In addition to my original obligation issues, one of my players is very interested in getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon. He did this in another game we were in (we were both players), and the weapon he got did starship scale damage, that ended up blowing through everything, and we ended up stopping the game because it became less fun for the GM, and he didnt want to arbitrarily get rid of the weapon or taise the difficulty to much for the rest of us.

Now that I'm GMing, how should I go about his request? Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?

If its a landspeeder or airspeeder, absolutely you can. their are multiple examples of vehicles throughout all the sourcebooks and CRBs that have vehicles with personnel scale weapons, mostly light and havy repeating blasters and grenade launchers. Look to those for examples

Definitely let him spend his starting credits on a personal weapon he can afford, and it's even better for you if he then decides to permanently attach it to a vehicle.

But there is no way you should let him have a free multiple thousand credits gun that's useable regularly in personal combat.

One tactic GM's can use to handle Big Guns is narrative restrictions. Not every planet will let you roll down the street with a 50cal machine gun hanging out the window... None let you have a Rocket Launcher! Then there are times when you can't go into a bar without leaving your heat at the door. People tend to react badly when you bring an AK-47 to Negotiations too, especially when they are in control of the situation. Sometimes just wasting 2 hrs of their time filling out customs paperwork is enough to get them to leave it on the ship.

Then there is the more passive stuff, "any weapon bigger than a carbine suffers 2 setback due to all the foliage making it hard to swing around".

Oh I didnt let him start with this, he is buying it.

In addition to my original obligation issues, one of my players is very interested in getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon. He did this in another game we were in (we were both players), and the weapon he got did starship scale damage, that ended up blowing through everything, and we ended up stopping the game because it became less fun for the GM, and he didnt want to arbitrarily get rid of the weapon or taise the difficulty to much for the rest of us.

Now that I'm GMing, how should I go about his request? Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?

I think I'm obviously missing something. I see no problem equipping vehicle with normal blaster. Blaster does normal blaster damage (personal scale), and it doesn't magically change to vehicle scale scale damage when attached to vehicle. It's still mostly useless against other vehicles. But if that's the matter, I see no problem with this, because this is practically just lowering the damage of weapons. If it's about replacing personal scale weapon with vehicle scale weapon taken from a ship, then it's big no-no. Does the PC also transport a vehicle reactor to power the vehicle scale weapon...

To your last question I ask a clarifying question to understand your question better. What are the mechanical benefits to that substitution? As a general guideline, I'd say "yes, and...". Use your common sense, and do what's fun and enhances game.

In addition to my original obligation issues, one of my players is very interested in getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon. He did this in another game we were in (we were both players), and the weapon he got did starship scale damage, that ended up blowing through everything, and we ended up stopping the game because it became less fun for the GM, and he didnt want to arbitrarily get rid of the weapon or taise the difficulty to much for the rest of us.

Now that I'm GMing, how should I go about his request? Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?

There is the “Ground Buzzer” from the book Fly Casual (see page 62). That does personal-scale damage even though it is mounted on a ship. The concept being that the weapons Han Solo had mounted on the Millenium Falcon were of this type.

See also the pages at http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/vehicleattachments/1918/ and http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ax-108_"Ground_Buzzer"_surface-defense_blaster_cannon

In addition to my original obligation issues, one of my players is very interested in getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon. He did this in another game we were in (we were both players), and the weapon he got did starship scale damage, that ended up blowing through everything, and we ended up stopping the game because it became less fun for the GM, and he didnt want to arbitrarily get rid of the weapon or taise the difficulty to much for the rest of us.

Now that I'm GMing, how should I go about his request? Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?

I think I'm obviously missing something. I see no problem equipping vehicle with normal blaster. Blaster does normal blaster damage (personal scale), and it doesn't magically change to vehicle scale scale damage when attached to vehicle. It's still mostly useless against other vehicles. But if that's the matter, I see no problem with this, because this is practically just lowering the damage of weapons. If it's about replacing personal scale weapon with vehicle scale weapon taken from a ship, then it's big no-no. Does the PC also transport a vehicle reactor to power the vehicle scale weapon...

