23 May

Essential Builds – Luke Skywalker

Written by Ryan Costello

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I’m bringing Luke Skywalker to Essence20, like his father before him.

Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that does or does not turn popular culture icons into Essence20 Player Characters, but does not try.

In my Darth Vader build, I mentioned that he and Luke tied for first place in a poll I put up on the Renegade Discord server about about which Star Wars character I should build. Even though I declared Vader the winner, I’ve now seen the Light Side and decided to honour the results and build Luke Skywalker as well. I’ve also now seen Andor season 2, so I’m on a Star Wars high.

Who Is Luke Skywalker?

A simple orphan farm boy. Oh, and the son of a queen and a fallen Jedi, whose actions after joining the Rebel Alliance bring peace to the galaxy, balance to the force, and set his dying father back on the path of light.

Building Essence20 Luke Skywalker

Like Vader, how we build Luke depends on when in the timeline we aim to recreate.

I’ve always been partial to Return of the Jedi Luke. Not only is his black suit and green saber what comes to mind when I think of him, but it also gives us the most to play with. Perhaps too much? By the third installment of the original trilogy, Luke is a capable fighter, a skilled Force user, and an expert pilot. He’s definitely not 1st level.

Let’s take it back a movie. In Empire Strikes Back, Luke is but a learner. He’s on track to being something great, but he’s not there yet. He has already saved the galaxy once, though…

If we go back even further, to A New Hope, Luke’s basically a civilian in terms of training and abilities. He only wields his lightsaber against the training drone, and barely uses the Force.

On the subject of the Force, one motivator for back-to-back Force user builds is to show the diverse ways Essence20 can represent Force powers. I’ll consider it a personal victory if I don’t repeat any options I used for Vader.

Origin

Bipedal (Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post) Unicorn (My Little Pony Core Rulebook)

Bending the blog’s rules, I’m being metaphorical. As a rare and powerful force of magical goodness, Luke Skywalker is a unicorn in every way but physically. Unless we count his lightsaber as a horn. Which we are not.

Obviously this is a workaround to get telekinesis at 1st level without going the same route as we took for Vader. Still, the metaphor makes me smile, and it reinforces that the Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post is one of the most versatile selections of Essence20 options ever released.

There is one issue with the Telekinesis Origin Perk. In editing, its range was reduced from 100ft to 10ft. I don’t understand the intent of this edit, since 10ft of telekinesis neither represents the source material nor provides a tangible game benefit. When you could be adventuring alongside flying creatures, being able to reach items two squares away barely feels worth the Perk’s word count.

In addition to Telekinesis, Luke gets a cutie mark. We’ll go with the Jedi crest. This gives us an Upshift on Spellcasting, to represent Luke’s natural talents for the Force despite his age.

Role

Infantry (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook), Gold Ranger (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Across the Stars)

That’s right, we’re building Episode IV, V, and VI Luke!

For levels 1-3, Luke is just a farm boy with too much of his father in him. He may not have formal military training, but Luke’s no stranger to war. He keeps up with the news about the Rebellion against the Empire, and spends his spare time shooting wamp rats in his T-16 skyhopper.

Somewhere between levels 3 and 4, Luke travels to Dagobah to learn the ways of the Force from master Yoda. That’s when we qualify for the Spectrum Shift General Perk that lets us change Roles to a Power Rangers Spectrum, including the chance to change to an Advanced Spectrum, like the Gold Ranger.

Using the Role’s talking points to substitute for my lack of Power Rangers knowledge, Gold protects the team, is bravery personified, and a shining example. That lines up with the common argument that Luke is just too good. Yeah he is! He’s so good, he’s gold!

Having found a Role whose superlatives work for Luke, let’s look at the rules.

Not a great start: We get Hardened Armor at level 1. The Perk clearly gives physical armor, something Luke only wears after looting a Stormtrooper’s corpse. However, the defenses granted by Hardened Armor work for how Luke uses the Force to protect himself. After all, the first use of the force we see is when Luke learns to deflect shots with his lightsaber, even with his blast shield down.

Speaking of his lightsaber, the Role gives either a blaster and power weapon or the unique Gold Power Staff. Unfortunately, because we’re changing Settings and Factions away from Power Rangers, Luke’s giving up this option. We’ll need to find a new way to give him his signature weapon.

