Brian's character Tzin has decided to construct his first lightsaber.

He has the crystals he needs from his dead master's saber, as well as all of the components he needs. He has a lightsaber repair of 5D and lightsaber engineering of 1D. (Tzin also possesses the Technical Wizard merit, but this will be left out to keep things simple.)

Brian speaks to the GM, and makes sure that they both agree Tzin has the required time and supplies. He consults the rules wiki, and sees that before he actually starts building the saber Tzin must decide what saber he is building.

Step 1: Selecting Components:

Tzin decides he will create a 'standard' lightsaber, which holds 250 cc of components. He elects to go with a sturdier case, which increases the constitution of his saber by 1D, but reduces space by 20% to 200 cc. His crystal is a Mephite, so he writes this down as well as the fact that it takes up 20 cc. It will also require at least 5cc of mounting equipment. Brian/Tzin wants his saber to hold enough energy, and he has had access to very nice components, so he elects for a 50 cc high density cell. (500 kJ+20%=600 kJ) His energy chamber and emitter components are only mid-grade, and he notes that they take up 75 and 20 cc respectively. While controls take up no room, he should decide what they are at this point. Tzin notes that his saber has a safety, so if he drops it for some reason it deactivates. His switching scheme will be somewhat complicated, as he intends to use 'dynamic software switches' after installing his own OS in the saber.

Brian discusses this with the GM over email, also mentioning some of the modifications he would like. The GM reminds Brian that he should first construct his lightsaber and then consider modifying it.

Current size:

Saber Capacity 250-20% = 200 (+1D to con.)

One Mephite cystal 20 cc

Crystal Mount 5 cc

High q. energy cell 50 (600 kJ)

Energy chamber 75

Emitter 20

Controls 0 (he notes the features above)

                        30 cc remaining

Step 2: (Optional) - Refine design and do pre-work.:

Brian feels confident that Tzin can succeed at his rolls without the bonuses he could get for spending more time refining his design, and his present hyperspace trip doesn't include enough time for him to do so anyway, so he will skip this step.

Step 3: Begin construction:

Now that Tzin knows what kind of saber he is building and the GM has approved his design, he can get started. Tzin starts by fabricating the case. He rolls 6 dice (1 for lightsaber engineering, 5 from lightsaber repair) and gets a 25. This means he has fabricated the shell of his lightsaber in only 8 hours instead of 16 hours.

Next, he rolls to attune and mount the crystals. He rolls a 19, (but did not botch), so he wastes 16 hours. He tries again the next day, and gets a 32, and completes this in half a day.

He rolls to attach the power cell, and gets a 21. He completes this job in 16 hours.

He rolls to construct and tune the energy chamber, and scores a 22. Again, it takes 16 hours.

He rolls to construct and focus the emitter, and he gets a 26. Unfortunately, he rolled a one. He informs the GM. Since he still exceeded the minimum difficulty, the saber will still work.. but there is a 'hidden feature' (design bug) worked into the saber. Note tha the difficulty for this step was 5 higher than the more typical '20' With high grade components, he could have reduced that back to a 20 by accepting the -5 modifier. This took 16 hours.

He attaches the controls and conducts the final alignment, succeeding easily with a 27. Still 16 hours.

For final assembly, he rolls a 21. Another 16 hours down, and the saber is done.

Total time to construct his saber: 2*8 + 5*16 from successful rolls, plus 16 from one lost day = 16*7 = 7 days.

Modification

Now, Tzin decides to modify his saber. First, he easily installs a belt clip (diff 5).

Next, he decides to improve the water resistance of his saber. He rolls a 27, so this takes 8 hours. It takes up 10% of the total capacity of the saber. In Tzin's case, this is 25 cc.

With only 5 cc, Tzin does not have enough room for any other modifications.

For notes on Tzin's current lightsaber, see Tzin Saber