Lightsaber crystals are rare almost across the board, being unlikely to be causally purchased. The books often suggest making acquiring crystals an adventure rather than a shopping trip.
However, giving the diversity of crystal stats and different character types that exist, it’s likely that a group playing multiple lightsaber-wielding Force users are going to want something unique for their own character. So how would you handle that? I feel like having a series of adventures with the party bouncy balling across the galaxy spelunking or dodging Imperial patrols just for a shiny rock to get a little tiresome after a while, and I’m not fond of the idea of just making all lightsaber crystal types the same, as I’m really favorable to the older interpretation that they could be found in a variety of locations with unique properties.
Generally speaking, I’d say lightsaber crystals can be dumbed down to “kyber crystals” and left at that, given various special mechanics as suit the characters.
(meaning shave off the branding of existing crystals)
Some may be more characteristic and unique, requiring specific adventures, but the majority are generic enough that they could reasonably be found in a general location.
Another alternative is to have some reason why the crystals are all in the same area, such as a merchant who has acquired crystals to sell to up-and-coming Force users. You can do a fun “mystical merchant” bit with this, where the shop “magically appears” at an appropriate time, and the merchant requires them to complete certain tests, or however you want to handle it.
Generally speaking, I agree with you. An adventure per crystal is excessive, and it would be better if you could make it all part of a single adventure, although hopefully with some individually-tailored encounters.
In the Young Jedi Knight series of novels, they used (what I imagined to be) EasyBake ovens to craft lightsaber crystals. There are all kinds of canon ways to get a crystal.
A favorite trope of mine (maybe it isn’t a trope if I only use it myself?) is for a character to win their crystal from a casino while undercover, or be awarded it for saving nobility during a mission. The character finds, that with a little tweaking, the crystal can be used for a lightsaber (since the crystal/gem was near-perfect from the start).
This is such a super fun opportunity. In my current campaign, I have three force users. They each had separate quests:
—One player had to steal an ancient crystal sculpture bust which depicted a forefather of the player. The sculpture was looted, sold to an art gallery and then the party had to steal it from the art gallery. Within the sculpture was the light saber crystal of the forefather.
—The second player was tasked with becoming a caretaker of the Chroma-Wing Park on Ruuria where they spent time cleaning the grounds while avoiding the madness of the chroma-wing flyers and their mating dances. Attached to a force suffused giant Ruurian chrysalis, the player found a firebeetle attached. Removing the fire beetle burned his hand and from the ashes of the beetle, literally it’s crystallized abdomen, the crystal emerged.
—The third player had quite a psychedelic time on Sernpidal, among the superstitious and deeply religious Sernpidilians and their tentacle trees. While the party restored balance to the force of the planet, the player was captured and held in a prison cell by a mad alchemist. Using alchemy to freakishly increase the strength of a Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, the player the coaxed the monkey into lifting the heavy bars that kept him bound. In the alchemy lab, the player chose between a light and a dark crystal.
Make it fun! Make it different for each player. Don’t be afraid to reskin crystals. There aren’t that many of them.
During my Force and Destiny Campaign I did adventures for crystals a couple ways.
I had all of the characters have a vision when they visited a Nexus planet, that I made up. It gave them an idea where their crystals were, that way every knew they had their own adventure planned to get their crystal and they will help each other through since they know their turn is coming up.
You can make an adventure which takes place on unpopulated planet or lower populated planet and when they are there one of them feels a call from a crystal and find a cave or a way to get one.
The method I used when my players were higher experience is I did a solo adventure with each player to get a crystal. I met with each player individually and built an adventure based on their back story, or strength and weakness and let them have all the spot light. The players really loved that since they had never run a solo game session and they knew it gave them the focus of the adventure versus them just tagging along to get their reward.
I hope these help.
I was recording my sessions at the time for the solo sessions, here are links to youtube for the solo adventures.: