This just popped into my brain and I wanted to throw it out there for you all to muse upon.

Every fighter in the game has Elite Pilot Skills available for mid-level and higher PS pilots, as well as Unique Abilities. These offer benefits based on a given pilots skills, experience and innate abilities. All of them are beneficial, if not always useful. They all cost points (either built into the points cost of a "Unique/Named" pilot/fighter or paid for as an Elite Pilot Skill card).

But what about those "other guys"? What about pilots with unique traits/quirks? How about some not-so-useful traits that cost negative points? In other words, you would get points back (a rebate) for choosing these quirks or handicaps. This is not that unusual in role playing games and could add some fun in this game as well.

Examples:

Slow Reactions (-2) "Reduce the Evade value of this ship by 1 point, to a minimum of 0."

Predictable (-3) "An enemy ship at range 1 with a higher PS than yours may forfeit their Action to reset your maneuver dial 1 maneuver left or right"

What a Piece of $#!% (-2) "Draw a random damage card; your ship begins with the effects printed on that card, as if a Critical Hit"

Stressed Out (-2) "Extended combat can take its toll on the best of pilots. When you perform a Green maneuver, you do not automatically remove a Stress token; instead, roll an Evade die, on any result other than (blank), the Stress token remains"

Blue Falcon (-1) "When an enemy ship could target your ship and another at the same range, it MUST target the other ship" (kind of the reverse of Draw Their Fire)

Those were just some ideas I threw out there, the points vales are totally made up to illustrate my point.

What other Quirks/Traits/Handicaps can you think of?

1. Unique pilot Quirks? (Negative Unique Traits)

2. Handicaps? (Like the reverse of Elite Pilot Skills)

This is meant more for $#!ts & Grins, rathwer than anything serious. In other words... just for fun!

Chris

intersting idea. more for campaign players perhaps but i like it.

Like the idea. Not sure about Blue falcon, would make me want to stick the card on all my expensive ships, and have them fly in formation with a bullet shield.

Here another idea.
Faulty engine (-2): When you bank or turn, roll an attack dice on a hit or crit, the bank is turned into a forward or on a turning it is changed to a bank of the same speed.

What a Piece of $#!% (-2) "Draw a random damage card; your ship begins with the effects printed on that card, as if a Critical Hit"

Cool Idea!, this is going right into a mission for next week at my group.

The battle is over both sides suffered heavy damage and most ships are in critical condition, depleted ammo, worn and damaged. Your mission is to destroy their last resources, this will give the enemy no chance in recovering. Be wary though, your final resources are in danger as well...

Aftermath engagement, destroy the last resources:

All ships draw a face up damage card before deployment and only suffers its effects (not the initial card damage).

After asteroid placement, each side places 3 markers (or containers out of the falcon box) on their side. 2 containers in range 1, 1 container in range 2 and 1 container in range 3.
The container is immobile and has:

0 Attack

1 agility

1 hull

3 shields

The side that destroys the opponents forces or all of the opponents containers first wins.

Nice idea. The points are something to talk about...

Slow Reaction should be a forced reroll on a successful evade die.

Blue Falcon isn't a drawback, more the the other way round... it's like every ship in your squad becomes a Biggs for your Superfighter (a loaded Wedge, or B-Wing with heavy load)

I had a similar idea for campaign play. I had some moral rules for particularly intimidating named pilots and "unwinnable" scenarios and a lot of them had to do with that. Some other ones I had:

Lack of sleep- start the game with 2 stress tokens.

Damaged ship- Start the game with one less shield/hull

Damaged Engine- use x dial instead

Cowardly- when your squad leader is destroyed your next maneuver must be a speed 2 or 3 away from the the ship that killed your squad leader

Jedi Hunter (we had force users)- if you can fire at a ship with a force using pilot, you must target that ship

Blue Falcon certainly doesn't seem like a drawback to me. You put it on what ever ship you want targeted least and it becomes an anti-Biggs.

For "Predictable" I'm thinking about a ship that would NOT have a hidden dial. Set the dial during the planning phase and set it down face-up instead of face-down; if you change it during the phase your opponent can change any or all of his dials afterwards. A less costly penalty would have the dial turned up at the start of the movement phase, an automatic hit as an Intelligence Agent, which gives the enemy less ability to react to that information but still would have it out there.

I could see a "Tired Pilot" who may not be able to shake Stress with green maneuvers.

Drunken pilot (-3) ... after revealing the dial, roll a defence die. On 'evade' select the opposite bearing.

Faulty Power coupling (-2) ... critical hits with your primary weapons have to be rerolled

I like this

Being a Blue Falcon is never a drawback for the Blue Falcon.

This is a great idea.

Awesome idea

Would be fun just to try it out

Nice idea. The points are something to talk about...

Slow Reaction should be a forced reroll on a successful evade die.

Blue Falcon isn't a drawback, more the the other way round... it's like every ship in your squad becomes a Biggs for your Superfighter (a loaded Wedge, or B-Wing with heavy load)

Yeah, thought of that after I posted. Need to limit it somehow... but, yeah... it is basically Biggs-like. How would we keep it a "negative"? What about him possibly adding Stress to friendly ships to increase his evade, etc...?

