So a couple of weeks ago, I got into a mobile game called Star Trek: Timelines. I'm not normally one for mobile games. I've tried dozens and can't stand most of them. This one, though, got me thinking in a bunch of different directions, and one of them was relevant to how I approach character development on Chaos.
In this game, every crew member has two or three key skills. There are six broad, generic skills: Security, Command, Diplomacy, Science, Engineering, and Medicine. So for example, I look at my little Picard and he's got three key skills: Diplomacy, then Command, then Science as a tertiary. You use skills to tackle away team missions from various angles. There's ship combat and all kinds of random crap mixed in. It's a fun little game.
I started wondering what would happen if I tried to stat out the average Chaos character in this game. Pretty quickly, I realized that of the eighteen billion different skills our characters use to solve problems around here, most of'em would fall under Security, maybe Command a bit. That's been true for most of my faces. (Jorus, incidentally, would be Engineering, then Command, then Diplomacy. He's a fairly terrible Jedi in any kind of close-range combat sense; it's been more fun than I've had with any of my old juggernauts over the years.)
My next thought was 'all right, but Star Wars solves more problems with fighting than most of Star Trek does,' but that's only true to a point. If I was to plot Star Wars problem-solving against the simplified, broad skills in this little game I play, I'd get things like...Qui-Gon and Palpatine? Diplomacy. R2 and Galen Erso and Han Solo? Frequently Engineering. Leia? Diplomacy and Command. Heck, lots of the main plot points in Empire Strikes Back would come down to Medicine. There's plenty of room in Star Wars for fun, engaging problem-solving that isn't completely centered on combat.
I've watched with interest as people like Rashae Lovous and Rianna Organa have tried to popularize RP opportunities that don't hinge 100% on violence. Does combat have its place in Star Wars? Holy crap yes, and it can be tons of fun. But I can't think of a single Star Wars film where all the problem-solving relies on combat. Seems to me that it would be dang cool to see more Jedi play high-stakes diplomat with the new territory swap rules, or to have tech gurus square off in invasions. There's a ton of opportunities here that I'm just starting to engage with, and it's intensely exciting.
In this game, every crew member has two or three key skills. There are six broad, generic skills: Security, Command, Diplomacy, Science, Engineering, and Medicine. So for example, I look at my little Picard and he's got three key skills: Diplomacy, then Command, then Science as a tertiary. You use skills to tackle away team missions from various angles. There's ship combat and all kinds of random crap mixed in. It's a fun little game.
I started wondering what would happen if I tried to stat out the average Chaos character in this game. Pretty quickly, I realized that of the eighteen billion different skills our characters use to solve problems around here, most of'em would fall under Security, maybe Command a bit. That's been true for most of my faces. (Jorus, incidentally, would be Engineering, then Command, then Diplomacy. He's a fairly terrible Jedi in any kind of close-range combat sense; it's been more fun than I've had with any of my old juggernauts over the years.)
My next thought was 'all right, but Star Wars solves more problems with fighting than most of Star Trek does,' but that's only true to a point. If I was to plot Star Wars problem-solving against the simplified, broad skills in this little game I play, I'd get things like...Qui-Gon and Palpatine? Diplomacy. R2 and Galen Erso and Han Solo? Frequently Engineering. Leia? Diplomacy and Command. Heck, lots of the main plot points in Empire Strikes Back would come down to Medicine. There's plenty of room in Star Wars for fun, engaging problem-solving that isn't completely centered on combat.
I've watched with interest as people like Rashae Lovous and Rianna Organa have tried to popularize RP opportunities that don't hinge 100% on violence. Does combat have its place in Star Wars? Holy crap yes, and it can be tons of fun. But I can't think of a single Star Wars film where all the problem-solving relies on combat. Seems to me that it would be dang cool to see more Jedi play high-stakes diplomat with the new territory swap rules, or to have tech gurus square off in invasions. There's a ton of opportunities here that I'm just starting to engage with, and it's intensely exciting.
