Talk:The Partisans

How to use this page
Put your questions and ideas for the new campaign here. "Add topic" makes a new heading if you want to help keep things organized. It's also handy if you sign your comments so we all know who's talking (use 3 tildes at the end of the line and it will add your user name). Looking forward to another fun campaign with all of you! Belovedporcupine (talk)

Character Concept: The Test Pilot
Euclid Brash

My preliminary character concept is a human Ace (Rigger). He's an aging fighter test pilot who has spent most of his post-military life building a custom starfighter (roughly modeled on the A-wing, but with some differences). I'm pretty sure that when the game starts he doesn't have access to that ship. Either he had to abandon it when the Imperials moved in and will need to retrieve it as part of an early mission for the Alliance, or elements of the Alliance found and impounded it and are refusing to return it until he proves himself trustworthy.

I'm not really interested in spending all my time rolling dice to see how awesome I make my ship (Noel and Eric K. enjoy that sort of thing more than I do), so I'm kind of cobbling together a milestone system wherein every time we successfully carry out a mission focused on my Duty (still kind of sorting out exactly what that means, as the Duty system has some vagueness around how much and for whom it increases and when), I pick a new upgrade from a pre-built list and apply it to the base starfighter (with the acquisition of the prototype being the first of these milestones). This is intended to abstract stealing supplies for my personal project while carrying out the official mission, with the work itself taking place off-screen during downtime (starting with Intellect 4 + Mechanics 2, my mechanical capabilities support this narrative). This is obviously contingent on group buy-in and GM approval.

As I was tinkering with this little system, it occurred to me that it might be useful for other characters who are similarly focused on personal goals beyond those of the Rebellion - including those Force sensitives who need special training to buy new Force powers.

I'll probably eventually work up some thing that causes my prototype to malfunction in entertaining ways now and again, but I've probably already devoted more thought to this than I should have at this stage.

Dayzdark (talk)

Character Generation Thoughts
I feel like one of the biggest bottlenecks in character generation is how difficult it is to play outside of a species. If you have a 1 Brawn, 3 Cunning species that you want to play for the background, you're heavily locked into playing a social character regardless of if that is what you want to do. I want to throw the idea around of being able to flex those starting characteristics a little bit. My thought is to reduce each characteristic by 1 and then allow players to add those points as they see fit before spending starting XP on characteristics (impose a maximum of like 4 or 3). Obviously there would be a minimum stat of 1. This would allow races with a specialty, like Wookies, to still have a nod to it without that being the overwhelming characteristic. I also think this would help a lot of the "generalist" species to be a little more useful and that this could encourage more use/purchase of skills and talents instead of dumping every single possible point into characteristics.

Eustacio (talk)


 * I am willing to consider this on a case by case basis - this helps me understand better what your concern was, so thank you for clarifying. I would be slightly more inclined to have you swap around the existing array of stats instead of what you propose (so you still have a 1 and a 3, you just get to decide where those go), and would definitely cap the max at 3 regardless (PCs gaining extremely high characteristics extremely quickly is another thing that is bringing the current campaign to a more rapid end than we perhaps anticipated). If I'm doing my math right, the way you propose would allow for a 1/1/2/2/3/3 starting split; it looks like most of the species that get an array like that have lower starting XP to compensate, so without accounting for that we both crank up the power level again and put anyone who doesn't homebrew at a disadvantage. Belovedporcupine (talk)


 * I agree with Beth, that a swap would be a better way to maintain balance as opposed to a full re-build. I would even go so far as to suggest perhaps just one swap instead of a fully mobile array of stats. I understand the frustration of wanting to play a vigilant Wookie, for example, but having to spend a bunch of points to make that feasible since willpower is a 1 in their starting build. I do think that the game creators made the stat arrays and special species characteristics the way they did to best reflect the species and create interest and difference, as well as benefit to picking different species and to create balance in the game. I would suggest that perhaps Eus makes his specific request of the GM and then mmaybe the group rather than adding this extra step for every person building a character. Peloria (talk)


 * I feel it's fair to point out that Wookiees make the perfect example of why some sort of swap system seems reasonable. Because the Wookies somehow have a higher Presence than Willpower, despite the fact they refuse to speak Basic (or can't? I'm not sure) and are known for their Wookie Rage. Regardless, I'm okay if Beth allows for some sort of swap. Eustacio (talk)


 * Wookiees don't speak galactic basic because they lack the ability to make those noises. Treehead (talk)


 * I haven't looked at every species, but for the most part, the ones with a 3, a 1, and a bunch of 2s get 100 XP vs. 110 for humans who have all 2s. This is mathematically correct. The cost of raising 2 to 3 is 30 XP, while the "refund value" of lowering a Characteristic from 2 to 1 is only 20 XP, for a net advantage of 10 XP. A 3/3/2/2/1/1 split would be an effective 20 XP gain, so math alone would suggest 90 XP is what most of them would get. Glancing though several species on the FFG SW wiki, most of them support that math, and those that don't usually receive fewer than 90 XP.


