I must admit I was a bit confused reading the blurbs for 'Far Horizons', when they are talking up the Colonist class as the kind of characters who settle distant worlds and tame the frontier.

The name 'Colonist' suggests 'tough frontiersman', a kind of Wild West image, a fearless type who braves the elements and carves a home from the wilderness.

But in EoE, 'Colonist' doesn't refer to that kind of character, but to 'Core World guy'. These are the people who, if anything, are out of place on the Fringe - the politician, the scholar and the doctor. Maybe I could see the latter as an actual 'colonist' in the real sense of the world, but the others do really feel like Core World types. Even the fluff for the career is built around why your 'Colonist' finds himself on the Fringe instead of in a cosier environment.

To be honest, none of them have Survival as a skill, so I wouldn't actually be looking for any of these guys to be a tough water-moisturising, nerf-herding kind of character. If anything, the Explorer classes seem to do a better job of representing that role (I think Explorers are weaksauce, but that's another story...)

Maybe the Marshal will have those kind of skills, but I'm expecting more of a 'policeman' character, a civilian law enforcer with small arms and diplomatic skills. 'Entertainer' isn't anyone's idea of a frontiersman either, and 'Entrepreneur' sounds like the white-collar version of the Trader, sort of like the Quartermaster but without the military connotations.

They sound very cool, but I'm not really sure why they are pushing the concepts like homesteads, survival gear, and hostile frontiers in the 'Far Horizons' articles. Just feels like an odd direction for them to take, for what are described in the EoE book as 'fish out of water' characters.

The name 'Colonist' suggests 'tough frontiersman', a kind of Wild West image, a fearless type who braves the elements and carves a home from the wilderness.

I think those particular types are covered in the Explorer Career and specs like Fringer, Scout or Big Game Hunter. I think colonist in this case is a catch all for character types you can meet in settled colonies or even core worlds. Doctors, entertainers, police and politicians.

I consider much of the fringe to be like the Old West. There's more than just the open plains and deserts. The townsfolk you find in every settlement are the Colonists. You'll find Doctors, Politicos, Scholars, Entertainers, and the rest.

Frontier depends on where you're standing. If you're in the Core, the Frontier is some place like Eriadu. Sure it has cities, fleets, heavy industry, and history stretching back a few thousand years, but it's 'the Frontier'. If you're from Eriadu, then the Frontier is some wild place like Tatooine. Yeah, it's also got cities, farms, spaceports and history, but it's not real civilization like Eriadu. If you're on Tatooine, well, then, y'know.

Colonists aren't the ones doing the exploring from the front, there are other careers doing that. Colonists are the ones you bring in after your creating a settlement. They are the people you need in order to make the settlement thrive and grow, which is why they are the Doctors, Scholars, and Politicians (eventually the next 3 as well). You can't grow without them.

Frontier depends on where you're standing. If you're in the Core, the Frontier is some place like Eriadu. Sure it has cities, fleets, heavy industry, and history stretching back a few thousand years, but it's 'the Frontier'. If you're from Eriadu, then the Frontier is some wild place like Tatooine. Yeah, it's also got cities, farms, spaceports and history, but it's not real civilization like Eriadu. If you're on Tatooine, well, then, y'know.

If you're on Tatooine the frontier is someplace like Hoth. If you're on Hoth its any remotely habitable planet with no one on it.

I agree no Survival is a bit of an oddity. Lots of folks hit the Frontier though, missionaries, snake oil salesmen, professionals, lawmen, ranchers, farmers, etc. So those kind of ideas fit into the basic names. I always try and not read too literally into the career titles, like a crazed doomsday preacher could be a Politico for instance.

Of the new specs, it is Performer that has me most interested, as the description implies more physicality than the notion of an Entertainer in my mind. Entrepreneur will be good I'm sure, but I just expect a small twist on Quartermaster or Trader. Marshal is the one I expect the least from, not that it won't be a good spec, particularly for those in the Colonist career looking for some combat depth in career, but mostly because I expect it to break the least new ground.

I agree with the sentiment that Colonists are the folks that "bring civilization with them" rather than the folks out chartering new places for civilization to take root.

