Hullo again.

As we all know, most of the weapons and armor in Star Wars Edge and Rebellion are pretty cool by themselves, but they could always be better.

The Augmented Spin Barrel, for instance, is easily one of my favorite upgrades, giving you the Damage and Pierce qualities you didn't actually know you were missing. The Superior Quality, while rather expensive, is nonetheless rather good with that extra Damage and Advantage or extra Soak and Defensive Quality (Hell Yes).

My point is that Upgrades are awesome, and totally worth aiming for if you've settled on a favorite weapon or armor you'd like to trick out.

But what if you don't have someone with Mechanic Skill?

Granted, any group looking to fly a bucket of metal with a hyperdrive through the vast blackness of space should have someone onboard who can fix things in case they go horribly wrong before taking off as a matter of course, but what if you don't?

The books have provisions for applying the upgrades yourself, complete with cost and difficulty checks, but they don't have anything for paying an NPC to do it.

My question is this: If you want to pay an NPC Mechanic to apply the upgrades for you, what sort of cost should be involved?

As Always, Thanks

Force On

a rule of thumb that i would use is that labor should be about the same cost as the parts or 500 credits whichever is more. That's after you find someone who will make the mod, which could involve a check and credits expended due to interaction with the black market

Base cost + 30%, adjusted by a negotiate check, and he still has to make a roll.

Depending on what you are handing out for credit rewards charge accordingly. There aren't rules for it, but getting superior customization on a weapon is 5000, so not cheap, whatever you decide.

I would just increase the cost by 30% (or whatever seems reasonable/balanced) and substitute a Negotiation check for the Mechanics check. No need to make two rolls for the thing.

This has never been an issue for my group, since one player has INT 6 and Mechanics 3, but if the PCs were on a sufficiently advanced world (i.e., one with a good selection of mechanics) I'd tell them the following: "Whichever mechanic you see he'll have INT 3, and he'll charge 100 credits for the job (plus marerial costs, of course) per skill rank. So who do you want to hire?"

And remember, attachments are free to install automatically as part of the base cost. Only mods need a skill check.

I'd urge caution here. I'd also recommend erring on the side of making this very expensive as a disincentive.

When you build/improve your character you're choosing not only if you're effective but how you're effective.

E.g. imagine you had two Bounty Hunter PCs in your group:

• Sarah the Gadgeteer is an effective fighter because she's good at modding her gear (high Mech)
• John the Assassin is an effective fighter because of his skill and talents - if he had easy or quick access to the same gear as Sarah then there is less advantage to being a Gadgeteer (not none - I love Armour Master)

To put it another, simpler way, while Sarah's buying up Mech ranks, John's free to buy up Ranged: Heavy.

Yep, it's all about what a character is willing to spend/sacrifice/invest to get what they want. If they spend all their XP on blasting things, well then that's XP they can't spend on modding things. And so NPCs can be hired to "fill in gaps" for the party.

For example, say you had a group of a mechanic, an explorer, and two scholars with maybe a rank or two of Ranged (Light) between the four of them. They suck They could set aside some sizeable amount of credits with which to pay a mercenary (or perhaps a mercenary team) to accompany them into a dangerous location. Part of the agreement is that the mechanic PC will spend some time upgrading the equipment of the mercenary crew, who recently lost their own tech.

Flip that situation around. The PCs are all combat-hardened veterans, but barely know one end of a hydrospanner from the other. So they come across a sizeable windfall and decide to hire a skilled engineer to improve their weapons, gadgets, and other sundries.

Either way, it will be costly, but it's just a matter of what the PCs are willing to invest in. It's a matter of priorities.

I would start at doubling the upgrade cost (Mechanics gotta eat). I'd then go upward from there if the Mechanic is of particular skill.

You could have the party find someone who will do it for less, but then they should have a sub-standard skill (like 2 Int, 1 Mech) and are more likely to get those failed rolls that permanently lock out the mods.