 * Taken together, I'm in agreement with Beth. Moving around the 3 and/or 1 is probably fine. I'd say turning a 3/1/2/2/2/2 spread into an all-2s spread and +10 XP is probably also fine, as is -10 XP to turn an all-2s spread into a 3/1/2/2/2/2 spread, but I leave that to the group. Let's be honest about those 3/3/2/2/1/1 species - a 1 Characteristic is basically an automatic failure. Have you noticed that whenever anyone has to roll with that Characteristic they kind of sigh and expect the hurting. Nawah and Vic can't lie worth a damn, and the Brawn 1 triplets fail virtually every Athletics roll we make. With a 3/1/2/2/2/2 spread, that's just the price you pay, but I can't imagine how sucky it would be to have 1s in two different characteristics. It just opens the door to min-maxing that might seem flavorful and fun but is just going to be endlessly frustrating when 1/3+ of your rolls are auto-fails.

Dayzdark (talk)

Money and Gear
I've worked up a Modified FFG Resources system for everyone's consideration.

Dayzdark (talk)

This isn't as much a suggestion as it is a thought, but we should have a conversation about how gear/money is going to be handled. We haven't gotten a lot of money in our current game (some folks are still running around with starting armor and gear). If anyone wants to play a crafter/mechanic or has a concept that would want to be upgrading gear, some expectations should be set as to what we're going to have access to. Nawah's 200 credits per session was far more powerful than it had any right to be given our typical income.

Eustacio (talk)

Is anyone super-invested in modding this time around?

My general take is I want things to be much, much more abstracted. I don't want to have to burglarize someone's apartment just to get my hands on a bog standard blaster because we're too poor for me to actually buy one. Presumably, if we work for the Alliance (even in its infancy), we have semi-regular access to basic gear suitable for each mission. But even then, I don't want it to be "you have a budget of X,000 credits; go-go-gadget bean-counters." I kinda just want something like the equipment lists in Blades in the Dark, where your class gives you automatic access to X many things that make sense for that character to have and/or Y many things that make sense for any character to have. You pick your load-out at mission start and go.

Bog standard blasters, armor, and other gear cost a load-out slot even if it has nothing to do with your specific character concept. Slightly more exotic gear costs two slots - or just one slot if it's relevant to your character concept (species and/or Specialization). Really weird stuff costs two slots if it matches your character concept and isn't available at all if it doesn't. Nobody gets a bowcaster except the Wookie, and I don't think it breaks anything to let the slicer have good slicing gear or for the politico from a wealthy family have some fancy clothes.

Maybe handle your signature equipment using a personal milestone system - possibly one where you earn a "milestone point" each time Duty resets to 0 that entitles you to get one new cool signature thing (or an upgrade to an existing thing). That signature thing could also be something intangible like a Force mentor.

Weapons and most other equipment would be a lot to abstract on this page, but armor could be abstracted as:

Load-out 1 (anyone): Defense 1 or Soak 1

Load-out 1 (with Specialization) or 2 (without): +1 Defense, +1 Soak, or some special benefit (such as adding a Boost die to certain rolls)

Load-out 2 with Specialization: Pick two of the options above.

Anything better than that involves a signature item.

Stuff like that.

Dayzdark (talk)


 * I haven't given any serious thought to what type of character I want to play. But I do know the equipment/gear section of this game is extensive, and restricting everyone to a Soak 1 armor for the entire game is going to result in people falling over a lot since they'll be missing things like Reflect to reduce damage, especially the people who don't crank their Brawn up to 3. I don't know that I can agree with a system that, from what I understand it as, you get a couple sets of items for the entire game, no upgrades possible. I may be misunderstanding it, however, as I have no familiarity with Blades in the Dark.

