Graveyard of Alderaan help

[MrBear]

I'm running the graveyard adventure for my group. The jedi has an old z-95 and I want to give him a new toy from the starfighter stores aboard The Last Chance.
Any thoughts on what fighter to give? I'm thinking of the clone wars era y-wing. Just some minor tweaking to reflect it's earlier stats, but keeping most of the ones from rebellion era. Do people think it has shields? I don't recall if they do or not from the episode I watched.
It has a x2 hyperdrive and is slightly slower space speed according to the SAGA edition.

[Kaloth Varsk]

Instead of a Y-Wing, if you are going clone war era, use a clone war ship. I could see a Jedi starfighter being a possibility, or maybe a J Type Royal starfighter would be a better fit. (That was Amadala's ship from PM.)

Stats from an online conversion sourcebook:

Naboo J-type Royal Starship stats
Craft: Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering
Corps J-type Royal Starship w/Nubian 327
hyperdrive
Type: Space transport
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 76 m
Skill: Space Transports
Crew: 8 (2 flight crew, 6 ancillary crew) and 8
astromech droids
Passengers: 18
Cargo Capacity: undisclosed
Consumables: 1 week
24
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x .8
Hyperdrive Backup: none
Nav Computer: yes
Maneuverability: 2D+2
Space: 9
Atmosphere: 400; 1150 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 2D+1
Sensors:
Passive: 15/0D
Scan: 30/1D
Search: 50/3D
Focus: 2/4D
Weapons:
None.
Cost: Not for general sale.
The Queen's royal starship is also equipped with
a large escape pod capable of carrying the Queen
and a complement of personal guards...up to 8
people total.

You could also modify it and stick a weapon on it. Seems like a fitting ship though the more I think about it.

[KageRyu]

According to some official material (old Starlog Magazines, Technical Journals, Reference Books to the technology and ships of Star Wars produced during the 80's - in fact, the bulk of the official WEG writeup in the Sourcebook is excerpted from one such source), the Rebellion Era Y-Wings were in fact fighters from the Republic that the Rebellion was able to salvage, and thus not as fast or manueverable as the X-Wing. While much of the source material from Starlof was reprinted in the early 90's due to the rise in popularity of both the D6 WEG system and the X-Wing and Tie Fighter PC games, some of this material was still left out, however, by comparing the data from Technical Journal #3 and the Sourcebook it is clear they share roots. The expanded capsule (which does not specificly mention them as republic) states:

[Fallon Kell]

[vanir]

My own group are just entering this era and will soon be doing Graveyard of Alderaan since none of us have done many of the book-adventures. Our main skills are up around 6d and we've a lightsabre armed Jedi with about 4d force skills in control/sense and 7d weapon skill, plus some tough aliens like a Coynite and a couple of Horansi, and a tough little space fleet with a Y-Wing, Phoenix-Hawk light pinnace and a CEC Corvette (we have shares in with an NPC group of sponsors).

I'm definitely beefing up and partially rewriting this adventure, by necessity. Villains and enemy troops can only tend to get the better of the party using versatility (sheer CP advantage of bosses) and flashy Imperial equipment, used correctly. If even elite veterans face us in our element, those one or two skills each PC has around 6-7d really kick some butt.

On the plus side I get to GM this more canonically rather than gearing encounters towards party skill, if a TIE wing should be protecting a station, I put a TIE wing there, no need to throttle it back to just four TIE fighters in case the party's ordinary little stock light freighter can't handle it. I can put what should be there, and rely on the party's ability to come up with tactics and solutions versus superior force, they've got at least enough power to think on the run and take some blows while coming up with a plan.

My approach to what should have been at Alderaan thus follows canon for the political role and society of the planet at the time leading up to its destruction.

Alderaan was ostensibly a peaceful world, during the rise of the Empire, just after the Clone Wars they turned pacifist and fought Palpatine in the Senate, not so overtly as to justify action against the planet but diplomatically. Much of their protection from Palpatine's New Order came from their much publicised pacifism. The Emperor couldn't take direct action against a pacifist world without inciting galactic outrage in the systems unless he was prepared to dissolve the Senate and declare martial law over the entire galaxy. So he had to wait for the Death Star to be built to do this, but that would've changed if Alderaan had a strong military and opposed him in the Senate, then he could declare them a Separatist revival and take action. Their pacifism and no visible military was their protection.

They did have a systems security force but it was largely clandestine, under the command of General (then Lieutenant-General) Reikan. His base was hidden on a moonbase in the system. Other than this, which was kept hidden, was the palace guard and planetary security, only the palace guard were paramilitary as the security force were largely a planet based police force, armed with speeders and small arms. The palace guard would have a heavier armory for emergencies but would number only a few companies and a squadron or two of civil registered starfighters.

All this means is things like Acclamators and Venators are unlikely to the point of highly doubtful, Alderaan would've used them during the Clone Wars but relinquished them during the rise of the Empire when they took their pacifist stand against the Emperor's continuing dictatorship.

Large stocks of Clone Wars era fighters like the ARC-170 or V-Wing interceptors are also unlikely, probably relinquished along with the proto-Star Destroyers. Even the clandestine Alderaanian military wouldn't have them.

In keeping with the clandestine nature of the Alderaanian military, that would mean probably converted bulk cruisers, the assault-frigate dreadnaught conversion, things like that and probably how these vessels ended up in the hands of the Rebellion. General Reikan and much of the military abandoned their moonbase and fled the system with the arrival of the Death Star, there was no time for them to lead an emergency evacuation of the planet and they had no possible show in a stalling action against the hangared complement of the Death Star. They would've been swatted like flies and destroyed too, so fled.

That would leave the Last Chance, a palatial flagship probably registered to the Royal Palace as a cruiser rather than a warship, most likely the only capital class vessel other than corvettes and diplomatic transports officially registered to Alderaan.

I'd say among the clandestine military at the moonbase, some Y-Wing squadrons are highly likely and again probably how they wound up in the hands of the Rebellion.

However the palace guard and flagship complement I think would be a different case. The Y-Wing is very much a military only starfighter for base assault and force projection. I think the starfighter wing of the palace on Alderaan itself would have things like the SoroSuub Planetary Fighter (Starships R&E fan-sourcebook), as this is a craft they could register and use in parades whilst maintaining the illusion they have no real military threat to Imperial forces.

On board the Last Chance I think they would have some interesting starfighter class craft in small numbers, perhaps something like four of those SoroSuub Corsair "assault cruisers" for picket ships and heavy defence. This for their hyperdrive equipped complement. Then for general starfighter complement I'm thinking about something like 6-12 of those Gauntlet starfighters, they're quite powerful but in small numbers and with general availability in the era shouldn't draw too much attention unless used in force.

The point being I don't think the starfighter stores of the Last Chance are going to be a standard line of battle formation like what you see in formal Republic or Imperial military forces. This due to the role and political standing of Alderaan in the time leading up to its destruction. A Jedi starfighter, even a few of them are altogether very possible, Alderaan might've even become one of few places you could still find some sitting in a warehouse or a hangar repair deck under a tarpaulin following the Purge. But their hyperdrive rings would be lost in the asteroid/debris field.