So I have been looking at pilot abilities and asking myself what the ability says about the pilot. Here's my thoughts so far on some of my pilots:

Han Solo: When attacking you may reroll all your dice. If you choose to do so, you must reroll as many of your dice as possible.
This is an easy one. He's a gambler. He plays the odds.

Lando Calrissian: After you execute a green maneuver, choose 1 other friendly ship at Range 1. That ship may perform a free action shown in it's action bar.
This ability reflects Lando's position as a general during the battle of Endor. He can take some focus off his own flying to direct his allies.

Chewbacca: When you are dealt a faceup Damage card, immediately flip it facedown (without resolving the ability)
Chewbacca is very loyal and protective of his allies. This is reflected in most things relating to him being very tanky. Alternatively this may be a reflection of Chewbacca's mechanical skills.

Arvel crynyd: You may declare an enemy ship inside your firing arc that you are touching as the target of your attack.
Arvel simply has no fear. At a point when most pilots are like "OMG I'm gonna crash!" Arvel says "Right where I want you...."

Gemmer Sojan: While you are at Range 1 of at least 1 enemy ship, increase your agility value by 1.
Gemmer is good at knife fighting. Up close he knows how to stay alive.

Tycho Celchu: You may perform actions even while you have stress tokens.

Tycho keeps a cool head. When the pressure is on, his mind is clear and on the mission.

Jake Farrel: After you perform a focus action or are assigned a focus token, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll.
Jake knows his ship. When he is able to concentrate, he can handle his A-Wing as if it was a part of him.

Corran Horn: At the start of the End phase, you may perform one attack. You cannot attack during the next round.

Corran is an opportunist. When he sees an opening he knows how to take advantage of it.

Garven Dreis: After spending a focus token, you may place that token on any other friendly ship at range 1-2
I think this ability reflects the moment in A New Hope where Garven says "Get set up for your attack runs!" He tried his best, now he's passing the torch.

Wedge Antilles: When attacking, reduce the defender's agility value by 1
Once on an enemy's tail, Wedge knows how to corral an opponent in and keep him from having an opening to escape. Or maybe he's a very good shot.

Biggs Darklighter: Other friendly ships at Range 1 cannot be targeted by attacks if the attacker could target you instead.
This one is obvious. Biggs covered Luke at the battle of Yavin by flying in front of Vader's shots.

Luke Skywalker: When defending, you may change 1 of your focus results to an evade result.

Vader remarks during Luke's run on the Deathstar that the force was strong with him. So I believe that's intended to represent that the force is protecting Luke.

Airen cracken: After you perform an attack, you may choose another friendly ship at Range 1. That ship may perform 1 free action.
This shows that Cracken is a commander who leads from the front. He dives into the fight and leads his troops by example.

Keyan farlander: When attacking, you may remove 1 stress token to change all of your focus results to hits.
Keyan is vengeful. When an enemy pushes him, his stress narrows his attention like a laser beam and the relief only comes when he gets to fire back.

Ibtisam: When attacking or defending, if you have at least 1 stress token, you may reroll 1 of your dice.
When faced with a tough situation, the pressure pushes him to succeed.

Soontir Fel: When you receive a stress token, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship.
Fel likes a challenge. He feels most alive when he has a worthy foe who makes him work for his kill.

Carnor Jax: Enemy ships at Range 1 cannot perform focus or evade actions and cannot spend focus or evade tokens.
I see this as intimidation. The sight of his red Royal guard interceptor strikes fear into nearby enemies.

Tetran cowall: When you reveal a K-turn, treat it's speed as 1, 3, or 5.
Cowall is a showoff. He practices fancy tricks.

Kir Kanos: When attacking at Range 2-3, you may spend 1 evade token to add 1 hit result to your roll.

Kanos is a marksman. at longer ranges, he prefers to fly steady and make his shot count.

