Mental Tools acts as "the right tool for the job" for anything involving Mechanics checks.

Does this mean that it can be used to refine raw materials without needing any added devices? Can a character refine and cast metal with his bare hands (and without a forge)? Likewise, could a handful of sand be shaped into formed glass?

Should not replace raw materials, they are always listed besides the tools requirements and indeed, making sand into glass sounds exactly like the kind of stuff you can do with this force talent. Though I would assume that this usually involves heating up the sand with the force,melting, mixing, etc … all this can explained via force move, just on a level of control which is certainly beyond what those normal force powers give you and naturally without the requirement to have those powers, but instead doing it via the talent. Pretty powerful, but very situational and narrative talent.

Oh and a lot of GM will rule this as a basic mechanic kit, so no large scale glas manufacturing with ovens and all either with the power, but rather very small scale material refinements and mostly just wrenches, screwdrivers, drilling holes, etc

Mental Tools acts as "the right tool for the job" for anything involving Mechanics checks.

Does this mean that it can be used to refine raw materials without needing any added devices? Can a character refine and cast metal with his bare hands (and without a forge)? Likewise, could a handful of sand be shaped into formed glass?

I'd say that it falls under the "right tools for the job" sidebar in the equipment chapter, meaning that you've always got the equivalent of a tool kit on hand without having to actually lug one around, and thus can always add a boost die to your Mechanics checks.

It's also a 5XP talent, so providing a simple "always on" boost die makes sense, putting it on par with things like Sleight of Mind (boost die on Stealth checks), Uncanny Reactions (boost die on Vigilance checks), and Uncanny Senses (boost die on Perception checks), which also tend to crop up as 5XP talents.

I wouldn't let it substitute for having raw materials for crafting, or creating spare parts out of thin air. The fact that Endless Vigil has a Force power that is all about "magically" repairing machinery is more support of Mental Tools being more restrained in what it can accomplish.

It just means that a character can do a lot more with just a couple of tools then any other character. My character is literally described often carrying only a hydrospanner and a vibro-screwdriver, between those tools he can do pretty much anything.

That being said, you still have to do proper materials for crafting and there are certain applications of crafting that I would upgrade the check significantly if he didn't have any tools to work with. For most part it just means that the character can take off pannels, preform routine maintenance and preform adjustments/crack locks with just the right attention to detail and improvisation. I would request that the character has the proper materials to conduct crafting otherwise, or have the proper tools for, say, turning sand to glass.

So you run it that you still need tools? That seems to make it fairly useless.

So you run it that you still need tools? That seems to make it fairly useless.

Not machanically, flavour wise I'm just using a couple of simple tools as apposed to complex tools. Theres no encumbrance assoicated to it, just fluff. besides, always right tools means a boost dice, so it's far from useless.

Besides,

I would say there is a big difference between a glass furnace and the tongs used to pull the glass out of the furnace. I would limit Mental Tools to any hand held tool, even limiting it to only tools held in a single hand.

So for RL this is a screwdriver, pliers, hammer, multimeter, soldering iron, calipers, spirit level, measuring tape, clamps, blow torch, tire iron, sockets and spanners, drill, saw, pressure gauges, even a small welder.

It's not a Forge, Lathe, Press, Metal Roller, Generator, Excavator, it's not an entire production line.

Also bear in mind that a character is assumed to have various small personal items on their person, which can easily include something like a small multitool, as discussed in the "Robes, Clothes, and Sundries" sidebar on page 189, covering such things as credit chips, street clothing, inexpensive jewelry, fancy hats, and small multitools, all of which are noted as being "too mundane or inexpensive to track on a character sheet."

Requiring a PC to specifically purchase a tool kit in order to benefit from Mental Tools is, to my mind, the GM being something of a jerk.

I would have thought it was pretty straightforward to interpret this one. You simply have the option of ignoring any personal tool requirements when testing mechanics. Reading industrial capabilities or spontaneous generation of components into that power is quite a leap.

A person can repair a starship with tools (at least in Star Wars), but building that very same starship would have required industrial machinery, not just hand tools. I could envisage a skilled and powerful Sentinal *assembling* an X-Wing unassisted if they had all the prefabricated parts, but building one with nothing but a pile of raw materials is a bit beyond what you could do with nothing but hand (or mind) tools.

Mental Tools acts as "the right tool for the job" for anything involving Mechanics checks.

Does this mean that it can be used to refine raw materials without needing any added devices? Can a character refine and cast metal with his bare hands (and without a forge)? Likewise, could a handful of sand be shaped into formed glass?

I'm with the others on this. Right tools for the job is just what it says, tools equivalent to what you'd find in a tool kit not the equipment and machinery you'd find in a full workshop.

