Resource Fanfic Writer's Desk: Your Place for Writing Discussion, Questions, and Advice

I kid you not - The Agony of Tarkin is a thing. Don't take my word for it, check the link.

EDIT: Since I can't really take credit for that title, I guess I'm out a moussaka recipe.

 

If you want so can you have your characters be surprised that the traditional dance from that planet/sector is not one bit what they expected - breakdance, space pirate boogie, trojak, campbellocking, popping, etc.
Or the other way around: the ballroom dance is something along the line of waltz, paso doble, tango, bolero but your character associate that kind of dance with peasant, traveller and informal spacer dances.

I can not help with that sadly

'Last stand at Troiken', 'They died with their armour on', 'The senator and the jedi'?

 

Hello all! I have some questions that I am looking to get some help with. Thanks!

1) How many aliens can speak basic, or does it go through a translator if I am writing a Rodian?
2) How many pilots would be in a squadron? Sort of Red Squadron would have maybe 12?

 

1. It'd mostly depend on how much contact with the rest of the galaxy the Rodian has. Most can speak Basic. However, fluency can vary, and Rodians sometimes display speech impediments when speaking Basic, such as a lisp and difficulty with other consonants and various vowel sounds. For example, Avaro Sookcool from SotE spoke with a lisp. An unidentified Rodian from one of the RPG supplements spoke with a lisp and had difficulty with other vowel sounds, such as pronouncing "Human" as "Hoo-man." Another Rodian from the same book also pronounced "Human" in the same way.

2. A squadron will typically have 12-24 aircraft, sometimes divided into flights of three or four, depending on craft and air force type.

 

@Chyntuck: Tarkin's Integrity, Wilhuff's Secret, Tarkin's Vigilance.

 

Thank you for the help. I am working on a story which has a Rodian as a strong supporting character.

 

Star Wars squadrons usually have 12 fighters (either organized into 3 flights of 4, which is further broken down into 2 wingpairs or sections. In the NJO this changed to 4 flights of 3 due to the use of overlapping shield tactics). Normal squadron makeup and callsign designation is as follows.

1st Flight:
1. Squadron Leader
2. Wingman, normally the least experienced pilot in the squadron. Reversed by the Rogues at Hoth, who had their oldest pilot working as Luke's wingman.
3. Squadron XO and section leader.
4. Wingman.

2nd Flight:
5. Flight Leader
6. Wingman
7. Section Leader
8. Wingman

3rd Flight:
9. Flight Leader
10. Wingman
11. Section Leader
12. Wingman

Also... It seems that there's a specific meaning to the ID number of Imperial Pilots. For example...

OS-72-10 is the designation for the tenth member of Obsidian Squadron of the 72nd Fighter Wing. DS-181-3 is the designation for the 3rd member of an unknown squadron of the 181st Fighter Wing.

 

stellarmagic01: Actually, that's how Rogue Squadron typically sets its roster. To my knowledge they're the only canon unit to do that on a consistent basis, and even then only when Wedge Antilles ran the unit; this is also why Wraith Squadron used a similar TO&E during their early years. In every case that I'm aware of, squadron leaders are free to assign unit callsigns, form flights, and dictate wingpairs at will. It is their squadron, after all, and the details are theirs to finalize and optimize for whatever combat situation may arise.

In real-world air forces, squadrons ("regiment" is also used in many non-English speaking nations) can be made up of anywhere between twenty-five to thirty aircraft and a like number of pilots (and backseaters, depending on type), while only twelve to sixteen of them may participate in a given mission. In the last ten years, though, that has started to change, at least in the U.S. Air Force and U. S. Navy, where it isn't uncommon to only send out wingpairs to cover certain engagement zones in order to provide effective close-air support (CAS) or surgical strikes (bunker busting, interdiction, etc.), both using precision munitions. This mostly applies to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, and one wonders if this will remain the norm.

 

12 ships is typical in all the X-wing games for the number of fighters you can encounter launched bearing the same callsign. Also some of the EU documentation gives a total breakdown of Imperial Fighter wings...

72 TIEs, composed of 6 squadrons (1-2 of Interceptors, 1 of Bombers) of 12 fighters each. Normal formations seen in the films indicate the typical formation for a flight being a 'stacked diamond' of four TIE fighters.

Air Regiments are usually composed of multiple squadrons, roughly akin to a 'wing' in the American TO&E. A modern American fighter squadron typically is made up of 16 fighters, though only around 12 will be flight capable at any one time. The air regiment is more commonly used by former Eastern Block nations, and is nominally composed of 4 squadrons of 10 fighters... Which are broken down into 2 flights of 4 plus 1 command wingpair.

