I've been Fleshing out a Privateer campaign. The premise is that the group are a bunch of pirates who have received a letter of marque from The Alliance. In return for 50% of the booty the Alliance offers full pardons for past offences, safe Harbour and travel as well as fuel, repairs and intel. Where possible of course.

The privateers have strict guidelines in who they target. Imperial and imperial aligned allies etc. Only. There are also rules of engagement. Extreme unnecessary violence is not tolerated and will result in the privateers losing their letter of marque and being cut off by the Alliance. (Basically they will have no friends and be criminals to all sides.)

Slaves must be freed and illicit drugs destroyed.

One of my first questions is on Career choices. While any could be made to fit, what careers and specializations do you think best suited. And why?

Credit for the idea framework goes to The Starwars Adventure journal from the old West end games SWRPG. Vol 1. No 2 1994

Smugglers, Hired Guns and Bounty Hunters would be all over this, without needing any kind of reason. Technicians are useful all over a ship, keeping things in working order. An Explorer with a grudge against the Empire would get a chance to see the Galaxy, and would be very helpful finding safe harbors for the pirates privateers to hide out. A Doctor would be one of the most valued members of the crew, but other Colonists might take some explanation.

I should mention that I will be starting the group with their choice of either a single capital ship like a Corellian corvette or two or three freighters or star fighters. In the case of the Capital ship I see obligation being used as a way to show the NPC crews insatiable need for more plunder. Always forcing the officers of the ship to be chasing the next big prize or face unhappy crew or even mutiny.

Pilot, Gunner, Commodore, and Mechanics. Dominating in ship combat and fixing what you break.

Twi'Lek, Pathfinder. 1,3,2,3,2,4. Influence.

Your the captain, the face, with practically no social skill ranks! Get yourself a parrot, see through its eyes. You can fly, drive and shoot a pistol. Your also going to be quick on your feet. Adding 2 Force Dice to any social check is your way of getting by.

Dabble a little in Ataru to have your Sword and Pistol combo, although you rarely use both in the same attack.

Zabrak Doctor. 4,2,2,3,3,1. Enjoys hurting more than healing, with an early XP spend on Medicine they can have 4 ranks, they know a lot about the anatomy for the purpose of inflicting pain! bring a lot of hurt using Pressure point.

Bothan Scientist Mechanic. Its much easier to capture a ship if all the occupants are already dead, so you need some way of venting the atmo of your target to space. The ship also needs repairs, so you do that, or fix up captured ships to get them back to the Alliance (or a used ship salesman )

Corellian Hotshot, your the pilot/first mate, an incredible pilot to be honest, its cheesy, it's a stereotype, but it's cool.

Thank you all! Loving the character ideas.

One thing Id like to have all the players do is start with Careers out of EoE. I want the campaign to have an overall gritty EoE feel and to utilize Obligation. However I think your suggestion (2P51) is also great! Perhaps a Smuggler has had to change his ways and lead a rag tag group of Pirates and dives into the Commodore Specialization?

This is basically the same scenario that we are currently playing in, for our Roll20 campaign.

I’m just a player and not the GM, but I find that most any EotE career is likely to be able to work in this theme.

Character motivations would need to be appropriately designed/directed, however.

One thing Id like to have all the players do is start with Careers out of EoE. I want the campaign to have an overall gritty EoE feel and to utilize Obligation. However I think your suggestion (2P51) is also great! Perhaps a Smuggler has had to change his ways and lead a rag tag group of Pirates and dives into the Commodore Specialization?

Most pirates traditionally started as legitimate mariners, fishermen, merchantmen, sailors, etc, and then ended up on the EoE side of the trax....

Actually this Droid Mechanic I made recently would fit the pirate life rather well too.

http://swsheets.com/c/s146gzrjv-hm-6t6--sixty-s

It's tough as nails with Soak 8 and 16 wounds. The concept is that heavy maintenance droids don't actually have to be amazing Mechanics, they just disconnect end of service equipment and plug new stuff in. Brawn is much more important.

Honestly you could make a Wookiee and just start with less talents, but I wanted to try a crazy idea.

I ran a similar campaign to this, using the letter of marque and everything. The one thing I can recommend is rewarding your PCs only ten percent of the total cost of each pirated vessel. 50% is going to leave them absolutely flush with cash, and create some very powerful PCs very fast.

I ran a similar campaign to this, using the letter of marque and everything. The one thing I can recommend is rewarding your PCs only ten percent of the total cost of each pirated vessel. 50% is going to leave them absolutely flush with cash, and create some very powerful PCs very fast.

If the PCs capture and resell the vehicle themselves, then obviously they should get the profit from that venture.

But if they capture it and take it to a Rebel “chop shop” to have it cut up and resold, then yeah — they shouldn’t make a whole lot.

And stolen vehicles should usually result in relatively small payouts either way — they’re clearly stolen, after all. Maybe as little as 1% of the retail value.

Of course, the Privateers are going to have to pay for repairs to their own ships. And that should take a large chunk of whatever money they make by selling captured ships.

I like the idea of a privateer campaign. Don't forget, at best, the Empire would still consider the privateers to be pirates themselves. As would pro-Imperial worlds and worlds that have a strong sense of law and order. Some of these law and order worlds might recognize the validity of their letters of marque, but only if they are pro-Alliance. And at worst, the Imperials and pro-Imperials might consider these privateers to be fully-full-on enemy combatants.

It would be a bit different, of course, if the campaign takes place in the heady days after Return of the Jedi, when the Empire is on the run and the Alliance is awash in victory. That might be a cooler time for a privateer game. The letters would mark Imperial ships as valid targets, but also real pirates and other sleemos as the Alliance is trying to bring their own order to the galaxy.

Download the free Pirates of Drinax campaign for Traveller to get ideas.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ebooks/traveller/adventures-and-campaigns/campaign-2-the-pirates-of-drinax.html

Pirates & Privateers from WEG would be an excellent resource for you. It's a d6 supplement for exactly the scenario you described.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pirates_%26_Privateers

Around $20 on Amazon currently for a hard copy or take a look at d6Holocron for the PDF:

http://www.d6holocron.com/downloads/books/WEG40143.pdf