When I create a character I tend to start with the background and personality. Then I choose, in this case, the Career and Specialization. But my character for Edge of Empire is causing me some problems as he is.....something else. Some of you, perhaps all, will already be aware of my character Ronin Kaal from other posts. But I have some extra details since I posted them, and some of you may not have read about him.

Ronin Kaal

Born on Alderaan in 30 BBY.

17 BBY he started to learn the basics of piloting. Eventually he could be seen, and heard, flying around Alderaan in a Z-95 Headhunter by the time he was fifteen in 15 BBY. In 13 BBY he was accepted into the Imperial Academy and qualified a year later in 12 BBY. Since then Ronin piloted a Tie Fighter, though his battles usually involved search and destroy on pirates and smugglers.

In 8 BBY he was assigned to a Star Destroyer leading a small fleet into the outer rim to find the base of operations for a powerful pirate organisation (name to be invented). At this point he was assigned a Tie Bomber armed with a modified torpedo which incorporated a tracking beacon. As expected, early in 7 BBY he hit a pirate ship and then allowed it to escape, leading the fleet to their base.

In mid 7 BBY Ronin was shot down over the heavily fortified planet which the pirates called home. The Empire had underestimated the pirates, who had armed their base planet with numerous Ion Cannons and numerous ships. Between mid 7 BBY and early 5 BBY he survived alone among the jungles of the planet. But he did more than just survive. He was a one man army, killing hundreds of the pirates and sabotaging dozens of ships. He even started destroying the Ion Cannons.

In 5 BBY the Empire returned and found the pirates in turmoil, having been terrified by the actions of Ronin. When the Stormtroopers found him, they almost fired on him since he looked like a monster with a bloodied knife, worn clothing and a fierce look in his eyes. Over time his superiors learnt of his actions and he was given the honor of being assigned to the Death Star.

Then came the destruction of Alderaan in 0 BBY.

Such was the emotional agony he suffered at the sight of his home planet being so mercilessly destroyed, that he went to his quarters and collapsed to his knees. After he recovered, Ronin learnt of the Millennium Falcon being on the Death Star and he sneaked on board (while Han chased Stormtroopers and Obi Wan face Vader) and remained hidden until they arrived at Yavin. Once on Yavin, he waited until he could sneak off the Falcon and then found a Z-95 which he could use to escape.

So who is Ronin now?

He works alone. There are some people he feels he can trust, but such people are few and he prefers to keep his distance. He spends his time helping innocents and hunting down those who prey on them. But his hatred burns brightest for the Empire. Ronin suffers from Post Traumatic Stress and upon seeing anyone associated with the Empire is likely to become even more savage, even setting aside a mission to go on an Empire killing spree.

Having had his trust in the Empire shattered, he refuses to trust any organization so won't join the Rebellion. With a sense of honor, and having morals and a conscience, he refuses to become a pirate but will hire his services for those with a good cause. "Good" being what he deems a good and worthy cause. Rebels are traitors after all, but he will rescue an innocent family from the Empire regardless of their personal viewpoint.

He favours snapping necks, cutting throats, stabbing backs and setting traps to open firefights. Though he does carry weapons, and will shoot his way into or out of some situations, he prefers to put a laser hole into a temple from behind cover.

There are a few careers which suit his background.

But I'm stumped.

Please offer your opinions to help.

Thank you in advance.

Have you thought of actually looking into two different specialization tree's? The game allows for this to happen. What level is Ronin?

As far as snapping necks and being bad ass and also a pilot I would suggest perhaps looking into the Marauder Talent Tree and the Pilot Talent Tree.

There are several careers that suit this background...

The emphasis on starfighter piloting in the background would suggest the Smuggler:Pilot, assuming you want to be a starfighter pilot in game.

Don't take the "Smuggler" part of the career literally, it's just the name the used for that category of specializations. The skills and talent tree for the military Ace:Pilot found in the Age of Rebellion Beta are almost identical.

If you only want to stick to Edge of the Empire, Smuggler will be your quintessential piloting career/spec

to represent the more brutal aspects of his personality:

Bounty Hunter: Assassin focuses a lot of stealth and getting the jump on your opponents, or otherwise being a slippery weasel.

Bounty Hunter: Survivalist or explorer: Scout could represent his time on the pirates planet, sabotaging the pirates and living off of the land.

The game is kinda set up to model a pretty inexperienced person as a starting character. A character with a long background like you've got should probably have more skills than a starting character. If your group isn't starting with more experienced characters, you might want to shorten the background a bit, and allow the character to grow during play rather than in your background story.

