You think I can’t bring the Dark Lord of the Sith to Essence20? I find your lack of faith… disturbing.
Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that turns popular culture icons to the Essence20 side of the force.
There was chatter on May the 4th about how Essence20 could be used to run a Star Wars campaign. It made me realize I’ve barely tapped into Star Wars for builds, and haven’t touched The Force. I put up a poll on the Renegade Game Studios Discord server to see which iconic or recent force-user I should build. After Anakin/Vader led for the majority of the three day poll, a vote for Luke Skywalker stood up to him at the last moment, tying for the win. So I’m ignoring the tie and building Vader anyway. Yes, I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.
Who Is Darth Vader?
He is your father! Assuming you’re Luke Skywalker. Or Princess Leia.
But seriously, not since building Batman has this section felt so unnecessary. This black-clad, James Earl Jones voiced, red saber wielding villain is one of the most recognizable characters in popular culture. Still, for the uninformed…
As The Emperor’s Fist, Darth Vader outranked every officer in the Galactic Empire. He oversaw any division or project he chose. He used this power to crush the Empire’s enemies, both military and political, and pursue his personal agenda. He punished failure with a show of force.
Tragedy marked Vader’s path to power. He grew up a slave on a baren planet before Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn recruited him into the Jedi Order, despite protests over his age. Within a few decades, he started to drift from the teaching of the Light Side of the Force. It didn’t help that Jedi doctrine forbid him from marrying his love, Padmé Amidala, the only counter to his growing rage. When she died, he fully embraced the power of the Dark Side, using it to destabilize the republic and wipe out the Jedi Order. His rampage ended when his master and friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, bested him in a duel. Dismembered and scarred after their encounter, Anakin Skywalker became more machine than man. The Emperor’s surgeons entombed him in life-saving armour, sealing his fate as Darth Vader.
Building Essence20 Darth Vader
This build’s top priority is The Force. Philosophically, that means tapping into the energy field binding everything in the universe together. Practically, it means telekinesis, mind control, and, depending on the shade of The Force used, choking fools. There’s also electricity powers, but other than a few non-canonical examples, Darth Vader doesn’t use Force Lightning. Which is a shame, since it’s one of the easier Force Powers to translate with Essence20 options.
Next, Vader needs to be a cyborg. There are a few ways to do this, some of which are available from 1st level, while others take time to build. Which direction to go depends on when in Anakin’s transition to Vader we’re starting this build.
Other elements this build needs: a lightsaber, incredible Intimidation, and excellent piloting skills. Finally, if any option can give him the tenor of a god and temperament of a devil, we’re definitely taking it.
Role
Dark Ranger (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Beneath The Helmet)
Darth Vader’s Role took me a while to nail down. I could have gone with an evil leader type, like G.I. JOE’s Officer (Taskmaster) and Transformers’ Field Commander (Tyrant). Even though Anakin Skywalker was a General in the Clone Wars, his leadership in his Vader era comes out of fear of his power, not leadership skills. I needed a Role that gave him a selection of supernatural powers out of the gate.
I went through a lot of Power Rangers books before cracking the spine on Beneath The Helmet for its first Essential Build appearance. I know it’s a great sourcebook, but I think of it as a campaign guide. I often forget its many player options, including the Dark Ranger Role.
I don’t know much about Dark Ranger lore, I just know it has Dark in the name, its first talking point is “Fear Is Power,” and the more I read, the more Vader-coded it felt.
Typical of a Power Rangers Role, Dark Ranger gains a Power Weapon at 1st level. That includes a Melee Power Weapon, explicitly stated out in the Weapons section later in the book. It gives us a 1- or 2-handed melee weapon that deals Blunt, Sharp, or Energy damage. I have my issues with the Energy damage type, but allowing Vader to cut down foes larger than him is consistent with Force users in Star Wars. As Yoda said, size matters not. So that covers one of our priorities: a lightsaber.
As we level up, we get Perks tied to fear, that lead to Perks tied to anger, and then Perks tied to hate. At 1st level we gain Terror, a pool of points gained by dealing damage that lets us deal more damage. It’s the Rogue One climax as a Spectrum Perk. At 2nd level, Menacing Glare lets us debuff enemies or buff ourselves through Intimidation. We also get Spite, which lets us gain an Edge on successive attacks on a target we’ve missed. Vader isn’t a cackling villain, but Menacing Laughter letting us trade Terror for Personal Power will help our relentless assault.
Zord
Of course, we have to address the Bantha Zord in the room. Vader doesn’t have a mech. Even if we branch outside canon, the Dark Ranger’s Zord is specifically a Terrorzord, a sentient and ego driven Zord. I was hoping I’d be able to replace it with a vehicle we could squint at and see Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced starfighter, but no luck.
So I consulted the Renegade Discord server. The Power Rangers fans rose up to offer any assistance they could about how to keep most of the Dark Ranger’s Setting Perks, but lose its Terrorzord.
Matthew pointed me in the right direction. Later in this same book, Beneath The Helmet offers suggestions to customize Power Ranger Roles by swapping Spectrum Perks. The rules aren’t as concrete as in the Field Guide To Action & Adventure, but they serve our purpose. We can swap out our Terrorzord for another Role’s Zord-like feature.
That’s when TheZMage brought to my attention The Guardian of Eltar from Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Through the Shattered Grid (another recent Power Rangers sourcebook making its Essential Builds debut). Instead of a Zord, The Guardian of Eltar summons a small company of warriors. These warriors use mostly the same rules as a Zord, just themed as a group of characters. I was hoping for a way to get a TIE Advanced, I never dreamed I would gain the ability to call in a squad of Stormtroopers.
