Ending Iteration 4

Well, that was quite an iteration, wasn't it?  While it was entirely focused on one thing, ("Powers", and giving characters access to upgrades), it covered an enormous amount of ground.  I think you could make the case that it was 2-3 smaller iterations.  Psionic powers and Communion certainly took up a considerable amount of time, as did martial arts, and I've spent more time playtesting this iteration than nearly any other iteration.  In total, this full iteration has taken up nearly as much time as all of the rest of Psi-Wars put together.

Why is that?  Well, I suspect it comes from the fact that building powers is ultimately about building gameplay.  What I did this iteration is the equivalent to putting together all of those powers for D&D 4e, or the Charms of Exalted: They're the meat of what players will fuss over when discussing the choices they make during their game, and what they'll focus on with their experience.  After all, the Jedi is the soul of Star Wars, so the Space Knight will naturally be enormously important to many people who choose to play Psi-Wars, so they need to work very well, and the game needs to fit together.

Iteration 4 - The Final Playtest

Starlight sprang back into view with a strange, eye-watering blur as Jenna Skyrunner slowly pulled down the throttle on the hyperdrive of the Grey Morning and revealed a planet, brown and desolate. She smiled.

“I told you I could get you there.”

Dun leaned over the console of the spy vessel and marveled at it. “Old Maradon. I didn’t believe it could be found anymore.”

“Not if you follow those old star charts. Hyperspace has changed a lot since then. You have to know its ebbs and flows, like I do.” The blond flashed Dun a fetching smile. Alas, the other two people who had just stepped onto the small, compact bridge of the corvette held his attention..

Novina wore a modest, priestly gown crafted of violet silk that flowed around her body, bunching enough at the waist and hips to remind those who looked upon her that she was, in fact, a woman, with long sleeves that hid her hands. A ribbon the same color as her robe bound up her platinum-colored hair. Her gaze met Dun’s, and she smiled warmly before she remembered her position and averted her gaze back to the planet. She folded her hands into sleeves and stepped beside Dun.

The other woman owned the ship. Leylana finished gathering her hair into a smart pony bun and bound it up with band. To Dun’s surprise, she wore not haute couture, but a form-fitting battle-weave jump-suit, with a jaunty utility belt and some sturdy boots. She answered his raised eyebrow with a scoffing smile “I can be practical, Mr. Beltain.” Her eyes flitted from Novina to Dun, noting their closeness and Novina’s covert smile.

Novina’s raised her soft voice, her introspective tone suggesting she murmured more to herself than to her compatriots. “Alexian Command once controlled a million warships from their headquarters on Maradon. I’ve read texts that spoke of grand spires and breathtaking gardens. It seems all that is left now are bones of a dead world and endless deserts.”

“Not completely.” Leylana cooed smugly. She produced the small fragment of technology she stole from the dying Willow Star. “This is an old Alexian security key, and it’s keyed to the Maradon Headquarters. If that still exists, then we should be able to access its old databases and find...”

“A throneship.” Novina whispered, awed. She tilted her head, making swift mental calculations, connecting her knowledge of history and future history with this singular point. “You mean to use me to destroy the Empire.”

“Don’t sound so accusing. When I’m done, you’ll be a queen.”

Vesper Tane 3.0, the Ultimate Dark Space Knight

Vesper Tane serves two purposes.  First, of course, he's going to be our big bad for our final playtest.  We don't need to stat out a big bad, of course.  We can just declare what they have, and to an extend I'll do just that: He's gathered a band of Empire-hating, revolutionary pirates to his cause and, of course, he has both M'elena's loyalty and her heart.

But I also want to get a feel for whether or not 300 points is enough.  One way to do that is to look at a more expensive space knight.  At 350 points, Vesper was already a fairly convincing space knight, but what might a space knight look like at 400 points?  If I continued, I'd probably go into what a 500 point space knight looked like, but if I'm honest, it would likely be more of the same: more Communion, more Psionic powers, more Martial Arts.  There's plenty to explore in those, of course, but I don't see what 500 points would show us that 400 points doesn't already.

