One of the things I sometimes get grumpy about in Star Wars RPGs, compared to some others, is, when I start to build my character, I need to ask the GM:

1. Are you allowing Jedi, or at least "lesser" Force-users?
2. Will it be a more land-based game, or a "snub fighters in space!" theme?

Other games have their variety of classes, and "wizards, fighters, clerics, and rogues" basically fit in, regardless of what your game entails, while deciding if you will be a proficient rider, or if the game will feature much mounted combat, isn't a huge issue. In many Star Wars games, though, one needs to know, or at least I did, if we will fight Stormtroopers and thugs, or if we will fly X-Wings, and fight TIE Fighters. If you don't specialize in the one, you won't be as good, while if you aren't in the right theater, if you will, numerous of your abilities will be mostly useless (Wedge Antilles might be awesome, but I'm not looking to get into a bar fight, or have him help infiltrate an enemy stronghold, at my side). Saga Edition got to the point where, and I love them for it, they had to give additional rules for using various things in space scale, whether your personal ability could effect a ship, your ship weapons were the right variety to benefit from your abilities, and how the Force could effect you (anyone who saw the crap that was Battle Meditation in the core book probably cried, and this book only made it marginally better, considering what it was described as doing in the materials.), but they had to, as Ace Pilots were great at that, and crap at other things, with their fighteers taken away, and many of their talents then not applying. If you are a good pilot, landing on the enemy base, and having to leave the fighter, to go pistoleering the bad guys seemed a waste, while many land-based characters didn't have true skill flying anything, and only wanted a starship to take them from one field to another, possibly even piloted by an NPC, who might watch the ship, while you were off, being a hero.

So, how does this system handle this? Can you, somewhat easily, cover both "dungeon crawling" and dog-fighting in a ship, with the same character, or does your GM need to decide if you are "Rogue Squadron", or the Endor Infiltration Team, and then basically stick with it? I know that AoR gives you a squadron of Y-Wings as an option, or a shuttle (even though the Rebellion really only had one, or two, of those Lambdas), but then not having the other sort of locks you out, while the one is not really convenient for the other job. How varied can you get away with being, before you have too many fingers in too many pies, and aren't really good at any of them? I like fighter pilots, but I'm not sure how many varied builds they really need, and then the rest of the book feels more like it's there for when your group isn't pilots.

Your thoughts would be helpful, thanks.

Well, that kind of depends on the game. If your GM has specifically said to you guys "I want to run a campaign where you are all fighter pilots in the Rebellion. I don't care what other skills/specs you take, but your first one should be Pilot" Then yeah, I would suggest focusing at least some of your progression on piloting, since you know, the GM specifically said as much. If the GM is more of a "I'll leave the story up to you guys, what kind of game do you want to play?" then it would be more open.

Basically you need to hash it out with your GM ahead of time, that will resolve your problem.

But, let's say for the sake of discussion, that you find yourself in a game that you built the wrong PC for. You really haven't built the wrong PC. Unless your GM just never lets you guys do anything but Piloting checks, well, you should have time to do other things. Just look at the movies, Han is a great pilot, but he spends very little time in the movies behind the wheel of the Falcon (except Empire, where he spends most of his time). He does fighting, and charming(failing, but he tries), and tons of other things.

Most of the talent trees simply make a handful of skill checks easier, based on your career. But there is nothing stopping you from cross classing, or just dropping a few ranks in some out of spec skills to round out your character.

I think you should look at the class skills you get for each career, compared to the specializations associated with them. There are several that can do exactly what you mentioned "Dungeon crawl and dog fighting". They've got lots of skills that help with dungeon crawling, but they also give you Piloting as a class skill. Sure, maybe you don't get all the talents that make you and "awesome" pilot. But having a decent Piloting dice pool, with 2 yellows and a green or two is nothing to sneeze at. Especially since you are probably fighitng mostly minion ships. Sure, you're not "The Pilot" of the party, but that doesn't mean you are useless behind the stick.

