Dramatic Acts of Evil?

I was wondering why you can't get Force Points for extremely evil acts? In game terms, that would leave Darth Sidious unable to call on the Force for anything because after he used all of his FPs, he can't do anything short of redeeming himself to get more.

I'd figure if you did something supremely evil, you'd get a Force Point...but if you weren't already a total Dark Sider, you become one.

While we're at it, I think the DSPs you gain after becoming evil should be changed. The RCRB says that Vader has only 16. I highly doubt he only did 16 bad things over the course of 20 years. Maybe a 5 or even 10 to 1 evil act to dark side point ratio.

 

he can't do anything short of redeeming himself to get more.

Gets one when he levels up.

Yeah, Vader and Palpatine should technically have about 1000 DSPs. But I think eventually you just gotta stop counting them. It becomes tedious and impossible to do the redemption thing.

 

Palpatine is at level 20. From the commonly accepted ruling, he can't level up anymore. So no more FPs by the rules.

 

oh, didn't think of that

 

I'd have to agree with both of you, it does seem like the darksiders get shafted on force points and other stuff. I didn't think of giving a darksider force points for doing extremely evil stuff, that's a good idea...

Let's face it, the rules on Force Points and Dark Side Points are a little vague. You're absolutely right, how are we supposed to believe that Vader only did 16 evil things in 20 years or that Palpy only did 36?!




UNCLE PALPY WANTS YOU!

Enlist in the Imperial Stormtroopers today!

 

So they get rewarded for doing something very simple?
I mean how hard is it to do something extremely evil?
Plus, the Darkside is already stronger, just with more penalites. The "lightside" has its rewards as well, one of them being they can earn more force points.
And if you want to give darksiders the ability to gain more force points then set a certain amount of EXP they have to gain to recieve one. Just like leveling up, but without actually doing so.

 

Well, okay, so instead of it just being "extreme evil act," which could be simply "kill a busload of kids for no apparent reason," we'll say "creatively evil act" and they blow up an office building with a jar of orange marmalade because one of the office workers cut them off in traffic.

Just an idea...

 

I'd figure a dramatic act of evil would be blowing up Alderaan or killing Yoda. It has to be extremely self serving, just like a dramatic act of evil has to be extremely selfless. Killing a busload of kids wouldn't qualify, but using the Force to drop a nearby object, say a busload of kids, onto your opponent would.

 

When I GM, I don't ever give out Force Points for dramatic heroism or dramatic evil. A good rule of thumb is just to give them out for superior roleplaying. Most of the time, a player could earn a Force Point just by rewording his actions or thinking of something I haven't, like changing "I run out of the room and draw my lightsaber to attack" to "I open the door, ignite my lightsaber, and throw it at the repulsorlifts on the left side of the airbus full of kids, spilling them out onto the clone troopers."

It's that simple.

 

Yeah the RPG "Exaulted" had the same logic, it wasn't a Force point and you could gain up to five per session so it worked better in my opinion but i can definentially see that.

 

It's kinda like the Ravenloft rules. Just killing a beggar on the street wasn't enough to warrent a powers check. You had to take delight in savagely mutilating the body in front of children.
"I curse you" or "Curses apon you" wouldn't do anything.
"May your spade never dig, may your sow never pig, may a ghost every haunt you in dead of night. May the flies and the fleas and the rats ever tease, may a piercing March breeze make you shiver and shake. May the lumps of a stick raise the bumps fast and quick on you, monster." would probablly be a powers check, plus the chance that the curse might actually happen.

It wasn't enough to be evil. It had to be major, sadistic, and deliberate.

 

With Vader and Palps, the further into the Darkside you get things become Common Transgressions and you stop reciving DSPs for them. Otherwise you could have a character just set there and Force Strike 20 times and have to turn his character sheet over. Also, you have to realize that this game is based for Heros of Overall-Good not heros of the Darkside. The Dark Side Source book gives details on a Darkside Campaign, but they are quite diffrent. Personally, if I was running a Dark Side game i would be a lot more stingy with the DarkSide points. A simple Force Lighthing wouldnt get one, but once you beat your opponent and fried him with Force Lightning just for the shear enjoyment of turning his body into ashes - you would get one.