One of my players in my upcoming game is strongly considering playing a Mandalorian Hired Gun. Now, I'm using a rough-and-ready hybrid of the Mandalorian's history, but am drawing heavily from the Clone Wars animated series for the most recent history, which means that the Mandalorians have been moving towards peace for a while. Now, my player has no problem with this, but wants to start out with some sort of Mandalorian armor. Now, the one listed in the core is way too expensive and rare, and at first we discussed subbing in a suit of Laminate to stand in for old and damaged Mando armor. But even that would wipe out his starting credits even if he took extra obligation. Now, I don't want to turn him down completely, so I'm thinking of giving him an antique of a suit that has seen better days and functions as armor...but barely. Fixing it up to its former glory or finding a true suit can be one of his in-game goals. But I'm bogged down a little on the stats for such an armor. There are plenty of ways to upgrade protection, but not as many to downgrade them...

Have you considered going "Knight-Level" with your game? Just give the players +150 "earned" XP to spend and 9,000 credits worth of gear on top of their starting credits. This would allow for a really cool set of armor

Have him pick up a suit of padded armor. If you look at the picture of Oskara it looks like she is wearing heavy armor, but mechanically it is just padded. I talk a bit more about in this thread: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/183499-cant-make-a-bubba-fat-bounty-hunter-help/#entry1708469

Give him his father's ruined armor that is only as good as his family's battered name... absolutely useless. He will have to spend his credits on some other form of armor to start with and will have to repair the Mandalorian Armor over time. Eventually he will be able to get it back to functional, but will take time and credits and eventually he will be able to customize it for himself. Don't let a Mechanics roll fix it, make it be a story element. Let there be story hooks. And yes, once the basic part is repaired, let it have stats of padded armor until it can be further modified.

If he doesn't like this story, have him provide a story for why he has non-functional armor and what he will have to do to get it back to its original condition. This lets him have buy-in and ownership of something he really wants.

Personally, I hope we get a full mechanical aspect of how Mandalorian Armor works and how it grows with them over time.

You could just call it seriously damaged Heavy Battle Armour, but charge him the price of Padded, and give it the stats of Padded. Basic repairs will cost the price difference between Padded and Laminate and unlock those features, then charge the difference between Laminate and HBA to bring it up to the top.

Could also tack on the "inferior" quality, but I think having it as counts as a different set of armor is the way to go.

From a roleplaying perspective, I think it'd also be interesting to give the armor some quirks, such as "feels really itchy," or "irritating odor" or "external speakers make him sound like Mickey Mouse"

First and foremost, far from all sets of Mandalorian Armour were made with mandalorian iron.
So most of them were basically just "laminated armour" or "heavy armour" with nothing special to them.

Now, starting off, he could just have a flak vest or similar, but it's not a "flak vest", it's simply the chestpiece of a mandalorian (not iron) armour set.
That way he can work his way up to a more complete set, and you can add more and more to it throughout the campaign.
In fact, it could be one of his main motivations.

Mandalorian armour, true mandalorian armour, seems to be pretty rare in the age of these roleplaying games.
There was a time when they were more common and every mandalorian had one, but as it stands, they seem to be exceedingly rare.
So much so, that Boba Fett made a name for himself because he had one of the fabled mandalorian armours (well, partially. He was also pretty good at his job).

Start him off with the chest piece.
Build it up over time and end it with the helmet.

That's how I would have done it.

Yeah, pretty much just have the PC start off with Padded Armor and describe it as a partial set of Mando-styled armor, perhaps the chest piece along with shoulder and knee guards. The allow the PC to scrounge credits saving for additional parts; when they have enough to afford heavy battle armor, then they've assembled a full set of Mando-styled armor.

Not all campaign rewards have to be credits that a PC then goes and spends at Arms "Я" Us for a piece of equipment. So yeah, I like the idea of a PC just piecing together his armor from one adventure to the next, either through repairs, or discovery of new items, or purchases along the way, so that by the time all is said and done they might as well have spent thousands of credits on a game-mechanically identical piece of equipment, but this one is all theirs and has a rich story to go along with it.

OR you could give everyone an heirloom item of some kind or another. Handing over Laminate or Heavy Battle Armor from day one isn't going to be that big a deal if everyone has some kind of handy item that provides extended utility.

One of my players in my upcoming game is strongly considering playing a Mandalorian Hired Gun. Now, I'm using a rough-and-ready hybrid of the Mandalorian's history, but am drawing heavily from the Clone Wars animated series for the most recent history, which means that the Mandalorians have been moving towards peace for a while. Now, my player has no problem with this, but wants to start out with some sort of Mandalorian armor. Now, the one listed in the core is way too expensive and rare, and at first we discussed subbing in a suit of Laminate to stand in for old and damaged Mando armor. But even that would wipe out his starting credits even if he took extra obligation. Now, I don't want to turn him down completely, so I'm thinking of giving him an antique of a suit that has seen better days and functions as armor...but barely. Fixing it up to its former glory or finding a true suit can be one of his in-game goals. But I'm bogged down a little on the stats for such an armor. There are plenty of ways to upgrade protection, but not as many to downgrade them...

