Welcome to the second installment of That Theme’s Operational! where we take a deeper look into the thematic choices in X-Wing and how they either are supported, or potentially clash with, the mechanics.
Last week we looked at Lando. This week we’re going to take a look at Chopper, both his pilot and his crew card.
Unlike some characters in the game, chopper hasn’t been around that long. He’s one of the characters in the show Rebels, so he’s existed for only a few years at most. But what he lacks in longevity, he definitely makes up for in personality. If you’re unfamiliar with the show you can think of it this way: if R2-D2 is a dog, Chopper is a cat.
He’s an ass.
But a loveable ass.
He helps when he wants to and never fails to give his comrades grief (stress) when he feels like it, but in the end, deep down, he cares for his friends.
Also I’m pretty sure Chopper has the highest body count of all the main characters on the show. Seriously. Someone should keep track.
Look at that. He just casually vents some stormtroopers into space like it was nothing.
He’s ruthless.
So the Chopper pilot card; how does it stack up with what we know about Chopper?
At the start of the Combat phase, each enemy ship you are touching receives 1 stress token.
Initially I’d say that makes sense. Chopper is an ass who’s always causing people stress and frustration. Though the stress he causes usually happens to his friends, rather than his enemies. Sure his enemies aren’t immune to his pedantic ways, but for the most part, enemies of Chopper end up too dead to be stressed.
It’s also worth noting that while Chopper is capable of flying the Ghost, we haven’t really seen him do it in a combat situation. So perhaps he’d just simply try and ram people if given the chance. That seems like something he’d do.
One thing Chopper seems to do all the time is save the day for his friends at the last second. How could that work as a pilot ability?
How about something like this:
During the combat phase, if any friendly ships have only one Hull point remaining, treat your pilot skill as 12.
About to die? A friend about to die? Things are getting tight. That’s when Chopper can save the day by taking out someone before they can kill him or his friends.
It may be slightly more thematic (maybe), but misses the key ingredient of the character, which is stress and aggravation, which is obviously what they were going for with the pilot card.
I’ll give Chopper Pilot Card 3.5 grumbles out of 5 for being mostly in line with the character. Something just feels a bit off about it.
Now onto the crew card.
When they announced the Ghost expansion, I was thrilled that I’d be able to put Chopper on my ships. I love Chopper. He’s become one of my favorite characters, right up there with Boba Fett.
So did the crew card live up to my dreams? No.
You may perform actions even while you are stressed. After you perform an action while you are stressed suffer 1 damage.
Mechanically, this works fine. For 0 points sure throw it in just in case. It works. Even if it is a card that’s likely to always be an afterthought. It’s boring, but it works.
Thematically though, I just don’t get it. As discussed above, Chopper causes stress and frustration among his friends, while in the end, still proving to be useful.
So let’s try and break down thematically what’s happening with this card:
You’re stressed (you being the pilot of the ship). You want to do something that’s beneficial to you (an action.) You can’t do the thing you want because you’re stressed. Here’s where Chopper comes in.
“Chopper I’m stressed I need your help doing this thing I want to do!”
Chopper then helps you to do the thing you wanted to do, but in the process damages your ship. Somehow. That’s how I interpret that card thematically.
I’m just not feeling this card. Chopper is being helpful to someone who’s stressed. Ok, sometimes he’s helpful. But why is he damaging the ship he’s on?
Perhaps he’s overloading the system in order to perform the action.
“Chopper I really need a lock on that TIE Fighter!”
“Wop Wop!” And Chopper simply fries the console getting it to lock onto the enemy ship, damaging his own ship.
That sort of makes sense. Sort of. But there could be cards that exemplify Chopper’s personality much better than what we got.
Let’s cook up a couple of alternate crew ideas for Chopper.
First let’s look at him as a cheaper alternative to R2-D2.
At the end of the End phase, if you have no shields, you may recover 1 shield and roll 1 attack die. On a HIT result, randomly flip 1 of your facedown damage cards faceup and resolve it.
R2 is 4 points and will for sure fix your shields. He’s always there to help if he can.
Chopper, as we know, only helps when he feels like it. So let’s tweak R2’s ability and make it only trigger sometimes.
Chopper Crew 2 points: At the end of the End phase roll 1 attack die. On a HIT or a CRIT result, recover one shield. On a BLANK or an EYE result receive 1 stress token.
He’s either fixing your shields or giving you sass. Sort of like how the Leebo crew is a cheaper alternative to the Engine upgrade, this Chopper would be a cheaper alternative to the R2 crew with some obvious drawbacks.
But Rebels don’t need another source of regen you cry!
Ok we’ll try something else.
Another alternative for him would be based on this scene from the episode Blood Sisters:
Chopper Crew 1 point: At the start of the combat phase discard this card to assign a non-attack token to an enemy ship at range 1-2.
He flies out of the ship he’s on and sabotages the weapons of an enemy ship.
Those are my ideas of how the Chopper crew could be more thematic. Obviously the card was designed before season 2 of the show even aired, so my second suggestion is kind of cheating.
And I get that maybe they didn’t want another crew that grants stress because those pair so well with Kyle Katarn, but I still feel the character was done a disservice by what we got.
I give the Chopper Crew Card 2 murdered astromech droid, out of 5.
The card we got is… fine… mechanically… And you can sort of talk yourself through how it works thematically. It just doesn’t fit the character and it’s incredibly boring for a character who is anything but boring.
Poor Chop…