Galactic Underworld Adversaries

Some say that conflict is the lifeblood of the galaxy and there are always those who will find a means of profiting from any endeavor, no matter how unpleasant. Arms dealers have access to large amounts of weaponry and are willing to sell them to anyone, for a price. The means by which these individuals come by their stock varies wildly; some are former mercenaries, while others haunt battlefields like scavengers looking for cast-aside weapons instead of a meal, and still others have extensive networks of contacts within existing military organizations. Regardless, these individuals are often in the market for smugglers or others who have ships of their own to transport goods to and from customers. Due to the sheer volume of firepower they have available to bring to bear if the situation requires it, it is an extremely bad idea to cross an arms dealer.

Skills: Negotiation [ ], Ranged (Heavy) 2, Ranged (Light) 2, Vigilance [].

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

A government that spans an entire galaxy is, by its very nature, bureaucratic. Bureaucracy means paperwork and paperwork means there will always be those who need certain documents to which they do not have access. Forgers provide such things, but at a cost. "Paperwork" is something of a misnomer, however, because other than some more isolated planetary governments, very few agencies require physical paperwork, instead issuing and requiring electronic documents in the form of secure datapads or encrypted files. A typical forger, then, works almost exclusively in the realm of electronic fabrication, and many are extremely skilled at their jobs. Those who are not are quickly weeded out by exposing themselves through shoddy work.

Skills: Computers [ ], Knowledge (Underworld) 2 [ ], Perception 2 [ ], Skulduggery 2 [ ], Vigilance [ ]

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

In a galactic society, and even more so in its criminal underbelly, information is perhaps the most valuable commodity in existence. An infochant, shorthand slang for "information merchant," traffics in information and makes it available to anyone who wants it for a price. Typically, an infochant has a network of people who feed him information in exchange for favors, payment, or even other information (which the infochant spreads to those who may be interested). Some must seek out potential clients but others let the clients come to them. This is generally the hallmark of an infochant who has established a well known, successful, and profitable network.

Skills: Deception 2, Knowledge (All) 2, Perception 2, Vigilance 1

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

There will always be those in need of money in the galaxy and there will always be others who are happy to lend it to them in exchange for a promise of repayment plus interest. Loan sharks are typically individuals with significant wealth at their disposal but who are never content with what they have. This leads them to loan their money to others at such a rate that they get back at least half again what was loaned. The people to whom they loan their money are desperate and have nowhere else to turn, but loan sharks care little about the details. They simply want their money returned or they want to see those who default on their loans punished in the most demonstrative way possible.

Skills: Charm 2, Coercion 2, Cool 2, Deception 4, Ranged (Light) 2, Perception 2, Vigilance 2

Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target once), Natural Negotiator (once per session, may reroll any Cool or Negotiation check), Spare Clip (does not run out of ammo on a [Despair]).

Abilities: None

Equipment:

The sort of beings who embrace the life of a pirate are typically those who simply could not fit into society in any other situation. Pirates are selfish, bloodthirsty individuals who thrive on the thrill of combat and the cruel joy of victimizing others. These people live with the everpresent threat of death; when boarding another vessel or if attacked by law enforcement agencies. Because of this ever-present threat of death, pirates tend to embrace a hedonistic lifestyle that includes revelry at every imaginable opportunity and of every conceivable variety.

Skills: Cool, Ranged (Heavy) or Ranged (Light)

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Among the rank and file of pirate crews, some small handfuls survive long enough to hone their skills and become leaders among their fellows. These individuals possess a cunning that their comrades lack and have honed it to a razor's edge over the course of their time spent as a crewman. The ideology of these individuals varies, from those who slaughter every victim to eliminate witnesses to those who display mercy in the hopes that future victims will be more willing to surrender. Most pirate captains fear capture and will not take unnecessary risks unless the promise of reward is so great that their avarice overcomes their caution.

Skills: Coercion 3, Cool 3, Coordination 2, Deception 3, Gunnery 2, Leadership 2, Ranged (Heavy) 3, Melee 4, Resilience 2, Skulduggery 3

Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target twice), Feral Strength 2 ( +2 damage on all Brawl and Melee attacks), Knockdown (may spend [1 Triumph] to knock target prone with successful melee attack).

