So I was thinking about adding in an armor that can assemble/disassemble much like Marvel Ironman armor, because wearing bulking armor around all the time can get silly. I was thinking about doing it by creating an attachment that can be added to some armors that allows it to do this. Thoughts? or maybe I should just use an existing armor and add that ability to it with an increased price?

I think if you take the bulky out of it you take the Star Wars out of it personally.

What approach are you using, exactly? Do you mean the suitcase armor, or armor that just flies to you?

The former is pretty viable with the technology of Star Wars, but might not be as durable as full-versions, while the latter doesn't really have a viable setup or analogy in anything in the Star Wars Universe.

I'm away from my book right now, but I'd do it as an attachment that turns any armor into an easy to carry suitcase/backpack, uses 1 HP (2 for Heavy), and reduces the soak value by 1. Donning the armor can be done is one action (Manuever to drop/open it, action to get into it).

Note this is just a quick, sloppy approach off the cuff, and may not be horribly balanced.

Now, making an Iron Man style armor as a whole (flight, built-in weapons, augmented strength, environmental survivability, etc) is a whole different ball of wax that I'm not 100% certain I'd want to put into a Star Wars game (yet; a Marvel/Star Wars crossover has crossed my mind).

Now, making an Iron Man style armor as a whole (flight, built-in weapons, augmented strength, environmental survivability, etc) is a whole different ball of wax that I'm not 100% certain I'd want to put into a Star Wars game (yet; a Marvel/Star Wars crossover has crossed my mind).

I would turn this into a career similar to the Rigger.

Important point: Iron Man's armour in the Avenger movies is meant to bring an otherwise vanilla mortal up to the power level of actual superheroes. Giving someone in a Star Wars campaign an armour like that would horribly imbalance pretty much any campaign. Now, if all you want is the collapsible feature then that's reasonable, but you ought to be careful that you don't make it too good. It should be a custom-made suit, with no additional hardpoints available for further customization. It should also take several rounds to deploy.

Iron Man armour already exists in Star Wars Legends. Phase 3 Dark Trooper. Okay, more War Machine, but still. Just have the suit fly to you as needed by installing a droid brain.

This makes General Mohc Tony Stark. Darth Vader has rage issues like the hulk. Palpatine is Nick Fury. Mara Jade is Black Widow. "Only imperial stormtroopers are so precise, so they can be Hawkeye. Imperial Avengers Assemble!

Back to the OP:

If I did this I'd make this a pretty hefty HP requirement.

My concern though is that huge ugly bulky armor is kinda it's own balance. Allowing it to be "on call" creates an issue where I can walk into a place where armor isn't appropriate, snap my fingers, and be armored up and ready to go... Cool when you're Iron Man and need to be able to stack up to the likes of Thor or the Incredible Hulk quickly, not so cool when you're a GM trying to challenge the players....

There's really not that many bulky armours ingame anyway. Laminate or Heavy Battle Armour, sure- everything else you can basically get away with wearing normally.

So I was thinking about adding in an armor that can assemble/disassemble much like Marvel Ironman armor, because wearing bulking armor around all the time can get silly. I was thinking about doing it by creating an attachment that can be added to some armors that allows it to do this. Thoughts? or maybe I should just use an existing armor and add that ability to it with an increased price?

So, putting aside the mechanical effects of the armor in terms of Soak and what-not just for right now... So it seems like you want either the suitcase , the individual pieces that can fly to and grab onto the owner , or just the big hulking thing that flies to and latches on .

Something akin to the suitcase could probably be fine, but much like Iron Man, the compactness and the need for it to be lightweight and slightly more discreet probably means it could probably be slightly better than Padded Armor at best unless you're springing for crazy materials to use that are high cost or worthy of extensive adventures to get. Something like the individual pieces, I'd probably just say no. Something like the big solid piece in Avengers 1 is probably do-able. Essentially for moving the armor around, you're taking a small modified vehicle and slapping on an Autopilot Droid Brain or Slave Circuit. This gives more freedom for the type of armor, but for most things that'd warrant this type of delivery system, you'd probably need to take 1-2 HP to make the armor easy enough to put on quickly.

