I am trying to make a somewhat complex type of character concept and I am a new player to the game so I am a bit confused. Perhaps just making the master blaster or a pilot would be easier, but that just isn't me.

My concept is to make an information broker that no one expects is actually the broker. My GM was going to work with me to where not even the group knows what I do. I don't see myself as a thief/burglar type but instead someone that doesn't look or act the part. So like a brawny fighter type that is secretly the head of this information network. I don't know if this is possible but I wanted to try. Both EotE and AoR classes/specializations are available to me.

I kinda pictured him as someone that was very tough mentally and physically with a presence about him that kinda makes the room stop when he enters. (I know that is counterintuitive for a secretive guy, but that was the point.) At some point I was going to have him be force sensitive maybe, but that isn't required.

I have considered Human, Zabrak, Sullustan, Kel-Dor, and Cerean as my races so far. I am open to anything if the story and mechanics feel interesting.

Any help would be nice. Thank you.

Diplomat: Quartermaster or, even better, Colonist: Entrepreneur looks good (Greased Palms could be you having bought information about a source before you roll, rather than a direct bribe; Bought Info talent is also a natural fit).

The Colonist's Insightful Revelation ability would also fit.

If you wanted to look/be more fighty add Recruit (AoR) or Marshal (Colonist).

EDIT: Yeah, Marshal's looking a better and better match.

Analyst-recruit combined with a race that has high brawn.

Or take a Cerean (all knowledge skills count as career skills) and have him start out as a dashing brawny guy, this is hindered by low starting brawn but this can be bought to 3 easily. You could even play it up to be a bit of a duality with one of his brains being the database of his knowledge nerdy part of him while his other brain is occupied with being the likeable jock.

Have you considered Nikto or Trandoshan? They both start with 3 brawn, so the race appears burly, yet both have 2s in intellect and cunning, so XP can be focused there.

Southern Nikto, 4 intellect, 3 cunning or Trandoshan, 4 intellect, 3 cunning w/ 2 presence (need to get an extra 10xp to star from Obligation or whatever mechanic).

I've always been partial to Colonist: Entrepreneur, Charm, Deception, Negotiation, Streetwise and Negotiation, Underworld.

However, Explorer: Trader, Astrogation, Cool, Perception, Piloting - Space and Deception, Negotiation might be interesting as well, if the character is more cerebral.

I would make your core career out of what you want him to do most, and build the facade around that. One great thing about this game is you can easily play "against type" and still have it work. You just need a few ranks in other skills to put the party off the scent, but that's easily done with a Politico or Scholar, both of whom have the Well Rounded talent, so you can still have plenty of ranks in Melee or Brawl or Ranged(X) at a reasonable cost.

I do like the Cerean idea, since you can be a Soldier and still "know things" on-demand, but a real information broker is going to need at least some Negotiation, and probably some Charm and Deception as well, and the Politico route gives you that too. Your GM may also allow you to take the Recruit spec from the AoR core game, which would give you a way to gain combat skills, toughness, etc.

Diplomat-Propagandist. Gets you nearly all your social skills and a bunch of knowledge skills. Bad Press doesn't have to be media, it could be viewed as you spreading counter intel or starting issues between rival organizations. You get Well Rounded to grab what you need, maybe a combat skill or two or one combat skill and maybe Coercion to round out all the social skills, or Computers maybe.

Anything is possible over time and enough xp, everything isn't possible all at CHARGEN typically though.

Well for what you want it sounds like you want to have a Brawn of 3 and then a cunning of at least 3 maybe 4. I'm actually going to recommend you take a combination of HG:Enforcer for big guy who commands respect aspect and mix it with either EX:Trader or DP:Quartermaster.

Since you are trying to make this less obvious to the rest of your party I would recommend staying away from Bothan. Both Wookie and Trandoshan give you the 3 in Brawn from the start so you can put the rest in cunning and since a lot of the enforcers talents use cunning nobody in your party will find it odd that you have a high cunning which helps with streetwise and deception, which I imagine your character concept needing to roll a lot.

My two cents.

I appreciate the responses. I have some more questions. Without any playing experience is is difficult for me to know how all of this plays out. First, what skills would be most useful for me do you think? Deception is obvious but I kinda wanted to be a broker that has a Robin Hood complex. I jack with baddies to help good guys. I suppose I wasn't clear before that profit was a secondary purpose for my character. He has a driving purpose that makes him want to use information as the tool to undermine/apprehend the untouchable elite of society (the corrupt ones at least). His dad was a noble type that was like that and he wants to scour as many of those kinds of people out of power as he can. How about Leadership? Charm? Computers? If profit is a secondary is negotiation as big of a deal? Also, the idea of me being mentally tough made me think Willpower would be a big deal. Especially since not being tricked or deceived is based on it.

It seems that Colonist, Diplomat, and Explorer are the most suggested classes. I do like many of the things in these classes, but how do I get my combat/soldier part of me to be convincing when all of my talents don't do combat stuff and I have none or next to no combat class skills? I saw some mention taking Well Rounded but that only applies if I happen to take one of those specializations. What about if I end up picking a different route, but still in one of these classes? I suppose this is why people keep mentioning the Recruit specialization?