Abilities: Pirate Leader (may spend a maneuver giving orders to other pirate allies in medium range, granting them on their next check).

Equipment:

The most abominable sort of criminal, slavers profit by robbing others of their freedom. Slavers prey upon the weak or those who cannot fight against modern technology, often locating a primitive species somewhere in the galaxy then abducting entire villages of their victims. These unfortunates can be sold off as cheap physical labor. Some advanced species are made the targets of slavery as a means of controlling a problematic population, as with the Empire's endorsement of placing the fiercely independent and physically powerful Wookiee race into slavery.

Skills: Coercion 2, Melee 2, Ranged (Light) 2, Vigilance 2

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

A terror that haunts the shadows of a major spaceport, a shipjacker is a thief who specializes in stealing and quickly reselling starships. An expert at circumventing electronic security of all forms, a successful shipjacker is also intimately familiar with the protocols and procedures of whatever spaceports he chooses to prey upon. Likewise, most shipjack- ^ers have close relationships with expert forgers to ensure that the documentation required to remove a vessel from the spaceport can be quickly and convincingly acquired. Most shipjackers have a network of contacts to ensure that a starship, once stolen, can be quickly sold and moved to a distant part of the galaxy or, failing that, dismantled for parts and sold in a dozen different locations in as many different systems.

Skills: Computers 1, Deception 2, Piloting (Space) 2, Skulduggery 2, Stealth 2, Vigilance 1

Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target once).

Abilities: None

Equipment:

The electronic information systems that allow galactic society to function are complex and intricate. They are secured against outside intrusion in order to allow civilization to function in a manner that grants individuals who can afford it some modicum of privacy. A slicer is an expert at circumventing that privacy and allowing outside parties access to whatever information they desire, as long as the money is good.

Skills: Computers 2, Cool 2, Skulduggery 1

Talents: Bypass Security (remove • from any Computers or Skulduggery check to bypass security)

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Some smugglers not only survive in the industry long enough to retire, but prosper beyond their expectations. Some of them find the notion of retirement too boring to contemplate and instead decide to become something of a middleman, helping other smugglers connect with clients and individuals who need goods moved from one place to another without any troublesome questions. These men and women are sometimes called smuggler barons, a fitting title given the aristocratic airs some of them put on. Smuggler barons are not quite powerful enough to be considered crime lords in their own right, but can be powerful allies or inconvenient enemies.

Skills: Astrogation 3, Charm 2, Cool 3, Gunnery 3, Knowledge (Underworld) 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Piloting (Planetary) 3, Piloting (Space) 4, Skulduggery 2, Streetwise 4, Vigilance 2

Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target once), Master Pilot (once per round, suffer two strain to perform one Pilot action as a maneuver), Skilled Jockey 2 (remove from all Pilot checks).

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Many smugglers started out as legitimate businessmen but, for whatever reason (either an inability to make an honest living or a moral fluidity that lent itself to illegitimate jobs), migrated to the lucrative but dangerous profession of smuggling illegal cargoes across the galaxy. Smugglers are a hardy, independent breed, frequently thrill-seekers who enjoy flouting the law and accomplishing acts others tell them cannot be completed.

Skills: Charm 2, Cool 1, Ranged (Light) 2, Piloting (Space) 3, Skulduggery 2, Streetwise 2, Vigilance 1

Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target once), Skilled Jockey 2 (remove up to from any Piloting check).

Abilities: None

Equipment:

There are always those who love to fly, but are unwilling or unable to accept the rigid discipline and strict protocols of consistent flying for the military or for a corporation. Many become pilots-for-hire, selling their considerable skills to anyone willing to pay them to do what they love: climbing into the cockpit of a starship and taking to the hyperlanes. Sullustans often fall into this category. These short humanoids evolved in underground conditions and have an innate pathfinding ability as well as extremely sensitive sensory organs. Many use these abilities to become skilled navigators or talented starship pilots.

Skills: Astrogation 4, Cool 1, Gunnery 2, Ranged (Light) 1, Perception 5, Piloting (Planetary) 3, Piloting (Space) 3, Survival 1

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

There are few races as consistently sociable as the Twi'leks of Ryloth. Capable of significant manipulation and persuasion, some Twi'leks invariably find their talents suited to helping others find things that they need, matching buyers to sellers with flawless skill and a thousand- credit smile the entire while. Black marketeers are part salesman, part fence, and all business. Knowing a marketeer can ensure that an individual is able to move an incredibly rare and valuable item without difficulty, although it will be necessary to cut the marketeer in on the sale, which eats into profits a bit. Most consider the convenience a welcome trade-off for a percentage.