In terms of how much time this would all take, you're probably going like 3+ rounds of combat (depending on how far you are) waiting for the armor to come to you, and then I could see either a maneuver or a full action being needed to suit up. Obviously suitcase-type route lets you ignore waiting for it to be delivered. Though if you have to go somewhere unarmed and need to have the armor, it might be worth it now and then.

In terms of mechanically what you want the armor itself to do. If you're looking for something actually Iron Man-like... There's the Powered Armor in Dangerous Covenants. Grab some sort of blaster pistol(s) with wrist mount(s), Jetpack, and maybe a Hands-Free Weapon System and Secondary Missile System (all attachments from Dangerous Covenants as well), and you're good to go.

I think the issue isn't so much the idea of it being bulky, but actually hauling it around everywhere and not making it obvious that you are expecting a fight (i.e. when my players go to the Core worlds, they want to wear nondescript armor like those available in Suns of Fortune to keep from being obviously ready for the deal to go bad).

Personally, I think it's feasible, but that's just my own opinion.

I think making it chew up a number of hard points (really a balancing act) and making this rare/hard to make happen.

Maybe something like:

Suitcase Armor Mod

This armor mod allows you to condense a suit of armor into a form of luggage that is nearly impossible to recognize (<P><P><P><P> Perception Check). It raises the encumbrance of the armor by 1 when not worn and reduces the soak value by 1.

HP : Reduces Armor's HP value to 0. Will not work on any armor already at 0 HP. This does not reduce any bonus HP granted by talents.

Cost : 2x the armor's cost

Rarity : 8 (as this is very hard to find and only done by a few modders, normally as a custom job)

Mods : 2x Reduce HP Cost by 1 (allowing additional mods to the armor).

Again, something just off the cuff. Not sure how balanced it is, but it's workable at least (I think).
Maybe I should just stick with starships >_>

I think the flying armour could work. 2 HP, the armour gets a repulsorlift unit that can make just the armour levitate and fly as a vehicle at speed 1 (not with the wearer inside, at least not without further upgrades ... or just buy a jetpack and weld it onto it ), a built-in slave circuit that homes in on the owner (or anyone carrying the right comlink or whatnot), and then the target can don it as an action once it is engaged with him. It acts on the target's turn. After it's activated it will act as the target wishes, moving up to two manoeuvres per round, starting the following round, ignoring difficult terrain as long as it's ground based.

I don't see this as un-star wars.

This will of course make stuff like low-light vision, enhanced protection and so on more restricted.

Another thing to consider is that if you don't want bulky armour, wear a portable shield generator.

As to the on-call armour and GM issue, well, that is what despair rolls are for. Perhaps TIEs get scrambled, Tuskens take potshots and it retaliates, or of it is really altruistic the armour decides to help someone before coming to you. Droids have personalities and may not be 100% at your beck and call.

The armour wouldn't be a GM setback, but a constant story hook. Imagine if the repurposed dark trooper phase 3 prototype armour had some hidden programming, such as the Wookiee subjugation protocol, or even Order 66 installed?

Just buy a valet droid with a backpack.

It can't be too complicated, or else how could you build it in a cave?

Let me clarify, I'm not looking to introduce awesomely powerful armor, just the ability to retract into a briefcase and back on again quickly.

I realize it doesn't tie into the Star Wars Universe perfectly, but... there are a LOT of un explored planets in the Star Wars Universe so...why not?

I could also counteract it by adding a lot of rarity to it, because... no one has that tech.

COMPACT BRIEFCASE ARMOUR

This attachment gets rid of unnecessary bulk and forms the armour to pack up compactly in a briefcase-shape. Unfortunately with the compact size it does make it harder to don, but that's the price one pays for portability.

Base Modifier: Reduce the encumbrance of the armour when not worn by 1, but give the armour the Prepare 3 quality.

Modification Options: 2 reduce the encumbrance by another 1 mods, 2 reduce the Prepare quality by 1 mods.

