I really like the idea of the player characters being part of a Y-Wing squadron as their rebellion support option. How could this be made into an interesting game though? I'd hate to run a game that was just combat after combat. Where would you guys look for inspiration?

The X Wing rogue an wraith squadron books (for a synopsis, you can look them up on Wookieepedia)

If you're looking for inspiration, I'd highly recommend the X-Wing novels by Michael Stackpole and (later) Aaron Alston. In addition to being a wealth of data about the Rebellion's starfighter corps, the books also introduce concepts which are great ideas for a roleplaying group. The pilots are fully developed characters, with interesting backstories and motivations. Wraith Squadron, in particular, is a group of starfighter pilots who also specialize in commando type missions.

I hope that helps.

Don't forget that you can kick off plot hooks just by unexpected occurrences in "routine" sorties, whether patrols or strike missions or what not, or even in a fighting withdrawal due to discovery-by-Imperial-forces...

Honestly, I have no idea.

Still, there is this adventure for Trail of Cthulhu in which pilots flying over the western front in the Great War find they are sharing the skies with Cthuloid beasties.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102142/Trail-of-Cthulhu-Flying-Coffins?filters=0_0_10146_0_0

It is an odd sort of scenario. I guess an adaptation to Star Wars might be that (spoilers) the galactic civil war has spread to a little travelled region of space that is home to a species of extradimensional beings (something like the Shadows from Babylon 5). One of the opposing pilots has an old family symbol painted on his fighter, that, unknown to him, is an ancient Sith sigil that attracts the beings and binds them loosely to his service.

As these mysterious beings start taking a heavy toll on friendly forces and the enemy pilot is driven slowly insane by his new companions, the PCs must figure out what the heck is going on and put a stop to it.

The X Wing rogue an wraith squadron books (for a synopsis, you can look them up on Wookieepedia)

Agree, these are excellent sources.

Wraith squadron stories are more varied and have a nice mix of ship combat and ground pounding action. Think the A-Team. Mr. T didn't just drive the van and Murdock didn't just fly the helicopter.

There have been some other great ideas in this post, I'll add a few more:

Scouting missions to find new weapons the Empire is building

Locate a new Rebel base (exploring a new planet) Some vehicle fights can be against the native creatures.

Recovering a downed pilot (rescuing a 'canon' character)

Delivering top secret data

Being sent on a diplomatic mission as escort, mission can go horribly wrong by design (starting scrawl)

There can also be missions where the party is sent out to scout and not be seen. Just because you are in a snub fighter, doesn't mean you have to fight everything.

Imagine the players were sent out from Yavin to find a suitable base. Or map out a quick escape route and rendevous point from Hoth, etc. Be creative. Don't be afraid to take the fighter pilots out of their fighters. They could dock with a bulk freighter and have to pilot it back.

Even if there is a lot of combat, it doesn't have to be imperials. Pirates, etc. Y-wings have ion cannons. perhaps the players have to capture an enemy ship.

My favorite mission for my players back in the D20r days was grocery shopping. PCs in fighters disable an Imperial cargo ship with ion cannons, then a shuttle with the techie and gunbunny PCs clear out any security, get the power back and jump the ship to a rendezvous point after slicing the transponder.

Good time had by all.

I have wanted (for the past 15 years) to run a game about four Y-wing pilots souping up their own snub fighters and planning their missions. That said, I never considered the two-seater variety, which should allow more variety in the PCs' skills even if they want to focus on being fighter pilots; You just need one with a decent Pilot skill to buddy up with someone who has focused on Gunnery or similar. Otherwise they could just be a commando or scout or farmboy doing their main mission.

I'm just picturing the opportunities for secretly engaging the Empire as a small team of operatives... racing back to camp with crucial intel, pulling the camo tarps off the Y-wings, and escaping the planet to attack the hidden Imperial faciliuty in a nearby asteroid belt. Or jumping between barely-explored systems in a pirate-infested frontier looking for a reclusive mercenary group to recruit for the Alliance. Or just being chased out of a shadowport and through a starship graveyard when you're double-crossed by a contact.

On the other hand, I'd like to see being part of the crew of a small cruiser/corvette as a ship option, maybe including old short-range fighters like Z-95s. A more mobile option than the planetary base, but that's for another topic.

On the other hand, I'd like to see being part of the crew of a small cruiser/corvette as a ship option, maybe including old short-range fighters like Z-95s. A more mobile option than the planetary base, but that's for another topic.

Well, what's the very first thing we see in Star Wars after the "episode" roll and the starry background? A CR90. I'd go ahead and suggest one with a Retrofitted Hangar Bay (2 of the CR90's four hard points), maybe with two of the five possible additional maximum silhouette capacity mods... if that's +5 silhouette per mod, then at "total silhouette of 15" you've got enough to carry five fighters...

On the other hand, I'd like to see being part of the crew of a small cruiser/corvette as a ship option, maybe including old short-range fighters like Z-95s. A more mobile option than the planetary base, but that's for another topic.

Well, what's the very first thing we see in Star Wars after the "episode" roll and the starry background? A CR90. I'd go ahead and suggest one with a Retrofitted Hangar Bay (2 of the CR90's four hard points), maybe with two of the five possible additional maximum silhouette capacity mods... if that's +5 silhouette per mod, then at "total silhouette of 15" you've got enough to carry five fighters...

Given the Tantive IV model is due out late this year or sometime next year you won't be alone with that idea!

