In our party we determined that Ti'mouth'ca the Archaeologist and Tark the Outlaw Tech had been hired by the same Institute to recover an ancient relic called the Eye of Rodia. (Sponsorship Obligation).

Jad the Duros Pilot was on the run from the Empire and he needed technical help so he teamed up with Tark and Ti'mouth'ca.

Eldo the Doctor hid on board their ship to evade some bounty hunters.

Together the group discovered HK-6 rusting in a jungle and reactivated him.

Now they fight crime! Actually they're still on the run and trying to track down the Eye of Rodia.

Our group of Noobs just finished the Sa Nalaor adv.

Smuggler Pilot (Thats Me) Gunslinger (2 guns one for ea. of ya) / Pilot Badass

Smuggler Scoundral (Face of Org. / Negotiator)

Chiss Slicer (Computers expert)

Driver

Droid Hired Gun (Our Big Gun w/ a Blaster Carbine)

Fun group though I dunno why she picked Driver when they had me, but whatever, she has survivalist stats so that is useful.

No Medic but then again that is what finding medbays are for.

I'm curious about how all these teams formed.

My group was hired on to man the ship.

Our Ex-Imperial Scout and the Bounty Hunter were in the employ of the Hutt holding the Slicer's mentor captive. The Droid was tagging along with the Slicer in a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Hutt hired our now disappeared pilot, bought the Krayt Fang for cheap, placed the rag-tag crew together to go assess an off-world mining operation, and collect the first round of payments. The mine is no longer there.

They are a combat heavy group and made quick work of all the enemies...

I notice a lot of combat heavy groups. Haven't seen any stories yet about people just settling down on a new planet and trying to make a living or something. There's hunting to be had, and bandits can attack villages too. You can have the equivalent of a village away-team that goes to more developed worlds to gather supplies.

This is exactly what we have going on except that the planet / system is well on its way. We are having a real difficult time getting our feet under us. Lots of well entrenched bad guys have already set up shop and don't like us to much. However, we recently got our ship and hopefully things will get better. Now if we could just get weapons and a hyperdrive, we will be in business.

This is exactly what we have going on except that the planet / system is well on its way. We are having a real difficult time getting our feet under us. Lots of well entrenched bad guys have already set up shop and don't like us to much. However, we recently got our ship and hopefully things will get better. Now if we could just get weapons and a hyperdrive, we will be in business.

Kill off someone important that the group likes and use his death as an excuse to go into all-out vigilante war with the local criminals. If the locals are grateful, they give what you need in return and maybe your politico becomes the village's ship captain - if you want to tie yourself to that place.

Maybe even have your own Seven Samurai scenario (*my eyes shine hopefully that this will happen for my group*) where you drive out the local thugs and they return to lay seige. You guys can fortify the village, use the ship as a turret, and have it out with the bandits until things are resolved.

That is kind of where we are going. We have stepped on enough toes that a certain criminal head took a hit out on us. We have his name and it is game on. After we clear up our current 'mission' we have plans to do some reconnoitering of this guy and take care of business. We all agree that we are going BIG on this, so as to send a message to the other bosses in the area.

Since we play a very starved economy and don't have much in the way equipment and materials to work with, our GM is working on rules for dropping large 'junk balls' from a speeding yt and rules for other things that we have discussed.

The group is about as well-rounded as you can get given the we have one person for each career.

Daven Quint: Male Human Smuggler (Pilot): Face/Co-Leader

Vess Thune: Female Human Explorer (Trader): Face/Co-Leader

Shorrwic: Male Wookiee Technician (Outlaw Tech)

Tarc Hann: Male Twi'lek Bounty Hunter (Survivalist)

Onaro: Male Rodian Hired Gun (Bodyguard)

Key'la Serik: Female Bothan Colonist (Doctor)

Gilded Dawn: YT-1000 Light Freighter

I read out there in the forums that someone said slicers are "weak sauce," I personally don't find them that bad considering their realm, although the tree is a bit werrd, but it occurs to me that most GMs like to keep things physically engaged. Does anyone here have problems using slicing in their games?

