Honestly, put together an RPG game about fighter pilots. USe X-Wing as the air combat system. Let them work out their pilot abilities and control their ships while you pump crap at them. Don' worry about balance in this game. Worry about them having fun in your campaign.

That's the best way to get what you want.

That's certainly a way to go.

However, this game is too deadly to focus on the heroic exploits of specific pilots. Of course, you can make it less deadly at the expense of that balance.

The thing is, as much as I love RPGs, that's not what I'm looking for. Instead, (as I detail in my Multi-Level Play thread) I'm looking to have X-Wing battles fought as part of a broader campaign. So, kind of like the campaigns that (I hear) are in the Tantive and Transport expansions, but then with a richer embeddedness in the SWU.

Of course, that's a lot of work (and I'm working on it), but that work is not particularly useful if there is only a mediocre demand for that sort of gaming.

From the other responses that I've gotten in this thread, and elsewhere, I think that there is a demand for more narrative. I'm starting these threads in order to explore what people are into (as well as build awareness so that it won't come out of the blue when I shamelessly plug the campaign engine I'm building [/disclamer] ).

RPG's are the best place for narrative play. Players care about their characters and their ships. It's a great way to get narrative in while still getting the tactical feeling of X-Wing(And by adding in extra survivability for PC's you can create a better named character feel than this game does. The biggest flaw in this game is just how little plot armor it gives named characters. Wedge is the quintissential survivor. What does he do? Always dies first(or second if biggs stays close)

How do I get my narrative jollies...

Penthouse Forum?

TMI?

Now, I am not proposing "Army Lists" or that all lists/games should be based on "historical" units or battles from Canon SW lore but, personally , I would like to see more "themed" events where players are free to create squads within certain limits to fit in with a greater narrative, giving each battle a "context" and thus "meaning". This could be something like setting a particular "date" for a game (only ships/pilots available in 0 BBY), a particular battle (any ship/pilot available for Battle of Endor), a "type of battle" (attack on a Rebel convoy or raid on an Imperial base) or something very specific (DS "trench run", etc...), a campaign setting (where the results of one game have an effect on the next, etc...) or even something like the on-going Unofficial X-wing Galactic Campaign. To me, battles are more meaningful and FUN, when they have meaning.

While it is a handicap in squadbuilding, I do get tickled when I can fly something that respects the 'order of battle'. I play many games that includes a flight of TIEs (Howlrunner + 4x Academy TIEs) and an element of bombers (2x Scimitar Squadron). I've had decent luck with it, given that I practice with it a lot.

That said, I really should surround Howlrunner with Obsidian squadron, or Vader with Black Squadron, but I haven't had as much luck with those.

Still, in the campaign that I'm building, the Empire has to respect the order of battle (somewhat).

Yet, I would like for you to explain more of what you mean with the following statement:

...my philosophy has been to leave the basic game mechanics alone and not try to add levers that don't really have points of attachment in on-the-table play.

I mean things like escape pods, hyperdrives, heroes around which a story revolves. Since there are no provisions for these things when there are ships on the table, introducing them into ships-on-the-table play is likely to be risk derailing the elegant rules that make the game work so well and make it attractive in the first place. They tend to work better as pre-mission or post-mission events.

A mission where ailing rebel ships are trying to make the jump to hyperspace is a fine framework (uh, excuse) for a dogfight, but the actual jumping-to-hyperspace activity is probably best achieved by something that the game is already set up to handle, such as flying off a certain edge of the play area. Something as simple as creating an "astrogate" action risks unbalancing the game's singular purpose (to dogfight) if it takes the place of other actions that are vital to dogfighting success, so it needs to be considered and implemented very carefully.

I mean things like escape pods, hyperdrives, heroes around which a story revolves. Since there are no provisions for these things when there are ships on the table, introducing them into ships-on-the-table play is likely to be risk derailing the elegant rules that make the game work so well and make it attractive in the first place. They tend to work better as pre-mission or post-mission events.

Okay, I see what you're saying here. You'er saying that these things are best left as part of the narrative, and not given too much (if any) representation in the dog-fight game.

A mission where ailing rebel ships are trying to make the jump to hyperspace is a fine framework (uh, excuse) for a dogfight, but the actual jumping-to-hyperspace activity is probably best achieved by something that the game is already set up to handle, such as flying off a certain edge of the play area. Something as simple as creating an "astrogate" action risks unbalancing the game's singular purpose (to dogfight) if it takes the place of other actions that are vital to dogfighting success, so it needs to be considered and implemented very carefully.

Now you cut me to the quick. I've spent a long time thinking about interstellar travel and astrogation (I even wrote the nav computer on the D6 Holocron to facilitate an understanding of travel times in the SW Galaxy. [/shameless plug]

Regarding astrogation you'll probably have already seen my mechanic in the Flight of the Orokeet thread, which we will be testing out in our playtest on Saturday. In that scenario, the route is already presumed to be plotted.

Given how astrogation was pretty explicit in the movies - and it is very important to the operation of interstellar warfare - I wonder if there should be some explicit room for it in our game. However, I'm open for elegant mechanics to deal with it. I'll acknowledge that mine may be a little convoluted and (partially) driven by the needs of that particular mission.