The Completely Unofficial and Unscientific Species Survey!

By DavenQuint, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I'd like to see one of my group handle a droid. I'm sure they'd do a fantastic job at it.

In this system, you have to really want to play a droid to have any kind of positive experience with it, because the mechanics tend to be lacking for anything other than a hyper-specialized build. This is because of the Characteristic scores and Starting XP that they have. Often a 'well-rounded' droid is looking at something like 3,3,3,2,1,1 or 3,3,2,2,2,1 both of which are sub-par compared to almost any other species.

Or you could have a fun game without thinking too much of such things as optimilization, par/sub-par, etc. Our droid player isn't experienced at all but is having a blast with his R2 unit.

Good stuff! So as far as people's characters go from the official species (Caamasi doesn't count, even though that sounds like a great character!), we now have:

  • Humans 5
  • Bothans 1
  • Drall 1
  • Droids 1
  • Duros 1
  • Gand 1
  • Rodians 1
  • Twi'leks 2

What's really interesting is that so far, we have no Wookiee and no Trandoshan players on this board...

Good stuff! So as far as people's characters go from the official species (Caamasi doesn't count, even though that sounds like a great character!), we now have:

  • Humans 5
  • Bothans 1
  • Drall 1
  • Droids 1
  • Duros 1
  • Gand 1
  • Rodians 1
  • Twi'leks 2
What's really interesting is that so far, we have no Wookiee and no Trandoshan players on this board...

We had but they killed each other...

What's really interesting is that so far, we have no Wookiee and no Trandoshan players on this board...

We had but they killed each other...

Ah, another Romeo and Juliette. Tragic.

Human Female Bounty Hunter Thief / Force Sensitive Exile

Wookiee Male Hired Gun Marauder

Bothan Male Bounty Hunter Assassin

Trandoshan Male Bounty Hunter Gadgeteer

Rodian Male Colonist Doctor

(In case anyone is wondering, the Wookiee owes a life debt to the Trandoshan, or this probably wouldn't work out too well.)

I'd like to see one of my group handle a droid. I'm sure they'd do a fantastic job at it.

In this system, you have to really want to play a droid to have any kind of positive experience with it, because the mechanics tend to be lacking for anything other than a hyper-specialized build. This is because of the Characteristic scores and Starting XP that they have. Often a 'well-rounded' droid is looking at something like 3,3,3,2,1,1 or 3,3,2,2,2,1 both of which are sub-par compared to almost any other species.

I got the impression that the entire point of playing a Droid, was to be hyper-specialized. Droid manufacturers treat them as specialized equipment, and they kinda feel like it when you play one that way. Medical droid knows medicine. Security droid knows shoosting. Protocol droid knows languages and talking.

You don't buy a blender and expect it to make toast.

Protocol droid knows languages and talking.

Which, as a slave, Shmi really needed help with.

(I agree with you, it's just that Anakin building a Protocol droid for him mum was dumb.)

Edited by Col. Orange

Protocol droid knows languages and talking.

Which, as a slave, Shmi really needed help with.

(I agree with you, Anakin building a Protocol droid for him mum was just dumb.)

Yeah, I'd think he'd build her a Cleaning Droid or a Lifter. But I think its been established that Anakin wasn't the best at decision-making.

Yeah, I'd think he'd build her a Cleaning Droid or a Lifter. But I think its been established that Anakin wasn't the best at decision-making.

:D Putting it mildly.

Yeah, I'd think he'd build her a Cleaning Droid or a Lifter. But I think its been established that Anakin wasn't the best at decision-making.

:D Putting it mildly.

He didn't do too bad during the Clone Wars. Unless it came to Padme...

In the campaign I currently GM we have 2 Humans (Outlaw Tech/Pilot and Politico/Mercenary Soldier), 1 Droid Doctor, 1 hilariously uncool Weequay, 1 Wookie Marauder. 2 Bothans and 1 Shistavanen have left the party.

He didn't do too bad during the Clone Wars. Unless it came to Padme...

Is that when someone else was writing him? :P

My group picks our characters based upon what is most meaningful to them at character creation. Sometimes it's stats, other times its Roleplaying reasons. Even when we make our choices based upon stats, we always fluff it up so it feels more like an RP choice. For us, the stats can be a jumping off point for a new character idea.

EotE Party - Main game we play
Human Politico/Force Exile - RP because I wanted a human face for Imperial interactions
Human Scoundrel - RP for a Han-like human pilot
Droid Assassin - RP, just wanted to play a droid
Trandoshan Bodyguard - RP & Stats for a big tough guy
Twi'lek Scout/Scoundrel - RP for an ex-slave girl

AoR Party - Limited time game while EotE game is put on hold
Chiss Medic/Doctor - Stats because I wanted a high Int and see how a 1 stat played.
Human Mercenary Soldier/Heavy - RP? Character is an ex-stormtrooper and Alderaan survivor
Human Infiltrator/Force Emergent - Stats more than RP. Human was best fit stat wise for concept

I'm currently playing a Human / Female / Assassin, Pilot, and soon to be gadgeteer. I'm basing the character on a smuggler I played in SWTOR (the videogame).

I tend to play humans or near humans, though my very first Star Wars character (WEG) was Coriolan, a humanoid Rat race I made up, who became the most fashionable jedi IN THE UNIVERSE.