Hard Points Required: 2

Price: ® 3,500

Just eyeballing, what do y'all think?

-EF

You guys are awesome. Thanks!

COMPACT BRIEFCASE ARMOUR

This attachment gets rid of unnecessary bulk and forms the armour to pack up compactly in a briefcase-shape. Unfortunately with the compact size it does make it harder to don, but that's the price one pays for portability.

Base Modifier: Reduce the encumbrance of the armour when not worn by 1, but give the armour the Prepare 3 quality.

Modification Options: 2 reduce the encumbrance by another 1 mods, 2 reduce the Prepare quality by 1 mods.

Hard Points Required: 2

Price: ® 3,500

Just eyeballing, what do y'all think?

-EF

I like how we are on different ends here, EF. I do admit that I like the Prepare setup and that it can be tweaked. Perhaps a combination of both of our approaches?

Compact Briefcase Armor Modification

This modification transforms any suit of armor into a nondescript briefcase (or similar luggage). Unfortunately, some protection is lost due to reducing the size and it does take time to don the armor.

The modification is based solely on custom work and speculation, so finding the parts at an affordable price is a challenge in and of itself.

Base Modifiers : The briefcase looks like any other nondescript case, and it will take a rather difficult (<P><P><P><P>) Perception roll to notice it's true purpose. The Armor's Soak and Encumbrance ratings are reduced by one due to the compact size. The armor now has the Prepare 2 quality to don it.

Modification Options : 1 Reduce Prepare quality by 1 mod, 2 Reduce Encumbrance by 1 mod, 2 reduce Hard Point Cost by 1 mod.

Hard Points : Reduce the Hard Points of the armor to 0 (cannot be used on any armor that is already at 0)

Price/Rarity : 2x the armor being modified / 8

I do have to ask: why is yours Restricted? I don't see this as being something that is readily available, unless it's one of those special ops things; at that point, Restricted works!

Again, just soundboarding here.

One of the things to watch out for in both of these suggestions, is that they're both better suited for larger and heavier armors. So for instance, EldritchFire's HP cost makes it so something like Steelskin Armor, or some of the lighter armors, couldn't be used, but it works on the especially well on bulkier and normally harder to hide ones like the Heavy Battle Armor, Laminate, Hutt Shell Armor, and so on. LibrariaNPCs pretty much works on most armors except the 0 HP ones, but again, this sort of means the lighter armors couldn't be used.

I'd personally suggest something more akin to Lightsabers. The suitcase being the equivalent of the hilt, the type of plating being the mandatory crystal/emitter to actually get use out of it, and leaving the option open for suitcase-specific attachments as well as general armor attachments. It also makes more sense to me, personally, as to how you can have fancier armors in it, without breaking and armor down into little pieces to get it to fit properly into a suitcase-form.

• Armor
  • ​Suitcase
    • 1,250 credits, Encumbrance 4, 3 HP, Rarity 6
    • Prepare 3
  • Backpack
    • 1,250 credits, Encumbrance 4, 3 HP, Rarity 6
    • Ignore 4 Encumbrance from Backpack when carrying on back
    • Prepare 3
• Attachments
  • Plating - 2 HP
    • Plastoid/Ceramic (Armored Clothing)
      • 1 Defense, 1 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 1
      • 1,250 credits, Rarity 6
    • Laminate (Padded Armor/Laminate)
      • 2 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 1
      • 900 Credits, Rarity 6
    • Durasteel (Protector 1 Combat Armor)
      • 1 Defense, 2 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 3
      • 7,250 Credits, Rarity 7, Restricted
    • Steelskin (Steelskin Armor)
      • 3 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 7
      • Brawn and Agility checks gain 1 Setback while wearing armor. Reduce rounds staggered or disoriented from weapon qualities by 1.
      • 8,500 Credits, Rarity 8, Restricted
  • Improved Suiting Mechanism - 0 HP
    • Base Modifier: Reduce Prepare by 1.
    • Modification Options: 1 reduce Prepare by 1, 2 reduce Encumbrance by 1.

