This series follows the trials, tribulations, successes, and failures of a fairly inexperienced GM who has recently picked up the hobby after a long time away. It aims to assist new GM’s by examining what worked, didn’t work, and what failed miserably as he spins up new campaigns, modules, encounters, and adventures for his friends and family in Fantasy Flight Games’ Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion/Force and Destiny system.
OK, so any Star Wars fan who just read the title of this article must be slightly confused. TIE Deceptor? There’s no such ship, right? Well, technically you’re correct. The TIE Deceptor is a creation of my own design, as in one campaign I needed a new TIE prototype that could be one of the driving forces behind the story. After a long while I decided to share the TIE Deceptor story and stats with you now, ready to drop into your next campaign story, as long as you don’t mind some non-canon stuff!
TIE Deceptor Origins
The technology behind the TIE Deceptor was accidentally discovered by Sienar Fleet Systems as they worked on the newly designed TIE Phantom. The TIE Phantom’s main stealth drive is powered by Stygium, or a very rare ore in the galaxy: Hibridium.
From Wookiepedia:
Hibridium was an ore that was found only on the western coastline of the main continent of the planet of Garos IV. It was discovered that hibridium had a natural ability to cloak other objects. The Galactic Empire, searching for an alternative to stygium cloaking devices, discovered Garos IV, garrisoned the planet, and strictly regulated the mining of the ore. Unfortunately, the prototype hibridium cloaking devices were far less effective than those created from stygium. They required massive amounts of power to operate, more room to house the device, and left the craft on which they were being used double-blind. Though the craft was invisible to other ships’ sensors, it could not locate other ships with its own sensors. Another drawback of these devices was that they became unstable when entering hyperspace, often resulting in the destruction of the ships on which they were being used.
During experiments using Hibridium-based stealth drives, many accidents and deaths occurred among the daring test pilots. Hasty decisions and the Empire’s love of keeping to schedules made for many rushed tests. During one of these rushed tests, something interesting occurred. A test pilot engaged the cloaking device of the TIE Phantom and began to disappear. But when he did so, the entire craft vanished, never to be found again.
An investigation was launched into what happened to the Phantom. After 6 months of research, an interesting discovery was made. That is, the ship didn’t disappear, it moved. Somehow, when the cloaking device was enabled, the ship vanished and moved, its destination unknown. It was then later discovered that while the ship disappeared and moved somewhere, it never re-materialized.
Sienar Fleet Systems had accidentally stumbled on some new technology, one that can make a ship vanish from one spot, and reappear in another. After this realization, the Empire ordered a full project kicked off to explore this technology to its limits. After another year of development, the TIE Deceptor was born. The stats of a TIE Deceptor are in-line with many of the other TIE models in production with one exception… it’s Warp Ability, first found accidentally during the Phantom test flight over a year ago. Its Warp ability is quite potent during dog-fighting and combat:
Warp Ability: Once every 2 rounds, the ship’s pilot may take a “Warp” action. When activating “Warp” the ship suffers 4 system strain, and can relocate to any position within long range. If the ship chooses to Warp behind an enemy ship, he may immediately gain the advantage from the “Gain the Advantage” ship action and take a free attack roll.
It’s this ability that sets the TIE Deceptor apart from all other TIEs. You can be right on its tail and it will suddenly appear behind you. Out maneuvering a TIE Deceptor is nearly impossible, unless you can sap its System Strain so it can no longer use the Warp ability.
In my campaign, the TIE Deceptors are the bane of the skies for the Rebel Alliance. What might the TIE Deceptor be in your campaigns? If you’d like to use this non-cannon ship in your games, the full stats are below!
Sil 3; Speed 5; Handling +2; Def 1/-/-/1 Armor 2
Hull Trauma 10; System Strain 12
Hull Type/Class: Starfighter/TIE
Manufacturer: Sienar Fleet Systems
Hyperdrive: Primary: Class 2; Backup: None
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Short
Crew: One pilot
Encumbrance Capacity: 6
Passenger Capacity: 0
Consumables: One week
Price/Rarity: 350,000 credits (R) / 8
Customization Hard Points: 0
Weapons: Cockpit Mounted Twin Light Ion Cannon (Fire Arc: Forward; Damage: 5; Critical: 3; Range: Close; Qualities: Ion, Linked 1), Wing-Tip Mounted Twin Medium Laser Cannon (Fire Arc: Forward; Damage: 6; Critical: 3; Range: Close; Qualities: Linked 1), Twin Proton Torpedo Launcher (Fire Arc: Forward; Damage: 8; Critical: 2; Range: Short; Qualities: Blast 6, Breach 6, Guided 2, Limited Ammo 3, Slow Firing 1, Linked 1)
Scott Alden
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