Historically the size of Air Regiments varies wildly from Air Force to Air Force and era to era... usually with a total strength of between 40-60 aircraft. The 10 ship squadron is something of a result of a radical reorganization the VVS had during World War II.

Star Wars is a bit weird in that it mixes systems quite a bit and heavily leans on World War II style TO&E and organization. Red Flight, Blue Flight, and so forth were common allied callsigns and organization within an American or British squadron. The 12 ship fighter squadron is standard for the Luftwaffe, though their 'Gruppe' would nominally have 40 planes (3 squadrons of 12 with a separate headquarters flight).

The stated organization is not only for Rogue Squadron, but also historically is how the Luftwaffe was organized, as well as how most American squadrons tend to run.

 

I want suggestions for superstitions for spacers and mandolorians

Right now I can come up with -
Madolorain superstitions:
* Beskar items are good luck.
* It is bad luck to carry lightsabres.
* It is bad luck to carry lightsabres unless you killed the jedi it belonged to.
* If you take trophies from somebody alive they can later track you down.

Spacer superstitions:
* To have a spiritual person (jedi, priest, shaman, etc.) aboard your ship is good/bad luck.
* Ships that have had their full crew killed is haunted, and need to be renaming and go through a long cleansing ritual to stop the haunting.
* A ships history shapes it character, know its history and you understand it quirks.
* A ship without a true name is a ship without loyalty, don't travel on one unless you absolutely have to.

 

Finally! Someone who appreciates all the organizational side of things and knows their stuff! Admittedly you've definitely got an edge on me in regards to the VVS and other Eastern Bloc nations. And yes, Star Wars is definitely weird, but I chalk a lot of that up to EU authors trying to follow the example of the films without really knowing the subject matter (in this case, naval warfare IN SPAAAAAACE), which is why I've tried to ground things in a little more consistency in my pilot's log DDC. 12 ships and pilots seems to be the standard for squadrons in all Star Wars factions, but aside from the Galactic Civil War era, no one really seems to touch on larger formations/groups, but I've done that in my own fanon in the form of the diary and articles on the Star Wars Fanon Wiki.

I know for a fact that the typical United States Army Air Force fighter squadron (saying "of WWII" is redundant here) would have about twenty-five planes and a similar number of pilots assigned to it, which meant that in the course of its missions, those that needed rest could be rested while those who were still fresh could participate in whatever missions might be assigned, because a lot of those missions would be LONG bomber escorts. This was especially true in the Pacific, with the 20th Air Force's Mustangs flying round-trip escorts to Japan from Iwo Jima that could last for ten hours or more. Early in the war the typical mission roster was three flights of four, but from about mid-late 1944 onwards it became four flights of four, with the fourth "Cover" flight tasked with keeping its eyes peeled for bandits while the others pounded ground targets. Some groups and squadrons, most often in the 9th Air Force (as the closest to the front lines in northwest Europe), would assign planes to Cover flight that had had the external stores racks removed in order to minimize drag and optimize performance. Even within the individual air forces of the USAAF, things could be different; when Jimmy Doolittle took over the 8th in January of '44, he allowed pilots to claim a kill credit for aircraft destroyed on the ground, something that went against all other conventions before and since.

Oftentimes you would have planes being flown by pilots not normally assigned to them, for various reasons including mechanical breakdowns and/or battle damage or wounds (a number of aces were lost while flying others' planes, and vice versa), and this was by no means exclusive to the Americans. During that time, three to four squadrons (led by majors or lieutenant colonels) made up a group (led by a colonel), with three or four groups making up a fighter or bomber wing (an administrative unit run by a major general). The 8th Air Force had three fighter wings in addition to the heavy bomber fleets it possessed (they were notoriously overloaded with heavies, with few if any light or medium bomber units). The USAAF and U.S. Navy were also the only air forces that practiced a rotation program that would take veteran pilots that had flown so many hours and ship them Stateside where they could become instructor pilots at the various basic or advanced training schools; this applied both to fighter and bomber pilots, though both could elect to return for a second tour or more.

The Luftwaffe used a similar system, organized into staffelen, gruppen, and finally the geschwader (squadron, group, wing), but they didn't have the luxury of spare planes and pilots, and were among the worst offenders in the "fight until you die" sense (second only to the Japanese, really). I don't know if things have changed significantly since then in terms of organization, but when it came to reconstructing the service in the wake of World War II, the occupying American forces worked closely with the new German government in doing so, which near as I can tell may be why the branch retained its moniker (as opposed to the Wehrmacht, which became known as the Bundeswehr).

