Everything I've seen of Star Wars tells me that the average person is fairly omnicapable at using the tech of the setting, and this includes spaceflight.

Do the words "Flying through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops boy" ring a bell? Yes piloting is a common skill among the main cast of the Star Wars movies but that doesn't mean just anyone can hope in a fighter, fly into battle and fight effectively.

Do the words "Flying through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops boy" ring a bell? Yes piloting is a common skill among the main cast of the Star Wars movies but that doesn't mean just anyone can hope in a fighter, fly into battle and fight effectively.

Just about any character can in the FFG game lines.

We both know that PCs in RPGs are not normal characters.

We both know that PCs in RPGs are not normal characters.

I didn't say PC; I said characters. In this game, that means anybody. There are no untrained skill penalties, so everybody has a shot at doing anything. Despite not having training in the skills, stormtroopers can attempt Computers, Mechanics, Piloting (either) or even Astrogation checks. Everybody has a shot at Knowledge (Lore) so those 'ancient secrets' aren't quite so secret. It makes everyone in the universe omnicapable, even if not necessarily omniproficient.

Yeah but that's how the system works not the setting. Sometimes things need to be adjusted a little to make sense. You throw 20 random people off the street in Star Wars into fighters you might get 3 or 4 experienced pilots and 2 or 3 that could figure it out well enough to get by in a space battle if you are lucky excluding culture or region based exceptions

Yeah but that's how the system works not the setting. Sometimes things need to be adjusted a little to make sense. You throw 20 random people off the street in Star Wars into fighters you might get 3 or 4 experienced pilots and 2 or 3 that could figure it out well enough to get by in a space battle if you are lucky excluding culture or region based exceptions

How often do we see random people being thrown into fighters in Star Wars? The only instance I can think of where someone begged off flying was Finn in TFA, and it's not clear whether he would be unable to even pilot a TIE in a straight line, or if he just knew he wasn't good enough to escape in a flying deathtrap on his own.

Yeah but that's how the system works not the setting. Sometimes things need to be adjusted a little to make sense. You throw 20 random people off the street in Star Wars into fighters you might get 3 or 4 experienced pilots and 2 or 3 that could figure it out well enough to get by in a space battle if you are lucky excluding culture or region based exceptions

I'm OK with the setting matching the system. The wide range of materials for the setting are varied and inconsistent, so I'll stick to the setting as presented by the materials for this system.

Yeah but that's how the system works not the setting. Sometimes things need to be adjusted a little to make sense. You throw 20 random people off the street in Star Wars into fighters you might get 3 or 4 experienced pilots and 2 or 3 that could figure it out well enough to get by in a space battle if you are lucky excluding culture or region based exceptions

How often do we see random people being thrown into fighters in Star Wars? The only instance I can think of where someone begged off flying was Finn in TFA, and it's not clear whether he would be unable to even pilot a TIE in a straight line, or if he just knew he wasn't good enough to escape in a flying deathtrap on his own.

Exactly. Luke was basically thrown in off the street and we all know what insanity Lucas had Anakin pull in TPM but they both had the Force guiding them. Everyone else we see flying a fighter had training before hand and the X-Wing's controls were specifically designed to be as close to those of the T-16 Skyhopper, which Luke had a great deal of experience with, as feasible to make it easier for civilian pilots to jump from the Skyhopper to the fighter.

So we have a bunch of civilian pilots who have only ever flown tropospheric craft (Pilot: Planetary) jumping into a starfighter (Pilot: Space) with no noticeable trouble adjusting to zero-g piloting. Sounds to me like the system is mirroring the setting well.

Yeah except the pilots in question got run through a training program before being sent into combat, though there were some cases when pilots got sent out mid-training they still got some training before facing battle. Even Luke got a crash course in the sims before going out

Yeah except the pilots in question got run through a training program before being sent into combat, though there were some cases when pilots got sent out mid-training they still got some training before facing battle. Even Luke got a crash course in the sims before going out

This point was illustrated in the old Radio Drama. Luke had to prove himself in the SIMS before they'd let him fly. Nice background piece, but not necessary for the movie.