Eustacio (talk)

To clarify, that's 1 or 1; then 2 and 0, 1 and 1, or 0 and 2; and then potentially 2 and 1 or 1 and 2. Signatures are a different matter and should be upgradable. Perhaps the first Soak or Defense is "free," since Heavy Clothing and Concealing Robes are so cheap as to be ubiquitous. Also, a load-out is just that: the gear you get to use between resupplies (every 2-4 sessions, generally). You can swap out for a completely different set of gear before the next mission.

I'm not a big fan of being nickel-and-dimed for every concussion grenade I use, but I think an abstracted system that doesn't rely on tracking every credit earned or spent is fundamentally incompatible with one where upgrading equipment involves tracking every credit you spend and every Mechanics roll result. It's possible to come up with something much more elegant than equipment lists with credit costs. But if folks are married to mods as written, I'm not going to spend a bunch of time designing a new system for it. I know Noel really enjoyed fiddling with them, and I think you did, as well. But as someone who intends to be Mechanics-focused, it wouldn't bother me to take an abstracted, narrative-focused approach to them that captures their spirit without the angst of there being no equipment/mod that does what I want without requiring 15,000 credits and the good will of an illegal arms dealer.

Dayzdark (talk)

Off the top my head, I've got a few concerns about completely abstracting the money and gear systems.


 * You've killed the Negotiation skill completely. The skill only has to do with increasing how much you sell things for or how much you buy things for. If money is abstracted, that skill drops in value heavily at best.
 * Streetwise takes a nerf (not as bad as Negotiation, but somewhat).
 * Related to Negotiation, every talent that touches Negotiation has been nerfed.
 * Further related to Negotiation, every Career and Specialization that gives it as a class skill just got a nerf.
 * The Entrepreneur and Quartermaster Specializations are basically eliminated from use. Most of their talents are just unworkable in that system.
 * I have no idea how you handle someone who wants to do a cybernetics build in this system, especially as the Specializations that handle cybernetics are going to be strongly impacted.
 * All of the Mechanics-focused Specializations are going to have significant impacts to their various talents.

I don't have an inherent dislike of abstraction, but I think this change hits a ton of systems, talents, specializations and mechanics that will have a lot of ripple effects we haven't seen. The existing issues, I think, could be solved by us having access to a larger pool of credits.

I do think abstracting some of the minor stuff, like stimpaks and grenades and things like that, is perfectly reasonable. Tracking the cost of stimpaks was annoying.

Eustacio (talk)

All of which are valid concerns, which is why I don't think we can resolve this conversation until we know more about which characters everyone is playing. If no one is playing a heavy Negotiation character (or if any who are are as disinterested in rolling to determine how many credits they knock off the list price of a stimpak as I am about rolling to see how good I can soup up my prototype starfighter's ion thrusters), then your objections on that front might well be moot.

(Incidentally, I can see several ways to adjust how Negotiation works so that it is just as valuable as it is in the current system - and potentially more valuable - that don't involve tracking expenses to the hundredth of a credit.)

Dayzdark (talk)

Rumors and Mission Seeds
One of the things that was the most fun about our Firefly game was coming up with rumors for Beth to include in the game. Some were unconnected to anything, but others touched on character secrets in interesting ways (which is why we didn't share them with the other players - just gave them to her in secret). I think it would be fun to do something like that for this game, but rather than just rumors, possible mission seeds that could 1) touch on our characters' personal histories and loyalties and/or 2) refer to stuff that happened or was written into backgrounds in our current game that didn't really come to light/fruition but might still be out there somewhere.

Dayzdark (talk)

Force powers
Beth, you mentioned earmarking a specific Force power that a Force character has some innate talent in and would not need another to train them.

What about ear marking a level 1, level 2 and level 3 power- as long as there is a narrative reason that this makes sense for the character? For example, the character has been exposed to the power, the character has training in some non-Force talent/skill that is related or the character has some sort of religious background or faith that would predispose them to developing such a power as their strength in the force grows?

Level 3 may never be reached in a slow grow game, but it would be nice to have the option.

Otherwise, perhaps the player of a force user could request certain mentorship that could occur.