Honestly I feel this game works better if you don't hyper specialize to much. Firstly the spec system allows for you to diversify very easily, you aren't ever really "locked" into a role. Similarly with scaling costs for skills it makes it almost more worthwhile to get several skills to 2 or 3 rather than bothering maxing one out at 5 and in most situation that many ranks with about an equal stat is usually good enough to cover you the vast majority of the time.
This said you can specialize and there are talents and abilities that function only in a very limited scope but with how assistance works and the aforementioned ability to specialize it's not to difficult to make a character who's going to be both good in the air and on the ground though doing so certainly will never make you the best at any particular act it will still leave you, more often than not, viable for those tasks.

Honestly, there isn't that much of a problem with the FFG Star Wars since it is an experience/karma based system. Normally, after one or two sessions, it is easy to gain fix an issue. Unlike the D20 and Saga, where level one choices are have a longer term effect, the FFG edition allows for a player/character to grow.

In addition, while discussing the campaign with the GM is helpful, it isn't always necessary. For the last campaign I GM, I had made it clear that there will little space combat, since the party will be stuck on Nar Shaddaa/Nal Hutta. It wouldn't stay that way forever, but I wanted o give the players a chance to try out the system.

On Topic: Even though there might be times where a character might feel like a fish out of water, it isn't as detrimental for FFG as it is for D20/Saga. Heck, even for an out-career skill, it is only 10 experience to get a rank and another 15 for the second. 25 Experience is normally what is rewarded after a session or two (at least by my grade scale). Normally, that cost can be further mitigated by taking a second specialization, normally out of career, for 30 Experience, where it can save a player quite a bit experience it if a spec that is the opposite of your original.

Honestly I feel this game works better if you don't hyper specialize to much. Firstly the spec system allows for you to diversify very easily, you aren't ever really "locked" into a role. Similarly with scaling costs for skills it makes it almost more worthwhile to get several skills to 2 or 3 rather than bothering maxing one out at 5 and in most situation that many ranks with about an equal stat is usually good enough to cover you the vast majority of the time.

This said you can specialize and there are talents and abilities that function only in a very limited scope but with how assistance works and the aforementioned ability to specialize it's not to difficult to make a character who's going to be both good in the air and on the ground though doing so certainly will never make you the best at any particular act it will still leave you, more often than not, viable for those tasks.

To build off this, though it might be more costly, look at the Specialization Ability for the careers. That can also be a deciding factor in which way to build a character.

As noted, this is highly dependent on the GM. Some still adhere to "discrete division of labour" model (the old fighter, cleric, wizard, thief from D&D), others want to focus on a specific aspect (emulating Rogue Squadron, so you need to be a pilot, or a Rebel insurgency, so you need military skills), and others are more freeform. There's nothing inherent in the mechanics of this game that requires any particular model to be used.

For my campaign I only asked that the characters be Force Sensitive (I gave them Exile for free). It didn't matter to me what specs they took, even if they all took something similar I'd find a way to keep them busy; and how the campaign progresses and story information is revealed doesn't depend on certain kinds of skills.

Even when specialists are shining, characters operating outside of their focus are still useful in this game. Even when surrounded by combat monsters, a character with Agility 3 and no skill can still be effective using a blaster carbine at short range. Likewise, that same character will do just fine as a gunner on a freighter even without Gunnery.

I think, if the GM doesn't specify, they're envisioning a more general game, where people can play what they want. If that happens, a good GM will put the characters in situations where they can shine - maybe you won't shine all the time, or even every session, but the GM will cater to you eventually. I try my best at that, in my game. Sometimes, it's really challenging to include certain characters, (like my party's Artisan or the Hunter), but as GM it's a fun exercise to try and, even those characters have less time in the spotlight, it seems like they find it really rewarding when their niche concept gets recognized.

