The character template that follows was created to fill a gap left by the First Edition's Tongue-Tied Engineer template: what if you wanted to play a character with a high TEC who didn't wear a pocket protector? The Cool Mechanic - Fonzie meets James Dean - was my answer to that question.

COOL MECHANIC

DEX     3D              PER     2D+1
KNO     2D              STR     3D
MEC     3D+2            TEC     4D

Background: Your entire life has consisted of putting things together, flying them into walls, and putting them back together again. When you were a kid, you built your own jury-rigged swoop (and promptly crashed that as well). By the time you left puberty, you were the best-fix being on your planet. The trophies on your wall proved that you were one of the best pilots as well.

In fact, life was so good that you even got a gig heading up the maintenance detail at the Imperial Governor's compound. That job ended the day your were concentrating on the evening's speeder bike races and forgot to close the flux valve on the Governor's personal Pleasure Shuttle. When it crashed, you decided it was time to market your skills off-world.

The lunar cycles since then have been spent hopping from one starport to the next, doing odd jobs and hanging out with the other grease-monkeys. Oh yeah, you were also busy dodging the bounty-hunters your vengeful former employer kept sending after you under the guise of a trumped-up attempted murder charge. This stint with the Alliance is the first steady work you've had in a while; you just wish you could charge by the hour.

Personality: You love to tinker . . . with Droids, with freighters, with X-wings, you name it. In fact, you have trouble keeping your hands still - something a good number of autochefs, power Droids, and barmaids have discovered first-hand. You take pride in your work; when something breaks down, it's like an affront to your ego. Most of all, you're COOL. No matter what goes wrong, you always act as if you're in total control. You're the closest thing this galaxy has to the Fonz.

A Quote: "O.K., maybe I did skimp a little on life support, but just see how this baby flies!" (heard over a vacuum suit comlink)

Connections: The Smuggler or the Brash Pilot won't let anyone else but you touch their ship. You did some repair work for the Arrogant Noble, the Disillusioned Imperial, or the Senatorials. Could be that you served in the Imperial Navy under the Retired Captain. Or that the Kid was always hanging out in your shop.

I'm posting this template because I find that the second edition is rather parsimonious when it comes to character types (I believe the first edition has almost twice as many).

Thanks, Rob

-- 
Robert W. Barrett, Jr.             *    "The pellet with the poison's
rbarrett@dept.english.upenn.edu    *    In the flagon with the dragon;
Dept. of English / BH 119          *    The vessel with the pestle
University of Pennsylvania         *    Has the brew that is true."
Phila., PA  19104-6273             *            -- from *The Court Jester*