Decide what you want to play
First of all you need to know what kind of character you are going to play, a strong brawler, an engineer, a cocky pilot or a Clone Wars veteran. You should probably discuss this with your Games Master and the other players, as if everyone turns up with a cocky pilot character, then it’s probably not going to work unless you’re part of a squadron of fighters.
Choose a Species
Humans are the most common species in the Star Wars universe and although they offer no special abilities, they do provide average all round attributes and are good at just about anything.
Allocate Attribute Dice
Attribute Dice. Each alien species description has an “Attribute Dice” listing; your character begins with an extra 6D for attribute dice.
Determine Attributes
Each alien species description has a listing for each attribute. The left number is the minimum attribute die code; the right number is the maximum attribute die code.
Split up your attribute dice among the six attributes, making sure that each attribute is no less than the minimum and no more than the maximum die code.
You can split a die into three “pips.” A +1 means “one pip,” while a +2 means “two pips.” (When you split a die, you either get three “+l”‘s or one “+2” and one “+!.”) You’ll never see a “+3” — instead, the die code increases to the next full die — 2D, 2D+1, 2D+2, then 3D, 3D+1, 3D+2, then 4D … and so on.
Example: Your human character starts with 18D. The description of humans in “Aliens,” notes the human minimum for all attributes is 2D, while the maximum for all of them is 4D.
You want a character who’s good with a blaster and good at dodging out of the way so you put the maximum of 4D in Dexterity. You decide your character is about average when it comes to Knowledge, so you put 2D in that attribute.
Next is Mechanical… you want a really good pilot, so you put 4D in Mechanical… you’d love to be able to put 5D in Mechanical, but that’s above the human Mechanical maximum of 4D.
You have 8D to split among Perception, Strength and Technical. For Perception, you put in 3D; that’s a little better than average. You want a high Strength for your character, but you also want him to have a half-way decent Technical skill so he can fix things. You put 2D in both Strength and Technical.
You have one attribute die left. You decide to split the die into three pips, and you add “+1” each to Perception, Strength and Technical. That gives your character a Perception of 3D+1, a Strength of 2D+1 and a Technical of 2D+1.
Special Abilities
Some alien species have special abilities that can be used during the game: write these down on your character sheet.
Some other special abilities only matter when you’re creating a character — you may get bonuses when choosing skills, for example. You don’t have to write them down on your character sheet, but pay attention to them when you choose skills.
Move
Each alien species’ Move has two numbers. The left number is the normal Move for an adult of the species; your character starts with this Move.
The right number is the maximum Move a member of the species can have — the section “Character Advancement” tells you how you can increase your character’s Move rate.
Decide if the character is Force-sensitive
Force Sensitive characters get 2 force points, non-force sensitive characters get 1. Force Sensitives are more vulnerable to the Dark Side of the Force.
Dark Side Points
A character particularly tainted by the dark side of the Force may start with a Dark Side Point or two. This is up to you and the gamemaster, but if your character starts with Dark Side Points, it means you have to be very careful to make sure your character isn’t pushed over the brink to embrace the dark side. Playing this type of character can be a real challenge! (Dark Side Points are fully explained in “The Rules.”)
List Skills
List several skills under each attribute. There’s no need to go overboard since a beginning character only has 7D for starting skills.
Example: For Dexterity, you pick out blaster and dodge — those are skills you’ll probably be using a lot.
Knowledge skills, you’ll need planetary systems (your character needs to know a lot about planets in the galaxy) and streetwise. Adding languages and survival wouldn’t hurt either.
Mechanical skills. Your smuggler is going to rely on some of these skills, so you’ll choose carefully. He’ll need astrogation to plot hyperspace jumps, sensors for scanning incoming ships and searching for hidden bases on planets, space transports for piloting your ship and starship gunnery for firing the ship’s weapons.
Keep in mind that a smuggler should be good at piloting just about anything, so you decide to add repulsorlift operation for flying airspeeders and landspeeders and starfighter piloting in case your character ever has to fly an X-wing against the Empire.
Now Perception skills … bargain is good, and so is con for fast talking your way out of trouble. Search and sneak can be handy too.
Strength skills … there aren’t any you want to improve, so you skip down to Technical.
For Technical skills, you pick first aid and space transports repair. You’ve narrowed the choices down and listed 18 “important” skills on the template.
Starting Equipment
List reasonable starting equipment for that character. The gamemaster has final say over what’s “reasonable,” striking off any equipment, or assigning disadvantages (such as owing money to a crime lord for a ship, or your character’s equipment is stolen and the original owner is trying to get it back.) The gamemaster isn’t even required to tell you about disadvantages if the character wouldn’t know about them.
Example: Your smuggler will definitely need a blaster — how about a heavy blaster pistol like Han Solo? You also pick out a comlink, a medpac (in case your character gets injured), a starship repair kit and 500 credits starting money.
