Practical Application for Disturbances in the Force

[garhkal]

Do you all make them roll for any of these 'disturbances'??
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

[vanir]

When meditating upon the Force Jedi Knights are essentially using or attempting to develop powers like Receptive Telepathy, Farseeing, Sense Force, Life Sense, etc.

It's easy to know how to look for a disturbance in the Force, you roll your power's skills, but it is a matter of discovering this delivery system through an instructor, holocron or if the player is repetitive and the GM is willing you might allow him some small sidequest for a journey of self discovery (develops the power himself).

What you want to do is get a good description from the player as to precisely in which manner is going to "meditate upon the Force," what exactly is he meditating upon or searching for?

Then pick the power(s) it's closest to and perhaps discuss those.

Once again "a disturbance in the Force" isn't about the Force, it's about something important which set it off. It is this thing which is the focus, the Force is just a transmission network in this context. For a major event Farseeing is the most appropriate power, use this if the player has it. Instruct him at his next training regime that his holocron/master/archives mention some of the things he was contemplating about sensing disturbances in the Force and it is a control and sense based power called Farseeing, "...you must find a way to learn this as your next task if you are to become the kind of Jedi which befits your character."

As a GM device sure you might throw a disturbance in the Force. A core rules hardnut GM might simply say, disturbance and to find out more you'll have to use Farseeing or other appropriate powers.
You might say this is what happened with Ben Kenobi aboard the Millennium Falcon, apon arrival at Alderaan. He sensed a terrible disturbance in the Force and drifted away for a moment as he used Farseeing to discover more. He heard thousands of screaming voices which suddenly stopped, the vision was short and brutal in nature.

But what I tend to do as GM is deliver a sneak preview of the Farseeing power in conjunction with a disturbance in the Force, as a simple device.
If I do this however I'm obligated to place plenty of opportunities to learn Farseeing in the character's path I've taken to doing this to.

And such things aren't always as handy as one would think...

[garhkal]

Does it matter if they have those power(s) or not?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

Well that's the trick when using as a GM device. I'd say GM are best served governing themselves a bit with splashing the Force around, have a clear physical problem in mind when considering of whether to alert the characters with a "disturbance"

You don't want to use it as a form of automatic Sense Force just because you're really happy about a darksider encounter you've introduced. If the character has this power, you could try to give him a hint to use it, such as an ambiguous "disturbance". But if characters don't have this power you could risk cheapining the system of learning powers in order to define how a given Jedi maybe played.
An inexperienced Jedi could conceivably encounter darkside marauders in combat and never guess they were trained in some degree of Force use. Certainly this is less likely for more experienced masters or powerful Jedi Knights but this is represented by the need to learn powers as you go.

It depends on the kind of situation the GM wants to use "a disturbance in the Force" as a device.

If an adventure hook, you can certainly ignore the power requirement and simply deliver a vision to a Jedi prematurely, or another Force Sensitive, preferrably Force user most likely to develop Sense based powers. It's an abstract rule that just means most Jedi eventually learn to do this anyway with Farseeing and the root of it all is these random visions any Jedi may experience during meditation or sleep. There is no requirement for them (other than you should restrict them to force users most likely to develop sense based powers where you can).

When delivering one of these devices, say I want them to go to the Elrood sector and help with an evacuation of a system which is about to go nova, and in this mission I've planned the nova to be the climactic end scenes, involving the characters in a race against time, etc.
So I might start the whole shebang off with a vision to a Jedi who seems to be developing his Sense skills and abilities, even if they don't have or couldn't make the difficulty for Farseeing, just give a dreamscape sneak preview of the system going nova and say, all our party being blown to smitherines! omg could it be the end of our adventuring!! shock horror!
If I've planned it out well enough I might place some pivotal information on how to avoid this disaster in the vision.

Then just deliver the "disturbance in the Force" with this image, this momentary vision which distracts the particular Jedi at a good moment to introduce the adventure hook to the party.

Mostly we want them to think about real things whenever reference to the Force is made, so that we don't accidentally turn it into a D&D magic system. The Force is an energy field, it's always there. The Jedi asks, but what does it describe? That sort of hocus pocus

[garhkal]

Interesting.

For sparks one of the things we do each game module, is have a force sidebar.. some ONLY go to jedi, all the rest to force sensitives.... A rare few do have a D roll to get it.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

Well with its main roots in Arthurian lore and Tibetan mysticism which was becoming popular at the time (it was very funky-70s Star Wars), the very basis of these disciplines are druidism. To me the Jedi and knowledge of the Force are really druidic disciplines, sort of like wise monks, sort of like martial artists, sort of like regular joes with a reverence for something bigger than themselves. It eventually developed some dogma (ref: the tales of the Jedi Council's role in its own demise), but at its core the Jedi are really classical druids I think, with the difference between their celebration and their activities being the difference between a druid's reputation and their actual lifestyle and belief structure.

So the Force is a very druidic kind of thing in our gaming.

[Bren]

[garhkal]

So.. i take it they have a wizened old druid brewing special potions?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

You're talking about Japanese Shugenja warrior-priests, traditionally shinto but there are some zen buddhist samurai warrior traditions like the Gikan Ryu kobudo. The school philosophy is to never hit first in combat, but the technique is known as "bone smashing" and the founder is said to have run around breaking katana-blades with his fists. He was the Warlord of Kawachi castle in the 16th century and makes an extremely good Jedi equivalent.
Some kobudo and budo taijutsu schools in regional Japan can trace their masters lineage to him, Gikan Ryu Koppojutsu is still taught but only verbally, thus only by personal instruction from a kobudo master with lineage to Uryu Gikanbo (there are still two around today).

One of the oldest surviving kobudo is the Happo Hiken of Izumo s*** also called kukishinden ryu which stretches beyond the 12th century. The founder of Aikido studied under this tradition and later developed kukishin aikido. The art's philosophy is "a grasp of space transcending time" and its name translates into "eight secret weapons techniques"

One of the inheritors of several kobudo archives and instruction was Takamatsu ryuha kobudo the 33rd descendant of Togakure Daisuke, Takamatsu became ordained whilst the 32nd descendant was the sword instructor for the Tokugawa shogunate until he retired the position on grounds of conscience. The 21st descendant, who lived in the 15th century is the second most famous historical ninja in Japan.

This is druidism. The gotonpo, gogyo, inyodo, kujinoho, Japanese witchcraft and divine magic is identical and are druidism.

[Bren]

[vanir]

In western terms their whole take on witchcraft is druidism. The shugenja mikkyo are analoguous to druidic culture and is present in ancient Hebrew tradition, through iron age Europe and reached its height during the classical period in the Mediterranean.

There was some contact with the orient through central Asia (the later Silk Road), some scientific disciplines demonstrably transmitted between east-west at this time and among them the classical pagan philosophies of elemental theories and atomos. Both of these are central to traditional Japanese "magic and divine influence" or druidism, as practised among shugenja, larger samurai families, priestly temples and independent sects (typically settlements in wilderness regions with little regular outside contact).

The shugenja mikkyo evolved elemental theories inherited from China around the 12th century, practised on the mainland in sectarian form with both buddhist and taoist leanings. In Japan it served to introduce both into the developing cultural traditions of superstition and belief structures.

Japanese instruction traditionally is very structured and absolutist. A given priest may study three particular disciplines within the Temple, two maybe shinto and one buddhist. This is perfectly typical.

Samurai was an aristocratic station rather than employment career so most community roles were labelled on an ad hoc basis. Metal smithies often doubled as an elite houseguard since they were responsible for testing samurai blades and thus were among the few commoners proficient in their use.

The word Priest usually denoted an Imperial presence as the formal clergy was heavily involved in maintenance of the royal house, traditionally shinto and not really playing the role very equivalent to western missionaries and regular clergy in the middle ages. The closest thing to this would be the shugenja or warrior-mystics, the monks of Japan whom are as I described.

Their belief structure was based upon the elemental theories gogyo and gotonpo for insight and direction of natural courses, inyodo for understanding the duality of the universe plus more esoteric Tibetan sourced disciplines such as the mandala and kujinoho. They practise firmly the belief in a holistic universe where thought, word and deed are parts of the same whole, they begin martial arts instruction in childhood and have notably tutored Emperors and Shogun (the Tokugawan shogunate, various warlords and samurai houses, I can give names and dates).

They're almost like a power behind the throne in Imperial Japan, heavily involved in territorial disputes and changes of leadership throughout Japanese mediaeval history. They're recognised by the Museum of Japan by family names and archival records.

But like the Jedi the Shugenja were ostensibly keepers of the peace, they couldn't fight a war for anyone. They were in the command tents advising Samurai and teaching young Emperors swordplay however. Individual houses sometimes did raids or even organised into large conglomerations of houses, bringing together a wide array of individual specialisations in martial styles and philosophies.

The 9 Demons tradition and the Immovable God family would make for an interesting battlefield combination for example. Especially when one starts incanting at you as a distraction while another cuts you to shreds with a naginata.

[CRMcNeill]

[Bren]

[vanir]

It's not that much of a stretch, druidism is a generic term. Unsurprisingly it's originally from the greeks by name which were the first to describe the Gauls and such as keltoi, or the "people from over the mountains" as the title means. Druidic shamanism is a subject of palaeoanthropological study, it goes as far back as seminal cultism, a form of nature-fertility worship.
It just means nature priest basically, using groves in place of temples. It doesn't mean those hooded cultists in that silly movie the Wicker Man.
Even one Knightly Order in England in the 15th century assembled on pagan rather than Christian beliefs, calling themselves the Knights of the Blue Garter (they surreptitiously identified each other by a piece of blue material tied to their armour), each was a member of another Knightly Order, their assembly was clandestine and to protect small communities from political subjugation when the Catholics and Protestants were brutally competing for state authority. According to legend they gathered in groves and venerated druids rather than traditional priests.

Is Dagobah not Yoda's druid grove?