Just note: According to Leland Chee, the corvette that appeared in Episode III was retconned to be Sundered Heart , NOT Tantive IV .

I should look into the hangar mod info a bit more, though ultimately I'd like to see FFG write up a starting ship/base entry for sharing a corvette. I could see it working well for introductory or one-shot adventures, where the group wants to plan less around their choice of ship and more about the GM's initial adventure hook. Ideally the ship would have its own crew to handle general tasks and while its captain would be an NPC his 'mission' is simply the PC's mission and he's just there to ensure the crew gets them to the requested destination.

It's definitely something I want to test out, especially compared to the challenges of obtaining travel when using a planetary base. Are the PCs expected to charter a ship every time or call a favor, or are there rules/guidelines for calling in Alliance transportation? I'm going stir-crazy without the beta...

Just note: According to Leland Chee, the corvette that appeared in Episode III was retconned to be Sundered Heart , NOT Tantive IV .

I think Copperbell is referring to the CR90 model being released for the X-Wing mini game, rather than anything relating to Episode 3.

It's an extremely accurate model no less, which was often incorrectly represented by a shortened profile diagram in many books. And yes, the corvette from Episode 3 was originally suggested (by material outside of the movie itself) to be the Tantive IV but that was dropped due to extreme structural differences and is now listed as a CR70.

I should look into the hangar mod info a bit more, though ultimately I'd like to see FFG write up a starting ship/base entry for sharing a corvette. I could see it working well for introductory or one-shot adventures, where the group wants to plan less around their choice of ship and more about the GM's initial adventure hook. Ideally the ship would have its own crew to handle general tasks and while its captain would be an NPC his 'mission' is simply the PC's mission and he's just there to ensure the crew gets them to the requested destination.

It's definitely something I want to test out, especially compared to the challenges of obtaining travel when using a planetary base. Are the PCs expected to charter a ship every time or call a favor, or are there rules/guidelines for calling in Alliance transportation? I'm going stir-crazy without the beta...

Just note: According to Leland Chee, the corvette that appeared in Episode III was retconned to be Sundered Heart , NOT Tantive IV .

I think Copperbell is referring to the CR90 model being released for the X-Wing mini game, rather than anything relating to Episode 3.

It's an extremely accurate model no less, which was often incorrectly represented by a shortened profile diagram in many books. And yes, the corvette from Episode 3 was originally suggested (by material outside of the movie itself) to be the Tantive IV but that was dropped due to extreme structural differences and is now listed as a CR70.

Yes I was referring to the mini and the Corvette from the original although you caught me offguard about the Sundered Heart that I didn't know!

Well you learn something new every day around here!

Another thought on this option is that Y-Wings don't have navicomputers. Would the group also have to be given an astromech droid for each ship?

I'd have said you need a small army of techs to keep a starfighter running.

You see all the ground crew dudes running around in the takeoff scenes in Star Wars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KdFvZr0Lc

(Incidentally, here is a possibly not accurate list of the number of man hours of maintenance a selection of modernish military aircraft need per hour of flight:-

Saab Draken.- 50
Eurofighter....- 9
F-14............. - 24
F-18E/F........- 15
Saab Gripen..- 10
C-17.............- 20
F-15A/B........- 32.3
F-15C/D........- 22.1
F-16A...........- 19.2
F-117...........- 150 (pre 1989)
F-117...........- 45 (after improvements, post 1989)
CH-46E........- 19.6
CH-46E........- 27.2
CH-53D........- 24.8
CH-53D........- 27.9
F-20.............- 5.6
A-6E............- 51.9
F/A-18C.......- 19.1
B-2..............- 124

So for every hour you flew an F-14, you needed two techs working on the beast for twelve hours. I expect a high performance starfighter needs much the same.)

So yeah you need a bunch of astromech droids, but that is a drop in the ocean for what it takes to keep a fighter squadron operational.

Another thought on this option is that Y-Wings don't have navicomputers. Would the group also have to be given an astromech droid for each ship?

That seems to be the idea, but one interesting alternate option I've seen in Saga's Starships of the Galaxy was the option of a limited navicomputer; it took up no attachment hard points ("emplacement points") and was only 500 credits but could only store two jumps' worth, to a destination and back. (" Some limited navicomputers have a greater memory capacity, but these are rare and more expensive ." (SotG p. 42))

In contrast, from what I've read an astromech droid might be able to hold as many as ten jumps or more, while a regular navicomputer (the ones that every EotE CRB starship except a starfighter has "Yes" for) is the 'as many jumps as the narrative dictates' one.

I really like the idea of the player characters being part of a Y-Wing squadron as their rebellion support option. How could this be made into an interesting game though? I'd hate to run a game that was just combat after combat. Where would you guys look for inspiration?

The Y-Wing is ubiquitous enough that their presence isn't in itself proof of rebel allegiance.

Many are in local worlds' defense fleets, a few are private, and a large portion are rebel - but not a few are Imperial as well.

Therefore, it can be used as just a mode of transport - at least as long as one remembers not to wear alliance uniforms.

Of course, one could also do like one of my players did in a WEG game... strip out the Torpedo Launcher and replace it with a few long term amenities.

Further, such a squad can be instead a group of alliance troubleshooters. Their R2 unit allows them coordinates, and the GM to limit the flight options, while the ubiquity means it won't be an instant red flag (unlike an X-Wing, B-Wing, or A-Wing).