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

Make sure you have the proper montage music!

It's worth noting that for even an Average difficulty, an untrained character will fail more than half the time. That's assuming they aren't taking any setback die for not knowing proper procedures and best practices as well. After all, there's a slight difference between turning a key to start a car and properly going through a pre-flight checklist. One of these you can train the average 16 year old to do, the other takes months of training.

And finally, you're leaving out the most critical point of all: if a character simply cannot possibly do something, then they can't roll. You can't roll Lore to recall that the Sith were an offshoot of the Jedi if your character simply has never come into this knowledge before, and you can't roll strength to lift an ATAT with your bare hands.

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

To be fair, it might even be shorter than 8 weeks: During WWII, US Marine Corps training varied from eight weeks to as few as four (!) weeks.

And even then, it seems that those who have established themselves as being capable agents or combatants are subject to an even further truncated training program (like Lando and Han - and while Han may have trained as an Imperial officer in the EU, they have not established his background in new canon, yet).

It is probable that many rebel soldiers already have training - either Imperial training or as part of a planetary militia, like the rebel soldiers/marines/naval infantry who defended the Tantive IV from Stormtroopers off the Devastator.

In fact, given the intentional difficulty of finding the rebellion to join it, it is probable that the rebellion doesn't have a basic training program at all - those who join it are already trained pilots, triggerpullers, or other agents - but instead has a series of barebones advanced courses: So transition courses for X-Wing pilots coming from flying T-16s, TIEs, or perhaps older Republic vessels, guerrilla combat movement and tactics and wilderness survival for militia inducted into the rebellion, bomb-making, sabotage, surveillance and counter-surveillance for other agents, and an officers crash course for civilian starship captains who are being inducted at higher ranks (like Solo and Calrissian).

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

Make sure you have the proper montage music!

I didn't say PC; I said characters. In this game, that means anybody. There are no untrained skill penalties, so everybody has a shot at doing anything. Despite not having training in the skills, stormtroopers can attempt Computers, Mechanics, Piloting (either) or even Astrogation checks. Everybody has a shot at Knowledge (Lore) so those 'ancient secrets' aren't quite so secret. It makes everyone in the universe omnicapable, even if not necessarily omniproficient.

It's worth noting that for even an Average difficulty, an untrained character will fail more than half the time. That's assuming they aren't taking any setback die for not knowing proper procedures and best practices as well. After all, there's a slight difference between turning a key to start a car and properly going through a pre-flight checklist. One of these you can train the average 16 year old to do, the other takes months of training.

And finally, you're leaving out the most critical point of all: if a character simply cannot possibly do something, then they can't roll. You can't roll Lore to recall that the Sith were an offshoot of the Jedi if your character simply has never come into this knowledge before, and you can't roll strength to lift an ATAT with your bare hands.

There are rules that cover (almost) impossible situations. However, no matter what the Difficulty of a test does not change based on the individual taking the action. If a Jedi scholar makes a Difficulty 3 Knowledge (Lore) test to research the Sith, any other character can roll against the same Difficulty. I would certainly consider giving the Jedi scholar a Boost (especially if he has access to the right holocrons), and some other characters might have Setback (that can be offset by Researcher), but the base Difficulty does not change.

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

Make sure you have the proper montage music!

I didn't say PC; I said characters. In this game, that means anybody. There are no untrained skill penalties, so everybody has a shot at doing anything. Despite not having training in the skills, stormtroopers can attempt Computers, Mechanics, Piloting (either) or even Astrogation checks. Everybody has a shot at Knowledge (Lore) so those 'ancient secrets' aren't quite so secret. It makes everyone in the universe omnicapable, even if not necessarily omniproficient.