Some others I just thought of:

Thruster Malfunction (2)- "When revealing a White Turn or Bank maneuver, roll 1 Evade die, on any result other than (blank), rotate the dial to the other maneuver (left Turn becomes a left Bank, left Bank becomes a left Turn, etc...). Pilot may overcome this effect by treating it as a Red maneuver"

Worn Out Engines (2)- "Overdue maintenance has resulted in your engines not performing at peak efficiency. When executing your highest speed maneuver available, treat it as a Red maneuver (if it is already a Red maneuver, place TWO Stress tokens on your ship)"

Sabotage! (3)- "Saboteurs have secretly damaged your ships. GIVE THIS CARD TO YOUR OPPONENT, once per game, they may play this card, forcing you to re-roll ANY/ALL your dice (Attack or Evade)"

That last one actually brings up the idea of EVENT cards that could be purchased when building squads. They could be played at various points in the turn sequence and have a variety of effects. Example:

Ion Storm (2)- "strange astronomical forces are affecting your systems. Every ship (friendly and enemy) MUST roll 1 Attack die and compare the results as follows:

(Crit) = ship suffers the effects of being Ionized-place an Ion token on your ship (place two if a large ship)

(Hit) = ship loses any TLs

Just more food for thought.

Chris

For "Predictable" ... A less costly penalty would have the dial turned up at the start of the movement phase, an automatic hit as an Intelligence Agent, which gives the enemy less ability to react to that information but still would have it out there.

I like that suggestion better than the first one... its easier to figure out just where/how it fits in the regular turn sequence.

Chris

EVENT CARDS FTW!!!

we must have event cards *drools*

What is the idea behind the "Blue Falcon?" I don't get the reference so knowing what type of thing to look for would make it a lot easier to find an alternative that could actually be seen as a penalty instead of a major boost. As written you'd fly Blue Falcon on Howlrunner every chance you get.

How about this one?

"Falling Apart" Whenever this ship is hit/suffers a critical/dealt a (face-up) damage card all (allied?) ships within range 1 suffer 1 damage (or alternatively suffer an attack of X dice). Effectively turning hits on the ship into "splash" damage.

I really am not sure we need a lot of those items, those skills are why we have replacement pilots, you only make the mistake 1 time and then bye.

hmmmmmm ...

Fat Pilot (-5) - You constantly have to eat and thus no actions at all.

Thanks for bringing this up Chris!!! These sound awesome....out Bothans are downloading your plans now....

hmmmmmm ...

Fat Pilot (-5) - You constantly have to eat and thus no actions at all.

Well, make it a unique and call it Jek Porkins

What is the idea behind the "Blue Falcon?" I don't get the reference so knowing what type of thing to look for would make it a lot easier to find an alternative that could actually be seen as a penalty instead of a major boost. As written you'd fly Blue Falcon on Howlrunner every chance you get.

How about this one?

"Falling Apart" Whenever this ship is hit/suffers a critical/dealt a (face-up) damage card all (allied?) ships within range 1 suffer 1 damage (or alternatively suffer an attack of X dice). Effectively turning hits on the ship into "splash" damage.

For those that are not in the know... "Blue Falcon" is a colloquial term common in military circles (well, at least in the US military). "Blue Falcon" comes from the initials "BF" which is short for "Buddy F*&%er". A Blue Falcon is one who does something in his/her self interests, usually to the detriment of his/her friends (or "buddies"). The point of this negative trait is that a pilot with the "Blue Falcon" trait may perform some sort of action that works to his benefit but screws someone else on his team. The difficulty here would be to write it so that it does not come off as an overall benefit to the team, as has already been pointed out.

Chris

Thanks for explaining that Chris. I guess the problem here is that "Falcon" is usually associated with a specific YT-1300 and while I'm sure there are plenty of military types who understood the reference there are many of the rest of us who don't.

Sorry to say this but the "perform an action that benefits me but screws over one of my teammates" idea is neutral at best but most likely needs to be seen as a positive. Especially from the point of view of the one taking/using it. To me the ONLY way it would not be a benefit to your overall team is if YOUR OPPONENT CONTROLS IT. You play the game as a commander with the overall goal of having a strong team and let's be honest, if you have someone like that on your team you usually don't want him or to do the best to minimize him. MAYBE if you're opponent picked which ship something like that goes on (possibly even one of his own!) it could have a negative point cost for your team but it wouldn't if you fully control it.

Maybe it would need to be something like this:

Blue Falcon: At the start of the battle (but after ship placement) your opponent chooses where to place this card.

"When an enemy ship could attack your ship or another at the same range, it MUST attack the other ship"

This basically means your opponent gets to pick the target he wants to fire at LEAST and then has an excuse not to. "Here Luke, I'm not going to be shooting at you if I have another target anyway so have this and I'll spend my time shooting down Wedge." As opposed to "Here Wedge, have this so I can't shoot at you but instead have to shoot at Luke. Never mind I can't hit him and you'll chew me to pieces while my attacks all wiff." This is a big example of why using such a thing is something your opponent would place granted there are times the choice would be far less obvious.

Y-Wings and Shuttles don't get EPT. Sorry mate.

Y-Wings and Shuttles don't get EPT. Sorry mate.

So, sue me! I wasn't trying to be authoritative, just tossing out an idea that I found humorous and thought others might like to share in my insanity*.

* In all honesty, I am not "really" insane (not certifiable, at any rate).

Fly easy, mate!

Chris

Looking back on something mentioned. Having an ability that lets a ship increase its evade dice by penalizing an allied ship with a stress token is NOT a drawback. Take a look at Jan's ability and tell me that's a drawback. I'd also point out there is nothing saying a ship can't have multiple Stress tokens; just look at Tycho for a while.