My thoughts on a "Mandalorian Sourcebook"

By TheMOELANDER, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

While I wouldn't mind an Arkanis sector book (Which would certainly cover Tatooine and Geonosis in detail) There are many sectors I would prefer to get a book first. Mandalore is one of those sectors but the Corporate sector is at the top of that list.

Corporate sector tops my list too

Yes, by canon Mandaloria is a planet inhabited by a human population called the Mandalorians.

Mandalorian culture has a distant history of being warlike, though in the more recent past they've moderated that immensely.

Some Mandalorians, like Death Watch, try to maintain the old warlike culture and traditions. Those traditions respect strength above all else and will accept outsiders who prove themselves. See what happened during the Clone Wars when Darth Maul challenged the leader of that group to single combat and won. Half of that group accepted him as their leader, the other half would not follow an outsider, which caused the group to split up into two separate groups.

So to summarize, Mandalorians are a race of humans who inhabit the planet Mandaloria. Some Mandalorian traditions accept non-Mandalorians who prove themselves. But while they become an accepted member of that organization they are not "Mandalorian".

This does not, however, prevent an alien to be Mandalorian by living up to the standards of the mandalorian codex.

Though they would have to be indoctrinated by a Mandalorian proper, to learn the language and such.

At least as far as I know, and that's also how we handle it in my current game.

The BH PC, a Mandalorian, bought a Twi'lek slave on Tatooine and is currently teaching her the mandalorian ways.

I also lean towards Mandalorians being more of a cultural thing.

Obviously not everyone was a warrior, even back in Mandalores "glory days".

I think the out-of-career skills from the standard human fit well to represent what "cut" of Mandalorian a character is and how they've been trained in their respective clans and families.

I'm still curious to see how they spec Mando-Humans in that upcoming book.

In the reference to Mandalorian being a culture, I personally think we should have something like a universal specialization. That way if a player decides in the middle of a campaign that he would like to make his or her character a Mandalorian they can earn that specialization to represent the training and cultural knowledge that they would seek out.

In the reference to Mandalorian being a culture, I personally think we should have something like a universal specialization. That way if a player decides in the middle of a campaign that he would like to make his or her character a Mandalorian they can earn that specialization to represent the training and cultural knowledge that they would seek out.

Because giving humans different species traits wasn't bad enough already. Do we really need a new specalization to represent being a Mandolrian? If being a Jedi isn't even a career why does being a Mandalorian need to be one? What's next .... Black Sun career? Shadow Collective career?

You know what would show a PC has earned being a Mandalorian? The GM saying the PC has gained the acceptance of Mandalorian's in that game. It's really that simple. Not everything needs a nifty and shiny specialization to it.

The correllian (and likely) mandalorian human entries are for a defined culture. It is more sociological than biological.

Think of it this way; the default human is meant to represent any human from anywhere in the galaxies multitude of human cultures. As a default option in every game, you can easily use the human to make a character from Alderaan or Chandrilla, to Kuat or Kanjiklub. The free non-career skills are meant, as I see it, to make sure your characters culture - whatever that may be, is represented. The Corellian and likely Mandalorian variants are meant to be a defined culture and taking to heart the common traits of that culture.

Basically, if you want to play a stereotypical Corellian or Mandalorian play the sub-species. If you don't, play default. The three ranks at construction is nice, especially if you like to spend more xp on talents and skills than the oft touted best way to play; boost your attributes.

Okay, here's an interesting question - should we allow any race to reallocate sociological perks? Lets say you have a Twi'lek that was not raised on Ryloth and not part of the double dealing, underhanded-ness that permeates the culture. Would you let them take the free rank in charm or deception and put it into something appropriate - like Survival, if that Twi'lek was raised on the outbacks of Tatooine?

Okay, here's an interesting question - should we allow any race to reallocate sociological perks? Lets say you have a Twi'lek that was not raised on Ryloth and not part of the double dealing, underhanded-ness that permeates the culture. Would you let them take the free rank in charm or deception and put it into something appropriate - like Survival, if that Twi'lek was raised on the outbacks of Tatooine?

If it fits with your character's background, and your GM is okay with it, why not?

I wouldn't mind a Mandalorian human, but the thing is, as of TCW, Mandalore has abandoned most of its warrior past for neutrality, and the Deathwatch saw that as corruption and wanted to return to the old ways.

The Clone Wars is a long time ago though... Who knows what happened in between?!

The correllian (and likely) mandalorian human entries are for a defined culture. It is more sociological than biological.

