Heavy blaster rifle would probably get overlooked by most snipers as well since autofire's not that much of a boon when you're shooting from long or extreme range.

On the contrary, the Heavy Blaster Rifle is an excellent sniper weapon. If you can hit with Autofire at Medium range, then you can hit with Autofire at Long range with a telescopic optical sight on your HBR, since that shot has the same Difficulty of 3. The description of the HBR even mentions that it is excellent for sniping.

That and you're probably a Sharpshooter if you've got your sniper hat on, which means you've got Sniper Shot as a Talent if you feel some need to engage targets at extreme range. Between True Aim, Natural Marksman, a laser sight, spin barrel, and telescope, a Shaprshooter with a 4 Agility would be able to make hash out of a lot of opponents, Nemeses included, at range without too much trouble at all using autofire.

I guess the other thing is that a wookie with a bowcaster would draw less attention. It can be passed off as an exotic fancy much more proabably then a heavy. Though the millage of that varies between campaigns. I know my DM in particular would have us in the brig if we were ever caught with a fully tricked heavy blaster rifle (one player volentarily gave it up after he noticed how brutally it dominated encounters. 30 guys in a room, within a single turn, half of them were dead to autofire from two guns), or executed if one of us was IDed and captured as a Jedi. So being able to pass it off as a big game unter type deal kind of appeals to me.

That, and my characters a major techie, so I can see all sorts being done to the bolts.

That being said, strictly speaking it is inferior and there's no harm in recognising it's limitations and personally I don't get why they turned it into an autofire contraption. I would have thought if anything it would be a very powerful sniper like weapon; with the bolts going for incredible distance.

I recall in the Jedi Knight 2 and 3 computer games you could fire bouncing bolts with the bowcaster, that was super fun (I can't remember if it was in JK1 but I don't think so). Not terribly efficient when you also had loads of force powers and things like missile launchers, but I had as lot of fun wasting time setting up trick shots. The other option was to charge up for a five shot spread but I don't recall ever finding a use for that.

I recall in the Jedi Knight 2 and 3 computer games you could fire bouncing bolts with the bowcaster, that was super fun (I can't remember if it was in JK1 but I don't think so). Not terribly efficient when you also had loads of force powers and things like missile launchers, but I had as lot of fun wasting time setting up trick shots. The other option was to charge up for a five shot spread but I don't recall ever finding a use for that.

In one of the star wars battlefront games, I remember being quite good with the bowcaster; because theres a certain point where all the bolts are close together, yet not merged as one, so you could do instant kills with a bit of tempo.

Not how I would expect a bowcaster to actually function. I don't think any of the developers actually cared that it was a crossbow and shoehorned it into being a weird shotgun.

I guess the other thing is that a wookie with a bowcaster would draw less attention. It can be passed off as an exotic fancy much more proabably then a heavy. Though the millage of that varies between campaigns.

I would think that exotic weapons tend to draw more attention than common, more conventional weapons.

I guess the other thing is that a wookie with a bowcaster would draw less attention. It can be passed off as an exotic fancy much more proabably then a heavy. Though the millage of that varies between campaigns.

I would think that exotic weapons tend to draw more attention than common, more conventional weapons.

From some points of view, how distinctive (or otherwise attention-grabing) a weapon would be would be contextual, e.g. A white guy wielding a Kukri would be memorable/distinctive, but a Gurkha wielding one would be downright normal, provided of course the observer was knowledgeable that part of the world and it's military units. Obviously, the user of a such a distinctive weapon could still be identifiable.

Wookiees are pretty obviously Wookiees, and Bowcasters are traditional Wookiee weapons. So a Wookiee using a traditional Wookiee weapon wouldn't really raise eyebrows (provided that's the observer knows the bowcaster is a traditional Wookiee weapon). A Bothan or human using a Bowcaster, however, is a bit more distinctive.

It's all just based on what you think is appropriate for your campaign.

thing is, I would love to see more things that are species/cultural specific.

thing is, I would love to see more things that are species/cultural specific.

Agreed. However, mechanics-wise, I feel that they need to be at least reasonably close to more mundane weapons in terms of their effectiveness, otherwise I think most people who might be willing to play them would see them as being too much of a disadvantage.

You don’t want these things to become “instant auto-win” compared to all the other weapons available, but at least you don’t want to be set back too far behind that baseline.

thing is, I would love to see more things that are species/cultural specific.

It is in the GM's power to just DO that, but there are already lots of cultural specific weapons, you just need to read the whole texts about the weapons in the source books.

It sounds like you are missing a particular weapon/equipment?

Officially we have (at least as far as I remember/see at the moment)

• the Wookie Wowcaster (ed: that is/was a typo, but I'm leavin it the way it is )
• Weequay Blaster Lance
• Drall Flashsticks
• Selonian Glaive
• Selonian Shard Shooter
• Styanax Lance
• Correllian Bow and
• Correllian Cutlass (which are arguable, but the cutlass is originally a correllian navy weapon)
• Arg'Garok (Gammorean axe)
• Beastmaster Vibro Glaive (Weequay)
• Morgukai (ancient Nikto relic)
• Tuskbeast Pike (Used by Nikto)

• As well as numerous armors and equipment.