What to do when your character's the fifth wheel?

[Silus]

So my last Star Wars session has made me begin to doubt my character's usefulness to the party.

See, I made a demolitions expert and ex-Republic soldier, intending to be a front line fighter, with a decent Bluff/Con roll to help with Bavarian Fire Drills.

Problem is, we already have two characters that could qualify as more balaced faces and a pair of Trandoshan mercenaries with heavy weapons. So it makes me wonder where my character fits in.

So what do you do when you find your character's role is taken up by someone more effective at said role?

[Yora]

Why do you have the mercenaries? Or do you mean fifth wheel?

I think you can never have too many warriors/soldiers in a group that sees decent amounts of fighting. Just pick a weapon with different traits than the others in the party. A long-range rifle or grenade launcher can make quite a difference if everyone else only got pistols and carbines.
Or as an explosives guy, carry two bags with all kinds of special grenades and mines. Smokes, flashbanks, incendiary, sleeping gas, shrapnell, concussion, toxic, EMP, flares, ... What can't an explosives guy do?

[Silus]

Why do you have the mercenaries? Or do you mean fifth wheel?

I think you can never have too many warriors/soldiers in a group that sees decent amounts of fighting. Just pick a weapon with different traits than the others in the party. A long-range rifle or grenade launcher can make quite a difference if everyone else only got pistols and carbines.
Or as an explosives guy, carry two bags with all kinds of special grenades and mines. Smokes, flashbanks, incendiary, sleeping gas, shrapnell, concussion, toxic, EMP, flares, ... What can't an explosives guy do?

Notable downsides:

1) Very very broke due to, as one player puts it, "buying the right to be the ship's janitor" for 500 credits and a Star Destroyer data core

2) Getting explosives is expensive, and sneaking in demo charges and grenade launchers is kinda a thing beyond my abilities.

As for why te mercs, they apparently bought passage. The "teams" are 1) the two bounty hunter brothers and an astromech, 2) the pilot and the greedy jawa techie, and 3) my Ex-Military guy.

Edit: Semi-related, but I'm vowing here and now that if the Jawa's player, in any game, offers party inclusion (in the "Let's get the party together to adventure") for any sort of fee (This case being "If you want passage it'll be all your money and that data core") then I will go out of my way to keep the party split up as much as possible just to spite him.

"Well I'll just book passage on another ship then."
"There's no other ships."
"Fine, I'll get the data core downloaded here and just chill in town until a friendly'ish ship arrives."
"What about <Player>'s ship?"
"Not when the first mate is charging me to join the party."

[Ninjaxenomorph]

GM here. What the other players don't seem to get, except maybe the smuggler, is that this is Star Wars, a cinematic game. I am telling you right now, from a narrative standpoint, your character actually has the closest thing to Plot Armor as a PC can have in the game. You have a great character, it's some of the others that aren't exactly holding up their end of the game.

It might take a few sessions, but when inevitably you guys have to go up against tougher opposition, the veteran will have more to do. I am going to try to speed up the next session to get through the two planets to try to speed up the characters toward the plot.

As for the broke thing, your character I think is the ONLY character not motivated by money. Granted, he's not exactly a Jedi in behavior, but he's a step above the others.

[Silus]

GM here. What the other players don't seem to get, except maybe the smuggler, is that this is Star Wars, a cinematic game. I am telling you right now, from a narrative standpoint, your character actually has the closest thing to Plot Armor as a PC can have in the game. You have a great character, it's some of the others that aren't exactly holding up their end of the game.

It might take a few sessions, but when inevitably you guys have to go up against tougher opposition, the veteran will have more to do. I am going to try to speed up the next session to get through the two planets to try to speed up the characters toward the plot.

As for the broke thing, your character I think is the ONLY character not motivated by money. Granted, he's not exactly a Jedi in behavior, but he's a step above the others.

*Laughs* I was going to say, my guy seems to be the only one with potential for an actual story arc compared to the others.

Suppose I'll just have to tough it out.

But seriously though I am so close to fragging the Jawa that it ain't even close to funny.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

*Laughs* I was going to say, my guy seems to be the only one with potential for an actual story arc compared to the others.

Suppose I'll just have to tough it out.

But seriously though I am so close to fragging the Jawa that it ain't even close to funny.

The feeling is mutual. Can't hurt to be paranoid.

[JusticeZero]

You said you were an "explosives expert". You could go gadgeteer. As above with the suggestion of using lots of specialized boom toys, but crank up your scrounging skills and crafting on top of it. A bit like an Arcanum character favorite of mine who would walk into town broke and empty handed, start rummaging through the trash and junkyards and general store, and walk out loaded to the teeth with grenades and nonlethals.

[Segev]

As a note, you could wait for an explosive to be a hazard to the ship, and then charge the Jawa twice what you were charged to join the crew before you agree to disarm it.

[LimSindull]

Characters don't need to be the best at whatever they do to be effective, and lots of characters are overshadowed by their companions in plenty of stories. Knowing what you are good at is just as important, if not more, as knowing what your companions aren't good at. Being an extra is in a fight is never a bad thing as no one will expect you to be number one offensively, but getting your character to communicate with the rest of the team to make everyone more efficient is often a way to make your character more prominent in the session.

As for your particular situation, if the Jawa bothers you, then why not treat him like you see people do in the movies. From what the setting shows us, (not knowing the particulars of the campaign) Jawas are a backwater race normally ignored, looked down upon, and pushed aside. Just because one character says or decides something doesn't make it true.
(OR)
Instead of completely ignoring that character, it would seem to make more sense to talk to the pilot of the ship for passage. It's his ship after all (even if it's not, he will probably be attached to it and want a say of what goes on in it) This could start a trusting interaction between your characters.

Lastly, you could hire yourself to the ship as a demolitions expert (thinking, "hey i know some really good explosives that fit this class of ship"), or hire yourself to train either the bounty hunters, or the Trandoshans in explosives.

TL;DR: Make your character interactive with other players and the setting to increase your presence in the session.

This may be all useless now, but I hope it helps.

[GPuzzle]

When you end up the fifth wheel, make sure you are the driving one.

What I mean by that is - make sure you matter in a different way. And in a way that no one else can substitute you. You don't need to be "the party face". You don't need to be "the heavy weapons guy". You need to be yourself. Someone that the team doesn't have yet.

You can't fit a square peg in a round hole, but I'm pretty sure you can fit a square peg in a square hole.