Simon I like most of what you have written. I definitely think the stats should be Cunning 2, Willpower 3, though. I would also leave agility and brawn 2. I also think the starting Ability could be Discipline if they choose their own surname. However, one of the cool things is that the Surname (always short, monosyllabic) reflects how the Kel Dor will behave or the trade of the Kel Dor in question. I think it would be cool to offer the following options for starting attributes if the following surnames are taken at creation: 1. Koon- a name meaning "explorer" in Kel Dor. Bearers of this name are granted one free point in Survival (can't go beyond 2 in character creation). 2. Du'un- A name meaning "warrior", Kel Dor from this were ancient practitioners of the martial form of Baran Do. They earn one free rank in Brawl. 3. Vold- A name meaning "sage" in Kel Dor. Members of this family were expected to learn a great deal of traditional knowledge and pass it to the next generation. Taking this as a surname grants a free rank in Lore. 4. Nai- Meaning "healer" in Kel Dor. This family was particularly skilled in the healing arts and serve as physicians when upholding their traditional background. Free rank in Medicine.

Actually while we are on the subject of cool, I wanted to talk about ambushes and my house rule regarding them. Be forewarned, it adds a mechanic, so if you are dice-lite this might not appeal to you. So I get how the mechanics work so far. Cool is sort of that tense western standoff. Who will draw and fire first? Cool vs cool to find out who reacts to the tension first! I'll always opt for cool checks when the characters have, say, been discussing with the Vigilance definitely makes sense when it's a typical "roll for initiative scenario". When two parties are rounding a corner, or one group sort of stumbles on another, or isn't really given time to prepare, vigilance is rolled. However, ambushes should be handled differently, I think. Here's why: I think RAW makes it far too easy for the ambushed party not only react, but often react faster than the people doing the ambushing! Here's how I do ambushes: I make it an opposed vigilance check against a the ambushing party's stealth. If the check succeeds, the ambush is noticed in time for the party being ambushed to react. If it's not, the ambushing party gets a free turn prior to the normal initiative rolls.

