Running Force Users

⚖️ Putting Numbers on the Temptation

Everything above describes the dark side philosophically. The system also tracks it arithmetically, and the arithmetic is what stops "resisting temptation" being a matter of the player simply declaring that they do. Two linked mechanics carry it.

Conflict — Earned Within the Session

Conflict is a running tally accumulated during play. A character earns it two ways:

• By choosing dark side results. When a light-side character powers an ability with dark pips from the Force dice, they flip a light-side Destiny Point to dark, suffer 1 strain per dark pip and gain 1 Conflict per dark pip. This is the crucial design move — the dark side is not forbidden, it is available and effective, and it invoices you afterwards.
• By acting badly. Cruelty, betrayal, killing where you did not need to. The GM assigns this, and the amount should scale with how deliberate the act was rather than how bloody it looked.

Note what this means at the table: a Force user under pressure, short on light side pips, can reach for the dark and succeed whenever there is a light-side Destiny Point to flip. And they will be short often. Only 5 of the Force die's 12 faces show light pips, so a Force rating 1 character sees at least one light pip on just 5 rolls in 12 (41.7%); at Force rating 2 it is 95 in 144 (66.0%), at rating 3 about 80.2%. That temptation is real, immediate and mechanical, which is exactly why it works dramatically.

Morality — Settled Between Sessions

Morality is a long-run score from 0 to 100, and every new character starts at 50. At the end of each session it moves, and the movement is a genuine gamble rather than a simple subtraction: roll 1d10, subtract the Conflict accrued that session, and add the result to Morality. A positive result raises it, a negative one lowers it, and Conflict then resets for the next session.

Two things follow that are easy to miss:

• A small amount of Conflict is usually survivable — you will often still drift upward. With 3 Conflict, the d10 beats it 7 times in 10. This is the system quietly telling you that the occasional dark choice is part of the story, not a death sentence.
• Sustained Conflict compounds. It is not one dramatic fall that darkens a character, it is six sessions of small compromises. Players almost never see it coming, which is the point.

Drift far enough toward either extreme and the character changes state — above 70 they become a light-side paragon and gain benefits reflecting their conviction, while below 30 they pass to the dark side and begin drawing strength from it instead. Both ends of the scale are playable; the middle is where most characters actually live.

How to Actually Run This

1. Make the player say it out loud. "I'm using the dark side pip" should be spoken, not quietly ticked. The moment of choosing is the entire mechanic.
2. Assign Conflict immediately and without argument — and say the number. Retroactive Conflict at session end feels like a punishment; Conflict named in the moment feels like a price.
3. Tie the emotional weakness in. Every Force-sensitive has a paired strength and weakness. Aim your temptations at the weakness specifically, and the mechanic stops being generic — it becomes about that character.
4. Do not protect them. A GM who never offers a genuinely attractive dark option has removed the subsystem. The temptation must be worth taking, sometimes.

The suggested Conflict amounts for specific acts and the exact benefits at either end of the scale are in the Force and Destiny core rulebook; Character Creation covers how Morality compares with Obligation and Duty, and why a mixed party rolls all three separately.