LT. Lorir: When performing a barrel roll action, you may receive 1 stress token to use a bank instead of a straight.
Lorir really pushes the limits of what a tie interceptor can do. He really makes the ship work hard.

Turr Phennir: After you perform an attack, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.
Phennir favors hit and fade tactics. He takes his shots and then gets out of harm's way.

Well those are most of mine. Have any interesting pilot evaluations? Think one of mine misses the mark?

I thought the Chewie one was just due to him being a great mechanic?

Good thread

For Jek Porkins, I would say FFG did a good job reflecting his skills: he is as useless as in the movie

Lamdo crew card based on his gamber character

Would say Chewy is also a good engineer (at least it looks like in the movies ). Think his pilot skill is based on that. e

Arvels says they took a scene where he was shot down and said"this happens a lot"

Nice post! Your explanations are good (and a nice read).

I feel Han's ability in itself is a bit off, and would have preferred it if he had some kind of maneuvering advantage. He knows a few maneuvers, that sort of thing. While piloting the Falcon, I think he only fires a single shot in the movies. Maybe he should have had Imperial Boba Fett's ability or similar, although as it is, Han is pretty powerful, while few people use Imp. Boba Fett! Still the ability to switch moves becomes better at higher PS.

Edit: So what would Davish "Pops" Krail's ability be?

Maybe this: "When a friendly ship within Range 1 is attacking and spends a Target Lock, you may change one [eye] result to a [kaboom] result."

If they had been able to stay on target, the result could have been pretty devastating.

Rexler Brath: After you perform an attack that deals at least 1 Damage card to the defender, you may spend a focus token to flip those cards faceup.

Rexler knows where to hit the enemy to maximize internal damage. When he gets a chance to really concentrate on shooting, he can cripple most ships in a single firing run.

Han and Lando's crew cards represent the card game where Han won the Falcon. Notice how Lando requires a complete gamble while Han makes your target lock more predictable. Lando plays more dangerously than Han, and while he might get that sweet payoff (focus/evade, double evade) he may get nothing or just nothing helpful. Han can't hit the same level of usefulness but if you know who you're shooting he turns target lock into an incredibly strong option.

Also the art fits together which I thought was a great touch.

Dash Rendar: I eat rocks!

I always thought that Tycho's ability is based on the X-wing series of books wherein he is able to survive Issard's psychological torture unscathed. Leebo's I've always assumed is because he's an implacable droid.

Great tread!

One of my favorite pilots:

Tarn Mison - When an enemy ship declares you as the target of an attack, you may acquire a target lock on that ship.

Ultimate grudge holder.

For a few others:

Captain Oicunn - After executing a manoeuvre, each enemy ship you are touching suffers 1 Damage.

Oicunn is the ultimate bully.

N'Dru Suhlak - When attacking, if there are no other friendly ships at Range 1-2, roll 1 additional attack die

Loner.

Kaato' Leeachos

At the start of the Combat phase, you may remove 1 focus or evade token from another friendly ship at Range 1-2 and assign it to yourself.

Selfish.

Boba Fett - Imperial - When you reveal a bank maneuver you may rotate your dial to the other bank maneuver of the same speed.

Quick reflexes/battle awareness.

Boba Fett - Scum - When attacking or defending, you may reroll 1 of your dice for each enemy at Range 1.

Fierce combatant.

Meet Arvel. While touching, he'll still kill you:

Corran Horn: At the start of the End phase, you may perform one attack. You cannot attack during the next round.

Corran is an opportunist. When he sees an opening he knows how to take advantage of it.

Based on his ability, I would say you are completely accurate. But it just doesn't sound like the Corran from the books. He's a Jedi and a former CorSec officer, but I don't know how those could be expressed in the game very well. Maybe his being able to attack twice is a Jedi thing.

Good thread

For Jek Porkins, I would say FFG did a good job reflecting his skills: he is as useless as in the movie

Okay, yeah, but I absolutely love how Jek can hold it some times, but at other times he just can't. It's very thematic. Even cooler is that he came out after Wave 3, but managed to mesh perfectly with his droid, R5-D8, who was released in Wave 1's Y-wing Expansion Pack.

