I want to make pilot cards for myself and my brother as a surprise for him. I wanted to think up of abilities myself, but I was unable to because I'm too busy to think as the school year is coming to an end. I am curious to see if anyone had any ideas for pilot abilities.

My brother loves bombers such as Y-wings. He is also fond of Firesprays. When we play Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, he always flys around the edges of the battle to pick off enemy fighters, unless there is a giant ship. A lot of times he ignores guidance from me to do things his own way. Is there any way to reflect that as an ability?

As for myself, I love good old X-wings. I enjoy attacking enemy ships in straight dogfighting, parallel to my brother. Most of my decisions are the result of me reacting. Are there any abilities that could reflect that?

Thanks for any help you can give.

I made some pilot abilities a while ago. I have to get to bed, but I'll try and post them tomorrow. Naturally, they don't necessarily reflect the player personalities you're talking about, but maybe you'll find them interesting.

I have made pilot abilities but not bombers ... hmmm ...

What about:

After you perform an action on an upgrade, you may preform a free barrel roll.

But word it better ...

If he likes flanking and turning into a fight, something like, "After executing a Turn maneuver (any speed, either direction), acquire a free target lock on an enemy ship within your firing arc at Range 3". That rewards his playstyle and encourages him to plan his maneuvers with some more forethought.

If you want your abilities to synergize, then yours could have an ability like, "When a friendly ship at range 2-3 aquires a target lock on an enemy ship in your firing arc at range 1-3, assign both friendly ships a focus token." These could allow you to head straight into the fray, and capitalize on both of you converging on a target.

Okay, here are the abilities I've come up with.

When performing a boost action, you may use the [2-bank left], [2 forward], or [2-bank right] template.

You may perform the same action more than once during a single round.

When attacking, you may change 1 of your [focus] results to a [hit] result. (Opposite of Luke Skywalker’s ability.) I intended this for Jango Fett's Firespray

When defending, if there are no other friendly ships in Range 1-2, roll 1 additional defence die. (Opposite of N’Dru Suhlak’s ability)

When attacking or defending, you may change 1 of your blank results to a [focus] result. (Play on Poe Dameron’s ability)

When defending, you may receive 1 stress token to add one [evade] result to your roll.

Enemy ships cannot spend focus tokens when attacking you or defending against your attacks. (Play on Carnor Jax and Omega Leader’s abilities, OP?)

When defending, you may reroll 1 defence die.

16 hours ago, AwesomeJedi said:

My brother loves bombers such as Y-wings. He is also fond of Firesprays. When we play Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, he always flys around the edges of the battle to pick off enemy fighters, unless there is a giant ship. A lot of times he ignores guidance from me to do things his own way. Is there any way to reflect that as an ability?

"All friendly ships on the playing area count as being at range 3 of you for the purposes of friendly upgrades and pilot abilities"

Oddly specific - it means he can wander through the middle of a fight and keep lone wolf active, but it also means that only range 1-3 abilities (not range 1 like ahsoka or range 1-2 like cracken) can either give him bonuses or receive bonuses from him. However however, if you have a range 1-3 ability (like kyle katarn), he can benefit from it anywhere on the board.

16 hours ago, AwesomeJedi said:

As for myself, I love good old X-wings. I enjoy attacking enemy ships in straight dogfighting, parallel to my brother. Most of my decisions are the result of me reacting. Are there any abilities that could reflect that?

Head on assault is easy; "when you reveal a straight maneuver, you may acquire a target lock on an enemy ship within your arc of fire". Intensify. Forward. Firepower.

You could really embrace his fondness of going against the grain or what others are doing with an ability like:

Condition Card (Opposites Attract)

Assign this card to a teammate. As long as you and the teammate with Opposites Attract do not perform the same actions in the current round, you may both change 1 blank to an eye. (Or a hit/evade if you wanna get crazy)

Thanks for all of your input! Here are the resulting cards (the ones we use will be much higher quality):

My brother's card

My card

Here is the rest of Maverick Squadron:

And here is an alternative version of my card with my "Star Wars" name: