So my buddies and I started getting into EotE and now AoR. I've been waiting for this moment since I saw the scientist specialization and its talents. Our GM decided to make the game tons more interesting by swapping the story around. We are now an Empire Commando Squad tasked with weeding out the Rebels seeking to overthrow the Empire.

Later in this campaign, I intend to work my way up to becoming my own faction or taking over either the Empire or Rebels to add on a major twist to the story hes trying to create. (He loves when I twist the story in ways he could never anticipate, thus making the game have an endless amount of variables to account for.)

Now, I know I just joined up, but I ask the community to aid me on this. The GM has managed to let me incorporate medicinal drugs into grenades and I managed to create an anesthetic grenade, but later on the rebels and/or Empire are going to start using respirators and other ways to counteract my grenades. I need help finding a legitimate excuse as to why I am going to be able to make my grenades not be affected by respirators and other means. It can be reasoning as to why it can penetrate armor or why it cant be filtered through masks, but I lack the actual knowledge of how Star Wars armor "works" that others may have.

Chemicals can be absorbed through the skin, eyes, nasal cavity, and mouth lining just as easily as they can be breathed in. That and not all armor is completely sealed from the environment, just look what the Rebels were wearing on Endor. Also you could have a session where you sabotage the respirator manufacturing process for stormtrooper armor, making them less effective against your anesthetic grenades. But eventually you're going to hit a point where all bases are covered and the grenades won't work anymore.

I need help finding a legitimate excuse as to why I am going to be able to make my grenades not be affected by respirators and other means. It can be reasoning as to why it can penetrate armor or why it cant be filtered through masks, but I lack the actual knowledge of how Star Wars armor "works" that others may have.

Just carry a couple grenades of Plank Gas with you as well. Problem solved.

Though if the goal is to incapacitate your target why not just carry stun grenades?

I need help finding a legitimate excuse as to why I am going to be able to make my grenades not be affected by respirators and other means. It can be reasoning as to why it can penetrate armor or why it cant be filtered through masks, but I lack the actual knowledge of how Star Wars armor "works" that others may have.

Just carry a couple grenades of Plank Gas with you as well. Problem solved.

Though if the goal is to incapacitate your target why not just carry stun grenades?

Stun grenades go bang... anesthetic gas grenade just hisses...

I'm terribly sorry for the late reply. I only just got notification of the first reply.

Anesthetic grenades were just the start so the GM couldn't get any red flags off the bat. I asked him about paralytic grenades during character creation and I assume he thinkg I was making a universal design where I could incorporate drugs/poisons into them.

I chose not to go with Stun grenades, just as Oden said, because I would be able to accomplish stealth missions more easily without attracting attention.

I didn't see Plank Gas in the core book, but if I can eventually get around to that, then goodbye enemy armor!

As for finding reasoning as to why it needs to be able to go through environmentally sealed armor, its just a precaution just in case I decide to turn and work with the rebels instead.

(Thank you both for replying to a new guys thread!)

EDIT: I was also trying to find away around causing strain damage since minions die from strain.

Plank Gas is acid, though, and eats away people as quickly as armour - it's not great for taking people alive or dropping them quietly due to....you know...agonised screaming as their skin dissolves.

Ultimately, Oden Gebhac is right; you can produce chemical grenades which can bypass armour, but there always comes a point where it has to be either lethal or noisy to do so (chemical-tipped fletchettes, for example). Rebels are easier to deal with, since you rarely see rebels in sealed armour, but stormtrooper standard issue stuff has hostile-ish environments in mind.

My primary response is "what's wrong with stun blasts?" - minions suffer damage instead of strain, but that's just because of simplified game mechanics - so you don't have to track two 'damage tracks' for the less important opponents - a 'dead' minion could be actually dead, or unconcious, or just so heavily wounded as to no longer be a threat - but since they're not important to the story, you generally don't care which. It doesn't change the narrative effect of a weapon. If you hit generic minion #34 with a stun blast, he's going to be rendered unconcious. That's what stun blasts do.

Plank Gas is acid, though, and eats away people as quickly as armour - it's not great for taking people alive or dropping them quietly due to....you know...agonised screaming as their skin dissolves.

Ultimately, Oden Gebhac is right; you can produce chemical grenades which can bypass armour, but there always comes a point where it has to be either lethal or noisy to do so (chemical-tipped fletchettes, for example). Rebels are easier to deal with, since you rarely see rebels in sealed armour, but stormtrooper standard issue stuff has hostile-ish environments in mind.

My primary response is "what's wrong with stun blasts?" - minions suffer damage instead of strain, but that's just because of simplified game mechanics - so you don't have to track two 'damage tracks' for the less important opponents - a 'dead' minion could be actually dead, or unconcious, or just so heavily wounded as to no longer be a threat - but since they're not important to the story, you generally don't care which. It doesn't change the narrative effect of a weapon. If you hit generic minion #34 with a stun blast, he's going to be rendered unconcious. That's what stun blasts do.

I'll notify our GM so we don't have to be so careful.

EDIT: It was just a small side mission, but we had to take care of a fake E-11 dealer without killing him. He was only classified as a minion since he wasn't supposed to be a badass off the bat.

Plank Gas is acid, though, and eats away people as quickly as armour - it's not great for taking people alive or dropping them quietly due to....you know...agonised screaming as their skin dissolves.

Ultimately, Oden Gebhac is right; you can produce chemical grenades which can bypass armour, but there always comes a point where it has to be either lethal or noisy to do so (chemical-tipped fletchettes, for example). Rebels are easier to deal with, since you rarely see rebels in sealed armour, but stormtrooper standard issue stuff has hostile-ish environments in mind.

My primary response is "what's wrong with stun blasts?" - minions suffer damage instead of strain, but that's just because of simplified game mechanics - so you don't have to track two 'damage tracks' for the less important opponents - a 'dead' minion could be actually dead, or unconcious, or just so heavily wounded as to no longer be a threat - but since they're not important to the story, you generally don't care which. It doesn't change the narrative effect of a weapon. If you hit generic minion #34 with a stun blast, he's going to be rendered unconcious. That's what stun blasts do.

Oh okay, our GM must have assumed that strain causes death then. We all just took his word on it and now we know our pacifist medic can stop having PTSD flashbacks. (No offense to anyone)

I'll notify our GM so we don't have to be so careful.

EDIT: It was just a small side mission, but we had to take care of a fake E-11 dealer without killing him. He was only classified as a minion since he wasn't supposed to be a badass off the bat.

To help your GM, you may want to tip him off that the difference between 3 grouped Minions, a Rival, and a Nemesis isn't that great.

There have been some people that were very surprised to learn that a Nemesis isn't inherently tougher then a Rival, usually by dropping the Nemesis in solo and having the players gun him down in a single turn...

Plank Gas is acid, though, and eats away people as quickly as armour - it's not great for taking people alive or dropping them quietly due to....you know...agonised screaming as their skin dissolves.

Ultimately, Oden Gebhac is right; you can produce chemical grenades which can bypass armour, but there always comes a point where it has to be either lethal or noisy to do so (chemical-tipped fletchettes, for example). Rebels are easier to deal with, since you rarely see rebels in sealed armour, but stormtrooper standard issue stuff has hostile-ish environments in mind.

My primary response is "what's wrong with stun blasts?" - minions suffer damage instead of strain, but that's just because of simplified game mechanics - so you don't have to track two 'damage tracks' for the less important opponents - a 'dead' minion could be actually dead, or unconcious, or just so heavily wounded as to no longer be a threat - but since they're not important to the story, you generally don't care which. It doesn't change the narrative effect of a weapon. If you hit generic minion #34 with a stun blast, he's going to be rendered unconcious. That's what stun blasts do.

Oh okay, our GM must have assumed that strain causes death then. We all just took his word on it and now we know our pacifist medic can stop having PTSD flashbacks. (No offense to anyone)

I'll notify our GM so we don't have to be so careful.

EDIT: It was just a small side mission, but we had to take care of a fake E-11 dealer without killing him. He was only classified as a minion since he wasn't supposed to be a badass off the bat.

To help your GM, you may want to tip him off that the difference between 3 grouped Minions, a Rival, and a Nemesis isn't that great.

There have been some people that were very surprised to learn that a Nemesis isn't inherently tougher then a Rival, usually by dropping the Nemesis in solo and having the players gun him down in a single turn...

He hasn't tried using the other two just yet. To put it in perspective of where we're at, our heavy gunner just got his leg beat into putty and his face smashed in by two trandoshans wielding clubs. It was quite hilarious as my character stated that they were screwed before they left on that mission. Now he has to rely on the pacifist medic and the recruit.

Minions are really good for scaling up nameless enemies.

A Rival is basically just a Minion with more depth/breadth in skill sets and possibly a name. He's like a minion+ or something.

A Nemesis on the other hand, just depends on your GM and how he/she stats them up and fixes them.

Plank Gas is acid, though, and eats away people as quickly as armour - it's not great for taking people alive or dropping them quietly due to....you know...agonised screaming as their skin dissolves.

Ultimately, Oden Gebhac is right; you can produce chemical grenades which can bypass armour, but there always comes a point where it has to be either lethal or noisy to do so (chemical-tipped fletchettes, for example). Rebels are easier to deal with, since you rarely see rebels in sealed armour, but stormtrooper standard issue stuff has hostile-ish environments in mind.

And unless it's extremely acidic, or partially explosive, you're not going to get gas through environmentally sealed armor; that being the primary purpose of said armor. If they're running on their own air supply, there's no filter to get through even if you could, and the vaccum-proof variants will hold out gas just as well as they hold it in.

Just because your weapon isn't unstoppable doesn't mean it's useless, though. Even when countermeasures exist, they won't always be readily available or actively in-use. And if the enemy's already suited-up and sealed-in, you're probably past the point where subtlety is going to make a difference anyway.