It's worth noting that for even an Average difficulty, an untrained character will fail more than half the time. That's assuming they aren't taking any setback die for not knowing proper procedures and best practices as well. After all, there's a slight difference between turning a key to start a car and properly going through a pre-flight checklist. One of these you can train the average 16 year old to do, the other takes months of training.

And finally, you're leaving out the most critical point of all: if a character simply cannot possibly do something, then they can't roll. You can't roll Lore to recall that the Sith were an offshoot of the Jedi if your character simply has never come into this knowledge before, and you can't roll strength to lift an ATAT with your bare hands.

There are rules that cover (almost) impossible situations. However, no matter what the Difficulty of a test does not change based on the individual taking the action. If a Jedi scholar makes a Difficulty 3 Knowledge (Lore) test to research the Sith, any other character can roll against the same Difficulty. I would certainly consider giving the Jedi scholar a Boost (especially if he has access to the right holocrons), and some other characters might have Setback (that can be offset by Researcher), but the base Difficulty does not change.

Never said it did. Setback die are, of course, another matter entirely.

And the "(almost)" that you put in there is the key word, here. Some lowlife uneducated Outer Rim bounty hunter who's barely heard of the Jedi and never even heard the word 'Sith' can't roll to recall something about Sith history. It's not 'almost' impossible, it IS impossible. And you don't roll for somewhere where there is no doubt about the outcome. It's not that the base difficulty changes, its that the attempt can't even be made because it doesn't make any narrative sense.

And the "(almost)" that you put in there is the key word, here. Some lowlife uneducated Outer Rim bounty hunter who's barely heard of the Jedi and never even heard the word 'Sith' can't roll to recall something about Sith history. It's not 'almost' impossible, it IS impossible. And you don't roll for somewhere where there is no doubt about the outcome. It's not that the base difficulty changes, its that the attempt can't even be made because it doesn't make any narrative sense.

Any bounty hunter who's spent time in the Outer Rim has probably heard all sorts of stories. He might not have heard the word "Sith," but didn't that old spacer from the spinward end of the trade run say something about a warrior cult that dished out pain like it was their duty and used red swords that could cut through anything? Said that the locals of some backwater system said they were heretics off of a nicer cult that had swords of different colors but just as deadly. Said the cultists--the nasty ones, not the nice ones--would hit them from somewhere out of asteroid belt like a plague of space locusts. Say, the nice cult kind of sound like Jedi, huh.

A lot of stuff survives in folklore, even if the names get changed and some of the details get sanded off over time. Who knows what sort of things a lowlife, uneducated bounty hunter might pick up listening to tall tales in Outer Rim cantinas?

So I've started taking all of these notes and thoughts and compiling them into some kind of cohesive format for an evening's entertainment - and the one thing I'm going to have to work to avoid is turning this into a bunch of dice rolls all night long. "Okay, now you're being trained in Blaster. Roll your blaster. Now it's melee, so roll your melee" and so on.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

To be fair, it might even be shorter than 8 weeks: During WWII, US Marine Corps training varied from eight weeks to as few as four (!) weeks.

And even then, it seems that those who have established themselves as being capable agents or combatants are subject to an even further truncated training program (like Lando and Han - and while Han may have trained as an Imperial officer in the EU, they have not established his background in new canon, yet).

It is probable that many rebel soldiers already have training - either Imperial training or as part of a planetary militia, like the rebel soldiers/marines/naval infantry who defended the Tantive IV from Stormtroopers off the Devastator.

In fact, given the intentional difficulty of finding the rebellion to join it, it is probable that the rebellion doesn't have a basic training program at all - those who join it are already trained pilots, triggerpullers, or other agents - but instead has a series of barebones advanced courses: So transition courses for X-Wing pilots coming from flying T-16s, TIEs, or perhaps older Republic vessels, guerrilla combat movement and tactics and wilderness survival for militia inducted into the rebellion, bomb-making, sabotage, surveillance and counter-surveillance for other agents, and an officers crash course for civilian starship captains who are being inducted at higher ranks (like Solo and Calrissian).

