Character Creation

All Character sheets should be hosted on rpgsessions.com. Players are responsible for keeping their sheets up-to-date and tracking all spent XP or changes in morality. If it cannot be found on your character sheet and your XP spends cannot be validated, it does not exist for the purpose of JONE. We can and will ask you to rebuild characters if we find it necessary.

Jedi Order - A New Era is a Discord voice-primary game. You are expected to have a microphone, headset, and internet connection, all in good working order. Players who repeatedly cause delays or cancellations due to technical issues will be asked to leave the campaign or pause involvement until these issues are rectified.

A Note on House Rules: JONE will have a bevy of house rules, restricted, altered, and altogether removed items, as well as new mechanics and subsystems to improve your experience. View them here.

Your character should be made with the following two key understandings:

1. Your character is someone who wants to become a Jedi, whatever that means to them.
2. Your character is someone who is “Young in the Force” and is at the start of this new journey in their life; this does not mean they must be physically young

As we want to be cognizant of the potential complications in regards to harm to children, and since many of our sessions will feature combat and dangerous situations, we ask that all characters be adults for their species. Young adults are perfectly fine.

To Ensure that your character roughly fits in with the timeline of events in our Star Wars Alternate Universe please check out the setting reference available on the wiki.

Species

All Rules As Written (henceforth referred to as ‘RAW’) Species printed in material published by FFG are legal aside from the following:

• Clone
• Droid
  

Reskins of RAW Species are available at leadership team approval as part of character creation. The team will determine the closest narrative and mechanical fit for the reskinned species as appropriate. The leadership team word is final on which RAW Species will be used for mechanical purposes. A list of these species can be found here.

Note: Species with narrative baggage such as Hutts and Ewoks will be especially scrutinized, so please use discretion and sense.

Career/Specialization

The only requirement for career or specialization is that the character must have Force Rating 1 by the end of the character creation process. The only explicitly banned careers/specializations are the Clone, its Specializations, the Retired Clone Trooper Universal Specialization, and the Master Specialization in the Jedi career.

Some specializations have narrative and mechanical implications and requirements. Please respect those requirements, and do not try to subvert them for expediency or power gaming purposes. The following are additional examples of specializations that have additional narrative considerations: Nightsister, Pirate, Separatist Commander, Imperial Academy Cadet, Death Watch Warrior and Republic Naval Officer. If you are interested in one of these trees but wish to make small narrative changes (such as being a Naval Officer for a local planet rather than the Republic), please work with the leadership team as part of character creation.

Several of the FnD specializations include conflict talents, which inflict a consistent 1 conflict per talent at the beginning of the session. Some specializations contain multiple conflict talents, including Juyo Berserker, Magus, and General. Careful consideration is warranted before purchase of these specializations to ensure that you understand the implications of the conflict talents and the impact they have on your morality. See the Session Morality page for additional information.

Some Force-sensitive specializations have a strong tie to the Dark Side narratively, including Juyo Berserker, Magus, and the Nightsister universal specialization. If you wish to purchase one of these specializations, we encourage you to consider the narrative implications and the journey that your character will go on as they learn. Master Ulworfhav and Master Tra’seya keep a close eye on those students and peers who struggle with the Dark Side, helping to support them however they can. Though he's upfront about the dangers, Stellan Akros at the Ambria Temple is known to take in students who wish to learn some of the more esoteric and dangerous Jedi arts under his careful tutelage.

While no specialization will require explicit approval, please be aware that the leadership team can and will talk to players that we believe are ignoring the narrative implications of trees in order to power game. We ask that you interact with the specializations in good faith and give the leadership team room to work with you if discussions need to happen.

Jedi Universal Specialization

All characters receive access to the Jedi Universal Specialization, which provides characters with certain career skills as well as access to certain talents that are particularly representative of Jedi. For the purposes of character creation, this granting happens after Career Skill ranks and Bonus Career Skill Ranks are selected, but before XP is spent. The JUS does not count as a specialization for purposes of calculating XP required to purchase additional specializations.

Note: JONE is implementing a house rule in regards to second specializations and additional career skills, allowing characters additional flexibility in obtaining career skills when they purchase specializations outside of their career. If a character already has one or more of the Additional Career Skills for their new specialization as a career skill, they may instead choose one of the Career Skills to replace it. See the House Rules for the full house rule.

All Player Characters will start with an additional 10 XP during Character Creation as if they had selected that option within the Morality meta-mechanic. There will be no other Morality, Obligation, or Duty grants of XP. This XP can be spent as if it were derived from these metamechanics (eg: increasing characteristics).

