So, one of my groups biggest draws to Edge of the Empire, was the minimal to limited Jedi/Force User support(Obviously ignoring Force and Destiny at this time). Feeling that they got WAY to much love in the franchise, to the level of anyone not Force Sensitive, was just a secondary character who didn't mean much beyond helping the Force Sensitives.

But now we've run into a small hiccup. Desiring to create our own characters, a couple of us simply can't think up character concepts. I happen to own ALL of the Comics to date, except for a few things after the Disney takeover, due to a super box deal at a Shop that recently went out of business near me, but haven't read any of them due to getting easily distracted. So I could really use some advice as to what issues I could loan out, or read myself, to get a better feel for a Non-Force Sensitive.

I have Death Troopers, which is fairly good for giving an example how useful and coughbettercough, non-force sensitives are, unfortunately it's a bit short and one-shoty, so want to look to my comics for a more long term "show case" of Non-Force Sensitives.

any and all advice as far as what issues I should pick out is greatly appreciated.

Character concepts need not be limited to the Star Wars universe. A basic idea, followed by any source material and a character from any genre really can easily be massaged into a great character for EoE. It would be absurd for me to go through and list every potential source, but any slightly wrong side of the trax, down on their luck, anti hero works just fine.

2P, this could be fun showing non- SW sources.

A-Team, Flash Gordon, Dirty Dozen, Maverick, Top Gun, Rooster Cogburn, Battlestar, Firefly, just to name a few.

Do you folks have netfilix? As Osprey hinted at, watch a few episodes of Firefly. No magicians there.

To me the game is set up with careers to describe what skills and talents you have, and if you are doing said career really augments those jobs, but a career bodyguard can be a trader, bounty hunter, or pretty much anything you want him to be jobwise without taking those trees.

As far as ideas for characters, it would probably be easier to list genres you COULDN'T steal from. For example, consider my Movies to Steal Games From threads (the Heist Movie, War Movies, Samurai Flicks and Spaghetti Western) - now admittedly those posts talk in terms of coming up with adventures, but each one of those could be a huge source of character archetypes. The Man With No Name is basically Boba Fett, those heist movies have loads of templates to work from - basically, I've demonstrated with just a bit of creativity anything can serve as a starting point in Star Wars.

A good first step in creating a character concept is having the player ask "What do I want to do?" You don't have to have them pick out a specialization just yet, just speak in very broad terms.

"I want to be the outsider fighting for justice."

"I want to blow things up Michael Bay style."

Once they have the basic thought, ask more questions until it turns into a premise and work from there. As others have already mentioned, the galaxy is a big place. You can find just about any archetype from fiction you would like and work them all into the system somehow.

Another option is just have players look at themselves. What do they do in life? If the big bad Empire invaded or their company went out of business in Star Wars what would they do to make ends meet?

Are they in IT? Maybe they would become a Slicer or a Thief and steal data, or hire themselves out for maintenance for people looking to be on the down low. Maybe they'd be a Mechanic if they are more hardware oriented.

Are they in the military? Maybe they would become a merc or a BH.

Are they in healthcare? Obviously Medic, Doctor, or Scientist maybe.

Star Wars was the inspiration for a big part of Whedon's Firefly, and made Battlestar Galactica possible. In my musings, at least when I have the time for musings, I like to think it's fitting that franchises like these should feed back into Star Wars in this way, enriching our games and aiding immersion.

I would second Firefly as a general source of inspiration for EotE characters and adventure plots, as well as the serials Leverage and Burn Notice, and the film Guardians of the Galaxy.

If looking for inspiration, I find the characters in settings like the above very easy to "copy" from. The bigger the personality, the easier it is to "channel" that personality, to any degree. So Sophie Deveraux, Kaylee Frye, and Drax the Destroyer are all really great examples of fun characters to play, for me.

Comics and books can be of some help, but in a cinematic setting like Star Wars, I feel much better served by cinema and more recent TV shows for inspiration on most levels.

Star Wars was the inspiration for a big part of Whedon's Firefly, and made Battlestar Galactica possible. In my musings, at least when I have the time for musings, I like to think it's fitting that franchises like these should feed back into Star Wars in this way, enriching our games and aiding immersion.

I would second Firefly as a general source of inspiration for EotE characters and adventure plots, as well as the serials Leverage and Burn Notice, and the film Guardians of the Galaxy.

If looking for inspiration, I find the characters in settings like the above very easy to "copy" from. The bigger the personality, the easier it is to "channel" that personality, to any degree. So Sophie Deveraux, Kaylee Frye, and Drax the Destroyer are all really great examples of fun characters to play, for me.

Comics and books can be of some help, but in a cinematic setting like Star Wars, I feel much better served by cinema and more recent TV shows for inspiration on most levels.

That's one of the reasons I listed Firefly and Battlestar last, but you know what dawned on me as I sit here typing this and watching Sons of Anarchy? That they are basically part of a fringe group, involved with smuggling, business (Entrepreneur), trade, backstabbing, bodyguarding. Good things to also use for adventures also come up within the show, rival gangs, infiltrators to the club, law enforcement. I think that this could be a very good basis for some fun, you could use the local town for a backdrop or a planet, system, region, galaxy, expand the business.

Desslok, I loved those threads you posted and would have linked them for you giving you credit if I could have found them. Since those were posted I have been watching some good shows on youtube and figuring out how to use them for adventures.

As all gave said above, you can get character ideas from nearly any movie/TV show/book/comic. One of my old Shadowrun players had a character based around Arrow before Arrow was a TV show, an old Star Wars d6 game I ran had a character based off of real life Amelia Earhart.

My current character in our Sta Wars game is based heavily off of Maverick from Top Gun, an Ace/Hotshot that eventually learns to trust the 'system' and went Pilot next. Will be one kick-butt pilot when all is said and done.

Anything can be easy inspiration.

[edit]

Also, if you have access to any of the old WEG Star Wars material (http://d6holocron.com/ ) if you don't, the book Heroes and Rogues has tons of old templates for that game, the actual stats less important, but each one gives a sample background, basic personality, quote and a way to know the other players.

Has been a great resource for me for decades.

Firefly keeps getting mentions, but I always think of Farscape for Edge-type adventures.

If you have several hours of your life to spare, take a look at http://tvtropes.org/. There's a ton of tropes you can steal to make a character background (and adventures, as well).

Check out the "Narrative" menu on the right middle.

It's really not that hard.....



Image: Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones.

EotE Character: Exiled noble who fled her home system during a rebellion that installed a new (pro Imperial) monarchy. Fled to the outer rim where she's now attempting to consolidate power. Colonist: Politico, Obligation: Exiled Nobility/Enemies in high places, Motivation: Reclamation.



Image: Rhys - Tales from the Borderlands

EotE Character: A Corporate Sector suit who got the shaft during an internal company power struggle Rhys ended up in the Rim following a botched attempt to discredit a rival executive. Colonist Entrepreneur, Obligation: Betrayal, Motivation: To get back in good with the company and/or see his rival ruined.


Image: D'argo - Farscape

EotE Character: An escaped wookiee prisoner, Daarrgo is on the run from the empire. an experienced fighter, Daarrgo was enslaved following the Clone Wars through a combination of Imperial prejudice and Trandoshan political pressure. He now seeks to avenge his wife (murdered by a Trandoshan slaver) and locate his lost son Jothee. Hired Gun:Marauder, Obligation: Fugitive, Motivation: Family.



Just a few ideas....

EDIT: and another:

Image: Aaeryn Sun - Farscape

EotE Character: Formerly Maj. Sun of the Imperial Navy, Aaeryn was declared "irreversibly contaminated" by her commander when she defended a Chiss whose scout ship had accidentally collided with and destroyed a TIE Fighter piloted by Craises brother. Now Sun is on the run from Craise, who will stop at nothing to Avenge his brother. Hired Gun: Merc Soldier/Pilot, Obligation: Criminal/Hunted, Motivation: Clear Name Reinstatement.

Image: D'argo - Farscape

EotE Character: An escaped wookiee prisoner, Daarrgo is on the run from the empire. an experienced fighter, Daarrgo was enslaved following the Clone Wars through a combination of Imperial prejudice and Trandoshan political pressure. He now seeks to avenge his wife (murdered by a Trandoshan slaver) and locate his lost son Jothee. Hired Gun:Marauder, Obligation: Fugitive, Motivation: Family.

A wookie that needs A LOT of Rogaine.

But seriously, it's super easy to plagiarize just about anything, nice examples.

The books even have random charts you can use to roll things like Motiviation and Obligation. Honestly, just pick a species and starting specialization at random and roll on those charts and you're good to go.

can we keep playing the beingers characters? i am the robot :ph34r:

Do you folks have netfilix? As Osprey hinted at, watch a few episodes of Firefly. No magicians there.

