Padawans and their Crystals

[Random_Axe]

I am just starting a new campaign of Jedi Padawans, and the topic of building one's own lightsaber will be coming up soon. And I have a whole stack of questions about lightsaber crystals, the various places where they may come from, and what game systems are in place to incorporate their discovery, refinement and final construction in a saber by a player-character.

According to Wookieepedia, Ilum is a well known source of lightsaber crystals (for instance). So well known that Masters will even take their padawans there for the specific purpose of letting them build their own lightsaber. There is even a Jedi Temple built at the mouth of the Crystal Caves.

So it seems like the sources of lightsaber crystals are no secret inside the Jedi order. The Masters seem to make it easy for the padawans to go to where these things are commonly found. A veritable Walmart of lightsaber parts if you will.

What are the actual challenges that may be faced by a PC or party of PC padawans when searching these things out? Has anyone actually run a similar adventure or series of PCs doing these pilgrimages? Given that the graduation from a training-lightsaber to a personal-lightsaber is one of those padawan milestones that must be passed before he can graduate to Knight status, are there any actual in-game adventures that may be had to "win" this goal?

[Kytross]

Cost. Lightsaber crystals are expensive. Most of them are manufactured. I, Jedi covers how Corran Horn made his own lightsaber. There is a source book, I want to say the Thrawn Trilogy, but I'm not sure, that covers how Luke built his lightsaber with constructed gems after losing his dark father's blade along with his hand in ESB. All of this was pre-KOTOR and therefore written before Ilum was created.

There are numerous guides to lightsaber construction on the net and probably some here in the tools section, but I don't have time to research for you.

[Raven Redstar]

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RR
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[Gadora]

[RyanDarkstar]

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Currently playing D&D 5E and painting an unholy amount of miniatures.

[Naaman]

The rebels version was lame. Character went from "I dont know if I can be trained as a Jedi at all" to completing the lightsaber in one episode. Forget about learning enough to actuly imbue the crysral and learning how to use a lightsaber or even maintain one...

The significance of the construction was totally wasted, IMHO.

[RyanDarkstar]

I agree that Ezra got his lightsaber WAAAY too fast, but what I liked in the episode was how he had to face his fear. It would have been cooler if it would have taken longer, but it's a kid's show.

If I were running this in game, I'd use either Rebels or TCW for inspiration in gaining the crystal and how Corran Horn constructed his saber in I, Jedi for the actual lightsaber.
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Currently playing D&D 5E and painting an unholy amount of miniatures.

[Random_Axe]

[Luwingo_Spince]

One of the adventures I did was use the Game chambers of Questal as a basis for an adventure.

My campaign was set in the Old Republic era and the characters were sent to prevent the sale of a weapon that might tip the scales in the war against the Mandalorians.

To make a long story short after a couple of adventures the characters get captured and go through the game chambers which are a testing ground for the weapon. In the adventure the weapon is called the hurlothrumbic generator and it produces fear in waves that can effect large groups of people. I slightly modified this to be powered by a crystal but not any crystal but a semi-sentient one that feed off fear that was being amplified by the generator.

One of my character was a Jedi Shadow who was struggling with the dark side but tasked to destroy all dark side objects.

Another character was a cyborg to the extreme ala General Grievous who had a tiny bomb in his head due to that his cyborging had been paid for by a gangster who put it in there as insurance. The Gangster had heard about this weapon and wanted it for his own. Threatening the cyborg with death if he didn't secure the weapon.

The third character was a jedi who was looking for a crystal for her lightsaber.

It made for a very interesting session to say the least! Not sure if this helped at all but could probably be modified to to suit your needs.

It sets up an interesting dilemma do you destroy the crystal that seems evil, set it free since it is only a creature doing what is in its nature or use it for your lightsaber regardless of the consequences.

[Kytross]

You could always make it a surprise quest reward from an npc. Gems aren't impossibly rare. Or find a cache of crystals from a lost sith enclave. Or go the the temple on Coruscant and search the catacombs. Or go to Sarka and pick one up off the ground.

[cheshire]

[Kytross]

Cheshire, that was awesome.