So i have a droid player who would like to add weapons and stuff to himself permanently what kind of checks would i make him do and should there be side effects?

Within limits, equipment built into the chassis is just reasonable for droid characters. I would still watch his encumbrance, but there's no need for purple dice on the Mechanics check - unless he is being unreasonable.

I'd allow it, course up to the limits of encumbrance and common sense. I'd be pretty lax on the difficulty of a mechanics check unless the player is messing with critical components like its brain or power supply, or if the character is under duress when this happens.

I'd relegate side effects to rolls that had a lot of Threat or Despair. Maybe with threat the device is installed but it has double the encumbrance value. Maybe a Despair on the roll means the device is installed but it doesn't work right, or did some damage to the character during the install that will require a hard Mechanics check by another technician to fix.

For Advantage I'd say maybe the device integrated really well and has half the encumbrance, or whatever the device is supposed to do, it does slightly better (apply a boost die.) For a Triumph, maybe negate encumbrance altogether and give them a boost die. If it's a weapon maybe it's concealed.

I'd throw out there that failure isn't always "you didn't do it," sometimes it can be "you didn't get the results you hoped for" and this can make for a very interesting story!

So i have a droid player who would like to add weapons and stuff to himself permanently what kind of checks would i make him do and should there be side effects?

Droid PCs can have 6 cybernetic enhancements regardless of Brawn. The CRB gives an idea of the size reqs of an integrated weapon, which you could fudge if you want to add some permanent Encumbrance for a larger weapon. Beyond that, anything reasonable up to 6 items really.

So i have a droid player who would like to add weapons and stuff to himself permanently what kind of checks would i make him do and should there be side effects?

Droid PCs can have 6 cybernetic enhancements regardless of Brawn. The CRB gives an idea of the size reqs of an integrated weapon, which you could fudge if you want to add some permanent Encumbrance for a larger weapon. Beyond that, anything reasonable up to 6 items really.

Cybernetics are a specific category of gear/upgrades.

So i have a droid player who would like to add weapons and stuff to himself permanently what kind of checks would i make him do and should there be side effects?

Droid PCs can have 6 cybernetic enhancements regardless of Brawn. The CRB gives an idea of the size reqs of an integrated weapon, which you could fudge if you want to add some permanent Encumbrance for a larger weapon. Beyond that, anything reasonable up to 6 items really.

Cybernetics are a specific category of gear/upgrades.

And? The OP is asking for guidance and opinions on a baseline for a droid PC wanting to add items to himself, I offer the cybernetics section as a guide to that end and answer his question. What's your point?

So i have a droid player who would like to add weapons and stuff to himself permanently what kind of checks would i make him do and should there be side effects?

Droid PCs can have 6 cybernetic enhancements regardless of Brawn. The CRB gives an idea of the size reqs of an integrated weapon, which you could fudge if you want to add some permanent Encumbrance for a larger weapon. Beyond that, anything reasonable up to 6 items really.

Cybernetics are a specific category of gear/upgrades.

And? The OP is asking for guidance and opinions on a baseline for a droid PC wanting to add items to himself, I offer the cybernetics section as a guide to that end and answer his question. What's your point?

I would take this to mean that it's not necessary to treat guns, armor, and tool kits (for example) as cybernetic implants. The cybernetics cap is for cybernetics. The encumbrance rating is a cap for equipment.

Droids already get enough of a shaft in the XP department without imposing non-RAW restrictions on them, like how much equipment they can build into themselves.

I pointed out that the cybernetics section has a integral weapon as an option which provides a baseline for the OP to judge the size and what sorts of limitations might be appropriate to his original question. Which is actually relevant to the conversation.

As a guideline for "is this taking up a cybernetics slot" I would ask if the item in question gives a permanent bonus to a trait or characteristic. Droids (astromechs in particular) often have built-in weapons that would not count as cybernetic in my game.

I pointed out that the cybernetics section has a integral weapon as an option which provides a baseline for the OP to judge the size and what sorts of limitations might be appropriate to his original question. Which is actually relevant to the conversation.

The Cybernetic Weapon on page 173 has a very special feature: it appears to be a normal limb until the weapon inside is deployed as an incidental. Way better than the droid's standard "integration" option, which basically amounts to a carried weapon that can't be dropped. The Cyber Weapon is an actual cybernetic enhancement, and so if you want weapons to be hidden inside your chassis, then yeah the limit is 6.

But if you simply want weapons integrated into your chassis, then the limits should only be encumbrance and common sense.

I pointed out that the cybernetics section has a integral weapon as an option which provides a baseline for the OP to judge the size and what sorts of limitations might be appropriate to his original question. Which is actually relevant to the conversation.

Sure, it's relevant, I totally agree. But the application ("anything is reasonable up to 6 items"), IMO, doesn't quite hit the mark.

