"Now, "Master Pilot" says I can suffer two strain to take "any action" as a maneuver. By my interpretation, that should mean that I can take any action that normally cannot be performed by a starship with a size above 4 by suffering two strain. It could also be interpreted to mean any action, even outside of a starship, but I won't argue that point. I won't even argue the first point.... I'm just looking for a way we can keep our current ship, and yet have it be awesome."

My player is seeking to take the aforementioned Talent, and wants to be able to use any pilot action, ignoring the fact that their current freighter is Silhouette 5... Thoughts? I had planned on giving the crew a replacement freighter (I gave them this first one before I remembered that actions are limited by Silhouette), but it seems as though some of the players want to keep the current one - but resent its limitations.

Any opinions would be useful before I give him an answer.

Interesting. We never looked at ANY as the key word. It was allowing multiple actions without penalty in the same turn, to us. Most commonly Gain the Advantage and Fire a Vehicle Weapon.

I had never considered it allowing pilots to break Silhouette limits.

No...

All the usual restrictions still apply to those Actions; ship size limits on actions and a weapons system can only fire once a round.

I think the full talent description is clearer but I'm AFB. Basically it's a talent that lets you perform an Action you would normally be able to perform as a Maneuver, that's amazing and awesome enough without letting you break other game mechanics at the same time.

Other actions that it would apply to would be things like Astrogating, a Mechanics check to repair System Strain, Gunnery to use a second weapons system... Etc

Thanks, I'll let him know.

The talent basically lets you do pilot-only actions (which are the ones you'll be wanting to do, since anyone can do the things that aren't pilot-only) as a manoeuvre, just like Tear44 quoted. It means you can, for example, take one Evasive Maneuvers manoeuvre, one Gain the Advantage action as a second manoeuvre (costing you 4 strain - 2 for a second manoeuvre and 2 for performing an action as a manoeuvre) and then shoot your target.

While I agree that the Master Pilot talent wouldn't help your group get around size limitations, you still have the problem with your PCs liking their current ship yet resenting it's silhouette, right?

So as a bit of advice on how to resolve that, you might want to let them remove some encumbrance space to allow them to lower the silhouette. Imagine this as "removing unnecessary parts" to reduce overall size and weight similar to what race car drivers do to make their cars faster. It's a fair trade off and it even lets the players feel more like the ship is "theirs" and unique.

While I agree that the Master Pilot talent wouldn't help your group get around size limitations, you still have the problem with your PCs liking their current ship yet resenting it's silhouette, right?

So as a bit of advice on how to resolve that, you might want to let them remove some encumbrance space to allow them to lower the silhouette. Imagine this as "removing unnecessary parts" to reduce overall size and weight similar to what race car drivers do to make their cars faster. It's a fair trade off and it even lets the players feel more like the ship is "theirs" and unique.

Encumbrance itself means little for the ships are are talking about. A CR90 with access to evasive maneuvers, astromech actions, gain the advantage and the ability to choose the defense zone it gets hit? I am not lightly using the word broken. But you just created the Whitestar Fleet for the alliance and they are gonna kill those (super)dreadnoughts and other star destroyers with pleasure. Though ironically the wording for the nightshadow coating makes this possible already anyway, as "reduce silhouette by one in combat" suggest the same. So technical you are allowing nebulon-Bs to act like fighters, but I doubt that I find a GM which will allow this to happen

I think th Nightshadow coating only reduces silhouette in regards to calculating an enemy's difficulty to attack you, not piloting checks onboard.

1) Silhouette is more than just weight. It's an abstract number that reflects a lot of different attributes about your ship and its performance compared to others. Which is why some actions are limited to smaller ships. Yours isn't just heavier, it's all around harder to maneuver.

That said, I've been brainstorming how to write up a White Star. That would be EPIC!

I think th Nightshadow coating only reduces silhouette in regards to calculating an enemy's difficulty to attack you, not piloting checks onboard.

I would assume that same as at the same time it sounds kind of legit to allow evasive maneuvers to a sil 5 ship when it has basically some form of stealth system, though it is as well kind of broken.

The main reason which speaks against this is btw that in all other cases the explicit state that it counts only in regards to attacks against you, all other checks do not even help with your own shooting. But this one downright says that in combat your ship counts as one silhoutte less, which is huge because of that barriers between fighters, light freighters and anything bigger.

Maybe that coating together with the transponder mods and the hangar attachment are the ghost attachment and explain the ability of the ship in the Rebels series. ;-)

But this one downright says that in combat your ship counts as one silhoutte less, which is huge because of that barriers between fighters, light freighters and anything bigger.

If you go with that logic, then in combat, your ship might suddenly become incapable of mounting those turbolasers...

But this one downright says that in combat your ship counts as one silhoutte less, which is huge because of that barriers between fighters, light freighters and anything bigger.

If you go with that logic, then in combat, your ship might suddenly become incapable of mounting those turbolasers...

I will remember this if I ever try to attach turbolasers to my ship WHILE in combat. And I will not rule out that this happens, because our mech is crazy enough to try …

In the end, I am going to offer the PCs the chance to "exchange" the ship for a smaller, better model. Alternatively, I can let them keep the ship but provide the ace access to a fighter that lets her engage in epic dogfights without the cost of a beloved ship.