Additionally, player characters will then receive 30 XP which is spent as if it were earned in normal play (valid for talents, specializations, skill ranks, force powers, but NOT characteristics). Player characters may not spend this XP to start the game with more than 2 ranks in any given skill (Corellian Human gets to cheat as normal). The Short Path to Power optional rule (Collapse of the Republic, pg 17) is not in play for this campaign, and no aspect of Heroic Level Play is available to first-time characters.

Max Characteristic Rank

For the sake of the metacampaign and balancing encounters, PC's are capped at a maximum characteristic of 4 at character creation and 5 after character creation. This includes both via the Dedication talent and any cybernetics they may take to increase a characteristic. Temporary improvements, such as the Imbue power, can go past this limit for their set duration.

Much like certain specializations or species choices, we request players consider the narrative importance of reaching a 5 in any given characteristic and leadership may wish to talk to those they feel are rushing to that 5 as soon as possible for the sake of power gaming.

Mentor Bonus

Players have access to the Force Power Mentor Discount during character creation and at every point after character creation, for any Force Power, with the exception of Farsight, which is already 5xp, and Ebb & Flow which is banned (see ‘House Rules’). The discount allows Basic Force Powers to be purchased at 5xp less than the ordinary cost of the power. 

General XP vs Restricted XP

JONE as a meta-campaign tracks two different kinds of XP: General XP (GXP) and Restricted XP (RXP). General XP is the standard reward for sessions and is assigned at a rate of 15 XP per session. GXP can also be earned through the downtime spend Supplemental Training. RXP may be given as a reward on sessions which focus primarily on a few skills or Force Powers or as a result of a trimester Temple Training as described in the downtime document. RXP may only be spent for the purposes which the GM designates at the end of session. RXP does not count towards the XP Cap and characters at cap may continue to benefit from RXP.

XP Cap

There is a hard cap in JONE of 1,000 GXP. Once a character has reached this limit, they may no longer gain GXP through any means.

XP Log

The expectation is that your XP spent will be tracked in a way that is clear, logical and available for Gamemasters to review. It is recommended to use our own JONE XP log with a basic example of what that would be provided here. Whatever method you use must be linked or located on your character's sheet and visible to others.

Morality

All characters start at 50 Morality, with a single Emotional Strength and an Emotional Weakness as normal (if your character has many, try to pick the one you think is most important).

Note: You may mix and match the strength and weaknesses if the “mirrored” options don’t work.

Redemption From the Dark Side: The path to becoming a True Jedi can have dark beginnings. At the player’s request, they may start as a character who has once fallen to the dark side, but now is on the path towards Light Side Paragon, but still starting at 50 Morality. You will follow the same RAW as detailed in the sidebar on Page 52 of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook, until the point you become a Light Side Paragon. Be warned, Redemption is not easy.

Duty

All characters start with a Duty appropriate to Jedi Order, using either the existing list HERE, or the player can present one of their own, which will be subject to leadership team approval. There is no individual contribution rank. Instead of individually tracking duty, the entire Order will receive the benefits of individual duty awards at the end of sessions. When the Order Duty track reaches 100, the order will make a group decision as to what major improvement to add to the Jedi Temple or the Order, appropriate to the Contribution rank reached.

Obligation

Obligation is not in play.  Character baggage will be tracked on a purely narrative basis; the GMs will endeavor to take the best possible notes on the characters in turn.

Motivation

Characters should be equipped with a proper motivation as they would be in any other game.  Make it matter. Motivations do not have to be written down but should be robust enough that they allow you to engage in roleplay with your character and the galaxy at large. 

Players are free to write a backstory as detailed as they see fit, but they are expected to answer the following questions. Try to keep it to a paragraph or less. You will be copying the following survey into the notes or Background section of your RPGSessions.net character, exactly as it is shown, for formatting purposes. And try to keep in mind the timeline of the setting as detailed on the wiki.

1. Please provide a brief (at least one short paragraph) backstory for your character. If you wish to write more, feel free, but please provide at least enough for the leadership team to understand the context from which your character is emerging. Please note that if you desire a narratively weighty backstory, it may warrant additional review from the leadership team and additional workshopping to ensure that your narrative fits into the overarching lore of the setting.
   
   
2. Why does your character want to be a jedi?
   
   
3. Are there aspects of your character’s background (people, events, places) that were more formative to your character’s current personal development? Alt version: What was the most formative event/person/place from your backstory that you would like GMs to know or focus on?
   