Sorry for not replying faster but RL has been a massive pain lately.

I still find the idea of the rebellion having no basic training program for untrained recruits or officer candidate training is ludicrous. Your idea is that almost all rebel recruits either come pre-trained or with some form of experience which can allow minimal training to prepare them for combat.

While I'm sure many rebel recruits do have some experience along those lines I think there are large numbers of recruits that do not. Refugees fleeing Imperial attacks, beings fleeing Imperial enslavement or persecution, the populations of the safe worlds, rebel friendly worlds, and civilian prisoners or slaves liberated during rebel raids are all IMO abundant sources of rebels recruits who have no form of prior training or experience that can substitute for basic training. And I don't think the rebellion would fail to have training programs ready to allow such recruits to be prepared for whatever military branch and role they desire and have the capabilities to fill.

I rewrote the Alliance for our campaign to be much more of an organised and militaristic organisation rather than rag-tag 'rebels', with a nod to Mass Effect. It's still dwarfed by the Empire and plays best to its strengths by picking its battles - but it can and does fight and win in full-scale operations. It has homeworlds and fleets and everything else you'd expect, including Force adepts trained to fight the Empire and Jedi both (our version of the Empire is notably lacking this - it uses its own Force adepts purely for clandestine matters like assassinations, not on the battlefield).

While it does have civilian and non-combatant members, the premise for our AOR group was an elite SpecForce squad put together from the ashes of an older team. Some of them were highly decorated veterans with considerable experience.

To simulate basic training, I gave everyone, newcomers and newbies alike, 150 XP to be spent purely on the Recruit tree and associated skills. This gave everyone a grounding in military matters.

In fact, I ran a one on one scenario for one of the PCs (the party diplomat, the least gung-ho character you could imagine) based on a training scenario Desslok outlined in one of his posts.

The very nature of basic training means that the trainee is told to do stuff for 8 weeks and then does what the the Teacher says. Not a very compelling story. So what I might wind up doing is a short series of vignettes touching on some highlights and then fast forward to the Final Exam mission where I can put all that into play.

You could always base the narrative around the field exercises - specifically set scenes where the PCs are in between areas or at chow, and set up a subtle running narrative about plot that happen during the basic training. Perhaps an Imperial spy joins the group and tries to sabotage the training, or maybe one of the recruits goes nuts and tries to kill people.

The idea would be to have everyone make the rolls and then narrate the interaction on the field where others are going, breaking up the "rolling part" with social scenes. You don't even need everyone to roll - only those that potentially could fail (the diplomat at the firing range, or the soldier during the MOS test on Knowledge: Outer Rim).

Yeah, using the stun setting by default makes more sense in Star Wars. You could say that their blasters in basic are stun-only, but I don't know if it would really be necessary. If somebody switched their blaster from stun to kill when they shouldn't, the drill sergeants would probably have them doing push-ups for a few hours or something. They keep a pretty close eye on that stuff. I got patted down for any live ammunition every time I came off the firing range.

I decided to go with a weird laser tag version. The blasters had all normal damage and normal range, took off the Wound Threshold like you would expect, but it was a simulated damage. All the blasts did was sting like a mother, make the affected body part numb and useless - but didn't actually do damage.

You could always base the narrative around the field exercises - specifically set scenes where the PCs are in between areas or at chow, and set up a subtle running narrative about plot that happen during the basic training.

Well, I wound up doing a mix of "Okay, this week is you guys getting blaster training" some war games like having them go capture X and avoid the guards combat scenes and some just purely narrative "You are order to the hanger bay first thing in the morning. There you get a flight suit and an X-Wing", just letting them react to what's going on. And then I left them on a cliffhanger with Imperial drop ships heading for the compound.

I'll see if I can post my final notes about the game here in a bit, after I strip the personal notes that wont make sense to anyone outside the group.

