One of my players is planning a droid that one of the others in my group has labeled a "Death Blender". He gas brawn 5 will 2 and 1 in all of his other stats. Additionally all of his skills and talents are obviously brawn centric.

All that to say that he is basically useless in space combat, using the suggested skills and actions outlined in the book. I tried to come up with spme creative ideas. For example letting him throw the dead guy out the back of the shuttle craft to distract the fighter pilots chasing the party. But i hope this doesn't come in to play often (i.e. having dead guys lying around on their ship) What sort of things can he do to not feel useless?

Did you tell him about "Manual Repairs" action outlined on page 237? A Hard Athletics check to heal a point of Hull Trauma and an additional point for every 2 additional successes?

Sounds right up his alley. Although if you have a mechanic in the party that could step on his toes.

Why not have some sort of heavy cannon mounted that is so huge and encumbering you need to make an athletics check just to operate it. Actually, make it something that can only shoot every other turn and the turns in between he makes the check to reload the massive shells for the cannon. Let's him keep killing and makes thematic sense.

He can aid the mechanic? No offense to him but I'm sure he gets plenty of glory fighting on the ground. Not everybody is useful at all times, especially if they hyper focus on combat. Them's the breaks.

One of my players is planning a droid that one of the others in my group has labeled a "Death Blender". He gas brawn 5 will 2 and 1 in all of his other stats. Additionally all of his skills and talents are obviously brawn centric.

All that to say that he is basically useless in space combat, using the suggested skills and actions outlined in the book. I tried to come up with spme creative ideas. For example letting him throw the dead guy out the back of the shuttle craft to distract the fighter pilots chasing the party. But i hope this doesn't come in to play often (i.e. having dead guys lying around on their ship) What sort of things can he do to not feel useless?

Respec and build a character that isn't a one trick pony......

I think the least a player could do is not make the GM cater their PC. GMing is hard enough. I feel responsible to keep each player busy, but I also know that the PCs have a variety of abilities to tap into. I'd just tell him his character isn't going to be that useful outside of combat, and to expect to be bored unless he has at least some other capabilities. Brawn 4 is plenty good for a starting character, and Dedication isn't that far away...and meanwhile maybe a bit of Agility + Gunnery, or Intellect + Computers, wouldn't hurt.

Plus getting cyber enhancements is so much easier narratively to justify for a Droid character. It allows a +1 to Brawn, Agility, and Intellect all open for purchase with just credits. Why stack all that xp into one Characteristic?

Aside from Manual Repairs, which is fairly important, someone with a free hand to put out fires and so on is always handy.

To be honest, its up to the player to make themselves useful, that's what XP is for.

In terms of the game itself, don't think you can make everyone happy all the time, in certain scenes the brawler will shine knocking stormtroopers for 6 and have his moment in the spotlight, in another scene the pilots and the mechanics have theirs doing a high speed escape in a stolen vehicle and shooting its guns.

Well it's their own fault and they should realize that. You're not obliged to pander to them and if you do then you penalize those players who built well-rounded characters because the price they paid to have a more capable character this player gets for free.

But if you want a suggestion, fly close to the enemy ship and have it jump across. It's a droid after all. Hand to hand combat with a spaceship - now that's gaming!

Well it's their own fault and they should realize that. You're not obliged to pander to them and if you do then you penalize those players who built well-rounded characters because the price they paid to have a more capable character this player gets for free.But if you want a suggestion, fly close to the enemy ship and have it jump across. It's a droid after all. Hand to hand combat with a spaceship - now that's gaming!

Good point. I'll probably end up just telling him there really isn't anything he can do and use his boredom as a means to rank up gunnery or something.

Jeeeeeez there are some real Pink Mohawk ideas in this thread haha

Jeeeeeez there are some real Pink Mohawk ideas in this thread haha

Hey, this is Star Wars, not Shadowrun. This is a setting where two main characters have a laser-sword fight over lava, on an alien planet, whilst balanced on flying robots. What did you expect?

I think the least a player could do is not make the GM cater their PC. GMing is hard enough. I feel responsible to keep each player busy, but I also know that the PCs have a variety of abilities to tap into. I'd just tell him his character isn't going to be that useful outside of combat, and to expect to be bored unless he has at least some other capabilities. Brawn 4 is plenty good for a starting character, and Dedication isn't that far away...and meanwhile maybe a bit of Agility + Gunnery, or Intellect + Computers, wouldn't hurt.

I would disagree if this were a more balanced character, but in this case they really made a PC that only does one thing. A GM can't always work with that. This is similar to accepting that the pacifist social character runs and hides during a fight.

That said, there is a whole list of actions they can take. They just have to accept that they will be really bad at them.

Alternatively, if you are in open space and not in a chase (and don't have someone with beneficial talents), piloting usually doesn't rely much on skill.

I personally favour the addition of an semi-skilled NPC who can deliver acerbic comments during space fights suggesting the tank just sit in the corner and let the smart people handle things. That usually gets a response.

Or just go with the classic "Can somebody get this walking carpet out of the way?"

Well it's their own fault and they should realize that. You're not obliged to pander to them and if you do then you penalize those players who built well-rounded characters because the price they paid to have a more capable character this player gets for free.But if you want a suggestion, fly close to the enemy ship and have it jump across. It's a droid after all. Hand to hand combat with a spaceship - now that's gaming!

Good point. I'll probably end up just telling him there really isn't anything he can do and use his boredom as a means to rank up gunnery or something.

