Noble Class in Star Wars RPG?

By Genoside07, in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion RPG

Over the years of gaming I normally ran the games and only a few times did I get to play.

But one of our great campaigns in the past was Warhammer Fantasy Role play, The class

I started the game with was a "Noble".

Flash forward to today and our group is about to start a new campaign with FFG's Star Wars

and was thinking of playing some type of "Noble" class, Not really an ambassador type, just

a pain in the butt rich kid type as I played so many years ago.. kind of a male version of

princess Leia in New Hope.

Was looking through the main books and only finding diplomat types... Any suggestions?

That's more of a background than a career, to be honest, although Commander/Figurehead probably fits the bill well enough. It can be found in the Commander book, Lead by Example .

Actually, let me ask this:

What do you plan to be doing? Fighting? Talking? What are the capabilities of the character you're thinking of? What does a "Noble" do in WHFR that you want to replicate?

An arrogant Shii-Cho with an ancient sword?

Any of the 6 specialisations from Colonist would work well

Trader or Archaeologist

Scoundrel Charmer or Gambler for that naughty noble

Hotshot for the Street racer in daddies Austin Martin

Commodore for the arrogant leader (think Star Ship Troopers)

Figurehead

Ambassador

Scientist

Medic

Scout

As mentioned, it really depends on what you want you capabilities to be, so figuring that out and letting us know is probably the best place to start. Although I can give some initial suggestions:

Colonist (Entrepreneur): A good one for a "daddy's money" type build. With up to 5 ranks in Sound Investments, you can be getting lots of cash to play with.

Smuggler (Gambler): Fairly neutral, but has lots of talents that make you good by being lucky, rather than skilled. Works with almost any background.

Any career you want pretty much. What you're talking about is background. Pretty much any career that this game has can be portrayed as a spoiled rich kid. Don't let the fact that the career is titled Diplomat fool you. It's more a general grouping than a hard core class like "Noble". Leia would have been a Diplomat but she could have been easily done as other things too.

You can be a pain in the butt rich kid as a Bounty Hunter if that's what you really want to do.

Edited by Kael

Yeah, unlike the d20 Star Wars games, being a part of the nobility in this system (be it AoR, EotE, or FaD) is really more of a background thing

Diplomat as a career in general might lend it self to a PC being of noble birth/upbringing, and Figurehead certainly fits as well, with Bail and Leia Organa being cited as examples of Figureheads. But there's nothing stopping you from having an Ace, Soldier, or Spy who has a noble birth/upbringing. Winter from Legends would probably have Spy as her career, but she's regal and poised enough that many people thought she was the actual princess when meeting her and Leia (who was often described as being rather tomboyish during her younger years) for the first time.

Money specialization? Take a look at entrepreneur. It pretty much gives you free money.

Money specialization? Take a look at entrepreneur. It pretty much gives you free money.

Combine that with Gambler from Fly Casual, and you can potentially make a killing at the card tables, since you'll have a steady stream of income thanks to Entrepreneur, with the Gambler's talents giving you a better pay out, especially for those high-stakes games.

Yes... that is what I am looking for.. the free money aspect and the ability to have high ranking connections

For that, It would depend on what game you're playing. If you're playing a mix, there are plenty of options mentioned (Entrepreneur for the money-making), but if you're restricted to Age of Rebellion, I'd say Diplomat/Quartermaster, which shares some talents with Entrepreneur. If you have access to Desperate Allies, Advocate might be to your liking for the social connections angle, while Lead by Example provides Figurehead has heavy leadership roles.

Yes... that is what I am looking for.. the free money aspect and the ability to have high ranking connections

Well, the connections are probably going to be more things earned through role-playing and as Contribution rewards rather than acquired via talents. Although the Know Somebody talent can help with acquiring legal goods

Bear in mind that Entrepreneur isn't going to be dealing out a large sum of credits, as the talent in question (Sound Investments) only provides 100 credits times the number of ranks you have in said talent, to a maximum of 500 credits as there's five instances of Sound Investments, and it's yet to show up in any other specialization. So cases in Saga Edition where a Noble would literally have money to burn won't be happening in this system, as FFG's intent is to generally keep the PCs hungry for credits. Groups working for the Alliance or similar organization (i.e. have a Duty) have it a little easier, since they can use Contribution rewards to acquire pricier items that an EotE or FaD group would have to literally save ever spare credit to acquire.

