I really like the idea of a combat medic, so I'd eventually like to roll a soldier with the medic specialization in Age of Rebellion. I'm currently rolling a colonist/doctor in EotE. Rather than creating an alt, will there be a way to retrain/tweak my EotE colonist/doctor into a soldier/medic when AoR comes out?

Yeah, I'd say talk to your GM about reassigning your XP! But right now, the Beta says nothing about transitioning from EotE and I seriously doubt it'd be part of the official rules. Reassigning XP/levels is something that is classically house-ruled, and different gamers feel differently about it. As long as you had a good reason (an example adapted from the Dawn of Defiance campaign is Luke Skywalker's starting as an Explorer in ANH, picking up F-S Emergent in ESB, and then transitioning to Jedi Knight in RotJ. That could be seen as a simple XP progression, or your character could have spent all the downtime in-campaign (usually a few months to a few years) actually changing careers, so that he is now no longer a colonist, but a full-blown soldier for the Rebellion.

Other than starting a new character or your character taking the medic spec, probably not. In regards to starting a new character, your GM may allow a you to recreate the character using to accumulated xp you have, if he-she is so inclined.

I don't quite understand your situation. If you want to keep your current character then you simply need to learn the Medic specialization. If you want your character to be a Soldier career character with the Medic specialization then you clearly want to play a different character. Reassigning all your XP and starting a new character is pretty much the same thing - you end up with a character with completely different skills and talents than you started with.

I would RP it as a Colonist/Doctor entering basic training with the Rebellion and becoming a soldier, while still retaining his medical background.

Sounds like picking up the new talent tree to me. Stuff like this is good character development. reworking your talents and skills is a step away from the character development your character could be going through.

Is there some rule that says someone without the specialization cannot do the job? I cant get bounties unless I am a bounty hunter? I cant be a merc unless I take merc soldier?

There is no need to 'retrain' in Star Wars. If you want to be a rebel combat medic, join the rebellion, get into a firefight, and patch people up. There is no need to even have the medicine skill, much less a specific specialization.

As the new books are produced, I would allow a grace period with each new book to allow the player to rebuild their PC with the newly available careers and specializations. It would have certain requirements...

1. The change makes sense for the character and background presented. If the only medical career in eote is Colonist / Doctor, then it makes sense to take that until the AoR Soldier/Medic was available to the group. (No beta here yet) The written background of the character must represent this from the start. The character doesn't change, simply the numbers tied to the concepts involved.

2. The amount of XP must remain equal to what has been earned by the character so far. No gifts or loans for something that the new build "simply must have".

3. The talents will likely stay the same, so they shouldn't change.

4. Skills and specs may change, but an effort must be attempted to keep the feel of the character. A colonist/doctor that grabs the mercenary spec makes a lot of sense for a medic. He doesn't have to keep the redundant specialization, but should consider a similar spec to retain the talents, skills, and other abilities.

Just keep it as simple as possible while retaining the feel of the character concept.

Is there some rule that says someone without the specialization cannot do the job? I cant get bounties unless I am a bounty hunter? I cant be a merc unless I take merc soldier?

There is no need to 'retrain' in Star Wars. If you want to be a rebel combat medic, join the rebellion, get into a firefight, and patch people up. There is no need to even have the medicine skill, much less a specific specialization.

Well I think the point is that you have to pay the out of career specialization XP cost. If you are allowed to give up your old your career for a new one, maybe with a one time XP cost, then you get to avoid the extra costs.

Guess I am lost...

A Colonist / Doctor in EotE joins the Rebellion in AoR and becomes a Soldier / Medic. Seems like a natural progression to me.

A rewrite seems silly. Remember, your character has no idea that he/she is a character sheet, or that there are other source books coming out. (bank xp)

4. Skills and specs may change, but an effort must be attempted to keep the feel of the character.

Yup, that's pretty much what I'm aiming for .

Is there some rule that says someone without the specialization cannot do the job? I cant get bounties unless I am a bounty hunter? I cant be a merc unless I take merc soldier?

As far as bounties go (the way we play it) without an IPKC you can not collect on bounties nor access (without slicing) an Imperial Database of active bounties.

As for illegal bounties, that's another story.

A rewrite seems silly.

Agreed. Buy the specialization you're missing, bump a couple of the new skills to 1 rank, and you're done. If you don't have the XP for the tree, maybe the GM will let you "borrow" it.

Makes for a better story anyway.