To your last question I ask a clarifying question to understand your question better. What are the mechanical benefits to that substitution? As a general guideline, I'd say "yes, and...". Use your common sense, and do what's fun and enhances game.

Doesn't Vehicle and Starship weapons deal 10 damage personal scale for 1 damage Starship scale? If that's not the case then I have no issues, but we all were lead to believe that was indeed the case.

That is the case, but there are a lot of small craft with small weapons. The important question is what kind of vehicle is he driving? If it's a speederbike, then I would say he's stuck with the personal-scale weapons. If it's a Toyota pickup, he could conceivably load something pretty hefty in the back, as militia groups worldwide have been doing for years. Trouble is, anyone who sees it immediately assumes he's up to no good. That's not something you can just roll into town with. People will flee on sight, authorities will be called, trucks will be impounded, dudes will be arrested.

So yeah, if they're flying around in a big freighter, and he wants so have a rad GI Joe truck to take on missions, I don't see much of a problem. If it's his general, gettin' around ride, he's going to have a bad time.

These issues boil down to one universal TTRPG truth: Do what's good for the group. If you want a Thing (weapon, ability, ship, etc.) that upsets the balance of group fun, don't acquire it. If your character's narrative states this Thing must happen, then for the sake of enjoyment, curtailing the Thing becomes necessary. If that can't logically be done, then perhaps the Thing is a bad fit. Do what's good for the group and find a good way to bring things back into balance. There are countless examples and opinions about game balance, but in the end it has to do with, again, doing what's good for the group.

I'm guessing this character is driving a silhouette 2 vehicle, like a landspeeder or airspeeder, and that he wants to mount blaster cannons or autoblasters and using it as an anti-infantry gunship?

The simple counter to this is Starfighters, Walkers or Repulsortanks. Something with a little armour that can stand up to that vehicle scale fire. The Empire always has reinforcements. Even crime lords will probably have a few armed landspeeders of their own.

If the PCs escalate to Planetary Scale, so too will their enemies. The baddies will generally commit just enough resources to get the job done.

Can a Starship weapon be mounted onto a Landspeeder? Yes

But so can a regular Heavy Blaster Rifle from the equipment chapter that just does normal personal scale damage.

I would be suggesting to him that the HBR is a better choice since it's less likely to draw unwarranted attention from law enforcement.

His old vehicle was a speederbike with a sidecar that he got modified to with a special secret compartment from one of the PCs and got some form of weapon into it.

But you've all given me a lot to think about, thank you.

If he really wants a starfighter weapon, you might consider throwing on some additional characteristics... add Setbacks to Piloting checks due to poor balance/handling, maybe add Slow-Fire 2 to the weapon to account for the inadequate power supply from the smaller vehicle. That would allow him to get a great first shot (if he hits), but he'll spend a lot of time waiting (or doing other things) if his weapon only fires every third or fourth round.

Sure, let him carry around a starship-scale blaster.

My questions for this PC:

1. How will he power said weapon? Is he able to fit a Novaldex O4-Z Cryogenic Power Cell and an Ionization Reactor in his utility belt?

2. If by some miracle of physics he is able to carry those things, does he expect to be able to hit anything that is not stationary?

Ride in style on a Hutt-style personal repulsor sled. It comes with a concealed auto-blaster. See Lords of Nal Hutta for details.

If he really wants a starfighter weapon, you might consider throwing on some additional characteristics... add Setbacks to Piloting checks due to poor balance/handling, maybe add Slow-Fire 2 to the weapon to account for the inadequate power supply from the smaller vehicle. That would allow him to get a great first shot (if he hits), but he'll spend a lot of time waiting (or doing other things) if his weapon only fires every third or fourth round.

I love the idea of the player mounting a big gun thinking he's all badass, getting on the bike and chasing down an npc. He lines up the shot, shoots... and drains the bike of all power and he drops out of the sky like a brick.

I love the idea of the player mounting a big gun thinking he's all badass, getting on the bike and chasing down an npc. He lines up the shot, shoots... and drains the bike of all power and he drops out of the sky like a brick.