Haven't used slicing too much so far, but 20+ years of "The Decker Problem" in Shadowrun tells me it certainly could be an issue.

It's been 3 sessions since we got the new player who happens to be playing a slicer character. Haven't had any major issues. He's been pretty busy doing slicer stuff for the group and had some pivotal moments.

I find that about half the crying about things in the forums is usually from people who are theory-crafting their game experience and have not actually played the thing they are crying about.

Aside from their Talent tree being awkward to progress through, I don't anticipate any weak sauce or other issues with the slicer in my group.

I read out there in the forums that someone said slicers are "weak sauce," I personally don't find them that bad considering their realm, although the tree is a bit werrd, but it occurs to me that most GMs like to keep things physically engaged. Does anyone here have problems using slicing in their games?

Not at all. A slicer would be busy at my table. There's an Engineer Scientist who has computer skill without talents so he gets it done, but it is still used.

I agree the talent tree is awkward. I'd like to see the tree reworked a bit with perhaps an EW focused ship combat talent, in addition a forgery talent of some kind for fake IDs, key cards, credit chits, etc. Not that all of that can't be done house rule but I think it would just increase the career's appeal.

I read out there in the forums that someone said slicers are "weak sauce," I personally don't find them that bad considering their realm, although the tree is a bit werrd, but it occurs to me that most GMs like to keep things physically engaged. Does anyone here have problems using slicing in their games?

It all depends on the game and how far the GM is willing to step outside the parameters of the adventure they are running.

Frankly, any specialization can be "weak sauce" if the character is put into an adventure where they don't have room to shine. Even a Trandoshan Marauder with a tricked-out vibro-ax can be utterly gimped if that character is stuck in a diplomatic adventure where causing even the slightest amount of bloodshed means the adventure's goals can't be met.

I think with Slicers part of the issue is that some GMs aren't sure where to draw the line as to how much the PC can do with a Computers skill check. We've all seen movies and TV shows where "Hollywood Hacking" is in full effect, with the computer-savvy character performing amazing feats by simply hitting a few keys on the keyboard. There's also the matter that the specialization tree enforces a strict limit on how a character can progress once they start looking past the initial row of talents, and that a couple of the enforced talents are very situational and could very well never come up during the course of a campaign, But in order to get to the meat of the tree, the player is stuck having to take those not-so-useful talents.

My games tend to be much more action-orientated, but then again I've not had a PC in any of my games that was focused extensively upon being a slicer, so it's not something I've really had to deal with.

I GM a group of spacers and outlaws who have recently commandeered a Wayfarer-class. We ran the Beginner Game, but I let them create their own characters and I changed Trex's ship to a Wayfarer (I think it's super contrived to be flying around in a YT-1300). They see themselves as good people (mostly), and they feel they only resorted to piracy because they absolutely had to. They couldn't bring themselves to kill Trex, but they also knew they couldn't let him go. So they've been keeping him locked in one of the cargo holds for the last week, throwing in water and raw meat once or twice a day. This is going to culminate in something very fun soon. They haven't changed the transponder to the Wayfarer yet, and they're currently docked in Formos fixing it all up. Haven't even given it a new name yet.

KLINK-- Male Human Survivalist-- An ex-bounty hunter who gave up his profession when his home planet of Alderaan was destroyed. Captain's the Wayfarer and seeks to bring the Empire to justice.

CADWUN-- Male Duros Pilot-- An eager Duros with an unhealthy obsession for space travel. He goes land crazy if he stays on any one planet too long, and his Obligation can only be settled if he visits as many planets as possible. He's easily smitten by Rodian girls, which is a fun roleplaying schtick that organically came up while we ran Trouble Brewing. He's an ace pilot and has grown very fond of the Wayfarer, although he does think that they don't spend enough money on modifying it.

