Range of committed Force Sense

Question

What is the range of the committed Force Sense die ability? This is the effect where the user can upgrade the difficulty of dice of attacks. Does this extend to Extreme range and beyond?

Answer 1

As written, the left control upgrades don't have a range. So, in theory, you could be hit from orbit and they would still apply.

My reasoning for this is that the control upgrade specifically changes the power (as in you're using something entirely new, not just the Basic power with something added) and because the left hand control upgrade doesn't specify a range, then it effectively doesn't have one. Compare this to the right hand control upgrade that also changes the power (sensing thought specifically instead of emotion). That one explicitly states "Force user senses the current thoughts of one living target with whom he is engaged", so it includes the range in the description. If you want to consider it more thematically, think that you don't need to sense the attack from it's origin. The moment it enters short range (which is the power's range), then you can sense it and react accordingly (thus still making the shot more difficult). The key here is that the thing you're affecting (an attack), will always pass into the power's range before it hits you, thus allowing the power to affect it.

Answer 2

The Force Powers are modular in nature and each Upgrade alters the Basic Power, or provides an additional Power. In this case, the first Control Upgrade on the left side alters the Basic Power to allow the heightened senses of the character to upgrade the Difficulty of incoming Attacks. As noted in the Sense Force Power description in Chapter 8: The Force, this comes at the cost of Committing one Force Die from the character's Force Rating.

The range of this ability is governed by the Short Range limitation provided by the Basic Power.

To increase the range at which this Control Upgrade can have an effect, the player must spend Force Points on the Range Upgrade. This can be done multiple times so that if the character has only one iteration of the Range Upgrade, they can still spend 1 Force Point per Range Band they wish to extend their Sense Power beyond Short.

After paying the Force Point cost to activate the power and whatever other Upgrades might be applied, the additional cost for the Range Upgrade would be as follows:

If they have more than one iteration of the Range Upgrade, each Force Point spent will increase the Range Band by 1 per iteration:

If a character has all three Range Upgrades and spends 1 point, they may choose to extend the range from Short to Extreme for the cost of 1 additional Force Point. They may opt for less range.

If they have only 1 Range Upgrade, they must spend 3 additional Force Points to extend the Range to Extreme, 1 for each of Medium, Long, and Extreme.

If they have 2 Range Upgrades they can reach Extreme Range at the additional cost of 2 Force Points.

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Additional Details

This Control Upgrade applies to one Attacker, and can be used once per Round. The number of times it can be applied in that Round can be increased with the Duration Upgrade, and the number of Attackers to which it can be applied can be increased with the Magnitude Upgrade. The amount by which the Difficulty may be increased is governed by the Strength Upgrade.

Note:

It is strongly implied in the explanations of committing force dice and on how force power upgrades work, as well as in the specific power description for Sense, but it is not directly stated, that only the Ongoing Effect (Sense's Control Upgrade ability to increase the Difficulty of an incoming Attack) persists while the Force Die is Committed. Any Range, Strength, Magnitude, and Duration Upgrades would be applied as an Action on the character's Turn, as desired.

In other words, the Ongoing Effect would persist in its unaltered form for as long as the Force Die was Committed. The player would have to choose to augment it for Range or whatever other Upgrades they desired for a specific Round on their Turn, as an Action. Most Defensive options for a character on their Turn are Maneuvers, and so can be performed in conjunction with this requirement easily.

This requirement could be open to another interpretation. Some groups might prefer to have the Force-Sensitive apply Upgrades at the time of Committing the Force Die and having that be the condition of the 'Ongoing Effect' for the duration of that die being Committed.

Assessing the relative merits of each interpretation would be up to the group's determination of how the power is represented in the source material, how effective the group wants Sense to be in their game, understanding how much sensory information the character would be receiving (and for how long) and the information provided in the Sidebar in Force & Destiny's Chapter 8: The Force on extensive durations for committed force dice for Ongoing Effects. This sidebar was not included in Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion.