Quote

In a pinch, a micro-rocket can be jury-rigged […, using] the Mechanics skill […, upgrading] the difficulty [once].

The Tech in the group is at 5 and 2 in Mechanics: I fear the moment he's going to find out about this. I strongly suspect a simple Upgrade may not be sufficient a disincentive.

What can I do? Should I do anything at all?

My deliberations so far:

Prepare 1; somewhat contradictory to „in a pinch“.

Handling possible Despairs interestingly, like an instant crit; seems slightly harsh, though, in case of a successful attack, despite of „risk of losing fingers“, doesn’t it?

If the PC making the modification is "in a pinch" then perhaps there are plenty of opportunities to throw Setback dice into the pool. I don't think instant-crit on Despair is too harsh, it is after all an explosive with a propellent in it, and the tech is fiddling with it. It would make sense to provide fair warning when the PC goes to try this.

The text even mentions "though not without risk of losing fingers (or worse)", the potential for self-crits seems VERY appropriate.

Setbacks always, without question! But he is quite the Gear-Head: I cannot have more than two of those stick, reasonably.

2 hours ago, Grimmerling said:

Setbacks always, without question! But he is quite the Gear-Head: I cannot have more than two of those stick, reasonably.

Even though the PC can likely cancel a bunch of Setback (and rightly so!) there's probably a good number of reasons to keep piling them on. I suppose it would be excessive applying more than 4 but it seems like extenuating circumstances could probably justify it.

I don't remember if these are restricted or items or not. If they are, perhaps, the quality control isn't up to snuff? Perhaps the supplier isn't particularly interested in getting the best product, just product he can unload at a profit. Buying rockets of poor quality can increase their profit and such inferior products can easily increase set back as well as upgrade the difficulty on jury rigging attempts.

Are these really any more worrisome than grenades?

1 hour ago, themensch said:

Even though the PC can likely cancel a bunch of Setback (and rightly so!) there's probably a good number of reasons to keep piling them on. I suppose it would be excessive applying more than 4 but it seems like extenuating circumstances could probably justify it.

Navigating in the maw, into close proximity to pulsars or going through asteroid tunnels is 3+ setback dice. Just saying. *g*

38 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Are these really any more worrisome than grenades?

Tossing them around with Mechanics (up to long distance, theoretically) is; to me at least.

They already made Mechanics the demolitions skill way back in Dangerous Covenants so this isn't really too much of a surprise. If anything, the Encumbrance of these things (much as with grenades) should limit them from carrying more than a few at a time. They are also going to be loud and attract attention when used (again, much as with grenades). I suppose I might get worried about the Mechanics bit if they were using that Force power that boosts MEchanics along with it, but that's not too likely to be an issue.

Also, your mechanic might like using mines and the minelayer vehicle attachment for some added boom.

Here is the solution:

Why do all the bad guys always have micro-rockets to shoot at us?

They have a mechanic. If you dont like it you shouldnt have made a volley of microrockets the first action in every fight

I guess I don't understand the issue. It's just changing the skill needed to use the weapon. It doesn't affect the range. You're not throwing the rocket, you're trying to launch it from your hand or a stable, flat surface. If your player is doing that, then, logically, they cannot Aim. Slap 4 Setback, 2 for jury-rigging to launch and 2 for Inaccuracy.

Minor Chronicle of the Gatekeeper Spoiler

Act 1 of CotG we were running through the front door, firing a volley of micro-missiles from a speeder bike, smashing the door with two triumphs and the goons behind it, riding into the larger hall behind it with three speeder bikes and throwing homebrewed grenades left and right which the mechanic made in a all nighter the day before … I fail to see the problem with launching micro-rockets from a empty bottle of corillian whisky into a group of enemies while screaming "Yeeha!".

At least it is not an 85X-Odyssey Heavy Speeder Bike with a retractable front Twin-Autoblaster-Cannon … because if the area is big enough to fire of micro-rockets without blasting away your own party, it is usually big enough for speeder bikes as well and those can be armed in nasty ways … missiles are actually one of the nice options as laser-cannons do fit to speeders. And then the NPCs really do want missiles to defend themselves. °_^