Disruptors have always been a mixed bag at my tables.

We never saw them in action during my d6 games (people were too obsessed with melee/lightsabers, but they were mostly black-ops commandos anyway), but in my old d20 campaigns, they were normally picked up by the gun nuts of the group solely for the firepower.

In my last campaign of EotE, the players "inherited" a bounty hunter's "trophy room" as payment for a job (the hunter planned to die on the job, and was basically paying them to ensure they arrived to a dangerous area and kill her in the end). One of them random rolled items was a broken disruptor rifle.

The weapon was immediately fixed, but was NEVER fired. In fact, it was "used" twice: the first time by the pilot/mechanic when he first picked it up and tried to use it (and realized it was broken), and the second time by the Heavy, as it was handed to him to intimidate someone else during an interrogation. Even when a massive fight broke out no one wanted to use it, and the reasons ranged from "I don't even know if it'll work" to "I want to kill them personally with my cutlass."

Not sure how my new group will deal with them, but I'm sure they'll be amusing since one of the players is a droid bounty hunter. . .

I have a PC who has acquired 2 of them. I am nearing the end of the campaign and am in the wrapping up stages, so I've been been pretty relaxed.

I'm interested in seeing how devastating this character will be.

I have a PC who has acquired 2 of them. I am nearing the end of the campaign and am in the wrapping up stages, so I've been been pretty relaxed.

I'm interested in seeing how devastating this character will be.

As someone with some experience in this particular field, let me tell you that Durable will be a good talent to stick on your Nemeses if you don't want them one-shotted on the first round of combat.

I have a PC who has acquired 2 of them. I am nearing the end of the campaign and am in the wrapping up stages, so I've been been pretty relaxed.

I'm interested in seeing how devastating this character will be.

As someone with some experience in this particular field, let me tell you that Durable will be a good talent to stick on your Nemeses if you don't want them one-shotted on the first round of combat.

Noted. Thank you. I also intend to split up the group for the climax, which should help even more.

Mmmm . . . .disruptors . . .

Are they powerful? Sure. So are a lot of things. Are they too powerful? Not when Jury-Rigged heavy blaster rifles exist, in my opinion. There are plenty of ways to let players get them and still keep things interesting. Durable on your big bad, squad rules, tight security when reasonable, using triumphs to damage things, using pairs of triumphs to break things, lots and lots and lots of rivals that would be better dealt with by an autofire weapon, etc.

As for disruptors in play:

I've killed a player with a disruptor rifle. Note, the party was given an out to leave before some terrible crap happened, they chose to stay and try to be big **** heroes. Not all of them made it through. To be fair, that player had 5 or 6 crits on him (vibroswords and disruptors) before a disruptor rolled 151+ and he turned to dust.

In the game I am a player, I saw another player lose an arm to a disruptor. They got a cyber arm, and got over it. I almost got blasted by a disruptor in the face. But it missed. So I shot him, he dropped his weapon, my buddy killed him using his equalizer, and my equalizer that I dropped into his hand so he could perform an awesome action movie scene. I claimed the disruptor. I tricked it out. Forearm grip, laser sight, superior, and the holo reticule. It was sweet. I was not the most ridiculous combat character in my group. I was still effective. I killed a lot of minions with it. I aced a couple rivals with it. Then I fought droidekas with it while most of the party got chopped up by an evil guy with a lightsaber and his vibrosword wielding guards. Blowing legs off of droideka is funny. So I was happy. Then one of the other players, when jabbed a bit about being not too useful in the some fights, got a little taken aback, and tried to claim he "isn't a combat character" even though he introduced himself as a mercenary, looking for combat. He looked unhappy. So I threw the disruptor rifle at him, and said, "Now you are a combat character!" He now has no excuse to be unhappy. Now I have to resort to using a Novaviper. Sigh . . . first world problems. If only I could finish my augmentative armor, too.

Mmmm . . . .disruptors . . .