You’ll also need a ship, so you pick out a stock freighter like one of the ones described in “Starships.” Of course, ships are expensive and you know that the gamemaster will assign a real disadvantage if you don’t pick a reasonable one yourself — you decide that you owe 10,000 credits on the ship and one “favor” to be specified later. Of course, you’ll owe that money to a crime lord, but you’ll leave the details up to the gamemaster.
When you’re done, show your new template to the gamemaster for approval. The gamemaster can change or cross out anything that can unbalance play.
Character Advancement
Characters receive Character Points after each adventure. (The better your character did during the game, the more Character Points awarded.) You can use Character Points to improve your character’s skills and other abilities between adventures.
Improving Skills
Skills. It costs as many Character Points as the number before the “D” to improve a skill’s die code by one pip. (Increasing a skill from a “+2” to the next higher die — from 3D+2 to 4D for example — counts as a one pip improvement).
A character can only improve a skill one pip between each adventure, although the character may improve more than one skill between adventures.
Example: Thannik has a search skill of 4D. It costs four Character Points to improve search to 4D+1.
At the end of an adventure, Thannik can improve his search skill from 4D to 4D+1 for four Character Points and his space transports skill from 4D+2 to 5D for four Character Points.
However, Thannik can’t improve his search skill from 4D to 4D+2 in one jump because that would mean improving the skill more than one Pip.
Characters normally improve skills between adventures. At the gamemaster’s discretion, a character may also learn or improve a skill if there is a significant lull in the adventure, such as
when Obi-Wan Kenobi taught Luke Skywalker the rudimentary Force skills while on Tatooine and during the journey to Alderaan. Specializations. For specializations, the Character Point cost is one half the number before the “D” (rounded up).
Example: Thannik wants to improve his space transports: Ghtroc freighter specialization from 5D+2 to 6D. The cost is three Character Points. (Five divided by two is 2.5; that rounds up to three.)
Specializations are separate skills. If a character improves the basic skill, the specialization doesn’t improve; if the specialization is improved, the basic skill doesn’t go up.
Example: Thannik has space transports at 4D+2 and space transports: Ghtroc freighter at 5D+2. When Greg improves Thannik’s space transports skill from 4D+2 to 5D, his space transports: Ghtroc freighter stays at 5D+2; it does not improve. Later, if Greg improves Thannik’s space transports: Ghtroc freighter from 5D+2 to 6D, his space transports skill stays at 5D.
Training Time
If the character used a skill or specialization in the last adventure, there is no “training time” requirement. The character can just spend the Character Points and the skill improves one pip.
If the character didn ‘t use the skill or specialization in the last adventure, the character must spend time training. If the character has a “teacher” (see below), the training time is one day for every Character Point spent to improve the skill. If the character doesn’t have a teacher and is training on his own, the training time is two days for every Character Point spent to improve the skill.
When training, a character must concentrate on improving the skill. A character cannot train in more than one skill at a time, nor can a character train while off adventuring. Only through dedicated study and practice can a character train to improve a skill.
Example: Thannik wants to increase his blaster skill from 5D to 5D+1 at a cost of five Character Points; he must train because he didn’t use the skill in his last adventure. If he has a teacher, he
must train for five days; if he doesn’t have a teacher, he must train for 10 days.
The character’s skill does not improve until training is completed. Characters can reduce their training time by spending one additional Character Point per day cut from the training time. (The minimum training time is always one day.)
Example: Thannik finds a teacher to help him improve his blaster skill to 5D+1. After two days of training, he interrupts his mission to go track down a bounty.
When he returns, he needs three more days of training before his blaster skill improves.
Thannik decides to spend two Character Points to cut two days from his training time — he only needs to complete one more day of training to improve his blaster skill.
Teachers
A teacher makes it much easier for a character to improve a skill. A”teacher’s” skill must be at least equal to what the character’s skill will be after completing training. (If a character is improving a specialization, the teacher’s skill or the specific specialization must be equal to what the character’s specialization will be after completing training.)
Many teachers will be gamemaster characters. Sometimes a student will have to search for a teacher — the gamemaster is under no obligation to provide a teacher just because the player
wants his character to be taught something.
This is especially true for rare skills, those known only on primitive worlds, very unusual specializations, or advanced skills. Teachers may demand service, special favors, missions, or payment in exchange for their instruction.
Example: Thannik has blaster at 5D. His teacher is a marksman named Hist, who has blaster at 5D+1. At the end of his training, Thannik’s new skill is 5D+1, matching Hist’s skill level. Thannik has learned all he can from Hist and must find a new teacher for blaster or try to train by himself.
Later, Thannik wants to improve his blaster: blaster pistol specialization from 6D to 6D+1. He needs to find a teacher who has either blaster or blaster: blaster pistol at 6D+1 or higher.
Advanced Skills
The Character Point cost to improve an advanced skill is two times the number before the “D.”
