Now, being a sentient WWII fighter plane, I have some experience with this in real life, but I was wondering, has anyone has tried playing as a sentient starfighter?

I'm not really a fan of starfighter combat in this system, but I was thinking about how it would be done:

Backstory: Eccentric engineer fitted an advanced auto-pilot system to a starfighter, and it gained sentience.
Character generation: Drop Brawn, use basic stats for droids, but instead of the Enduring talent, you get one rank of the High-G Training talent.

Other than that, you just build it like a regular character, except it's a sentient starfighter.

I seem to recall years ago when I was just a lurker on these forums there was someone who played a sentient A-Wing. Can't recall the username though, maybe if they're still around they'll see this.

I suppose you could... though the campaign would have to be carefully developed to account for it. I mean, Knight Rider is a thing...

I vaguely recall someone wanting to play a "Transformer" several years ago and the discussion about how to manage that. One big obvious is that of scale. You're dealing with vehicle scale everything, so things get weird. If you were to do a Transformers total conversion Genesys style it's no biggy as all the typical opposition will be scaled equal to you. But sending Starscream up against a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers isn't gonna last long.

1 hour ago, Ghostofman said:

I vaguely recall someone wanting to play a "Transformer" several years ago and the discussion about how to manage that. One big obvious is that of scale. You're dealing with vehicle scale everything, so things get weird. If you were to do a Transformers total conversion Genesys style it's no biggy as all the typical opposition will be scaled equal to you. But sending Starscream up against a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers isn't gonna last long.

Several years back, I was in a d20 Modern game that was a blend of G.I. Joe and Transformers (using FFG's own Horizons: Mechamorphosis splat for the later group). And yeah, the differences in scale made the game very tough for the GM to adjudicate, as combat naturally favored the Autobots given how much damage was being tossed around (the damage scale worked pretty similar to how Star Wars/Genesys operates) while the Joes got more involved in plot elements that the Autobots couldn't really interact with due to being giant robots. Neat concept, but needed a lot more work to execute properly.

To the OP's concept, frankly it'll be far less hassle on your GM if you simply narrate that your "sentient starfighter" is able to remotely operate a droid body, and use the standard rules for building a Droid PC, simply selecting a career/spec combo that accounts for most of this droid brain's functionality being geared towards starfighter operation. As long as the droid chassis is within extreme character-scale range of the ship, then no problems and the droid body operates as normal. Go outside that range, and setback dice start getting applied due to lag in communication between the fighter and the droid.

Or, have the AI simply upload itself into a specifically designed droid body (not to much different than how the battle droids were operated during Episode 1) when it needs to go do stuff away from wherever it's starfighter body is parked, though the AI can only operate one at a time.

Someone on reddit a while back was looking for ideas for competitors in a racing competition. I suggested a protocol droid that wore a scarf and talked like he was from WW2 England. He raced an Xwing, but he didn't actually pilot. His protocol droid and the droid brain the protocol droid installed into the X-wing actually co-piloted the X-wing. So in a sense it was a sentient X-wing.

So, along those lines, if you rolled a character that was actually a droid brain that was installed into a ship, I suppose this would work.

7 hours ago, Kualan said:

I seem to recall years ago when I was just a lurker on these forums there was someone who played a sentient A-Wing. Can't recall the username though, maybe if they're still around they'll see this.

I do know that Ni Fang had several loving posts about her sentient A-wing. Whether played as a character, I cannot recall.

9 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

I suppose you could... though the campaign would have to be carefully developed to account for it. I mean, Knight Rider is a thing...

I vaguely recall someone wanting to play a "Transformer" several years ago and the discussion about how to manage that. One big obvious is that of scale. You're dealing with vehicle scale everything, so things get weird. If you were to do a Transformers total conversion Genesys style it's no biggy as all the typical opposition will be scaled equal to you. But sending Starscream up against a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers isn't gonna last long.

Bruh, do you even KNOW Starscream?

A fight between him and anyone comes down to several dozen different factors, all of which could be broadbrushed into the category “does this give me leverage over Megatron.”

If you factor in that concept, those Stormtroopers potentially stand a chance.

I see this going like this: the Stormtroopers all miss. Starscream catches on fire anyway and crashes into a mountain or something.

What about using a prototype Vulture droid that has a scaled down silhouette because it’s more like a working model?

You could get some variation in play with something like that since it isn’t beholden to “flight mode” the entire time and it isn’t crazy big

1 hour ago, micheldebruyn said:

I see this going like this: the Stormtroopers all miss. Starscream catches on fire anyway and crashes into a mountain or something.

No way, Starscream retreats at the first sign of danger, THEN tries to turn his retreat into leverage over Megatron, then has to beg for mercy.

1 hour ago, Flavorabledeez said:

What about using a prototype Vulture droid that has a scaled down silhouette because it’s more like a working model?

You could get some variation in play with something like that since it isn’t beholden to “flight mode” the entire time and it isn’t crazy big

So sil 2 a little big but not excessively

I would make it a typical Droid Pilot so the PC can still bop around with the party. You could flavor it as the ship sending a drone out when not in space combat, and it speaks and acts through the drone. When in space combat, the droid/drone docks with the ship and you use its piloting stats and related talents as normal.