Well, this whole "Empire is Evil" theme should really be down-played in my opinion. Unless your PCs are interested in playing villains, playing a member of the Empire has its rewards. I mean, consider it: -Prior to the empire there was a civil war which ended the lives of trillions of people. The Empire winning has brought peace to the galaxy. -Imperial Star Destroyers are probably a WELCOME sight to law-abiding citizens in the outer rim. In a universe rife with pirates, smugglers, and criminals, the Empire is probably a very helpful stabilizing force. -The Empire didn't revert everything the Republic had established. In fact, they probably took upon a great deal of the existing infrastructure. The Republic, if you recall, are the good guys! The only difference is that the hierarchy changes with the establishment of the empire, and the rotten core spreads from the source (the Emperor). So, yeah, the closer you get to the inner circle, the more "bad" you'll see. The vast majority of Imperials? Good people. Family men and women. People trying to make some good in the galaxy. Good sources for plot hooks? A. The Clone Wars animated TV show is awesome. It has a lot of "filler" episodes with clone troopers running missions. These can easily be converted to fit the setting you want. B. I offer ten hooks: 1. You're investigating a murder in some city complex. You've been assigned to track down and find a Gran who is responsible for a mass murder of a small town unwilling to put up with his laundering front. This Gran is dangerous and connected with the underbelly of the city, so any leads the PCs get will have a chance of going sour. Some might even lead to overt hostility as the Gran's cronies decide to fight back. Eventually the PCs track down the Gran, hiding wherever he may be, and discover that their rendezvous has been joined by a pair of bounty hunters also seeking the Gran. Now the PCs have a dilemma. Can they convince/coerce the hunters to turn away? Will they have to fight the hunters? 2. Two Gamorrean clans have colonized an otherwise peaceful outer-rim world full of law-abiding imperial citizens. Unfortunately the discovery of eachother has lead the two clans to war, as is natural for their kind. Unfortunately, this leaves the human colonists exposed to the violence, their city is caught in between the lines of battle. The regional Governor has asked the Imperials for help and they've deployed the PCs to find a solution. Can they convince the Gamorreans to stop fighting? Will they rally the town to defend themselves? A cool end game, assuming they succeed at repelling a few assaults could consist of having a pair of ISDs show up and the PCs calling a "firing solution" from the sky, obliterating the Gamorrean fort/village. 3. Your standard "assault that rebel base" mission. Here's a few hooks into that: a. These "Rebels" are so good? Well, that explosion that they set off at an imperial customs station also blew up half a city block. The Rebels killed dozens of innocents in the process. Restore justice to the system. b. Not all imperials are loyal. A planetary governor has decided to align with the rebellion. There's plenty of potential motivators for this. Probably the big one would be his desire to remain in power as systems around him aligned with the rebellion. Problem is, this guy's planet is one of the main suppliers for medi- and stim-packs for the region. The Imps can't simply destroy his facilities. They need a scalpel, not a sword. That's where the PCs come in. c. Rising tensions in a system have torn brother from brother. A nearby rebel cell has commited it's attention toward recruiting men from the city. The people of the city are distraught, fearing the death of brothers and sons. It's up to the PCs to learn from the citizenry where the rebel cell is located. The people are happy to help on one condition: spare their sons. Imperial command is recommending a different route. What will the PCs do? 4. Hunt a Jedi. They could be fed all sorts of propaganda, too. Maybe have the Jedi kill of a few of their NPC buddies. The Jedi who had once hidden was now emboldened through the rumors that a rebellion is forming. 5. Nothing like a twist on the concept that Imperials always have the resources in their favor. The PCs have been given a temporary guard duty at a remote planet. Dantooine perhaps? It's quiet and boring. There are few locals. They have to put up with endemic predatory life when, all of a sudden, medium transports start landing. Quick-fabricated bases are set up in the distance. The Rebels have arrived and are completely oblivious to the PCs. An easy computer check reveals that if they send a distress signal now, they'll almost certainly be pinpointed by the rebels and destroyed. What do they do? Do they send the signal and run for their lives, awaiting the arrival of the cavalry? Do they run sabotage missions on the Rebel base? Attempt to infiltrate? Do they attempt to escape the system? 6. A routine inspection stop while serving aboard a customs frigate goes wrong when the massive transport turns out to be holding slaves. Before they have a chance to react, the frigate they are on explodes from the hail of laser fire as the "freighter" reveals a plethora of retractable weaponry. Now the group (and you, deciding what route would be most fun), finding themselves stranded aboard the ship have a few options: Do they fight the slavers and try to take over the ship? Are they overpowered themselves and sold into slavery deep into Hutt space? 7. A newly discovered alien race threatens a colony on the fringes. When the PCs arrive, they see the consequences of this genocidal species as the colony has been completely obliterated down to men, women, and children. Thankfully some of the colonists have managed to survive on the outskirts, but it's only a matter of time before these aliens return. What sort of unusual weapons and tactics will these aliens use? Will the PCs, as the scouts, be able to hold up before the larger numbers of imperials show up? 8. A local Moff is cracking down on crime in his sector. Unfortunately, he is often quite heavy handed and a huge fan of the Tarkin doctrine. A local planet is one such hive of scum, and a particular haven for pirates, spice runners, and sabacc dens. The PCs, stationed on this planet, are also introduced to a number of well meaning citizens- farmers, workers, tax payers. They are requesting help from the Empire to establish law on their home planet. The Moff? He's planning on Base Delta Zero as one of his first actions to establish himself as a force in the region. The PCs learn this, meet the Moff and are given an ultimatum: "Very well, if you can demonstrate that a small number of the Empire's Finest are as capable as my methods, I'll belay the order. Arrest or kill the crime lords in one standard galactic week (five 24 hour periods) and I'll spare the planet." 9. A planet has declared its independence from Imperial control. The PCs are sent, along with other imperial resources, to take the planet back. As the battle is won, the local ISB agent instructs the group to eliminate all prisoners and surrounding colonies, judging that the sedition will inevitably return. 10. The good 'ol Special Forces School is awesome as a hook. The PCs, having proven themselves, are invited to take part in Commando School on Cardia, the greatest training planet in the Empire. They're all accepted into the new class and given instruction on multiple skills including: -Escape and evasion: a little module having them actually evade their instructors who are hunting them. -Hand to hand and melee combat: a few cool tournament-style modules could be made from this premise -Infiltration and sabotage: they could be trained in the usage of explosives, slicing devices, and good old skulduggery to work their way into installations. -Espionage: Perhaps they could be sent to a nearby civilian town with the task of locating one of the instructors, using their resources to piece together enough clues to locate him. -Assassination: plagarize from the US sniper school. Set up a scenario where they have a simulated target to assassinate. The target will be guarded by Stormtrooper trainees from the academy there. -Vehicle and heavy weaponry usage. Lots of booms. -A brief dogfighting course in imperial flight school. Set them up with instructor Baron Fel, if you want to make the SW geeks really geek out. Hope these help.

