Starting Character rebellion placement system

[Zarm R'keeg]

For the new batch of characters I've been creating (Rebels for the Introductory Adventure Set), I've designed some custom 'rebel placement' categories that I thought I'd share here in case they were of interest to anyone else.

When starting a character, I try to first determine species (human, alien, droid) and role (bounty hunter, scout, commando, medic, etc.) While these don't determine a character's 'class' officially like they do in D&D, I figure that knowing their job helps to shape the backstory that led to it, allows them to get a better idea of what skills they want to put points into, and gives an in-game idea of what the rebellion expects them to do/might assign them to do.

Once that's complete, I go for the usual- 18D split among attributes within species min/max, 7D (though that might've been an error and it was only 6?) to put into starting individual skill... for this latest batch, I also offered my traditional 'incentives'- feeding my OT bias, an extra 1D for skills (not attributes!) to anyone picking a background alien from the Cantina or Jabba's palace (shameless bribery!) and owing to the limited meeting time we have, an additional 1D bonus for anyone getting their stats figured out in under a certain amount of time.

Once those are all built out- and the player has, ideally, been working on name, backstory, and personality already- there's one thing left to decide; position in the rebellion. I've designed that in three classes: Officer, Agent, and Contractor.

Soldier- a rank-and-file member of the Alliance military, answerable to the chain of command. Pay system adapted from the sparks system. These guys start lowest but have the most support from the Alliance and potential for advancement.

Rank system may be a little controversial, consisting of only officers- this was done for two reasons:
1. As someone who got their understanding of ranks primarily from Star Trek, the enlisted system confuses me. Thus, in this system (like Star Trek sometimes seems to do), the starting rank is the lowest officer class, with that rank being of lower equivalent prestige (equivalent to the enlisted positions) than in the real world. Plus, even though the structure is army, the lowest few ranks have naval names because... I like the sound of them better. So, a complete travesty to anyone that knows the military well... but simplified for my simpleton's understanding to intuitively grasp better.
2. More importantly, our meetings are sparse. Bypassing the lower rankings and making them less streamlines and shortens the process, meaning that the PCs might actually achieve a decent lower rank within the lifetime of our gaming sessions; including accurate enlisted ranks and the like would probably preclude the group even reaching officer status before the sessions discontinue in a few years, if past experience is any guide.
So, with those provisos...
CP/Rank/Credits-per-mission salary
0-19 / Ensign / 100
20-39 / Lieutennant JG / 125
40-69 / Lieutennant / 150
70-99 / Captain / 200
100-139 / Major / 250
140-179 / Lieutennant Colonel / 300
180-219 / Colonel / 400
220-259 / Brigadier / 500
260-299 / Major General / 650
300-349 / Lieutennant General / 725
350-399 / General / 850
400-499 / Marshall / 1000


Agent - Like Kyle Katarn, these more-independant operators work largely outside the military chain of command, answerable to no one below a Major. They are answerable within their own command structure if a senior agent is present; otherwise they have full autonomy. They start at a higher pay grade and authority, but take much longer for promotion; for large chunks of time in-between, officers will be outearning and outpacing them. There is also a monetary and authoritative ceiling beyond which they cannot advance. Possibly a little too powerful? This is a popular choice.
0-49 / Agent 4th class / 120 (Answerable to any soldier rank Major or above)
50-134 / Agent 3rd class / 250 (Answerable to any soldier rank Colonel or above)
135-259 / Agent 2nd class / 450 (Answerable to any soldier rank Brigadier or above)
260+ / Agent 1st class / 800 (Answerable to any soldier rank Lieutennant General or above (including non-ranked leaders like Leia, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis, etc.))


Contractors, like ESB Han Solo, aren't joiners- they work for the rebellion, for a fee. This gives them the highest starting pay- 135 credits per mission- and no one to give them orders (though questionable decisions in the field can lead to review and firing). There is also no opportunity for advancement, or equipment/support from the Alliance; they have to provide their own equipment, etc. Contractors who perform well are frequently entreated to enlist... though usually at an equal or lower rank than those who have been faithfully plugging away at the officer path the whole time.

This is a system I used for my last group (though less codified) and seemed to work pretty well, giving the players a choice between early gains and long-term potential, plus freedom-vs.-Alliance-support balance. The introduction of pay is new, but I tried to incorporate that into the ranks.

Thoughts?
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Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[DougRed4]

I like it.

I used to stick to what I'd grown up with: Starting PCs are "Level 1" (or the equivalent). But now I've come to realize that the main goal is to have fun, and if this means you start higher, then you start higher!

We did this in our Star Trek game. Rather than starting out the typical RPG way (with scrubs straight out of Starfleet Academy), we started out as very competent (heroic) bridge crew: A Captain and a few Comanders and Lt. Commanders (with Advancements commensurate with their achievements in rank). It worked out really well and we had fun, though the campaign finally stopped after about 3-4 years as the players were a bit too tough (we started a new campaign with starting out characters in a different ST era).

I suppose part of the rationale of early RPG game design was to make sure that 'ceiling' wasn't hit too soon; in other words they gave you lots of time to grow and develop your campaign, if it went years (or even decades).

But if you think your campaign will likely only go a year or two, why start out as just a little better than average? Why not start out with extremely competent heroic PCs? (Jedi Knights, Special Ops soldiers, experienced diplomats, etc.) As long as you make adventures challenging and everyone has fun, then it's all good!
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green