I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m definitely in the mood for some Star Wars right now. Time to go back to what was honestly my least favorite of the three settings for Fantasy Flight Game’s Age of Rebellion. However, The Last Jedi has really turned my appreciation for that style of play up to 11. Below is a Knight-level version of a character that would fit right in with any company.
Captain Steve Rogers
Species: Human
Career: Soldier
Specialization: Commando/Figurehead
Duty: Morale (-10 value for +10 XP)
Rogers knows that the heart of the Rebellion is the heart of its soldiers. If they don’t know why they are fighting, they cannot win. Facing overwhelming odds and dangerous missions can take its toll on any man – Rogers means to lessen that.
Motivation: Relationship (Childhood Friend)
Roger’s best friend growing up joined the Imperial Army and was lost in battle and presumed killed in action. He fights to make enough of a difference so that his friend’s sacrifice for the wrong cause won’t be in vain. But he still doesn’t know exactly what happened…
Brawn 3
Agility 3
Intellect 2
Cunning 2
Willpower 3
Presence 3
Wound Threshold: 15
Strain Threshold: 14
Soak Value: 5
M/R Defense: 1|1
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Cool 2, Leadership 2, Melee 1, Piloting (Planetary), Ranged (Light) 3, Resilience 1
Talents: Calm Commander (may use Cool instead of Leadership when upgrading the ability of a Mass Combat check when you are commander of the acting force), Command 1 (add 1 boost die when making Leadership checks, inspired allies also add 1 boost die to Discipline checks over the next 24 hours), Physical Training (add 1 boost die to your Athletics and Resilience checks), Point Blank 1 (add 1 damage to one hit of a successful Ranged (Heavy) or Ranged (Light) attacks made while at short range or engaged), Resolve 1 (when you involuntarily suffer strain, you suffer one less strain, to a minimum of one), Strong Arm (thrown weapons have their range increased one step, to a maximum of Medium range)
Abilities: Inspiring Rhetoric (as an action, make an Average Leadership check, for each success, one ally within close range recovers one strain, advantage can be spent to let an affected ally recover one additional strain)
Equipment: kyuzo war shield (Melee; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Cumbersome 3, Defensive 1, Deflection 2, Disorient 1 or Ranged [Light]; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Medium]; Cumbersome 3, Defensive 1, Deflection 2, Disorient 1, Limited Ammo 1, may spend three advantage from the attack roll to cause it to ricochet back to you), shock gloves (Brawl; Damage 3; Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; stun 3), heavy blaster pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 7, Critical 3; Range [Medium]; stun setting) superior armored clothing (+2 soak, +1 defense), encrypted commlink, datapad, climbing gear, load-bearing gear, thermal cloak, extra reloads, breath mask/respirator, 6 stimpacks
Background: Rogers was born on the lower levels of Coruscant. His father died when he was young, leaving him to be raised by a single mother until she too passed away, leaving the young man to fend for himself. Though he was a sickly child, he longed to serve in the Imperial army. This longing was made all the worse when his best friend growing up entered the service on his own. This lead him to sign up for a very risky procedure that was funded by Imperial Forces. He was subjected to a variety of experimental drugs that helped to promote muscular and psychological development in the hopes that the Empire would be able to develop a new breed of soldier – one worth ten men, fanatically loyal to the Empire that could quash this Rebellion and any in the future. Their hope was that if it would work on the weak and sickly, that the results on those already healthy would be further magnified. The procedure worked, and he underwent strenuous testing to measure his new abilities, even going into the field several times in a support role. It was here that he began to see that the story the Empire promoted about peace and unification was only as good as your loyalty to the regime, and in his few months of fieldwork, he witnessed at least one atrocity, and heard of several more taking place in other parts of the galaxy. He saw how much some of the galaxy was suffering under the Empire’s rule – worse than even his life had been growing up. And then he heard the news that his best friend had gone missing in action and was presumed dead. Distraught that his friend had given his life for this war machine, he knew what he had to do. He destroyed as much of the research about the project that made him as he was able to and ran. He eventually linked up with the Rebellion that he had spent his entire life preparing to fight, finding himself now fighting for it.
Design Notes: I don’t know how I’ve gone as long as I have without creating this character for Star Wars considering the other versions that I’ve done of him for this blog. I knew it was going to be inevitable when I saw the Kyuzo War Shield get stats in Forged in Battle, but then I honestly put the game away for a while as I began to dive deeper into 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. However, seeing The Last Jedi put me in a military Star Wars mood, and I remembered this idea. This is obviously the character built at Knight Level for the extra experience and gear selection. But this character could be fun to plan as a starting character as well, just starting to come into his abilities. He can pretty easily spend the rest of his career in both of those specializations, and he is a shoo-in for the Unmatched Courage signature ability that Soldiers get access to.
Ben Erickson