 

Thanks guys I'll pick one of those as soon as I stop laughing my head off. You all get the moussaka recipe as soon as I type it down.

Gamiel, I can't help with Mandalorian superstitions (that's an aspect of SW I never looked into) but you may want to look at sailors' superstitions to figure out equivalents for spacers. There's a whole Wikipedia article about that: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailors'_superstitions (focused mostly on Anglo-Saxon cultures). We have quite a few of those in Greece as well, eg "if you light your cigarette at the flame of a candle, a sailor dies." Also, sailors often put something called a "tama" in churches before they go on a trip, it's a small silver plaque in the shape of a boat and it's meant to get Saint Nicholas's protection. In older days they would actually carve boats on the walls of the church. Oh, and you can look up the legends of Saint Nicholas, he's the patron saint of sailors after all. I hope this helps!

 

Thanks. I really like the line-crossing ceremony but I have no real idea how to implant it into SW hyperspace.

So my now expanded list of superstitions -
Madolorain superstitions:
* Beskar items are good luck.
* It is bad luck to carry lightsabres.
* It is bad luck to carry lightsabres unless you killed the jedi it belonged to.
* If you take trophies from somebody alive they can later track you down.
* The wearer leaves a part of himself in his beskar'gam, this is mostly a good thing since the experience of former wearers trickle down into the current one but it also means that you take upon aspects of the former wearers which can be bad if they had different personalities or used different tactics then the current one.
* A wo/man who is adopted into the mandolorians leave all his old obligations and fortunes (good as well as bad) behind, if s/he ever act upon her/his old life all those old obligations and fortunes will return, often with a greater force.

Spacer superstitions:
* To have a spiritual person (jedi, priest, shaman, etc.) aboard your ship is bad luck.
* To have a spiritual person (jedi, priest, shaman, etc.) aboard your ship is good luck.
* Ships that have had their full crew killed is haunted, and need to be renaming and go through a long cleansing ritual to stop the haunting.
* A ships history shapes it character, know its history and you understand it quirks.
* A ship without a true name is a ship without loyalty, don't travel on one unless you absolutely have to.
* Cats/similar pet are good luck.
* If your partner back home have the partner/sibling to your ship cat/similar pet there will be a bigger chance that you return home.
* People born in space become better spacers then people born on the ground.
* Killing a oswaft is really bad luck, doubly so if it was a female with younglings.
* Leaving an offering of incense, flowers or a small handwritten poem at the base of the Monument to Lost Navigators on Koros Major is good luck.
* Not leaving an offering at the base of the Monument to Lost Navigators when visiting Koros Major is bad luck.
* Having a small statue, painting or similar of the Monument to Lost Navigators aboard your ship is good luck.
* The captain is married to the ship, to take aboard another partner (if so for just a one-night stand) or having a husband/wife will make the ship jealous.
* To have a duinuogwuin aboard your ship is a high honour, threat it with the greatest of respect.
* Killing a duinuogwuin is a capital sin.
* Having a mummified mynock aboard the ship lessen the chances for mynock attacks.
* Carrying around mummified mynock parts lessen the chances for mynock attacks but not as much as a whole mynock would.

 

How about crossing for the first time the galactic plane? Or crossing for the first time into Wild Space/the Unknown Regions?

 

The novel I, Jedi touches on spacer superstitions, with one in particular turning up as a reciprocal plot point: shoving a credit into the mouth of a deceased person's corpse before spacing it, in order to buy off the evil things it might say of the living.

 

Can anyone help me with spaceship types? At the moment I need an appropriate ship which would have been in use during the Empire era - a private ship which would have been owned by an aristocratic family on Couscant, very rich and favoured by the Empire so it would be top of the range and big enough to live on but small enough to be crewed by just two people.

 

That sounds like the type of vessel similar to Mara's Jade Saber and Lando's Lady Luck. The former is a heavily modified shuttle and the latter is a SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000. Both of these were operated after the Empire, but not that many years later, so I don't see why ships like this couldn't be available a few decades earlier. They're fairly large, luxurious, and can be heavily armed. (Queen Amidala's unarmed J-type 327 Nubian royal starship was also classified as a yacht.)

I'd say since this ship in question belongs to aristocrats, a yacht would be more appropriate. Did you need any more specific details like manufacturers? SoroSuub is one of them up there.

 

The Luxury Yacht 3000 was in use during the Clone Wars, you see one in TCW. There are a couple of other ships wealthy sorts would use...

Baudo-class Star Yacht
Citadel-class Cruiser
H-Type Nubian YachtJ-Type 327 Royal Starship
J-Type Nubian Diplomatic Barge
Personal Luxury Yacht 3000

 

Thanks!