So, what does 400 points of space knight look like?  Well, in addition to the Communion powers he gained last time, we've added Psionic Force Swordmanship, which is what I wanted him to start with.  He's not actually any better with the Force Sword, as most of his skill has focused entirely on mastering his now considerable TK of 12, giving him a TK-Control of 18, with Beat at 20 and Jam at 15, giving him a rather nuanced power.  I've removed TK-Tether (his force sword now does that automatically) and replaced it with Grip Mastery.  I've also given him Contact-TK, to explore the idea of that as a perk.  This means when he's not using his TK, he can have +3 to his ST "for free."

Dun Beltain 4.0, Space Knight of Humble Origins

At last, Dun benefits from the new Space Knight template.  In some ways, he looks more like his first iteratation template than the other two iterations.  He's dropped all of his security elements, regained his psychic danger sense (and added Visions (Dreams)).  I've given him his Lost Alexian Force Sword, meaning he currently wields the coolest force sword in the game thus far.  We also know the name of his Space Princess: Novina.  And for his power-package, I've given him martial arts, and chosen to expand more fully into the Defensive Form, making him a master of the buckler.

I've immediately noticed a problem: To precognitively parry and block, you need two separate skills.  That's unfortunate.  So, I've replaced it with a Precognitive Defense, which seems plenty to me.  He can now precognitively block, parry, and bounce shots back at his opponents.

The net result is a definite boost in the already highly competent Dun.  He enjoys defenses in the range of 16, 100 points of DR and Danger Sense, as well as a really awesome sword.  He's definitely a space knight.  Compared to Vesper or Rafari, he lacks a real understanding of what he's doing.  He has only minimal meditation and philosophy skills and largely untapped Psionic potential, and no training in Communion.  This is likely going to be true of most starting space knights, as a space knight has enormous possibilities for growth (which is why their templates don't get Experienced power-ups), so a "master" space knight is probably closer to 500 points in value.

Lady Leylana Grey 4.0, Aristocratic Spy

The trick with Leylanda was that she was already pretty good.  The only things I really wanted from her were, perhaps, a greater connection into the Imperial Elite and DD-6 as a full-on ally.  Before, the latter was highly impractical, but now with robot costs down to a reasonable level, DD-6 should clock in at about 300 points.  I haven't checked precisely, but my back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests she's close enough.

But that's only about 25 points.  We have a full power-up we can purchase, so what do we get?  Psionic Powers and Martial Arts are right out: the point of Leylana is that she's not a combat character, and we're exploring psionic powers.  Thus, she's a great opportunity to see if Experienced characters or Heroic characters are good enough.  In this case, I've chosen to go with Ghost from the Spy Power-Ups, because I enjoyed her being super-stealthy in Iteration 2, and also becuase the Heroic Power-Up is a full 50 points, which means she can't buy DD-6 as an ally, and I like the idea of that.  So, this is Leylana, as a super-competent stealthy spy.

Kendra Corleoni, Escaped Slave, Felinoid Bounty Hunter

Now that we have a more finished version of the Bounty Hunter, we can expand Kendra to a full 300 points.  Felinoid is already 35, so I chose to simply expand her existing Bounty Hunter/Slave/Felinoid advantages for another 15 points to round out the character.  Thus, we can finally see Kendra without her race really slowing her down.  With those extra points, I've been able to expand on her slave background (evidently she was held by some snake-like civilization called the Slithians) and note her own race as a cultural familiarity/language, meaning she's the most diverse of our characters when it comes to interacting with aliens.  I also have the points to really give her the pistol-slinging badassness that we've wanted for her since iteration 1, giving her an astonishing Beam Weapons (Pistol) of 19, including full-rate Dual Weapon combat and Fast Firing, meaning she can really lay down some firepower if she's so inclined.

This is probably the close to the very final version of her.

Playtest 3: Rafari and the Nahudi Warriors vs the Empire!

The previous playtest was to make sure that our space knights have a certain sort of minimum competence. Now I want to see how far I can push them. If a space knight has little trouble taking on 7 criminals by himself, how about a single space knight vs ~30 imperial troopers?

To balance the scales a little, I'd like to see how our Alien Warriors do as well, as Rafari offers a great opportunity to look at Alien Warriors. The story practically writes itself. Rafari, having completed his training and parting ways from his dear friend, Vesper Tane, returns to his homeworld, only to find it invaded by the Empire! He finds his tribe readying for war, and his welcome is a bit rough. “Rafari has gone soft,” they say, but Rafari proves them wrong and convinces them to let him assist them in protecting their homeworld.