Mental Tools acts as "the right tool for the job" for anything involving Mechanics checks.

Does this mean that it can be used to refine raw materials without needing any added devices? Can a character refine and cast metal with his bare hands (and without a forge)? Likewise, could a handful of sand be shaped into formed glass?

I'm with the others on this. Right tools for the job is just what it says, tools equivalent to what you'd find in a tool kit not the equipment and machinery you'd find in a full workshop.

When I look in Special Modifications, the first benefit of a Workshop is that it always counts as having the "right tools for the job"--just like Mental Tools--so it seems to actually provide the equivalent of all the tools found in the basic workshop. If a workshop can be used for fabrication, what advanced option is needed to allow this?

that could be interpreted in another way, which may or may not be RAI, but makes sense to me.

If you could give a rating to what level of tools are available to someone it could look something like this:

0: no tools

1: very basic

2:

3: enough tools to work, ie can perform checks where hand tools would be required

4:

5: "the right tools" ie get a boost die, it's easy to put machines together or pull them apart

6:

7: heavy machining tools, "you can make something from basic materials" (Colin Furzes workshop)

8:

9:

10: foundry, Forge you can turn raw materials into basic materials, ie iron ore and coal into steel tube.

Now Mental Tools caps out at 5, it can't achieve anything more than that. A workshop is a bare minimum of 5, and I would suggest it's up to the GM as to how much further up it goes.

I'm with the others on this. Right tools for the job is just what it says, tools equivalent to what you'd find in a tool kit not the equipment and machinery you'd find in a full workshop.

When I look in Special Modifications, the first benefit of a Workshop is that it always counts as having the "right tools for the job"--just like Mental Tools--so it seems to actually provide the equivalent of all the tools found in the basic workshop. If a workshop can be used for fabrication, what advanced option is needed to allow this?

All that means is a Workshop has the same tools available as a Toolkit, not that a Toolkit is the same as a Workshop. Seriously, there's a whole section in the book devoted to Workshops so to equate the two because of a single benefit is a bit disingenuous...

I'm with the others on this. Right tools for the job is just what it says, tools equivalent to what you'd find in a tool kit not the equipment and machinery you'd find in a full workshop.

When I look in Special Modifications, the first benefit of a Workshop is that it always counts as having the "right tools for the job"--just like Mental Tools--so it seems to actually provide the equivalent of all the tools found in the basic workshop. If a workshop can be used for fabrication, what advanced option is needed to allow this?

All that means is a Workshop has the same tools available as a Toolkit, not that a Toolkit is the same as a Workshop. Seriously, there's a whole section in the book devoted to Workshops so to equate the two because of a single benefit is a bit disingenuous...

I have read that section. It does not answer my question (now bolded in the above), and neither did you.

Mental Tools acts as "the right tool for the job" for anything involving Mechanics checks.

Does this mean that it can be used to refine raw materials without needing any added devices? Can a character refine and cast metal with his bare hands (and without a forge)? Likewise, could a handful of sand be shaped into formed glass?

I'm with the others on this. Right tools for the job is just what it says, tools equivalent to what you'd find in a tool kit not the equipment and machinery you'd find in a full workshop.

When I look in Special Modifications, the first benefit of a Workshop is that it always counts as having the "right tools for the job"--just like Mental Tools--so it seems to actually provide the equivalent of all the tools found in the basic workshop. If a workshop can be used for fabrication, what advanced option is needed to allow this?

There is a difference in scale. If I go to my toolbox, I can totally grab a few things, and mix up some cement for small scale use. What I can not do is build a house in an efficient way, because fabricating larger amounts of cement would require specialized larger tools.

Same for glass, I actually can create that out of a toolbox too. But scale and efficiency are rather low. As the GM gives the time for mechanic checks, expect some heavy penalties when starting larger scale projects with just mental tools to work with.

I was focused on your assertion that Mental Tools and Toolkit was the equivalent of a Workshop.

The answer to your question is no Advanced option is required for fabrication, it is the basic benefit of the Workshop.

So I don't have a copy of Special Modifications, I'm collecting AoR & FaD while another player in our group collects EotE. For that reason I don't fully know all the options available for Improvements. (Don't tell me specifics either, I can borrow the book if I really need it)

My understanding is that there an upgrade that reduces the difficulty of checks, another that provides raw materials up to a certain rarity. These 2 upgrades seem like the Mechanical benefit of Narratively adding advanced tools and machinery to the Workshop. Happy, by now you know many of the Narrative limits on rules are left wide open and completely up to the GM and players to decide. This is surely in that space.