Not sure if I have posted this before (memory like a fish).

I made a Jedi in Shadowrun.

Before you yell CHEESE, I want to point out, Jedi Lore is a real past of Shadowrun. The 5th world had 6 major motion pictures and many books/comics about Star Wars, and having a character with a knowledge skill of 'Star Wars' Specializing in 'Jedi Lore' would let them know as much about star Wars as any modern day Nerd.

Now imagine a Star Wars fanboy who discovered they were a Mystic Adept or Mage? Surely your love of the Fictional 'Force' would shape how you developed your own magic.

So my character, who was a wage mage for Renraku, was in a car accident and spent months recovering from spine damage. While in the hospital, he filled his time with reading Star Wars books and watching movies, and decided that he wanted to be a Jedi. Here is what is required:

Jedi tradition. Very similar to Cabbalistic. Possession tradition. Resists with Willpower and Intuition.

Includes guardian, guidance, spirits of man, and two other spirits of choice, probably Air Spirits and either Beast, Plant or Earth. Spirits prefer to inhabit objects or WILLING people. They get a -4 dice for attempting to possess an unwilling host, and the Jedi must make a composer test in order to command them to do so.

Mentor Spirit is 'The Force', which gets a bonus to Manipulation spells, and the penalty is that they must make a composure test in order to ever use combat spells against a living person.



My Jedi favors high edge over high physical attributes (The force is with him).

He casts Deflection and sustains it (eventually initiating and picking up adept centering so sustaining would not mess with his sword fighiting). Although bullets technically deflect before touching him, he twirls his sword in mock defense so to the casual observer he is deflecting the bullets with his sword.

Uses long blades. Summons a Gurdian Spirit with the option 'Elemental Aura' power, choosing the element of Light. Uses the spirit to possess his sword, enabling its Light Aura on the blade. This adds 4 DV, and the blade is now resisted with 1/2 impact armor. Kinda like I would imagine a lightsaber doing!

He has the levitate spell, but does not use it to fly around, as that would be abusing the force. He may break his fall, or lift himself up in a pinch. In one run, as I approached some entrenched enemies, I held my action. When someone threw a grenade at us, I used the held action to cast levitate on the grenade in order to deflect it before it came close.

Guidance spirits astrally manifest as a Ghost of a Mentor. Perhaps Yoda or Obi-wan, or one of the Characters actual real life former mentors. Their divining power can be used to get Yoda like advice.

Wears a modified version of the Lined Coat, which looks like brown robes with a hood.

My Jedi has the Compulsive +5bp flaw, in that he will drop everything (including the mission) in order to help those in need. Sometimes this includes taking drain in order to save a dying wage slave who wondered into my teammates crossfire.


For anyone wanting to try this out themselves, the latest version of SR4CG_DK has the Jedi tradition and 'The Force' mentor spirit available in the sheet.

I was toying around with something similar but made the lightsabre an ally spirit with inhabitation or a unique enchantment with weird laser spell sustained (your training is not complete untill you make your own) and gave the bonuses to Health spells (impressive physical feats, resitance to toxics etc.) and manipulations (dur) and some kit bashed falling to the darkside rules for the tradition flaw... if I recall it was the standard will+cha (3) test or gain a coruption point - test whenever the GM felt you were acting unnessasarily violently or used a combat spell. Get your magic rating in points and hand the GM you character sheet, you is EVIL!

I think I treated falling to the darkside as a kind of Toxic Path with a power pact to your own dark emotions (spirit of Man? corrupt Guidance?) and gave the Berserk "Flaw" only its more easily triggered - insults, wounds, not getting your way. Oh ya, activally encouraged taking lightning spells
It was tasty, never really ran with it though.

You know, that's a VERY cool idea, but given the way Mentor Spirits are designed and described in the 6th World, I would say you had to be a Fanboy before you Awakened, and that your obsession shaped your world view and your magic. I would also stipulate that the DP penalty applies to ANY offensive use of magic, even through Manipulation, and to ALL uses of Combat spells, because the actual act is itself an abuse of the powers of the Light Side. With a theme like that, you'd DEFINITELY want Intuition ("reach out with your feelings!") because there are no set "formulae". Go with these for spirits:

Combat: Guardian - self explanitory
Detection: Guidance - self explanitory
Health: Animal - high endurance, strength, agility all embodied by creatures
Illusion: Man - unique in his ability to deceive himself and others with words and images
Manipulation: Task - self explanitory

The lightsaber concept is both creative and within the scope of the existing rules.