Other times, GMs do have a specialized game in mind - and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long as all the players agree ahead of time. Then you can pick a concept that works - if it's a piloting game, you can have an Ace or Smuggler Pilot, a Hotshot, a Gunner, a Modder or Rigger, and a Squadron Leader and still have everyone be different. That's just one example, of course. If a GM does have a specialized game in mind, they probably aught to say. I think it's best practice for a GM to talk about their expectations for game with the players beforehand no matter what, that way the don't have to ask.

Even so, HappyDaze is right - you don't need to be amazing at a thing to do a thing. Dice stats theoretically work so that adding an Ability die is better than upgrading to a Proficiency die, so as long as you're alright missing out on potential Triumphs, you're technically better off being an Agility 3 person with a blaster than an Agility 2 person with 1 rank in Ranged. Sure, your spec gives you abilities that make you excellent in specific situations - a Hunter or Sharpshooter will be a better shot than your Pilot, even if you have better Agility - but your character should rarely feel useless. As long as your GM keeps your talents in mind and sometimes lets you be the big cheese and you have fun with your character concept, your character aught to be fine, at least in my mind.

Even when surrounded by combat monsters, a character with Agility 3 and no skill can still be effective using a blaster carbine at short range.

Or, like our Diplomat, 2 Agility, 1 rank in Ranged Light, an Accurate blaster, and plenty of Aiming.

This is all why you should sit down with the GM and all the players and discuss what kind of game everyone at the table wants. What kind of characters everyone want to play, why you are all together etc. That will make for a much better game for all.

So far the session we have been playing with our GM has had almost everything. Combat, survival in harsh environments, repairing and fixing things, haggling and diplomacy, stealth and some character development. This has really made our characters to not have useless skills. We are all pretty diversified, my friends are playing Mechanic-type character and Bounty Hunter Wookie. I'm playing as Jedi Warrior points both in Shii-Cho-tree and in Aggressor. We are very diverse in our skill sets.

Even so we are kinda lacking on some, like my character had to be the "face guy" because he simply has highest presence in the group. But otherwise we got a specialist for pretty much every case we might come by. It's actually a great system and I like it so much more than Saga Edition. It's less of a hassle to roll dices and make your character shine than it was in that. Rules are way more clear. And we are having tons of fun with it.

So yeah, like people here said, don't be afraid to diversify yourself. It pays off!

I agree with Daeglan.

It's a good idea for the GM to discuss with the players what sort of campaign they are looking to run, so that the players can then build accordingly. After al, it's going to suck for the player of an Ace/Hotshot when they find out the campaign is going to focus on urban combat with very few chances for vehicle combat, and nary a starfighter in sight. Or that the GM was looking to run a campaign focused on the mysteries of the Force, yet half the group made PCs that are non-F/S combat monsters better suited to bashing skulls than investigations or navigating ancient ruins. Or that several of the players made social-heavy characters only to find the campaign is going to be heavy on starfighter combat.

At the very least, by the GM discussing the basic concept for the campaign and players discussion what sorts of characters they'd like to play, there's no rude surprises on either side of the GM screen. If a player wants to bring in a character that's not a great fit for the proposed campaign, such as a heroic-minded Jedi in-training in a campaign that's themed after Inglorious Basterds, they'd at least be doing so with some forewarning as opposed to coming in blind.

Even when surrounded by combat monsters, a character with Agility 3 and no skill can still be effective using a blaster carbine at short range.

Or, like our Diplomat, 2 Agility, 1 rank in Ranged Light, an Accurate blaster, and plenty of Aiming.

Oh, is he in your campaign as well?

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

I agree with Daeglan.

It's a good idea for the GM to discuss with the players what sort of campaign they are looking to run, so that the players can then build accordingly. After al, it's going to suck for the player of an Ace/Hotshot when they find out the campaign is going to focus on urban combat with very few chances for vehicle combat, and nary a starfighter in sight. Or that the GM was looking to run a campaign focused on the mysteries of the Force, yet half the group made PCs that are non-F/S combat monsters better suited to bashing skulls than investigations or navigating ancient ruins. Or that several of the players made social-heavy characters only to find the campaign is going to be heavy on starfighter combat.

