I'd let you build a shield gauntlet mod to a rifle. It would add unwieldy to the weapon and give benefits of the shield, with mods to decrease one step and possibility of increasing shield effectiveness. How ever, i would not allow the using of two handed rifle and separate shield rifle.

My suggestion is to change weapon to one handed carbine/heavy blaster or ask about making the custom shield attachment

7 hours ago, syrath said:

if you want to fall back on the actual rules rifle 2 handed weapon ,shield gauntlet 1 handed weapon

Well at that point I wasn't falling back on the rules; I was taking your reasoning to its logical conclusion.

But still, just because a rifle uses two hands and Brawl weapons are one-handed doesn't mean that you suddenly aren't wearing the Brawl weapon if you use the two-handed weapon to attack in a given round.

The actual rules regarding Deflection rating and the Reflect talent support this reading. Once you put a shield gauntlet on, you're wielding it until you take it off.

In reality you would not be able to use either as effectively, but the ultimate reason I wouldt allow it , for a race with 2 hands is that it is a two handed weapon plain and simple. Otherwise why even bother with the wording , this weappn requires two hands to wield, You open up for player shenanigans like, drawng a vibrosword and holding it while firing a rifle , then saying that when an opponent gets in melee range they say they are using the vibrosword for defense . That would certainly be easier than using a shield to reflect.

There is a reason melee combatants get a bonus on ranged combatants if they are trying to fire a rifle or a pistol in their last round , using the same reasoning as being able to the ranged combatant should be able to defend themselves normally even if they have fired their rifle, even if you stowed said rifle afer firing, the melee combatant gets a boost.

First off @syrath , although we are disagreeing, I do want to thank you for your input!

Here's a question I have for you on this that I think is a similar situation: What do you think of the cybernetic implant - Repulsor Fist? This item is a hand slot, similar to the shield gauntlet. It has the feature 1 Innate Talent(Defensive Stance). It also says "counts as a Brawl weapon."

Do you believe that if you are using a two handed weapon, you no longer get the defensive stance because you're gaining a property of an offhand weapon?

8 minutes ago, Smoothjedi said:

First off @syrath , although we are disagreeing, I do want to thank you for your input!

Here's a question I have for you on this that I think is a similar situation: What do you think of the cybernetic implant - Repulsor Fist? This item is a hand slot, similar to the shield gauntlet. It has the feature 1 Innate Talent(Defensive Stance). It also says "counts as a Brawl weapon."

Do you believe that if you are using a two handed weapon, you no longer get the defensive stance because you're gaining a property of an offhand weapon?

Yes because you arent wielding it at the time. Would you get benefit from a shield when its strapped to your back. In real life you would get some, but not in the same way you would if it was properly wielded. Again, would having a vibrosword strapped to your belt give you defensive 1.

21 minutes ago, syrath said:

Yes because you arent wielding it at the time. Would you get benefit from a shield when its strapped to your back. In real life you would get some, but not in the same way you would if it was properly wielded. Again, would having a vibrosword strapped to your belt give you defensive 1.

You may not be immediately wielding it while you're shooting, but you still have it equipped if it IS your hand. Your examples seem irrelevant as there's an entire maneuver between your hand and the sword on your belt or the shield on your back. You always have gauntlet or fist equipped because it's always "in" your hand.

@syrath you're creating a false simily between Melee weapons and Brawl weapons like gloves and gauntlets. The latter can be worn and are always at the ready, even while holding other weapons in the same hand, but the former cannot.

It helps to not conflate gloves and vibroblades, because otherwise you end up with really convoluted comparisons.

5 hours ago, syrath said:

Again, would having a vibrosword strapped to your belt give you defensive 1.

"I quickly turn around so that the blow glances off the sword that's strapped to my back."

If you want something similar in the rules to use as reference, the Riot Shield in Far Horizons has rules text that says it comes with an optional brace for a rifle (takes up a hard point on the shield) that allows you to benefit from the shield and fire a rifle in the same round, albeit with a setback added to attacks using the rifle.

I can understand the viewpoints for an against (both these examples) but I just dont see how they can be justified from a balance point of view (advantage of 1h vs 2h) , a realistic point of view (as I said a rifle user in combat is going to be keeping both hands on their weapon) or a rules mechanics point of view , how that it works, even the shield above, allows its use by bracing the weapon on the shield giving you something substantial to hold up the other end of the gun, that shield isnt being used to reflect though.

I think I've (over) stated my opinion here and have to agree to differ.

I could see it working; especially with precog, the rifle user supports the rifle much of the time, but occasionally flicks his hand to smackaside the blaster bolt. I would say narrative speaking this kind of reactive combat would impose one or two setback dice to the check; they are constantly having to respond and adjust according to the attacks incoming. The system encourages setback dice through situational factors.

3 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

"I quickly turn around so that the blow glances off the sword that's strapped to my back."

Hahaha! In this case, Defensive does specifically require being wielded so unless you can wield something from your belt I don't think it works

37 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

Hahaha! In this case, Defensive does specifically require being wielded so unless you can wield something from your belt I don't think it works

There's a pornographic joke here but I won't touch it. :-)

Okay okay, if your background was "I'm Shakira," I'd allow it.

#prettyMuchCleanIfSlightlyRisqueJokes

My vibro sword is so firm, it has the cortosis quality!

*Muchriskywow*