Basically, the power that I most closely associated with my concept is a level 2 power. I hadn't realized this until reading the book this weekend. Peloria (talk)
 * This would fall under telling me where you want to go with your character so I can create plots that enable them to develop the way you want. Basically, if you let me know you're interested in having your character develop a particular power, the game provides a teacher for it in the near future after the requisite story hoops are jumped through. I want everyone to be able to buy whatever powers they ultimately want, but I also want to be able to get some interesting plots out of the process of doing so since we're in a part of the timeline where it is so much more difficult to access mentorship. If I give out too many "no justification needed" powers, I shut myself out of being able to tell those stories, which I don't want. Another alternative would be to earmark the level 2 power and just accept that your character isn't going to have much in the way of Force powers to play with until you can get down to Force rating +1 on the tree (or until you find a teacher through story means - or within the party - for one that works at Force rating 1). Then you can freely improve the level 2 power at that time, no teacher needed. Make sense? Belovedporcupine (talk)

Universal force trees and skills
Down the line in this game it is very likely that I will want to take a second universal force tree in order to be able to get to Force rating three. The first time I take one of these it will give me force rating 1. The second time, however, it will not give me a force rating and as written it will give no bonus career skills either. Would GMs be willing to create a skill set that would go with the (secone) Force tree (purchased) so I get something from spend those (30/40?) points the same as another player character who is not taking a universal force trees would get?

As a note, the other universal trees which are not noted as giving a 1 in the force have associated skills. Peloria (talk)
 * Yeah, the system doesn't really seem to have been set up with the idea of people taking multiple Force-related universal specializations, which is a bit of an oversight. I would likely be willing to let you (or anyone else) choose 3-4 logical career skills to go along with a second Force tree. Let me also poke around on forums and subreddits and stuff to see how others have handled it in the past, since for all I know this could be a solved problem as far as other gaming groups are concerned. Belovedporcupine (talk)

This is a super technical question that came to my mind when browsing for classes for my own character. Does the Jedi count as available, since it isn't actually, as far as I'm aware, a Force & Destiny tree? Probably best to clarify that.

Eustacio (talk)
 * quoting the front page: "Force-sensitive PCs are permitted, but must gain their Force sensitivity by purchasing a universal specialization in addition to their career specialization." Since the Jedi Career is not a universal specialization and Beth has said the reason is there are no Jedi anymore... I would guess that this is a no. Peloria (talk)
 * Correct. The Jedi career is not a universal specialization and is NOT available for use in this campaign. Belovedporcupine (talk)
 * This makes sense, but my brain, the other night, absolutely thought it might technically count. I don't know that it was operating at peak efficiency. Thanks for indulging my question! Eustacio (talk)

Skills Question
So I am trying to get a starting point for a skills-based character I am potentially designing for this game, and I am curious where our current gaps in skills are. Of the following skills, are there some which are already somebody's planned "viking" rolls?

-Charm (Pr)

-Coercion (Will)

-Computers (Int)

-Deception (Cun)

-Leadership (Pr)

-Mechanics (Int)

-Medicine (Int)

-Negotiation (Pr)

-Skullduggery (Cun)

-Stealth (Ag)

-Streetwise (Cun)

-Survival (Cun)

Left the piloting and passive-y type skills off the list, because I believe someone called pilot already. I believe Balthamir was doing a Leadershippy thing (does that involve the skill)? And that we have a droid doing Medicine? Anyone else know skills yet? Treehead (talk)


 * My current build includes Mechanics, Piloting (Space), and Gunnery 2, as well as a rank in Ranged (Light), Knowledge (Education), and Knowledge (Warfare). Depending on our bonus XP ration, Piloting (Space) and/or Mechanics could go as high as 3 (Mechanics gets priority), as those are my Viking skills. Intellect is my primary characteristic at 4 and Agility is secondary at 3, so I'll be generally good at all the skills related to those, which is literally half the skills in the game. Dayzdark (talk)


 * Skill 3+ is out, so I've made a couple minor adjustments. Probably swapping out Education for Core Worlds (fits the biography a bit better, although both make sense). Adding Astrogation and Knowledge (Underworld) 1. For Talents, current build has Gearhead, Black Market Contacts, and Grit. I really like the flavor of BMC (else I'd just Toughened it away), but it runs straight into "cash spreadsheet" territory, so depending on how we end up handling money, it might require some modification. No rush on that, as I'm not sure whose characters care about money mechanically; Pinocchio might, if Eric is delving into cybernetics. Dayzdark (talk)


 * As the person who handled money for most of this game, Black Market Contacts is complete trash. Knocking rarity down by 1 rank at a 50% mark-up is completely not worth it. Toughen it away is my advice. Literally the worst money-related talent in the game. Eustacio (talk)