Oh, fear not, Farsox. There will almost certainly be repercussions for growing big. Especially depending where they grow. The outer rim has a little bit of room to expand, surely. Maybe they deal with rivals or even upstarts within their own organization. May the Force help them if they build up within Hutt space. Sure, a small organization could be tolerated, so long as they pay for the privilege. Eventually, though, they'll be stepping on the toes of Zann's organization or the Black Sun. And if they go further mid-rim? Well, let's say Palp and his boys aren't terribly keen on granting more than one syndicate a pass. Hell, even the Black Sun knew their time was running out. Antagonists are going to be the easy part.

Libraria, your overall advice is very good. I will absolutely incorporate this into my planning sessions. Currently the group has a loose hierarchy, every member sort of fitting a role. They do have a single PC leader, however. I wonder if it might be better for storytelling purposes to keep things on the smaller end; it sounds like my PCs are interested in going to the big times. Rogue, that's a good point. They'll probably stay small time and the majority of ships *are* purchase-able. I'm sure they'll get early acquisitions via piracy. Ghost, that's perfect advice. Great advice. I'll be able to whip up a few modules no problem to reflect this.

Hello FFG forums! I'm currently playing a half-sandbox, half-module driven game where the PCs are acting as relatively amoral pirate-types. They are the perfect scoundrels for the EotE universe and are as likely to bomb a rebel outpost as an imperial one. Really, they're only interested in the payouts. Most of the group are interested in working together and creating a sort of syndicate. I'm interested in making their goal a reality in game. Now, I'm more than content to let the players tell me how they plan to do this (they have a great imagination). I also want to help them along with a few hooks they could take. I was thinking of introducing a pretty vocal NPC who would offer himself as almost a concierge secretary. Perhaps they could "liberate" him from another organization. This guy could help advise them on what they could do to successfully establish an organization. I'll tell you what I have planned and then perhaps you guys could offer some feedback or ideas! So far this is what they have accomplished: 1. They have a small Ryll-spice producing town that offers them a cut off of every payload in return for protection. This is a small, but stable source of income. 2. They have a pretty solid ship as a base-of-operations. It's a CX 800 freighter and they've poured a fair amount of money into it to make it functional. 3. They've recently captured a veteran stormtrooper, rather than killed him, in a recent raid on an imperial intelligence facility. They mostly did this because he pulled a vibroknife on the group and tried to "hold the line" by himself. They respected his moxy and took him prisoner. Most of the group wants to see how strong his loyalty is and if he's willing to join them as a guard. 4. They have a bothan spy contact (who may or may not be part of the larger spynet), an arms dealer contact on Geonosis, and an information broker Toydarian. 5. The corellian of the group earned his bloodstripes and a reputation among smugglers by pulling off the Corellian shuffle in record time. Here's what I have planned so far: 1. I plan on giving them a way to make money via bounty hunting. I've already written up a few one-shot hunting modules that take them to remote vistas in order to find the prey. I'll probably write a third in a more urban setting that'll require some detective work to find. They want to get connected with the guild, for obvious reasons. 2. I plan on sending a little motley crew of ruffians to approach them, inform the PCs that they were hired to beat the tar out of them (by a known rival) and, instead, offer to defect for a price. 3. Offer them a way to set up a planetary, more stable base of operations. Perhaps by ousting existing leadership?? It's not too much, but it's a start. My question is, what sort of tips do you have to helping the PCs establish a criminal underground?