There's really not much need for retraining in this system, as you're not limited in the number of character advancements you can take. D&D 4e had it as a result of a plethora of WotC forum posters griping about how various new 3rd edition sourcebooks had all sorts of "cool stuff" that their existing PCs couldn't get. I saw a bit of this as well with Saga Edition, with folks lamenting at how such-and-such a feat/talent/Force Power would have been great if it'd been available when the character was made. It's actually a reason that I'm glad Saga Edition never really got the same level of in-print product support that 4e got, as it kept the overall system bloat to a manageable level (more on-line support, such as errata for all the books, would have been nice, but I think WotC pretty much gave up on Saga Edition long before the last book was released).

In the case of "hey, this is a cool specialization!", you can pretty much just save up your XP and purchase it later on down the line. It's exactly what I plan on doing with the Force Sensitive street rat that I'm playing in a friend's game in regards to the Force Sensitive Emergent from AoR Beta; I'm saving my XP and will buy into that spec at a later date, same with not buying Enhance or Foresee right off (though the later would be a cool addition to his admittedly limited power suite).

If you're really desperate to pay a Soldier/Medic instead of a Colonist/Doctor, talk to your GM and see about remaking your character much as FuriousGreg suggested.

There's really not much need for retraining in this system, as you're not limited in the number of character advancements you can take. D&D 4e had it as a result of a plethora of WotC forum posters griping about how various new 3rd edition sourcebooks had all sorts of "cool stuff" that their existing PCs couldn't get. I saw a bit of this as well with Saga Edition, with folks lamenting at how such-and-such a feat/talent/Force Power would have been great if it'd been available when the character was made. It's actually a reason that I'm glad Saga Edition never really got the same level of in-print product support that 4e got, as it kept the overall system bloat to a manageable level (more on-line support, such as errata for all the books, would have been nice, but I think WotC pretty much gave up on Saga Edition long before the last book was released).

In the case of "hey, this is a cool specialization!", you can pretty much just save up your XP and purchase it later on down the line. It's exactly what I plan on doing with the Force Sensitive street rat that I'm playing in a friend's game in regards to the Force Sensitive Emergent from AoR Beta; I'm saving my XP and will buy into that spec at a later date, same with not buying Enhance or Foresee right off (though the later would be a cool addition to his admittedly limited power suite).

If you're really desperate to pay a Soldier/Medic instead of a Colonist/Doctor, talk to your GM and see about remaking your character much as FuriousGreg suggested.

If it is simply a matter of wanting the "ooh, new shiny" specialization or some such I completely agree.

But if the written background concept would be better served (and more accurate) with a rewrite of the stats I think that it should be allowed. Story should always trump mechanics in my opinion.

As the new books are produced, I would allow a grace period with each new book to allow the player to rebuild their PC with the newly available careers and specializations. It would have certain requirements...

1. The change makes sense for the character and background presented. If the only medical career in eote is Colonist / Doctor, then it makes sense to take that until the AoR Soldier/Medic was available to the group. (No beta here yet) The written background of the character must represent this from the start. The character doesn't change, simply the numbers tied to the concepts involved.

2. The amount of XP must remain equal to what has been earned by the character so far. No gifts or loans for something that the new build "simply must have".

3. The talents will likely stay the same, so they shouldn't change.

4. Skills and specs may change, but an effort must be attempted to keep the feel of the character. A colonist/doctor that grabs the mercenary spec makes a lot of sense for a medic. He doesn't have to keep the redundant specialization, but should consider a similar spec to retain the talents, skills, and other abilities.

Just keep it as simple as possible while retaining the feel of the character concept.

This is what I plan on doing with Talley if a new career/specialization fits him better. When I GM, which is rare, but I usually set up the rules for the group GMing or not, I usually let the newbies to random game re-work their character as they might not be familiar with the rules and pick a useless ability. But after a set amount of time, I disallow it when they become more familiar with the game. And if there is a legitimate way to retrain, make even seasoned players use the rules for retraining.

Right now, Talley's a Mercenary Soldier, only because there is no Rebel soldier career. He isn't a mercenary, he's a soldier. He's always been fighting the Imperial government, and became a Rebel soldier soon after formation of the of the Alliance.

Anyways, it's really the GMs call. If they let you, then great, if not, well, play through.

I am sure there is going to be some mechanic for cross-over at some point. From what I gather looking at the AoR forums and news, the game mechanic of "obligation" appears to be replaced by "duty" in AoR. Not having a beta copy in my possession, or the finished product for that matter, I see any character transitioning from EotE to AoR as a natural progression of the story arc. Think Han Solo the smuggler gets a big stack of credits to pay off Jabba (Obligation), gets distracted and ends up in Frozen Carbonite, friends rescue him and kill Jabba. Next thing you know he's General Solo hanging out with Ewoks on Endor (Duty).