So I have a player that wants to be an astromech. Anybody have suggestions on how I should handle this? I have never had an astromech player before. I truly feel that astromechs should be NPCs, but I will not stop him from doing this, and I want him to have fun, and I need to get over my bias. So any thoughts, suggestions and ideas.

Thanks!!

Let him be one. Impose what are realistic implications for being one though. Lots of people don't speak Binary for instance. Hard to make an impression as one, easy to blend in and go unnoticed, etc.

Get 'Stay On Target', has a great little section on Astromecs and very specific actions that only they can perform in starship combat. I also suggest looking deeply at how they will fit into your groups intended story. An Astromec doesn't have to be a Mechanic, they could be an Analyst, a Rigger, a Gunner, they could even be the main pilot of the ship while the meat bag in the seat is doing other stuff. Then there are all the Tech specialisations, many many options from social to pilot to mechanic, even a Gadgeteer!

I have to say I'm really of the opinion, unpopular though it may be, that all droids should be NPCs. I see them more as gear than as characters.

A traditional astromech droid PC would be a Technician or Engineer depending on which rules set you were using. However that is more the general nature than a hard and fast rule. As said above they can be anything while still being of the astromech plug type chassis to fit into snub-fighters. R2D2 for instance appears to be a Spy in his movie scenes. He engaged in tons of slicing, and seemed more to act as lookout and investigative assistant than he acted as a traditional astromech droid. He still had capabilities with mechanics and astronavigation, but just a decent intellect makes one skilled at those. The Spy's scout specialization has some nice crossover with lookout/navigator functions of a droid. So be open ended when it comes to interpreting how this astromech droid starts and even advances.

A language barrier can be annoying in some groups, or great fun in others. The suggestion of limiting him to binary can add colorful role-playing opportunities. Definitely play up the lot of droids in the galaxy. Many planets and cultures still hold distrust developed during the Clone Wars. Beyond that there is still a lot of "droids are just back-talking gear" attitudes in Star Wars. Have many characters be dismissive of or outright mean to droid characters. Give the droids a bit of an in with other droids. Droids can take action in dangerous environments fleshies cannot, or at least without gear and/or great risk. On the other hand droids have particular weaknesses. A random Ion storm could interfere and provide setback for a scene. A good way to make up for allowing a droid to operate without setback created by an environment that hit everyone else.

I'm definitely not a fan of a language barrier between PC's. Sure have NPC's who don't understand, but imagine if none of the cast had understood R2?

My favourite R2 PC is a Rigger/Modder, lots of Sig Vehicle effects on up to a Silhouette 7! But realistically 4 or 5 benefits the most, what's 1 HT for a Ship with 60. (On a side note I think the Fortified Vacuum Seal should have added Silhouette value worth of HT to a vehicle, I can only hope there's a Bounty Hunter or Engineer coming with 3 or 4 ranks of that)

Thanks for the great thoughts. I should have mentioned this in my main post, but didn't really think of it. This is a voice only online game too over on Roll20...

Regarding the language barrier, you could always borrow a page from WEG's Wookiee rules: if there's a member of the party who understands Binary, the droid player may speak normally (under the assumption that the other character is translating); if there's no member of the party present who understands Binary, the droid player must speak in beeps and boops (or use a soundboard...an option that wasn't available back then).

Yeah he mentioned the sound board thing. For a voice only game, that might get old real quick. And no one in the group speaks Binary. For an in person game, it might be kind of funny, as we can really ham it up at the table and see each other, but a voice only game, you can't even see each other, I don't know, I have a lot of reservations about it. I guess we can try it, and if it doesn't work, we can try something else.

I have to say I'm really of the opinion, unpopular though it may be, that all droids should be NPCs. I see them more as gear than as characters.

I don't go so far as all Droids but I hesitate on astromechs.

It's doable, but does take some consideration given an astromech only speaks in Binary and depending on the make/model can be fairly limited in how they interact with their environment.

I've got a friend that enjoys playing astromechs as a PC, but he makes sure there's at least one PC that can understand him, if not perfectly then at least well enough that the gist of what he's trying to convey gets through.

In this system, since languages really aren't tracked (you're generally deemed able to understand the more common species without problem), it's fairly easy to say "the rest of the group can understand you well enough, if not perfectly."

That being said, most astromechs tend to be focused on Mechanics and Computers, with maybe a bit of Piloting, so making sure your PC has at least one rank in those skills might be seen as a constraint on what careers and specs they can start out with. Technician and Engineer tend to work well for an astromech in general, though Ace/Rigger from Stay on Target could be an interesting option.

And there is the role-playing aspect that NPCs are generally going to treat an astromech PC as little more than a mobile tool kit, and if the droid gets too uppity it could wind up being ignored, if not blasted if it gets too cheeky. Which again is going to put a limit on how the PC might contribute to certain encounters, if they're not excluded entirely ("Your droids, they'll have to wait outside!")

Like any species their relationship with the Galaxy can be an important part of the story, or be completely ignored.

