Each Core Rulebook will be compatible with one another, and yet will also stand on its own.

There are already topics on these forums dedicated to speculation about the contents of the next Core Rulebooks, including Age of Rebellion.

My question is rather a hypothetical one: if it was your job to decide what careers make it into Star Wars: Age of Rebellion, what would they be?

Edge of the Empire obviously already has some iconic (and off the beaten track) careers implemented: the Bounty Hunter, Colonist, Explorer, Hired Gun, Smuggler, and Technician.

What comes next?

Here's my prompt to anyone who feels up to the task ...

(A) Name 6 career concepts you think should be present in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion.
(A-1) Any ideas for Specializations?

(B) Which ones would you be most interested in? How likely do you think it is that these career ideas will make it in?

I've been able to come up with 4 ideas that I think would fit and then got stuck:

1.Soldier (A brave combatant who fights on the front lines)
Specializations: Commando (a deadly raider), Trooper (an enforcer of law), Starfighter Pilot (a master of aerial combat)

2. Spy (A master of intrigue and sabotage)
Specializations: Double Agent (a duplicitous master of manipulation), Saboteur (an infiltrator of strongholds and destroyer of plans), Infochant (an information broker and informant)

3. Leader (A natural ruler and mover of events)
Specializations: Officer (a military commander and strategist), Freedom Fighter (a paragon for a political cause), Executive (a corporate administrator)

4. Industrialist (an intellectual pioneer and resourceful builder)

Specializations: Arms Dealer (a maker of weapons and armor), Chemist (an adept in biological experiments and medical research), Inventor (a wily creator of gadgets and devices)

5. ?

6. ?

"Soldier" and "Spy" seem like a given and would provide Age of Rebellion flavored alternatives to the play-styles of EotE's Hired Gun and Smuggler.

"Leader" to me encompasses iconic character inspirations like Gran Moff Tarkin, Admiral Ackbar, Princess Leia and aspects of Lando Calrissian a bit better than EotE's Colonist would.

The "Industrialist" would highlight a new crafting mechanic that isn't explicitly spelled out in Edge of the Empire. There are references to creating new items in EotE, and FFG has stated this was put in as a kind of "forward compatibility" consideration, so there's a chance we could really see a career like this (but I'm just speculating). Anyone who likes playing Technicians but wishes they were coming up with new items instead of modifying and fixing existing ones would like an Industrialist.

I would also tentatively suggest "Jedi Padawan" as a Universal Specialization, based on statements from FFG that you could create a Force Sensitive Exile in Edge of the Empire, develop that character further in Age of Rebellion, and finally be a fully fledged Jedi in Force and Destiny.

Thoughts?

"Pilot" as a career would be a strong candidate, although not sure on the Career title. A couple specs would be "Starfighter Ace" (you know that starfighters are going to be a big deal in AoR) and "Freighter Pilot" (the Pilot spec for Smuggler kinda covers this already, but as each book is meant to be stand-alone...). Not sure about the name for a third, though it could focus on capital ship battles or just larger-scale starship battles.

For the third "Soldier" spec I'd think "Marine" who are experts on boarding actions (both initiating and repelling) with some dabbling in starship combat (mainly firing the big guns) would be a better option than a starfighter pilot spec. As for the ones you listed, I'd think "Commando" would be more "covert strike force", being not so much a raider but a combat pro with some infiltration skills (but not on the same level as the "Spy" specializations) while "Trooper" would just be a straight-up combat grunt focused on dishing out damage and making good use of their armor and terrain to not get vaped.

As for the Force-based Universal Specialization, I don't think we're going to see anything Jedi just yet. Going by the video that FFG offered up, it seems that Age of Rebellion is going to focus more on the grander-scale combats, military structure, and similar themes. Plus, anything Jedi added to a book other than "Force & Destiny" is going to pull a lot of the focus away from the other material for a lot of people. I wouldn't be surprised if we simply see a reprint of the Force Sensitive Exile and Force Powers from EotE, but more than likely I think we'll see an "educated" Force-Sensitive spec that's not a full-blown Jedi but not the "self-taught savant" either.

"Pilot" as a career would be a strong candidate, although not sure on the Career title. A couple specs would be "Starfighter Ace" (you know that starfighters are going to be a big deal in AoR) and "Freighter Pilot" (the Pilot spec for Smuggler kinda covers this already, but as each book is meant to be stand-alone...). Not sure about the name for a third, though it could focus on capital ship battles or just larger-scale starship battles.

Perhaps a planetary based pilot. Like Walker pilot or speeder pilot? Still a pilot, but not a space pilot.

Perhaps a planetary based pilot. Like Walker pilot or speeder pilot? Still a pilot, but not a space pilot.

Quite possible, with the "freighter pilot" idea I suggested being replaced by the "larger-scale starship battles expert" spec, since Smuggler/Pilot really does cover "tramp freighter pilot" quite well already.

I expect that we will see some sort of Noble/Diplomat either as its own career or as a specialty. Princess Leia, Mon Mothma, the late Bail Organa, Queen Amidala, former Imperial Senators, etc. I could even see Lando Calrissian fitting in to this type with a bit of stretching.

Capital ship pilot would be a good specialty, as would ground pilot.

Soldier and spy are definite musts, and I think some sort of technical focus character.

I figure it would mirror any other Military we know of:

Infantry (ground troops) snipers, heavy weapons specialist (cumbersome weapons), demolitions, medic, sweeper

Navy (bulk cruiser pilots) silouette 5+ pilot, tech, gunnery specialist

Air/pilot (planetary pilots, vehicles) land speeder pilot (snow speeder etc), At At walker pilot..

Black ops (spy, mole) assassin, intelligence officer, disguise specialist

I could see a few of the EotE careers crossing over into AOR but with talent tree variations that are specific/specialized towards military equipment ships etc.