Entrepreneur was mentioned alot but the suggestion seems to be based on one ability, Bought Info. The rest of it seems to be more about getting gear and making money. Am I missing something?

Marshal seems really cool. The social talents seem to be reliant on others in the group being social though. Am I reading that wrong?

Analyst - This was one of my original thoughts as I couldn't think of any other was mechanically I could get all the info I needed besides computer hacking and knowledge skills.

Propagandist - I actually thought this was quite interesting with Informant, In The Know, and Bad Press but when I saw Positive Spin and how it interacted with Duty (and we are using Edge of Empire Obligation) had no idea what to do with that and it made me want to ignore the specialization since it would force a large chunk of the talents in the tree to just be dead weight. Any ideas?

I had actually considered Archaeologist as well. It had some knowledge skill things as well as some being tough kinds of things. I even considered Big Game Hunter as for a while I saw my background as having been a naive noble's son that had only even been good at hunting with his father and reading books. He grew up once out in the world, but still.

I guess what it really comes down to is how do I pull this off and still be convincing as a bruiser? Everyone else will be pulling their specialized combat talents out of their hats and the group will start wondering where mine are when all I ever do is normal attacks since I have not combat talents with most of these ideas.

Oh, where are the Nikto in the books? Did I miss it?

If you want your character to remain anonymous, you could consider taking the Force Sensitive Emergent universal spec for Indistinguishable.

If you want your character to remain anonymous, you could consider taking the Force Sensitive Emergent universal spec for Indistinguishable.

Indistinguishable is also in Smuggler Thief and Diplomat Ambassador.

Actually, looking more at it, I think the Smuggler career would be a good fit, using the Charmer (from the Fly Casual book) for your starting spec, and Gunslinger for your combat spec. Charmer is all about the social side, but IMHO that's what an information broker actually does...it's less of a scholarly thing and more a social thing. If you really want the Knowledge skills, take a Cerean, or branch into Scholar, or just eat the cost of them being a non-career skill. Meanwhile, Gunslinger is a great combat spec.

As for mental strength, you can always just buy skills in Discipline. Charmer and Gunslinger come with Cool, so that's covered.

With that in mind, you'll probably want your Agility and your Presence to start with 3s, buy up the others as you like. Pick either Charmer or Gunslinger first at chargen, and then with your first XP, save up to buy into the other. If you buy the second spec at chargen, that will just be XP you can't spend on characteristics.

Edit: rowdyoctopus reminded me another reason to take Smuggler, and that is the Thief. Eventually you might want to be good at computers, B&E, etc

Edit 2: just be aware that you can't fulfill your entire concept right at chargen, you'll have to build towards it. But nobody will be terribly capable out of the gate, having few, if any, telltale Talents, so it won't be obvious what career you've picked first, so long as you can show some progress.

I appreciate the responses. I have some more questions. Without any playing experience is is difficult for me to know how all of this plays out. First, what skills would be most useful for me do you think? Deception is obvious but I kinda wanted to be a broker that has a Robin Hood complex. I jack with baddies to help good guys. I suppose I wasn't clear before that profit was a secondary purpose for my character. He has a driving purpose that makes him want to use information as the tool to undermine/apprehend the untouchable elite of society (the corrupt ones at least). His dad was a noble type that was like that and he wants to scour as many of those kinds of people out of power as he can. How about Leadership? Charm? Computers? If profit is a secondary is negotiation as big of a deal? Also, the idea of me being mentally tough made me think Willpower would be a big deal. Especially since not being tricked or deceived is based on it.

It seems that Colonist, Diplomat, and Explorer are the most suggested classes. I do like many of the things in these classes, but how do I get my combat/soldier part of me to be convincing when all of my talents don't do combat stuff and I have none or next to no combat class skills? I saw some mention taking Well Rounded but that only applies if I happen to take one of those specializations. What about if I end up picking a different route, but still in one of these classes? I suppose this is why people keep mentioning the Recruit specialization?

Entrepreneur was mentioned alot but the suggestion seems to be based on one ability, Bought Info. The rest of it seems to be more about getting gear and making money. Am I missing something?

Marshal seems really cool. The social talents seem to be reliant on others in the group being social though. Am I reading that wrong?

Analyst - This was one of my original thoughts as I couldn't think of any other was mechanically I could get all the info I needed besides computer hacking and knowledge skills.

Propagandist - I actually thought this was quite interesting with Informant, In The Know, and Bad Press but when I saw Positive Spin and how it interacted with Duty (and we are using Edge of Empire Obligation) had no idea what to do with that and it made me want to ignore the specialization since it would force a large chunk of the talents in the tree to just be dead weight. Any ideas?

I had actually considered Archaeologist as well. It had some knowledge skill things as well as some being tough kinds of things. I even considered Big Game Hunter as for a while I saw my background as having been a naive noble's son that had only even been good at hunting with his father and reading books. He grew up once out in the world, but still.

