Synthweaving?

[Jonos]

I've poked around in the forums for a while and can't find any reference to synthweaving (as seen in SWTOR) Seems like it would be a viable lost art in the Rebellion era campaign I'm running. Before I set my hand to creating this, has anyone ever tinkered with it?

[cheshire]

This is one of those things that you kind of have to take along with its intent as part of the origin game mechanic when applying it to another game (albeit, they're both Star Wars, and they're both roleplaying, but there are vast differences in the underlying mechanics).

If I understand it properly, synthweaving in TOR is one way of taking your "dropped loot" and turning it into something worthwhile or valuable for your character via a set of crafting skills. It's how you go from grinding to making good gear. (Please correct me if I'm wrong in that matter.)

In a table top RPG there isn't the same kind of "dropped loot." You don't go and kill things or buy other material components for the hope of fabricating a piece of armor. As such, the crafting skills work a little bit differently. You often buy or search for the required materials to upgrade, retrofit, or reverse engineer armor and weapons.

Now, in terms of how to make one work in the other, that depends. First, I'm woefully inexperienced in the ways of TOR. So, the question is how is it that you would like synthweaving to work in your game? What niche does it fill that is not already present in the albeit loose and cinematic structure of the D6 system?
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Jonos]

Essentially Synthweaving in TOR is using harvested materials to make armor for Force using characters. It uses crystals and chemicals to make lightweight armor that is tailored for those kinds of characters. While I understand the differences between MMORPGS and tabletops (I've been playing tabletop RPGs for about 30 years) I was thinking that it might be an interesting concept to adapt Synthweaving to the game.

My thoughts were really just to make lightweight armor that would offer protection vs energy attacks and damage from force users. I suppose it's not anything that couldn't be done with ordinary armor, but much more interesting to have it be a unique thing that my jedi player could rediscover and learn.

Mechanically it would be resistance to damage from force powers in the form of pips or +D to various things to protect against force abilities. Just a thought, I'll post something when I have it worked up.

[tetsuoh]

We basically allow synthweaving in out games - it is a non darkside version of sith alchemy called imbue force.

In tor it is what would be used to make the d6 versions of the Dark armor from the the Dark Side Sourcebook that we also see in gry's d6 equipment collection book.

basically an alchemy roll is needed to add the amount of armor to the base armor - and the material used must be natural - not mass produced.

then an amount of force points is used to imbue the armor permanently - this also adds a part of yourself to the armor than can be felt through the force at a +10 difficulty, and can be used identify the craftsman if the force user "reading" the armor has felt their presense before.

It also makes resisting being detected through the force harder while worn as it adds +10 to the sensing character's roll.

In our game the most powerful versions often are artifacts that can have odd qualities such as the ability to use a force power permanently imbued in the item or strengthening ones connection to the force in the addition of skill dice to certain force skills.

More than one sith lord in my campaigns has evaded death in this manner by storing part of himself in an artifact awaiting the chance to take over anyone foolish enough to it up.

Emperor Palpatine the Dark Empire series was reborn into clones by similar means or basically transferring his soul into another.

Same thing, just less powerful as the ghost loses dice to all their skills including their force skills and cannot take any actions until the object touches someones bareskin.

Stronger spirits dont need this and can roam freely as true force apparitions (ghosts) and often do as they please and be unaffected by material objects. This can be done by jedi by a ritual (obi-wan, yoda) or by sith by tying themselves to numerous objects, though they grow weaker when the objects are apart only one is needed to keep them "alive" and when brought together may enable the spirit to gain enough power to be reborn if the sith was strong enough, though it still normally requires a living vessel.

[spoiler] A certain character did just this in Swtor. [/spoiler]

This can also then be seen in minor examples throughout the star wars universe in numerous examples - such as padawans having to imbue their lightsaber crystals with the force before they worked for them correctly.

The stronger the individuals skill, connection to the force, and the more one places of themselves (force points) into the item - the stronger the item becomes and the more varied the effects may be.

We are actually still coming up with rules for this star wars "enchanting" skill/power, but its on hold at the moment as we are not running force users in the current campaign really.

[Pel]

That's a really great idea and explanation. Many thanks!
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Aha!

[Jonos]

I like that. Gives me an idea to start with and a place to go. Thanks!