At the very least, by the GM discussing the basic concept for the campaign and players discussion what sorts of characters they'd like to play, there's no rude surprises on either side of the GM screen. If a player wants to bring in a character that's not a great fit for the proposed campaign, such as a heroic-minded Jedi in-training in a campaign that's themed after Inglorious Basterds, they'd at least be doing so with some forewarning as opposed to coming in blind.

It also allows the players to voice what kind of game they each want. If the GM wants to run a rogue squadron game and the players want to be Rebel Imperial Senators trying to work within the system to undermine Palps... well no one is going to be happy. So it is a good idea to discuss what kind of game everyone wants and work out something everyone wants to play including something the GM wants to run. Cause from what I have seen nothing burns a GM out faster than running something they are not excited about and nothing kills a players enthusiasm faster than a game the players are not interested in.

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

But it is "just as good", because if you are throwing an object at a target, it's a ranged attack. Which means, all those other factors for ranged combat come into play. So if you don't have a good Discipline check, you are hard pressed to hit them.

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

But it is "just as good", because if you are throwing an object at a target, it's a ranged attack. Which means, all those other factors for ranged combat come into play. So if you don't have a good Discipline check, you are hard pressed to hit them.

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

But it is "just as good", because if you are throwing an object at a target, it's a ranged attack. Which means, all those other factors for ranged combat come into play. So if you don't have a good Discipline check, you are hard pressed to hit them.

I do believe the poster was more referencing the fact that throwing an object does a minimum of 10 flat damage where as a low skill blaster shot will be hard pressed to come close to matching that damage.

True, but there really aren't any talents that can help with a Discipline check, whereas multiple Specializations have talents that either provide boost die to attack checks, allow you to upgrade your attack checks, or allow you to add extra damage to a successful attack. There are no talents that boost your Discipline check. So while the Force user might be able to attempt to hit you with a speeder bike, he's far less likely to actually hit you, compared to other combat classes, that gain bonuses specifically to attack actions, and the damage they inflict. The Force user just has whatever his Discipline pool is. Some of the later powers allow you to convert force pips into successes, but Move doesn't. And considering the number of defensive talents, and cover, and armor, and defense, etc etc, that could be stacked up against the Mover, it can be a significant challenge to actually hit their target with some object. Sure if he hits, it will hit like a..well...a truck, literally. But he's probably got a lower hit chance than someone just firing a gun, or swinging a melee weapon.

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

But it is "just as good", because if you are throwing an object at a target, it's a ranged attack. Which means, all those other factors for ranged combat come into play. So if you don't have a good Discipline check, you are hard pressed to hit them.

I do believe the poster was more referencing the fact that throwing an object does a minimum of 10 flat damage where as a low skill blaster shot will be hard pressed to come close to matching that damage.

10 damage for a silhouette 1 object and successes still add to the damage. And a silhouette 0 object does 5 damage.

Whats this ranged light skill you speak of? A hold out blaster at short range with 2 agility and aim is still somewhat effective.

Nowhere near as good as just tossing the speeder truck at them, but it will work in a pinch.

But it is "just as good", because if you are throwing an object at a target, it's a ranged attack. Which means, all those other factors for ranged combat come into play. So if you don't have a good Discipline check, you are hard pressed to hit them.

I do believe the poster was more referencing the fact that throwing an object does a minimum of 10 flat damage where as a low skill blaster shot will be hard pressed to come close to matching that damage.

True, but there really aren't any talents that can help with a Discipline check, whereas multiple Specializations have talents that either provide boost die to attack checks, allow you to upgrade your attack checks, or allow you to add extra damage to a successful attack. There are no talents that boost your Discipline check. So while the Force user might be able to attempt to hit you with a speeder bike, he's far less likely to actually hit you, compared to other combat classes, that gain bonuses specifically to attack actions, and the damage they inflict. The Force user just has whatever his Discipline pool is. Some of the later powers allow you to convert force pips into successes, but Move doesn't. And considering the number of defensive talents, and cover, and armor, and defense, etc etc, that could be stacked up against the Mover, it can be a significant challenge to actually hit their target with some object. Sure if he hits, it will hit like a..well...a truck, literally. But he's probably got a lower hit chance than someone just firing a gun, or swinging a melee weapon.

