My inspiration piece:
[sblock]
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer...(digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs.
RANDAL
Like when?
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was.
DANTE
Whose house was it?
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
Dominick Bambino's.
RANDAL
"Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
The same. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine.
DANTE
Based on personal politics.
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
Right. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling.
RANDAL
No way!
BLUE-COLLAR MAN
(paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.
The BLUE-COLLAR MAN exits. DANTE and RANDAL remain respectfully quiet for a moment.[/sblock]
Red Dunn
Ship's Steward
Destiny: Force Points: 10 Dark Side: 1
Medium Human Scoundrel 10/Soldier 1
Init +12; Perception +12
Languages: Basic, Binary, Bocce, Huttese, Durese
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Defenses: Fort +24 Ref +25 Will +24,
Hit Points: 39 +10d6 +d10; Threshold 24
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Spd 6 squares (walking)
Melee ?
Ranged ?
Base Attack +8; Grapple +10
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Abilities Str 8, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Chr 16
Talents Fool's Luck, Fortune's Favor, Disruptive, Walk The Line, Hyperdriven, Demolitionist
Feats Weapon Proficiency (Pistols, Simple, Heavy Weapons), Armor Proficiency (Light), Point Blank Shot, Skill Training (Mechanics, Initiative, Gather Information, Deception, Stealth), Skill Focus (Technology, Bureacracy), Vehicular Combat
Skills Deception +13, Gather Information +13, Knowledge (Bureacracy) +19, Knowledge (Galactic Lore) +14, Knowledge (Physical Sciences) +14, Knowledge (Social Sciences) +14, Knowledge (Technology) +19, Initiative +12, Mechanics +14, Perception +12, Persuasion +13, Pilot +12, Stealth +12, Use Computer +14
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Experience 55,000
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Height: 1.65 meters
Weight: 68.2 kg
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Appearance: You'd think that first thing people would notice about Red Dunn would be the wild, unkempt red hair. Maybe in better days this would have been true. No, these days what people notice about Red is the moustache, sweeping in an enormous, masculine arc across his face, drooping gracefully down to his jawline...it is the sort of moustache that draws every eye of every sentient in the bar when he enters.
For the rest of him, Red is a little shorter than average, with a slight softness around the middle that he wears with easy grace. He tends to wear, or not wear (which the rest of the crew finds imminently disturbing), the loosest, brightest clothes available. All of his clothes are normally spotted with food stains and evidence of the bizarre places on ship he finds to do his reading, and his only other adornments are several hideous hoop earrings he has plugged into his ears.
Background:
At one time Red Dunn affected the slicked-back hair and demeanor of one of the Empire's finest - the Imperial Assessors. Moving from world to world, Red's team of crack auditors were the terror of civilians and military generals alike. Picking their assignments more or less without outside influence, IA agents like Red had a remarkable amount of latitude in what penalties they were allowed to levee and, in Red's case, a truly memorable amount of corruption available for purchase by well-connected buyers.
Unfortunately for Red, he'd also racked up an impressive reputation with his superiors with his expertise in technological issues. His constant visits to cutting-edge manufacturing plants and design offices meant that he was one of the Empire's foremost experts in space technologies, which drew him to the attention of Moff Tarkin for a certain ... pet project. Red was transferred.
Auditing the Death Star...wasn't as pleasant as his former duties. Sure, he got to join the elite ranks of the Imperial Stormtroopers; but strangely enough he found that white really didn't do much for his complexion. Furthermore, Stormtroopers and the other imperial officers on the Death Star had completely unreasonable expectations about what their equipment should be able to do and what Red should be able to do about it. Schedule variances were a fact of life, even in the Imperial Auditors, but Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader really disconnected from reality once they stepped onto their giant Ego Moon.
Still, Red managed to keep the various contractors and product schedules more or less running on time - even if he did have to cut some corners in providing covers for exhaust ports for the thermal core. More fortunate still, Red managed to do so without running afoul of the sharp tempers of his superiors and (most of) the temptations of boredom presented with being a highly creative "people-person" stuck in the most stuck up installation in the history of the galaxy. Moff Tarkin might claim credit, but it's thanks to proud folks like Red Dunn that the rebellion got to destroy the Death Star.
Which, as a matter of fact, is a fate that Red almost shared himself. Leaving on the last shuttle that left the doomed space installation, Red was watching on his viewscreens from a safe distance as waves of rebel fighters swooped in on his bunkmates and destroyed the Death Star. Red had an epiphany.
Disabling the droids and crash-landing the shuttle wasn't all that hard, and neither was fixing it so that the downed shuttle appeared to have been destroyed by Rebel fire. Finding a way off-planet? Setting up a new identity which had nothing to with his former life? Growing his moustache? These things are
hard.
All in all, Red's done pretty well for himself in his new life. The Empire thinks he's dead, he's found himself a position as a starship which keeps folks who might one day come looking for him looking in several spots, and the people he works with these days are nearly as uptight as Stormtroopers for the most part.
Notes: Despite being transferred to the Stormtroopers, this was mostly a convenience to force Dunn to follow certain military directives and keep other IA agents from nosing around in military business. Dunn was awarded the Imperial Starburst for Excellency in Auditing, twice. Red once did a shot when a man looked at him funny. On the surface of a black hole, Red Dunn has infinite mass. Despite his "Steward" designation, Red's position in the crew is mostly because he's intimately aware of the ins and outs of the Imperial bureaucracy and because he can often nominally fill in for important positions on the ship when needed...plus, Red's knowledge of Imperial science and technology is vast (and he's capable of making it sound even MORE impressive if need be.)
Edit: BTW, took a few minutes and sketched out an outer image for the freighter. Excuse the garish color scheme.
Edit: And took some time to do a little more with MS Paint plans. I thought the two-level crew cabins were a little weird looking, so my version has "sci-fi baubles" instead. So more shared crew spaces, the all-important (but quirky and poorly placed) escape pod, and basically more places that look like they'd be some places you'd expect on an old freighter that might have been used for smuggling (and what freighter hasn't?). Meh. I was bored. Now I sleep.