KIZAN-- Male Falleen Scoundrel-- The face of the group. He handles any financial issues and transactions that the group needs, and he usually tries to find a non-violent solution to most confrontations. He's a well-known black marketeer, and the Empire has put a high price on his head. Regularly uses his powerful pheromones to influence friends and foes alike, and sort of operates as the shadow captain of the Wayfarer.

BROOKE-- Female Human Mechanic-- A genius runaway who sold out her Rebellion-sympathizing parents to the Empire in exchange for cash. She sees nothing wrong with the New Order, and in fact thinks it can give the crew a ton of business, potentially. She has fallen deeply in love with the Wayfarer and spends all of her free time fixing it up and cleaning up all of the "reptile mess."

AZALUS-- Highly Modified and Self-Aware Super Battle Droid-- A B2 that has been around since the days of the Clone Wars, somehow avoiding both the shut down of the Trade Federation and memory wipes by any of his owners. He has developed individuality and a strong sense of purpose, seeing himself in a position to liberate his fellow droids. He's modified himself with inlaid armor plating, a vibro-axe built into his right arm, and (very recently) a disruptor pistol in his left. He's the muscle of the group, but very single-minded. If he senses even the slightest hint of droid oppression (restraining bolts in particular), he will stop at nothing to see the droids freed and their slave masters killed. The group has come to rely on him very heavily to deal with any combat situation.


We're having a great time with this game. They're working for some hunts, taking bounties, and pirating ships. It has a very Fire Fly-esque feel to the whole game, and I love it. Very glad we bought it.

I GM for the former crew of The Sleheyron Sloth, a big fat Gozanti Cruiser... Before they "let" Jawas disassemble it on Raxus Prime.

We started the campaign with their group being a street gang in an Alien Protection Zone on Coruscant. They had to pick sides in a 3-way turf war between a small-time Hutt, an ambitious Black Sun Lieutenant, and the Empire itself. They sided with the Hutts, and proceeded to blast their way into power, taking over the district's Casino and former Black Sun base of operations. Now they work for Soujilk, a small-time Hutt based out of Sleheyron, who gifted them their ship, the before mentioned Sleheyron Sloth.

Which they then lost.

Now they are the crew of the Sting, a YT-2400 (with a glorious black/yellow wasp-themed paint job) which they stole from the Yiyar Clan (They had fun in Beyond the Rim).

Sil'ius

Male Twi'lek Scoundrel/Pilot

Operates as the face of the group, typically. Also the pilot and often referred to as the 'Captain'. Thinks he's very, very smooth.

Rial

Male Trandoshan Marauder

The group's soakmonster. Now an established Prize Fighter on Sleheyron, he earns his keep/living/Jagannath Points by punching things in the face in various locations. Power hungry, greedy.

Tarp

Male? Mon Calamari Mechanic/Slicer

The repairman/computers guy for the group. Tarp fixes the ship, hacks into computer systems, and is constantly accompanied by SIX, his malware-ridden Security Droid (who constantly informs him about single Mon Cal women in his area.)

Nair

Male Nautolan Assassin/Gadgeteer

The shooster. Shoosts all the things. Also fairly good at planetary piloting, and has enjoyed winning/placing in a few swoop races.

RETIRED - Ri’akt

Female Togruta Doctor

Originally from their Invisec, this togruta was the doctor/chaotic good of the team. But she started to hate everyone's greed and malice, so she left to open a clinic on some backwater world, to be replaced by:

Iliara (Core Name)

Female Chiss Big-Game Hunter/Doctor

Found on Cholganna, stalking Nexu for the exotic pet trade, with a ship damaged by a harsh jungle landing. Hired into the crew of the Sloth to help them track through the jungles. Has found appeal in the hunting of people, lately.

Also forgot, the Chiss kept two Nexu cubs and has been raising them as pets. Last we asked, their names were Mittens and Nebuchadnezzar, but I somehow am not certain those are their final names.