Commander Kenkirk: If you have no shields and at least 1 damage card assigned to you, increase your agility value by 1.

Kenkirk likes to test his enemies' skill before bringing his A-game, and adapt his piloting accordingly.

(I did this a lot in fencing, where I take a few early hits to learn their style, and then take advantage of my new knowledge to best them.)

IG-88A: The only one out of the original four to survive, so the ability improves its long-term survivability.

IG-88B: The most destructive of the four, so the ability improves its killing prowess.

IG-88C: Was the first to intercept Boba Fett in Tatooine's atmosphere, so its ability relies on speed.

No idea about IG-88D.

I thought the Chewie one was just due to him being a great mechanic?

Good suggestion! I'll add that to my op.

Rexler Brath: After you perform an attack that deals at least 1 Damage card to the defender, you may spend a focus token to flip those cards faceup.

Rexler knows where to hit the enemy to maximize internal damage. When he gets a chance to really concentrate on shooting, he can cripple most ships in a single firing run.

Yeah, he definitely sounds like a serious marksman behind the stick.

Han and Lando's crew cards represent the card game where Han won the Falcon. Notice how Lando requires a complete gamble while Han makes your target lock more predictable. Lando plays more dangerously than Han, and while he might get that sweet payoff (focus/evade, double evade) he may get nothing or just nothing helpful. Han can't hit the same level of usefulness but if you know who you're shooting he turns target lock into an incredibly strong option.

Also the art fits together which I thought was a great touch.

Heh, good point.

Corran Horn: At the start of the End phase, you may perform one attack. You cannot attack during the next round.

Corran is an opportunist. When he sees an opening he knows how to take advantage of it.

Based on his ability, I would say you are completely accurate. But it just doesn't sound like the Corran from the books. He's a Jedi and a former CorSec officer, but I don't know how those could be expressed in the game very well. Maybe his being able to attack twice is a Jedi thing.

It could be jedi related but that may not change the meaning considering Jedi use the force in different way very often unique to the individual Jedi.

Han Solo is a cheater.

He cheats as a pilot and the crew version is cheating, too.

Lando is a leader and a gambler.

Lando as a pilot is a leader, like said in the OP, the crew card reflects his gambling nature.

Great post, btw.

Howlrunner is the leader of the Obsidian Squadron.

Her ability reflects her skills to coordinate the attacks of her squaddies nearby.

"2 and 4, attack that X-Wing at 10' " "5 and 6, disable their engines."

At least thats how I imagine her ^^

Marek Steele:

He is a marksman; When he does a critical, he does it right.

Dark Curse:

Every Time someone tries to take a well aimed shot at him or target lock him he feels this tingle at his neck and just dances away. Maybe he is somewhat Force sensitive.

Backstabber:

He's not very talented (No ept). But when he is behind an enemy he goes totally crazy about it, pulling the trigger like a maniac.

Lt. Blount:

He really knows his missiles. Their speed, turn rate and the distance to his enemy, programming the missiles to autodetonate where he expects the target.

Nera Dantels:

Maybe she has modified her B-Wing with an aft Torpedo launcher.

Marek Steele:

He is a marksman; When he does a critical, he does it right.

Dark Curse:

Every Time someone tries to take a well aimed shot at him or target lock him he feels this tingle at his neck and just dances away. Maybe he is somewhat Force sensitive.

Backstabber:

He's not very talented (No ept). But when he is behind an enemy he goes totally crazy about it, pulling the trigger like a maniac.

I'd say Backstabber is an excellent pilot and his ability reflects that you can't shake him, once he is on your tail while Dark Curse is shaky like hell.

I'd say Backstabber is an excellent pilot and his ability reflects that you can't shake him, once he is on your tail while Dark Curse is shaky like hell.