I have a quick question, on the control tree force powers. It says you can move small objects, with the silhouette being the limiting factor based on the strength of the power. My question: how do you handle that with objects held by opponents? For instance, one of my PCs, who saved up and discovered that he is truly force-capable asked if he could use the force to pull a weapon from the grip of a minion. I checked the rules but couldn't find anything and decided that it wouldn't make the encounter too easy, so I allowed it. Anyone have guidance on this?

Polaria said: All links point to corresponding PDF documents in Google docs. Hope this helps inspiring GMs: Oblators (all mine) Dark Spectres (all mine) Rainbow Warriors (fluff by Philip Sibbering, game-mechanics mine) Space Sharks (fluff by Philip Sibbering, game-mechanics mine) Marines Malevolent (text by Lightbringer, I just PDF:ed it) Salamanders (everything by Drix) Drix here, hope you guys like the Salamander's chapter. Another guy (who actually inspired me to do my own custom chapter) made the following Scythe of the Emperor: javascript:void(0);/*1285359976933*/ and Iron hands:javascript:void(0);/*1285359960544*/

(duplicate thread, my mistake)

@ Atheosis. Thank you for the feedback. The -10 modifiers are pretty brutal. I think I was trying to add a bit of balance to a pretty juicy starting package. Also, I may the -10 to dodge and retain the -10 modifiers to things like drive and pilot, given that the Salamander's fluff shows them having fewer fast attack options and training. @Brellak. True enough. But all space marines are going to roll 2d10+30 for stats. Even with -5 the chances that they are at the high envelope for human excellence is pretty good. @Kenshin138. Thank you 1. Yeah, I like the current mix. I think giving an Agility hit was a solid way of representing their relfexes. ALso, every chapter seems to have different mixes of +5, +5 for stats. I didn't want to arbitrarily choose from the unused +5/+5 combinations instead I chose what I thought illustrated the Salamanders the best. 2. Good point. I think tjhis is hard to reflect in the Salamander's ability to help oversee the PDF when it arrives. But Charm may actually be more appropriate for the chapter. 3. I'll definately check this out. 4. Thanks 5. I think someone answered this later on. The idea is that the Salamander has the Kill team figure out who will serve as a point-man during a planning stage. This can take place during the oath session. This can take place on the surface of the planet. It can happen more than once and have a different point-man selected. The benefit of planning before hand is that if the point-man gets the high initiative (so it's advantageous to choose someone with high initiative modifiers), the entire team can attack at the same time due to their preparations. 6. Nah. I just didn't like the idea that the game made up a past for a character. I guess I could amend with some, but... @ Ranek7212. Good point about Charm. As far as the Relics, I agree with you that there may be some balance issues. I'd like to hear your playtesting feedback. Shoot me a PM if you playtest with the parry bonus and I'll try with the other bonus in my group. No reason it should be "too" powerful. Thanks for the Replies guys! I hope you use this to include a Salamander in your next Deathwatch campaign!

Hey guys, So I went ahead and worked with a few friends on a gaming imageboard. Well, after a few days of hard work I finally finished my homebrew version of the Salamanders for Deathwatch. I think they are a great chapter and definitely should have earned a spot on the list. Take a look, tell me what you think:javascript:void(0);/*1285234431932*/