You can get 700 for sound investments, 2 from Quartermaster and 5 from Entrepreneur.

To me it sounds like you should definitely be starting out an Entrepreneur. Play that character for a while and invest XP before making a decision on any other spec you want to pick up, you get plenty of social skills and a bucket load of cash to back it up.

The odd thing to keep in mind about nobles is that they often are quite skilled and quite healthy. Parents having money to burn often means private tutors to drill a lot of skills into you. Proper nutrition (from actually having real meals) and private trainers mean that you have a good chance of being fit despite your spoiled upbringing. Entrepreneur would probably be my vote too but don't rule out a technical field thanks to the best education daddy's money can buy. For my 2cred I agree with the others: have "Noble" be your background and pick a career based on what you want to do. Crossing the streams a bit here, but the main character from dune started as a spoiled rich boy at first, but thanks to constant drilling from his tutors he was also excellent with sword/knife.

Also congrats for finally getting to be a player! It can be fun GMing, but it is always nice to break free every now and then and actually play a character.

That is just background and not class, make whoever you like a snob.

Though I am pretty sure that Leia was a diplomat or similar class. FFS she was a senator like her mother before her.

Leia strikes me as a Commander/Figurehead more than a Diplomat/Ambassador. We don't see her doing much diplomacy.

But anyone can be a noble in this system. Some careers even have aristocratic backgrounds in their splatbooks, like Explorers. It's a case of taking suitable skills and role-playing it.

We have a few PCs of noble birth, from a Colonist/Entrepreneur, Commander/Strategist and even a Guardian. If you want them to have a lot of resources, just assign them a high Contribution rank as it suggests in 'Lead By Example'.

The wonderful thing about a noble, is they can be nearly any profession from any system. Don't worry about what the name of the career tree is. Take the one that has talents to fit your background and desires.

As others have said, it sounds like entrepreneur fits your character, so go with it. They could just as easily be a bored duelist who takes gunslinger, or a deva/rockstar who goes with entertainer. Don't worry about looking for a "noble" tree.

Leia strikes me as a Commander/Figurehead more than a Diplomat/Ambassador. We don't see her doing much diplomacy.

But anyone can be a noble in this system. Some careers even have aristocratic backgrounds in their splatbooks, like Explorers. It's a case of taking suitable skills and role-playing it.

We have a few PCs of noble birth, from a Colonist/Entrepreneur, Commander/Strategist and even a Guardian. If you want them to have a lot of resources, just assign them a high Contribution rank as it suggests in 'Lead By Example'.

Really depends if her senator career was part of playing the character or just background. So basically depends on which point you want to players start playing her. ;-)

She seem to got the some commander talent trees, but at the same time she seem to have Diplomat: Agitator and Diplomat: Ambassador. She gains later for sure Commander talents as well, especially after Endor.

I watched the films again recently, and Leia is... remarkably un-diplomatic in them!

She feels more like a 'Figurehead' (though I hate that word for a Commander...). Just because she was a senator doesn't mean she has to have a Politico type class. Unlike, say, Padme, she seems a bit lacking in 'soft' social skills.

As you say, I don't feel that everyone has to have every Spec. Not everyone with a rifle is a marksman, not everyone who drives a speeder has the Driver spec. My GMPC character in one of our games is mostly seen as a cantina dancer, but her Specs are Trader/Driver/Fringer...

I watched the films again recently, and Leia is... remarkably un-diplomatic in them!

The same is true for her appearance in Rebels.

In Rebels she is very young and in the movies she usually wasn't in a position where she was trying to be diplomatic.

Well, over in Legends, there was a very strong indication that Leia wasn't being trained to be a diplomat, but rather to be a leader in the "rebellion" that Bail Organa knew was coming, so Commander/Figurehead really does make a lot of sense for her. She can lead and inspire (Leadership) and can broker agreements and treaties (Negotiation) but she's really more fiesty than personable, generally relying on her authority and clout (military or political) to get her way.

In an upcoming AoR game, one of our players was looking to play a "Young Senatorial" ala the old WEG d6 archetype, and felt the Diplomat career didn't really work, but she was ecstatic to see the Figurehead and how it matched up what she had in mind almost to a T; she figures any ranks in Charm beyond her initial one for being Human she can pay the non-career cost to acquire, since sweet-talking is more of a secondary element to the character than being a young firebrand.

I think Leia being a Diplomat is simply a hold over from it being the closest fit at the time and the Figurehead being relatively new.