+1 to this suggestion. The first ever character I rolled was based on Simon Tam - a Human Doctor who was forced to the edge of known space for ~reasons~ but I gave him a more unique background in the sense he was barred from practicing medicine within the Core Worlds for disagreeing with Imperial clinical policies rather than whatever reasons forced Simon out (ie, rescuing River and funding 'terrorists'). The Empire is blanket xenophobic, so it's reasonable to assume that non-humans are second-rate citizens when it comes to healthcare and his opinion (and Motivation) is that healthcare is for everyone.

But to make this concept a little more interesting, I took inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson and gave him a Stimpack addiction (his Obligation). Whenever he takes too much medicine or fails a Discipline check (GM depending), he turns into a psychopath much like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. It's not an excuse to roleplay an *******, but it's a reasonable excuse to create some tension between the groups that take role-playing seriously.

can we keep playing the beingers characters? i am the robot :ph34r:

I played the droid too when I started, don't see why you can't play as him for as long as you want! There are actually little extras in the expanded adventures (Long Arm of the Hutt) specific to each of those characters, so it seems like it was definitely the intention of the developers to give life to 41-VEX/Pash/Oskara/Lowhhrick beyond the scope of the first adventure.

can we keep playing the beingers characters? i am the robot :ph34r:

Absolutely.

Once you finish up Long Arm of the Hutt, and if you have the core book, I encourage you and your group to sit down and re-build the beginner characters using the core rules rather than the beginner rules. This will give you more room to work with for those characters rather than being constrained by the limitations of the beginner rules.

It's really not that hard.....

Image: Aaeryn Sun - Farscape

EotE Character: Formerly Maj. Sun of the Imperial Navy, Aaeryn was declared "irreversibly contaminated" by her commander when she defended a Chiss whose scout ship had accidentally collided with and destroyed a TIE Fighter piloted by Craises brother. Now Sun is on the run from Craise, who will stop at nothing to Avenge his brother. Hired Gun: Merc Soldier/Pilot, Obligation: Criminal/Hunted, Motivation: Clear Name Reinstatement.

I've found my next character.

That sentence right before the image (taken out of the original poster's context) is something you'd never say to Aeryn Sun...

It's really not that hard.....

Image: Aaeryn Sun - Farscape

EotE Character: Formerly Maj. Sun of the Imperial Navy, Aaeryn was declared "irreversibly contaminated" by her commander when she defended a Chiss whose scout ship had accidentally collided with and destroyed a TIE Fighter piloted by Craises brother. Now Sun is on the run from Craise, who will stop at nothing to Avenge his brother. Hired Gun: Merc Soldier/Pilot, Obligation: Criminal/Hunted, Motivation: Clear Name Reinstatement.

Thank you everyone for your advice, though i was hoping to find ideas from within Star Wars, I suppose they have gotten to Jedi Focused to have anything other than force sensitives. Unless you want to copy the Fetts, or Rogue Squadron. I suppose I'll just have to look at, and send others, to other series for inspiration, sense the source matiral clearly doesn't have it.

Which is a problem why? You realize the entire series and characters within are based on a conglomeration of archetypes from across a number of genre, correct?

Because, Mr. Pirate, when I try to think of character ideas, or help others, for character ideas within a set universe. I like to try and draw from the source matiral as much as possible. As I feel it allows for a deeper connection between the setting and the character created.

Though to be quite honest I see no reason to give you the above explanation 2P51. I've read your other posts on the forum and you tend to come off as brash and that you seem rather eager to attack anything that you think is "stupid". It's what I want, that is all that should matter.

Nw don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate all the advice everyone in this thread has given, and if anything proven that Star Wars is far to Force Focused for my taste, part of the draw for my group to EotE. So we will be forced to pull from other Sci-Fi series in order to formulate character ideas.

Because, Mr. Pirate, when I try to think of character ideas, or help others, for character ideas within a set universe. I like to try and draw from the source matiral as much as possible. As I feel it allows for a deeper connection between the setting and the character created.

Though to be quite honest I see no reason to give you the above explanation 2P51. I've read your other posts on the forum and you tend to come off as brash and that you seem rather eager to attack anything that you think is "stupid". It's what I want, that is all that should matter.

Nw don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate all the advice everyone in this thread has given, and if anything proven that Star Wars is far to Force Focused for my taste, part of the draw for my group to EotE. So we will be forced to pull from other Sci-Fi series in order to formulate character ideas.

Boo hoo