I remember reading that like only class 3 or 4 can be selected but i cant find it in the core book. I have a player who wants to be an astromech, so my question is can he play an R2 unit? Or is he limeted to the class 3 or 4 droids which are more human and bipedal?

That was in the beta, you can play any class droid now. Have fun!

You can play any type of droid, but that doesn't mean that the book supports it. For example, your PC astromech droid won't have the ability to stand in for a navigation computer since there's currently nothing in the equipment section that would provide that (and you only get what you pay for).

They can play one, but personally the character would get pretty boring to me. Not much opportunity for fun with a character that talks in beebs, doesn't really fight, and has no real arms.

That's just me though, if you can find a way to have fun with it, more power to you.

They can play one, but personally the character would get pretty boring to me. Not much opportunity for fun with a character that talks in beebs, doesn't really fight, and has no real arms.

That hardly seems fair. Droids like R2 speak an actual language called binary. You could say the same about playing a Wookie... "Only speaks in growls" They can fight and have numerous tools that can be used as arms, including actual arm like attachments. We have one in our campaign and he is one of the best characters, he is very mischevious and the player has a great time repairing the ship and doing astrogation checks, etc.

R2 is a frigging pimp in the Clone Wars animated series! Have fun!

You can certainly play an astromech droid in this game. You could do it in the Beta too without having to revamp a whole bunch of rules in the process.

Over on the GSA, I did a Heroes on Demand entry for R2-B08, a PC Astromech that was built using the Beta rules, and he works just fine as an astromech.

As for HappyDaze's remark about "well they can't stand in for a navicomputer," as the GM I'd just hand-wave that away and say that it's included as part of the PC's character concept, provided they're a class of astromech that can do that. The R4 and R5 series couldn't, as they were designed more for household use than aboard starships, but the rest of the R-series would be able to store a number of pre-plotted astrogation coordinates. Just buy a datapad and note it as a built-in "expanded memory module" to cover the droid's ability to store all that extra data, but otherwise don't spend too much time fretting over it.

As for HappyDaze's remark about "well they can't stand in for a navicomputer," as the GM I'd just hand-wave that away and say that it's included as part of the PC's character concept, provided they're a class of astromech that can do that. The R4 and R5 series couldn't, as they were designed more for household use than aboard starships, but the rest of the R-series would be able to store a number of pre-plotted astrogation coordinates. Just buy a datapad and note it as a built-in "expanded memory module" to cover the droid's ability to store all that extra data, but otherwise don't spend too much time fretting over it.

I don't think that a datapad can stand in for a navicomputer. The common thread on droids is that they don't get any features beyond the basic Droid trait for free. This means that a PC might want to play a Vulture Droid, but he doesn't get the weapons and maneuvering drive of such a droid for free (and it's not currently covered in the rules on how to get such things either), so it's pretty unlikely that a PC can truly play as a Vulture Droid. The features of other droids are likewise not given away freely.

And how is a navicomputer different from a droid with the Astrogation skill again? I'm not even sure if paying extra for memory is necessary; the R-series player is deliberately playing to role as a skill monkey, and droid characters are already kind of gimped by having to raise their stats.

I wouldn't do it as "giveaways" to be sure, but creating an R2 Astromech could be a fun character concept. However, the skills that the astromech would need to reflect the "base droid" that one has. Modifications would be added as "upgrades" as the character progresses.

Using the stat line for a basic astromech droid, only 40 of the 175xp would be used to increase stats, while the remaining 135 could be applied to skills and talents... granted, if I were making an R2 astromech, I'd up the intelligence and cunning to at least 3... The astrogation skill, for example, would represent the droid's capabilities of a Navicomputer if used in a droid socket.

HappyDaze does make a point that there are limitations, of course, Vulture Droids are not practical as PC droid concepts... not the least of which is that like the B1 droids they are most often controlled by a central system. A vulture droid can't fit inside a Cantina, even if it is droid-friendly

HappyDaze,

The datapad remark was more for those GMs who feel that the PC astromech has to "have something" in terms of gear to allow said PC astromech to be able to store a bunch of pre-programmed astrogation jumps to have an expanded memory capacity in comparison to most other droids.

Frankly, Jshock has it right in regards to "why should the GM even make a fuss over it?" In short, don't . If the PC that wants to play an astromech has at least one skill rank in Astrogate, then simply assume that the droid's got the ability to store astrogation jumps in its memory banks by way of an astrogation buffer without making the player jump through any additional hoops simply for wanting to play a character concept that's out of the norm.

By your rationale of "well a PC astromech doesn't have any special gear that lets them function as an astromech," then the NPC astromech fails in that regard as well, since the only two pieces of gear it has are an arc welder and a built-in tool kit, with nary a mention of an astrogation buffer in the stat block.

You're quite right that the astromech NPC doesn't have any gear listed to allow it to replace a navicomputer. That seems like an oversight to me. Rather than equipment, it would have been better as a special ability, but they didn't go that route either.

I'm just hesitant to give away abilities for free because the next Droid PC might choose a model with built-in repulsorlift propulsion (or even a hyperdrive) or something else which isn't precisely covered by equipment on this game.

The only real drawback I can see for running an astromech is the lack of manipulators. Not having hands is kinda limiting. He could actually have guns , though, T3-M4 pop-style!

R5s are actually astromechs. R4s are agromechs. I'd certainly let a player subvert this by playing an R4 (if he liked the outside design) retrofitted with an R2, R3 or R5 brain.