 * Also, it occurs to me, if you really want Skill 3+, just bank your starting experience and spend it after the first session. There isn't any rule against that. You just don't have it for one session. Eustacio (talk)
 * This seems a little not in keeping with the generosity of having more XP at starting. Peloria (talk)
 * This is, shall we say, a spirit of the law vs. letter of the law thing, which I officially side-eye. My ruling: use it at chargen or lose it. (edited to add: if we're talking like a 5 XP remainder that just doesn't quite add up, that's obviously different and allowable - otherwise, my dudes, just wait 3 sessions and there will be literally nothing I can do to stop you) Belovedporcupine (talk)
 * I was definitely looking at the Commander Trees all of which will have a Leadership leaning but there are some differences in what other skills and attributes would be needed beyond Presence. Once I have an idea of what would go with the party I might narrow it more but am in no hurry. (talk)


 * If it helps, I'm getting increasingly firm on 30 XP as the starting bonus amount as that would allow the Force users to use it for their universal specialization and one basic power, which I understand is desirable. Belovedporcupine (talk)
 * My character's biggest stats will be Will and Intelligence. Pr and Cun will be her lowest areas of focus.Peloria (talk) Ok this is in flux. I am currently thinking about coercion and stealth being areas I lean into. Int, Will and Agility will be the big stats for me. Peloria (talk)
 * I haven't decided yet what I'm going for exactly, but I'm probably keeping out of the social skill area this go around, at least to any real extent. I'm leaning towards a physical primary build of some stripe at this time. Eustacio (talk)
 * I have moved a bit away from my original concept of "big melee dude with a broken cybernetic arm and a force power to activate it" since it relied a bit too much on Force and Destiny trees and I was finding it hard to build with a broad enough skillset. However, I still want to do something that toe-dips into the force since I didn't do it last game and I'm enamored with a melee fighter. My current idea is a Clawdite Spy-(Sleeper Agent or Infiltrator, maybe both eventually) with Force-Sensitive Emergent and Influence. I'd be focusing on Brawn and Cunning skills, especially Deception and Melee as my Viking rolls. SirDragos (talk)
 * Okay, more stuff being kicked around. Probably gonna have a good intelligence on this character now. I'll probably know more when I figure out career/specialization. Eustacio (talk)


 * So, at least Balthamir's character will have a good presence rating? Because it looks like the rest of us are not headed in that direction at all. Treehead? Now that you know what the rest of us are thinking, where does that leave you? Peloria (talk)


 * I am going Presence. Almost for sure. Mainly going to invest in social stats with a couple combat tricks like healing/damaging strain of allies/enemies. But primarily social skills. Going to play a loud frog man (Drabatan) politico. That means I'll have to talk, which'll be weird. Likely doing leadership, charm, coercion as main skills. Treehead (talk)


 * My current plan is being a former imperial who defected, using either Commander Tactician or Strategist with Imperial Academy Cadet universal. Strategist synergizes more with what I would be able to do with Knowledge Warfare and so would probably be higher Int, Tactician would have more rolls with Leadership so would be more even Presence and Int depending which direction seems most useful. Balthamir


 * I'm glancing at what people are thinking and I'm wondering if our party is currently a little too focused on intelligence. We have the Medical Droid (I'm assuming that's lots of intelligence), Test Pilot, Dark Force User with Brains, Droid with a Soul, and Balthamir's Tactician. We might need to chat about this, because if there are 5 intelligence-heavy characters out of 7 total, that is a lot of overlap. The triple-Presence group managed it by sticking to certain skills, but I'm not sure if we can avoid stepping on each other's primary areas with five of us focusing on intelligence. Eustacio (talk)


 * I had this concern as well, but intelligence does cover a lot of areas and we may not have as much overlap as you worry. Though we may be left in the lurch on some areas that aren't being focused on.


 * Medical droid- medicine
 * Pilot- mechanics
 * Dark force user - Force power, lore, core and rim worlds, xenology
 * Tactician- knowledge warfare and tactics
 * Droid with soul - ?


