It appears the career splat books for Age of Rebellion are going in the order they are presented in the book(might change who knows?). Looking through the specializations already present I can not foresee what the new ones will be, does anyone who has greater insight than I do care to speculate on new specializations for the Commander Career?

Shepard.

Wing.

Master.

It appears the career splat books for Age of Rebellion are going in the order they are presented in the book(might change who knows?). Looking through the specializations already present I can not foresee what the new ones will be, does anyone who has greater insight than I do care to speculate on new specializations for the Commander Career?

How are you drawing that conclusion? They haven't announced what the next Career book is for AoR.

At least let them say the next book is Commanders. For all we know they could jump to the last career, Spy, next.

If they stick to the established pattern from EOE It will probably be Diplomat, Spy, or Engineer.

What established pattern?

Maybe one of them will be something like Cell Leader. Someone who is good at organizing and running covert operations without much support from high command.

I hope we see the equivalent of hotshot in a charismatic undisciplined leader to contrast with the tactician.

What established pattern?

I guess I could kind of see a pattern for EotE. The books released are, in order: 3, 4, 2, 5 - or Explorer, Hired Gun, Colonist, and Smuggler. Which means in theory, the next books are 1 and then 6; or Bounty Hunter and Technician. Essentially it's starting from the middle and working outwards. And so subsequently, if they sort of reverse it to go inwards for AoR, then with Ace being 1, the next books should be 6, 2, 5, 3, 4 - Spy, Commander, Soldier, Diplomat, then Engineer.

Still. While it would be nice to say it's definitely a pattern so we can get a basic outline of when we can expect career books, it could just as easily be nothing more than coincidence.

Also, one of the big problems I see with this is that it would essentially mean both Engineer and Technician would be reserved to be completely last to be released for both Cores. Kind of sucks for people interested those types of characters.

Not sure if I'd consider a single game line's worth of products to be sufficient data to establish a pattern. I suspect FFG works to some internal logic when planning the release schedule for their career books, not a predetermined sequence.

Oh, and I love HappyDaze's suggestion. Someone leading through sheer charisma and cult of personality would make a nice contrast, not to mention a pretty realistic addition to the Rebel Alliance careers. I'm thinking something like local resistance leader or similar.

I think the pattern was alternating between combat and non-combat specs.

Also, one data point for AOR isn't much to go on, as far as how they're planning their sourcebook releases.

This talk of there being a pattern reminds me of the Finding Bigfoot clips I see on The Soup.

It's my job to look for patterns, and I sure don't see one here!

I like to think Explorer came out first because the Core specs were the weakest, and it really needed some good ones to shore up the career.

Since then, they've 'sort of' alternated between 'combat' type careers and non-combat, though it might be a stretch to see Smuggler as a combat career. I like the way they have left the most iconic EoE careers - Smuggler and Bounty Hunter - until later, which is a good sign we should see them all.

As for Commander... possibly some kind of lead-from-the-front type as people have said. They seem to be keeping reprints to a minimum, so I don't see a lot of overlap.

I think some sort of Insurgent leader is likely.

I wouldn't mind Commodore being entirely redone to be honest, the entire tree is mediocre at best.

I think the pattern was alternating between combat and non-combat specs.

That's it. And while calling Smuggler a combat career is a slight stretch it isn't much of one IMO.

Maybe Gunslinger might push it in that direction. Not a lot of offence in Thief or Scoundrel really, they are more focused on avoiding harm. And Pilot relies on having a lot of starship battles rather than ground ones.

Combat is combat regardless of where it takes place IMO.

I like the idea of a charismatic resistance leader (call it, say, Resistance Leader).

I wonder if one of the specs will be something akin to the Squadron Leader, but oriented toward ground vehicles? This spec would be to Squadron Leader as Driver is to Pilot.

Maybe Gunslinger might push it in that direction. Not a lot of offence in Thief or Scoundrel really, they are more focused on avoiding harm. And Pilot relies on having a lot of starship battles rather than ground ones.

Well, the Marshal in Far Horizons didn't really push the Colonist too far into a combat direction, nor did Big Game Hunter in Enter the Unknown.

Commander is kind of a combat spec already, with the three arenas thus far being "big" ships (Commodore), snub fighters (Squadron Leader), and ground (Tactician).

I could see a spec that's more about "hearts and minds" and being that "charismatic face of the resistance" type who mixes social skills with combat savvy, and probably has at least the basic Inspiring Rhetoric or something of a similar nature to inspire/motivate the troops under their command.

I think the charismatic spec might be interesting, Maybe a speciality focused on giving bonuses to the ships, troops, and vehicles. under your command as well

I really don't understand why people rag on the Commodore spec so much. Sure, it's not a super-specialized combat tree like Marauder or Assassin, but I can't imagine a single ship that won't benefit from having a Commodore aboard. Whether to do the astrogation, some emergency repairs (Hold Together being especially useful), get a good initiative score for the group and directing fire with the Fire Control talent and getting some mileage out of Command and Commanding Presence when used with the Fire Discipline action. Not to mention landing some very useful career skills.

I don't dislike Commodore, though I do find the lack of Mechanics skill odd due to the mechanic talents it has, but I think the career could use a spec focused more on boosting your subordinates

I have always tried to encourage my Commander player to take Commodore, without much success. Can't really say I blame them.

The two Knowledge skills hurt it right out of the gate. There are a few repair type Talents as RogueCorona says, but without Mechanics as a career skill unless you also take Squadron Leader. It gets Computer as a skill, but none of the Talents use it.

Familiar Suns seems useless without GM fiat, as it doesn't do anything the skill doesn't let you do, seemingly.

Hold Together and Rapid Reaction are good, Fire Control can be useful if you have a lot of gunners. Command is... okay.

Quite why anyone would need a 3rd rank of Galaxy Mapper for 25 XP is beyond me. Astrogation gets used less than any other skill in our games.

Overall, it feels bland and unfocused compared to the other two career Specs.

Quite why anyone would need a 3rd rank of Galaxy Mapper for 25 XP is beyond me. Astrogation gets used less than any other skill in our games.

You know, my Squadron Leader was planning to take Commodore next but you bring up a lot of good points.

That third rank of Galaxy Mapper... sheesh. Maybe something that lets the Commodore ignore Criticals to Intellect and Presense for the encounter? Or Showboat?

Yeah, it feels like this one got 'missed' in the playtest.

Mechanics instead or Computer or one of the Knowledge skills would give it some focus and tie in with the repair skills.

And as you say, it needs something meaty on the 25XP line instead of a third rank of Galaxy Mapper. It's not very often you are going to have three black dice on an Astrogation check anyway. And in general, 'remove black dice' Talents suffer from diminishing returns.