Commodore

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Commander Career Skills: Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Knowledge (Warfare), Leadership, Perception, Ranged (Light) and Vigilance

Commodore Specialization Skills: Astrogation, Computers, Knowledge (Education) and Knowledge (Outer Rim)

Each and every capital ship the Alliance has is valuable, which means that each Commodore given one to command has earned tremendous respect and trust. Even those Commodores who are not actually captains of particular ships, instead operating in another key support role, have demonstrated great gifts for strategic thinking and resource management on a large scale.

In addition to maintaining extraordinary calm in stressful situations and providing strong guidance to those around him, a Commodore is best served by understanding the incredibly technical aspects of navigating the stars and managing the crucial resources of his ship.

Commodores tend to spend very little time on any planet, having chosen a path placing them firmly in the stars with hard ship decks under their feet. They relish both the daily challenge of keeping a ship and its crew operating at peak capacity and facing the strategic challenges of capital ship engagements. The greatest Commodores find themselves managing not just a single ship, but a fleet of them, matching wits against their enemy counterparts in a huge game with very deadly consequences for each and every piece in play.

Effective Commodores are even more precious than Pilots for the Alliance Navy. Anyone showing a capacity for the role likely finds himself groomed heavily for eventual command. The Rebellion faces the might of the Imperial Navy with but a fraction of the tonnage in capital ships, so each one must be commanded by the absolute best.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Defector: Many Commodores defected from the Imperial Navy following the dissolution of the Imperial Senate. Fearing the ambitions of Emperor Palpatine more than the justice they might face if caught, they now lead the Rebellion’s fledgling navy. They helm ships great and small, contributing what they can to the fight ahead. A good number of the Alliance’s most recognized Commodore heroes learned all they know in the Imperial Navy and cut their teeth at the Imperial Academy.
  • Citizen Soldier: Civilian ship commanders and free traders are plentiful the galaxy over, especially in areas of commerce and intersystem trade. Though their experience in space battles may be lacking, or limited to skirmishes against pirates here and there, some discover they possess latent talents in leadership and ship-to-ship tactics. A great many Rebel Commodores are drawn from this large pool of individuals, perhaps even using their own ships and crews to help forge victory for the Rebel Alliance.
  • The Failed Leader: Commodores who fail to lead often lose their vessels to the enemy. Their ships are either captured, perhaps by pirates, or destroyed in military action due to poor decisions or tactical blunders. Each such loss is a disgrace that must somehow be atoned for, whether the failure was the Commander’s fault or the result of an unfortunate series of events. While failure to lead on the ground might lead to a handful of deaths, the loss of a starship results in hundreds, sometimes thousands, of casualties. The weight of such a burden is difficult to bear, but one must learn to live with it if one is to strive for better days ahead.