Mandalorian Jedi

[lurker]

I’ve been digging through wookiepedia and reading up on the Mandalorians. I started wondering about having them as a race for a Jedi character. Is that possible? If so, what positives/negatives would there be?

I realize throughout their history, they have been harsh/brutal. However, from my military deployments ... war is harsh and brutal ... That said, would the Mandalorian Jedi be a combat master (or well down that path) and starting out with a DSP or 2 (or less harshly a pip or 2 instead of a point)
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"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

[garhkal]

With their culture, i can easily see them starting with a DSP or two.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

We've expanded the Mandalorian empire in our game to include various EU source material and our own ideas under the mantle of having different clans. Each clan comes from a different planet in Mandalorian space (surrounding the capital of Mandalore), representing various colonies and individual planet/population histories. Their technology, markings, armour designs and even genetic histories differ between the clans. Much of the (Mandalorian) empire's economy is funded by MandalMotors shipyards at Mandalore itself.

We refer to the ones in the Boba Fett styled armour as the Deathshead clan (from that skull Boba has inscribed on his shoulder plate). Others are Nightstalkers, Elder Mandalorians (Taung), etc. Each are found on different colonies/planets in Mandalore Space. It puts us in a position to tailor create new Mandalorian clans/armour as required in the game.

The Nightstalkers in our game story, were a product of Exar Kun's experiments using Arkanian technology to produce a clan of Mandalorians which are Force sensitive and super warriors. Essentially he tried to combine the best features of Mandalorian warrior culture and Jedi Arts to create an elite group of Sith Warriors for him to use...Jarael was a kind of prototype for this group and they have similar appearance, but are exceedingly rare, found only on one of the lost Mandalorian colonies. There is only a handful at large throughout the galaxy, and only one tiny colony on a lost world in which they exist as a group.

They have a more Taung styled armour, jet black. Underneath they look like Arkanian offshoot near humans although are a Mandalorian culture. All are Force sensitive but few are trained in Force skills. Their original purpose was to supply Exar Kun with a ready resource of Sith Warriors for nefarious purposes.

Our game is in the Rebellion era so they have a role in Palpatine's interests, who is interested in recruiting them for his future creation of the Sovereign Protectors and other elite, Force using dark troops. Thus the PC party has a role to play trying to prevent this, trying to either convince them to maintain independence or even adopt the Jedi philosophies in the principles of the Light Side, and become a force against the Empire.

This was partly to leave a door open for individual future Mandalorian Jedi Knights, with cool looking Mandalorian armour and a bright blue lightsabre. A lot of Players love the idea of playing one, so it's nice to try to get a backstory into the game where it is an option.

Their Mandalorian, Arkanian and Sith heritage however brings many interesting plot ideas to work with to complicate their lives. And many directions the Player could take to develop their character which are interesting.

[lurker]

Van

Thanks for the reply

That is right up my alley.

One question, how do you handle them in the rebellion era, do they start out with a DSP like garh sugested?
_________________
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

[vanir]

Depends on the individual character backstory. We have one PC but he was orphaned and grew up as a spacer on cargo ships, he only just recently found out his Mandalorian heritage as a child of one of the Nightstalker clan (obvious due to his appearance), which served to explain both his warrior aptitude and his Force sensitivity. He grew up outside the culture so has no DSP, thus when he joined up with a PC party which includes a Jedi apprentice he also began training with no particular issues.
He is interested in discovering more about his heritage however, which makes for some good future adventure hooks involving Mandalorian culture I have planned.

Mandalorian culture is a fierce warrior tradition however, so a character growing up within it and then adventuring in the galaxy is likely to be things like a Bounty Hunter or Mercinary template, which when Force sensitive can make things like a DSP at character creation more likely. A bit like the Dark Jedi, Dark Side Adept or Sith Warrior templates, which start with a DSP at PC creation.
You shouldn't be averse to assigning a starting DSP, but it should fit the character background.

In our PC party a Force sensitive with a DSP would've been alienated by the Jedi and any masters for training he comes across, and we wanted this character to be suitable as a good friend and companion to the Jedi since everybody else is a regular character and he was on his own.

[CRMcNeill]

I think I posted this under the wrong topic yesterday, but I recall reading somewhere that Mandalorians were genetically Force-blind (not in that they have no signature in the Force, but that they can't become Force sensitive at all). That would mean that any instances of "Mandalorian Jedi" would more likely be non-Mandalorians wearing Mandalorian armor. IIRC, the reference was on the Wookieepedia page on Mandalorians...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[lurker]

[lurker]

[vanir]

Well if you look at the game mechanic simply at face value, without consciously assigning moral value to it, the DSP represents no more than the likelihood of a character acting nefariously as opposed to conscionably, in a numeric percentile system whereby 1d6 is rolled against the number the DSP during critical moments of the plot, if the number rolled is smaller the GM asserts nefarious agendas for the character (if a PC he takes over control of the character as an NPC during the critical moment).

You cannot roll less than 1 on 1d6 so having 1 DSP is still zero likelihood of the player losing control of their character during a critical moment, or for NPCs it is not enough DSP for the GM to assert the character does not react to stimuli with objective or even conscionable processing.

1 DSP simply means you're a bit closer to flipping out than someone who hasn't this dark experience/event in their background.
One could make the argument that circumstantially, those who have seen more of war and slaughter could more easily react to an innocuous situation with disproportionate force, couldn't they? I do say circumstantially, because the opposite extreme is also quite possible, that one has seen more than enough of war and death and becomes pacifist.
But that could represent that one soldier got a couple of DSP during the war, justifying brutality or failing to question illegal orders, where the other soldier didn't.

Just suggesting that an environment where DSP are fairly easy to accumulate, is one where those whom have the character to do so, do.
But somewhere else, like a farming environment, even those which have the character to accumulate DSP, have much fewer opportunity to do so.

So for that reasoning a combat environment would have a higher accumulation of DSP pro rata than a peaceable one. As I mentioned however, I feel the most important factor to consider is individual character background.

[CRMcNeill]

However, if you use something like ZzaphodD's Will of the Dark Side rule, having 1 DSP does increase the likelihood that the character will act on those negative emotions.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

[vanir]

[ZzaphodD]

[garhkal]