Beginner Box Alt Characters - brainstorming needed (long post)

[QuietDroid 4]

Hey all, 

 

I am going to be running the Beginner's Box and Long Arm of the Hutt coming up in a month or so, but I wanted my 6 players to be able to play a more specific charatcer that they wanted (as opposed to using the pre-gens). They are all new to the system (but not RPGs) so I am going to make their characters for them based on some ideas and concepts that they provided for me.  I am also gonna bend the rules a bit in terms of starting credits to start them with the gear they wanted (ex: the wookie wanted a bowcaster, the Gand wanted dual blaster pistols, etc)  So here's what I need.  I need to integrate these characters into the story just like the pre-gens are integrated.  I also wanted to build them with actual Obligation and Motivation for when we go beyond these adventures and out to our own. I have the Beta rules, so am not limited to just the box, and theres a good bet I'll have the Core Book before we play this.  Some of the concepts I was given were more complex then others, and one player didn't have any ideas so I am coming up with two characters for him to choose from (and the one he doesn't choose will be an alt in case someone dies)  Here's what I have so far:

 

Gand - Concept: Pilot and Mechanic, wields twin blaster pistols

Career: Technician (Mechanic)

Obligation: Debt, ship was repossessed

Motivation: 

Background: Eager to prove his worth he started taking jobs young, but got in over his head and couldn’t make the payments on his ship.  Got stranded on Tatooine and took work for Teemo to pay the bills.

 

Wookiee - Concept: wookie with big crossbow

Career: Explorer (Scout)

Obligation: Family- family was enslaved and he searches for them, believes they  are held by the empire

Motivation: 

Background: Hunter/Tracker on Kashyyyk, returned from a hunting trip to find family has been captured. Been taking jobs along the Outer Rim to allow him to continue searching

 

Droid - Concept: B2 battle droid that wants to be a negotiator/therapist

Career: Hired Gun (Mercenary Soldier)

Obligation: Criminal: committed many heinous crimes under previous owners, memory has been wiped since, but searches for his previous masters to clear his name (the authorities has his unique droid VIN# so can identify him)

Motivation: Droid Rights or Status?

Background: Was picked up by Teemo on the black market, used in the arena.  constant memory wipes and now constant repairs have jumbled his programming, wants to escape… tired of fighting, has seen organics negotiate, thinks he can do it.

 

Twilek - Concept: Escaped Slave, on the run from her former masters, melee based, like a non-force using Ventress

Career: Bounty Hunter (Assassin)

Obligation: Bounty

Motivation: Freedom

Background: was thinking kind of a Jason Bourne thing… trained to be an assassin by the Black Suns but escaped and on the run

 

Bothan - Concept: spy/doctor - Simon Tam melded with Dominar Rigel XVI

Career: Colonist (Doctor)

Obligation: Debt - imperial student loans

Motivation: anti-Empire

Background: fled to the outer rim for excitement, big city medicine was too boring, and needed to escape his debt collectors. Conned the empire into paying for medical training but then took off

 

Rodian 

Career: Colonist (Trader)

Obligation: Betrayal, business partner sold him out to the Hutt cartel

Motivation: Relationship: Revenge

Background:

 

Human

Career: Technician (Slicer)

Obligation:

Motivation:

Background: 

 

What I’d like to have ready for them is a brief paragraph on background (before the character ended up with Teemo), a short paragraph on what they do for Teemo and why they want to leave, and then possibly establish a relationship to one of the other characters.

 

Also, some things I was thinking about when putting these together:

 

How broken would it be to give them each access to an additional specialization/talent tree at no extra cost? I was thinking just to round out their concepts a second specialization would work well (maybe only give them access to the first three “lines” of their 2nd talent tree like the beginners box pre-gens). They wouldn't start with the extra skill points or anything, they'd just get access to more talents when spending future exp.

 

Would a wookiee player be put upon to find he only has 3 Brawn? Would one assume wookiees always invest into starting at 4?

 

Thanks for any and all ideas!  

 

[SteelePhoenix 10]

QuietDroid said:

How broken would it be to give them each access to an additional specialization/talent tree at no extra cost? I was thinking just to round out their concepts a second specialization would work well (maybe only give them access to the first three “lines” of their 2nd talent tree like the beginners box pre-gens). They wouldn't start with the extra skill points or anything, they'd just get access to more talents when spending future exp.

 

Would a wookiee player be put upon to find he only has 3 Brawn? Would one assume wookiees always invest into starting at 4?

 

Thanks for any and all ideas!  

 

I don't think it would be broken to give them extra abilities, just make the enemies a bit tougher perhaps or more numerous.  Long as all the players got the same advantage of extra spec I thin it would be fine.

 

Part of the description for the Wookiee would be he was small / thin extra to cover the lower brawn.  In general I would say make the game fun, then follow the rules.

[QuietDroid 4]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12060404/SW%20-%20EotE%20-%20Dramatis%20Personae.pdf

Thanks for the input! Here's what I came up with concept wise… still working out the stats…