 * What areas were you planning on having your droid good in? Sure, I'd roll some green dice for medicine or mechanics, but no yellows and no talents to go with. Same with mechanics, astrogation or warfare. We have often seen that if there is no one with the knowledge skills we can't make the roll, so having a wide range of intelligent characters could be useful. It's worth discussing yes, but I think more for making sure that we aren't severely lacking in other areas. Peloria (talk)


 * My Droid's main focus for Intelligence is Lore, as my droid is Stupidly Old as droids can exist for literally thousands of years. Lore makes sense as my droid basically is most likely older than all of your characters. I haven't decided on my trees fully, but Lore (when Force and Destiny is out of play) is limited as a career skill to the Colonist, Explorer, and Diplomat trees. Outside those trees, the only non-universal specialization outside those careers that has it is Scientist. Colonist has Knowledge Core Worlds, Education, and Lore along with a bunch of social stuff I'm not looking for. Explorer has Lore, Outer Rim, and Xenology for intelligence skills and a few other more useful skills (no combat though). Diplomat is Core Worlds, Lore, Outer Rim, and Xenology plus a bunch of Presence stuff I'll likely be bad at. I also need to find a combat skill in here somewhere. Part of me also would find it amusing for them to have Mechanics to try and patch themselves up (I have no idea if that's allowed) to further continue their belief in being an Organic. Eustacio (talk)


 * Yes, droids can roll Mechanics to treat their own injuries. They are actually better than organics are at treating themselves because they don't take the 2 purple dice difficulty penalty for self-treatment! Belovedporcupine (talk)


 * Have you thought about Archeologist? It gives you potential of 2 free ranks in lore, plus has knowledge education which sounds right for you character. And the left side of the tree is all about taking damage or pinning your opponent in combat whereas the right side is all scholar stuff. Peloria (talk)


 * Archeologist is, in fact, one of the current leading contenders and if we had to have builds ready today is what I'd build the character as. Eustacio (talk)


 * To expand on the Commander/Cadet- Knowledge Warfare would be main but I get a bunch of extras from career and talents so would likely be Warfare, Core and Outer Rim and Education. Talent wise things care about Warfare, Education (and leadership but that is non Int) and the Core and Outer Worlds would be for thematic sense but could change to less covered topic (since I choose 3 with a Cadet talent) like Xenology or whatever. I don't plan on doing things with computers, mechanics or medicine as far as Int goes. Also just because it is a career skill does not mean that we are planning to bump them all up to max. Balthamir (talk)

A GMly observation: Y'all have a LOT of overlap in your planned knowledge skills. This is not necessarily bad in a more episodic campaign like this one where I expect we'll often be forging ahead with game sessions despite player absences - in this case a little redundancy is often a good thing. Having two characters who are good at the same things generally isn't a problem; it's 3+ similar builds where it starts to be a bit more of a problem. We should make a note to coordinate on this during session 0 so everyone ends up with a clearly defined niche they can be happy with. Those of you who are still figuring out your character builds might do well to lean into more active skills (I note, for instance, that you don't appear to have a party "face" yet who excels at social challenges, unless the tactician guy goes after the more Presence-heavy end of things). Belovedporcupine (talk)


 * I'm going to be the face - and it's going to be a frog face. Treehead (talk)


 * I agree that lots of Int/Knowledge characters isn't a problem, but that we need to make sure we're covering critical areas outside of Knowing All the Things. What all are we capable of Doing?


 * Medical droid: Medicine
 * Pilot: Mechanics, Piloting (obv.), Gunnery, Ranged (Light)
 * Dark force user: Force power, stealth, coercion, piloting (planetary), coordination
 * Tactician: ?
 * Droid with Soul: Lore, Melee, Athletics, Xenology, Outer Rim, Education, Astrogation


 * Feel to fill in the above. Can you do things in:


 * Combat scenes?
 * Non-combat action scenes (stuff like Athletics, Coordination, and piloting)?
 * Social scenes (whether by being charming or lying your ass off)?
 * Stealth and recon scenes (from Stealth and Perception to Skulduggery and Streetwise)?


 * We don't all have to be good at all those things, but one or two characters with a clear affirmative answer to each of them seems like a low bar. Maybe I need to come down to Int 3 and increase Cun or Pre to 3; I'll never have the career skills or talents to back it up, but that would make me at least somewhat competent at lying or making friends. I could even sink one or both my human ranks into social skills, if that's what the group needs.


