Force Skills

[Bren]

[vanir]

[Fallon Kell]

[cheshire]

Generally, I've assumed that the Jedi in the TOTJC are just poorly written since some are completely incapable of activating the powers they have in their descriptions. That and a few obvious mistakes in even the character templates suggested to me that there were simply major lapses of judgement. Given that WEG was not always consistent, it just seemed to me that there were compounded mistakes.
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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.

[Bren]

My thought process is as folllows. The rules explicitly tell you the following:

(1) Characters start with base species attributes +6D (so for humans 18D in attributes), with no attribute starting above max or below min for the species.
(2) Characters may be force sensitive or not for free at character creation.
(3) Characters who are force sensitive can have starting force skills at a cost of 1D of attribute per force skill and that a starting force skill is 1D.
(4) Characters start with 7D in additional skill dice that they can add to any skill but no more than 2D may be added to any one skill (exception for specializations).

The templates in the back of the 2E and 2R&E editions perfectly align with those rules (once you look at the errata for the Young Jedi template).

The templates in the back of the TotJ for most of the force users do not align with those rules.

All (or nearly all) of the Force Using characters that have stats (e.g. Obi-Wan, Luke, Vader, Palpatine, etc. have at least 15D of attributes and all three force skills at well above 3D. Nearly all of them actually have 18D of attributes. Thus concluding that raising force skills above 1D costs attributes is inconsistent with the movie characters' stats. IIR it is also inconsistent with the TotJ characters like Ulic Quel Droma, Nomi Sunrider, and the rest. Why would we assume that player characters are noticeably inferior to other characters?

Then I consider the following:

[vanir]

And yet once again, the system I use is inferred by the assumption all the published material is correct, and this way does not conflict:

re: allocation of initial Force skills during character creation:

Attribute die must be used for Force skill die during character creation only. The Player may design a character background to fit implications.
eg. a Young Jedi with Control 1D, Sense 1D and Alter 1D +15D attributes.
or, a Miraluka Healer in the Old Republic era with Control 2D and Sense 1D +15D attributes.
or, a Failed Jedi with Control 1D and Sense 1D +16D in attributes.

All these do not conflict, and do imply a RAW which I think is being widely misinterpreted here. I believe the only correct solution is the one in which there is no conflict. This system is it.

You cannot treat Force abilities as skills until after character creation and gameplay begins unless you are starting a character with higher CP total for a higher level game beginning. Then all bets are off for character backgrounds. That's up to you.

But normally: Force abilities are Attributes during character creation and Skills for the purposes of advancement after gameplay begins.
It even says "skills for the purposes of advancement" in RAW, it does not say unilaterally skills, and expresses that Force abilities are a special case subject in general.

Keep in mind that a beginning Force users start with only the most rudimentary training, if any and their beginning abilities represent only raw talent. Any training or advancement comes during gameplay, after the adventure begins.

I think you're effectively just trying to do the old d20 RPG practise of starting characters at 3rd or 4th level instead of 1st because they're a weaker mage and not a tough fighter class, in the d6 SWRPG version of that sentiment.
I'd ward against it, or start characters as explained, then give them an additional 30CP to spend on Force skills or whatever before beginning, if you want them to start already a little confidence with their Jedi training, already more advanced than just raw talent.

[Bren]

[ZzaphodD]

Starting now, in my gaming group, the first skill die is 'free' if you chose to make a force sensitive character. If you want further skill dice they either has to come from your ability or skill dice pool. We seldom use templates but construct our own characters with the availible ability dices.

The idea behind this is that being force sensitives is very often a mixed blessing in our campaigns... In rather harsh with DSPs (even with my house rules which in general means you can have more DSPs than the RAW without turning) and playing a Jedi on the straight and narrow path is very hard..
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My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[Bren]

[ZzaphodD]