Performer

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

Colonist Career Skills: Charm, Deception, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Education), Knowledge (Lore), Leadership, Negotiation and Streetwise

Performer Specialization Skills: Charm, Coordination, Deception and Melee

The Performer must always be the center of attention, and if all eyes aren't on the Performer, he has ways to make them shift their focus. For them, all the world is a stage, and the Performer is always putting on a show. They can lie with more sincerity than even the Politico, and do so as easily as if they were running lines for a one-man showing of the Kallea Cycle. They can be as charming as a diplomat, and leave their targets enchanted and completely manipulatable. And far too many people underestimate the strength many Performers must possess for acrobatics, athletics, and even live theater.

The Performer often leans on pouts, winks, warm smiles, and well timed physical contact mixed with out-right lies to get whatever he wants from whomever he wants. He draws on the best lines from the greatest works of literature, theater, and holo from millennia past, and always has a unique, flattering compliment for any being from whom he might want something.

Other Performers may rely on different tactics in their interactions. A cutting comedian or brilliant actor can hurl a litany of insults that cut to the core of most beings, making them question their worth and their right to deny the Performer what he wants. Unfortunately, these almost psychotic breaks are just as likely to be directed against their closest allies and assistants as enemies. The Performer knows how to use this to his advantage, though, and can create a scene to distract a bouncer while his friends sneak into a club that would otherwise never have granted them access.

However, there is often more to a Performer than just words. Performers may include dancers, acrobats, jugglers, and other individuals who must possess impressive coordination and be at peak physical condition. Their acrobatic abilities can give some Performers an unexpected edge in a fight. In addition, many have been trained in martial arts and the use of stage weaponry for roles in theater or holovids. The agility and overall fitness required to perform on stage means they are often in great shape, and as such, it is not uncommon for the Performer to be the last one standing when the dust settles.

Whether the character is a galaxy-famous magician or merely the member of a traveling troupe of acrobats, the players can build their entire party around a Performer. Performers need an agent, bodyguards, assistants, technicians for their performance, a pilot, perhaps a personal physician, and certain friends or family for their entourage. Performers are able to take the lead in social situations and provide support during combat, but can also take a back seat to a diplomatic leader able to wrangle him. The konly downside to including a Performer in the party is that whatever his specialty, he makes his living through some sort of acting. Once can never be sure what a Performer thinks about everyone else.

Potential Backgrounds

  • The Opportunist: Performers generally earn a cautious welcome from the colonies they visit. The Performer gives the locals an entertaining evening to brighten their drab lives. However, a Performer can easily outstay his welcome. The locals tend to see Performers the same way that they see boisterous relatives: fun for a few days, but increasingly tiresome during long visits.
  • The Grizzled Settler: For every entertainer who makes it big, there are thousands who can barely scrape by in the galaxy. A Performer could have ended up an unwilling colonist as he traveled from one poorly paying gig to another. Finally he settled down as the permanent entertainment of a local cantina. Now he spends his nights performing for the same, unappreciative crowd while knowing in his heart that he could have been a star given half a chance.
  • The Fugitive: A Performer could be a dissident. Perhaps they stood up for what they believed in, and that put them in opposition to the Empire. They may have used their status as a known public persona to spread a message of defiance. Now they're on the run, marked for arrest (or even execution) by the Imperial authorities. Since they may have been a prominent figure in their previous life, their defiance is even more galling to the Empire.
  • The Local Leader: Frontier justice can often be as much theater as legal precedent, and for those reasons, a Performer might have served as the town's barrister or advocate. Where modem investigative techniques are hard to come by and vigilante justice is a constant threat, defending a client often relies on the advocate's ability to sway the crowd to his point of view, rather than prove innocence with facts.
  • The Idealist: Performers almost invariably believe in the intrinsic worth of their craft—after all, if they did not believe that their art served some purpose in society, even if that purpose was merely to lighten the cares of others, they would not pursue mastery so fervently. Further, many are not just entertainers, but keepers of cultural history in the form of dance, song, or story. These Performers often travel the Outer Rim to promote awareness of their art and help others share in it and learn about their culture. In the age of the Empire and its monolithic oppression, Performers not only lift the spirits of the downtrodden, but are also frequently the last protectors of precious ideas and art that the Empire would see erased forever.