Artisan

Of the 6 Career Skills, choose 3 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Sentinal Career Skills: Computers, Deception, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Perception, Skulduggery and Stealth

Artisan Specialization Skills: Astrogation, Computers, Knowledge (Education) and Mechanics

A Sentinal begins play with a Force rating of 1

Some Force users have an innate skill with tools and machines. These skilled artificers can use their skill with the Force to enhance their abilities, and even intuitively understand a machine’s form and function. After all, while tools and machines may not be alive, the Force envelopes everything in the galaxy. Artisans feel the Force that surrounds their tools and the items they work on, using this connection to build creations of wondrous beauty and precision. An Artisan does not create scores of the same item for sale or distribution. Instead, each of his creations is individual and iconic, a true work of art.

In order to fully integrate their Force abilities with the devices they manipulate, Artisans must first have a solid understanding of how those tools work. This requires a fundamental educational grounding in the principles of technology.

Within urban environments, individuals who never learn to recognize their Force talents are prone to follow the Artisan’s path. This is because they are surrounded by technology, and if these individuals take an interest in how things work and how to repair them, their Force abilities may naturally develop in concert. When faced with a broken machine, they can often identify the problem in an intuitive way—some even claim that the machines “speak” to them. Some Artisans live up to the stereotype of the messy inventor, while others remain meticulously neat or even take pains to disguise their craftsmanship from casual observers.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Activist: As an activist, an Artisan can create anything from holographic images for spreading messages to technology intended to help groups organize. This type of activist focuses on communication: exposing injustice, informing the public, and distributing vital data to protesters. An Artisan might realize a connection to the Force by foreseeing a violent government crackdown and warning the protestors ahead of time, or by fashioning art that reflects visions of a forgotten and idyllic past or a hopeful future. Unlike technology fetishists, an Artisan truly knows that art and technology serve the people, not the other way around.
  • Aristocrat: In some cultures, aristocrats are the only ones who have the money, leisure time, and interest to live the life of an Artisan. The traditional Artisan in the cultural elite has a unique position, creating art that conveys a subversive message while being appreciated by the very caste the art criticizes. The Artisan with “new money” may instead be more of a technological aristocrat—the corporate head who produces cutting-edge science and technology. This kind of Artisan realizes that prior work didn’t bring about the change envisioned, as greed or apathy warped innovations for the purposes of profit margins or watered-down entertainment. Ultimately, the aristocratic Artisan lives with the knowledge that living as a traditional aristocrat was never truly possible; reflection and inspiration from the Force broadens personal scope and causes the character to completely reject the earlier elitist life.
  • Gang Leader: Gang leader Artisans never forget their humble beginnings, when they developed elaborate symbols to mark territory, denote allegiances, and communicate with gang members before learning to engage their community with more political art. Even though Artisans have left their gangs to expand their work, these former gang leaders never really abandon their roots. Using everything from low-tech methods (perhaps basic paint, paper posters, or carvings) to slicing (for instance, slicing a public holoprojector), even now they dodge law enforcement and brawl with rivals while vandalizing surfaces in the richer districts, aiming higher and tackling bigger political opponents.
  • Laborer: Artisan laborers have moved beyond handcrafting devices during off hours, allowing the Force the help guide their choices. Whereas once they were selling an odd piece here and there for profit, they now design machines to solve specific issues for individuals or entire communities. These Artisans realize that they can bring help to more people and more actively seek problems to solve. Instead of simply patching up a fellow laborer’s cybernetic arm that was damaged on the job, for example, they look for more permanent solutions, such as better working conditions or different roles for their fellow citizens. Of course, they still fix the arm.
  • Official: Artisans with this background might use public works to improve citizen morale. This includes public art but can also encompass architecture, city planning, or technological improvements. Such Artisans might find themselves stifled in a bureaucracy, as large groups of apathetic people move slowly. On one hand, working in a bureaucracy offers incredible insight on why a society can’t accomplish its goals. On the other hand, Artisans often abandon the systems they work for, as they can perceive and implement solutions well before an organization has had their first meeting.
  • Refugee: An Artisan with this background makes practical technology to help fellow refugees subsist or has developed an artistic skill to bolster morale. Due to the unstable nature of this life, an Artisan builds technology to fix or serve as a stopgap solution for immediate problems. This character could create HoloNet taps to access information, craft power convertors to give refugees energy, or even build machines that can repurpose city land into farms. Since people can become refugees regardless of socioeconomic status, many skills, branches of knowledge, and talents from all walks of life are present but unused in their communities. An Artisan taps into this diversity to help the community survive another day. This Sentinel may move on from a refugee background, but the personal lessons of austerity, innovation, and imagination remain vibrant and strong.