Instructor

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

Instructor Specialization Skills: Discipline, Medicine, Ranged (Heavy) and Knowledge (Education)

The Instructor is a good choice for older characters who have a lot of experience under their belts. While it applies well to battle-hardened soldiers who might train the Alliance Military’s next generation, it also works as a new specialization for any characters wishing to pass along their know-how, whatever area it may be in. After all, members of any career or specialization may very well find satisfaction in passing along their skills.

When it comes to showing the untested masses of the galaxy how to fight and win, an excellent Instructor is crucial. After all, handing untrained enlistees a blaster and sending them into the thick of combat is a good way of getting them killed before they’ve even had a chance to make a difference. Instructors ensure that no one is sent to fight the Empire before they’re ready, preventing Rebel blood from being spilled in vain. Though their own role is primarily one of support, Instructors must also be proficient in the skills they impart to their students, making them effective soldiers when they are inevitably called to fight.

Not all Instructors need to be combat-ready, but most of those employed by the Rebel Alliance have, by necessity, at least some combat capability available to them. An Instructor must also have enough empathy to identify with students and to discern which areas they excel in and where they require improvement.

It takes intense control to maintain a professional demeanor and concentrate on the job at hand, both for Instructors and for their recruits. Order must be maintained both on and off the field so that would-be soldiers aren’t cowed by the sights, sounds, and demands of combat. Imparting discipline to their students, especially if they’ve never held a weapon, is crucial if Instructors want to see them survive the rigors of warfare.

Some Instructors are also well versed in the use of Medicine. Not only is first aid a skill that every soldier should possess, but injuries occur all too often during intensive training. Passing on the basics of Medicine to recruits ensures that trainees can save not only their comrades, but themselves as well. If training recruits to use medpacs and synthflesh to patch up wounds is all an Instructor is assigned to do, then Medicine may very well be that character’s primary focus.

Every soldier must learn how to shoot, so many Instructors are also accomplished marksmen. Trainees not only need to know how to fire their weapon with the intention of hitting the enemy, but they must also learn how to care for and maintain it under battlefield conditions. Drilling recruits with a blaster comprises the basics of infantry training. Initial training is with an unloaded weapon, to get recruits comfortable with carrying it, used to its weight, and vaguely uncomfortable when it’s not within reach. Many hours of port-arms and awareness drills are held before a recruit is allowed to fire a fully charged blaster downrange at a target.

Though it seems to go without saying, Instructors must be well educated. Being skilled at conveying their knowledge to their students is an important part of their job description. When integrated with a Rebel cell or combat unit, Instructors can be a benefit to everyone they serve with. As teachers, they must be able to demonstrate the correct way to do something under any circumstances. It’s highly unlikely that they wouldn’t be able to show everyone a trick or two when the chips are down.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Defector: Whether they served as teachers at the Imperial Academy or as drill sergeants in any one of a thousand Imperial boot camps across the galaxy, Instructors play a pivotal role in ensuring that troops are well trained and fit for action. Sending citizens off to die in an immoral conflict can leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth, and a handful of the Empire’s brightest teachers have decided to instill their lessons in fledgling Rebels, instead.
  • Citizen Soldier: Instructors who qualify as citizen soldiers have their roots in a number of civilian professions, such as law enforcement, education, and (strangely enough) health and fitness. Instructors with experience in law enforcement training are capable of teaching small unit tactics, weapons use, and self- defense, while health and fitness professionals specialize in enhancing individual fitness through calisthenics, martial arts, and other methods. Scholars and educators are just as valuable, allowing potential Rebels to learn the theories behind warfare on a number of levels, and can help individuals to learn critical lessons from history.
  • The Failed Leader: It is popularly said that “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Such a dubious proverb seems to have been devised with these particular Instructors in mind. Despite their best efforts to attain a fleet appointment, a battlefield commission, or a political appointment, they were never able to do so. Instead of achieving what they felt was their calling in life, they have instead been relegated to an Instructor’s position, training troops to do the job they once aspired to do themselves. Such individuals may be bitter and resentful, but that doesn’t mean they won’t rise to the occasion in time.