The Nahudi people are heavily outnumbered, so we'll give Rafari 5 warriors and 5 scouts. His opponents will be 6 heavy imperials (thus three guns) supported by 5 imperial carbine troopers, with an advancing force of 15 imperial carbine troopers and 5 elite troopers in a kill squad leading the assault.

The Nehudi warriors arrived at their chosen battleground early. Two rough patches of rocky ground, rich with cover, face off over a relative no-man's land of loose sand. The ground is such that characters must either stand on Uneven ground (in the stony area) or on sandy ground (in between), for a -2 to attack and -1 to defense. Two large cliff faces line either side of the battleground, and the scouts have prepped deadfalls in these. The best way to get from one side to the other is in the cover of the cliff-face, which offers plenty of outcroppings to take cover behind. Going over the open field will force you into a field of fire without cover. The total distance between both rocky areas is submachine gun range, about -5. It'll take 3 rounds of movement to get from one to the other.

That night, Rafari medidates and uses Wisdom of Communion. He is given a vision of the battle the following day “Only with great sacrifice can a world be saved.” It's a grim destiny, and the GM decides that both sides can access one point of destiny. Rafari opens his eyes, ready to do what must be done.

The battle will take place in a sort of canyon.  The battleground is flanked on either side by canyon walls full of fissures that allow one to hide.  The mouth of the canyon is rocky and uneven, followed by a broad, sandy depression, and then lifts into another uneven rocky area.

The Imperial troops march by daylight. The scouts hide in the rocky ground that overlooks the sand, and the warriors hide in the rocky outrcroppings at the entrance to the canyon, ready to ambush the imperials. To properly ambush, both the Scouts and the Warriors must succeed at their Stealth rolls, but because they need to be well-hidden enough to attack from behind, the Warriors need to vanish, so they'll apply a -5. The Warriors have Stealth 15 and succeed with exactly 10. The Scouts have a 18 and succeed with a 12. The Kill Squad has the best Perception at 11, and have visors worth +2 to perception checks if heat signatures matter. The roll a 13, which means an exact success, the same as the Warriors. The GM rules that the kill squad is in the warriors when they notice the Warriors and begin to shout out a warning. The empire is not suprised but neither do they see the deadfalls.

As the troops made their way to them, Rafari meditated. He had been meditating all morning, so the GM grants him a +2 to his Communion roll, in addition to his +1 for meditation. He gets a miracle on a 10 or less. He gets a 14. He argues that he seeks a miracle to save his world and is willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary, and suggests the Immunity to Pain miracle. The GM agrees to let him spend his point of Destiny. Clearly, without some miracle, his whole tribe could easily die, so he gains a +4 to his reaction. He has also stuck to his beliefs, recently forsaking Vesper Tane for his heresy, so the GM grans an additional +2. He rolls an 18 (!), +6 is 24. Well! We could go for a Primordial Avatar, but Rafari follows no path. Of course, that doesn't have to matter for Communion, so let's imbue him with the Primordial Avatar of the Righteous Crusader.

I had actually hoped to have a more modest battle, but I suppose being imbued with godlike power shortly before going to war with the enemy has a certain sort of meaning to it. It certainly utterly changes the dynamics of this fight.

Rafari is immune to pain, has effectively HT 16 to resist subdual and death, has a will of 19, is Transcendantly impressive, recovers 1 fatigue per second, gets a free Concentrate action per turn, and is fixated with destroying the Imperial Troopers before him. He loses 2 HP and loses an additional HP per minute.

This is perhaps inappropriate. He's not really prepared to channel the powers of this particular avatar, but I hadn't expected to roll that well, and I'm curious to see how this will play out.  It's an opportunity to see an avatar in action!

Other pertinent modifiers: the Nehudi are defending their homeland, so have +1. All terrain is either sandy or uneven, providing a -2 to attack and a -1 to defense. It's brightly lit, so nobody benefits from dark combat.

Rafari 2.1

So, I made a few minor errors with Rafari last time.  He needed Esoteric Medicine, representing his understanding of psionic powers and how they interact with the body, to complete his prana-bindu training.  I've fixed that and, as with Vesper Tane, granted him Communion, representing the fact that he's completed his training in understanding Communion.

