I have a few questions

[Samp]

A few quick questions for some people more experienced them me.

First is about Jedi. 2 in my group are force sensitive and at least one is interested in increasing his power with the force. I only have the Core rulebook to work with, and it is very cryptic on how I should go about having them learn. I had the idea to have a adventure where they discover a man who works at a Freeport who owns a Holocron, and is willing to trade it to them if they deal with some nasty pirates who have been bothering his customers.

My next question is a little harder. One of my players is comparable to La Forge from star trek. Anytime machines are involved he comes up with some off the wall plan. He always seems to try to find loopholes in things that I missed, kinda taking advantage of the fact that I am new at not only roleplaying, but also GMing.

He also seems to almost be offended if I say no, or say its not possible. Any ideas to help me with this person. I do not want to limit them too much, but I also cant let them do anything they want. One thing he said he wanted to do one day was microjump past a shield just when a capital ship fired its gun. Personally I just dont think something like that is possible even with a huge roll.

[Ankhanu]

[Expendable Hero]

First about the Jedi. Unless you decide to have them start with a teacher I prefer to make them adventure around a while before they find one. I mean if the Empire can't find them its a good bet the players will have trouble. Sure they could be keeping an eye out for potential students but unless the PCs do something that draws attention to there abilities there isn't really a reason for the Jedi to even take notice. Also if you let Jedi gain power to fast they quickly unbalance the game and that can take away the fun. You want to make sure they gain there powers at a rate that any non Jedi can keep up with.

My second part is about your La Forge. The first step to keeping him from going out of line is his skill level. He may be good but most new characters can only work small miracles. Another important thing to remember is time. Sure he can reroute the cables to electrocute the stormtroopers but can he do it in less than a minute. If it does get to the point where he needs to be stopped I would just talk to him before a game in private and explain that its not fair to the other players if he plays a munchkin and takes all of the action. Most of my players step out of the spotlight a little more often if I just talk to them about it. Also it is important to remember that upgrades to weapons and ships get expensive very quickly if you don't make tons of cash. So this is a good way to limit power levels. And remember somethings can't be solved by a wrench. Make sure you give them a broad area of skill uses and it makes it harder to max out one skill to god like levels without sacrificing overall ability. Many new GMs don't use the full compliment of skills a PC can choose from which makes many characters pointless.

[Samp]

Thats a good point about the time factor. I always forget about that. Thats something I will need to keep in mind, that helps a lot.

Also thanks for the rest of your suggestions, they help a lot.

[vong]

About the jedi

I had one like that in my campaign. I was going to introduce her to a dark jedi, and have him teach her evil ways, forcing her to atone from an early stage in her training, or turn to the dark side
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[Eiren]

About the Jedi:

A suggestion may be a compromise between making the player go it 100% alone or giving them a holocron/master... Maybe they could discover some ancient texts about the force and the jedi, just enough to get the character interested and maybe enough to make getting those first 1D force skills easier, but not enough knowledge to help beyond that.

I've been known to do similar things in my games, just give enough to get a jedi on the right path, but not enough to guide them for the entire path they wind up taking.

About the player:

I agree with having a private talk with him. One thing alot of 'players' don't seem to get is that a roleplaying game is not the same as a board game, there is not a "you win" ending really and that sometimes things aren't always gonna go their way. One example I use often with my players is that a roleplaying game like Star Wars is supposed to be cinematic sci-fi fantasy... That being said, how fun would the movies have been to watch if everything always went the "pc's" ways?
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[Expendable Hero]

What are the stats for you characters. Perhaps we can help give you an idea of what types of things they should be capable of doing. Also if you can remember any of the tricks that the La Forge has pulled add those so we can get a feel for the things he does.

[cheshire]

Jedi student- Getting a holocron should be the point of a huge section of a campaign, not an adventure, IMHO. Now, what I've done is have players go on a hunt for Jedi artifacts. I think it took them the better part of a year to get something that was as effective as a holocron.

In short, they were retracing the steps of a long-dead Jedi that was trying to rediscover the art of crafting holocrons. All they could find for the longest times were his early drafts that didn't work nearly as well, and were limited teaching tools. The more they were able to follow the leads, the more advanced the teaching tools became.

La Forge - I don't know at this one. With so little context as to what you're planning and what he's doing, this might be even a 50/50 issue. I've personally frustrated a new GM, just because I had a technically minded character wanting to do some very creative things. Other times I've snuck into fortresses that she had meant us to fight our way into. One time we were meant to infiltrate a militia force, and my character got the idea to enlist, rather than go the cloak and dagger route.

If he's trying to do unreasonable things with technology, then you need to encourage him to tone it down. If he's trying to do reasonable things with the technology, then he might help you adapt. Just because a GM didn't think about it, doesn't mean that it can't be done. Also, just because something is logically possible (regardless of how implausible) for a character to do, it doesn't mean it is in genre.

[Gry Sarth]

[Xynar]

For the Jedi, I have an idea. I had a potential Jedi player character find some old texts with diagrams and pictures. The kicker is that these texts were just like a childrens first spelling workbook. It only taught basics and everything was put forth quite simply so the player had to think like a child to be able to complete the basic tasks.

As for the player, if he's an experienced player, he should know better than to force you about and not work with you. Shame on him. As a noob GM, your players should be willing to work with you as you should be willing to work with them.
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[garhkal]

[ifurin]

[Expendable Hero]

The only way you could micro jump close to an object like a ship is if you took out the safety's that the ship has installed. I've only had one character do it and thats only because the GM decided that are nobody smugglers where suddenly attacked by Darth Vader and his own personal Star Destroyer. Even then the goal wasn't to get close and stop it was to do as much damage as possible and start fresh in a game we weren't screwed from the get go. Most ships if you try and jump close to an object get forced out of hyperspace. Sometimes violently.

[Golbez]

For the Holocron

I added one early to the campaign I am running, and ended up adding an hour to a session while the PC's figured out they couldn't open it yet. So, be advised, adding layers of complexity to a campaign can slow down an unprepaired GM. Tease them with the knowledge maybe... a little taste at a time... Pages of a Tome gathered one by one instead of a Holocron maybe?

Microjumping:

I agree with it not Happening without a huge resource, Timothy Zahn had Thrawn's fleet Micro jump train for months before using that tactic against the New republic, and even when it was done by trained imperial pros in top of the line Star Destroyers, it was a big risk.

Your Asshat:

GM = God. Simple. Talk with them outside of the game and ask them to assist rather then hinder, I'm sure a good friend will understand. If Not, give him what he wants and have it backfire drastically on occasion. The other PC's will stop looking to that person for ideas, and work on something themselves.

[Samp]

One thing I just remembered was that he also asked if he could turn the power packs for blasters into grenades. At the time I said no because it did not seem feasible. Usually I have the enemy armor damaged beyond repair after they kill something (so far mostly storm troopers and droids), but they get a lot of weapons and blaster packs.

On one hand it would be nice for them to use the imperial ammo for something useful. Right now I segregate Rebel and Empire ammo (but any ammo pack can be used for any gun). So a heavy blaster ammo from the empire could be used for any empire blaster weapon, same with rebels. I did this for simplicity mostly.

So my question is would it be possible to turn a power pack into a grenade, and if so how hard should the blaster repair (maybe?) roll be, and how much damage should it do. Also it should probably have a penalty when thrown in my opinion.