My Clawdite Slicer/Outlaw tech started out as the electronic door opener. That was kind of a drag, so I decided to try and get creative. I got to disable droids and slice into space station systems to re-pressurize areas and the like. That was pretty cool, but still had very little excitement during the combat encounters.

That changed when I started the whole Outlaw Tech thing. Along the way my character had been collecting droid bits, explosives, and even a thermal detonator. I found one of those little mouse droids and designed a simple program (I drew this up as a flowchart during the fight to get the GM's approval. It felt rushed, like the character was doing it in the situation!), then I hooked up the droid with an arming mechanism and the thermal detonator with the intention of being a last ditch effort in a big boss fight that we were losing. It ultimately failed, but it felt like exactly what my character would do and was pretty fun!

My suggestion: think back to your last few sessions and imagine the craziest way that your character could have solved the problem, then add more explosions. Or, if they're in a ship, find as airlock to slice remotely and see about evacuating the bad guys into space. Or overload reactors, re-write history on the holonet, modify your group's ship transponder signal (make it look like an Imperial shuttle or one of the enemy bounty hunters' ships, etc), program droids to slow down your enemies, send enemies fake messages that loved ones have recently passed away, falsify plans for a super weapon to sell to the highest bidder, etc. Hsve fun!

I'm in agreement, mostly, but getting too outlandish leads to one of two things. Either you are too powerful because your skill turns into "what can I make up today..." Or all these outlandish things do basically nothing.

If you are coming up with things to do as a slicer, I would make sure to have a desired effect. When I sliced the enemy TIE weapon systems, I didn't just ask if I could do that, I specifically asked if I could do that and give them a setback die when they attack. Have concrete applications for the things you want to do.

My Clawdite Slicer/Outlaw tech started out as the electronic door opener. That was kind of a drag, so I decided to try and get creative. I got to disable droids and slice into space station systems to re-pressurize areas and the like. That was pretty cool, but still had very little excitement during the combat encounters.

That changed when I started the whole Outlaw Tech thing. Along the way my character had been collecting droid bits, explosives, and even a thermal detonator. I found one of those little mouse droids and designed a simple program (I drew this up as a flowchart during the fight to get the GM's approval. It felt rushed, like the character was doing it in the situation!), then I hooked up the droid with an arming mechanism and the thermal detonator with the intention of being a last ditch effort in a big boss fight that we were losing. It ultimately failed, but it felt like exactly what my character would do and was pretty fun!

My suggestion: think back to your last few sessions and imagine the craziest way that your character could have solved the problem, then add more explosions. Or, if they're in a ship, find as airlock to slice remotely and see about evacuating the bad guys into space. Or overload reactors, re-write history on the holonet, modify your group's ship transponder signal (make it look like an Imperial shuttle or one of the enemy bounty hunters' ships, etc), program droids to slow down your enemies, send enemies fake messages that loved ones have recently passed away, falsify plans for a super weapon to sell to the highest bidder, etc. Hsve fun!

I'm in agreement, mostly, but getting too outlandish leads to one of two things. Either you are too powerful because your skill turns into "what can I make up today..." Or all these outlandish things do basically nothing.

If you are coming up with things to do as a slicer, I would make sure to have a desired effect. When I sliced the enemy TIE weapon systems, I didn't just ask if I could do that, I specifically asked if I could do that and give them a setback die when they attack. Have concrete applications for the things you want to do.

Good point. The last paragraph was mostly just to get the creative juices flowing

That being said, attempting something outlandish is kind of the point of the "Inventor" talent. The GM would set the difficulty appropriately, so I'd much rather try to do something awesome and fail horrendously than sit on my thumbs while the rest of the party is swooping around and saving the day. Maybe that's just me, though. "What can I make up today..." usually ends in a failure. If it doesn't (and thus far luck has not been on my side) then awesome! Even if it does fail, I've set the bar higher for next time, creatively.

For instance, my all-time favorite attempt, the mouse droid thermal detonator, failed. That's ok. I really, really enjoyed it and felt like that was an awesome moment for my character! The group has taken a break, but if we get back together, you can be sure I'll be looking for ways to invent something even more fun.

I do agree with you on your second paragraph, though. When you propose an invention, or a slicing attempt, have a specific goal in mind.

The other night my party was helping a Rebel group evacuate a planet that was about to get the lock down from the Empire. There was only a single star destroyer in our path, however star destroyers carry a lot of fighters. We had 3 GR-75s and 9 Y-Wings. Blockading us was 72 TIE Fighters, 72 TIE Interceptors, and 36 TIE Bombers. They approached in waves, several minion groups of 12 each (making them fairly weak) at a time. Took us 3 rounds to jump to hyperspace, so we only had to survive.

So when on a ship, an action available to you is to to slice the systems of enemy ships, however the book description says on a success you disrupt the enemy shields. I'm no pilot or astronavigator, so I had few options.

I simply asked the GM if I could use that action to give a target minion group of TIEs a setback on their next attack since they did not have shields. He agreed. I did it. It was awesome. I was merely sitting on a GR-75, but I felt like I was helping in a massive battle by messing with enemy weapon systems.