Example: A character has (A) medicine at 2D+2. It costs four.
Character Points to go from 2D+2 to 3D. Advanced skills take much longer to improve because they are such complex subjects. A character must train to improve an advanced skill.
A character with a teacher must spend one week training for every Character Point spent to improve the skill. A character without a teacher must spend two weeks training for every Character Point spent to improve the skill.
Characters can reduce their training time by spending one Character Point per day cut from the training time. (The minimum training time for an advanced skill is always one week).
Example: The character improving his (A) medicine from 2D+2 to 3D spends four Character Points. If he has a teacher — anyone with (A) medicine at 3D or higher — he must train for four weeks. If he can’t find a teacher, he must train for eight weeks.
Learning New Skills
Skills and Specializations.
Characters can learn a new skill or specialization by paying enough Character Points to advance it one pip above the attribute.
There is no training time if the character “used the skill” in the last adventure (i.e., used the attribute when doing something that would be covered by the skill). Otherwise, use the normal rules for training time.
Example: Thannik wants to learn the bargain skill, which is based on his Perception (which is 3D). He pays three Character Points and gets bargain at 3D+1. If Thannik “bargained” in the last adventure — haggled with a merchant, for example — there’s no training time and the skill improves immediately.
If he didn’t bargain in the last adventure, he has to train. If he has a teacher (anyone with bargain at 3D+1 or higher), it takes three days of training to learn the skill. If he doesn’t have a teacher, he needs six days of training to learn the skill. He can reduce that time one day for each extra Character Point he spends.
The character must seek out an appropriate location and teacher for unusual skills. A character who wants to learn archaic starship piloting must find a willing teacher who has access to such a ship. Often, this will require going to a very primitive world, where such ships are still in common use.
Advanced Skills
A character may learn an advanced skill if he has the prerequisite skills and pays the Character Point cost to learn the skill at ID. (It costs two Character Points to learn the most advanced skills at ID.) Use the normal rules for advanced skills to determine training time.
Example: (A) medicine has a prerequisite of first aid 5D. If the character has first aid 5D, the character can learn (A) medicine at ID for two.
Other Game Statistics
Improving Attributes
Characters may improve an attribute one pip at a time. The Character Point cost is the number before the “D” times 10.
The training time is one week per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher. Without a teacher, the training time is two weeks per Character Point. A character must train to improve an attribute, but the training time is reduced one day per additional Character Point spent (minimum of one week training).
When a character improves an attribute one pip, all skills under that attribute (except advanced skills) also increase by one pip.
Example: Thannik wants to improve his Knowledge attribute from 2D+2 to 3D. It costs 20 Character Points and takes 20 weeks of training if he has a teacher.
When his Knowledge improves to 3D, all of his Knowledge skills also go up by one pip: alien species: Wookiees, goes from 3D+2 to 4D. There is a limit to how high an attribute can go — a person can only be so smart or strong. At the end of the training time, the character rolls the new attribute die code. The gamemaster must roll the attribute’s maximum (as listed in the species description in “Aliens”).
If the character’s roll is equal to or less than the gamemaster’s die roll, the character’s attribute goes up. If the character’s roll is higher, the attribute doesn’t go up and the character gets half of the Character Points back.
Example: A player’s human character has a Dexterity of 4D and wants to improve it to 4D+1. After spending 40 Character Points and training, the player rolls the new Dexterity of 4D+1 and gets a 17. The gamemaster sees that the human maximum Dexterity is 4D; he rolls 4D and gets a 15. The character’s Dexterity does not improve, but the character gets 20 Character Points back. If the player had rolled less than a 15, the Dexterity would have increased to 4D+l.
Move
Characters may improve their Move score one meter at a time. The Character Point cost is the character’s current Move. The training time is one week per Character Point spent if the character has a teacher; the time is two weeks per Character Point without a teacher. A character must train to improve Move, but the training time is reduced one day per additional Character Point spent (minimum of one week training). Characters may not improve their Move above their species’ maximum.
Example: A player wants to improve his human character’s Move from 11 to 12. The cost is 11 Character Points; with a teacher, the training time is 11 weeks. Twelve is the human Move maximum, so the character can’t increase his Move again.
Force-Sensitive
A character who is not Force-sensitive may choose to become Force-sensitive for 20 Character Points. (There is no training time requirement.)
The character receives one extra Force Point immediately, and must now play under the guidelines for Force-sensitive characters. See the chapter on “The Rules,” for information on Force-sensitive Characters.
It is much easier to begin with a Force-sensitive character rather than choose to become Force-sensitive after play has begun. A Force-sensitive character is in tune with the Force’s mystic ways. If the character has closely followed the ideals of the Jedi code, the gamemaster may allow the character to become Force-sensitive at a reduced price.
Once a character becomes Force-sensitive, the character cannot “lose” that Force-sensitivity.