Force skill (single skill Force Rules)

[klhaviation]

What do you guys think of this houserule???

The Force Skill
This supplement presents an alternate rules system for characters who are Force-Sensitive or have the Force skills Control, Sense and Alter. Instead being either Force-Sensitive or having three individual Force skills, a character with a strong connection to the Force possesses an attribute simply called Force. A character with a Force skill of 1D is considered to be Force-Sensitive. They have a strong connection to the Force, with minimal or no formal training.
A character with dice in their Force skill does not learn powers. Instead they can freely learn any powers listed in the Star Wars core rules, using their Force skill dice in place of Control, Sense, or Alter.
When attempting to use a power that would normally require two traditional Force Skills (such as Projective Telepathy which requires both Control and Sense, or Affect Mind which requires Control, Sense and Alter) the character splits their Force skill dice into a number of pools equal to the number of traditional Force Skills (Control, Sense & Alter) required to use that power.
So, if that character were attempting to use Projective Telepathy, they would split their Force skill dice into two pools and in the case of Affect Mind they would split their Force skill dice into three pools. A character must be able to commit at least one Force skill die to each pool in order to use a power. So a character with a Force of 2D cannot attempt to Affect Mind.
Regardless of whether the Force skill dice pool is split twice or three times, using any Force power is considered one action.
The character then declares which pool is their Control pool, their Sense pool and their Alter pool – as is applicable based on the power they are using. They roll these dice pools and attempt to meet or exceed the difficulty required to successfully use the power. If all pools meet or exceed their required difficulties, the power is a success.

Lightsaber Combat
Lightsaber Combat is no longer a force power. Instead the character may, at the beginning of each round, choose to lower their Force skill -1D or more, up to their rating in their Force Skill. They may then distribute these allocated dice to the damage dice of their lightsaber, or add them to their Lightsaber skill.
A character who allocates dice to their Lightsaber skill also receives that number of allocated dice when attempting to parry both melee and ranged energy attacks against them. These parries are considered to be reflexive, automatic actions and do not incur the normal penalties associated with multiple actions in a combat round.
The Jedi rolls the number of dice they have allocated to as a bonus to their Lightsaber skill when parrying a blaster bolt. If that number equals or exceeds the attack roll made to hit them, they have successfully deflected the bolt. If the attempt to parry the bolt yields a result that exceeds the attacker’s roll made to hit by a difficulty equal to or above the range category separating the Jedi and their attacker, the Jedi has successfully deflected the bolt back at their enemy and the enemy suffers damage equal to the blaster bolt’s damage. This means that while many Jedi can deflect a blaster bolt, only very talented or well trained Jedi are able to deflect a bolt back at their opponent.
So for example, Galen has a Force skill of 6D and a Lightsaber skill of 4D+2. He allocates 2D to his Lightsaber skill and 1D to his lightsaber damage for the round. For the remainder of the round, he rolls 6D+2 (4D+2 Lightsaber skill + 2D allocated Force skill) for his Lightsaber skill and 6D (5D base damage + 1D allocated Force skill) for damage. If he attempts to parry a blaster bolt shot at him, he may roll 2D in an attempt to parry it. If their opponent (who is attacking from point blank range in this example) only rolled a 5 to hit Galen, he would automatically be allowed to roll 2D to parry the bolt. If his roll of 2D was 5 or higher, he has successfully deflected the bolt. If Galen rolled 10 or higher, he would have successfully deflect the bolt back on his attacker, since the base difficulty to hit an opponent with a ranged weapon at point-blank range is Very Easy.
A Jedi who allocates dice to their Lightsaber skill and lightsaber damage may not use those dice when attempting to use Force powers for the remainder of the round.

The Dark Side
A Jedi may choose to embrace the Dark Side. They gain a Dark Side Point by doing so, but gain a bonus for the remainder of the entire combat equal to the total sum of their Dark Side Points to their Force skill. So a Jedi who embraces the Dark Side and has 3 Dark Side Points gains a +3D bonus to their Force skill for the remainder of the combat. This may only be done once per combat.