As a crew, they are equal parts greedy and suspicious. Everyone could be out to ruin them, and everything is a trap (As our Mon Cal points out frequently). But overall, they are good at tracking down leads, following trails, and making solid plans. They've raided prison barges, taken control of a district for their new boss, and regularly engage in no good. Currently, they're involved in a man-hunt across the galaxy.

They're a blast to GM for, and they always find the most creative ways to solve problems.

Tarp

Male? Mon Calamari Mechanic/Slicer

The repairman/computers guy for the group. Tarp fixes the ship, hacks into computer systems, and is constantly accompanied by SIX, his malware-ridden Security Droid (who constantly informs him about single Mon Cal women in his area.)

RETIRED - Ri’akt

Female Togruta Doctor

Originally from their Invisec, this togruta was the doctor/chaotic good of the team. But she started to hate everyone's greed and malice, so she left to open a clinic on some backwater world, to be replaced by:

By "retired" do you mean the character is no longer played or is a character in retirement?

Both really. The character is no longer played, and her story reason was that she retired to go run a clinic.

Tarp

Male? Mon Calamari Mechanic/Slicer

The repairman/computers guy for the group. Tarp fixes the ship, hacks into computer systems, and is constantly accompanied by SIX, his malware-ridden Security Droid (who constantly informs him about single Mon Cal women in his area.)

Male? 'Cause its a trap?

I never made that connection. Had a good 2 minute lol at that.

Edit: Should clarify. It reads "Male?" because the player once described his character as 'being one of those fish that changes genders' and occasionally describes Tarp repairing the ship in Daisy Dukes. So no one is really sure what Gender Identity he(?) subscribes to.

Our group is...

Chiss Demolistionist/Heavy (Baddrick) *big muscle tuff guy, has mutten chops beard and smokes big cigars*

Human Gadgeteer (Ghost) *Token gun fightting female*

Human Colonist/Scholar (Doc) *Imagine if House was more of a pycho, but still a good guy. With cannibalistic tendencys... He doubles as the cook. We fear for our lives when eating on the ship*

Human Fringer (<enter name I can't spell>) *Pilot, our knows things guy*.

It's an interesting crew to say the least. Not pro Rebel or Empire.

Any pro-empire campaigns out there?

The last campaign my group did was interesting....

My character was a Twi'Lek who had been locking a cell for 20 years since the Clone Wars, and was desperate to find his family. He ended up turning to the Empire for help.

Which ran into problems because we had a Duros on our crew that was a straight up Rebel Agent.

And a droid Bo'Marr monk assasin pacifist zealot who kind of went insane and (literally) started a Jawa Cult and raised an army.

That campaign was awesome.

Any pro-empire campaigns out there?

Sort of...

My new campaign is set immediately following the Battle of Endor (but with a much more costly victory on the part of the Alliance). The PCs will begin far from Endor, however, as a group of Guild Bounty Hunters. They are legal operators within the Empire rooting out criminals on the run and recovering stolen property. The House they work for avoids contracts on Rebels, but the PCs don't know that initially, nor do they know why (the House uses its hunters as information gatherers for the Bothan Spynet).

This means that the group often supports the Empire, but more precisely they work to support 'the common good'. While they expect to be paid, 3/4 have Motivations that are more than just being greedy mercenaries (this was something I required after my last game spiraled into PC depravity). As the game goes on and the Empire starts showing more and more strain, the PCs will have to decide what they want to do.

My group just got a second ship. While this seems largely a response to the non-showing of our pilot, having two ships feels like it could get complicated fast. Anyone else running multiple vessels?

Briefly, its not as complicated as it sounds. Its much the same as having multiple people walking down a street, since flying a ship isn't much more complicated. To keep them together, I let my players 'link' their Astrogation results so their jumps were in sync. After that, it was just a matter of two pilot action/maneuver sets, rather than just one. Which actually made things remotely more interesting.

The only concern is if your party loves splitting up, but thats only if you're uncomfortable describing the events of two different locations.

My group just got a second ship. While this seems largely a response to the non-showing of our pilot, having two ships feels like it could get complicated fast. Anyone else running multiple vessels?

My group managed to capture a marauder corvette from an enemy mercenary group while they were in the middle of a war zone. It got shot up pretty badly on their way out and the previous owners of the ship successfully sabotaged the weapon systems to blow. So currently it is just their mobile base that they dock their light freighter to. One player jokingly wants to call the corvette "The Crushing Debt" b/c of the amount of credits it will take to get it back to full operational strength.

The only real change I forsee in the upcoming season is that things will be more "Star Trek" in that they take the corvette to the area they want to go and then the Away Team goes off in their original ship (light freighter). This partly helps explain when certain players are absent (which happens a lot due to RL with my group) so the absent person can be aboard the corvette in orbit or whatever. Close enough to catch up but not having to explain why they're on the small ship with the rest of the group yet doing minimal actions since I don't particularly like to run people's PCs for them when they're absent.

I just started GMing with the following in our party:

Human Bounty Hunter - Gadgeteer

Human Technician - Outlaw Tech

Wookie Hired Gun - Mercenary Soidier

Droid Bounty Hunter - Assassin

We are due a fifth player who has said he wants to play a Human Technician - Slicer. They believe in making things difficult fro themselves...

My player's PCs.

Bob "BB" Baine - Human Outlaw tech. A secretive old man ("41 isn't old, ya darn kid!") who maintained battle droids for the separatist during the Clone Wars. After a few years dodging Imperial task forces looking for CIS remnants, he ultimately settled down in Mos Espa on Tatooine and started a repair shop. He was quiet happy with his now relatively quiet life until a simple repair job on a old YT-1000 ended up with him back in space and with a bounty on his head. Usually played as a grizzled old mechanic, highly suspicious of everyone, but generally congenial when someone is willing to pay for his services. Loves tinkering with everything and making 'improvements' on things that catch his interest, with or without the owners permission.

Tar`quin Eyan - Twi'lek Pilot. A young twi'lek that was extremely fortunate to be taken in by a older "merchant" on Ryloth in his formative years after losing most of his family to a slaver raid. The old Twi'lek smuggler taught young Tar'quin the ins and outs of shifting "high demand" products and, more importantly, how to handle a ship. Now that the old boy has went into semi-retirement, Tar'quin has taken over the smuggler's old YT-1000 "Ryloth Sunset" (a bit of a joke since, canon be damned, Ryloth is tidally locked.) After setting down for a shipment and minor repairs, all looked to be going well until a crazed gunman stormed aboard and demanded they takeoff immediately. Played as a friendly and generally optimistic being. Definitely the peacekeeper of the group as he attempts to keep BB and Cale from killing each other and other beings. Tries to be as upstanding and honest as his 'profession' allows, but definitely has a mean streak when slavers become involved.

Cale Doma - Human Merc Solider. The past 7 months have been complete hell. Caught up in anti-imperial sentiment after the truth over what happened to Alderaan began to leak out, he made contact with a Rebel cell on his homeworld of Ord Mantell. After that, things went bad. His first operation was busted in its first week and what was left of his squad made a run for near-by Tatooine in hopes of losing the Imps, but to little avail. Cale managed to make it into an escape pod before the freighter they were on was blasted apart and has been run ragged the past month by the pursuing imperial forces. Running out of options, he stormed a hangar in Mos Espa to commandeer the ship inside, forcing the ship's pilot and a local repair man to take off and dodge the Imperials in orbit. Played as short tempered and generally snappish. He takes pride in his rather straight forward skill set, but maintains a huge chip on his shoulder about the Rebellion abandoning his cell while making sure the brass got away.