Unlike Vesper Tane, Rafari is focused entirely on Learned Prayers and Communion itself.  A few things jump out at me as I look at that list: the best Communion powers are in the first tier, meaning that going up to Communion 7 from 6 just isn't that interesting.  It might be worth looking at that more carefully.  Still, Flesh Wounds and the Wisdom of Communion are nice abilities.  I'm curious how well he'll do without the benefits of a Path or Legendary Reputation or Destiny.

Given that Rafari has chosen to take Gift of the Life Force, I have removed his Regeneration and dumped it into his Metabolism control, which takes him to his maximum of +10. With the spare point from Communion traits, I've given him a Stabilizing Skill.

Playtest 2: Vesper Tane vs Criminals (and M'Elena)

If we have all of these wonderful mooks at our disposal, we should use some!  How well can Vesper Tane (and most Space Knights) stand up against a set of mooks?  I'd expect him to be pretty handy against them, especially low level ones like criminals.  But how many is a good number?  Let's go for 7: 5 criminal goons, an Enforcer and a Bruiser.  I expect that he should be able to defeat them fairly handily, but I'm curious how well.

Furthermore, I'd like to introduce M'Elena to Vesper Tane, get her finally working for him, but I'm also curious how well an assassin will function against a space knight.  Granted, M'Elena is 300 points and Vesper is 350, but I wouldn't expect that to be an absolutely dominating difference.  Given that she doesn't have psionic powers, will he be stronger or weaker?  Are his points "wasted points"  and he'd be better off focusing entirely on martial arts over psionic powers and communion, or will they serve him well?

Vesper Tane, Dark Space Knight 2.0

The point of exploring Vesper Tane in such detail is multi-fold. First, by expanding him to 350 points and then 400, I get an idea of how well the power-up system works as a basis for experience. Of course, ideally heroes will purchase bits and pieces piecemeal rather than at 50 point chunks, but this should give us an idea of what building up a character. It will also give me an idea of 300 points is enough. Is 400 points closer to what players expect a real space knight to be like?

So, this is Vesper Tane after he has completed his training. He has gained a connection with Communion, though he has turned to the dark side of the Id. His drive to destroy the Empire has made the Path of the Rebellious Beast profoundly tempting. He embraces the Id because he believes that the destruction of the Empire is necessary and worth the sacrifice to the ravening, bestial greed of the id. His study has given him Dark Communion 6, unlocked his Destiny to bring down the (an?) Empire, and his Legendary Reputation for the Rebellious Beast, as well has helped him learn about the very nature of Communion itself, which explains the conscious choice to walk the Path of the Rebellious Beast. To do so, he must rearrange his disadvantages. He no longer directly serves his Space Knight order: For walking the path of the Rebellious Beast, Master Kimon threw him out, and Rafari has turned his back on him, even if Vesper Tane refuses to turn his back on them. His nightmares have cleared up now that that his connection with Dark Communion has solidified into something he can control, and that he understands his true purpose in the Galaxy. To funnel his power, he has built his hatred of the Empire into full-blown Intolerance, and the Rebellious Beast begins to seep into his mind, manifesting as an easy-to-control Bad Temper.

Playtest 1: Rafari vs Vesper Tane

Remnants I - Savage Marauder by Squiddy Treat

The first playtest I want to do is two space knights duking it out.  A force sword battle in Psi-Wars should feel like a lightsaber duel in star wars.  Does it?  For this reason, I created two new space knights, Vesper Tane and Rafari, each with their own unique style and their own unique psionic focus.  I envision the scene as a friendly practice duel under the tutelage of a master, but the intent is clear; Can two space knights duke it out in an appropriately cinematic fashion?

Assassin 2.0

So far, M'elena has proved that the Assassin template works well enough.  The assassin has Stealth 18, and sufficient DX and skill to hit an 18 in any combat skill she chooses to focus on.  The only remaining concerns are power-ups, and three immediately spring to mind.  First, just like the Bounty Hunter, there's certainly a "stealth component" to appearing helplessly beautiful, so she also has access to the Femme Fatale power-up, exactly as the Bounty Hunter.  Second, some players might prefer to see the assassin as a sniper.  While I want to keep the assassin focused on melee, the base template has a minimum of 20 points in melee skills which means someone who takes the Sniper power-up will still be competent at hand-to-hand combat.  Finally, some assassins might want to focus on the most traditional of assassin techniques: Poison.