The Cybernetic Weapon on page 173 has a very special feature: it appears to be a normal limb until the weapon inside is deployed as an incidental. Way better than the droid's standard "integration" option, which basically amounts to a carried weapon that can't be dropped. The Cyber Weapon is an actual cybernetic enhancement, and so if you want weapons to be hidden inside your chassis, then yeah the limit is 6.

But if you simply want weapons integrated into your chassis, then the limits should only be encumbrance and common sense.

I think if you go back and actually read what I wrote I do indicate cybernetics as a guide and that items integrated beyond the sorts of things offered in cybernetics and that he could then "fudge" if he wants to take into account encumbrance as well. I also disagree, if it's permanently attached, it's cybernetics. To allow 6 cybernetic upgrades and then a number of additional integrated items constrained only by encumbrance is OP IMHO.

I treat any installed bits as cybernetics for a droid. I also am a little stricter than you guys, I guess, because I make the party mechanic roll a Hard or Daunting Mechanics check to install it, depending on what they're installing and where on the droid, with boosts or setbacks for the equipment they have around.

Example, in my current campaign the mechanic installed a blaster pistol in the droid Sharpshooter's arm, it was a Daunting check, but with two or three boost dice because they were in a decked out speeder chop shop at the time. She succeeded with a Triumph, so now the pistol is retractable and hidden.

In my previous campaign, the party mechanic installed a comlink and scanner goggles in the droid PC. Those were both Hard checks I believe, with an upgrade because they were messing with more vital areas. There was some Threat on the roll to install the comlink, so I had it be able to receive directly to the droid's verbobrain with no audible noise, but he still had to talk out loud to transmit.

Hope some of this helps!

I pointed out that the cybernetics section has a integral weapon as an option which provides a baseline for the OP to judge the size and what sorts of limitations might be appropriate to his original question. Which is actually relevant to the conversation.

Sure, it's relevant, I totally agree. But the application ("anything is reasonable up to 6 items"), IMO, doesn't quite hit the mark.

The Cybernetic Weapon on page 173 has a very special feature: it appears to be a normal limb until the weapon inside is deployed as an incidental. Way better than the droid's standard "integration" option, which basically amounts to a carried weapon that can't be dropped. The Cyber Weapon is an actual cybernetic enhancement, and so if you want weapons to be hidden inside your chassis, then yeah the limit is 6.

But if you simply want weapons integrated into your chassis, then the limits should only be encumbrance and common sense.

I think if you go back and actually read what I wrote I do indicate cybernetics as a guide and that items integrated beyond the sorts of things offered in cybernetics and that he could then "fudge" if he wants to take into account encumbrance as well. I also disagree, if it's permanently attached, it's cybernetics. To allow 6 cybernetic upgrades and then a number of additional integrated items constrained only by encumbrance is OP IMHO.

I could agree, except the rulebook says a lot of the gear is or can be directly integrated into a droid. It is on page 47. Do you force your droids to wear armor, or does it count as a cybernetic?

It would depend. Is it obvious? Is it sneakily integrated? Is it something that can be unbolted easily, etc. I'd just have to judge it case by case honestly. Rule of thumb though is if they want it integrated highly into the droid body to be either subtle or just plain hidden, it's cybernetics.

It would depend. Is it obvious? Is it sneakily integrated? Is it something that can be unbolted easily, etc. I'd just have to judge it case by case honestly. Rule of thumb though is if they want it integrated highly into the droid body to be either subtle or just plain hidden, it's cybernetics.

"Subtle/hidden" is a different animal from "integrated." I would say that this above "rule of thumb" is more house rule than RAI. The reasons are twofold:

1. If a PC a droid wanted "hidden" armor, I'd tell him theres a cybernetic attachment for that. A humanoid PC might call it "subdermal plating." A droid would probably call it something else. But in any case it's a totally out-of-sight armor plating.

2. If thr PC wanted "subtle," there's "armored clothing" which requires a successful Perception check for an NPC to realize that you've got armor on, so I'd go to that piece of equipment. Integrating it is something a droid can do, so no extra price must be paid RAW to simply treat armored clothing as some sort of integrated, disguised armor plating.

To each their own.

"Subtle/hidden" is a different animal from "integrated." I would say that this above "rule of thumb" is more house rule than RAI. The reasons are twofold:

Then there’s getting a rank of Enduring, so as to increase your Soak by +1. That shouldn’t require any Mechanics checks, and shouldn’t count against the cybernetic cap.

So, there’s actually three ways to do increased armor for droids.

If the droid wants to have equipment integrated into their chassis as per the sidebar on page 47, you should let them do it in line with their Encumbrance rating. If it's something like a blaster that they want to hide, then your NPCs should be able to make Perception checks to spot it just like they would if the Smuggler hid a similar blaster in his boot.

The rules aren't actually different for droids, the 'integration' bit just makes it easier to explain narrative wise.