Okay, here's 97% of last nights game (with the last 3% for next weekend, so Mike stay the hell away)

They are given some time to pack basic essentials - very basic. Everything they’ll need will be provided on site. And then they are shuttled to a nameless rim world in the middle of nowhere, touching down just long enough to unload passengers, before lifting off. They are handed a self decrypting datapad and turned loose in the major city. On the surface, it would seem an odd place for a rebel rendezvous but the massive amounts of traffic allow superb cover for their in-and-out traffic. After a few moments on planet, the datapad springs to life, displaying a city map, with a waypoint marked.

Following the waypoint, they find another hanger - and the datapad burns itself out after a bit. There, they meet with several other trainees - 20 in all.

The ramp rolls down on the small windowless shuttle, allowing them to board for transport to their final destination. The passenger compartment is isolated from the flight deck, and there is no access to any navigation systems. There are not even windows to navigate by the star formations.

WELCOME TO TRAINING

The shuttle's hyperdrive fluctuates speed, ranging anywhere from times .5 to times 2, and the drive systems are out of sync on purpose, to mask the engine noise and make it impossible to judge how far the ship has traveled. For the next 12 hours, the ship enters and exits hyperspace several times until finally the ship vibrates from atmospheric buffering. No windows so they cant see, but they can feel that they're coming in on a very sharp, swift reentry.

Their first glimpse of Alliance Training Center 5lGS - better known as Whitestar Base - is the main hanger. Not that they know where they are - but that's the planet Cysit, located in the outer rim territories, it's an excellent place to train the newest Alliance troops. The closest city - if you can call it that - is Ranatti, a 80-hour hike away. The residents of Rakati don't like Rebels in their city, mostly out of fear of reprisal from the Empire. The only other Alliance post on Cysit is a security operation station, about two week's hike from the station.

Outside the main bay door, a rugged desert can be seen, mesas and hoodoos stretching off into the distance. A hot wind blows in from the exterior.

A squadron of X-Wings sit to one side of the bay, two TIE fighters hang from a launch rack and several Airspeeders sit on the other side. There are several models of speederbikes and other more mundane transport tucked in nooks and crannies.

They are met at the bottom of the ramp by an officer and told to line up. Welcome to whitestar base, your home for the next eight weeks. Let's get you over to the Q for your equipment and then settled in at the barracks.

They report to Q for their basic equipment and weapons. They receive a blaster, a rifle - both modified to do stun damage only. Also, they are required to check their own blasters. The command staff would like to avoid accidentally killing any recruits, so there are no live weapons allowed on Whitestar Base. They will get their weapons back at the end of training.

What about the lightsabers? They would like to secure those too. The Q explains that the training won't cover that skill set, and they would like to prevent accidents.

They are assigned bunks in the secondary barracks, rooming with 30 or so other beings. The alliance tried to group physiologies and races together - no wookiees and Jawas on the same squad. They are broken into groupings of [whatever the group size is], and pared off against another squad of [same number].

Their drill sergeant is a Wookiee named Grakchauwwa. He is tall, lean and wiry with a cloud from the permanent cigarra in his mouth. He also sports an eye patch and a cybernetic arm - the arm is left bare, as he is proud of earning it when saving his platoon on Kasshik during the close of the clone wars.

Mounted to his bandoleer is the badly abused head of a protocol droid, for translation purposes. K3 is the polar opposite of his owner, where Grak is brash and salt and hard, K3 is polite and well spoken.

WEEK ONE

The first couple of days are spent on orientation about the next eight weeks, a skills and ability assessment. After their strengths and weaknesses are assessed the recruits are subjected to an intensive overview military protocol, of alliance structure and an overview of the Empire and its holdings. That rounds out the first week.

Get to know their counterparts here

WEEK TWO

While physical training will take place consistently throughout the duration of the training, the second week is exceptionally focused on building the physical skills, building confidence through climbing tall things and some other simple skills like a course in basic first aid.

