Morality is, simply put, the measure of right and wrong. Though the Star Wars universe has shades of moral relativism, it is primarily a universe of good and evil. Morality measures how good or evil characters are. It is a measure of their actions, thoughts, and attitudes, and how they have helped, harmed, or hindered, those around them. In addition, a character's Morality can often be shaped and guided by their personality, and therefore a character's emotional strengths and weaknesses can contribute to and affect their overall Morality. Most importantly, a character's Morality affects their use of the Force, and the Force can in turn affect a character's Morality. Thus in Force and Destiny, Morality is a character's single most important defining characteristic.

During character creation, players get the chance to customize their characters not only by selecting careers, skills, and specializations, but also by determining their characters' Moralities. Although some aspects of a character's Morality may change over time - allowing the character to become a better or worse person throughout the course of their adventures - some aspects also remain set, continuing to influence the character's thoughts and actions throughout their life.

Over the course of a campaign, a character's Morality not only greatly defines their personality, but it also can drastically affect their relationship with the Force. Those who inflict pain on others wantonly, who make selfish decisions, who act out of anger or fear, and who seek power and glory for themselves risk falling to the dark side of the Force. On the other hand, those who remain at peace with themselves, sacrifice their own well-being to help others, and seek to improve the lives of those around them rather than benefit themselves may become paragons of the light side.

PLAYER CHARACTER STARTING MORALITY VALUES

Although these characters may have led exciting and adventurous lives before the game begins, and may have even started to explore their relationship with the Force, they have not had the chance to embrace the light or dark side of the Force. At this point, they have likely performed both good deeds and bad, and while they could still be fundamentally decent people, they probably aren't perfect.

Initially, each character begins with a Morality of 50. However, to represent their prior experiences in the galaxy, they can choose to modify their starting Morality or to gain additional experience points or credits with which to purchase additional gear. When creating a character, each player may select one of the following options for that character.

• Gain + 10 starting XP. This XP increases the starting XP the PC gains when the player selects a species, and it can be spent to increase skills or characteristics, purchase talents, or obtain new specializations or Force powers.

• Gain + 2,500 starting credits. This money may be spent on the PC's starting gear or saved to be spent during gameplay.

• Gain + 5 starting XP and + 1,000 starting credits.

• Increase or decrease the PC's starting Morality by 21. This gives the PC the option of beginning with a Morality of 29 or a Morality of 71. More on Morality thresholds can be found in the information below, or on page 52 of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook.

MORALITY IN PLAY

The implications of Morality extend far beyond the character's initial experiences with the Force. Throughout a Force adept's lifetime, they must constantly ensure that they are acting in a manner consistent with their personal ethos. Decisions to respect that moral code can offer the character rewards that have a meaningful game effect. Actions taken that violate it can reduce the character's Morality, which can have lasting negative consequences.

TRIGGERING MORALITY

Triggering Morality is an optional rule a GM can use if they want to have a Player Character's moral choices take center stage during the game session. If the GM uses this rule, a character can have narrative opportunities to play up their emotional strengths and weaknesses, and also see their Morality increase or decrease significantly at the end of a session.

MORALITY AND CONFLICT

During gameplay, each player is responsible for tracking their PC's Morality. Morality can increase or decrease during the course of a campaign as the PC becomes a paragon of virtue or risks falling to the dark side.

A Player Character's Morality has a chance of changing at the end of each game session. A PC's actions during the session may increase the probability that their Morality will rise or fall. Whether or not a PC's Morality increases or decreases is determined through Conflict.

Conflict is a resource that Player Characters can accumulate throughout a game session based on choices they make and actions they perform. The more Conflict a PC accumulates, the greater the chance their Morality will decrease at the end of the session. Conflict is tracked publicly by each PC's controlling player. A player can track Conflict by writing the current total on their character sheet or by using tokens, beads, or coins.

Player Characters earn Conflict in several ways:

• Using dark side results to generate Force points when activating a Force power or Force talent.

• Performing certain narrative actions.

• Generating certain results when failing a fear check.

Any time a character uses one or more Dark Side results to generate Force Points, they accumulate 1 Conflict per Dark Side result used (in addition to any other penalties, such as strain, that the character may accrue).

The character can also accumulate Conflict for performing immoral actions, as determined by the GM. Extreme actions, including taking lives, can give a PC a significant amount of Conflict. However, the GM should always inform players if their characters are about to perform an action that would cause them to earn Conflict. The GM does not have to tell players the exact amount of Conflict their characters would earn, but should give them an idea of the severity of the penalty.

When a Force-sensitive Player Character fails a fear check, the GM can choose to have the PC suffer a number of Conflict equal to the difficulty of the check instead of the normal penalties. Generating Despair on a fear check may cause this to happen automatically, and may have other effects as well.