From 2nd level on, the Gold Ranger’s powers start to shine. They alternate between powers that increase the defenses of allies (at Luke’s expense) and increased combat ability. They reflect how Luke uses the Force and makes personal sacrifice for the sake of his friends.

It’s a solid, straight forward combat Role based on its Perks. It’s the Role’s Grid Powers that add the benefits of following a hokey religion.

Grid Powers

Any Grid Power that unlocks a superhuman or psychic ability works for a Force power.

Super Leap shoots you through the air. Boost Initiative reflects both a Jedi’s intuition and speed. Future Vision from a Jump Through Time and Temporal Awareness from Across The Stars double down on the Jedi power of premonition. And Charge It Up from A Jump Through Time increases the effectiveness of a power weapon (lightsaber).

If Unicorn isn’t to your liking for Telekinesis, Unseen Hand from the Power Rangers Core Rulebook has your back.

Setting, Faction, and Focus

G.I. JOE (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook) and Freedom Fighters (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures)

We aren’t so much changing settings as we are settling on a setting, since the build’s two Roles are from different settings.

We’re sticking with G.I. JOE. Star Wars is a mystical war fantasy setting with more similarities to G.I. JOE than Power Rangers, just with the dials set differently. That also opens up the opportunity to use the Freedom Fighters generic Faction from Factions In Action vol 2. We can flavour it to represent the Rebellion or the Jedi, although how the Essence-agnostic Spellcasting rule interacts with “Designate four Skills, one from each Essence, which define how the group operates” is a conversation to have with your GM.

Freedom Fighter gives us Qualification with a Restricted Melee weapon. Hello energized close combat weapon from the G.I. JOE Core Rulebook. We just need to decide what element it’s charged with. I’d argue Electricity, since that’s already an Element we know force users can tap into. And because we changed Factions, any Power Rangers Perk tied to a power weapon applies to weapons we’re Trained and Qualified with.

Finally, Luke’s Focus. Funny enough, the rules for changing settings and the rules for shifting spectrums cancel themselves out. We can choose the Mechanized Infantry Focus at 1st level, and keep it all the way up to 20th level. That makes sense since Luke flies an X-Wing in all three installments of the original trilogy.

Influences

1st Escapist (Field Guide to Action & Adventure)

2nd Not From Around Here (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

3rd Skyward (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Quartermaster Guide To Gear)

Fans joke about young adult Luke playing with a T-16 Skyhopper toy in A New Hope (not that you should ever outgrow playing with toys), but it reflects Luke’s greater aspirations. An Escapist, if you will. In the two scenes Luke shares with his Uncle, he spends them both talking about being somewhere else.

Funny enough, Luke’s farm upbringing is never more evident that when he leaves the homestead. Sometimes an anecdote about Begger’s Canyon contextualizes a moment to those around him. Other times, being Not From Around Here gets thrown in his face. “Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy!”

As good as Luke is in an X-Wing, he’s not so good on the ground. How else do you explain the pilot who survived the Death Star trench crashing his speeder into a tree on Endor? Luckily, Skyward’s Perk and Hang-Up account for both.

Essence Scores and Skills

I had to remind myself I was stating out level 1 Luke. Early in A New Hope, Luke showed mostly practical skills with the odd allusion to greater potential. But he was still able to infiltrate the Death Star and kick some butt, so +d4s in Finesse and Targeting feels right. His +d4 Driving is actually +d8 thanks to Mechanized Infantry, easily his best Skill. And by using the Force, and he can help himself (via the Help Yourself spell from the My Little Pony Core Rulebook) to Lend Assistance to himself, firing a proton torpedo into the Death Star exhaust port is, as his father might say, all too easy.

Speed 7

Driving +d4

Finesse +d4

Initiative +d2

Targeting +d4

Social 4

Deception +d4

Persuasion +d4

Smarts 3

Alertness +d4

Strength 2

Athletics +d2

Spellcasting +d4

Conclusion

It’s official: G.I. JOE + Power Rangers + My Little Pony = Star Wars (which is funny, since Transformers is the only Essence20 setting that’s crossed over with Star Wars).

This is a fun, flexible build that captures Luke’s piloting prowess and his Force powers. I even managed to meet my goal of not using any of the options I pulled on for my Darth Vader build.

Sure, I stretched the blog’s “no reskinning” rule a bit, but not too much from a certain point of view.