Towards the end of one day, during their free time, one of the PCs finds some Bigots picking on a twilek that barely speaks piglin English. It'll boil over to a beating in a second, if they don’t intervene. Swap some blows for a moment, when Grakchauwwa and is livid (K3 is calm)

"Your performance in this matter is most unsatisfactory. It is requested that you focus on the task at hand, rather than engage in acts of a lewd nature during free time. Master Grakchauwwa is most disappointed, and calls all of your parentage into question."

WEEK THREE

The third week is ranged weapons training. They get to learn the ins and outs of blasters and how to field strip, maintain and repair them. They get hands on with hand guns, rifles, and heavy weapons, shooting at stationary and moving targets.

The third week is capped off with a simulated mission. Early that day, the team is shown to a secure turbolift with whatever gear they deem appropriate for a vaguely worded mission

The turbolift doors slide open, giving the team a good view looking down over a simulated battlefield. The turbolift opens at the edge of the cliff, 25 feet above a pond of unknown depth. The cliff is about 22 feet deep and about 100 feet wide. A forest begins at the edge of the pond, and beyond the trees is what looks to be a building in a small clearing.

Scattered around the clearing? 10-15 old, repurposed confederacy battle droids - hard to get an accurate count on how many, as they occasionally enter and exit the woods. Otherwise, they seem on guard duty and/or putter about doing military things.

The comlink comes to life, and Grakchauwwa's voice comes through, followed a moment later by K3. "Master Grakchauwwa requests that you expedite your gluteus to the far building," he says before the comlink goes dead. The light at the top of the turbolift blinks red.

The PCs must overcome several obstacles to reach the building. First is a wall, fabricated to be like a mountain cliff, with small outcroppings to grapple onto. An DD Climbing roll will get the PCs down safely. If one of the PCs fails his roll, he falls into the water below. If a PC falls or jumps into the water, he suffers 4 strain.

The water is only about a meter deep, so the PCs can cross the water with no problem once they reach it. If a fight breaks out while they are in the water, everyone has a b because maneuvering is difficult.

The battledroids respond as if they are an enemy, opening Fire and taking cover as appropriate. If they managed to push forward through the forest to the building, the battle droids switch off, and the light at the top of the dome turns green. Grakchauwwa comes back over the comlink, followed by K3. Master Grakchauwwa informs you that your performance was perfectly serviceable.

WEEK FOUR

The fourth week is hand to hand combat, brawling and martial arts. No lightsabers, as this is not a live fire training - plus it's such a specialized skill set that nobody (other than PCs) knows how to handle the weapon skilled enough to train it properly. The week is capped off with a fight in a room with catwalks and moving containers with ladders and ropes everywhere.

WEEK FIVE -

The fifth week is survival training. Marches in the desert, best ways to find water, survive the sun and so on. Then it's up to the moon for training on the ice world, and then over to the other moon that’s covered in water. If someone comes from a desert world or generally doesnt know how to swim, they get a focus in the basics of how to swim while the rest get more advanced training.

WEEK SIX -

Back at Whitebase, they get the fun bit: vehicle training! New drivers gets the basics of how to pilot a speeder while everyone else gets combat training and then space pilot training with some basic astrogation. Also time is spent on mechanics and maintenance. No actual dogfighting, at least in real ships. That is far too dangerous for beginners, even with the lasers modified to be harmless.

WEEK SEVEN -

Technology, computers, repairing things in the field, maintenance on droids, stripping weapons.

WEEK EIGHT -

Final exam! The final evaluations consist of two teams of cadets, the Imperials and the Rebels. The Empire gets to hold a fortified position while the rebels get to take it.

First the attacking team has to recover the "plans" for the fortification they have to attack. Reporting to staging area three, Grakchauwwa and K3 say "Master Grakchauwwa would like you to proceed to the imperial mainframe, retrieve for him the retrieve data file plans3 from the computer. Rendering the computer inoperable is not mandatory, but he desires it very much."

