the player writes up a new character to play. This is merely to keep the party together and avoid running two parties of lightsiders and darksider PCs within one game.

Mostly it is up to the player what he does with his character, and the rules shouldn't ideally be used by GMs to control player actions or they get very frustrated with lacking freedom to run their own character decisions and play interests.

Essentially you give them plenty of rope, but don't dong them over the head with prohibitions. Give them consequences, but be reasonable. Never give a PC DSP because of his social inequity. Give them for actions defined under the core rules and published guidelines, ie. not for wanting to kill wookiees, not for claiming to hate wookiees, not for lacking rational social presentation, not for being uncouth in polite company. But for actually murdering an innocent wookiee.

Give him rope, let him happen across a caged wookiee and see what he does. What people like to tell others and what they actually do are often two very different things, and whilst people usually claim they are bigger and brighter than they are, sometimes they claim they are badder and darker than they are. Let him define his character by actions, not words.

Don't try to steer him too much as GM, give him options. Instead of trying to dissuade him from doing bad with visions, show him a vision of what might happen if he does bad, and another one of what would happen if he did good. If the player group is mostly lightsiders hint that he would eventually lose control of the character to become an NPC, but do it in visions like showing one that tells him he will no longer be in control of his actions but will be possessed by dark side spirits who control him, giving up all free will and becoming an agent of the dark side, show him that his friends would disassociate him and he would be effectively out of the party, without actually telling him game mechanics but try to role play it.

Similarly offer him rope and give him choices. Yes he could use injure/kill to increase his brawling damage when his lightsabre got broken in the fight...or, he could pick up a hydrospanner laying nearby to use as a melee club...or, he could use telekinesis as a basis to develop the power "projected fighting" or something similar. Give him options so that choosing the dark side alternative is always a clear choice and the intent always dark.

Let him secretly investigate and explore sith secrets within the party, but other party members who become suspicious of this activity will naturally be distrustful, given his mouthy discourse they will probably find him abhorrent and voice a desire for him to leave the party. Eventually the message should become clear that a sith won't be tolerated within a party that fights sith influence in the galaxy, and a PC who cannot be a member of the party can't be a PC but has to become an NPC and villain.

Alternatively, if the party is interested in a dark side campaign also or are completely neutral about it, then allow the Players to steer your game into a dark side campaign. Use the dark side sourcebook and GM the game they want to play.

[vanir]

[ZzaphodD]

[garhkal]

[MattMartin23]

Thanks to all for the great advice. This character has a deep seeded hatred for Wookiees in spite of the fact that they have done him no personal wrong, instead over a hundred died trying to save his homestead from a Sith Lord and Assassin droids. The character's mother was raped by the Sith Lord. The conception created the character. His uncle lied to him telling him that the Wookiees enabled and allowed this.

Since then, he has received force training and his Master has instructed him to value all life and protect all sentients and only attack in defense. He had a force vision trial in which he saw an apparition of one of the Wookiees (along with his entire clan) who died attempting to defend the homestead. All of this was to show the player and player character that there is no justification in this wanderlust to kill Wookiees.

I must say I am slightly put off by this desire to kill Wookiees and have been tempted to give a dark side point on general principal. Based on what I have heard from you all this is premature. *Sigh* I was hoping that this character will overcome his anger and agression and become a Jedi Knight. This would REALLY surprise me as I am very confident that this character will go down the dark path and turn to the dark side...

Once there, I will give him a few sessions to come back from the dark side before he is completely corrupted.

[Fallon Kell]

[vanir]

Since the PC is using his backstory so presently in game why not use the opportunity as a tool and catalyst for adventure hooks?

Have a raging mad wookiee gain the attention of the party, perhaps as a wanted criminal which the PC discovers is one of the wookiees from his old homestead area. Give him the option to track him down and bring him to justice, a bounty offered for the wookiee's capture. When he finally catches up with him, the wookiee has 6DSP and is a raging maniac, at the end of the final battle the wookiee can relate that when he saw the dark lord rape the PC's mother he laughed because she was so weak. You can really play this up and tell him that she might've screamed no at the start but those pleas started to sound more like pleasure the more he gave it to her.
Then just before the PC cuts the wookiee's head off he tells him that he knows where to find this sith lord, if he's interested...

He hates wookiees? Give him something better to hate: the sith lord who did the deed.

[garhkal]

[MattMartin23]

[MattMartin23]

[MattMartin23]

[Fallon Kell]