   
4. Describe the kinds of personal relationships you might have had in your past? Be as general or as specific as you’d like. What do the kinds of friends and enemies you have made say about your character?
   
   
5. What is most Jedi-like about your character?  What is least Jedi-like about your character?
   
   
6. Does your character have a strong idea of the Force? Do they experience it in a certain way or is it a mystery to them?
   
   
7. Some characters have dark (or great) secrets that they keep locked away from even their dearest friends. Does your character harbor a great regret or a secret aspiration that is central to their character? This answer will be kept as private as possible. (No is a valid response)
   
   
8. What elements of your character are you most excited to explore, whether narrative or mechanical? What aspect of your character do you think will be most challenging to play? We also encourage you to think about how your character does/will interact with the Force and how you may also want that to change mechanically/narratively as your character grows.
   
   
9. Does your character have a long-term plan, mechanically? If so, what is it? No is an acceptable answer - we're just interested in the sorts of niches people want to fill and builds people are interested in. We also encourage you to think about how your character does/will interact with the Force and how you may also want that to change mechanically/narratively as your character grows
   
   
10. The Dark Side tempts each Jedi differently. How does it prey upon your character's emotional weakness and what makes them susceptible to it?
    
    
11. Would you rather start your character as an Initiate or as a Padawan? While most characters will have 2-5 sessions to become familiar with the Order before becoming a Padwan, there is the option to start as one immediately. This is typically reserved for characters who were born or raised within the Order and their backstory should reflect as such. More details on being a Padawan can be found here.
    

Packages and Credits

Players will start with the standard 500cr and the following gear:

In addition, they may choose to take either an additional 2000cr or choose a loadout from the following chart:

Equipment Rules

The rules concerning purchased starting equipment are as follows:

• Items you buy should be no rarer than Rarity 6.
• No Restricted Items and No Relics.
  
• Mind the gear changes in the Gear Changes entry.
  
• Your equipment should look the part of the Jedi for the most part. Please be sensible.
  

Character creation is done in our Discord. You must create a thread under the character creation channel. By the end of the character creation process, that thread must contain your RPG sessions sheet, your XP tracking, and the answers to the character creation questions. You’re encouraged to use both your character creation thread as well as our brainstorming channel to request feedback and work with the leadership team on your character throughout the creation process. You do not have to have a fully finished concept prior to asking for feedback or advice.

Safety & Consent Form

All players must complete the safety and consent form. Please give this form the consideration it deserves and be as thorough as possible. If at any point you need to update your responses, you can resubmit the form or contact one of the Admins to update your safety information. 

Additional Characters

Once your initial character has been promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight, you unlock the ability to sign up for an additional character. Once either character hits the cap, is early capped or retired then you can make an additional one. Essentially you can have two characters that are actively able to to earn XP.

Retired Characters

A player may choose to retire a character at any point during the campaign, notifying the GM team of this decision. Retiring a character means you can no longer play them and they just fade into the background of the narrative or, with your permission, could potentially become an NPC that GM's may use from time to time. Players may choose to retire a character because they feel their story is complete, have lost interest playing them entirely and want to play someone new. Players who wish to retire their character but want to have them go out on a high note may want to consider creating a Player Session for them to wrap up their story.

Early Cap

Alternatively, a player can request to early cap their character. This means they will stop gaining XP even if they're not at the 1,000 limit yet. Players may do this if they feel their character's build is already complete and they are eager to play someone new but don't necessarily want to retire their previous character or wait until they reach cap.

We understand that over the course of play, you may realize that the mechanics of your character no longer matches how the character has developed or how you want to play them. This can happen for multiple reasons, including being new the system when first building the character and realizing you would have built them differently if you’d known more, the character having gone through major narrative changes, or even just being unhappy or unsatisfied with how your character plays mechanically.

As such, each player will be allowed to rebuild their character, a process called respeccing, with the following restrictions:

• Respecs come with a 5% tax of all earned GXP
• RXP while not taxed is still restricted to its original purpose
• Respecs must be reviewed and approved by the Leadership team, generally for major narrative growth, narrative misalignment between the character and their mechanics, or for major mechanical issues or displeasure
• Respecs will be recorded on the Downtime table, including the associated GXP tax (if any)

There are two exceptions to these restrictions. Each character will be offered the opportunity to respec twice without the GXP tax. These respecs will still be reviewed by the Leadership team for mechanical soundness, but do not require the same level of approval as above. These respecs will be offered:

• One pre-Knighthood (lost if not used prior to becoming a Knight)
• One post-Knighthood