Sterling Hershey, veteran of ALL the SWRPG lines, created the Blazing Chain pirates for Star Wars Saga Edition’s final volume, The Unknown Regions. Therefore, May the Fourth Be With You is an appropriate day for me to pay him a bit of homage–this adaptation of the Blazing Chain for the Fantasy Flight SWRPG lines. The Blazing Chain is a very loosely-allied group of raider ships and fleets, primarily utilizing “attack and fade” tactics and crewed mostly or totally by Force-sensitives. Blazing Chain pirates approach the Force as pragmatically as they do any other skill or tool. They use what works and don’t bother with philosophy. They stick to ordinary blaster and melee weaponry, and know nothing of lightsabers.
While the Blazing Chain are intended as “baddies,” they are not necessarily Darksiders. Indeed, the Blazing Chain as a whole is wary of an Adacap they know/suspect is Fallen, due to some bad incidents that threatened the entire Blazing Chain. Other Adacaps will watch and avoid alliances with a Darkside counterpart, but won’t attack them–unless the Fallen Adacap proves dangerous. On the other hand, some Adacaps make a point of following more or less Lightside principles. They will not harm captains, crew, or passengers who cooperate for example.
ADACAP [Nemesis]
Blazing Chain Fleet Commander
Characteristics
Brawn 2
Agility 3
Intellect 2
Cunning 3
Willpower 4
Presence 3
Soak: 5 Defense (m/r): 1/1 Strain Threshold: 12 Wound Threshold: 20
Skills
Coercion 3
Cool 2
Deception 2
Discipline 4
Leadership 3
Ranged (Light) 2
Skulduggery 2
Talents: Adversary 2 (Upgrade combat checks against this opponent twice); Terrify (Take the Terrify action. Make a Hard Coercion check adding Force dice no greater than Force Rating. Disorient 1 target within medium range per Success. Spend 2 Advantage to extend duration and spend 1 Force pip to immobilize affected target)
Abilities: Force Power: Move (Spend 1 Force pip to move 1 Silhouette 0 object within short range. Spend +1 pip for +1 Silhouette; +1 pip for +1 range band; +1 pip for +2 objects; all may be activated multiple times. May hurl objects at opponents: Damage 5 for Silhouette 0; Damage 10xSilhouette for larger objects. May pull objects from secure mountings or out of an opponent’s grasp)
Force Rating 3
Pirate Leader (may perform a maneuver to give orders to other pirate allies in medium range, granting them 1 Boost on their next check).
Equipment: Heavy Blaster Pistol (Damage 7, Critical 3, Medium Range, Stun Setting), Armored Clothing (+1 Soak/+1 Defense)
Blazing Chain Pirate [Rival]
Characteristics
Brawn 2
Agility 3
Intellect 2
Cunning 2
Willpower 2
Presence 1
Soak: 4 Defense (m/r): 0/0 Wound Threshold: 12
Skills
Cool 2
Piloting (Space) 2 OR Skulduggery 2
Ranged (Light) 2
Talent: Sleight of Mind (NPC adds 1 Boost to Stealth checks unless the being attempting to detect them is immune to Force powers
Ability: Force Directed Shot (When attacking with a blaster, may take a single Aim action as an incidental, maximum of 2 Aim per turn.)
Design & Play Notes: Space Pirates plus the Force–what’s not to like? Especially if you have scoundrels in your F&D group, or fugitive padawans in EoTE. Or you have a post-RotJ Legends or Canon campaign or…
I spent a lot of time trying to get the flavor of the original SWSE Blazing Chain, by finding some rough equivalents to some of the talents from the Blazing Chain talent tree Mr. Hershey devised for The Unknown Regions. Force Directed Shot is one of those. For the Rising Panic SWSE talent, I borrowed the Terrify talent from the F&D Warrior/Aggressor specialization.
As always, you might want to do some test combats using your players’ PCs, to make sure these builds won’t be over- or under-powered for their abilities and XP. You should feel free to alter gear and abilities to suit both the PCs and your planned encounter/s, as well.
Speaking of alterations, switch up the Force powers for more variety, or especially in the case of the Rivals, to make them more challenging. Give a Rival crew or 2 the ability to toss a Silhouette 0 object for damage, or the Enhance power. Other possible powers for both Adacap and crew are Misdirect, Sense and Bind. An Adacap might also have basic Ebb/Flow or Unleash. Force talents that don’t cost strain from the Exile, Emergent, or Sentinel trees (Slippery Minded, Uncanny Reactions, etc.) are also possibilities, along with other Aggressor talents.
Credits: Thanks to Empty Bacta Tank for feedback and the rest of my group for encouragement. And above all–Thank you Sterling Hershey for decades of SWRPG goodness!
Linda Whitson
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