I know, right?!

Ride in style on a Hutt-style personal repulsor sled. It comes with a concealed auto-blaster. See Lords of Nal Hutta for details.

Pretty sure that was intended for low Agility hutts. Also it's open topped in every sense of the word, just blasting the driver is gonna be pretty easy, might not even require aiming.

Ride in style on a Hutt-style personal repulsor sled. It comes with a concealed auto-blaster. See Lords of Nal Hutta for details.

Pretty sure that was intended for low Agility hutts. Also it's open topped in every sense of the word, just blasting the driver is gonna be pretty easy, might not even require aiming.

The point was that you can easily get access to heavy weaponry, not that you are in any way harder to hurt in return.

Remember, the auto-blaster is less expensive than many higher-end personal scale weapons and it's not Restricted. It can be mounted on Silhouette 2 vehicles without issues, and it outperforms (in Range and Damage) pretty much anything on the personal scale.

In addition to my original obligation issues, one of my players is very interested in getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon. He did this in another game we were in (we were both players), and the weapon he got did starship scale damage, that ended up blowing through everything, and we ended up stopping the game because it became less fun for the GM, and he didnt want to arbitrarily get rid of the weapon or taise the difficulty to much for the rest of us.

Now that I'm GMing, how should I go about his request? Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?

I think I'm obviously missing something. I see no problem equipping vehicle with normal blaster. Blaster does normal blaster damage (personal scale), and it doesn't magically change to vehicle scale scale damage when attached to vehicle. It's still mostly useless against other vehicles. But if that's the matter, I see no problem with this, because this is practically just lowering the damage of weapons. If it's about replacing personal scale weapon with vehicle scale weapon taken from a ship, then it's big no-no. Does the PC also transport a vehicle reactor to power the vehicle scale weapon...

To your last question I ask a clarifying question to understand your question better. What are the mechanical benefits to that substitution? As a general guideline, I'd say "yes, and...". Use your common sense, and do what's fun and enhances game.

Doesn't Vehicle and Starship weapons deal 10 damage personal scale for 1 damage Starship scale? If that's not the case then I have no issues, but we all were lead to believe that was indeed the case.

Yes. But I interpreted your question "getting his vehicle equipped with a blaster weapon" in a way that you asked about equipping vehicle (normally equipped with vehicle scale weapon) with blaster (personal scale weapon), which practically deal 1 vehicle damage for each 10 personal scale damage. Personally I'd ask the player, why does he want to do that? Last time you ended up quitting the game because of that same antic.

If it's other way around, character using vehicle scale weapon, then I say no, at least without penalties. Recoil will throw character as rag doll. How is he moving the power plant needed to power the weapon, normally taking it's power from equivalent of nuclear power plant. Vehicle scale weapon to speeder bike (or other vehicle normally not having weapon or having personal scale weapon): Same problems IMO, where does it take its power from? (and the vehicle is not actually designed to structurally handle the weapon. I could bolt a cannon from Abrams to my car, and possibly even fire it (hitting anything is totally other question), ONCE.) Though, I love warchild1x's idea about weapon draining all the power of vehicle. I see this mainly as balance issue (practically, after allowing this, you give automatic win card to that player in every combat encounter. I think it's stupid and disrespectful for other players. Personally though, I might allow it temporarily in some special case. But as regular weapon, probably never.

And to your (most important?) question: "Can i substitute the big guns for player scale ones?" Of course you can. But you should think about few questions: Is it good for game? Why would you do it? What would you gain from it? How would it enhance the storytelling and narrative?

I'm not sure why you would suggest that a vehicle can't support a weapon (either structurally or in terms of powering it) that is within the Silhouette requirements for the weapon. Blaster weapons seem to have very small power requirements relative to the destructive outputs, and stressing the structure of the vehicle--as with your "tank gun on a car" example--is covered by the Oversized Weapon Mount from Dangerous Covenants. This latter piece is not necessary for mounting auto-blasters and light blaster cannons on Silhouette 2 vehicles.