Are they powerful? Sure. So are a lot of things. Are they too powerful? Not when Jury-Rigged heavy blaster rifles exist, in my opinion. There are plenty of ways to let players get them and still keep things interesting. Durable on your big bad, squad rules, tight security when reasonable, using triumphs to damage things, using pairs of triumphs to break things, lots and lots and lots of rivals that would be better dealt with by an autofire weapon, etc.

As for disruptors in play:

I've killed a player with a disruptor rifle. Note, the party was given an out to leave before some terrible crap happened, they chose to stay and try to be big **** heroes. Not all of them made it through. To be fair, that player had 5 or 6 crits on him (vibroswords and disruptors) before a disruptor rolled 151+ and he turned to dust.

In the game I am a player, I saw another player lose an arm to a disruptor. They got a cyber arm, and got over it. I almost got blasted by a disruptor in the face. But it missed. So I shot him, he dropped his weapon, my buddy killed him using his equalizer, and my equalizer that I dropped into his hand so he could perform an awesome action movie scene. I claimed the disruptor. I tricked it out. Forearm grip, laser sight, superior, and the holo reticule. It was sweet. I was not the most ridiculous combat character in my group. I was still effective. I killed a lot of minions with it. I aced a couple rivals with it. Then I fought droidekas with it while most of the party got chopped up by an evil guy with a lightsaber and his vibrosword wielding guards. Blowing legs off of droideka is funny. So I was happy. Then one of the other players, when jabbed a bit about being not too useful in the some fights, got a little taken aback, and tried to claim he "isn't a combat character" even though he introduced himself as a mercenary, looking for combat. He looked unhappy. So I threw the disruptor rifle at him, and said, "Now you are a combat character!" He now has no excuse to be unhappy. Now I have to resort to using a Novaviper. Sigh . . . first world problems. If only I could finish my augmentative armor, too.

I had you dead to rights, too.

My views on disruptors:

They are obviously very deadly, but I see them as almost more of a narrative tool. People who carry disruptors don't have the legitimacy of authority because of how illegal they are. Rather they rely on the power of oncoming mortality since they can't stun you. You aren't going to be taken alive- you're getting killed. Only certain types of enemies or people would use it over a Heavy Blaster Rifle or even just a normal Blaster Rifle, and those are almost invariably very, very bad people.

One of the few times I don't have the time to read all the replies, so sorry if I'm retreading on someone's past comments..

As I PC, I honestly wouldn't waste my time with em. They really only excel at one thing, and the drawbacks never outweigh the benefits. Too illegal and I can't set it to stun or give it the cool attachments that are available to blaster type weapons. If I really want to make sure the NPC is dead (and that guy must have wronged me something fierce for this) I'll just plug em in the back of the head after I drop him with a normal gun. I don't like one trick ponies.

As a GM, I would only use it to send a very specific message about an NPC I'm using. I've only ever had one NPC use one and I honestly regret it. Not cause he murdered a guy, but because it actually didn't fit the NPC. It was a badass spy guy in the Empire using the party to further his own aims. I did it to impress the party with how dangerous he was, but it didn't fit the character type at all.. he WANTS options..

The kind of person who would carry a weapon so blindingly focused on a single thing is kind of a monster.

It's not even the most deadly weapon we can build.. I can do some wicked things to a heavy blaster rifle or auto fire anything. It's the MESSAGE the disruptor carries thats going to determine whether a npc would have one or not.

Anyways, my 2 cents.

You can't put a heavy blaster rifle in your pocket. Can't stun with an HBR either. Gotta be Brawn 3 and be willing to give up 6 enc.

The pistol is 10 damage, crit 2, Vicious 4, and can't inflict less than a crippled critical hit. An electronic sighting system and Superior could be put on it, and for a Short range shot I'd sure as hell take it over an HBR.

Don't get me wrong, I understand narrative reasons for not using them, but mechanically they are death.

You can't put a heavy blaster rifle in your pocket. Can't stun with an HBR either. Gotta be Brawn 3 and be willing to give up 6 enc.