M'elena Blackheart, Alien Slave-Assassin 1.1

I wanted to give Vesper Tane an assassin as a dragon, and I wanted her to be an alien. A space elf would be ideal, but existing elf templates are a little too attached to the fantasy milieu to work out of the box, so I chose an Avatar (Female) template from Bio-Tech (though I’m obviously ignoring the “Taboo Trait (Aggression)”, for the purposes of Bloodlust; her master has clearly broken her of any reluctance to kill). That makes her a race highly sought after for slavery, an obvious parallel to the twi’lek race. Thus, she has a slave background at this point, one more submissive than Kendra’s, representing her shortly before Vesper Tane cut her chains.

This gives us a chance to see both a high-cost alien racial template (66 points!) paired with the assassin template to see how things work out at 300 points. The net effect is a highly competent assassin. Her extraordinary DX means she can get by with very few points on her skills. Because of her improved DX, I did shift some points around, so she could score some Combat Reflexes, but everything else has remained the same. The result is a combatant who can go toe-to-toe with nearly anyone, and is swift and flexible enough to get there in short order.  She does the job, though I'll be curious to see how well she does against someone like Kendra.

Unlike the previous characters, I went ahead and worked out the gear on M'elena.  Her greatest constraint isn't money (I spent less than $15,000 on her gear) but weight.  Presumably, she enjoys a closet full of alluring slave-garments and probably has a few robots at her disposal, but I didn't cover them.  I picture her in a full, skin-tight battleweave suit, with a mask and helmet covering her face and hair and making her look inhuman and she stalks her prey in almost complete silence except for the hum of her blades.

This is the second version of this incarnation, focusing more completely on Brawl and improving her focus on Signature Moves.

New Background Lens: Sequestered

Sequestered 20 points

You have lived a life of isolation, one in which you were prepared to be something. You might have spent years as a monk, or been the chosen messiah of a cult, or you might have been ruthlessly trained to be the galaxy’s greatest assassin. You’ve learned an enormous amount of highly focused knowledge, but your social skills have suffered. You don’t really understand how the world outside of your temple or dojo really works.

Skills: Savoir-Faire (Dojo or Temple) (E) IQ+1 [2].

Additional Skills: Another 18 points chosen from among Hidden Lore (Any appropriate) (A) IQ [2], History (H) IQ-1 [2], Judo (H) DX-1 [2], Karate (H) DX-1 [2], Literature (H) IQ-1 [2], Meditation (H) Will-1 [2], Mind Block (A) Will [2], Philosophy (H) IQ-1 [2], Religious Ritual (H) IQ-1 [2], Teaching (A) IQ [2], Theology (H) IQ-1 [2], or increase any lens skill by one level for 2 points, or two levels for 6 points.

Additional Traits: You may also spend your remaining lens points, or some of your template advantage points on improved Claim to Hospitality (Cult, Temple, Dojo) [varies], Clerical Investment [5], Contact (Fellow cultist, monk or martial artist, skill 15, 18 or 21, 9 or less somewhat reliable) [2, 3 or 4], Contact Group (Cult, Temple or Dojo, Skill 15, 18 or 21, 6 or less, somewhat reliable) [5, 8, 10], Higher Purpose (Varies) [5], Religious Rank [5/level], Patron (Cult, temple or order) [varies], Title [1], or any remaining points on an appropriate martial arts or psionic style of your choice.


Optional Disadvantages: Add the following disadvantage options to your template: Clueless [-10], Code of Honor (Varies), Delusions (False beliefs about the world) [varies], Disciplines of Faith (Ritualism or Mysticism) [-5 or -10], Duty (To Order or Cult, 9 or less, 12 or less, 15 or less) [-5 to -15], Easy to Read [-10], Enemies (Former Order/Cult, Watcher or Hunter, 6 or less) [Varies], Fanaticism [-15], Gullible [-10*], Honesty [-10*], Oblivious [-5], Pacifism (Any!) [Varies], Truthfulness [-5*], Vow (Any; Poverty, Chastity or Silence are common) [Varies], 

Novina d'Alexia, the Last Alexian Princess

I wanted to finally give Dun Beltain his princess, but I wanted her to be very important, without being fundamentally very physical. Let Kendra be our empowered warrior-woman. Novina is our priestess. She’s also a great chance to explore how powerful a starting Mystic can be. The results are surprisingly pleasing. She’s extraordinarily powerful with Communion, able to call up miracles with astonishing regularity, especially with her Destiny. I was also able to give her a fairly deep mastery of ESP, including the flavorful Oracle style. She’s no psi-knight of course, and is deeply lacking when it comes to combat skills, but if I had wanted her to be a primary combatant, I would have built her as a Space Knight. This creates an interesting contrast: She is more bene-gesserit than jedi. To compensate for this, our all-important princess, of course, is protected by a cadre of elite guardians, which sounds like a great time to pull out ceremonial guards.