Increasing Your Force Skill
Characters may spend Character Points (or Skill Points, if using 1st edition rules) to increase their Force skill permanently, but it is very expensive. A character who has formal instruction from a mentor who has a Force skill of at least 3D may increase their Force skill at a cost of their current dice pool times two per pip. That means if the character has a Force skill of 3D and wishes to increase it to 3D+1, they must pay six Character (or Skill) points.
An instructor must always have a Force skill higher than his student, even if it is over 3D. A student cannot learn from a master who is less proficient than themselves in the ways of the Force.
A character can increase their Force skill without an instructor, but the cost is extraordinary. It costs five times the character’s current rating in their Force skill per pip. This means that a character with a Force skill of 3D would need to pay fifteen character points to increase their Force skill from 3D to 3D+1 if they did not have an instructor.

Template Modifications
When using these alternate rules a character begins play with a Force skill equal to the sum of their Control, Sense and Alter skills as shown on the template. Characters can spend starting skill dice to increase this, but no character can begin play with a Force skill higher than 3D.
So, for example a Failed Jedi normally begins play with 1D in both Control and Sense. So using these rules, he would begin play with a Force skill of 2D. He could spend up to 1D of his starting skill dice to increase their Force skill to 3D.

Force Powers
All Force powers function exactly as described in the core rules, unless otherwise described above. The difficulties and modifier still apply, per the core rules.

[dicemauler]

I like the idea of one Skill for the Force.

About your approach of splitting the dice, have you considered a higher difficulty (maybe +5 per extra skill (Control+Sense would be +5 difficulty and Control+Sense+Alter would be +10 difficulty)?

[garhkal]

WIth it costing so much to improve the force skill rating, and that you are having to split it two or three ways for many powers, it will be a rare few pcs who get it high enough to where they are comparable to what they are now.. I like.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[klhaviation]

Considered increasing the difficulty of single powers... but most single skills powers are rather basic and do not add thar much power creep
.. I would like to keep it so that you can use all powers RAW. In player this didn't cause a problem at all...

[klhaviation]

Here is an example of play:

One of the key balancing factors is that you're still committing multiple actions in a round. So if you're using a Control + Sense power in a round you have a -1D to your Force skill for both rolls, -2D if you're doing another action on top of it. This means that for example, using Affect Mind (which requires Control, Sense and Alter) automatically imposes a -2D penalty to all three dice pools because it's 3 actions in one round. 

Basically the multiple action penalties stack up quickly when you start whipping Force skills around. This isn't counting if the Force-user is pulling dice from their Force skill to add to their lightsaber damage and skill.

So, Bob the Jedi has a Force of 5D. He pulls 1D to add to his lightsaber skill, 1D to add to his lightsaber damage. This leaves him with 3D. If he were to try to use Affect Mind, he would have -2D to Control Sense and Alter, making each pool a mere 1D. 

Basically Lightsaber dice are pulled from the Force dice pool before multiple action penalties are applied. 

So, yes, if Bob were to be using Accelerate Healing in a combat round and that was ALL he was doing, he'd roll 5D. Because he can concentrate on a single action because that is a Control power.

[garhkal]

It mentions one action, but then goes on to say it only affects One SKILL roll.. Force powers are not skills, i thought they were attributes.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[klhaviation]

Not so much as sub skills, rather aspects of using the force that the Jedi assigns his die pool to... granted the write up needs some clairity...

1. Assign Force skill dice to lightsaber damage or defense.
-Bob had 5D+1 Force skill... he assigns 1D to lightsaber and 1D to lightsaber Damage. He has 3D+1 left.

2. Take multiple action penalty (assigning dice to the light saver pool is NOT an action).
-if Bob is using Alter Mind ( alter control and sense) he takes a 2D MAP for the a
Three powers.... he rolls 1D+1 for each alter, sense, and control check. If he took a sense and control power he would have a 1D penalty, he would 2D+1 for control and sense..

If all he did in a round was a Control power... he would roll 5D+1

3. Finally roll actions

[garhkal]