One of my players brought up that the lightsaber skill is used for "Similar" weapons, what weapon is similar to that? Using one of the specs that give saber access and a talent that allows for using a different stat instead of brawn, could I use my intellect, or presence to fight with a vibrosword, which in my mind other than not having a laser beam attached to it, is pretty much a similar weapon.

"Similar weapons" is defined by the weapon using the Lightsaber skill, as listed in its description. There are a couple, like phase daggers and lightwhips in the various F&D career books.

In general, you cannot change the skill used for a specific weapon. If it's listed as using Melee, like a vibrosword is, it will always use Melee, and can't be used with Lightsaber.

As for then being similar, they're actually really different. Firstly on the blade: a lightsaber blade is as close to massless as you can get, really playing with the weighting, and a vibro weapon has a specific cutting edge, while a lightsaber cuts from any direction. Both of these facts greatly change the techniques available to the weapon. Also, supposedly there is a gyroscopic element to a lightsaber, making the direction the blade moves compared to how you move your hand rather counterintuitive.

Any given weapon table will list the skill used to wield that weapon. There are some weapons in the line that use the Lightsaber skill, but clearly do not fit into the traditional form factor. The core rulebook has this in the ancient sword, it actually uses the lightsaber skill despite otherwise just being an actual sword (which basically exists as a way for an entry character to have a weapon that uses their lightsaber skill, while not actually giving them an actual saber)..

That still.doesnt explain the difference between a Mogukai cortosis staff and a light saber pike.

Morgukai Cortosis Staff= Spear

Lightsaber pike = probably closest weapon equivalent is the Naginata due to the length of the blade.

Both used in very different ways. I think that the morgukai staves shorter spear !ike blade makes it much different from a lightsaber, even a shoto due to the omnidirectionality of the cutting blade, whose effect is less pronounced on the staff, leaving it much more closer to a traditional spear than a lightsaber is to the equivalent traditional weapon. (Or any other such rationisation for taking a purely fictional melee weapon and giving it a different category to other melee weapons ,however, similar they might be)

Morgukai Cortosis Staff= Spear

Lightsaber pike = probably closest weapon equivalent is the Naginata due to the length of the blade.

Both used in very different ways. I think that the morgukai staves shorter spear !ike blade makes it much different from a lightsaber, even a shoto due to the omnidirectionality of the cutting blade, whose effect is less pronounced on the staff, leaving it much more closer to a traditional spear than a lightsaber is to the equivalent traditional weapon. (Or any other such rationisation for taking a purely fictional melee weapon and giving it a different category to other melee weapons ,however, similar they might be)

I think this is getting too detailed. If you start looking at it this way, melee should be split into a number of skills. Without making massive modifications to the underlying rules, you just need to accept the weapon table statement of what class of weapon each type is. No matter how strange it sounds. Ancient swords and training sticks? Lightsaber. Why? Because of game balance. Same reason why vibro ax and stilleto use the same Melee skill.

I think the only really out of place exception to what you can use with the lightsaber skill is the Ancient Sword. Other than that it's pretty straight forward.

I mean, there are some weapons being clustered into a skill that make no sense.

For example, pistols and grenades use the same skill. That's kind of weird.

It's also stupid that if you're using gunnery to aim a heavy turbolaser battery you still use Agility as the governing stat. It's a giant slow moving cannon with a crew larger than many starships being targetd by a computer at a target hundreds of kilometers away, you'd think the most essential characteristic would be intelligence or presence.

Morgukai Cortosis Staff= Spear

Lightsaber pike = probably closest weapon equivalent is the Naginata due to the length of the blade.

Both used in very different ways. I think that the morgukai staves shorter spear !ike blade makes it much different from a lightsaber, even a shoto due to the omnidirectionality of the cutting blade, whose effect is less pronounced on the staff, leaving it much more closer to a traditional spear than a lightsaber is to the equivalent traditional weapon. (Or any other such rationisation for taking a purely fictional melee weapon and giving it a different category to other melee weapons ,however, similar they might be)

I think this is getting too detailed. If you start looking at it this way, melee should be split into a number of skills. Without making massive modifications to the underlying rules, you just need to accept the weapon table statement of what class of weapon each type is. No matter how strange it sounds. Ancient swords and training sticks? Lightsaber. Why? Because of game balance. Same reason why vibro ax and stilleto use the same Melee skill.

I was giving a rational answer to the previous request, then pointing out the silliness of trying to rationalise the two skills in a fictional system. The two weapon categories are treated different ,this is all you need to know.

It's also stupid that if you're using gunnery to aim a heavy turbolaser battery you still use Agility as the governing stat. It's a giant slow moving cannon with a crew larger than many starships being targetd by a computer at a target hundreds of kilometers away, you'd think the most essential characteristic would be intelligence or presence.

Honestly at the tech levels we're talking about, gunner's are nearly useless. All a gunner would need is a cursor telling the targeting computer what to shoot at. The computer would then calculate the trajectories, move the cannon to the proper position, and fire whenever it had a fairly reasonable (all math based) targeting solution. All the gunner really does is point and click on the preferred target. However, none of that sounds very fun for the character that gets a chance at the gunner's seat does it?

As for using Agility over Intelligence/Presence, it depends on perspective. Think of it like an advanced game of "Duck Hunt" (for those who don't know the game, thanks for making me feel old). The computer is helping you aim, but you still need to pull the trigger! So Agility makes sense from the "hand-eye coordination" point of view.