Origin
Test Subject (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)
I struggled to find Vader’s Role for lack of options that perfectly fit. For his Origin, the struggle was an abundance of choice.
I had multiple options for his cybernetic body. However, what I needed was telekinesis. And there’s only one Essence20 Origin with telekinesis as an Origin Perk: My Little Pony’s Unicorn. Unfortunately, though he has many titles and can be called many things, Darth Vader is not a unicorn. Even with the Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post rules letting us treat Unicorn as bipedal. Even with that same blog post also giving us the Cybertronian Equestrian Influence, which lets us gain the Origin Perk of a My Little Pony Origin. Unfortunately, it’s restricted to characters with an Alt Mode, and Darth Vader is not a Transformer. That said, I did find a solution to my telekinetic problem, and it’s surprisingly a Transformers Influence.
Since I couldn’t get telekinesis from my Origin, I shifted gears to mechanical Origins. I considered either the Android Origin from the Field Guide To Action & Adventure (which, despite the name, has a Cyborg option built in) or the Test Subject (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex). I chose Test Subject for the additional flexibility it gives us.
We’ve opened this nesting doll before. Test Subject gives us Enhanced Part. Enhanced Part gives us a Limited Cybernetic Alteration. The Limited Skin Tempering Limited Cybernetic Alteration gives us a Limited Battledress Upgrade. So which Limited Battledress Upgrade do we want?
Terrifying.
This Limited Battledress Upgrade gives the wearer a bonus to Intimidation, which will be one of our strongest Skills. It also captures moments when a subordinate tries to reason with Vader. He lets the cold stare and deliberate breathing of his protective suit do the talking for him. It says “Take that back or die.”
Influences
1st Disenfranchised (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)
2nd Destiny (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Across the Stars)
3rd Transmetal II (Transformers Roleplaying Game Technorganic Secrets) with Violent Hang-Up (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
I talk a lot about the usefulness the My Little Pony Core Rulebook is for Influences, but a close second has to be Cobra Codex. CC’s Influences appear in a third of my Essential Builds. They may only be a baker’s dozen of them, and they’re almost all some flavour of “baddie,” and yet they often round out the personality or motivation of my builds.
Case in point: Disenfranchised. It gives a bonus on actions that affect how he used to see the world. From slaying Younglings to dueling Jedi, nothing motivates Darth Vader like hacking someone of the light side of the force to pieces. You could say killing Jedi is his destiny.
Speaking of which, no Vader build would be compete without Destiny from Across The Stars. I don’t usually spell out an option’s benefits, but I’m making an exception here to spell out the cleverness of Destiny’s design: whenever you roll a Skill Test and the d20 result is lower than the highest number you could roll on your Skill Die, you can re-roll the d20. Not only have I never seen an ability like that, but it rewards you for investing in your Skills. It’s also unique to Essence20’s Skill Die system. Oh the flipside, the GM can turn one of our successes into a failure pretty much on a whim. Destiny can be fickle.
Finally, an unprecedented third book makes its Essential Builds Debut: Transformers Roleplaying Game Technorganic Secrets! Even though, as a cyborg, Vader is technically technorganic, I did not expect to tap the Transformers beasties sourcebook for this build. And yet, when I searched my Essence20 PDF folder for “telekinesis” (also, hot tip, if you’re looking for an option, searching the folder with your PDFs in it also searches the text within the PDFs), Technorganic Secrets came up. By taking the Transmetal II Form Influence, we get to pick a psychic power. What’s even better, unlike the MLP telekinesis we couldn’t get, the Technorganic Secrets Telekinesis lets us shove creatures and objects with our mind.
Essence Scores and Skills
I brought balance to this build: All 4s Essence Scores.
Before I get into the Essence-based Skills, I put 4 Ranks into Spellcasting. This Spells like Hoof Of Returning, Mystery Sense, and The Stare (all from Knights of Canterlot) to recreate memorable Darth Vader moments.
Our other important Skills are Finesse (for lightsabering) and Intimidation (for negotiating). I ended up giving him 2 ranks in Technology because Transmetal II’s telekinesis keys off it, and that came at the expense of Vader’s Alertness and Driving.
EDIT: As TheZMage pointed out, Vader will have to wait until he can take the Magical General Perk at 4th level to use his spellcasting. So maybe invest a bit more in Driving, Alertness, and Finesse at 1st level and build up Spellcasting over the next few levels.
Strength 4
Intimidation +d6
Speed 4
Driving +d2
Finesse +d6
Smarts 4
Alertness +d2
Technology +d4
Social 4
Persuasion +d4
Other
Spellcasting +d8
Conclusion
I have a new favourite build. It took a lot of sourcebooks to make it happen, including three new sourcebooks that I am excited to explore in the future.
This player character can do so much, and it all fits the subject. So much so, I don’t think I could file the serial numbers off of it and try to pass it as an original character. We wouldn’t even get halfway through a session full of energy sword slashes, telekinetic attacks, and cold, cybernetic threats before someone says “Is your character just Darth Vader?”
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Knights of Canterlot
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Across the Stars
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Beneath The Helmet
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Through the Shattered Grid Sourcebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game: Technorganic Secrets
Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post
Ryan Costello is one of the designers of the Essence20 system and an author on the G.I. JOE, Transformers, and My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebooks. As of this writing, he’s written over 300 000 words for Essence20, contributing to over a dozen products and counting.