Sense would upgrade your check. As the move attack is using discipline to make a ranged check. Which ANY talent that gives bonuses to a ranged combat check can be used with this attack. because it is a ranged combat check.

The other thing to keep in mind, is that unlike the SAGA system, this system has no real penalty for having no skill in something. It assumes that they PCs are reasonably competent in every skill. Having points gives you access to the yellow die, which gives them access to the triumph.

If you are piloting and do not have a skill, you still get the benefit of bonus dice for positive handling (if any). Also, there are ways to "team up" players if you put them in Y-Wings or other "Trainer" Fighters. The player with the better agility or Piloting (Space) pilots the fighter and the other PC fires the guns and operates the shields.

Another option, is to pair the PCs up as Wingman teams. With they PC that has the better piloting in the pair be the lead fighter and the other being the their partner. In this case, the leading fighter should give their partner a blue die for any piloting checks if they keep formation as well as for any weapon shots needed.

This is up to both the PCs and GM to work with, I have seen too many combats in nearly every system where everyone runs off and does there own thing and not work together to coordinate attacks.

The other thing to keep in mind, is that unlike the SAGA system, this system has no real penalty for having no skill in something. It assumes that they PCs are reasonably competent in every skill. Having points gives you access to the yellow die, which gives them access to the triumph.

If you are piloting and do not have a skill, you still get the benefit of bonus dice for positive handling (if any). Also, there are ways to "team up" players if you put them in Y-Wings or other "Trainer" Fighters. The player with the better agility or Piloting (Space) pilots the fighter and the other PC fires the guns and operates the shields.

Another option, is to pair the PCs up as Wingman teams. With they PC that has the better piloting in the pair be the lead fighter and the other being the their partner. In this case, the leading fighter should give their partner a blue die for any piloting checks if they keep formation as well as for any weapon shots needed.

This is up to both the PCs and GM to work with, I have seen too many combats in nearly every system where everyone runs off and does there own thing and not work together to coordinate attacks.

This is why I bet heavily on Sebulba... err, starting stats.

Everyone here has given you great advice about talking to your GM and fellow players and seeing what you/they want in the game, and I encourage this.

I'd like to add a bit more about making your character. If you want to be decent at piloting but also be decent at ground combat, then you want to look at the "agility" characteristic. It governs both ranged combat and piloting checks. It also has coordination and stealth. If you want to ensure you are decent at both a dog fight and a gun fight, then you'd probably want to get this characteristic to a 3. If it is your most important characteristic to your class, like say Seeker/Ataru striker, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it to a 4. With a 4 in agility, you are going to be decent at piloting even if you have no ranks in it, and same if you have no ranks in ranged combat.

Just as an example, I have three players in my Edge game I am running who have an agility of 4. One of them is a smuggler/pilot but other two have made many successful piloting checks without any ranks in those skills. All of them are combat monsters by the way with ranged combat.

I think the only thing that really gates you in this game is the "right tools for the job" rule. Even someone with Int 4 can't craft or do dedicated Mechanics stuff unless they have their own tools (or access to somewhere that does, like a Makers' Space or public garage), and they probably shouldn't slice without a slicer's kit. And the only thing that really stops you from getting those items is your character's role play. That's about all I can think of.

Thank you very much, everyone. I haven't sat down and just "built stock characters", like I might've with other systems, as of yet, just because, and the character ideas that I've had in my head were mostly for a set of characters, who whould figure in a story, and more support/offset each other, so I hadn't had a great opportunity to see how flexible, and wide-range capable a typical PC could get away with being. It good to see if I ever do get a good reason to build something in this game, the character will potentially have a lot of versatility, and still be good at the things they want to do well.