Take for instance the American West. It generally wasn't the homesteaders and folks leaving "Back East" that decided where would be good places to set-up a new village/town/farmstead, but scouts, prospectors, and mountain men (i.e. folks used to truly roughing it without many of the creature comforts that people of that day and age took for granted) that checked out the lay of land, found places that they thought "hey, this might be a good place for folks to settle!" and sent word and directions Back East so that the would-be homesteaders would know where to go. Though in the case of prospectors, they were more interested in mineral wealth than finding new lands for folks to settle.

And as KJDavid said, where the "frontier" is depends on where you're from initially. There was a great line in the first episode of Deep Space Nine where Doctor Bashir is giddy at being posted to the station, claiming he'll have a chance to employ "frontier medicine" but within earshot of Major Kira, a native Bajoran who didn't take such a remark very well, seeing as how Bajor wasn't a backwater hick planet like Tatooine is generally presented as being. Bashir would be a Colonist/Doctor, and have a very different concept of "civilization" than Kira (likely a Commander/Tactician given her history in the Bajoran Resistance).

Just because one is a fish out of water doesn't mean one can't learn to thrive. One of my favorite example settings is the Revolution TV series...you've got Doctors, Politicos, Entrepeneurs, Marshalls, Scholars, and "the frontier" is everywhere but even though they might prefer a more civilized venue, or be able to do more with a well-stocked medicine supply or a working computer system, doesn't mean their skills are wasted. Even their knowledge of "the world as it used to be" is useful for teaching and situational wisdom, and a sense of "ideal civilization."

Obviously there are many points of breakdown in the analogy, but still. Colonists in EotE might well be from the "Core worlds," or at least more "civilized space," but there's nothing to say how long they might have spent at the Edge. Imagine a 60-year-old Simon Tam from Firefly, someone whose origins are high-class but who's had decades of experience on the fringe. He would be a totally different character.

I'm glad you brought this up, Maelora.

I hear what everyone else is saying, but that doesn't necessarily diminish my surprise about how Colonist characters are being described in those previews. "Civilization Doesn't Happen by Accident" and "Equipped to Survive" sure don't describe my cocktail-waitress-on-the-run!

I wonder if they're worried that the book will be a hard sell for the power-gamers out there (of which there are many [most?]), so they're stressing the grit and gear. That's cool for a preview, but I hope the book itself isn't all about digging aquaducts and such.

Yeah, it just felt like a change in focus from the Core Book, IJ.

Our 'main' PC, the one in the Luke Skywalker role, is a core world student from a wealthy background who went on the run when her Force powers started to manifest. The player chose Politico and Scholar as specs, as these seemed to represent the good education and 'civilised' upbringing she had. She comes across as very naïve during role-playing, much less worldly than the hardened fringers she hangs out with.

The EoE book stresses this in the career; asking players to think of why their Colonists left the comfort of civilisation to hang out in 'hives of scum and villainy'. The career seems there to provide access to a Leia or Padme or C3PO character in an EoE environment.

Yet the previews of 'Far Horizons' seem to be stressing the 'tough frontier settler' rather than the 'core worlder on the run' of the EoE book. Hence, feels like a shift in perspective to me.

Personally I don't think it's for power-gaming reasons... EoE is mostly a narrative game and it's incredibly easy to min-max just by choosing a droid or Hired Gun, so it likely won't appeal to 'optimisers' anyway.

Perhaps it is because people wanted the other role for colonist... the gritty frontiers-being, rather than the core worlder out of their element. Both can fit, and are indeed interchangeable. Perhaps the doctor only went to the core to learn medicine. Perhaps the marshal went to the rim to keep the rubes in line. Entertainer can be classicaly trained kloo-ist or stripper.

I don't see it as a change of focus, just a broadening.

Personally I don't think it's for power-gaming reasons... EoE is mostly a narrative game and it's incredibly easy to min-max just by choosing a droid or Hired Gun, so it likely won't appeal to 'optimisers' anyway.

Sorry, when I said 'powergamers', I think I chose the wrong word. I was thinking more of the people who play 'tough guy' type characters. I remember when Galaxy of Intrigue (the 'noble' book) for SAGA was coming out, a lot of people were on the boards saying, "well, there's nothing I'd want in a book like that... I'm gonna skip it". I'm not sure how well that book did in comparison to the others, but maybe FFG are a little bit afraid the players of combat-centric characters might turn their noses up at this one?