Hmmm... this is tricky...

Class: Trooper

Specialties: Commando - Your purely combat oriented character

: Combat Medic - A soldier with front line medical expertise

: Sniper - A soldier focusing on long range/artilery.

Class: Combat Pilot

Specialties: Squad Leader - Think Wedge, being in command of Rogue/Wraith squad with lots of leadership talets geard towards giving allies in fighter formation a bonus

: Fighter Ace - All the pure starship combat bliss you could want. "Do a barrel roll!"

: Blockade runner - A pilot for all transport whether wheeled, legged, tracked or flying, designed to keep people on his ship alive, and behind enemy lines. Stealth, and speed focused talents.

Class: Support Technician (better name needed of course)

Specialties: Procurement specialist - you want an imperial shuttle? Give me a couple of weeks. They get you the stuff you need for a mission. Sometimes through proper channels, sometimes not so much.

: Prototype tester (better name needed) - the person who makes all kinds of new gear, ships, what not. The A-Wings were designed by someone after all.

: Fleet Mechanic - a character that is really good at repairing all the damage that the rest of the party inflicts on the poor fighters. The type of character who said "Just leave the plating off the y-wing.. I'm sick of removing it after you fail to do a barrel roll."

Class: Operative

Specialties: Recruiter - someone has to look for the new pilots.. sometimes deep in imperial territory

: Saboteur - Focusing on debilitating enemy assets, whether through explosives, or finding the weakness in giant space stations.

: Spy - When you need someone to get you those plans for a giant space station, or to find out when and where the Emperor is taking his vacation.

Class: Freedom Fighter - Not everyone is a battle hardened soldier.. some people are just folk

Specialties: Backwater Farmer - The empire took your land, and you want it back

: Noble - An idealist that wants to bring back the glory days of the republic

: Tramp Freighter Pilot - knowledgeable in the hyperlanes, and they type of character that people tell things to. Not to mention, with the holonet for military use, someone has to relay all the news. Or find a nice remote planet to hide a base on.. just don't make it too cold.

Class: Officer

Specialties: SecForce leader - Different from a squad leader, they are responsible for running a whole operation, whether keeping a base hidden, to keeping those under them in line - after all, there's always going to someone who has a personal grudge against the empire, and is a bit to hot-headed to look at the bigger picture

: Liason - A character that is linked to othe rebel cells, and as such has many contacts for information and jobs

: Crewman - Knowledgeable in running and commanding the larger vessels of war.

Now, a lot of my ideas are based on my hopes that the powers that be give us mass combat rules. My dream is that the book has a mission creation guide (or a few mission dossiers to choose from) and that accomplishing certain goals is like rolling your skill/attribute dice. Base modifier based on rebel cell power (attribute die) upgraded by complete mission objectives (Profiency die) Vs. Failed mission (challenge) and enemy Power (difficulty).

Also, a lot of talents for many of the class ideas I propose will be based leadership, such as running a starfighter squad, or rebel cell.

As to the force, we'll get reprints of all the major powers, but rather than the Force Sensitive Exile - who tries to keep a low profile, we will get the Force Sensitive Combatant - a character that uses the force in combat, having it guide his shot, such a way that they don't need targeting computers, etc. Basically augmenting abilities somewhat. My example is Kyle Katarn before he found out he had the force, and stole the Death Star plans.

There's a lot of great ideas here I like better than mine.

The more I think about it, I think Im having trouble coming up with 6 career examples because I've been way too narrow with the Soldier concept. This is a military-centric book so there needs to be more than one pure combat career.

Soldier

Spy

Diplomat

Tech Spec

Pilot

Insurgent

Pilot*: Shipdriver, Fighter Jock, Bridge Officer

Soldier: Infantry, Armor, Artillery

Technician*: Engineer, Gunner, Information Technologist

SpecOps: Sneaker, DemTech, Spy

Support: Medical, Administration, Analyst

Agent: Law Enforcement, Recruiting,

* same class as in Edge; different specializations

I was thinking the same thing about re-using careers, especially Technician.

Pilot is not a career, though, it's a specialization within the Smuggler career.

Soldier

Spy

Diplomat

Tech Spec

Pilot

Insurgent

Since I have a few more minutes now...

Soldier: Commando (heavy arms), Vanguard (sniper/scout), Officer (light arms and leadership)

Spy: Agent (jack of all trades, like James Bond), Inflitrator (stealth with some tech), Codebreaker (or something similarly tech-focused)

Diplomat: Negotiator (focus on impacting the enemy), Champion (focus on impacting your allies), Noble (focus on stuff/wealth/acquisition)

Technician: Just bring the whole danged thing over but replaced Slicer with some sort of bomb/demolitions expert

Pilot: Starfighter Ace, Squadron Leader, Cap Ship Crewer

Insurgent: Recruiter (social skills and item acquisition), Freedom Fighter (light arms and some tech), Guerilla (melee and stealth)

I've skipped other responses above for now so they wouldn't influence me.

There are 6 classes in Edge of the Empire, so I'm assuming for now there will also be 6 in Age of Rebellion based along similar jobs.

Bounty Hunter becomes Agent. Specialties include Spy, Saboteur, and Diplomat?

Colonist becomes Leader. Specialties of Commander, Politician, and Noble.

Explorer becomes Pathfinder. Specialties of Scout, Scrounger, and Contact/Recruiter?

Hired Gun becomes Soldier. Specialties of Sniper, Commando, and Guerilla.

Smuggler becomes Pilot. Specialties of Snub Pilot, Speeder Pilot, and Capital Pilot.

Technician becomes Support Troop. Specialties include Mechanic, Slicer, and Medic.