Gray Jedi by the rules?

[Purzelkater]

By the rules, there is no way to play a "gray" Jedi, if I'm right. Well, inspired by the Dawn of the Jedi comics I would like to create a Jedi following the old Je'daii code:

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no fear, there is power.
I am the heart of the Force.
I am the revealing fire of light.
I am the mystery of darkness.
In balance with chaos and harmony,
Immortal in the Force."

The base on this code is the balance of the light and the dark side of the Force. So following this code is not just to be on the light side but also on the dark side. But on the "mordern" Jedi and the RPG there is no place for this code, I'm afraid. A character following the Je'daii code would become a NPC because of the dark side.

What do you think? Would it be possible to play this kind of char and how could this be handled by the rules?

[Bren]

1. I've never liked the idea of Gray Jedi. It's not what I want in my mythic Manichaeistic space opera.

2. That said, I think it will be difficult for you to balance Gray Jedi and Light side Jedi in the same campaign. Either the Gray Jedi are going to turn to the Dark Side because they use the same rules as the RAW (as you pointed out) or the Gray Jedi are going to ignore the RAW which Light Siders have to follow and so Gray Jedi will be overly dominant in power over both Light Side Jedi and Dark Siders.

[MrNexx]

I tend to agree with Bren... Grey Jedi, IMO, don't work with the Rules as Written. Personally, I tend to view them as light side jedi who have rejected to Jedi Code... not falling to darkness, but not following thenstrictures of the Old Jedi. Revan and Meetra Surik might be incandescdently light side (if you play like I do), while simultaneously carrying on romances, involving themselves in politics, and even consorting with Sith, to an extent. Grey Jedi... not fallen to the Dark Side, but outside the Council's dictates.
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[garhkal]

[Kytross]

RAW does not allow for light jedi as seen in the prequels. Yoda and Obi-Wan both use telekinesis on clones and against Count Douku, and I am sure that there are other examples. They would have accumulated plenty of dark side points.

The rules need a revamp in light of the prequels. I am sure that's been debated on this site repeatedly.

In light of the prequels I don't think there's room for Grey jedi. Qui-Gon is as grey as they come, pushing the limits of our Original Trilogy concept of what a jedi is, and he's a light side jedi.

My house rule is a combination of the 'Rules of Engagement' and 'Use of Deadly Force Ladder' police and security have to follow. The military has similar rules. Put as simply as possible, you can only use force in combat for defense of yourself or others. You can only use deadly force when your life or the life of someone else is in danger.

And yes, I find the overlap of the word force between Star Wars and real life to be amusing.

Follow those two rules in one of my games and you will never hear the dark side calling.

The classic example I use is jumpstarting your vehicle with force lightning. There's no evil or malicious intent in that.

[Bren]

[garhkal]

Exactly bren. Force lightning BY ITSELF is an inherently dark power, regardless of the intent of what you want to use it for..
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[MrNexx]

TBH, I view "Jumpstarting a vehicle with Force Lightning" to be really weird as a concept. Like, I can see an alter power (or maybe sense+alter) that works like Lightsaber combat but for Repair skills (arguably, Meetra Surik learns one in dealing with T3-M4), but jumpstarting a vehicle with force lightning seems kind of like "doing chest compressions with a burst fire weapon."
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[Purzelkater]

[Bren]

[Kytross]

Balancing light and dark side points, in the way described above, is going to create powerhouse characters. Instead of using one, maybe two, life points per game, your players will be able to fire them off in succession with DSPs tossed in as well. Which may be what you want.

Ironically you are creating bipolar characters. They keep balance by going from one extreme to the other. Again, this may be what you want.

Grey jedi, to me, were jedi not concerned with the strictures of the Jedi order, but still committed to being decent people. They embraced their emotions but were not controlled by them. They were characters like Corran Horn and, to a certain extent, Qui-Gon. If you haven't read "I, Jedi" I recommend it. It is no longer canon but still a great read.

If that's the kind of characters you want to play, you are going to need to revamp the rules on how the dark side works, especially DSPs

[Purzelkater]

Well, it was not my intention to create a overpowered character. The character was a youngling at the time of order 66 and survived but traumatized. She was looking for a new truth in or faith of the force and then she has found chronicles from the old Je'daii order. Now - 15 years later - she is following the code of the Je'daii: There was always a light within darkness, and darkness within light, so that it was impossible for one to ever be truly free of either.

The Je'daii believe in 3 sides of the force: Light, Dark and Balance. Only be light or dark would bring chaos into the force, the galaxy and oneself.

As Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon said the Chosen One should bring balance to the force. And maybe I'm wrong but "balance" sounds different to "only light" to me.

So yes, in this way being light and dark at the same time sounds like bipolar but I would call it balanced.

But besides the philosophy of the Je'daii code I'm looking for a solution to hold a character like this on the game without rewriting all D6 rules about the force, if possible.

[Bren]

[Kytross]

Maybe a resource cost increase. When you use a DSP or LP it costs one of each? Doubling resource use and restricting how often your character can use points?

This is a very rough idea that will likely need refining.

[garhkal]