Yeah, it just felt like a change in focus from the Core Book, IJ.

Our 'main' PC, the one in the Luke Skywalker role, is a core world student from a wealthy background who went on the run when her Force powers started to manifest. The player chose Politico and Scholar as specs, as these seemed to represent the good education and 'civilised' upbringing she had. She comes across as very naïve during role-playing, much less worldly than the hardened fringers she hangs out with.

The EoE book stresses this in the career; asking players to think of why their Colonists left the comfort of civilisation to hang out in 'hives of scum and villainy'. The career seems there to provide access to a Leia or Padme or C3PO character in an EoE environment.

Yet the previews of 'Far Horizons' seem to be stressing the 'tough frontier settler' rather than the 'core worlder on the run' of the EoE book. Hence, feels like a shift in perspective to me.

Personally I don't think it's for power-gaming reasons... EoE is mostly a narrative game and it's incredibly easy to min-max just by choosing a droid or Hired Gun, so it likely won't appeal to 'optimisers' anyway.

FFG imo opinion is fleshing out careers as they release these books to add more totality or depth if you will to careers. I'm not saying they want players to stay in a single career but I think they are trying to add some options so they don't feel like they have to leave their career to fill glaring holes in their capabilities either.

The write up stresses the frontiersmen attitude and lifestyle I think because regardless of rationale for going to the rim once a character is there, it is what it is. The three specs still strike me as easily explained by core world types making their way in the back woods. Marshal could be a lawyer type or big city lawman fed up with red tape and corruption and is looking to do things right, Lone Ranger was a city slicker turned frontier crime fighter. A Performer could be not particularly good enough for the core so they are trying their luck with rubes on the rim. Entrepreneur segues the easiest, the cliche Snake Oil vendor leaps to mind.

I see what you are saying, but consider that, for those players that want more of that role, there are a few careers in Age of Rebellion that provide those options. Most GMs are going to let those options into their games. I think the focus of the splatbooks is generally to broaden the horizons of each career beyond what is present in the CRB, as opposed to spending too much time focusing the career even more narrowly. Although, there are certainly signature abilities to play to that angle.

I don't read the Colonist as the cut and dry Old West settler of the Rim, but more along the lines of the "skilled labor" of the colonies; the leaders, governors, sages, and doctors. With the new specializations, you have your sheriffs, celebrities, and important businessmen. Outside of the Colonist, you need scouts/settlers of new areas, an armed force/security, engineers, and ways to ship goods to your colony, which are covered in other careers. All are important to a colony's existence, but the Colonist specializations fill a role that isn't described anywhere else.

You know, I was going to type up a long winded thing on how I think Colonists are the second wave of settlers. The Doctors, Scholars, and entertainers who fleshed out the towns the Explorers created in the first wave. However, while typing it out, I've decided to change my mind somewhat. Colonists make the towns, the Explorers are needed to ensure the towns survive the first winter.

Colonists can be the first wave of settlers. The ones who first set up the towns. Think about Jamestown or Plymouth. Those were settled by common every day folk who had no wilderness skills. One got wiped off the map and the other only survived through help from the natives. Did they have survival? Heck no! It would be a non-career skill for them. Ever play Oregon trail? Same thing. You can pick jobs as banker or carpenter or lawyer. Those people don't really know how to hunt and gather and live in the wilderness. They need a town to live in. Which is why they are in a colony. They need civilization to survive, which is why they don't have Survival. For best chances of survival they needed some Explorers amoungst their ranks for true wilderness survival skills until the colonies were up and running.

Ever see Unforgiven? Slim would be an Entrepreneur. Silky and the girls would be Performers. Most of the deputys would be Marshals. Beauchamp would be a Scholar. They are all Colonists who have no idea how to live outside of the towns on the old west. Bill Munny, Ned Logan, Little Bill Daggett, and even English Bob would've been of more hardened careers, ones with Survival and combat skills, which is why they stand out amoungst the rest of the townsfolk. They would've started in those combat careers before picking up a non-career Colonist tree.