I am toying the idea of having a campaign centered around the PCs forming a fighter pilot squadron. The campaign would be similar to Rogue Squadron in the Star Wars universe and would feature both space battles between ships and a few planetary encounters.

My problem however, is that there is only one pilot tree the players may use (assuming they aren't force sensitive). My question to you all, is how do I run such a campaign?

Should I make another tree or two, reduce starting and earned experience greatly for example...

If you're running it like Rogue Squadron, all the PCs really need to have is Piloting (Space). Hell, if they even have a solid agility, they don't even need THAT.

Look at any spec with Piloting Space and you've got options. You could have Commander/Squadron Leaders (Squadron commander and flight leaders), Any Engineer, Spy/Scouts (I know, wrong pilot skill, but still...). Diplomats and Soldiers who cross-spec are just as handy.

Plenty of options. All the "Pilot" tree gets you is some neat talents that are duplicated in other trees. Plus in the Ace career there's Drivers (for planetary vehicles), guys who are more skilled with shooting than flying (There is NO reason a Gunner couldn't fly their own ship), Hot Shots, and Riggers.

The game already made "alternate trees" for you, man.

Also, if you spread into EOTE, Scoundrel has pilot, and a lot of out of spec ideas. Plus Fringer, and others. As DarthGM said, you don't need pilot talents for Rogue Squadron. Just pilot skill or ability ... and some other reason you are there. Admittedly, I would expect everyone to pick up an Ace or pilot heavy tree within their first 2 trees.

Bounty Hunter and Starfighter Ace are viable.

I'm not sure I understand...

Ace

Gunner, pilot, rigger, hotshot

Commodore

Squadron leader

Smuggler

Pilot

Warrior

Starfighter Ace

Seems like enough pilot trees to play with...and I haven't even started mixing yet, not to mention brought in valuable nonpilot character options. An astromech pc in a socket is pretty game changing...

Not everyone needs to be Aces, let alone have the starfighter tree.

Luke wasn't a starfighter ace - he was a colonist (see EotE) who moved into the force trees.

Anyone with Pilot Space and Gunnery is able to fly a fighter. They don't need the specialization tree to be a pilot - they need it to be an utterly awesome pilot, but not everyone can be the special snowflake.

Luke wasn't a starfighter ace - he was a colonist (see EotE) who moved into the force trees.

I'll disagree...I think Luke started as a Starfighter Ace; that tree reads like it was built for him.

But that's beside the point I do agree that pretty much any character can handle a starfighter. Heck, Obi-Wan flew next to Anakin, and it was clear who the better pilot was. Make the game interesting and compelling, and it won't matter what career or specialization you've got.

Every PC has something special about them. That what makes them PCs. But not everyone has to be amazing at starfighter combat; it'd be boring if everyone was always using the exact same skills to perform the exact same actions.

There's a reason that AoR gives Y-Wings, not X-Wings, as the standard party option. You can run them with two PCs. Put a gunner and a pilot—or a droid and a pilot—in a starfighter, and suddenly you have tons of options on how to use skills, and not everyone feels like they have to pull off an amazing Gunnery check every round. Just make sure to scale your threats and build your encounters appropriately, so the players feel like there is enough room for skillful creativity.

Not everyone needs to ba pilots either if your starting with 2 seater (plus PC Astromec if applicable) Y-Wings.

A Starfighter Ace & a Gunner,

a Pilot & a Squadron Leader,

a Hotshot, a Rigger & a Gunner Astromec!

But other careers work too:

Starfighter Ace & Ambassador

Hotshot & Mercenary Soldier

Driver & Scholar...

So many

Swadron Leader +Engineer droid in a snubfighter, Fringer/Driver in a Ywing with aan ace gunner and a normal astro, Ace Pilot in Bwing (which really needs the doubled action talent)

I've found the Analyst from Desperate Allies is a great fit for a starfighter squadron as well, particularly if its Y-wings or other two crew fighters. They can perform most routine technical tasks like slicing shields or scanning enemies and their talents can allow some useful boosts for the rest of the squadron.

Here's a modest proposal: If you know that your game is going to skew heavily into one area (like a fighter squadron), open up the Pilot tree to all the players as a bonus in addition to their chosen career/spec. This way, nobody gets 'penalized' for not taking the Pilot spec. That gives your pilots room to make their characters, oh, I don't know...former child stars, cyborg doctors, lawyers, Antarian Rangers, space cops, etc.

I'm also running a squadron campaign next year, and while it will focus on squadron combat they are more like Wraith Squadron in that they are a commando group who operate in Starfighters, so they can land and perform commando raids...but I do want fighter combat to play a big part.

I would do what shade suggests and give everyone the pilot tree, that's what i am doing, the only caveat with it is that if they actually want to be one of the ace specs, such as Hotshot, Rigger etc. They won't get the pilot tree but will be given 30xp after character creation to compensate.

Everyone is so excited to start, definitely going to be a good one.

In the X-Wing Books the members of Rogue Squadron often have to do things outside of the cockpit. I would have each player character buy into two trees: pilot and secondary specialization. This way, each has a niche even though all of them do the same thing in a dog-fight.

Were I to run a campaign like this, what I'd do is make a list of all the specializations that include Piloting (Space) as career skills and suggest that the players make their characters from that. That way you have an eclectic group of fighter pilots with a variety of skills and backgrounds outside the cockpit, many of whom would likely have criminal ties of some sort if they're Edge characters, instead of a bunch of variations on "Rebel pilot". Then it's just a matter of running games that always have some element of space combat while also allowing them to make use of their many other talents. For that, I recommend Wraith Squadron as inspiration.

Alternatively you could take a page out of FFG's book (Literally) and tweak the Recruit specialization to include Piloting (Space) and then give that to all the player characters for free right off the bat so they can pick whatever career/specialization they want.

Explorer Driver/Fringer (2 free shields!)

Smuggler Pilot (multi-action)

Warrior Starfighter Ace (The force is strong with him)

Colonist Politico with Well Rounded (C'mon guys! We got this!)

Commander Squadron Leader (Keep an eye on the leader!)

Ace Hotshhot (Hey guys, watch this!)

Pretty much any career works for such a game. The bigger question is more about what do you want them to do when not dog fighting? That will help people flesh out concepts. Mechanics wise the only consideration I might do is giving everyone a free rank in Pilot and Gunnery so that everyone has at least basic training but aren't forced to take a pilot related career. I see great potential with a lot of concepts for such games.