Novina also features an entirely new background lens, originally suggested by Kalzazz: Sequestered, representing someone who spent a lifetime training in some isolated dojo or temple, stripped of human contact. Novina was raised from birth to be the final hope of the Alexian dynasty, the last heir of that sacred bloodline. Thus, she was never allowed to meet anyone and her deep connection with Dun Beltain, the outsider who rescued her, is cause for alarm within the cult of guardians.

Vesper Tane, Dark Space Knight 1.1

Vesper Tane, eventually, is going to be the Big Bad of the coming ultimate Iteration 4 playtest, but he also gives us a chance to see if we can make a decent "dark" psi-knight on 300 points. He’s an outcast, a criminal and a pirate, who has seen the dark side of the Empire, and his growing (but not yet controlled) connection with Communion manifests in nightmares that spur him forward to rid the galaxy of the Empire forever.

With a Psi-Knight, you really need to pick what direction you’re going to go in, and I chose psionic power over Martial Arts for Vesper. TK-Control at level 8 might not seem like much (a basic lift of 7), but he can effortlessly move a rifle and Push a person over, and with his phenomenal Will of 16, he can afford, to boost his TK-Control to 11 (on a 12 or less), and with serious effort (say, 6 fatigue), he can afford to boost it to 17, which means he can be much stronger than the average person for about a minute, should he need to be.

I had originally chosen Psionic Forceswordmanship, but that style needs even greater focus on TK-Grab or TK-Control than I am able to give with the template. So I’ve shifted to the Destructive form, which suits a more brutal concept. He seems competent enough: His will and Psychokinesis give him skill 17 in Power-Blow, which is terrifying, and he has (like most psi-knights) a Parry of 13, which is on par with his Precognitive Parry. Between the two, he has a fairly reasonable chance of parrying with a 14 or less against other melee opponents, and 13 or less against blasters. A few points in Beat has given him skill enough to batter down most of his opponent’s, and it would be nice to give him Dirty Fighting, but I lack the necessary points. Later, perhaps.

Is Vesper Tane good enough as a starting character to impress a player?  Yes.  He still has plenty of room to grow, but I think he manages to fit enough power into a template to be a believable space knight.  He also shows enough contrast with Rafari that I think the template is sufficiently flexible.

This actually the second edit of Vesper Tane, to better include Signature Moves (as they're fundamental to this iteration).

Rafari, Heroic Alien Space Knight 1.1

Rafari is my first attempt at a true Psi-Knight, the final successor to Dun's template.  I also wanted to tinker with humanoid aliens, and for Rafari, I used the "Drylander" template from Biotech.  I presume his planet, Nehuda, is a desolate desert, and his people, the Nehudi, are some of those crazy-awesome Alien Warriors I've written up.  Rafari is a heroic space knight, a close parallel to what we might see a Jedi look like, though I've given him some rather unique abilities including the Prana-Bindu esoteric style, a Primitive/Survivor lens.

The question is: Is he good enough? Well, with a Force Sword of 18, Flying Leap 13, Acrobatics 13, Precognitive Parry 13, Sure-Footed (Uneven), Flourish and the Graceful Form under his belt, he's not bad.  His Psychic Healing power grants him the ability to regenerate slowly and to gain complete control of his metabolism, allowing him to either boost his HT to 19 or to boost his Basic Speed to 8.  This means he has a parry of 13 with his force sword and a dodge of 12, and an acrobatic defense will add +2 to either.

He's not great, and he doesn't have access to Communion yet, but he's pretty good.  I don't think most players would turn their nose up at him.

