A comprehensive guide on how to progress your character's training and how to become a badass through RP on SWLOR!
((NOTE: The following is outdated and not used! A new page is forthcoming. Players are free to roleplay as they wish and police themselves (not each other) on their progression. Training sessions and logs are not needed for advancement.))
Any skill, power, or form that is not mechanically represented within SWLOR must be learned through the training system. The most common of these taught skills will be pertaining to Saber Forms and Force Powers, however, training in skills is not exclusive to Force-Sensitive characters, and Standard characters have many options available to them (Teras Kasi, or Mandalorian techniques for example).
Chances are, if it has shown up somewhere in the Star Wars lore, you can apply to learn it. These are up to DM discretion, and those within the community who have proven themselves as responsible and longer-term roleplayers will have a better chance of being granted more powerful or rare abilities.
All RP abilities are subject to the same Rules of engagement we have surrounding PVP
Previously, skills were tracked on a 1-8 scale using the following list:
Beginner (1)
Aspirant (2)
Novice (3)
Practitioner (4)
Competent (5)
Skilled (6)
Expert (7)
Masterful (8)
As of the summer of 2022, the DM team switched over towards a more self-driven “track your own progress” approach and focused instead on Masteries. These are broadly defined as:
| Mastery Rank |
Title | Description |
| Rank 1 | Expert | A capable practitioner. Far from the best but not the rank and file either. They can improvise, come up with new ideas, but lack the genius that higher ranks have. |
| Rank 2 | Master | A notable practitioner. They may have formed their own variant of whatever the skill is, or contributed to it in some way such as through discoveries, optimizations and teaching students. |
| Rank 3 | Paragon | They may be commonly known for several lightyears as the go-to person in this field. People will seek them out for tutelage, and pay and risk much to earn it. |
| Rank 4 | Sage | So skilled that their talent could earn them some galactic notability. There are few, if any, who exceed them in terms of skill and knowledge in this field. |
| Rank 5 | Grandmaster | Comparable to the best of the best with that particular skill. They know the ins and outs of the skill and can create new and effective ways of applying it almost without effort. |
If you wish to pursue a mastery, per DM Ziya's writeup:
To obtain a mastery is to come to have a reputation for being a master or at least an expertise in the field. Write treatises about it, philosophical texts. Carry out classes. Duel with others. Spar with those who may be themselves already masters in Ataru. Explore the different facets of that Lightsaber Form and either extrapolate (make up new, reasonable moves) or intrapolate (consider how current moves could be deepened, made more profound, or used in different circumstances). It's not merely a matter of time, but a matter of what is done to earn it.
Generally, it would be preferable if you could find ways to involve other players. As I told another player, I am not really impressed by the idea of a character who trains alone in the woods and nobody knows it, then comes out as a master of something to wallop people. It ought to be engaging for others; offer credits to those who could best you, challenge exotic fistfighters or Mandalorians with Ataru, have training sessions where a few blokes with blaster rifles surround and shoot at you while you Ataru around them to weave and dodge, etc. etc. etc.
Generally, you can apply it to anything else. For Xalark, who was pursuing Sith Sorcery, he issued bounties on specimens of exotic animals or whatever, from Hutlar and elsewhere, to be delivered to Korriban; then, he ran rituals with others involved, either having them take down the inevitable results of his failed experiments, or having them, say, offer blood or whatever other involvement in the ritual.
To learn Force Telekinesis: For example, lifting up rocks and trying to move them towards a player while the player tries to blast the rocks off with a blaster; thus, training control and fine tuning evasive telekinesis for combat. Or, lifting a rock and having someone else put increasingly heavy weights upon it. Or, lifting rocks in a way that allows someone to climb up from the first story to the second, so you have to keep moving two or three rocks to create moving stairs.
All of those examples allows you to involve at least one other player.
It's a fair thing that new players would need some time to figure out how to wrestle with the mastery system, and progress in it; it tests OOC creativity, writing skills, ability to work with and involve other players, to log things, to present them in a way that is interesting, etc. etc. etc. And that's fine. That's a feature, really, in my personal opinion.
You can submit a ticket on the Discord by going to the #ticket-channel. Per DM Valo's proposal, tentative plan now is:
While skills are not locked to specific factions, obtaining a means to learn a skill is in general more difficult for neutral/factionless characters. The DMs do try to assist in this, but cannot guarantee as swift progress as joining a faction.
Players of exceptionally high levels of proficiency in certain skills will receive DM loot to represent their advanced knowledge.
While high ranks of different skills can come from teachers, true mastery cannot be taught, only learned through experience. Players wanting to achieve level 6-8 in skill should expect to have to both take on students and be generally known as notable practitioners of their art. This is not just an RP limit, the mechanics and server lore should reflect the RP.
