Starting Force Users

[Mythologian]

Hey Everyone,

I'm running a WEG Star Wars campaign this summer (my first after nearly a decade of trying to get people to play) and I have a few questions. I apologize if these questions seem elementary.

Force skills:
The rules say that you gain a new power when you increase your Force skill. Is this free or included in the cost of increasing the skill? It says a few sentences later that it takes 5 CP to learn a new power on its own.

I understand that these are skills and advance as such. My question is this: given that you buy them initially with attribute dice at 1D can you use a skill die to increase that to 2D?
If so, do you have access to more Force powers? If that is true, how many?
One per pip?

Are there any specializations in Force skills?

Specializations:
The rules say that a specialization doesn't go up if you increase the base skill. Does that mean if I had Blasters at 5D, took a specialization in Blaster Rifles, which puts it at 6D, and then increased the Blasters skill to 5D+1 the Blaster Rifles specialization would stay at 6D?

[Sandokiri]

[daphnebluestrat]

Can't help you much with the force powers questions, but as to specializations:

I personally don't increase specializational skills when I increase the base skill...IE if Blaster is 5D, and Blaster: Rifles is 6D, when Blaster is increased to 5D+1, Blaster: Rifles remains 6D. When the Blaster skill is equal to or higher than Blaster: Rifles, I erase it from the character sheet.

That in mind, I generally make it half-cost (rounded up) to upgrade specializations, as incentive for players to upgrade their specializations as wel.

[Mythologian]

Thanks for the help. I'm really pumped to finally start playing. My uncle gave me Star Wars Adventure Journal 4 for Christmas one year when I was a kid. I don't think he realized what it was. I certainly didn't realize it at the time. I could never get anyone to play. In high school I found a D&D group and played with them. Now in college I've played a bunch of games (Star Wars d20, Heroes Unlimited, D&D 2e/3.0/3.5, GURPS, Werewolf, d20 Modern, 7th Sea, Revelation, and a few others) and even helped make one (Beyond Mere Mortals) but the group seemed biased against WEG Star Wars because of a bad experience the year before I arrived. In the opening fight the GM blew off the Wookie's arm and killed it with the first blaster shot. I have finally convinced the players that we should give it another shot.

[Gry Sarth]

I'd just like to point out that what daphnebluestrat said is in fact the official rules, and not just something she alone does.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

And, as I understand it, as an alternative to just erasing it, if the base skill comes even with and then passes the specialization, the specialization's score would basically raise alongside the base skill's level. That way if the character, for whatever reason, suddenly remembers, "Oh, duh, I used to specialize in that (insert skill here), I'll spend some of my recently-earned CPs to raise that," there won't be any issues about him suddenly having a specialization on his character sheet that wasn't there before. I mean, you don't suddenly forget how to use a blaster rifle with great proficiency just because you've been practicing up with any old blaster you could get your hands on. You simply improve your overall skill set. It also stands to reason that even though you might not be using the blaster rifle itself, in increasing your skill with blasters in general you're learning techniques that apply to the rifle as well. This would account for the specialization being raised alongside the base.

[Gry Sarth]

Yes, but if your specialization is the same as your base skill, there's no point in having it. If eventually you decide to once again raise it above the skill, you can just write the specialization again, as if you were aquiring it for the first time. It makes no difference.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

Yeah, I understand that. My main reason for mentioning this alternative is so that 1) The player and GM don't forget that the character had this specialization, and 2) If either the player uses this character with another group or has new players enter his group, there's no problems that need to be explained because "Johnny didn't have a Blaster Rifle Specialization on his character sheet last week, and he certainly didn't have enough CPs to add it and raise it!"

It's more of a preventative measure to avoid squabbling down the road. Some groups are cool enough this is never an issue, but there are some real babies out there. I'd use this on a case by case basis.

[Gry Sarth]

Uh, but the thing is, you don't have to spend CPs to add a specialization, you simply spend the amount necessary to raise it 1 pip above the base skill, and so it's added to your sheet.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Mythologian]

Thanks for the help again, guys. That's basically what I had in mind, you just provided the confirmation for me. Anyone have a recommendation for a campaign to run? The players (except one) are familiar with Star Wars roleplaying (be it the vastly inferior d20 system) and all are pretty big geeks so we're very familiar with the movies, books and comics.

[Gry Sarth]

My recommendation for a campaign to run is create your own campaign, tailored to that aspect of Star Wars you and your players enjoy the most. Jedi on a mission to save the Republic / New Republic, smugglers always looking for the big money, rebel team striking where the Empire least expects it, transport ferighter crew just trying to make their way in the galaxy. You name it. It's all fun.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Mythologian]

Summer is when we get most of our roleplaying in but it's also when I'm working a ton of hours. I was hoping to use a campaign that doesn't require 12 hours of prep work on my part each week. I've run my own campaigns before and it's a ton of work. I've never run or even read a pre-gen adventure but if it saves me time I would love to do it.

[Gry Sarth]

Well, if you want a full-blown ready to play campaign, then I'd recommend the DarkStryder Campaign. There's enough material there to fill your summer.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Mythologian]

Thanks, Gry. I'm pretty sure I can find DarkStryder someplace.

[garhkal]

As to the force powers.. Some gms i know only grant the powers when increasig it in game. Not from character creation... which blew bits the one time i wanted a jedi..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!