I'm not so hot on the "abandon the mission" thing because Jedi are always focused on the good of the many. In fact, such a foible could be seen as much of a violation of the Code as having a wife and children or something else that could be used to help turn you to the Dark Side. "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is." "A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind." Also, a geasa against taking innocent life, or killing in anger?

An active skill called meditation. Oh, and "Adept Centering" is probably the very first thing eligible Jedi would learn.

You know, this is even a better fit for the 6^th World than I had really considered. Once more, we pay heed to Master Yoda's teaching: "And well you should not! For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. The force surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock...everywhere! Even between the land and the thunderbird." (Ok, so I edited the last word.) That's a pretty good description of everything I have seen about 6^th World mana, and Force Spirits are even canon from the movies.

You know, suddenly I'm inspired. *digs out a blank piece of paper and starts humming*

I'm tempted to create specific traditions for different interpretations of the Force (the Unifying Force and of course the Light and Dark sides of the Living Force).

Can you imagine having an army of Star Wars fans doing your spell design for you? This'd be a fringe tradition but I'm sure there'd be Star Wars fans even in the 2070s and they'd be just as devoted as they are now.

I really wouldn't mind making a Sith Mystic Adept... Hmm...

You DO know Jedi is a legally recognized religion in the UK, right?

Yeah I heard that. But "fringe" in the context of it being 60+ years in the future and with other legit magical traditions that work.

Would a Dark Side practitioner use Charisma or Intuition? Search out your feelings vs Raw Strength of Self.

Good times eh?

The main reason I never ran with it past the design phase is that it make too virtuous a character for most Shadowrun games. This isn't to say all shadowrunners are murderous scum, but it can REALLY make the job easier when the mage can be aggressive with their power - and I'm not even talking just power ball...

in hindsight looking at it again I might be inclined to make it detection (combat sence, detect enemies, detect life) and health the spell groups they get the bonuses to - and don't disregard divination as a favoured metamagic just because adept centering works quite well.

Absolutely. Besides, everybody knows the Dark Side is just plain sexier!

As to "fringe", do you seriously think that franchise is going away? It's a MASSIVE money maker, although the content might be a little weird by then. "Clone Wars II, because the New Republic was full of morons" is the working title.


Make it a choice between Manipulation, Health and Detection, depending on the focus of the character. As in "pick one". Or set it up as +2 to Detection and +2 to EITHER Health or Manipulation?

Hell, given the rate of plot-fail, it may be Clone Wars 3, or 'The eighteenth bloody alternating generation of Skywalkers to flal to the dark side...'

Geas: Gesture, Rage/Anger/Hate for Dark Side Force users.

Fair?

I always stumble when it comes to the Lightsaber, I'm never truly satisfied with what we can come up with. A sustaining focus for a custom spell, a weapon focus or as a vessel for a possession spirit... I just want a lasersword.

I think I may just go with a Vibrosword really, and have it be a weapon focus as well. Light it up with some 6th world neon lights and you're good to go. Impact isn't halved but you'll get extra DV.

Ran something like this as a magical oddity in SR3, which was a serious fan boy awakens and leads a Anglo reservation to live by the code of the Jedi. For practically wimps out on the taking a wife as already married and so children who awaken continue the tradition. In my world this was a fringe tradition with a total of seven members.

Did actually have a light sabre spell with a fetish restriction and sustaning focus. If I could do this over I would just us a dikoted katana with a laser refracting down the blade for light show effect.

I made them a psionic tradition with ancestor spirits for summoning but there was only one jedi who could summon in the world. Went with physical barrier rather than deflection for the light sabre parry though.

Wouldn't Sith and Jedi be a little too.. hardcore/extreme for Shadowrun? The Jedi needs a damn good reason to go out blowing things up for fun and profit, and the Sith is going to be murdering anyone he comes across who might add to his power. I mean, what would their overarching motivations be that slotted into Shadowrun?

(Don't get me wrong, I like the idea, decided it was too much work to pursue.) And for the Lightsaber, why not just go the "unique enchantment" route? Weapon focus 1 with a light aura spell, lots of mineral radicals (crystals) as your rare ingredients??

Well the Sith aren't just freewheeling murderers. They're not stupid after all, you leave enough bodies and you don't have the power to have them ignored by the authorities then you impede your own progress. A little restraint never hurt a Sith.

