Edge of the Empire Book

round, when an attack targets the Force user, he up-
grades the difficulty of the pool once.

Control Upgrade: The Force user's ability to antici-
pate danger evolves to the point where he can antici-
pate the actions of his opponents while he takes the
offensive, making his own blows harder to avoid. This
power gains the Ongoing effect: Commit O. Once per
round, when the Force user makes a combat check,
he upgrades the ability of the pool once.

Control Upgrade: The Force user gains the ability to de-
tect the surface thoughts of the target. This power gains
the effect: Spend O- The user senses the current thoughts
of one living target with whom he is engaged.

Strength Upgrade: When using Sense's Ongoing ef-
fects, upgrade one additional die.

Duration Upgrade: Sense's Ongoing effects may be
triggered one additional time per round.

Range Upgrade: Spend O to increase the range at
which the character senses living things by a num-
ber of range bands equal to the number of Range
upgrades purchased. The Force user may activate
this multiple times, increasing the range by this
number each time. However, remember the Force
user must still spend Force points to activate the
power's actual effects.

Magnitude Upgrade: Spend O to increase the num-
ber of targets being affected equal to the number of
Magnitude upgrades purchased. The Force user may
activate this multiple times, increasing the number of
targets multiple times. However, remember the Force
user must still spend Force points to activate the pow-
er's actual effects.

FORCE POWER: INFLUENCE

The ability to influence the minds of others is not

something to be taken lightly, and misuse of the abil-

ity colloquially known as a "mind trick" is a sure step

on the path to the dark side. A powerful enough Force

user can manipulate the minds of others to the point

where he can convince them to believe things that are

untrue, or calm an angry crowd. Conversely, he can

rile the crowd into a murderous frenzy, or frighten a

single soul into gibbering madness. This is where the

danger of Influence lies.

However, Influence is not inherently evil. Many

Force users have used Influence to protect the help-

less or to deal with a threat in a way that avoids vio-

lence. It is much better to convince a guard to return

to his post than to have to kill him.

Influence's most basic and arguably crudest abil-

ity allows the user to inflict strain on a living target,

stressing his mind until he passes out or is otherwise

incapacitated. However, numerous control abilities al-

low the Force user who specializes in Influence to per-

form much more subtle and impressive feats.

BASIC POWER

The most basic form of Influence does not allow the

Force user to guide or shape the thoughts of others. He

can "merely" strain their mind, inflicting stress and ex-

haustion. The basic power has one effect that can be

triggered multiple times on the same or different targets.

• The user spends O to stress the mind of one liv-
  ing target he is engaged with, inflicting one strain.

USING SENSE IN THE GAME

S

ense can be an extremely potent ability in a

game, and has arguably the most potential to

derail a game as it can put the GM in the situa-

tion of being forced to divulge crucial information

that can seriously undermine the tension of an

adventure. Reading the thoughts of an opponent

can reveal critical facts, such as the location of hid-

den hideouts, or that he plans to double-cross the

Player Characters at a later date. At the same time,

however, the GM should not simply deny this infor-

mation to the player character. Therefore, the GM

has to walk a fine line between revealing relevant

information, and revealing too much information.

When using this power, both players and GMs

should keep the following guidelines in mind.

• Some species (and some individuals with
  particularly strong minds) are more resis-
  tant to powers such as Sense than others.
  
  
  • Some species are completely immune.
  
  
  • Sense does not work on communica-
    tions over long distances.
  
  
  • Sense only allows a Player Character to
    read the emotional state and surface
    thoughts of a target. This means that Play-
    er Characters can only ever get an imper-
    fect snapshot of another's mind, and not
    simply call up the information on demand.
    Overall, the GM should endeavor to allow player
    characters to use Sense to learn valuable infor-
    mation they would not normally know. However,
    this information should not allow them to au-
    tomatically succeed in their goals, but instead
    provide a valuable foundation as they proceed.
    Simply put, it should help them with their work,
    but not do their work for them.