Alternatively, you could pick a career that you most wanted to focus on for the "jungle-dwelling pirate-slayer" portion of his background, and then just pick up a rank each of Pilot: Space and Gunnery to represent his time as a TIE pilot. Or vice-versa. It's going to suck to blow 30 XP plus some more for skills or talents on a second career as a starting character, since that will eat into your characteristics budget quite a bit.

Keep in mind a character with a high Agility is going to make a good pilot and will also be good with a blaster regardless of whether you have a skill rank or not, so maybe just opt for high AGI and one career starting out, and pick up some more specs down the road.

If Age of Rebellion presents a more military pilot, I might have to give that a look. Just because he isn't a Rebel doesn't mean I can't steal an idea.

FuriousGuy makes a good point. Ronin is an experienced character, at least from a background point of view. One thought I had was to stick to his land-based combat abilities, and just add a bit of pilot skills later. But then I think he was flying for more than a decade, having flown a Z-95, Tie Fighter and Tie Bomber, and it seems a shame to miss that out. Another idea was to actually play his background. Start off as a low ranking pilot chasing pirates. Then play out some of his "Rambo" time on the pirate world. Follow with a bit more piloting before he goes all "Dark Knight" on the Empire.

Assassin did seem a good fit. But so did Survivalist.

Can't show the image of the model I was going to use for him, but it would be a slightly converted Infinity Ariadna SAS. I imagined him as being an SAS/Navy Seal type; only with a savage side.

Imagine a member of the British SAS from Durham who sees the city get nuked under orders from Parliment and you get an idea of what the Empire will be on the receiving end of.

Actually I just had a better solution.

Smuggler:Pilot+Recruit

Again, the military pilot in AoR is almost identical, the talent tree originally printed in the Beta book actually was the exact same. There's really no reason to chose it over the Smuggler, and the Obligation mechanic is more appropriate for your character anyway.

In the beta update which is still available they also added the "Recruit" universal specialization, that allows a "civilian" class access to military oriented skills and talents. The combination of the two would actually represent your concept very very well. You'd use the piloting stuff from the Pilot specialization for his TIE experience and starfighter focus, and skills like deception, and skulduggery would benefit him being on the run, not to mention help explain him sneaking around Yavin base. Then use the Recruit to add skills like Survival and Talents like Outdoorsman, as well as the combat training talents.

Bing bang boom. If your group is starting at an advanced level (I'd suggest around +100-150XP) then you'd actually be able to make a character that completely fit your concept and back story right from day 1. If they all want to start at normal starting level, the bonus XP from Obligation could be spent (or saved) to get you the Recruit right quick, and have your character on track by the end of adventure 1 or 2.

Smuggler: Pilot+Recruit

hmmmm

Why didn't I think of that?

First person to say "because you're a silly numpty" deserves multiple "likes"

Thanks Ghostofaman

If you are willing to take more than one career . My idea would be smuggler pilot , and commander ,tactician . You have your pilot stuff from smuggler , little tricks to the trade .. With tactician you get outdoorsmen and a lot of the same talents that a scoundril gets without leaving your imperial persona . Check it out in the beta for age of rebellion .

Good at piloting, good at survival? I'd go with Explorer. Probably Driver first then either Fringer (if you want to be even more piloty) or Big-Game Hunter (if you want to emphasize the commando part).

For the most part the names things are given are just labels. Not everyone who's trained as an Assassin is a murderer, after all.

Good at piloting, good at survival? I'd go with Explorer. Probably Driver first then either Fringer (if you want to be even more piloty) or Big-Game Hunter (if you want to emphasize the commando part).

For the most part the names things are given are just labels. Not everyone who's trained as an Assassin is a murderer, after all.

If he's got Enter the Unknown this is a pretty good option too now that you mention it...

Good at piloting, good at survival? I'd go with Explorer. Probably Driver first then either Fringer (if you want to be even more piloty) or Big-Game Hunter (if you want to emphasize the commando part).

For the most part the names things are given are just labels. Not everyone who's trained as an Assassin is a murderer, after all.

If he's got Enter the Unknown this is a pretty good option too now that you mention it...

TomRK, I heartily recommend that you buy Enter the Unknown. And Dangerous Covenants. And Sons of Space-Texas. And all the FFG game books, in fact.

...but until they arrive you may want to have a look at Doc, the Weasel's excellent talent tree sheets.

Drats!

I was hoping to just stick with the rulebook.