Your player sounds like the bodyguard droid I helped my GM design a few weeks ago... except part of the point of that droid was the humor value/danger level contrast of something with the verbobrain of a power droid stuck in a combat chassis. I literally pitched the concept by yelling out GONK! GONK! and making chopping motions with my hands.

That said, while your response to said player is a touch harsh, I think it's warranted. The next step is giving him a plan of action in case he suddenly realizes that being well-rounded can be cool and useful. The "Additional Starship and Vehicle Actions" table on page 237 of the main rulebook makes a good starting point mechanically.

Conceptually, you and your player should bear in mind also that "effective in combat" doesn't have to equal "good at shooting things." If there's a way to play against type in some fashion, I'd encourage it. As an example, in our campaign, I'm playing a Bounty Hunter/Gadgeteer and am pretty much the main combat heavy for our group off-ship. When we were still figuring out group dynamics and got into a space-based running battle our second session, I kind of assumed that I'd be a gunner - until we had two more nimble characters hop into our ship's turrets off the bat, which mechanically was a better idea anyways since none of us had ranks in Gunnery and I had the lowest Agility. As an aside, I'm not fond of comparing stats when making decisions like that in-game, but you work with the group you've got. ;-)

Anyhow I defaulted a bit to using Mechanic for a round or two while looking at my options in the rulebook, then came across the Fire Discipline action and hit gold. I got to showcase that my character's demeanor and carriage hints at military service in his background, two of our nonshooty characters got to blow stuff up and have fun with combat for a change of pace, and I got to contribute mechanically while also making tactical suggestions for the rest of the fight. In this case I lucked out since I had also taken Discipline as one of the Human racial skill options to support my backstory and tide my character over until I can afford to buy him Mercenary Soldier as an out-of-career spec tree, but I think it makes a decent example of how you can reinforce character concept and work with a group without taking the most obvious path.

jee, the player created a character that is only good for a brawl, and now finds the character is useless in space combat? seems to me the character is too specialized and needs to at least TRY and do something

I had one of my players who had no ranks in gunnery take an empty turret and still managed to hit a few times.

A few of the players at our table need occasional friendly reminders that this isn't D&D. Not having a rank in a skill does not necessarily equate to abysmal failure waiting to happen. We too have had Agility 3 folks without Gunnery hop in a turret and do well enough to feel they contributed. Stuff like that happens all the time in this system.

I think the least a player could do is not make the GM cater their PC. GMing is hard enough. I feel responsible to keep each player busy, but I also know that the PCs have a variety of abilities to tap into. I'd just tell him his character isn't going to be that useful outside of combat, and to expect to be bored unless he has at least some other capabilities. Brawn 4 is plenty good for a starting character, and Dedication isn't that far away...and meanwhile maybe a bit of Agility + Gunnery, or Intellect + Computers, wouldn't hurt.

I would disagree if this were a more balanced character, but in this case they really made a PC that only does one thing. A GM can't always work with that. This is similar to accepting that the pacifist social character runs and hides during a fight.

I'm unclear on what part here you're disagreeing with...? I mean, I agree with what you said, which sounds a lot like what I said...

I think the least a player could do is not make the GM cater their PC. GMing is hard enough. I feel responsible to keep each player busy, but I also know that the PCs have a variety of abilities to tap into. I'd just tell him his character isn't going to be that useful outside of combat, and to expect to be bored unless he has at least some other capabilities. Brawn 4 is plenty good for a starting character, and Dedication isn't that far away...and meanwhile maybe a bit of Agility + Gunnery, or Intellect + Computers, wouldn't hurt.

I would disagree if this were a more balanced character, but in this case they really made a PC that only does one thing. A GM can't always work with that. This is similar to accepting that the pacifist social character runs and hides during a fight.

I'm unclear on what part here you're disagreeing with...? I mean, I agree with what you said, which sounds a lot like what I said...

Now that I reread it, I'm not even sure. Must have been my evil twin posting. That jerk.

He's a Droid. Strap him onto some Sub-Warp engines that he's plugged into, give him a Military Grade Rail Gun, drop him out the cargo hold, and call it a day.

The party now has their own state-of-the-art "AI" controlled Space-Drone. Even better, he can board the bad guys' ships and lay waste from the inside!

If he's just sitting in med-bay twiddling his thumbs, he's not being very proactive...

Have the party's ship repel a boarding action by some pirates in a Firespray. We did it recently and it was a good fight. It also might encourage the party to get a tractor beam installed to do some boarding of their own. Then melee monsters can go to town inside an enemy ship.

I also dig the idea of threats starting fires on the player's ship or other things that require several rounds of athletics or other brawn skills to fix. Fires in enclosed spaceships are bad mkay... Look at FTL for some other fun ideas for bad things that can happen to ships internally when attacked externally.

Boarding actions launched from a 4R3 (see Dangerous Covenants) are so much better.

He's a Droid. Strap him onto some Sub-Warp engines that he's plugged into, give him a Military Grade Rail Gun, drop him out the cargo hold, and call it a day.

The party now has their own state-of-the-art "AI" controlled Space-Drone. Even better, he can board the bad guys' ships and lay waste from the inside!

That is far and away much more gonzo/Pink Mohawk than I care for in my Star Wars.

Serve drinks and snacks.......?

Serve drinks and snacks.......?

The droid is a 2 meter tall heavy lifter droid with an alcohol problem (think Bender but less personable). The idea of making his character do a bumch of coordination checks to not crush the crystal wine glass he is trying to hand out males me happy.