This is actually the second version of this character, which I adjusted after a discussion regarding my signature moves, and I realized I hadn't included any.  This version explicitly includes four signature moves from Graceful Form (though none purchased with Trademark Move)

Scavenger 2.0

The scavenger is a fairly straightforward template.  It's niche is "all things technological," though with a focus on acquisition and repair.  All relevant skills are 16 to 18, which is more than competent enough.  The previous template was a bit long on points by accident.  The final version has the gold standard of 25 points of advantages.

For power-ups, I've chosen Cyberneticist, which will augment the Scavenger's mastery of technology into mastery of computers and robots.  It should be noted that the Cyberneticist talent and the Artificer talent together amounts to 15/level, which means it might be worthwhile to exchange those points for a straight +4 to IQ.  Next, we have Relic Hunter, focusing the scavenger on turning his natural acquisitiveness for ancient technology and artifacts of power. Finally, for those artificers who want to acquire technology by any means necessary, the thief specializes in high manual dexterity and thievery.

Combat Robots

Now that we have aliens worked out, we can look at the other sci-fi staple: Robots! This is a topic I’ve already touched on previously, so it should be fairly easy going to rebuild it. While we’ve adjusted the robot costs since our last iteration, robot stats remain the same, so all we need to do is ponder our previous design and add a little more complexity… if we want it!

Alien Warriors

Setting Psi-Wars in space gives us the opportunity to explore more than just Action elements; we can also explore the typical tropes of sci-fi, and that means aliens! But what sort of aliens? Well, Star Wars doesn’t really support the in-depth exploration of alien races that, say, Star Trek does (for example, the Twi’lek race wasn’t even named until West End Games released their RPG). Star Wars follows the space opera conventions of taking a generic pulp story (say, a wild west story) and changing the window dressing to fit the genre. So, instead of Cowboys and Indians, we have a story featuring Colonists and Alien Warriors.

The term “savage” or “barbarian” or even the euphemistic “native” are, in reality, racist and dehumanizing terms. Our ancestors comforted themselves with the fiction that the people over the hill weren’t really people, but a sort of monster. “Indians” were wild, whooping monsters; “Huns” were the devil’s footsoldiers, Gog and Magog; those Scythians don’t even speak Greek, so they don’t count as real people, etc. At the same time, as cultures began to blend, the “we” began to admire the “them” and we get stories of the noble savage. This sort of story features strongly in most pulp serials; think of Tonto and the Lone Ranger, or Robinson Crusoe and Friday or, for a more modern example, Mani from Brotherhood of the Wolf. To continue to treat humans like this is highly questionable, but the resilience of these tropes, as well as how they cross cultures (The “savages” considered “civilized” people just as savage, though usually debauched and weak) speaks to their power as tropes.

So, Star Wars definitely invokes the idea of the alien savage and neatly sidesteps the dehumanizing nature of the tropes by pointing out that aliens are inhuman. Chewbacca, with his reliance on strength and his “primitive” crossbow becomes Han Solo’s Friday. The ferocity, cleverness and durability of cultures like the Bedouin and the Apache inspired the Tusken Raiders (and the Fremen, from whom the Tusken Raiders are also clearly inspired). Even the Ewoks, somewhat weirdly, were inspired by the Viet Cong: George Lucas envisioned Star Wars as ultimately a protest of the Vietnam War, and he defended the imagery of the primitive Ewoks defeating the technological empire as inspired by the Viet Cong defeating the technologically superior Americans.

So what I’d like to do here is also to invoke the fear and respect people have for more primal cultures, at least as they tend to be portrayed in stories. I’m not looking to specifically invoke cultures so much as stories cultures tell about their boogie-men: the dangerous mountain men, the ferocious jungle warriors, spooky witches and wild berserkers. But I also want to invoke the respect these cultures earned from their “civilized” enemies after sustained contact and combat. I also want to point out that while their technology might be different, even inferior, they do not lack for sophistication. They might be wild and dangerous, but ultimately, you can sympathize with them, perhaps even join them, as might be the case of a Frontier Marshal or a Commando, joining forces with alien warriors to defeat the technological juggernaut of the empire.

Realistically, these “alien warriors” should have racial templates. They should be scaled lizard people, or beautiful and exotic blue-skinned space-elves, or adorably large-eyed fish-people with crazy spears. But in this pass, I want to keep things generic. And, of course, these sorts of stories were originally told about humans, so a generic human template should work.