Okay, so starting a new campaign in another week or so and the players are having a bit of trouble making decisions to reflect the idioms they've thought up. First one should be pretty easy:

-One player wants to be Doctor Ball, M.D. It's a terrific idea, and I wish to facilitate it. Since the droid rules are so simple, I would suggest that an Imperial Interrogation droid also be handled as silhouette 0 in combat and that it would not be required to perform additional maneuvers to cover difficult terrain. I trust her not to abuse these powers, but should they incur any extra cost at character creation? Thinking something minimal at best, like 5-10 experience at most.

-Someone else has an idea for what sounds like some kind of ronin lawman. He plays a lot of nice guys, but thought it would be fun to play the typical calm negotiator who, owing to some past trauma, is prone to dispensing cold "frontier justice". Going to suggest he start with marshal and branch out to scout, enforcer, or politico- but are there any other suggestions?

-Last, someone would like to do a prideful nobleman- essentially Charles II the big weird alien. He's mostly set on starting with politico and taking talents from the antagonistic side of that tree, but he'd like to gain access to some melee talents as well, to reflect his skill with a dirk and smallsword. Is there any easy way to do this? (Because we could go full on difficult and write up our own "Useless Nobleman" talent tree.) He tells me that a lot of the melee professions do not mesh well with his ideas for the character. And last... which alien race would look best in a tailcoat and powdered wig? I'm thinking Duros, but...

Thanks in advance.

Droid idea is fine, a few xp or none, I don't think it matters all that much personally.

I think by the time the Marshall has all of what that spec can offer the PC will likely change their mind and want to focus on something else anyway.

The Politico is just going to have to bite the bullet and decide whether they want to move into a melee focused tree or not, there is no real socially acceptable way to stab people.

The politico could look in to Performer. There's some good social and defensive stuff in that tree as well as access to the Melee skill.

-Last, someone would like to do a prideful nobleman- essentially Charles II the big weird alien. He's mostly set on starting with politico and taking talents from the antagonistic side of that tree, but he'd like to gain access to some melee talents as well, to reflect his skill with a dirk and smallsword. Is there any easy way to do this? (Because we could go full on difficult and write up our own "Useless Nobleman" talent tree.) He tells me that a lot of the melee professions do not mesh well with his ideas for the character. And last... which alien race would look best in a tailcoat and powdered wig? I'm thinking Duros, but...

For species I recommend a Gran. They are definitely "weird" and have a good Presence score, their only weakness is Cunning. Not awful in a melee fight. They also get a free rank of Charm or Negotiate.

...there is no real socially acceptable way to stab people.

True. He's implied that this character comes from one of those Shakespeare planets where it IS socially acceptable to stab people, but we've got to think of the galaxy at large here. However, "foreign ways" that clash with the norm makes for potentially entertaining situations. Should be pretty easy to get him to stick with the mean side of Politico for now and branch into something truly meaner later. Good to hear your take on it.

...and thanks, Kaosoe- would never have thought of Performer. I'll mention that to him.

I would suggest Assassin as a second tree for melee. It'll give him Stealth also which could come in handy, and the only talent in the whole tree that is limited to ranged weapons is Sniper Shot. Assassin seems appropriate for a "subtle" combatant. I strongly recommend a vibrorapier as a main weapon.

For species I recommend a Gran. They are definitely "weird" and have a good Presence score, their only weakness is Cunning. Not awful in a melee fight. They also get a free rank of Charm or Negotiate.

You can bet we're doing Paired vibrorapier/dagger with this one if we can afford it at character generation. Assassin is a pretty cool idea, too. Not sure if he's even planning to go the stealth route, but we'll see. Gran, huh...That might work.

The Politico could also go Nemoidian. They're well know for being "flamboyant" dressers.

-One player wants to be Doctor Ball, M.D. It's a terrific idea, and I wish to facilitate it. Since the droid rules are so simple, I would suggest that an Imperial Interrogation droid also be handled as silhouette 0 in combat and that it would not be required to perform additional maneuvers to cover difficult terrain. I trust her not to abuse these powers, but should they incur any extra cost at character creation? Thinking something minimal at best, like 5-10 experience at most.

Generally speaking, I think the “Hoverer” talent is probably worth just 5XP, if it’s tied to a suitable character concept. Your “Dr. Ball, MD” would be a perfect example of a good concept to go along with this talent.

On the off-chance that somebody on here doesn't know Dr. Ball MD, here it is:

Thanks for sharing. Never heard of Dr. Ball. It's funny.

On the off-chance that somebody on here doesn't know Dr. Ball MD, here it is:

OH NO! I forgot to link that in the first post. Thanks for carrying this team, derroehre.

...and thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Hopefully the players and I will get this all hashed out next week. (Ha! Does it ever go that smoothly?)

The Politico is just going to have to bite the bullet and decide whether they want to move into a melee focused tree or not, there is no real socially acceptable way to stab people.

I'm away from book and I don't remember clearly - was it the politico or entrepreneur that had the "Take two non-career skill and turn them into a career skill"? If the guy wants to go stabby-stabby without the +5 point XP Tax, grabbing that talent might be the way to go.

The Politico is just going to have to bite the bullet and decide whether they want to move into a melee focused tree or not, there is no real socially acceptable way to stab people.

I'm away from book and I don't remember clearly - was it the politico or entrepreneur that had the "Take two non-career skill and turn them into a career skill"? If the guy wants to go stabby-stabby without the +5 point XP Tax, grabbing that talent might be the way to go.

Politico, the "Well Rounded" talent.

If he's really going to focus on the whole dueling thing, you can re-skin the GunSlinger into a melee specialist with no brain-strain at all... just swap Melee for Ranged: Light (and keep him/her restricted to Dueling style weapons...).

Charmer is also pretty good if he's going for the charming Noble as opposed to the Rich Bastard.

Lastly - as for affording the paired VibroRapier and dagger - dude, that's what Obligation is for. Family heirloom that someone else wants? Story hook. Stole daddy's ceremonial blades and now he's pissed? Story hook. Bought it at the store? meh...

Oh yeah... as for the droid. Just give them the Hoverer talent and call it good. They're going to have enough to deal with (just try getting some guy in a bar to take you seriously without whipping out your laser scalpel) as it is...

And if they are actually an old Imperial Interrogation droid, well... again with the Obligation, man. I see that coming up ALL THE TIME.

-Last, someone would like to do a prideful nobleman- essentially Charles II the big weird alien. He's mostly set on starting with politico and taking talents from the antagonistic side of that tree, but he'd like to gain access to some melee talents as well, to reflect his skill with a dirk and smallsword. Is there any easy way to do this? (Because we could go full on difficult and write up our own "Useless Nobleman" talent tree.) He tells me that a lot of the melee professions do not mesh well with his ideas for the character. And last... which alien race would look best in a tailcoat and powdered wig? I'm thinking Duros, but...

Instead of using the EotE pool of careers, I'd skip over to AoR*, there are far more choices that would fit a nobleman type. You could use the Diplomat:Agitator, which has the full antagonistic set of Talents from Politico, and flesh it out with selected talents from the Recruit** tree.

Or you might pick up the Lead By Example book, and take a Figurehead, also fleshed out with Recruit. The only talent for Figurehead that is at odds with EotE is Positive Spin, but we just rewrote it to remove setback on Negotiation.

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* you do not need to run an AoR character with Duty, Obligation works just fine.

** you don't need a skill to be a career skill in order to take ranks, so picking up Recruit if you just want Melee isn't worth it. The break-even point is 4 ranks of Melee, which is plenty, and you might be able to pick up Melee from something else like Spy:Infiltrator (which could mesh well with a Diplomat)