Visions in the Force

The Jedi had made their way to Jedha, proved themselves to the scavengers there, and were led across the desert into a deep canyon. Pushing aside the disintegrating X-Wing S-foil that had been propped up to block the entrance, the young Jedi headed into the cave they had been told held knowledge of the ancient Je’daii.

The ancient walls were covered in ancient writing and images of the Je’daii, long before the time of 1U-K3, the ancient training droid who is a companion to the young Jedi. “I do not recognize this writing from my database,” he said, his metallic voice echoing through the chamber. As they walked, each of the Jedi’s visions shifted.

–

Lusian, a Miralukan, was standing in his village. It was under attack. He needed to find his family, and began running. Rushing through the burning streets, he rounded the corner and saw them. His parents were on their knees. Standing over them was Inquisitor Rand, the Inquisitor we had faced in the past.

He rushed forward to defend them. He struck out at her and missed, his lightsaber arcing toward his parents. He rolled a failure, and a black pip turned up on his Force Die. I told him that he could stop his lightsaber in time if he used that dark side pip. He chose to do so, drawing on his fear and anger to stop the lightsaber inches from his parents’ necks. He saw his lightsaber was glowing red.

–

Ca’alvin, a Chiss who grew up among a Jawa tribe, stood near the Sandcrawler. He knew what was about to happen. He saw the dust on the hillside. The Jawas scattered as the Tusken Raiders descended on them. Ca’alvin didn’t hesitate, rushing toward them. His white lightsaber flashed blue. He knew this was his chance to save them. He would be brave.

But he couldn’t. There were too many of them. His blade passed through them. It was all happening the same way it had all those years ago…

–

Sakeem, a human who grew up on Coruscant in Coronet, found himself as a 10-year-old, scrambling through the streets, on the run from First Order troops, a stolen gem clutched tightly in his hand. He quickly moved through the winding alleyways and streets that he knew so well.

He slid beneath a pipe, and the troopers rushed past. He could hear them stop at the end of the street. They stopped one of his friends, asking where Sakeem was. Sakeem hid, burying his face in his hands as his friend refused to tell them and was gunned down.

–

“Curious,” said 1U-K3 (known affectionately by the young Jedi as “Master LUKE”). He watched as the Jedi stumbled forward down the passageway, acting on these visions. He had seen Jedi fall into these trances before, and he hoped to guide them through it.

“It has been so long,” a voice echoed in the darkness.

“Has it?” LUKE asked.

From the shadows emerged a hovering droid, older than anything LUKE had seen.

“I am the caretaker. I am glad to see the Jedi have returned after so long.”

“How long has it been?” LUKE asked.

“Oh, I cannot say. My calculating processor short-circuited trying to count the days a long time ago.”

They walked in silence for a while down the passageway, before emerging into a large, ancient cavern, the walls studded with glowing crystals. “This is the sanctuary,” the caretaker said.

Slowly, each Jedi emerged from their fugue state and saw the chamber before them.

–

It was at this point that the Jedi earned their lightsaber crystals, each different and unique.

I wanna talk about how I came up with the scenes, and how to handle visions in a mixed-Force-user party.

The week before, when I knew they’d be heading to the temple, and I knew I wanted to have each of the Jedi experience some kind of vision. I thought this could be really cool, so… well, I did no planning.

It wasn’t until about 5 minutes before the session that I was incredibly greatful that each of the players had written out a whole bio in their online character sheets. So I quickly scrubbed through them for material I could use. The characters like to spend a lot of time interacting and chatting with themselves, so I used that time to plan each character’s vision.

As each character slipped into their visions, I described things slowly, to allow my brain to run ahead and plan further up the way. I knew that if any character drew on the dark side or fear, they would gain conflict. Both Sakeem and Lusian did, so I really leaned into their fear and anxieties around their pasts. Ca’alvin was the most assured of himself, saying he didn’t want the same thing to happen to his family again, and was quite heroic, so he gained no conflict.

When I was halfway through the Jedis’ visions, I realized I needed to do something to include the group’s droid, 1U-K3, so I made sure that I had something for him to do as well. Again, this was almost entirely on the fly. Luckily, I think I pulled it off, because the following session, I had my players all say, “That was a really cool session!”

And the one thing it taught me? I need to make sure to do a little more planning, especially if I’m gonna spend some time getting into the characters’ heads.