I am in a large game (around nine people) and volunteered to play the only soldier career character. I have already discovered a soldier requires quite a bit of work to have something to do outside of combat. But, as we have several people covering everything else, I am content to only dabble in the more useful and less violent areas.

The issue I am running into the the talents. There are a lot of talent trees that help with sniping, axe chopping, pistol blasting and face punching. However, there is nothing to help with auto-fire. At least, nothing I can find.

If I'm not interested in making a sniper, but do want to make a firearm combatant, what areas should I focus on? Are there talents to help with simply shooting are reasonable ranges?

Along side this subject, can talents like 'True Aim' and 'Sniper Shot' work while using auto-fire? Thematically, I would say no, but I can't find anything on it.

True aim and sniper shot would definitely work with auto fire. True aim specifically says it works with ranged attack. Auto fire is by definition a ranged attack. Two other things that will help with auto fire are jury rigged to reduce the cost of activating auto fire to a single advantage (be aware that this will auto kill just about any enemy you face and some times two or three enemies per round). The second is less useful and called reign of death which allows you to forgo the extra purple dice when auto firing (true aim is likely much better).

Are you set on soldier? If not bounty hunter gadgettier and hired gun mercenary soldier have a lot of the same feel and have some talents to allow out of combat activity.

Age of Rebellion careers only, so yeah. Exceptions exist, but I'm not one of them.

I have spent some of the starting experience and the two free skills gifted by being human so soften the blow of being a one trick pony. So, I'm rather good at shooting things, but have dabbled into several other areas so I can help when needed.

Jury rig you say? Reign of Death? I will investigate. Thanks!

What's your characteristic spread?

I have spent some of the starting experience and the two free skills gifted by being human so soften the blow of being a one trick pony. So, I'm rather good at shooting things, but have dabbled into several other areas so I can help when needed.

Why not play a medic? That'll give you plenty to do other than pewpew. Even if there is already one healing-oriented character, with such a large group, having another might be a good idea.

The Characteristics are rather one sided. 3 in Brawn and 4 in Agility (I am the shooter, after all). The rest are 2's.

I have spent some of the starting experience and the two free skills gifted by being human so soften the blow of being a one trick pony. So, I'm rather good at shooting things, but have dabbled into several other areas so I can help when needed.

Don't ever change.

This is one of those "I know, right?" moments. While it is fun trying to convince everyone else at the table the blaster is the answer to every problem, I'd rather be useful for when they out vote me (since its usually 1 vs. 8, that's kinda often)

Give it a few sessions, and you can have a good 3-4 ranks in a key skill, rolling as many dice as you do for your heavy blaster or vibro knife. Knowledge (Warfare) and Medicine are career skills for you, as well as Survival, Athletics, and Resilience. Pick one or more of those skills to specialize in, and you will be invaluable to the party.

Edit: unless you're a Sharpshooter, in which case Perception and Cool are also both very useful. In any case, your career skills are where you can shine.

But man, 9 players. Ouch.

The Heavy specialisation (Hired Gun (Dangerous Covenants), but I can't imagine it won't be replicated for Soldier) has a talent called Rain of Death that makes Auto-fire easier.

Survival is a great non-combat skill. Keeps the team alive while away from civilization. Could be used for tracking people too. Worth thinking outside the box for a few things you could commonly use that skill for. Natural Outdoorsman from Commando and Expert Tracker from Sharpshooter are great for a survialist bounty hunter type.

Sharpshooter also gives you Brace, which can be used on all kinds of Actions, not just combat stuff.

Quick Fix is AMAZING with a high Agility! Need to do a Mechanics? My fingers deftly work the spanners so I can use Agility. Spend some time thinking outside of the box. Perhaps even, I talk so fast without tripping over words that I Charm/Deception/Negotiate with Agility. Need to do a knowledge or computers check? Agility can give you the flex of speed to work those keys faster and look up the information before anyone can think of it off the top of their head.

Medic has plenty of role playing oppertunities. Sure, you are best at only shooting and healing people, both combat stuff, but the role playing oppotunities of being the doctor is great. Also, Well Rounded (halfway down the first line) gives you two skills so you can do anything else well after that.

Don't discount buying up a non-career skill either. Buying it up to 5 only costs 25 xp extra. The first out of spec tree is 30 xp. If you're only looking for one skill, just buy it non-career.

The Characteristics are rather one sided. 3 in Brawn and 4 in Agility (I am the shooter, after all). The rest are 2's.

If you’ve got high Agility, that can also be useful for piloting air/space craft as well as driving land craft. You might not be the best at these things, but you could be a useful backup to have for these roles.

Yup, what Brad said! Copilots can be really helpful.

Couple reasons: I prefer the combat types, so I went as far into the combat type as I could. And we already had a medic, who focused strongly on Intellect, but no strong ground combatant Soldier. Plus, I get to play the only Private in the Rebel cell, with everyone else either officers (pilots, and the one medical doctor) or a Chief (the engineer).