Think of it this way; the default human is meant to represent any human from anywhere in the galaxies multitude of human cultures. As a default option in every game, you can easily use the human to make a character from Alderaan or Chandrilla, to Kuat or Kanjiklub. The free non-career skills are meant, as I see it, to make sure your characters culture - whatever that may be, is represented. The Corellian and likely Mandalorian variants are meant to be a defined culture and taking to heart the common traits of that culture.

Basically, if you want to play a stereotypical Corellian or Mandalorian play the sub-species. If you don't, play default. The three ranks at construction is nice, especially if you like to spend more xp on talents and skills than the oft touted best way to play; boost your attributes.

I just don't get why there is a need for specialised humans when the default human covers it already as you said, and the setting has so many aliens that people could play instead. How many aliens? Aliens for days. There's Near-Humans, Far-Humans, Bugs, reptiles, and squids oh my! Cat-Men, Hornies, Conies and more! Let's put those stats for a Corellion on a three-balled cake stealing tentacled space amoeba!

Funnily enough, not one of my players is a human, the closest we got is the Chiss fellow. Not sure how they would react to someone bringing a human into the group, maybe poke it with a stick while trying to figure out what it really is.

The correllian (and likely) mandalorian human entries are for a defined culture. It is more sociological than biological.

Think of it this way; the default human is meant to represent any human from anywhere in the galaxies multitude of human cultures. As a default option in every game, you can easily use the human to make a character from Alderaan or Chandrilla, to Kuat or Kanjiklub. The free non-career skills are meant, as I see it, to make sure your characters culture - whatever that may be, is represented. The Corellian and likely Mandalorian variants are meant to be a defined culture and taking to heart the common traits of that culture.

Basically, if you want to play a stereotypical Corellian or Mandalorian play the sub-species. If you don't, play default. The three ranks at construction is nice, especially if you like to spend more xp on talents and skills than the oft touted best way to play; boost your attributes.

Okay, here's an interesting question - should we allow any race to reallocate sociological perks? Lets say you have a Twi'lek that was not raised on Ryloth and not part of the double dealing, underhanded-ness that permeates the culture. Would you let them take the free rank in charm or deception and put it into something appropriate - like Survival, if that Twi'lek was raised on the outbacks of Tatooine?

Although, you bring up a really good issue with many RPG's. That species seem to be written from a nature (and uni-culture) society for aliens rather than nurture. But, this is how the developers wrote the game - that all twi'leks are similar, as are most species, it is how the writers of the films and shows write them.

At the end if the day, if it will enhance the players enjoyment, and not detract from anothers go ahead and do it. The caveat being those known min-maxers, should not get as much freedom.

Edited by That Blasted Samophlange

The correllian (and likely) mandalorian human entries are for a defined culture. It is more sociological than biological.

Think of it this way; the default human is meant to represent any human from anywhere in the galaxies multitude of human cultures. As a default option in every game, you can easily use the human to make a character from Alderaan or Chandrilla, to Kuat or Kanjiklub. The free non-career skills are meant, as I see it, to make sure your characters culture - whatever that may be, is represented. The Corellian and likely Mandalorian variants are meant to be a defined culture and taking to heart the common traits of that culture.

Basically, if you want to play a stereotypical Corellian or Mandalorian play the sub-species. If you don't, play default. The three ranks at construction is nice, especially if you like to spend more xp on talents and skills than the oft touted best way to play; boost your attributes.

I just don't get why there is a need for specialised humans when the default human covers it already as you said, and the setting has so many aliens that people could play instead. How many aliens? Aliens for days. There's Near-Humans, Far-Humans, Bugs, reptiles, and squids oh my! Cat-Men, Hornies, Conies and more! Let's put those stats for a Corellion on a three-balled cake stealing tentacled space amoeba!

Funnily enough, not one of my players is a human, the closest we got is the Chiss fellow. Not sure how they would react to someone bringing a human into the group, maybe poke it with a stick while trying to figure out what it really is.

The need is there because people want to emulate their favourite characters - Han Solo is a Corellian, so he is obviously an example of what all members of that culture are like.

The notions of race/species in Fiction and RPG's is decidedly skewed to stereotypes. After all, it is often easier to describe a species as a uniculture than make every species have such myriad of differences as humans have showed. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as often stories being written from a human point if view, for a human audience, don't need to flesh out every aspect of an alien species culture and variations. Often in sci-fi (and space fantasy) it can be assumed that one culture rose to become dominant and assimilated or wiped out the rest.

Perhaps many notions of race (species) should be scrapped in RPG's. That what species you play is more an aesthetic and flavour choice, as opposed to a mechanical one.

The need is there because people want to emulate their favourite characters - Han Solo is a Corellian, so he is obviously an example of what all members of that culture are like.

They can still emulate Han Solo if they want to with the default human.