OWO-73 "Pratfall" or "Prat" - OOM Security Droid Bodyguard (NPC). An old OOM security droid picked up from a scrap heap and repaired by Bob. It's new mission in 'life' is to protect the "Ryloth Sunset" from all intruders which seems to entail a distressingly large amount of things, both sentient and not. Fairly hopeless with a blaster, but actually handy with his truncheon which he uses with much gusto. Named after the fact OWO-73 is rather hopeless at physical tasks of any complexity and usually ends up on the ground when his processor starts working faster than his actuators can manage. Since the actuators and gyro's required to improve Prat's performance are rather pricey, BB opted to upgrade the droid's chassis and armor to cut down on the damage, making Ow extremely resilient for a OOM.

Edit: spelling

My bunch.

Targin - Human Male Bodyguard - Ex-cop turned mercenary, a fundementaly good man that couldn't stand the New Order's oppresive methods. He sort of operates as the face of the group, though he lets Leesa do the smart work.

Leesa - Human Female Archaeologist - A young Human woman with a love for the lore and anqituity. Unfortunately she's got some sponsors to keep happy, and she's looking for a way out of their grasp.

Carnus (Me, baby) - Houk Male Gadgeter - A Guild hunter with a strong sense of duty to his trade and a contempt for amatuers and freelance scabs. He's not an overly mean sort, but he knows he's a big, scary alien and he's learned to roll with the naturaly intimidating air of his species to take the fight out of his marks (And to use his blaster when that doesn't work).

Darvyl - Human Male Thief - The newest addition to the crew picked up on Raxus Prime. He's got a few scores to settle after his buddy stabbed him in the back and stole his ship. He's also an unashamed lady's man.

Where do they find the hundreds of crew to man the thing?

Its listed full crew is 177. They don't have fighters, so that's 12 less for the pilots and at least as many less for the hangar deck crew they currently don't need to support that. The weapons systems are currently all destroyed so that's around 48 gunnery crew that they don't need until they can afford to new guns.

They left it parked for repairs with a trusted contact while they go out to earn the credits to afford said repairs as well as try and recruit. Minimum crew for the marauder corvette is listed as 52. I take that as minimum to run the ship. There are 6 of them so they need 46 minions to run the rest of the show in order to make a go of it. As they replace weapons (eventually) and acquire fighters (someday, maybe) their crew needs will increase up towards the full crew number.

It's a fixer-upper long-term campaign project for them. Not an overnight "bam capital ship with crew" deal. Hence why the one player wants to name it The Crushing Debt as he is fully aware that keeping the thing is virtually an Obligation in itself.

Our Group, I am the GM and...

Iaco Tabanne - Arkanian Smuggler (Scoundrel/Force Sensitive Exile)

BX-1N (Bixin) - BX-series Commando Droid Bounty Hunter (Assassin)

Sirahn - Sluissi Tech (Mechanic)

Shorbecca - Wookiee Hired Gun (Marauder)

Currently flying the Krayt Fang

The group met when Bixin broke everyone out of Teemo the Hutt's gladiatorial pit and they have been on the run together ever since. Iaco is an orphan (secretly a clone/offspring of an Arkanian woman and a Jedi master) who was raised by the Arkanian Resistance and eventually left to pursue his own goals. Bixin is an assassin/bounty hunter hired to eliminate Iaco's father, the Jedi Master, after performing the deed he discovered Iaco, and brought him to the resistance. Kept an eye on him from afar. Sirahn is a technician and starship designer who betrayed his best friend by choosing to leave instead of being forced to work for the Empire. Shorbecca is a wookiee gladiator that was taken from his family and forced to fight for many decades now. Since the subjugation of Kashyyyk, he is looking for the rest of his family.

We are currently in the Prologue, where the PCs are learning what life is like on the Edge of the Empire. They are attempting to eek out an existence and finding it difficult.

If they remain the same as in Beta I would say I won't revamp my Scoundrel, but I may jump into Quartermaster when I've had my fill of the Scoundrel tree. It depends on how things progress in the group and what direction I think my guy needs to go.