That said, they would have little to no compunctions in killing you for fun or profit if they can get away with it. I would imagine the Astral Chameleon quality to be favoured by the Sith, as well as the Cloak adept power.

I suppose one might eventually manage to develop a Hidden Life style power, too. Or just a mystic adept named Palpantine, I don't know much about the EU.

Keep in mind that the Sith and the Jedi should be enough alike that one can switch between the two groups depending on how one's outlook changes.

Also, there were three basic types of Jedi...

Guardians (the warriors)
Consulars (the diplomats)
Sentinels (the scouts / spies)

The Sith also had their own three basic types...

Sith Warriors (foot soldiers)
Sith Lords (the power behind the Sith)
Sith Acolytes (the lackies)

They also match up fairly well against their Jedi counterparts.

I'd love to have a SR game where someone wanted to play a Jedi (or Sith). It'd be even more fun if the rest of the team laughed at him... up until he kicked their asses to prove his 'hokey religion' wasn't a bunch of thrusterwash.

I don't know if it should be that easy. The Jedi look to the outside for their source of strength and purpose, the Sith look inward. They have to be diametrically opposed: Good and Evil like Lucas wanted (kinda). There should be some basic similarities, Gesture Geas for example and Meditation Geas. Apart from that...

I'm contemplating a Sith now. But if I go Mystic Adept I'd severely hamper his "spellcasting".

Didn't the Sith have Assassins too? And sorcerors?

Someone in here made a lightsaber using Vibroknife, Custom Looks 2, Powered Easy Breakdown and something I dont remember to get the sound effects.
Character was mundane, so magicing it wasnt an option( was before Digital Grimoire).

The best lightsabers have a magical energy aura of light. This can be accomplished with either the Energy Aura spirit power from a possessing spirit (which will also consequently make the blade look more like a Star Wars saber, as spirits alter the appearance of possessed object with a severity that increases with their force).

It can also be acomplished with the [Element] Aura spell, cast directly on the blade and sustained by the mage, through a sustaining foci or perhaps quickened.

Abandoning a mission too far for a Jedi?

If we were talking about a mission to take down a terrorist group threatening to nuke the capital, then yes, it would not go with the Jedi way.

But how often are Shadowrunners filling the hero role? More likley they are on an extraction mission helping some corp employee change companies. The world is not in the balance. The rest of the team are handling themselves fairly well... so when they run into someone in danger he says, ' Go on without me. I MUST do something to help. I will catch up if I can.'

As to whither a Jedi or Sith could make it in SR. First, a Sith definitely could. Sith are power hungry, which means they seek money, powerful magical artifacts... prestige and influence... all things that can be earned through professional illegal activities called shadowrunning.

Now would a Jedi want to be a shadowrunner? That is a little harder. My Jedi character was in a car accident (the one that paralyzed him until he overcame it with therapy). After establishing his new Jedi order, he found out that the dump truck that hit the company car he was in (subsequently killing his wife and child) was manned by a Shadowrunner who was careless. Also, my Jedi used to work for Renraku, so he is familiar with the corruption associated with Corporations and Government, and has no illusions about UCAS law binding his actions. He views Seattle like an Emperor led Coruscant... too corrupt. Also, after founding his new Jedi Academy, its success has become a priority to him. It can be expensive housing a dozen people at a Low-Middle lifestyle, and buying magical materials to help people make their lightsabers etc. adds up. So rather than work for a corp doing 9-5 magical protection, he strikes out on his own to do freelance work.

After a few jobs he becomes somewhat immersed in the Shadowrun community and finds out two things. When he goes on a job, he can be a good influence, encouraging mercy and caution to the other runners, helping to prevent the kind of carelessness that got his wife killed.

Second, he is exposed to some very evil people, and discovers in himself a desire to reach out to some to try and save them from the dark side (their evil ways), or in extreme situations (ie. Human Slave Traders, Blood Mages, Psychopathic Killers) finds that running gives him an opportunity to identify extreme evils that he can later return to and cleanse (breaking up the slaver groups, executing the unsavable Psycho killer, etc).

Now does morality come at a cost? Absolutely. There are certain runs that he simply will not accept, such as wetwork. In those cases I have to bring in my other character, a remorseless Drake with an Ogre Stomach who enjoys eating people. Also, I have found more than once that I have had to stand up to other runners for executing unconscious guards and other acts of unecessary violence... it makes it hard to be friends with the many unprofessional trigger happy runners out there.

