Jury rigged and Saber swarm

By penpenpen, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Could you use Jury rigged to lower the advantage cost of an effect it does not currently have, for instance Linked for a regular lightsaber, which could then be taken advantage of when given that effect temporarily, like with Saber swarm?

At first, I figured it would just be cheesy 'sploit mongering, but since it would be a lot less powerful than doing it to a weapon that has linked in the first place (I'm looking at you, double bladed lightsaber!) I'm not so sure anymore.

Jury Rigged can only apply to a trait the weapon actually has, inherently or permanently added through an Attachment/Mod (such as Auto-fire added to a bowcaster). It cannot be added to an trait that exists solely because of a talent (such as Linked from Saber Swarm).

Edited by HappyDaze

It might be a stretch to justify it even narratively.

Jury Rigged is a physical alteration to an item after all.

While Saber Swarm is a skill of the person wielding the weapon.

Though you could say that the alteration makes it easier to apply said skill?

It probably wouldn't be too crazy in terms of power.

I would agree with HappyDaze though, going down that path opens up a whole slew of rule lawyering for other uncommon/unintended talent application.

No.

I actually have less of an issue with the balance of it than I do with the rping side of it. There are just so much more broken things you can do with JR than reducing the advantage cost of a talent that requires strain to activate. I mean unless your campaign is well into the hundreds of xp, it's not like they are going to have the FR to abuse such a reduction since the AS specialization doesn't even get a FR bump nor do any of the specs that get JR (at least that I can think of). For most of the character's career, it isn't going to be much different than the character getting a double bladed lightsaber and JR'ing it. Eventually he will likely get to a FR where it would start to matter, but by that time, it would likely be more optimal just to lower his crit to 1 and crit everything to death with those advantages.

As I said, my biggest issue would be how the player justified the effect. I'd want him to tell me how he modified the grips/handle or otherwise made swinging them easier. If he could convince me of that, I'd likely allow it. As with anytime one of my players takes JR, I'd just be thankful that they weren't applying it to Autofire or to a crit 2 weapon. JR is such an unbalanced talent you have to take the wins when they come and making it the equivalent of +1 or 2 advantage on a sometimes talent seems pretty good to me.

Edited by SladeWeston
8 hours ago, penpenpen said:

but since it would be a lot less powerful than doing it to a weapon that has linked in the first place (I'm looking at you, double bladed lightsaber!) I'm not so sure anymore.

The DBL has a linked quality of 1 and trades that for having Unwieldy 3, doubling cost for attachments/mods and being much harder to hide.

Saber Swarm sets the linked at your FR, which starts at 1 and only goes higher. It's already a powerful talent, especially when combined with Hawkbat Swoop to give you more advantage. It does not need a boot from Jury Rig, either narratively or mechanically.

5 hours ago, Benjan Meruna said:

The DBL has a linked quality of 1 and trades that for having Unwieldy 3, doubling cost for attachments/mods and being much harder to hide.

Saber Swarm sets the linked at your FR, which starts at 1 and only goes higher. It's already a powerful talent, especially when combined with Hawkbat Swoop to give you more advantage. It does not need a boot from Jury Rig, either narratively or mechanically.

Well thought out and to the point. Hats off to that resounding "No!"!