The pistol is 10 damage, crit 2, Vicious 4, and can't inflict less than a crippled critical hit. An electronic sighting system and Superior could be put on it, and for a Short range shot I'd sure as hell take it over an HBR.

Don't get me wrong, I understand narrative reasons for not using them, but mechanically they are death.

Touche

Fun fact: the german version(well at least mine) of EotE states, that if a disruptor inflicts a crippled crit, the wound is more gruesome, not that it always inflicts a crippled crit at minimum. I was quite suprised when I read the original version

That is interesting. Someone asked once (maybe you?) about one of the Big Game Hunter talents that wasn't translating well either.

Yes, that was me^^ The core book and Enter the Unknown are the only ones that I have in german. Most of the time the translation is quite good but sometimes they mess it up.

It's interesting. Having read the two and being versed in both languages obviously, what's your conclusion? Do the rules the way they are written just translate poorly, or was the translation poorly done?

Well, the disruptor ruling was just bad translated,the big game hunter talent was more of a minor mistake, where they chose a word that could sometimes be used for within, but wasn't the right choice in his instance. So all in all I would say the translators just ****** up. The rules themself are nit difficult to translate. Otherwise I would have a problem with the other supplements I have xD

Interesting. FFG does tend use some compound sentences at times in their rules that while they make sense, you have to read them a number of times, so I could see errors occurring.

I know what you mean. But these two instances were the only one I noticed. Well besides some printing errors where superior attachment cost 500 instead of 5000 credits. Regarding disruptors, I only used them in Trouble brewing, where the rodian bounty hunter has one.He nearly one-shotted a pc with it, so I didn't used them since.

Mmmm . . . .disruptors . . .

Are they powerful? Sure. So are a lot of things. Are they too powerful? Not when Jury-Rigged heavy blaster rifles exist, in my opinion. There are plenty of ways to let players get them and still keep things interesting. Durable on your big bad, squad rules, tight security when reasonable, using triumphs to damage things, using pairs of triumphs to break things, lots and lots and lots of rivals that would be better dealt with by an autofire weapon, etc.

As for disruptors in play:

I've killed a player with a disruptor rifle. Note, the party was given an out to leave before some terrible crap happened, they chose to stay and try to be big **** heroes. Not all of them made it through. To be fair, that player had 5 or 6 crits on him (vibroswords and disruptors) before a disruptor rolled 151+ and he turned to dust.

In the game I am a player, I saw another player lose an arm to a disruptor. They got a cyber arm, and got over it. I almost got blasted by a disruptor in the face. But it missed. So I shot him, he dropped his weapon, my buddy killed him using his equalizer, and my equalizer that I dropped into his hand so he could perform an awesome action movie scene. I claimed the disruptor. I tricked it out. Forearm grip, laser sight, superior, and the holo reticule. It was sweet. I was not the most ridiculous combat character in my group. I was still effective. I killed a lot of minions with it. I aced a couple rivals with it. Then I fought droidekas with it while most of the party got chopped up by an evil guy with a lightsaber and his vibrosword wielding guards. Blowing legs off of droideka is funny. So I was happy. Then one of the other players, when jabbed a bit about being not too useful in the some fights, got a little taken aback, and tried to claim he "isn't a combat character" even though he introduced himself as a mercenary, looking for combat. He looked unhappy. So I threw the disruptor rifle at him, and said, "Now you are a combat character!" He now has no excuse to be unhappy. Now I have to resort to using a Novaviper. Sigh . . . first world problems. If only I could finish my augmentative armor, too.

This is one great but I think often overlooked aspect of FFG Star Wars - the right gear and a little XP can make a "non-combat" character effective and useful and FUN in combat.

Of course, care should be taken, as it can be taken too far - the combat focused characters should also get cool gear and not have their primary role so easily rivaled or surpassed.

In this particular game, one of the more potent* characters in combat is a colonist.

Yep. A colonist.

*Unmatched Expertise + 2 Equalizer Pistols w/laser sights and paired + Ranged(Light) as a career skill = Shenanigans.