Over the course of a game session, a PC may earn no Conflict at all, as much as 10 Conflict, or even more. At the end of the session, each player tallies up the Conflict their character has earned and then rolls 1d10. If the roll result is less than the amount of Conflict they earned during that session, they subtract the roll result from their Conflict, and then decrease their PC's Morality by the difference. If the roll result is greater than the amount of Conflict they have earned, they subtract their Conflict form their roll result and increase their Morality by that number. (If the roll and Conflict earned are the same, Morality neither increases nor decreases)

ENGAGING A TRIGGERED MORALITY

In addition to their narrative changes, games using the optional triggering Morality rule have specific mechanical effects. If the GM chooses to have a character's Morality trigger and if the character successfully engages their triggered Morality, then at the end of the game session, when the player checks for a Morality increase or decrease by rolling a d10 and subtracting Conflict (see above), they should double that value. For example, if the character had earned 2 Conflict, and then an 8 was rolled on the d10, their Morality would normally increase by 6. If the PC's Morality was triggered, they would instead increase their Morality by 12.

MORALITY THRESHOLDS

At character creation, most PCs begin play as light side Force users. Some may have dabbled in the dark side of the Force earlier in their careers, while others may have remained resolute in their allegiance to their moral code. They remain light side users until their Morality drops beneath the dark side threshold.

Dark Side Threshold

If a character's Morality drops below 30, they have crossed the dark side threshold. At this point, they become a dark side Force user. Being a dark side Force user adds significant narrative effects to a character's ongoing story. These effects are usually determined by the GM or by the GM and player working together. Becoming a dark side Force user also has several mechanical effects:

• The character generates Force points using Dark Side results.

• The character's presence in the group alters the starting Destiny Point pool.

• The character's strain threshold may decrease and wound threshold may increase.

One crucial effect of being a dark side Force user involves how the character generates Force points on checks. Instead of using Light Side results from the Force dice to generate Force points, the character must use Dark Side results. This works following the same rules governing a regular Force user's generation of Force points from Light Side results, as described in Force Power Checks, page 280 of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook. It also means that if the dark side Force user wants to generate Force points from Light Side results, they must flip a Destiny Point and suffer strain equal to the number of Force points generated.

In addition, as long as the character remains a dark Side Force user, their presence influences the party's Destiny pool. At the beginning of each game session, after the entire group rolls for Destiny Points, the player flips one light side Destiny Point to the dark side. If there are no light side Destiny Points to flip, this has no effect.

Allegiance to the dark side also reduces the Force user's strain threshold. This reflects the character's dependence on Conflict. At the same time, their wound threshold increases as they become inured to pain.

• When a the character's Morality score falls below 20, the dark side Force user's strain threshold is decreased by 1 and their wound threshold is increased by 1.

• If the character's Morality score falls below 10, the dark side Force user's strain threshold is decreased by another 1 and their wound threshold is increased by another 1, for a total increase and decrease of 2.

A character remains a dark side Force user even if their Morality later climbs above 30. A PC can seek redemption and try to become a light side Force user again; this is described in the Redemption from the Dark Side section later on this page.

LIGHT SIDE PARAGON THRESHOLD

Characters who remain consistently loyal to their Morality can reap additional benefits. If a Force user's Morality score increases above 70, they become a true champion of goodness and a paragon of the Force. Though this does not intrinsically change how their character works mechanically, it does confer certain benefits which can aid their character in ongoing adventures.

As long as the character's Morality score remains above 70, at the beginning of every session, when generating the Destiny pool (but before any players roll to determine starting Destiny Points), the character adds one light side Destiny Point to the pool. In addition, as the character's Morality score continues to rise above certain thresholds, they gain additional benefits:

• As long as their Morality score is above 80, the light side Force user's strain threshold is increased by 1.

• As long as their Morality score is above 90, the light side Force user's strain threshold is increased by 1 additional point, to a total of 2.

REDEMPTION FROM THE DARK SIDE

Shifting allegiance to the dark side requires deliberate and continued choices. Similarly, characters must focus and act in a consistent manner over an extended period of time to recover their allegiance to the light.

Once a character's Morality drops below 30, they become a dark side Force user. Once a character has become a dark side Force user, they remain a dark side Force user, even if their Morality increases above 30 at a later point.

There is only one way a Player Character who has become a dark side Force user can become a light side Force user again and redeem themself. They must increase their Morality to above 70. When their Morality increases above 70, the character is redeemed and mechanically, they function as a light side Force user again. This applies even if their Morality later drops below 70 (although if it drops below 30 after they become a light side Force user, they fall to the dark side again).

Note that although these are the mechanical steps for returning to the light, there should always be a strong narrative component to redemption as well. The GM and player should always work together to craft the story of the PC's penance and restoration. They may have to perform tasks to redeem themself in the eyes of their fellows, seek forgiveness from those they have wronged, or even perform some heroic sacrificial task to correct some terrible consequences of their existence within the dark side.

Players should also keep in mind that, mechanically, redemption is no simple matter, either. To reach 70 Morality, the PC not only must consistently make decisions that will let them avoid earning additional Conflict, but they must also refrain from using dark side results to generate Force points, as each of the Force points generated from dark side results generates Conflict as well.

Redemption is not easy.