But there are some major design elements of droids in this system that you as GM need to leverage. The no breathing no sleeping no food thing is an easy way to write encounters that let a droid shine. Then there is the Cybernetics, offering cyber enhancements as rewards for missions is a great way to include a Droid in a situation. Especially where an NPC may not consider the Droid worthy of the same credit rewards for a job as the rest of the party.

I think it's fine. Just take a page from Mr. Welch and make sure there isn't an entire party of astromechs.

You could also have an Astromech connect to a datapad and communicate with a player that way, in much the same way that R2 did with the display in Luke’s cockpit.

It might help if that were a wrist-worn datapad, as opposed to one of the larger models. But that’s a minor nit.

Cooperation is important for forming a group; otherwise the parties nothing more then a disjointed group of A-holes. XD If the astromech idea is to work, everyone should be able to figure out some compromise that works for the droid; whether they genuinely believe in droid rights or not (if not money, then frequent upgrades. If the droid is unsatisfied, then he starts fiddling with things until he gets his way e.c.t)

That being said if the table is generally against the idea then really he should at least give other races some thought.

I don't really see the need to make a special house ruled penalty for Atromech players (or other binary only droids) when Wookies, Gands, Trandoshans, and many other races that cannot speak basic are not forced by the system to have an interpreter available.

Did you just say Afromech?

(subtitle: R2 with a bitchin' 70's afro and some Mister T gold chains)

Keep in mind that despite the talent's name, it does not actually allow you to speak and understand binary.

But, if i recall correctly, there is a rule early in the book that says that every party member can understand each other's native language.

I don't really see the need to make a special house ruled penalty for Atromech players (or other binary only droids) when Wookies, Gands, Trandoshans, and many other races that cannot speak basic are not forced by the system to have an interpreter available.

Not to derail this too much but, aside from Wookiees, pretty much all species (including Trandoshans and at least some Gands) can speak Basic.

I don't really see the need to make a special house ruled penalty for Atromech players (or other binary only droids) when Wookies, Gands, Trandoshans, and many other races that cannot speak basic are not forced by the system to have an interpreter available.

Not to derail this too much but, aside from Wookiees, pretty much all species (including Trandoshans and at least some Gands) can speak Basic.

And even Rodians, whom I would suspect would struggle forming basic sentences with their snoutlike mouths.

Just because of chewie, only wookies have speech impediments. lol.

Relating to astromech characters, I wish FFG had handled droids differently. I would rather have each droid type be its own race, with set characteristics. As it is, being a droid leads to a great deal of min-maxing and odd results. Starting Astromech with Brawn 5, everything else 1? No problem with the rules. I guess individual GM's just have to put their foot down. But it would have been nice to have each droid have a special ability like the races. Protocol droids get a blue on social checks, etc.

Relating to astromech characters, I wish FFG had handled droids differently. I would rather have each droid type be its own race, with set characteristics. As it is, being a droid leads to a great deal of min-maxing and odd results. Starting Astromech with Brawn 5, everything else 1? No problem with the rules. I guess individual GM's just have to put their foot down. But it would have been nice to have each droid have a special ability like the races. Protocol droids get a blue on social checks, etc.

I think they may have too many species as it is. Doing separate species for every type of droid just makes that problem at least twice as bad.

This is a narrative game, and I think leaving it up to the GM is a good call. Maybe they could have expanded somewhat on how to make proper droid PCs by emulating the various NPC droid types as a starting point, but I don’t think creating additional species or sub-species would have been a good solution to the problem.

IMO, this is more a narrative problem, and the best solution here is to provide better — but still simple — guidelines for the GM, and let them handle things from there.

Starting Astromech with Brawn 5, everything else 1?

The name is L1-FT. (Do you even L1-FT Bro? yes, I'm always this hilarious) We call him Tiny, the astromech with 4 yellow dice in Brawl.

Yes, I might raise my voice as a GM on a Brawn 5 Droid being an astromech...

They could've put some of those archetypes in the mechanics book, just 2 or 3 pages with subtypes - Similiar to all those near-human species that could be constructed with the human template.

Get 'Stay On Target', has a great little section on Astromecs and very specific actions that only they can perform in starship combat. I also suggest looking deeply at how they will fit into your groups intended story. An Astromec doesn't have to be a Mechanic, they could be an Analyst, a Rigger, a Gunner, they could even be the main pilot of the ship while the meat bag in the seat is doing other stuff. Then there are all the Tech specialisations, many many options from social to pilot to mechanic, even a Gadgeteer!

Ours is a Rigger, she is awesome, our ship is freaking awesome and I can not wait to have her as my co-pilot in a real fighter, because PC astromechs are increasing the power of any fighter exponentially. Similar in some ways to gunners, just even more. Speaking of gunners and astromechs > there is a reason why Y-Wings are completely overwhelmingly strong in the right hands until they meet TIE or A-Wing aces.

Anyway, for cool ideas for PC astromechs and what do do with them check out the Machine in the Ghost:

And btw, I can understand Chopper just fine, can you?