Early during development, there were ideas in trying to make Jedi in the game more scarce due the game's time frame within the Star Wars universe. The first idea from the game's creative director, Raph Koster, was to make them just NPCs, however, they thought players would be immediately shocked that you weren't able to play as a Jedi.

The second idea was to make them not as powerful, however, the idea didn't sit well since Jedi were portrayed as powerful and rare. The third idea was instead to change the time period, possibly set the game after the films, so then more Jedi could appear, but this would mean most of the major characters like Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt would not appear, so the idea was quickly dismissed.

The fourth idea was a sort-of permadeath mode, inspired by Diablo's hardcore mode. As a Jedi player, if you died, you would have to re-roll and your playtime would be put up onto a leaderboard. As you progressed, players would get stronger and learn new skills. Players could be spotted by Imperials or reported by other players which would lead them to being pursued by foes. You could first be hunted by Stormtroopers, and later by the likes of IG-88, Boba Fett, and Mara Jade, and eventually Darth Vader. Stronger Jedi players could later summon Force Ghosts of Jedi Masters. A timer would be shown in the corner of the screen showing how much time the Jedi player had logged in.