I got Far Horizons: A Sourcebook for Colonists (FH) shortly after it was released. I didn’t find much to interest me, except–as predicted by my gaming buddies–the picture of the shirtless male Twi’lek illustrating the Performer Specialization. Over a year and a half, I have used exactly 3 things from the book.
First, I consulted the Colonist Pay Scale when my Doctor PC informed a close-mouthed, very budget-minded shopkeeper exactly how many credits he’d owe her for saving his useless life with emergency surgery if he didn’t give the party a few answers. The good Doctor’s GM suggested the Kamperdine Jacket. Finally as a GM, I used some of the tips for upping the stakes and pressure in Medicine checks to great effect during one session. Aside from those, it’s just sat on my bookshelf, a sad fate for a title in one of my favorite RPG lines. So, since this spring finds me preparing to resume my AoR campaign by the summer, I decided to re-read FH and see what I missed, or dismissed, on the first go-round that might be useful in that campaign or other campaigns.
Obligations & Motivations: Last year, when making a Force & Destiny PC. I picked a Motivation–Love–out of Dangerous Covenants which fits my Mystic/Seer’s outlook very well. So I took at good look at the FH Obligations and Motivations, to see which might lend themselves to other EotE careers, as well as AoR or F&D campaigns where the GM opts to use Obligation. The ones below are those that I found both interesting and seemed easiest to adapt. I also left out Obligations that were variants of those in the EotE core book.
Obligations
- Disgraced or Exiled – Could work for nobles or ex-military in all 3 games but particularly good to explain how these types of PCs ended up on the fringes of galactic civilization in EotE games.
- Witness Protection – Would work for any EotE campaign; not really suited for AoR or F&D.
- Pacifist – An interesting choice for social PCs in all 3 games.
- Frontier Justice – This is a specific type of Obsession Obligation. A PC in any of the 3 games could have this. However, a Force-sensitive PC in a campaign where the Conflict and/or Morality mechanics are in play might find their Morality score dropping fast.
Motivations
- Society or Legacy – A variant of either of these Creation Motivations would work very well for AoR PCs who join the Rebellion. It is a good choice for a PC who sees their role in the long-term as helping birth a new version of the Republic once the Empire is overthrown.
- Cure – This is best-suited for EotE Doctor PCs, but other medical characters could have this Motivation. F&D Healers come first to mind. However, Doctors–or even some Soldier/Medics with appropriate backstories–in an AoR game might have first run across the Rebellion while searching for a cure. It is also possible that the Alliance might have tasked a Doctor or Medic with finding a cure for a plague unleashed by the ever-vindictive Empire.
- Business – This one could work for many non-Colonist EotE specs, particularly in the Explorer career. The Trader is obvious. Scouts and Big-Game Hunters might want to start a business such as guiding adventure-tourists. Archaeologists who are more mercenary than scholarly might go for a black/gray market business in antiquities.
“Law and Ordnance” (Equipment): Most anything (except the shoddy holdouts!) in the weapons and armor will appeal to any EotE or AoR party. Same for the vehicles. And any Rebels tasked with setting up a new base, or safe world, on a barely-hospitable planet should consider the Survival subsection equipment. A successful mission to obtain the Elysium Model 2 or Fasclean Dampers might make all the difference in whether a world can be used or not.
“Making Social Encounters Interesting”: How did I miss this before?!? Everything in this section of Chapter III is valuable for GMing social encounters in any FFG SW game. It covers using talents, drama and even humor in social encounters, plus what to do if a character’s Strain Threshold is exceeded in social encounters. It could happen with use of certain talents, especially if the character couldn’t recover all the Strain taken in the last combat–and fainting from embarrassment shouldn’t be the only narrative option.
And every GM has lots of information, of all kinds, they need to get to the PCs. There is 2 full pages’ worth on information here! All types of info and how the PCs might learn them, in any type of game. This section I need to memorize!
Colonist Archetypes: These are in the very back of the book. They are suggestions for how to build PCs of various professions, using 2 different specializations, at least one of which is a Colonist spec. The other spec for each archetype is from EotE. These include recommended talents from the 2 trees used. The cost for buying into the additional spec will be 30 XP, assuming it is the second, for all but 1 archetype, Lawyer, since all the others use non-Colonist specs as the second. A few of these might work for AoR, such as Intelligence Analyst, which could also be done with AoR specs.
I told a couple SW gamers I was writing about FH and they mentioned not finding a lot they could use. I don’t think I will use everything above, but hopefully it will help someone else, GM or player.
Linda Whitson
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I personally think the Marshal is an absolutely fantastic spec — it’s a highly flexible combination of toughness, combat power, and social skill that doesn’t have a single poor talent. I don’t think there are any other classes that have all five social skills (charm, negotiation, deception, coercion, and leadership) and still provide support for combat capability baked right into the spec. Without having to leave the spec, you’re a full-on party face, and you can still use that pistol on your hip. The only thing it really lacks is Cool, and a marshal really shouldn’t be bushwhacking anyone anyway, right?
I do rather like the Distracting Behavior talents, however much the Entertainer itself is outside my personal play style.