Hey there,

After immersing ourselves in FFG's X-wing game, and running a campaign in that system in which all but a "GM" player took the role of Rebel pilots (starting at 21pts and getting points for kills, mission completion, etc.), there's a murmur in the RPG ranks to have a campaign powered by EotE where the players take on the role of pilots for the Rebellion. This brings up a few questions:

1. Is there a resource that shows the timeline of events, from the signing of the Alliance charter (at the end of Force Unleashed), to say 20 ABY?

2. When would you suggest starting such a campaign within that timeline. I was thinking of putting the PCs as TIE fighter pilots, mirroring the stories of Rogue Squadron pilots who are ordered to bomb their home planet, defenceless people, etc. This would tip them over the edge as far as serving the Empire and convince them to defect. Hopefully…

3. What considerations need to be given for creating characters using the Beta rules? Should each character be given (or be required to take) at least one rank in Pilot (Space)?

4. Anything else I'm missing? Any other thoughts?

Cilionelle said:

Perhaps they are initially hired pilots who get caught up in the cause or see the potential for wealth from a needy group in need of pilots. Maybe they are part of a planetary defense force (from the planet or hired contractors) who witness a terrible act done by the Empire and must flee from them. Or maybe they just like those new X-Wings in the hangar and want to take them for a spin.

1. Wookiepedia

2. For the Galactic civil war (0ABY, to 4 ABY) you could start out as mercinaries, or starting out a rebel cell in an area that does hit-and-runs on Imperial shipping. after 4ABY, you can be a formal Allaince/New Republic squadron going after imperial reminants, or sympathizing governments.

3. I prefer the Wraith Squadron for this concept, everyone can be trained as pilots, but also double doing commando style raids on hardened targets or getting intel.

4. I really don't know EotE does well for space combat, it is so abstract and narritive, you don't have the joy of being able to bring a target into your sights with some fancy manuvring and also having the situational awarness to change tactics based on the fog of war.

I think Imerpial pilots defecting is highly unlikely and represents a very small minority of rebel pilots, especially any that would get into Rogue Squad. I think it would be MUCH more likely that pilots from independent & freedom loving planets/sectors like Corellia join the rebels to SPITE the Empire and see the Alliance as best hope of accomplishing their goals.

How has the rise of the empire started to impeed their freedom? How as the Empire made their day to day lives more difficult?
Example: More taxes/duties/inspections/boardings. Rude officers, blockades, paperwork, license fees, new 'contraband' conficasion, etc.

What is the final straw that makes them want to join the rebels?
Did the earn the comtempt of a high ranking Imperial officer? Did they act out and resist Imperial law or kill someone? Are they tax evaders on the run?

I support recommendations of starting your players out in a more underworld style origin. While Imperial defection is pretty common among Rebel heroes it really doesn't let you play with the features of Edge of the Empire as much. Make them mercenaries protecting trade ships or permanently employed by a trade organization. Make them ex or even current pirates. Make them members of a planetary defense force as MrOver1ook suggested. Make them smugglers who lost their ship to Imperial agents and just barely avoided a trip to Kessel. Or grab several of those stories, deal them out to your players with obligations to match and away you go. The Rebellion was never too picky about who's help they'd take.

Concerning the timeline, you can go to Wookieepedia as suggested for an online source, but if you like a physical book for reference:http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Chronology-Star-Wars/dp/0345449010/

As for where to start, I'd suggest after the defection if going "Rogue" or after whatever significant event has brought your rebel pilots together. It would be even better if you could start them off in an action scene, and then fill in the back story after.

thanks for the ideas. it looks like this will be going ahead, but in a story-driven way.

tonight our regular RPGers played one of the last missions in the ongoing X-wing Minis Game campaign. our squadron, a Rebel Alliance one made up of a mixture of different ships and abilities, was tasked with protecting Centrelight station in the Qalydon System. Unfortunately, the TIEs overwhelmed us (we took 12 of them out before the station was destroyed) and Centrelight was lost.

what followed was a series of attacks designed to thin out the TIEs based on the carrier Broodmother. Some were successful, others… less so, and a number of the squadron's pilots were injured severely. Finally, the chance to take the Broodmother came - she docked with an Imperial supply station. the squadron split in two groups, one tasked with drawing off the fighters, the other given the job of striking the carrier herself. despite the successful diversion (we're still waiting on the bombing run…), three pilots were captured by Imperial forces, and another was killed. the final two - one escaped the battle, flying an A-wing, the other is still missing in action, presumed dead.

our RPG story will kick off with a Rebel sympathiser aboard whichever vessel captured the pilots helping them escape. we're not sure yet on the outcome of the whole mission - the final part will be on Friday night - but it seems like a great place to make the transition!

That sounds like such a cool way to transition from one game to another. I kinda wish I was part of the game, I'd love to see how it turns out

Hope it goes well!

First off, very cool idea, as for your third question there are a lot of ways to do that.

Pilot space and gunnery are going to be the two most important stats for combat pilots. Both go off of agility. Now there are no skilled only skills in EOTE so if a player doesn’t want to put points in one just say that they know the bare basics but not enough to be actually good. Rebellion is outclassed enough that it’s not unbelievable.

Other important skills would be vigilance (willpower) and Cool (presence) for initiative, Mechanics (Intellect) for boosting shields and if the gm allows it repairs, Astrogation ( Intellect) to get from point A to point B, Computers (intellect) to jam coms, slice systems, and spoof missiles, and Perception (cunning) to scan the enemy.

Key specialization is obviously pilot but other good choices can be Mercenary soldier since they have a really good leadership based action they can buy, Mechanic and Outlaw tech for personalizing the ship, and probably anything that has quick strike in it.

Hope that helps a bit.

If you are using X-wings, and Y-wings. Don't forget the R2 units. It can be fun to have each player with an R2 NPC they can level up to help them in combat.

if they are using the 2 seater Y-wing they can have an NPC with them to help

This rekindles my desire for a future supplement that helps translate EotE space combat into X-wing rules for a more tactical based combat session, and would be ideal for a 18 1st or Rogue Squadron campaign.

I found the X-wing minatures game too simple for my tastes. Not much manuvering and more about how much damage you can do. Secondly It is hard to convert a skill based system into something like a board game which does not have much differance betwean the skills of pilots. Lastly, EotE has it being more abstract so the gameplay does not get bogged down in too much detail.

One time in a game where someone was trying to do all these fancy manuvers with his ship, not realizing he hadn't even gotting into range yet.

Rather convert Blue max for star fighter combat. That way each ship has differant manuvering charateristics, each rank opens up more manuvers or can make you "Stall" an opponent to gain an advatage

Yes, the simplicity to speed ratio is the trick, and yes, the visual reference is a requirement. If anything moved slower than X-wing, it would be intolerable for my group.

That game you suggested, kinnison, looks interesting.