23 hours ago, Kualan said:

I seem to recall years ago when I was just a lurker on these forums there was someone who played a sentient A-Wing. Can't recall the username though, maybe if they're still around they'll see this.

That was Ni-Fang and the crazy reincarnated transforming A-wing ladies. I read those character descriptions, that was a glimpse behind the curtain of madness I wish I had never taken. I still haven't quite understood how a flesh and meat human is capable of splitting their arms into four arms and use four vibroblades at the same time. I can sort of understand it with cybernetics, but I can't see it happening with flesh and blood in my mind, the mind just balks at the very concept. **** prototype A-wings reincarnated as a pre-clone war sexy human lady.

14 hours ago, Flavorabledeez said:

Bruh, do you even KNOW Starscream?

A fight between him and anyone comes down to several dozen different factors, all of which could be broadbrushed into the category “does this give me leverage over Megatron.”

If you factor in that concept, those Stormtroopers potentially stand a chance.

While I don't totally disagree with this analysis, I also see Starscream as the type who would happily fight knowing he has an absolute advantage. He'd be all brave-looking and superior as long as he's got a bunch of Personal scale opponents with Damage 9 weapons doing nothing to his Armor 3 hide while he vaporizes them with his Vehicle Scale Damage 6 cannons.

Now... once the missile launchers come out...

On 10/2/2019 at 3:58 PM, Kualan said:

I seem to recall years ago when I was just a lurker on these forums there was someone who played a sentient A-Wing. Can't recall the username though, maybe if they're still around they'll see this.

That might be Ni Fang, he/she is a big fan of A-wing as far as I can tell from the forums

@P-47 Thunderbolt

Another option might be to treat the "starfighter" like a jetpack, in that when it's equipped, and activated, you have the mechanics of a ship, and move/act like one. It could be a droid that literally plug themselves into a starfighter chassis, and when hooked in, they operate just like a regular ship of that type. But when it's not equipped, it's just a powerless hull, that floats, or sits on the surface (if it's atmospheric). And otherwise the droid just operates like normal.

Though I think how this situation should be tackled, is based entirely on what the player wants to be able to do. If they still want to be able to wander around as a humanoid type PC, but also be a living ship, then the "jetpack" approach, or other options mentioned above might be viable. If they are fine with just being the ship 24/7, then I would suggest watching Farscape, for inspiration on how to incorporate a fully realized character, that never leaves the ship, even when the rest of the party is off somewhere else. Seriously, Pilot is a great character, and he had a lot more to do on the show than just fly around. Also, there is the Ship series of novels (Ship Who Sang, Ship Who Fought, etc), by Anne McCaffery, that is all about a living ship, with a person plugged into it. Like, an entire series where the main character is physically locked in a single location, but is able to do all kinds of exciting things. So I'd look there for inspiration as well.

You say you don't really like space combat, so....yeah that's kind of a big flag in my book, for playing a droid that is a starfighter as well. It really depends on the player's desires. If the concept is they are permanently locked into the starship, I would, as the GM, try to at least have a person in the rest of the party, try and have regular conversations with the PC, so the player feels engaged in the campaign. I would also try and let them be the "eyes in the sky", and make a point to introduce environmental challenges and obstacles, that make things difficult for the party on the ground, but if the starship PC can pass some various sensory related skill checks, they can guide them through the difficult terrain, thereby negating it as a problem. They can provide early warning of incoming hostiles, giving the players a chance to prepare and defend. Stuff like that. So that even if the PC is stuck in orbit, they aren't just twiddling their joystick, waiting for something to do. If they would like to be more directly involved, or if the GM doesn't want to try and split their focus, you could either just simply do the "regular droid chassis on the ground", or perhaps, instead give them some kind of sensory/scout droid to control, and talk through, while they are on an away mission. There are a lot of little "equipment" droids in this game line, that aren't sentient, but can provide a handful of tasks for a PC. I would be fine with letting them tweak one of those droids so that it has a bit more functionality, and a comms system, and basically just have them float around with the party. I would probably limit them to being combat-lite, as they are already tricked out as a starfighter, let their "away mission" form be more observational/support in concept, and go from there.

I think this concept is totally doable with a gaming group, given how many examples of the "living ship" have been popularized in sci-fi over the decades. It would just take a little front loading of expectations by the GM and the player, and an agreement on what limitations the PC would have.

The Rommie gynoid (female android) for starship andromeda

Inspired the "Raven" hrd avatar of "The Redshift Raven" (highly modified consular class) in the last in person game I ran (actually it was a "generic" hrd that got mind wiped and melded with the ship)

I had a thing for lexa doig back in the day.

On ‎10‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 1:18 AM, EliasWindrider said:

The Rommie gynoid (female android) for starship andromeda

I had a thing for lexa doig back in the day.

I always had a soft spot for this series.

And yes Lexa Doig was one reason for that^^