Hello Everyone!

This report is packed with information on new and recent changes to our Character Sheet Systems. It will be going over the Force Sensitivity Points and open Lightsaber skill as previously announced by the Grand Master. It also covers some massive new changes to the sheet skills list which will impact many of your sheets' skill ladders and feat selections. A lot of exciting things have hit our system since its last update.

Also be sure to check out the great report Voice Staff Magistrate Reiden Karr put out, detailing a lot of useful information about the CS creation process!

Lightsaber Skill For All

With the increasing appearances of non-Jedi folk utilizing lightsabers, we decided to open the Lightsaber skill completely to the NFU Orders. Historically NFU Lightsaber usage has been limited to using their Bladed/Blunt Weapons Skills, and they could not train in the dedicated forms for the weapon.

The Bladed/Blunt Weapons Skills can still be used for using a lightsaber, though worse than dedicated training in the forms. This is an option for both Force-User and NonForce-User orders.

Important The act of blaster bolt deflection and redirection is still tightly tied to using the force, and is limited to the Force-User orders only.

There was a slight hiccup in this deployment as the Saber Form selection was still restricted in the CS wizard. That has been fixed so if you had previously switched to using the Lightsaber Skill but didn’t have the option to select your preferred forms that has now been fixed, as shown below.

The Force Binds The Galaxy Together

As a major change to our system, Force Sensitivity Points (FSPs) have been deployed. These bonus points are available to both FU and NFU Orders as optional Force power points. Star Wars has long talked about the Force flowing through all living things, and should you play an NFU and want just that slight untrained tap of Force capability, or if you play a Force-wielder and just want the extra boost of connection, these points are available for usage.

There are a total of 6 points that can be unlocked. You will earn one at JM1 and EQ1 and can earn one from each of the pillar societies by reaching *Rank X in them. Once earned they are available for immediate usage. NFUs will find that usage is limited to only tiers 1 and 2 of the force powers, which means, at most, they can have 2 +2 Powers once all points are unlocked.

There are additional limits for NFUs in that all Force Power feats are still only accessible by the full FU Orders.

The “Charisma” Skills

The new and big change to the CS system comes in a reformation of our “Charisma” based skills. These would be the skills: Empathy, Diplomacy, Interrogation, Intimidation, Manipulation, and Subterfuge. Following a lengthy conversation about stealth being a component of the Subterfuge Skill, I began to take a much closer look at how the distinctions for some of our skills have been set. This kicked off its own conversation in the Voice Staff chat along with Bubba and Atra. In the end, Zen and I worked up a new set of these “charisma” skills that involved combining some and breaking others apart. This now results in 6 total skills being defined as 4 skills.

First up is the Stealth Skill, the non-charisma-based component of Subterfuge. This is about the physical acts of sneaking around, as opposed to the verbal/personality components of talking your way to the king of the universe. It is a completely new piece of the Skills system, and hopefully clearer than its hidden nature in the Subterfuge Skill.

The rest of the Subterfuge Skill and its ability for deception is merging with the Manipulation Skill to create the brand new Deception Skill. Deception is all about convincing others of falsehoods.

Next is the pairing of the Charm and Intimidation Skills (Happy belated N7 Day). These two skills take the paths of Positive and Negative influencing tactics. These skills combine several concepts that existed previously in our skills list.

Charm is the notion of persuading someone through “good vibes”. As such core components of what were Empathy and Diplomacy now live within this singular skill.

Intimidation has remained as a skill, but has expanded to encompass the coercion of others with more aggressive and less friendly methods. This expansion of Intimidation also took in components of the idea of Interrogation.

Skills TL;DR

• Subterfuge merged with Manipulation to become Deception.
• The physical “Sneak/Stealth” component of Subterfuge is now its own skill.
• Empathy and Diplomacy have become Charm.
• Intimidation has absorbed Interrogation.

Alongside these changes, we have updated the feats for these associated skills and added a few new ones (especially for Stealth).

This update will break a majority of sheets. If you used any of the 6 affected skills your sheet will be invalid, and you will want to go explore rebuilding it. In a lot of cases, I am hoping the combinations for Charm, Intimidation, and Deception also free up some extra points for you to throw around.

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