 * I think it's interesting that we're mostly a bunch of smart folks embroiled in the Rebellion. I think it would make sense for us to be more of the kind of group that makes the elaborate plan and executes it perfectly, rather than the one that rushes in where angels fear to tread. Makes for a potentially interesting dynamic. Dayzdark (talk)


 * I just put down my super rough build plan in the section about my character. Not a lot of cool, fun stuff to start, but I've got my trees pretty much set. I also have 5 point access to Well Rounded in Archaeologist, so I can snag extra skills pretty easily. Mostly I'll be smart and able to stab things with a base of 2 green dice in anything that isn't being the Face. Eustacio (talk)

Having pivoted away from intelligence, the dark force user will be high agility, higher will and besides a focus on force abilities and trees, have skills in stealth, coordination, piloting (planetary), coercion and ranged weapons Peloria (talk)

Character Concept: The Droid With a Soul
I only have the most basic idea for this character concept, but my idea is that I'm going to play a droid who is 100% convinced that they are an Organic. I haven't decided what species of Organic or anything like that, but they will be completely unable to be convinced that they are not an Organic.

This chronicle shall be the Chronicle of Misfit Droids.

Adding on for notes. This character's leading starting Career/Specialization is Explorer/Archeologist. Intelligence and probably Brawn for the focuses, with Lore being the core skill (this combination gives them two starting ranks in Lore, which is hard). Universal Specialization of Force Adherent is also strongly under consideration, as it gives me even more things to play with on Lore.

Eustacio (talk)

Build Plan as of 3/19/23

Explorer/Archeologist. Skill Ranks (6/3 because Droid):
 * Knowledge (Lore) x 2
 * Knowledge (Outer Rim) x 1
 * Knowledge (Xenology) x 1
 * Astrogation x 1
 * Perceptionx 1
 * Piloting (Space) or Survival x 1
 * Athletics x 1
 * Knowledge (Education) x 1

Class Skills with No Ranks:
 * Discipline
 * Cool
 * Piloting (Space) or Survival (whichever I don't take)
 * Vigilance (via Force Adherent)

Stat Array:


 * Brawn 3 (50 xp)
 * Agility 2 (20 xp)
 * Intelligence 3 (50 xp)
 * Willpower 2 (20 xp)
 * Cunning 2 (20 xp)
 * Presence 1 (0 xp)

Additional 30 xp:

Force Adherent (Universal Specialization): 20 XP. Grants Melee and Vigilance as new class skills (Discipline and Lore already class skills) Eustacio (talk)
 * Melee 1 (5 xp)
 * Push Aside (Force Adherent Tree) (5 xp)

Character Concept: Dark Force User
So, as I brought up in the "looking for permission" email that I sent out, my current concept for my character is a 14-year-old, female human who is Force Sensitive and has grown up being passed around the Inquisitors as a "trainee" but really as a burden who is useful for taking out your anger when you do not have another outlet- such as your superior pisses you off and you are not allowed to force choke them. Thus she has experienced quite a bit of abuse, both physical and mental and her training in use of the Force has been slip shod at best and only in the use of the Dark Side. I am planning to have a 29 morality to start if this becomes an option in this game.

Crunchy bits as I have figured out: Career and specialization will be Diplomat:Advocate as these skills and talents fit the best into the concept that I have created. Int, Will and Agility will be higher end and Presence, Cunning will be lower. Though as a human, this split won't be huge prior to getting any dedication. If Beth allows for the 2 to 1 and 2 to 3 swap with the payment of 10 points I will probably do this, lowering Presence.

Skills will include many knowledges, ranged(light), stealth, coercion.

Will be getting a Universal force tree and 1 Force power to start (Heal/Harm, which for her, will be only Harm until she is redeemed). Peloria (talk)
 * I'm leaning away from allowing the characteristic trading thing just to keep things simple. For Eus's character we are homebrewing a new species that is a variant on Droid and he was AFAIK the main person who had originally wanted to do this. If this messes with anyone's fun too badly I can probably be talked out of it though. You can trade. See main page for details. Regarding Morality - if it is just this character and Clawdite melee guy who are going to be the Force users, let's talk via email about how we're going to handle the Morality system in general for the two of you so we don't spam the people for whom it is irrelevant. I don't want to use the Force and Destiny "packages" as written but I do want to offer some flexibility in starting Morality as long as we can find a way to do it without messing up game balance. Belovedporcupine (talk)


 * I mostly thought it was a good house rule to have available to everyone, for the record. I didn't have a solid character concept in mind at all when I proposed that rule after one of the sessions several weeks ago. Eustacio (talk)


