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New Force Guidelines
It has come to our attention that there has been a bit of a misunderstanding about how abilities such as Force sense work. As a result, the ability has been inaccurately used across a variety of roleplays which border on, or cross the line of, meta-gaming. To prevent further issues from taking place, the following is how Force-sensing works in the context of the RP:
The most important thing to understand is that casual Force-sensing is NOT a high-definition radar or sonar. It does not allow you to sense another person's exact location, even if they are particularly affiliated with the light or dark sides. For example, a Jedi walking into a bar would not immediately notice a "dark side aura" surrounding an Exile sitting at a booth in said bar. That is meta-gaming. So, how does Force-sensing work, exactly?
These guidelines will be added to the Force Rules in case you need to reference them and cannot locate this announcement.- Force sense can be used to detect intentions and strong emotions. For instance, a dark sider who is actively feeding their anger, hatred, or fear, will exude those feelings like an aura, which feels cold in the Force. The stronger those feelings are, the colder the Force becomes. Full-fledged Exile Masters and beyond, for instance, will almost constantly exude such an aura, but this does not mean they are any easier to track. As seen in The Last Jedi, intentions can also be sensed, such as the intent to kill. Be wary though, as the movie also shows, intentions can be faked by a sufficiently disciplined individual.
- Think of Force sense a bit like your own sense of smell. You may be able to pick up an odor, but that doesn't mean you can necessarily tell where it is coming from, even when it is an extremely strong odor.
- Individuals with whom your character is familiar will be easier to sense and feel more familiar in the Force. Each person's "presence" feels unique in the Force, so, as your character becomes acquainted with others, they will develop the ability to recognize the presence of familiar individuals—though it should be noted, as was the case with Darth Vader in A New Hope, that, even in this case, it is not possible to track an individual to their exact position. It simply alerts you to their presence in a general area.
- Force sense does NOT give you battle precognition (the ability to predict attacks). The two are separate Force abilities and the latter ability is only as sharp as the character-in-question's reflexes. In short, it does not permit you to "auto-dodge." You can sense an attack coming with battle precognition and still get hit by it.
- Despite these limitations, it is possible to hone in on the exact location of a particular presence in the Force, but to do so takes tremendous focus, usually in the form of meditation. Doing so means your character will be completely vulnerable and not able to quickly respond to an incoming attack. As a result, it is not something that is viable in combat and is only usually used when a Force-user is searching for something/someone/somewhere and isn't under the direct threat of attack.
Additionally, there is a bit of a change in rules for how Force powers will work on this site. While you are encouraged and welcome to create Force powers of your own (within reason), aside from what is provided in canon, it will now be a requirement to create a Lore write-up for any Force power that you create (or isn't canon); this also goes for Legends Force powers that you are seeking to reintroduce. This is simply to ensure that user-created Force powers don't get too ridiculous and cause headaches in PvP.
As a reminder, please keep all questions related to this announcement, such as clarification on anything mentioned here. In some of the other announcements, we're seeing a lot of tangents and derailments occurring and we would like to keep things on topic. Please thoroughly read the responses others have made before asking a question, to see if your question has already been answered. Thanks!