COMPACT BRIEFCASE ARMOUR

This attachment gets rid of unnecessary bulk and forms the armour to pack up compactly in a briefcase-shape. Unfortunately with the compact size it does make it harder to don, but that's the price one pays for portability.

Base Modifier: Reduce the encumbrance of the armour when not worn by 1, but give the armour the Prepare 3 quality.

Modification Options: 2 reduce the encumbrance by another 1 mods, 2 reduce the Prepare quality by 1 mods.

Hard Points Required: 2

Price: ® 3,500

Just eyeballing, what do y'all think?

-EF

I like how we are on different ends here, EF. I do admit that I like the Prepare setup and that it can be tweaked. Perhaps a combination of both of our approaches?

Compact Briefcase Armor Modification

This modification transforms any suit of armor into a nondescript briefcase (or similar luggage). Unfortunately, some protection is lost due to reducing the size and it does take time to don the armor.

The modification is based solely on custom work and speculation, so finding the parts at an affordable price is a challenge in and of itself.

Base Modifiers : The briefcase looks like any other nondescript case, and it will take a rather difficult (<P><P><P><P>) Perception roll to notice it's true purpose. The Armor's Soak and Encumbrance ratings are reduced by one due to the compact size. The armor now has the Prepare 2 quality to don it.

Modification Options : 1 Reduce Prepare quality by 1 mod, 2 Reduce Encumbrance by 1 mod, 2 reduce Hard Point Cost by 1 mod.

Hard Points : Reduce the Hard Points of the armor to 0 (cannot be used on any armor that is already at 0)

Price/Rarity : 2x the armor being modified / 8

I do have to ask: why is yours Restricted? I don't see this as being something that is readily available, unless it's one of those special ops things; at that point, Restricted works!

Again, just soundboarding here.

I went with restricted because I see it more as a special ops thing: you have it if you need it. I don't think the Empire would want to have a bunch of private citizens running around with what could be powered battle armour looking like a carry-on suitcase!

But in hindsight, the armour is what needs to be restricted, since doing this to, say, adverse environmental gear isn't a big deal.

One of the things to watch out for in both of these suggestions, is that they're both better suited for larger and heavier armors. So for instance, EldritchFire's HP cost makes it so something like Steelskin Armor, or some of the lighter armors, couldn't be used, but it works on the especially well on bulkier and normally harder to hide ones like the Heavy Battle Armor, Laminate, Hutt Shell Armor, and so on. LibrariaNPCs pretty much works on most armors except the 0 HP ones, but again, this sort of means the lighter armors couldn't be used.

I'd personally suggest something more akin to Lightsabers. The suitcase being the equivalent of the hilt, the type of plating being the mandatory crystal/emitter to actually get use out of it, and leaving the option open for suitcase-specific attachments as well as general armor attachments. It also makes more sense to me, personally, as to how you can have fancier armors in it, without breaking and armor down into little pieces to get it to fit properly into a suitcase-form.

• Armor
  • ​Suitcase
    • 1,250 credits, Encumbrance 4, 3 HP, Rarity 6
    • Prepare 3
  • Backpack
    • 1,250 credits, Encumbrance 4, 3 HP, Rarity 6
    • Ignore 4 Encumbrance from Backpack when carrying on back
    • Prepare 3
• Attachments
  • Plating - 2 HP
    • Plastoid/Ceramic (Armored Clothing)
      • 1 Defense, 1 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 1
      • 1,250 credits, Rarity 6
    • Laminate (Padded Armor/Laminate)
      • 2 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 1
      • 900 Credits, Rarity 6
    • Durasteel (Protector 1 Combat Armor)
      • 1 Defense, 2 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 3
      • 7,250 Credits, Rarity 7, Restricted
    • Steelskin (Steelskin Armor)
      • 3 Soak
      • Increase encumbrance by 7
      • Brawn and Agility checks gain 1 Setback while wearing armor. Reduce rounds staggered or disoriented from weapon qualities by 1.
      • 8,500 Credits, Rarity 8, Restricted
  • Improved Suiting Mechanism - 0 HP
    • Base Modifier: Reduce Prepare by 1.
    • Modification Options: 1 reduce Prepare by 1, 2 reduce Encumbrance by 1.