 * I definitely think that if you are making it available to Eus, you should make it available to the rest of the players, just to be fair. I doubt that anyone else will be asking you to homebrew a new species, though. The idea that Dayz put forward would maintain a simplicity while still allowing for flexibility. "Taken together, I'm in agreement with Beth. Moving around the 3 and/or 1 is probably fine. I'd say turning a 3/1/2/2/2/2 spread into an all-2s spread and +10 XP is probably also fine, as is -10 XP to turn an all-2s spread into a 3/1/2/2/2/2 spread, but I leave that to the group." Peloria (talk)

Character Concept: The Imperial Defector
I will put this here to help with the above skills discussion/overlaps etc. Concept is that I was an Imperial Academy Cadet who discovered the evil side of the Empire and decided to defect to the Rebels (maybe can be connected to others who have Imperial hooks like Dark Forcer or Droids). With formal military training would be valuable to the Rebels both for knowledge of the Imperials as well as leading the troops on the field. My role in general would be as a party support/buffer.

From the Commander Tree would be either Tactician or Strategist- Tactician has more talents that would be used in combat, Strategist has unique mass combat stuff but also has more for using Knowledge for and was likely what I was going to start in just because of what it opens up for career skills early on. I would also have the universal spec Imperial Academy Cadet which I would actually be investing in tree talents primarily at first. Likely would pick up the other Commander tree later on in campaign.

With that set-up I would have as career skills: Coercion, Cool (1), Knowledge Warfare (2), Leadership (1), Perception (1), Ranged (light) (1), Vigilance, Computers, Piloting (space) From talents I would also gain as career skills: Gunnery, Piloting (planetary), Melee, Ranged (heavy) and 3 Knowledges of my choice (Education for sure and 2 others). Would be Human so would also have rank in 2 skills not from the above, was thinking Athletics and Charm (this could be Negotiation or something else to use Presence on so could be a Face if needed).

Characteristics would be 4 Int, 3 Presence everything else 2 at start. The talents I would use Leadership on in general are easier difficulties than the Knowledge ones so the higher Int seemed more important.

Primary active talents would be using Formation Tactics, Targeted Firepower, Known Schematic, Thorough Assessment, Careful Planning, Coordinated Assault. Most are combat buffs but some can be non-combat as well. I will try to upload the trees here



Character Concept: Drabatan Poltician
Reg'Sed'Duhl'Ox'En'Pyam'Narumph iz'Hop'Lak'Erubl (or just 'Reg') was an up-and-coming politician amongst the Drabatan on the planet Pipada before the Empire took over. He lost his cause to speak out for (the Drabatan homeworld), and is hoping the rebellion can be his new stand-in. He does what he can to get people on his side (even when his side is a lie) and prefers compromise to being demanding (though the latter is something he has been leaning into while being away from Pipada, as non-Drabatans are not used to his outrageously loud voice).

Class: Colonist - Poltico

Stats

Brawn 2

Agility 2

Intellect 1

Cunning 2

Willpower 3

Presence 4

Wound Threshold 12

Strain 12

Skills

Charm 1

Deception 2

Knowledge (Education) 1

Leadership 2

Coercion 1

Ranged: Light 1

Talents

Kill w Kindness - Remove black die from Charm/Leadership

Plausible Deniability x2 - Remove two black die from Deception/Coercion

Inspiring Rhetoric - Average Leadership check to cause some number of allies within short range to gain strain. (Depending on rolls)

Scathing Tirade - Average Coercion check to cause some number of enemies within short range to lose strain. (Depending on rolls)

Well Rounded - Discipline and Ranged - Light become career skills.

Racial Ability

Big Noise: When making leadership or coercion check, spend 2 Advantage to affect one additional character, or targets at one range band further.

Career SKills

Charm, Deception, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Education), Knowledge(Lore), Leadership, Negotiation, Streetwise, Coercion, Discipline and Ranged - Light.

Question:

I switched my 1 from Cunning to Intelligence - that kosher? I can switch it back if we want, but I imagine my guy being more interesting as dumb.
 * You have found a Star Wars species I have never heard of before, which is difficult to do! Yes, I am fine with you making that switch to the characteristics. (Peloria, this also means that you can switch stats around if you want to. I'll update the main page accordingly.) Belovedporcupine (talk)


 * The only one in the canon I have seen is a side character named Pao in Rogue one. But there is almost nothing on the internet about the race so you and/or I will likely end up making up a bunch about the race and their planet - maybe they make Bothan shoes. :) Treehead (talk)