CP boost for starting characters

[MA-3PO]

I'll be running a short term Rise of the Empire game. I would like my players to start as newly promoted Jedi Knights so we can get into the action quick. My plan is to let them make thier characters and then give them a bunch of bonus CPs so they can "advance" thier characters quickly and we can start the game. My only dilemma is how much should I give them? First of all, how many total die in Force skills does it take to be considered a Knight? I have the "Tales of The Jedi" sourcebook but some of the characters they present as being knights have ridiculously low Force skills. I would like to throw them a nice round number. Do think a bonus 50 CPs is too much or too little?

[garhkal]

Here is a suggestion..

First off, do you wish them to just have uber force powers, or be well rounded?

If the latter then continue.
Come up with a good CP number to give them, so that each of the 3 force powers can be inc by normal means to the level for knights (while keeping note of how many increases it is), then double what they get.
Tell tehm they can make X number of increases per stat/skill, but only 1 attribute (str, dex, mech etc).



BTW, what is wrong with having them start out fresh?
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[Kayle Skolaris]

Comparing the TotJ 'Jedi Knights' who were supposedly trained from youth and the Jedi Academy characters trained under Luke is just depressing. TotJ Jedi are wimps in comparison.

Anyway, I would suggest assigning X number of CPs to each Attribute and allow the character to ONLY spend those CPs on that specific attribute. Also assign X number of CPs to Force Skills to be spent as the character wishes. Thus, each attribute might have 15 CPs that can be spent on skills for that attribute alone and maybe another 18CPs to spend on Force Skills.

This ensures that the characters are all well-rounded but still gives a great deal of flexibility in how they go about outfitting their characters.

I suggest that any left-over CPs be pooled together and either spent on anything the character wants or dropped into the starting pool of CPs with the 5 that all starting characters get.

[Gry Sarth]

I'd say the Jedi Knight Force Skill range should be somewhere around 4D-5D. That's where you start being able to pull some neat tricks with the Force.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

I agree with Gry on this one. I also like Kayle's suggestion, because I am a big fan of well-rounded characters. It drastically opens up the roleplaying experience to have a character who can clear a room with a blaster, but could also sweet talk a rancor...

[Gry Sarth]

Alternatively, you could offer your players some "CP packages" for the attributes, so that they can pick in which attributes they want their characters to have better skills and which not. Something like 6 different amounts of CPs to be assigned to each of the attribute's skills. Am I making sense here? I mean you offer, like, 50cp, 40cp, 35cp, 30cp, 25cp and 20cp packages, and the player decides which attribute get's which amount to raising its skills....
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

That's even better, I think... It looks like that would more accurately show that, even though skills are being raised, more time and effort has been spent raising the skills that the character uses most often. Most likely, the higher CP packages would go to the Attributes that had the highest skill ratings, so that you could more easily raise those skills that you raised at character creation.

[Kayle Skolaris]

I like that idea better too. To be honest, that was my first idea, but I wasn't sure how to express it. Gry got the idea across just fine.

[Gry Sarth]

Glad to be of help. Just be mindful that I didn't actually put any thought as to the amount of CPs in each package, I just issued a reasonable number that popped in my head. You'll have to give it some careful thought as to what is the minumum and maximum amount of CPs in each package. And in my experience, creating an advanced character is more expensive than we imagine it to be, so don't be to shy with the CPs...
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Ankhanu]

Without having to worry about exactly how many CP to offer, you could give them xD to split up among Force Skills and a minor boost in CP that can only be used for skills/attributes.

Maybe offer 10D to split between Force powers (after spending 3D Attribute Dice, would give 4D+1 average Force Skill, or could have strong/weak areas) and say 30CP for skills to round them out??

[Gry Sarth]

Only 30 CP to distribute among all skills will make for a rather inept Jedi Knight. Consider that simply raising Lightsaber from 3D to, say, 5D costs 21 CPs...

If you want to make the character creation process simpler and quicker you could, instead of giving bonus CPs, give bonus dice. So instead of the usual 7D for skills you get at character creation, you could give them 20D or something, which could be used exactly how you use them on normal character creation (divide into pips, 1D specialization costs 1 pip, etc) but without the usual limiting restrictions.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Krayt]

I agree with Gry. It makes things alot simler in Char Creation. I usually give out 8-10D at the start, but if you want REALLY powerful characters, you could go one forever.

100D in lightsaber and 50D in Lightsaber combat...
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"Your lack of faith disturbs me." - Vader

[garhkal]

[MA-3PO]

Wow! You guys are really helpful. Yes, distributing die instead of CPs would definitely simplify things. I like the idea of giving them the die but putting a cap on skills. I want capable Jedi not uber powerful ones and I think this would work.

Normally I would never start players out like this but we only have a span of about a month to play and few of them are regular SWD6 players. Hopefully I can get these guys addicted. Thanks a lot for all of your help!