I tried searching the forums, and came up empty for this question. If I have an enemy captain with the adversary talent, does it apply to his ship if he's in command of it?
I'm building a recurring villain for my party of starfighter pilots, and want to make sure I have all relevant talents apply.
Not sure there's a definitive answer. RAW says "any combat check targeting the character"; I'd say this applies to a craft the NPC piloted (a fighter or freighter), but not anything silhouette 6 or beyond.
I'm of two minds.
On the one hand, I'd say "yes." No reason not to. A Commander of a capital ship is analogous to a pilot for the smaller ships, in terms of control. A good commander will be able to capitalize on his enemies' mistakes, so that Adversary talent is for sure applicable, even if just for "plot protection," like Thrawn's Chimera or Greivous' Invisible Hand.
However, the function of the Adversary talent is to allow the GM to have a simple mechanic that is just *there* and not have to worry about Dodging and Side Stepping and Sensing with the Force, and so on. Characters in control of capital ships, whether pilot or commander, seem to not really have any such defensive options in the form of talents.
Might be worth a rule question to find the intent, but I would probably just apply the talent when it makes sense, as a GM. If the Adversary talent doesn't apply to the NPC capital ship, then I just make up some other effect that upgrades attacks against the ship itself. So at that point, it's potato, po-tah-to, since I am just utilizing the mechanics of the Adversary talent to accomplish what it accomplishes at personal scale: communicate the higher stakes involved in attacking this target, and make it easy on me as the GM, so that I don't have to think about how much strain or maneuvers or once-per-encounters I have to burn.
If you wanted to allow it, only give it to the super special Nemesis, not for every named captain of an ISD. So Veers and Piett? No. But for Thrawn? Absolutely.
If you wanted to allow it, only give it to the super special Nemesis, not for every named captain of an ISD. So Veers and Piett? No. But for Thrawn? Absolutely.
The character would be analogous to Thrawn, yes. They are exceedingly skilled pilots (that is the main theme of the campaign), so I want to give them a worthy opponent.
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Budget cuts.
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Maybe his or her superiors, or even just someone at the Imperial Starfleet Office of personnel management don't like the captain for <insert reason here> and assign them an incompetent crew hoping to get them killed or disgraced.
I would allow it to apply, but dependent on what was being attempted. If you're trying to take out a specific gun turret with your starfighters, no. And if there were an opposed roll in that for some reason, it would be against the gunner in that turret themself, not the commander of the ship. But if you were in a great big pitched battle of capitol ships and choosing and firing your turbo lasers, I would probably have the vessel commanded by Tarkin be the one with the red dice - because his crew are performing better / he's manoeuvred below you / his vessel has better shielding / he's played by Peter Cushing / whatever.
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Natural evolution. Anyone competent enough to get to the highest ranks gets force-choked sooner or later, leading to a gradual tendency to fit in and not distinguish oneself at all costs.
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Natural evolution. Anyone competent enough to get to the highest ranks gets force-choked sooner or later, leading to a gradual tendency to fit in and not distinguish oneself at all costs.
To be Vader's advocate, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Force-choking weeds out the incompetent, leaving room for the exceptional to prove themselves and flourish under a bright, exceptional, and loyalty-inspiring commander...
I would disagree. The adversary of the captain would not apply. But if he is leading an elite crew, I could see the crew/ship having adversary.
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Natural evolution. Anyone competent enough to get to the highest ranks gets force-choked sooner or later, leading to a gradual tendency to fit in and not distinguish oneself at all costs.
To be Vader's advocate, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Force-choking weeds out the incompetent, leaving room for the exceptional to prove themselves and flourish under a bright, exceptional, and loyalty-inspiring commander...
"Loyalty-inspiring commander."
Well, from a certain point of view. 
"Loyalty-inspiring commander."
Well, from a certain point of view.
Heh, look at Vader and tell me the last time you saw any of his subordinates being disloyal 
This begs the question, "why would an exceptional captain surround himself with an incompetent crew?"
Paying peanuts, getting monkeys.
Back to the Q', thinking Nemesis doesn't apply to capital ship crews, however, what you could do for effective commanders with a rank or 2 in Nemesis have it apply perhaps to their crew in a more useful fashion- time spent training Lt Fred and Ens Bob to not stab you in the back and yell at minion groups more effectively.
So if you had a Cpt Dirk Diggly with the Nemesis of 2, scourge of the space lanes, he could apply a Skilled [Y] dice to two minion groups on his crew as a means of yelling at them to shoot hard, fly better, fix stuff before we die etc