First the PCs must navigate a service access shaft, climbing up several levels up a series of cables and balance beams while being shot at from the automated defenses. The shaft opens up into a storage closet, which leads into a simulated imperial capital ship hallway, with a ramp leading down to a set of blast doors. The door does not slide open when the PCs stand in front of it.

To gain access to the ship, the PCs must crack the lock, bypass the door or just blow it up. Once inside, the PCs travel down passageways and check the doors while trying to defend against battle droids. The battle droids here are more numerous than in the first simulation, and they will pursue the PCs relentlessly.

The computer room is decked from ceiling to floor in computer hardware, one wall dominated by viewports. In the center, on a desk, is a keyboard. A DDD Computer skill roll is needed to access the correct information. As the PCs complete the retrieval of the file Plans3, the dome light does not turn green as expected - apparently they have to get off the star destroyer, either by one of the escape pods they passed on the way here or getting back down the access shaft.

Once they are back with the "plans" they can coordinate the attack. Of course the information they collected on the base is wrong, simulated bad information - but they wont know that until they start the attack.

And so they head to the attack point. Along the way, they hear sobbing coming from a bush. They find a young girl, a teenager - they vaguely remember seeing her come in with the last batch of recruits. When they ask what the problem is, all she does is sobs out "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." While clutching a very small transmitter, with one lone blinking light on it.

She's thrown the base under the bus.

Trying to call back to the base is no good, the comlinks are jammed. Trying to break through wont work - they simply don't have enough power. And that's when they spot the imperial drop ships. One is heading towards the main compound, the other is heading towards the simulated bunker.

The bunker is much closer, but the main base is where all the real weapons are. All their weapons are blasters that have been converted to low power stun weapons - basically glorified laser tag pistols. Given enough time, an engineer might be able to rig one - maybe. It'll probably be faster to find a stormtrooper and mug him for his gun.

TO THE BUNKER

By the time they get to the target bunker, the Empire already has the "imperials" there in custody. A scout walker is there and there are 15 stormtroopers milling about the recruits. However without real weapons, this will be difficult to deal with. Perhaps someone can sneak to the walker and turn its guns on the Empire. Perhaps they can ****** a couple of blasters from the Imperials. A demolitionist might be able to rig an explosion as a distraction.

Also, capturing the AT-ST intact would give them a huge leg up in taking Whitestar Base.

TO CENTRAL COMMAND

Depending on if they went to the bunker first, they might have weapons, reinforcements or a scout walker to help even the odds. Regardless, when they reach Whitebase, there are at least fifteen stormtroopers engaged in a live fire battle with the recruits and officers who were at the base at the time. Three vehicles are parked in front of the building: a mobile command base and two compact assault vehicles

Entering the mobile command base is not easy. A DDD Security roll will let the PCs gain access. If the PCs are unable to gain access, they can always climb the sides to reach the cannon and disable it, wait for troopers to ambush them, or even try to take over the compact assault vehicle and turn its weapons on the mobile command base.

If the PCs gain access to the mobile command base, they will have to face five stormtroopers and three crewmembers. If they overcome their foes, a security roll will get them into the top hatch, where the weapons will tip the balance of power, powering through the stormtroopers in pretty short order.

As the base is being disassembled and personnel evacuated, Grakchauwwa finds them "Master Grakchauwwa finds your performance today very adequate, that it's all due to his training and you mustn’t take any credit for it, of course. But he would be proud to drink with you at some future date."

With that, they get to leave Cysit back for their fleet.

Dang, this Wookiee just gets better and better. Now I need to find an AoR game to play in, and that's the line I've been least interested in of the three.

"GRAAURRGH! Araagha heur raarr rawwrg! EARRGGHH!!!""Your performance in this most recent assessment is unsatisfactory. Corrective discipline will be implemented, and the severity of same shall be increased with each successive attempt until competence is attained. It is requested that you focus on the task at hand, rather than engage in acts of a lewd nature during performance reviews. I am most disappointed, and call all of your parentage into question."