I bill my PCs xp along with credits for truly good weapons and armor. Some have various benefits that are the equivalent of several boxes in a talent tree and I find by billing xp I add a balancing tool to equipment. Credits alone are an inadequate RP meta currency in the game for my tastes.

Have him pick up a suit of padded armor. If you look at the picture of Oskara it looks like she is wearing heavy armor, but mechanically it is just padded. I talk a bit more about in this thread: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/183499-cant-make-a-bubba-fat-bounty-hunter-help/#entry1708469

This.

Boo Hoo!! Whiny player wants this, whiny player wants that (we've all done it)... TBH We'd all like something OP during PC generation. Make the acquisition of the armor a continuing campaign arc,,, like a season in a TV show... a collector has a helmet on Nal Hutta,,, another has knee pads on Coruscant... another on Ryloth...

OBLIGATION: Dutybound/Family/Oath/Obsession - restore a suit of Mandalorian Armor.

Mandalorian armor should be earned not purchased, unless you're an NPC armor collector

Starting with Mando armour that's could be padded armour or armoured clothing.

-EF

Flavour a cheaper armor and throw in a helmet. It could be a damaged armor or one that has parts missing.

Not all Mando armor is created equal. Just like everybody else they have different armor for different purposes. Sabine's from Rebels vs Boba Fett's are pretty different. Sabine strikes me as a Mando on a budget.

There's no reason there couldn't be a light suit of Mando armor that's basically armored clothing or Padded. Mando's have there heavy fighters and there light skirmishers or scouts just like everybody else. A lighter set could easily be simulated by one of the less expensive armors.

As I recall Sabine's doesn't even cover her arms and neck. I always considered it not much more then armored clothing with a Mando helmet. Even with the helmet on you can see bare skin on her neck up under the lip of it.

I say give them full Mando armor ... and additional 10 Obligation. That defense die will be useful when the bounty hunters show up.

Obligation: Obsession - "Get back my stolen armor". May start with helmet if that is very imprortant to the player, but doesn`t mean anything mechanically.

Or start with cheaper armor that flavour-wise also comes from Mandalor...

"Yes, you may start with a full set of fully-full-on Mando armor. [insert Option] What are you planning to do about it?"

Options...

[but it was recently stolen from you.]

[but it is in a collection in a museum.]

[but your crimelord kin has it.]

[Or at least, that's what your uncle's last will and testament suggests.]

And so forth...

I like the idea of charging him for padded armor and then making it inferior--as in it's rusted, doesn't fit him, and in overall bad shape. Inferior adds one to encumbrance and knocks off the defense die, making it distinctly worse than padded armor to start with.

How I would handle restoring the armor is to have him make 5 successful hard mechanics checks, each of which costs 500-750 (GMs call) credits. Only one check can be made per so many days (GMs call). Advantages and Threats can upgrade the next check he makes either way. Failing a check doesn't do any damage to the armor, unless there is a despair, but it does cost all the time and money.

Also--give him his choice as to weather he wants the Heavy Battle Armor or the "Protector 1 Battle Armor" from Dangerous Covenants. Though the protector armor is a specific model, the stats seem appropriate for what Boba has, as it's lighter than the straight heavy armor.

Starting with Mando armour that's could be padded armour or armoured clothing.

-EF

I'd say Sabine's armor would generally fall in line with Armored Clothing in terms of Soak and Defense values, though perhaps with an extra hard point or two to replace the fact that her ensemble is very obviously armor rather than something that doesn't look like armor (which is an intended benefit of armored clothing).

For Sabine's armor, I'd just take the stats for the Type III "Berethron" Personal Modular Armor (from Suns of Fortune). It's supposed to offer "a good degree of protection without severely impeding the wearer..." which makes sense with all of Sabine's acrobatics, and the fact that she took a blaster bolt to the helmet and still walked away.

It's also a little more affordable than Laminate, so if you're looking for some customizable armor that doesn't break the bank, this could be it.

I appreciate all the feedback. Of the suggestions here, I personally prefer the idea of giving him, say, Padded and letting him work towards full Mandalorian functionality in-story. Seems the most appropriate. He wasn't after it for its overpowered nature, since he was the one who suggested that it be a complete wreck, and that he could use lesser stats to represent that. He just didn't know that the armor he suggested using in its place was also really expensive. His particular plotline (everyone will have one), has to do with how much he is dedicated to being a Mandalorian of old and how much he just likes fighting ****.

I guess you could fluff up an existing armour as looking like Mandalorian armour (the sample pic for Heavy Battle Armour is clearly Mandalorian)

I guess you could fluff up an existing armour as looking like Mandalorian armour (the sample pic for Heavy Battle Armour is clearly Mandalorian)

And the sample text for Heavy Battle Armour clearly states "this includes Mandalorian Shocktrooper Armour", so why would you think Heavy Battle Armour doesn't include Mandalorian Armour?