In the long run, it has been working out, as the really crazy runners have gotten themselves killed, and the especially sadistic ones have found themselves hunted by angry corps or family members of their victims. The shadows have a way of rewarding the prudent, and devouring the foolish.

So yes, a Jedi can be a shadowrunner.

You mean George Lucas, the False Prophet? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Any religion will have its schisms....

Quickening! Now there's a good way of doing it. It could be a custom spell, or just "Elemental Aura". As a weapon focus it also works well. Within SR rules too.

With that in hand I'll flesh out the Dark Side of the Force tradition even more. When I actually get some sleep.

OK, this is more realistic (hush, Philistines) but you DO realize your character is going to pile up notoriety pretty quickly if they keep ditching on missions. And the badguys (read: the GM) are going to eventually figure out how you’re wired and SERIOUSLY use it against you.


Don’t let this one stop you. YOU seem to have a good idea, and with a little creativity and some actual effort expended, you could easily come up with a workable background that steers you towards a fall into shadow.


I have no problem with this, in principle. And I have to say, the Drake with the super-tummy is just to damned funny. Regarding offing downed guards, even Kerenshara isn’t that brutal. In fact, she goes out of her way to AVOID needless casualties, and she’s the next best thing to a full-time assassin.

I never meant to suggest a Jedi couldn’t be a shadowrunner, though I’m pretty sure that was directed at a lot of people. I just think it would be pretty challenging. Keep in mind, after the fall of the Republic, there are stories of a few minor Jedi Knights surviving by hiding in remote areas and doing whatever they could to make ends meet while trying to maintain their adherence to the Code. I don’t have a problem with the idea.

Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I'd prefer to keep my Shadowrun game Shadowrunny, and leave Jedi for when I feel like a Star Wars RPG...but if it fits in your group, the other players are okay with it, and it's not hampering your ability to play whatever flavor of Shadowrun game your GM likes...more power to ya, I guess.

I know it’s off topic a bit but, it’s fun to mix genres once in a while. Talked our group into doing BESM game a few years back, since I was tired of DnD and fantasy in general. It was set in "Tenchi Verse" and we could make pretty much anything at all. We ended up with pilot with a light speed capable gundam, android hacker/techie, and catgirl gunbunny. And what did I end up with since I was tired of fantasy??? *Sigh* a seliee changeling from Oberon’s court whose mom was the captain of Titania’s guards, was taught magic by “uncle� Puck, who had no clue about mortal life except baking cookies, and whose intelligent aristocrat “sword� (or WMD) had a burning hatred toward Jurai. Have to admit that was one of the funniest games I have ever played in.

PS: Have to say dynamic sorcery kicks ass even if it does leave you unconscious for half the adventure.

PPS: As for the common problem of intelligent “swords� deciding on their own they need to blow up a ½ a town while trying (and failing) to kill someone, I would recommend disciplining them by transmuting them into a turnip. It seems to work fairly well.

PPPS: I really don’t understand why the godlike benefits of being able to create amazing deserts is completely overlooked by so many players.
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Anyone want a cookie? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

It's not necessarily a genre cross. You're not trying to bring Star Wars into Shadowrun. You're trying to bring a pop-culture reference that has a following not only of its imagery, iconography and stories, but of its very ideals. Traditions are entirely about the way a person INTERACTS with the Awakened world around them. If their world view is absolutely and consumingly that of a Jedi, when they Awaken, I see NO reason they couldn't (or shouldn't) have the potential for that world-view to mold their use of magic. Belief is a powerful thing, and if you suddenly discovered that you COULD move things with your mind...

"The Force is strong within you."

Star Trek probably still has some serious adherents, but I see that influence being much more prevalent in the Matrix. Actually, that's an interesting idea for a Technomancer Stream, now that I think about it.

Anyhow, "as my customary farewell would seem to be oddly self serving, let me instead simply say" "may the Force be with you".

(There, I managed to get both genres into ONE blasphemous post!)

Scratch this, acvtually. If you go the unique enchantment route, you may as well just get a tiny little lightsaber hilt and enchant it with the lightaura spell - just extend it ever so slightly. Makes the crystals make more sense, I guess. And further, wouldn't these characters start OFF with severely curtailed spellcasting abilities but have them expand as they initiate fairly rapidly? I mean, darth vader didn't toss around lightning bolts, and neither did darth maul. I think Sidious did other neat stuff as well although I really don't know much about the EU.