Force sensitive Children

[PsiberDragon]

Ok... I was discussing characters with one of my players and he brought up a good question that i can't answer.

What force power or ability or whatever made Anakin (both Vader and Anakin II) so darn good w/ machines?

Any ideas?
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[PC-032]

I'd say he just had Mech and Tech at 4D, only WEG was afraid on listing Darth with more than 20 Dice when they released 1st ed, so they settled with 19D and piled on the skills.
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[Chandra Mindarass]

There is an inofficial Jedi Handbook somwhere. (Haven't got my linklist ready, sry!!!) They list some powers, they claim responsible for Obiwan adapting to the Gungan Sub so quickly and for Anakin's hand for machinery. Some of the powers are good, some are bad, but I use them.
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[cheshire]

Yes, in the unofficial Phantom Menace Sourcebook they have a Force power that lets you meld with and energize machines. I never really put much stock into it. If you look at the pattern of the Force powers in the TOTJ Companion they routinely do not affect computers and droids. There was one Sith power that allows you to train the energy out of their power cells, but that's about it.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Force powers don't affect machinery. (Things like telekinesis and Force lightning not withstatnding.)

[Gry Sarth]

Well, in that Clone Wars cartoon episode, Mace Windu guts a Droid Starfighter, grabs its cabling and manages to take control of it. That is a very explicit demonstration of some "Control Machine" force power used by a Jedi.

If you take the Clone Wars cartoon into consideration, that is....
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jamfke]

Personally, I always considered that Anakin's ability to fly/drive vehicles with such ease was due to either using the Enhanced Attribute power or Concentration. This would give him enough of a dice pool to pull off the incredible piloting as seen in the films.
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[PsiberDragon]

All good thoughts. But, I think my player was pointing out some of the things in the Jedi Academy series (I could be wrong about the books, but I THINK that's right) where Anakin II is basically holding a piece of a hyperdrive and telling Jaina and Jace that it's "all melty" inside...

So not JUST making machines work better, but he seemed to have an intuitive grasp of it... even at a VERY young age.

Even in Ep I, Anakin seemed to understand what the deal with his podracer was and how to fix it... again, almost intuitively...

Not to cross shows/movies, but kind of like Kaylee from Firefly/Serenity.. "Machines just talk to me" type thing...
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"Love like you will die tomorrow. Hate like you will live forever." - Unknown

[Phalanks Balas]

If we consider people can use force instinctively, I mean without total will control, job done by young anakin can be explained with only concentration power of manify sense. another possibility is a natural skill in repairing machines.
"All melty inside" can be explained by magnify smell sense => Anakin smelt very light odor of burned componant that normal being can't sense and think all componants are melted.

Some creatures in the universe like Verpines can repair droids or starship without using force skills and also without any technical knowledge. It's a trap to think all is done by the need of the Force
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Phalanks

A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates !

[PC-032]

Their is the Sith Power Eletronic Manuplation (Jedi Academy p. 50), it's basicaly "Affect Minds" only it works on Droids and Computers. Using it slugs you with a Dark Side Point.
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"Remember There Are No Stupid Questions-Just Stupid People." Mr. Morgan Blackhand.

[Phalanks Balas]

Sure PC-032, but do you mean anakin use anger to repair machines ?
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Phalanks

A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates !

[garhkal]

I know one book (cannot rememer which at this oment) had a force power of machine manipulation... was a sense/alter power with the sense part 20+ for iff, and the ater part 25+...
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[PC-032]

[Pel]

I prefer to think of Anakins' powers as more of a Machine Empathy or perhaps a limited form of Enhance Attribute. If Instinctive Astrogation: Control exists, in which a Jedi turns his brain into a living supercomputer to crunch hyperspatial mathematics, then something which boosts technical ability is entirely possbile.
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Aha!

[Jedi Skyler]

That is a good point, Pel.

Also, although this is in the novels, rather than sourcebooks, there is a power mentioned that allowed a Force user to manipulate droids. However, he couldn't just do it by himself. He had a computer chip implanted into his brain when he was four or five, and he had a lot of training on how to do it. The concept was brought into reality by Nasdra Magrody, one of the designers of the original Death Star. And, in order to be able to pull this off, he had to have previously studied a schematic for the droid's circuitry, so he could trace them and force synapses to click at the right places. If a droid were rewired, for example, it couldn't be affected by this power unless the Force user studied a schematic specific to that droid. Otherwise, the droid might be momentarily confused, but it could overcome the Force user's wishes due to the changes in its circuitry.

The book is "Children of the Jedi."