But in my opinion this would be shown in a ability to lower the number of the enemys green dice (like Wedge does)

I'd say Backstabber is cunning instead of brave. He avoids a straight up fight and instead prefers to swoop in and cripple an enemy who is distracted fighting somebody else.

Dark Curse' pilot ability definitely makes me think he has some sort of connection to the force. Considering the dark side is aggressive and his ability is not....despite his name and alleigance, could he be of the light side?

Ibtisam: When attacking or defending, if you have at least 1 stress token, you may reroll 1 of your dice.

When faced with a tough situation, the pressure pushes him to succeed.

Just an FYI, Ibtisam is a *her*

Corran Horn: At the start of the End phase, you may perform one attack. You cannot attack during the next round.

Corran is an opportunist. When he sees an opening he knows how to take advantage of it.

Based on his ability, I would say you are completely accurate. But it just doesn't sound like the Corran from the books. He's a Jedi and a former CorSec officer, but I don't know how those could be expressed in the game very well. Maybe his being able to attack twice is a Jedi thing.

My though on how to do Corron from the books would be put him in an X-wing and allow him to spend a stress token as an evade token. The books talk about how he does better when the pressure is on (ie he lets his instinct/the force guide him). I think it would fit well.

I'd say Backstabber is cunning instead of brave. He avoids a straight up fight and instead prefers to swoop in and cripple an enemy who is distracted fighting somebody else.

Dark Curse' pilot ability definitely makes me think he has some sort of connection to the force. Considering the dark side is aggressive and his ability is not....despite his name and alleigance, could he be of the light side?

Beeing just Force sensitive doens't mean you belon to one side of the Force. Beeing light or dark side comes from training and "Codex".

There are plenty of latent Force sensitives who usw the Force unwillingly and without knowing to be force sensitive. Many succesful gamblers, Pilots, sportsmen, etc in the SW Galaxy are to some degree force sensitive without knowing it. And I think Dark Curse is one of them having a feeling for the exact Moment the enemy wants to shoot at him.

Maarek Stele:

When your attack deals a faceup Damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 Damage cards, choose 1 to deal and discard the others.

Says, "I'm the only pilot that bothered to learn how to target components, even though everyone should be able to do that."

Miranda Doni:

Once per round when attacking, you may either spend 1 shield to roll 1 additional attack die or roll 1 fewer attack die to recover 1 shield.

Says, "I'm the only pilot that bothered to learn how to manage my ship's power systems, even though everyone should be able to do that."

Maarek Stele:

When your attack deals a faceup Damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 Damage cards, choose 1 to deal and discard the others.

Says, "I'm the only pilot that bothered to learn how to target components, even though everyone should be able to do that."

Miranda Doni:

Once per round when attacking, you may either spend 1 shield to roll 1 additional attack die or roll 1 fewer attack die to recover 1 shield.

Says, "I'm the only pilot that bothered to learn how to manage my ship's power systems, even though everyone should be able to do that."

Corran Horn:

At the start of the End phase, you may perform 1 attack. You may not attack next round.

Says, "I'm the only pilot that deplete the laser cannon power completely, even though everyone should be able to do that."

I'd say Backstabber is cunning instead of brave. He avoids a straight up fight and instead prefers to swoop in and cripple an enemy who is distracted fighting somebody else.

Dark Curse' pilot ability definitely makes me think he has some sort of connection to the force. Considering the dark side is aggressive and his ability is not....despite his name and alleigance, could he be of the light side?

Beeing just Force sensitive doens't mean you belon to one side of the Force. Beeing light or dark side comes from training and "Codex".

There are plenty of latent Force sensitives who usw the Force unwillingly and without knowing to be force sensitive. Many succesful gamblers, Pilots, sportsmen, etc in the SW Galaxy are to some degree force sensitive without knowing it. And I think Dark Curse is one of them having a feeling for the exact Moment the enemy wants to shoot at him.

Also, his first name is "Dark", so....