Skills: Knowledge (Underworld) 2, Negotiation 2, Ranged (Light) 1, Skulduggery 2, Streetwise 2, Vigilance 2

Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target once), Black Market Contacts 2 (decrease rarity of sought item by two degrees when looking on the black market)

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Slightly more intelligent and more likely to use advanced technology than the Gamorrean enforcers that are popular with many crime lords, Aqualish are no less physically powerful than their porcine counterparts and equally prone to violence as a means of resolving even the mildest dispute. Although not all members of the Aqualish people are crude and thuggish, enough of them are that the sight of them acting as enforcers and henchmen for all manner of unpleasant figures is hardly surprising to any well traveled citizen of the galaxy's seedy underbelly.

Skills: Brawl, Coercion [], Melee, Ranged (Light)

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

A step up from a simple thug, an enforcer is a bit more trained and intelligent in the application of brute force. To avoid excessive expense in training such individuals, as well as to inspire fear in those they need intimidated, criminal figures tend to look for imposing beings with significant physical might to fill these slots. Camorreans are common, of course, as are Aqualish and Wookiees, but Barabels are particularly feared because their reptilian appearance inspires a deep, primal fear in many mammalian species. Barabels are an intelligent species, but often seem otherwise because of their halting command of Basic and their seemingly primitive social customs. Their physical strength is prodigious, however, and they also enjoy ad significant amount of natural armor that protects them from many threats, making them ideal enforcers to send into dangerous situations.

Skills: Ranged (Heavy), Melee 2, Perception [ ], Survival 2 [ ], Vigilance [ ].

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Murder for hire is a thriving business in galactic society and those who need the utmost in discretion or who require the death of a particularly cautious or protected target choose to pay for a Defel assassin. The Defel are bestial in appearance, and are consummate hunters and predators. They are masters of infiltration, stealth, and sudden bouts of vicious but silent violence. Many choose to train in a variety of melee weapons, but just as many choose to rely upon their natural weapons, either teeth or claws.

Skills: Brawl 3, Cool 2 [ ], Coordination 2 [ ], Melee 3, Ranged (Light) 2, Stealth 3 [ ], Vigilance 2 [ ]

Talents: Adversary 3 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks against this target three times), Deadly Accuracy (adds his ranks in Brawl to all damage inflicted with claws), Lethal Blows 2 (adds +20 to Critical Injury rolls against opponents).

Abilities: Light-Sensitive (Defel are vulnerable to bright lights, which cause them intense pain and temporary blindness if viewed without protection. A Defel exposed to bright light without protective goggles suffers on all skill checks.
Shadowed (Defel possess the ability to absorb certain wavelengths of light, making them all but invisible in darkness. When in darkness or deep shadow, a Defel gains dice to all Stealth checks.).

Equipment:

In cities across the galaxy there are any number of petty criminals, from pickpockets and back-ally spice dealers to muggers and murderers. Discontent with the notion of earning an honest wage, these street toughs instead prefer to survive on whatever they can take from passers-by, preferably in the form of credits or small, easily liquidated electronic goods like datapads and comlinks. Street toughs occasionally work as individuals, if they possess sufficient skill, but more often work in small gangs so that they can cooperatively locate and target the best marks. However, these individuals are often badly equipped and pitiful in comparison to real gangs

Skills: Melee, Ranged (Light) or Ranged (Heavy), Skulduggery

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment:

Swoop gangs are considered by many to be a blight upon modern society. Take all of the problems that are posed by a conventional gang of young thugs and criminals and then place those criminals on overcharged, dangerously fast repulsorlift vehicles. The dangers posed by such a group are many, and the means of combating them are limited. There are few law forces capable of keeping pace with, much less outpacing and apprehending, a swoop gang. This is particularly true in the Outer Rim, where the legal resources are much more limited.

Skills: Brawl 1, Piloting (Planetary) 1, Ranged (Light) 1, Streetwise 1

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Equipment: