***WARNING*** This might be long, a bit involved, tedious, full of needless babble, and also cover some wide range of potentially unrelated material!!!
The rules for this game still sort of throw me, so I'm going to describe two character/NPC ideas, and then ask a few questions; hopefully, someone will step up, and assist in my learning more of this system? Thanks! Was thinking of splitting them into two threads, but now people can answer all my stuff in one go.
Commander Killgrave -- TIE Fighter Ace
Synopsis: So, a point of common belief, among some Star Wars fans, is that the Rebels have slightly crappy capital ships, but superior fighters, while the Empire has superior capital ships (Star Destroyers are almost seen as invincible, and we never
see
one defeated in conventional combat, in the movies), and
TIE
crumby fighters. Now, we know that this isn't entirely true, even with the inherent advantages an X-Wing might have over a TIE Interceptor, and while the Alliance will have their Luke Skywalker, and Wedge Antilles, the Empire must have their own equivalents (we just never get to see them, because they aren't as important, and it keeps the Empire faceless, soulless, and monolithic). Various sources reference "TIE Aces", even this book, but I've never seen much of one as a character, with backstory, ambitions, motives, or even a name. To that end, I wanted to slap together a Nemesis NPC a group of fighter pilots players could run into, occasionally, that would actually scare them, sort of like a Red Baron. His name is Commander Killgrave, call sign "Crossbones" and he is feared among the Alliance's pilots as the man who has killed the most Rebel personnel, barring Darth Vader. At one point, he even flew with Vader, back when the Dark Lord led fighter sorties; this is just one place where he forged his epic piloting skills. He, and Reaper Squadron (name pending), hound the Alliance, and hopefully a group of players, perhaps. Thing is, and this can ignore the somewhat unpopular space battle rules, what can I do to hammer this point home, and make him seem terrifying? I thought of giving them Defenders, my overall favorite fighter, prior to Legacy Era, but I'm hoping to not have to, keeping them with Interceptors. The 12-ship squadron could break up into three 4-ship Minion units, to be able to spread out their capabilities, against the enemy. Here come the questions:
- Among Minions- So, Killgrave would be a Nemesis (Antilles-analogue), or at least a Rival. How does he interact with a squad of Minions? Would he be part of one group? Use only the worst values? Would he be alone, and just the only target, until they shot him down? Picking him out, among other ships, visually, is one thing, but I don't know how easily they could try to gank him, among other TIE's, and how his own values work among theirs.
- Talents- I'm sort of looking at the Inquisitor, from F&D, as his baseline (what of it he'll need, when inside a fighter craft, which brings its own stats), and taking Defensive Driving 2, Situational Awareness, Field Commander, something along those lines; it seems weird for him to be challenging to a group of players, each of which might have a dozen talents, if he's only allowed two, three tops.
- Craft- I'm thinking Interceptors. Will they be good enough? I want the Alliance to dread detecting them, but preferably not through giving them TIE Defenders. I love that ship, but it almost feels like just doing it too be a jerk.
- Mother Ship- Well, I think TIEs are better than they are often maligned as being, but they don't have hyperdrives, and so they need to get around, somehow. The best of the best might demand the best ship, probably a Star Destroyer, but, much like the Defenders, I'm trying not to just go that route, and giving them a Star Destroyer for every action they are involved in. What other Imperial craft might ferry them around, big enough to carry their ships, and be of possible aide, but not so big as to be unfair, yet not too small as to get blown up, leaving the Interceptor pilots to die, in the void, as they can't go anywhere?
What would you do to make the Rebels fear this Ace, and his squadron?
Black Hat -- Chiss Slicer
Synopsis: It made me sad, the first time I saw the ad for that movie, and I wondered if they hacked my computer. Back in early Saga days, I built a somewhat more a-hole, Chiss version of the EU character Ghent. This Chiss used the name "Black Hat", as he learned Humans had once believed in magic, and "magicians" were often known to carry iconic, black top hats; what he seemed to do with their computers could often only be attributed to magic, as the Chiss was phenomenally intelligent, analytical, and knowledgeable of advanced computer technology. Back then, the Chiss had also not been named, yet, and Thrawn was the only whatever he was most people had ever seen, so he could play on the mystique. Here come the questions:
- What sort of good stuff does the Slicer talent tree give? I look at it, and it doesn't seem to throw much character stuff at me. Maybe not one of the better trees? Nothing decreases difficulties on Computer checks, Security checks, or seems to make you harder to detect/trace. Bypass might cover it, but it seems to reference Setback dice, and my perusal of the books only poorly explained how often these GM-allocated dice appear, and to what degree. I don't know how often every opposing system will have its own defensive slicer, to try and stop you, or what else is adding these black d6's, which seems to be what half the talents in the tree are there to get rid of. Not sure really how long it takes, the chances of success, or of getting caught would be; the narrative aspect seems to downplay concrete numbers, at least in this. I want to feel more like a slicer, and less like a defensive administrator, blocking the slicer.
- What other good options are there for "branching out", once you've gotten a lot of this tree? This build is more "something I'd like to play", as opposed to an NPC/obstacle, so a more "build it like a real character" angle would help. Any other good techie talents, on other trees? I accept that, in many cases, you'll draw talents from a few trees, to make a good, well-rounded character.
- How does the Holonet, or whatever Internet-analogue, work, in Star Wars? Some movies would have me believe I could hack Norad, or some other military system, from the comfort of my home, and if I bounce it off enough satellites, I might even get away from the house, before they descend upon it, looking for me. Regardless of how accurate that really is, in this game, how close to a system would you need to get, were you to be hired to steal intel from the Empire? Sneaking around, as a Chiss, might actually hurt, in this case, as they are rather humanocentric.
All right, that wraps it up, for now. Any help anyone feels like offering would be greatly appreciated. I'm still sort of hoping to try and run this, next fall, once college starts back up, but I'm still a ways from being able to even hope to. If these two character ideas can be made to work, though, I might be able to piece more together, and throw something up, for a fun game of Star Wars! Thank you very much, and also for bearing with me through the ridiculous block of text.