Players are perfectly welcome to begin on the server as a member of a force-aligned faction (Jedi Order, Sith Order, Revanites) knowing the basics (rank 1) of Shii-Cho and Telekinesis. Players should only roleplay having this knowledge if they are or were members of the said faction. These can be applied without approval so long as it fits within your backstory. Any further training from your backstory must be approved by DMs.
If you wished to be a past Padawan who knew more than what is freely provided and do not seek nor achieve DM approval, any additional past skills must be RPd as ‘degraded’ or ‘forgotten’.
Attaining knowledge up to the “Practitioner” level of lightsaber forms I-IV (Shii-Cho through Ataru) is achievable through archives/holocrons* through these factions in addition to regular lessons. This same ruling applies to basic Force skills such as Telekinesis, Force Heal, Tapas, Tutaminis, etc. If you are unsure if something is a basic skill, feel free to ask a DM.
Roleplaying training with other initiates when no teachers are available can progress these basic forms and skills up to 7 skills in a week with individual skills being limited to 1 rank up per skill, per week. This limit includes training from teachers, though having a teacher can progress you past basic forms and skills provided they know it themselves.
For example, it would take you 4 real-time weeks to achieve 4/8 in Shii-Cho, but you could simultaneously increase your rank of Makashi to 4/8 in the same month.
Please submit tickets with logs of your spars. Please try to consolidate a week’s worth of training into a single ticket, to save ticket space and DM time.
Note: If this is abused, a DM has the right to step in and make corrections.
Basic knowledge of lightsaber forms V-VII, or other advanced techniques, can only come from teachers who already have this knowledge. Someone who is 5/8 cannot teach someone to become 6/8.
If there is a skill such as a rare (or not considered ‘basic’) Force Power that you wish to learn that is not known by any other character who would teach you, please apply for it via the ticket system in the SWLOR discord. The DM team will have a discussion and decide to grant a teacher or other means to learn the ability.
*Holocron usage: Please note that it is impossible to become “Masterful” in something purely through a Holocron. If you go this route via forum posts or in-game RP, you can only achieve a 4/8 or “Practitioner” rank. Anything further will require a teacher or explicit DM approval. Holocrons CAN be used to supplement additional training or usage during Events, though this is up to DM discretion.
This is far from a comprehensive list, and exploration through various sources (such as the Star Wars wiki) can glean more abilities and skills you may want to learn. This list will be updated periodically and broken up into ‘basic’, ‘advanced’, and ‘rare' skills.
Note: ‘Rare’ skills must be explicitly approved by DMs before you can learn them. This means that if another character has the ability to teach you a ‘rare' skill, you still need to obtain DM permission before learning that skill.
If you have an idea of some skill you want to improve such as even perfecting your grenades as a mad scientist, for example, make a ticket and the DMs can have a discussion.
Basic: Learnable via archives
Advanced: Learnable via teachers only
Rare: Learnable via DM-approval only
(WIP)
| Mastery Rank | Title | Description |
|
Saber Forms |
Basic |
Advanced |
Rare |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Shii-Cho |
Y |
|
|
|
Makashi |
Y |
|
|
|
Soresu |
Y |
|
|
|
Ataru |
Y |
|
|
|
Djem-So/Shien |
|
Y |
|
|
Niman |
|
Y |
|
|
Juyo |
|
Y |
|
|
Trakata |
|
|
Y |
|
Force Ability |
Basic |
Advanced |
Rare |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Telekinesis |
Y |
|
|
|
Tapas |
Y |
|
|
|
Tutaminis |
Y |
|
|
|
Curato Salva |
Y |
|
|
|
Blaster Deflection |
Y |
|
|
|
Mental Barrier |
Y |
|
|
|
Moving Meditation |
Y |
|
|
|
Force Sight |
|
Y |
|
|
Forge Technique |
|
Y |
|
|
Plant Control |
|
Y |
|
|
Sith Alchemy |
|
Y |
|
|
Beast Trick/Domination |
|
Y |
|
|
Force Choke |
|
Y |
|
|
Force Empathy |
|
Y |
|
|
Telepathy |
|
Y |
|
|
Memory Walk |
|
|
Y |
|
Psychometry |
|
|
Y |
|
Shatterpoint |
|
|
Y |
|
Deadly Sight |
|
|
Y |
|
Force Cloak |
|
|
Y |
|
Teras Kasi Technique |
Basic |
Advanced |
Rare |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Matukai Hardening (Force-Sensitive) |
|
Y |
|
|
Fist Hardening |
|
Y |
|
|
Dancing Dragonsnake |
|
Y |
|
|
Sleeping Krayt |
|
Y |
|
|
Sacred Sleep |
|
Y |
|
|
Misc Abilities |
Basic |
Advanced |
Rare |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Slicing |
Y |
|
|
|
Demolitions |
Y |
|
|
|
Advanced Medicine |
|
Y |
|
|
Espionage |
|
Y |
|