I guess what it really comes down to is how do I pull this off and still be convincing as a bruiser? Everyone else will be pulling their specialized combat talents out of their hats and the group will start wondering where mine are when all I ever do is normal attacks since I have not combat talents with most of these ideas.

Oh, where are the Nikto in the books? Did I miss it?

Lords of Nal Hutta actually had 4 races, Hutt being a bonus.

It's difficult to shoe horn technical, social and combat skill all into an initial build. You aren't likely to succeed, so best to go as whafrog suggested and really think about what is your most desired base level of skills you are looking for. All builds are possible with time and xp earned, being great at everything right out of the gate, is not.

It's difficult to shoe horn technical, social and combat skill all into an initial build. You aren't likely to succeed, so best to go as whafrog suggested and really think about what is your most desired base level of skills you are looking for. All builds are possible with time and xp earned, being great at everything right out of the gate, is not.

I understand and I do know that is what my concept is doing. I suppose I am just trying to figure out how to best do it starting off to where I at least get a bit of the flavor to start with enough to work with I can wing the concept until I have the talents to back it up. I guess I just like to plan ahead.

What skills to take depend on how you want to get your information.

Do you want your character to do research? Then go with knowledge skills.

Do you want him to sweet talk people out of stuff? Then go charm and deception.

Do you want him to take charge of conversations and people share out of a sense of friendship? Leadership is the way to go.

Do you want your character to be a bit darker of a hero? Try some skullduggery and intimidation to threaten people into getting what you need.

That's both the beauty and the flaw of the system, there are multiple ways to do what you want; which tends to overwhelm.

It's difficult to shoe horn technical, social and combat skill all into an initial build. You aren't likely to succeed, so best to go as whafrog suggested and really think about what is your most desired base level of skills you are looking for. All builds are possible with time and xp earned, being great at everything right out of the gate, is not.

I understand and I do know that is what my concept is doing. I suppose I am just trying to figure out how to best do it starting off to where I at least get a bit of the flavor to start with enough to work with I can wing the concept until I have the talents to back it up. I guess I just like to plan ahead.

Well Rounded gets you 2 extra career skills before you get to a different spec so you can be buying levels at career skill cost. It also tends to only be available to non-combat specs, not exclusively, but generally.

It's a way to begin a very cross specialized character that you are describing. To get to what you are looking for is going to cross 2 or even three separate specs, and all likely not in the same career which gets xp expensive.

Don't be seduced by Talents as just having a good number of levels in a skill provides plenty of capability. A PC with a 3 stat and 3 levels of a combat skill is going to do reasonably well in combat right off, so you need not be in a combat spec for that.

A broader number of skills to begin with provides you the mechanical back end to role play on the front end.

That's both the beauty and the flaw of the system, there are multiple ways to do what you want; which tends to overwhelm.

This is exactly my problem. I am naturally a person that thinks of lots of ideas and concepts, but I have trouble whittling them down to one. This system seems to be making it even harder because of this fluidity you mention.

To me they all seem good but I do want to make a network that wants to be a part of the network not because I have dirt on them but because they make a little bit of money and they have mutual protection and contacts. The network would be able to use each other so long as I have knowledge of it and approve the use. Gives the members of the network a sense of investment in it.

In that case look at HG:Mercenary Soldier. It gives you some good combat options and you can use your leadership both in and out of combat. Out of combat your character can use it to build connections with others. And it lends itself to good discipline which seems to be another aspect you want.

Try a human with 3 's in Agility, Willpower, and Presence and use those bonus skills to dip into something outside your class like charm.

I would go with a Hired Gun: Enforcer from Dangerous Covenants.

There is a tier 2 talent called "Talk the Talk" that allows your character to spend a destiny point to roll Streetwise or knowledge: Underworld in place of any knowledge skill. Basically you are so clued in to the underworld that you know a little bit about everything.

It also gives you social skills (Coercion) that couple well with solid basic combat ability. A Zabrak would work perfectly in this role, and you could look at branching out into something else as the game progresses and you see where you want to take the character.

Several of the ideas seem to focus on coercion. As far as I can tell that is nothing but scaring people, blackmailing people, and torturing people. I am not sure I wanted to be that dark/evil. Am I missing something?

mm I dunno.. Coercion could cover the are of seduction/persuasion as well...

The Devil doesn't need threats to coerce you into something.. he can use half truths and Empty promises.

It doesn't have to mean overt torture, but I think you're talking more about information and persuading people to see things your way. So I would think knowledge skills paired with charm or maybe negotiation.

mm I dunno.. Coercion could cover the are of seduction/persuasion as well...

The Devil doesn't need threats to coerce you into something.. he can use half truths and Empty promises.

Seduction is charm, persuasion is negotiation.

Seduction can also be deception depending pn how your character feels about the other. For example seducing that Twi'lek dancer is going to be charm. Seducing that Hutt is most definitely going to be deception.

Seduction can also be deception depending pn how your character feels about the other. For example seducing that Twi'lek dancer is going to be charm. Seducing that Hutt is most definitely going to be deception.

Or vice versa if you're a Hutt...