I'm hoping FFG puts in more near human races and human variants for a bit of flavor. I just don't like the aesthetics of a lot of the Star Wars alien. They look cool on the screen, but they're not something I'd want to actually pretend to be.

Edited by Split Light

In the groups I'm running I have:

Group 1 - 3 Humans and an Armorer Droid. 1 Human is Corellian, the others are from Coruscant.

The Droid PC LOVES playing a droid. He is spread thin, but he's getting to tinker and add junk to himself so he's pretty distinct. And since he suffered some dispair while interfacing (and using Speaks Binary) with a Droid Starfighter brain, he now wants to get a chassis that flies.

Group 2 - FAR more diverse

male Human Smuggler (Corellian, though made with base line rules)

female Twi'lek Slicer/FSE

male Torgrutan Ace Pilot/Fringer

male Trandoshan Bounty Hunter Survivalist and now Gadgeteer

male wookiee Bodyguard/Maraduer

The Wookiee and Trandoshan are tied via backstory. The wookiee owes a life debt to the Trandoshan's uncle, and so they have an odd relationship. The Trandoshan's primary weapon is a bowcaster, which irks the wookiee. They poke each other constantly, but at the same time are friends which throws NPCs for a loop as they always make wrong assumptions on the relationship.

Favorite NPC - Bothan female. I enjoy the family dynamics and the friendship she has with the human captain. THough I /really/ dig Selonians and those are just coming into the picture now.

I tend to play humans or near humans as they just have a world of possibilities. If (and it's a big if) I get to play ever again, I Selonian male that wants something more out of life than just getting laid is a huge draw.

I currently have:

1 Human

1 Bothan

1 Toydarian

in the core group with

1 human, 1 Twi'lek who can make it part of the time.

I'd like to see one of my group handle a droid. I'm sure they'd do a fantastic job at it.

In this system, you have to really want to play a droid to have any kind of positive experience with it, because the mechanics tend to be lacking for anything other than a hyper-specialized build. This is because of the Characteristic scores and Starting XP that they have. Often a 'well-rounded' droid is looking at something like 3,3,3,2,1,1 or 3,3,2,2,2,1 both of which are sub-par compared to almost any other species.

It's a fair point to be sure, but as others have said, Droids aren't really intended to be all rounders. It's clear from the films that even R2 and 3PO are both Brawn 1, and get shot up a lot. However, when they are in a position to out their skills to use, they excel very well. I'd even use the stat blocks in the adversaries section as a guideline depending on the type of droid they would want to play. A I said, my crew are very good at playing peculiar characters.

This one is Gand.

For the group I play with we have:

A Gand Gadgeteer

A Wookiee Bodyguard

A Trandoshan Assassin

and I play a Droid Marauder

Normally a wookiee and a trandoshan would not be a good idea together, but because the wookiee is best friends with the gand and the gand tolerates the trandoshan, so does the wookiee.

At my table, there are only two players with official species: a Human Commando/Survivalist (ex-Imperial, so he's pretty much gotta be Human)and a Twi'lek Smuggler Pilot (player really likes Twi'leks) with some extras. The rest of the group consists of a Jawa Mechanic/Outlaw Tech (my wife really, really likes Jawas, and they are perfect mechanics), a Dashade Medic/Enforcer (the guy wanted something "different" and found the idea of a Dashade Doctor hilarious), and a Zeltron (as the guy wanted a talker instead of a gun monkey).

I've made a few characters of my own, but I think my favorite so far was the Gand Smuggler Pilot (with lungs, I may add). I chose the Gand mostly because they don't get the appreciation they deserve and because, if I ever play him, he'd be a blast since the race is rather intriguing in canon.

I tend to gravitate towards humans in any RPG I play. Partially it's a personal thing (I like the idea that we have the potential to be more than we are no matter the setting) and partially it's a reaction to most of my gaming groups playing anything but.

Our current group consists of:

Human Bounty Hunter/Gadgeteer - My character.

Human Smuggler/Pilot - This player played a human specifically to make dealing with Imperials easier, but a secondary concern was the out-of-career skills. His character was a pre-med student when he got tangled up with the wrong crowd and caught the wanderlust bug, and has been living on starships ever since.

Twi'lek Smuggler/Thief - I think this player had more of a con man/face character in mind when they chose the Thief specialization and is slowly moving their skill set that way. As a result, the starting Presence was attractive.

Klatooinian Bounty Hunter/Assassin - The most crunchy-feeling character at our table, stats and a sniper concept were the primary motivations.

Briefly we had a Wookie Hired Gun/Marauder with our group who's character concept was literally just, "I want to hit things really hard." The player likely won't be back though. We'll miss his luxurious coat, which he described in our first session as being akin to a golden retriever's.

our group has 3 humans and 2 droids

I'm not playing but I have a pretty great character on standby. He's a Gand Explorer (Trader) who used to trade slaves. He was very successful at it, too. But, his own morality got the better of him, and he left the organization he ran slaves for. This gives him a double obligation: the organization wants him back, he was just too profitable to just walk away from the business; and he wants to buy the freedom of every slave he hand a hand in selling.

Lets see, my group is as follows:

2x Trandoshans

1x Twilek

1x Rodian

1x Droid

1x Chiss

4x Humans

One of those humans is mine. He is a Corellian, but I made him with the base human as the Corellian version is a bit sucky. I only got to play him because I have started co-gming with one of my players (thanks MK!!!).

And yes, it is a big group to run for.