As to astromechs not being able to fight: BS. They can have a blaster just like everyone else. No reason not to let them. "Blastromechs" are a thing in the EU, anyway, and even R2 shows himself as having extendable manipulators - not full hands, but more like clamps and the like, but things can be refitted for them. There's not even an associated cost by the RAW for that.

I think most people wanting to play R2 are looking to be the smart skillmonkey. Several Careers cater to this archetype very well.

You can certainly play an astromech droid in this game. You could do it in the Beta too without having to revamp a whole bunch of rules in the process.

Over on the GSA, I did a Heroes on Demand entry for R2-B08, a PC Astromech that was built using the Beta rules, and he works just fine as an astromech.

As for HappyDaze's remark about "well they can't stand in for a navicomputer," as the GM I'd just hand-wave that away and say that it's included as part of the PC's character concept, provided they're a class of astromech that can do that. The R4 and R5 series couldn't, as they were designed more for household use than aboard starships, but the rest of the R-series would be able to store a number of pre-plotted astrogation coordinates. Just buy a datapad and note it as a built-in "expanded memory module" to cover the droid's ability to store all that extra data, but otherwise don't spend too much time fretting over it.

One of my players chose R2-B08 as his character from a bunch of pregens and he's happy. Although I am wondering what he's going to do with all those XP.

Our party currently has a player who is running an R2 unit. It has proven interesting as no one speaks binary and he does use a droid soundboard to talk with us. He has 4 points of Intellect, quite a few skills and talents (mechanic/slicer) and acts as our primary astrogator. His lack of arms has not proven to be much of a detriment so far, however I can see us trying to convince him to install a holdout blaster at some point.

If the ship's nav computer were to be taken out of commission, I don't think it would be unreasonable to have the droid act as a stand-in computer. Depending on how dire the situation is, I can imagine the GM throwing in a setback die or two for acting as a stand-in. You could possibly justify this by claiming that the navigation and main computers had a non-standard interface or that he only has the ability to make relatively short hops at a time.

Our party currently has a player who is running an R2 unit. It has proven interesting as no one speaks binary and he does use a droid soundboard to talk with us.

You are not playing EotE? Or was it a choice to play someone the others don't understand?

They can play one, but personally the character would get pretty boring to me. Not much opportunity for fun with a character that talks in beebs, doesn't really fight, and has no real arms.

That's just me though, if you can find a way to have fun with it, more power to you.

I don't know... the guy from Darths & Droids seem to have a lot of fun playing his meglomaniac, capital-ship craving R2-D2.

Just remember rule 35 .

LOL! Good list!

Just remember rule 35 .

You scared me for a moment. I thought you were talking about the "rules for the internet" Rule 35 .

They can play one, but personally the character would get pretty boring to me. Not much opportunity for fun with a character that talks in beebs, doesn't really fight, and has no real arms.

That's just me though, if you can find a way to have fun with it, more power to you.

I don't know... the guy from Darths & Droids seem to have a lot of fun playing his meglomaniac, capital-ship craving R2-D2.

I love Darths & Droids ! It's perfect for that niche of people who love both Star Wars and tabletop RPG's. That, and they constantly give good (and sarcastic) advice for running your own RPG's. (Incidentally, that character comes to mind every time I think of an astromech PC now.)

Now there's a topic that deserves its own thread.

Our party currently has a player who is running an R2 unit. It has proven interesting as no one speaks binary and he does use a droid soundboard to talk with us.

You are not playing EotE? Or was it a choice to play someone the others don't understand?

We are playing EotE, but it was more of a choice to not understand him explicitly. He can get our attention and communicate in various ways, popping things up on datapads if we really really need to know something quickly, but it is closer to "What is it, Lassie? Is Timmy stuck in the well again?"

I think we're approaching it from the perspective that R2-D2 almost always needed C-3PO around to translate. If the Lassie routine gets tiresome and we need to get a protocol droid, we can pick one up pretty easily.

Edit: Yeah, Darths and Droids rules. Our R2 unit is an advocate for droid civil rights and carries around a restraining bolt removal tool he calls the Wrench of Justice.

One of my players chose R2-B08 as his character from a bunch of pregens and he's happy. Although I am wondering what he's going to do with all those XP.

Awesome!

You're quite right that the astromech NPC doesn't have any gear listed to allow it to replace a navicomputer. That seems like an oversight to me. Rather than equipment, it would have been better as a special ability, but they didn't go that route either.

I'm just hesitant to give away abilities for free because the next Droid PC might choose a model with built-in repulsorlift propulsion (or even a hyperdrive) or something else which isn't precisely covered by equipment on this game.

Well, how often is the ability to store a few pre-mapped astrogation routes really going to be a major factor in your games?

Just because it's pre-mapped doesn't mean the PC gets to bypass the Astrogation check to load them, but instead simply would bypass the penalty for not having a full navicomputer. They might still suffer a difficulty increase if those routes are outdated, to say nothing of any damage the ship has taken, but even under the most ideal conditions, they'd still have to roll.

In contrast, being able to hover or fly is a far more beneficial ability that's bound to come up a lot more often. So in that case, special gear would be required since it'd grant the ability to directly negate the effects of difficult terrain as well as certain instances of normally insurmountable terrain as well.

In the game I'm going to be starting I have a player who's wanting to play a hovering droid mechanic/doctor with all manner of specialized appendages--his inspiration is viper probe droid from The Empire Strikes Back . His concept is a custom-built droid designed to install black market cybernetic implants. I want to allow the hovering aspect, as I think it'd be cool and set him apart from your everyday droid, but I don't want to give him too much of an advantage.

Is hovering too big an advantage? Should I make the player purchase a repulsorlift unit, and if so, how much would such a unit cost?