The need is there because people want to emulate their favourite characters - Han Solo is a Corellian, so he is obviously an example of what all members of that culture are like.

They can still emulate Han Solo if they want to with the default human.

Also realize that we humans need to categorize everything, we seperate each other based on skin or religion. If writing stats for Corellians or Mandalorians fills that need without trying to make 'black', 'white', or 'asian' human subtypes, then go for it. Don't want that can of worms being opened.

Also realize that we humans need to categorize everything, we seperate each other based on skin or religion. If writing stats for Corellians or Mandalorians fills that need without trying to make 'black', 'white', or 'asian' human subtypes, then go for it. Don't want that can of worms being opened.

You don't need to even go that far. The US, the UK, and Germany are all predominantly white/Caucasian in ethnicity and historically Christian but no one is going to argue that they're the exact same culturally. Each nation has different values depending on the forces of history that have shaped them.

The new Expanded Universe may take a different approach but Corellia has been traditionally portrayed as "space Texas (the American stereotype)" in the tie-in novels. Coruscant is in the cultural, political, and nearly-literal, center of the galaxy.. and is decadent and is corrupt so it's "space Rome." Even before The Clone Wars portrayed their home world as "space Scandinavia," the Mandalorians were inspired by Vikings.

I'm going to reiterate my previous point: the idea that a species' starting build should be based solely on biology is complete nonsense. I can't see how the Zabrak, being basically humans but with tiny head horns, would make them better at Survival if living in the outdoors wasn't a cultural concern.

Edited by Concise Locket

LOL, Corellia is "Space Texas"... I never thought of it that way but it totally fits. I guess that makes CorSec the Texas Rangers (law enforcement, not the baseball team).

I play my Corellian Bounty Hunter with a mild Texas accent (his personality is "grumpy Dean Winchester") so I really like that comparison. :D

Also realize that we humans need to categorize everything, we seperate each other based on skin or religion. If writing stats for Corellians or Mandalorians fills that need without trying to make 'black', 'white', or 'asian' human subtypes, then go for it. Don't want that can of worms being opened.

You don't need to even go that far. The US, the UK, and Germany are all predominantly white/Caucasian in ethnicity and historically Christian but no one is going to argue that they're the exact same culturally. Each nation has different values depending on the forces of history that have shaped them.

The new Expanded Universe may take a different approach but Corellia has been traditionally portrayed as "space Texas (the American stereotype)" in the tie-in novels. Coruscant is in the cultural, political, and nearly-literal, center of the galaxy.. and is decadent and is corrupt so it's "space Rome." Even before The Clone Wars portrayed their home world as "space Scandinavia," the Mandalorians were inspired by Vikings.

I'm going to reiterate my previous point: the idea that a species' starting build should be based solely on biology is complete nonsense. I can't see how the Zabrak, being basically humans but with tiny head horns, would make them better at Survival if living in the outdoors wasn't a cultural concern.

I'd be more inclined to link the Mandalorians to the Spartans of ancient Greece, but the Vikings work too.

I'd be more inclined to link the Mandalorians to the Spartans of ancient Greece, but the Vikings work too.

Sure. Mandalorians seem to be a hodge-podge of every martial, pre-Enlightenment European society. Their helmets are Corinthian, their martial society is Spartan, their mercenary-raider mentality is Viking, and their silver armor portrayed them as something akin to English Crusaders.

Mandalore in The Clone Wars looked so much like far-future Norway, that I was shocked there we no space Ikeas. :)

"Freaking Mandalorian furniture, their instructions make no sense!!! And why is this bookshelf called a Snarfklüg anyway?!"

You have to roll 3 setback dice for your crafting check to assemble and it costs strain each round.

"Freaking Mandalorian furniture, their instructions make no sense!!! And why is this bookshelf called a Snarfklüg anyway?!"

You have to roll 3 setback dice for your crafting check to assemble and it costs strain each round.

Despair leaves you with several leftover extra pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere.

"Freaking Mandalorian furniture, their instructions make no sense!!! And why is this bookshelf called a Snarfklüg anyway?!"

You have to roll 3 setback dice for your crafting check to assemble and it costs strain each round.

Despair leaves you with several leftover extra pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere.

Despair with a triumph means that you have pieces left over. . . but the Snarfklüg seems to work just fine.

Edited by Desslok

You also have to roll Survival to navigate the space Ikea store.

space Ikea

Must... resist... refere-

Failed .

Just to be "that" guy: Ikea is from Sweden.

Edited by Jegergryte

space Ikea

Must... resist... refere-

Failed .

As long as we're here.

Just to be "that" guy: Ikea is from Sweden.

Wait - the Budweiser Bikini Team and Ikea come from the same place? Your country is perfect. . . . .