You raise a good point, in that bulkier armour would be easier to suitcase-ify, and that's not quite right.

What if it was dropped to HP1, and the price was based off of the encumbrance of the armour? Then the Prepare quality could be based on the base soak of the armour!

How does this look:

COMPACT BRIEFCASE ARMOUR

This attachment gets rid of unnecessary bulk and forms the armour to pack up compactly in a briefcase-shape. Unfortunately with the compact size it does make it harder to don, but that's the price one pays for portability.

Base Modifier: Reduce the encumbrance of the armour when not worn by 1, but give the armour the Prepare quality equal to the base soak of the armour.

Modification Options: 2 reduce the encumbrance by another 1 mods, 2 reduce the Prepare quality by 1, to a minimum of 1 mods.

Hard Points Required: 1

Price/Rarity: 500 x base encumbrance of the armour/7

I chose rarity 7 because as I said above, the difficulty/rarity/restrictedness should be based on the armour modified, not the modification itself.

-EF

P.S. I see Tony Stark being a Bounty Hunter/Gadgeteer. Taking Toughened and going straight down, then branching out at the end to Improved Armor Master. Of course, he'd Jury Rig and Tinker with his Iron Man armour. When he starts to have multiple armours around—stealth armour, Hulkbuster armour, etc—he grabs Technician/Outlaw Tech for more Tinkerer/Jury Rig talents to apply to up to three different armours.

So something like this ?

So something like this ?

Think the OP is looking for:

https://youtu.be/DAWbB82t8eQ?t=16s

Yeah, but he did say he didn't want something silly, so...

While the Iron Man briefcase armor is cool... why not barrow a page from the real world?

If you need armor, are wearing it in a non-permissive environment, there are armors designed to be low-profile. Just throw on a robe, cape/cloak, jacket, whatever over it. (See Vince (Al Pacino) and his unit's plainclothes police officers during the bank shoot out in Heat for an example.)

If the issue is comfort, based on how many bounty hunters make armor part of their everyday attire, it cannot be that uncomfortable. Yes, if a bounty hunter is going on a high-risk mission where they're kicking down some acquisition's front door in the middle of the night, yeah, even uncomfortable amounts of armor might make sense. But we see bounty hunters wearing armor even when there's no real reason to do so - such as on the bridge of the Executor, in Jabba's palace, and on the streets of Coruscant. (Jango Fett was rocking full Mandalorian armor during his op on Coruscant and no one seemed to take note of it until he killed an assassin.)

So Boba Fett might wear his regular Mandalorian armor most of the time, but go to a heavy-duty, more durable, suit of power armor when he's attempting to bust somebody who is pretty darned dangerous. The comparison of bringing Tony Stark up to par with the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America is apt: Except in this case it might be a Jedi or a wookiee or some other species that might not go down to blaster fire and vibroswords very easily. Or a bunch of hired mooks and the only way to the acquisition is through the mooks (going in, coming out, or both).

Even historically, not all armor was uncomfortable. Japanese armor and maille shirts were not uncommonly worn all the time while on campaign - because they were designed to be worn all the time and to therefore be, at least in moderate amounts, comfortable at all times. Given that certain types of armor are necessary to survive in some planetary atmospheric and gravitic conditions and (especially with Stormtrooper armor) to be worn for long periods while operating in the field independent of specialized pre-fab hab blocks and the like it's unlikely that armor is generally uncomfortable. Similarly, some species likely need to wear armor or armor-like suits just to survive in gravity and atmospheric conditions normal to human beings and other sentient beings.

So depending on why you want the armor, it may not be necessary. But this is Star Wars and cool is generally more important than practical.

I believe that Padded Armor actually says that it's comfortable enough to be worn for extended periods.