 

Since I'm writing up an AU setting with Grand Admiral Thrawn surviving Bilbringi and going through the Dark Empire timeline, I thought I should point out a couple things about the scale of the Star Wars universe fleets... at least for the EU version of it.

The Empire was composed of roughly 1,000 sectors, each of which was assigned a 'Sector Group' numbering no less then 24 Imperial Star Destroyers, 1,600 Combat Vessels, and 800 Logistics ships. In addition to that, roughly 1/25th of the 25,000 ISDs produced were assigned to roving commands like Death Squadron. Total 'roving' command strength would likely be around 1,000 Star Destroyers, mostly either assigned to Vader's use hunting down the Rebel Alliance, to other various higher echelon leaders like Grand Admirals and Grand Moffs, or to the Emperor himself. The vast majority of larger vessels (Executor-class and so forth) would be assigned to these roving commands, as they were less suitable for patrol and garrison operations then the ISD.

Total fleet strength for the entire Empire at its height would probably number around 2.5 million ships! KDY and Sienar had to have their factories working non-stop to reach that number.

Grand Admiral Thrawn's total fleet strength never really exceeded that of a single 'by the book' Sector Group. At Bilbringi he fielded around 24 Imperial Star Destroyers, plus a large number of support ships and interdictors. Thrawn never deploys larger ships like the Executor, and so forth, in large part because such ships are unnecessary for fighting the New Republic.

Despite leading essentially 0.1% of the Empire's established strength, even including the Katana Fleet, Thrawn beat the New Republic back. In large part this was due to Thrawn's ability to force the New Republic to spread out its forces through diversionary strikes and raids before hitting hard with a focused attack where the New Republic was vulnerable. Still... how did the Empire go from being a major threat in the Thrawn Trilogy with two dozen Star Destroyers, to hurtling thousands of ships against the New Republic in Dark Empire?

Simply put, the political people in charge of the Empire never gave Thrawn complete command of their fleets. They always had those ships, but simply were unwilling to commit them for fear of their political rivals using the ships under their command against them.

The New Republic really doesn't gain numerical superiority over the Empire until around 12 ABY, by which point the Imperial Warlords have been fighting each other for 8 years. That is where all those ships went - Destroyed by other Imperials.

 

Okay, stellarmagic01, you just made my head explode in an awesome way. 2.5 million ships is beyond comprehension.

 

And yet those numbers are perfectly justified.

For any interstellar government that spans such a vast portion of a galaxy 120,000 light years across, one would expect to have a defense force of such magnitude; how else will you keep your population safe? What I find interesting is how the EU acknowledges that such a defense fleet would've been necessary beyond the "Tarkin doctrine," including keeping local conflicts in check and keeping the spacelanes free from pirates and other raiders. The campaign for Star Wars: TIE Fighter did a good job in that regard, for the most part; you don't always fight Rebels, and when you do it isn't for "evil" reasons (I wouldn't call Maarek Stele a villain protagonist; he's not even an anti-hero, really). In short, I would've expected the Galactic Republic, before it demilitarized itself, to have had a defense fleet of at least a million ships.

 

Goodwood I didn't say they weren't justified, merely that it was beyond my comprehension. I just hadn't thought of it before. The parts of the EU that I focused on and remember didn't really get into such depth as numbers. That's why I said it was awesome. In fact, it helps quite a bit with something I've been tangling with in my own writing.

 

I'll do an overall estimate and breakdown... but yeah, the numbers involved are staggering. This estimate is based on a breakdown from the old D6 Imperial Sourcebook and some estimates from the Warships of Empire on SWTC (you can still find it if you put in some effort to it) based on tonnage.

+45 Star Dreadnaughts - ships like the Executor and Eclipse-class Dreadnaught.
+250 Star Battlecruisers - ships like the Praetor-class Star Battlecruiser.
+5,000 Star Cruisers - ships like the Allegiance-class Star Battlecruiser.
+25,000 Star Destroyers - ships like the Imperial I and II-class Star Destroyers.
+125,000 Heavy Cruisers - ships ranging from Victory-class Star Destroyers to Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruisers
+315,000 Cruisers - ships like the Carrack-class, Class-1000, and so forth.
+540,000 Frigates - ships like the Nebulon B and Lancer-class frigates, and so forth.
+720,000 Corvettes - ships like the Guardian-class, IPV-1, CR90 Corvette, and so forth.
+770,000 Support - ships like the BFF-1 Bulk Freighter, KDY Super Transport XI, Container Transports, Star Galleons, and so forth.

 

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