This is just a basic example of things you need to think about if playing a slicer. Think about what would make sense and ask the GM if you can do it.

What class was that Destroyer anyway, some kind of home brewed ship or a home conversion of a model that hasn't appeared in FFG yet? Just curious because nothing officially statted so far can carry that many fighters. Even Executor doesn't carry that many TIEs, much less any ships currently in the system.

I might be wrong on the Interceptor numbers. Doesn't a standard Star Destroyer carry 12 squadrons (in the lore)? That's 144 ships. Looking it up I guess only the Executor carries 12 squadrons.

There also may have been more star destroyers, only one was visible to us though.

An Imperial class Star Destroyer carries six squadrons (72 Fighters). In the AOR/EOE era they usually carry either four TIE Fighter squadrons (48), one TIE Interceptor Squadron (12), and one TIE Bomber Squadron (12) or three TIE Fighter Squadrons (36), two TIE Interceptor Squadrons (24), and one TIE Bomber Squadron (12) though I'm sure there are many Destroyers with different fighter mixes then the above.

But yeah there were probably more imperial ships off screen since the mix you ran into was 2.5 Imperial class fighter compliments and I doubt they threw every fighter the blockade force had at your group (If the Imperial commander was even remotely intelligent he or she held some fighters back in case other transports fled on different routes.)

The other night my party was helping a Rebel group evacuate a planet that was about to get the lock down from the Empire. There was only a single star destroyer in our path, however star destroyers carry a lot of fighters. We had 3 GR-75s and 9 Y-Wings. Blockading us was 72 TIE Fighters, 72 TIE Interceptors, and 36 TIE Bombers. They approached in waves, several minion groups of 12 each (making them fairly weak) at a time. Took us 3 rounds to jump to hyperspace, so we only had to survive.

So when on a ship, an action available to you is to to slice the systems of enemy ships, however the book description says on a success you disrupt the enemy shields. I'm no pilot or astronavigator, so I had few options.

I simply asked the GM if I could use that action to give a target minion group of TIEs a setback on their next attack since they did not have shields. He agreed. I did it. It was awesome. I was merely sitting on a GR-75, but I felt like I was helping in a massive battle by messing with enemy weapon systems.

This is just a basic example of things you need to think about if playing a slicer. Think about what would make sense and ask the GM if you can do it.

What class was that Destroyer anyway, some kind of home brewed ship or a home conversion of a model that hasn't appeared in FFG yet? Just curious because nothing officially statted so far can carry that many fighters. Even Executor doesn't carry that many TIEs, much less any ships currently in the system.

I might be wrong on the Interceptor numbers. Doesn't a standard Star Destroyer carry 12 squadrons (in the lore)? That's 144 ships. Looking it up I guess only the Executor carries 12 squadrons.

There also may have been more star destroyers, only one was visible to us though.

An Imperial class Star Destroyer carries six squadrons (72 Fighters). In the AOR/EOE era they usually carry either four TIE Fighter squadrons (48), one TIE Interceptor Squadron (12), and one TIE Bomber Squadron (12) or three TIE Fighter Squadrons (36), two TIE Interceptor Squadrons (24), and one TIE Bomber Squadron (12) though I'm sure there are many Destroyers with different fighter mixes then the above.

But yeah there were probably more imperial ships off screen since the mix you ran into was 2.5 Imperial class fighter compliments and I doubt they threw every fighter the blockade force had at your group (If the Imperial commander was even remotely intelligent he or she held some fighters back in case other transports fled on different routes.)

My GM is kind of a Star Wars ship elitist, so I am sure he had the whole blockade and everything worked out off screen, only sharing with us what was involved with us. I will say though, the whole point of the Empire being at that planet was to go after this Rebel group, and they very well could have known that was everything the Rebels had within the context of what had been going on.

For slicing, have you ever played Shadowrun? In Shadowrun (specifically in later editions), hacking has a number of uses, covering data harvesting, communications, surveillance, security, and cybercombat.

Thinking of that, you could start slicing ship sensors during combat (check that chapter out, 'cause it's in there), running encrypted communications for the party, and perhaps getting into a slicer duel. Other things to think about is what else you find while slicing. Shadowrun has this concept called paydata, where the hacker sells data he finds while hacking (really any data). Maybe you find some Imperial shipping manifests you can leak to a black market interest, or a file of suspect transponder codes you think someone would pay good money for.

This kind of side data can also be uses to plant adventure seeds, "trigger" Obligation, and do anything else the players or GM want. Maybe while slicing a security system, you learn about a prisoner transfer that is about to take place, or stumble upon something that references a nemesis you thought was dead.

As for inventing, try and think of things you want to accomplish but can't, or improvements you'd like to make. Perhaps you want to mod some gear but can't findvthe right attachment for it. Or maybe you want to stat out something like Kyle Katarn's Bryer pistol. Maybe you are tired of the poor selection of speeder attachments and aim to fix that.