Does anyone know of any published (or have a good set of home-brew) stats for a garrote and how it is used? Trying to convert D6 characters to Edge and working on gear. Thanks!

Just reskin the vibroknuckles from Dangerous Covenants.

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/223/

"Vibro-garrote"

Skill: Brawl
Damage: +1; Critical: 2
Range: Engaged
Encumbrance: 1; HP: 0; Price: 350; Rarity: 4
Specials: Pierce 1, Vicious 1

You could up the price by a couple hundred credits and give it an automatic ranked talent, like Quick Strike.

What do you think is a good way to replicate the fact that the victim would be dealing with a wire twisted around their neck? Ensnare? That way the victim has to make a Hard Athletics check to break out of it or continue to take damage.

Hmm. How about Ensnare 1, Stun 4?

The thing with a Garrote is that you want to:

a) trap someone so they can't escape (ensnare works)

b) slowly strangle them until they die or are unconscious (so you need to crit them to achieve this, or strain the heck out of them)

With that in mind I would make it this:

Garrote

Skill: Brawl (I think Brawl over Melee as the key task at hand is grappling someone, albeit with a weapon, until they drop. Brawl makes more sense than Melee)
Damage: +1; Critical: 2
Range: Engaged
Encumbrance: 0; HP: 0; Price: 50; Rarity: 2
Specials: Ensnare 1, Vicious 2*

* an additional attack roll is required each round the target is imobilised from Ensnare

This way the target gets a chance to break free each round after the first (Ensnare 1). The additional attack roll each subsequent round allows the play the opportunity to trigger the Advantages needed to Crit the target to strangle them (Vicious 2 for the Crits). I would be giving Boost/Setback dice based on the targets Athletics rolls to escape.

Making it a Vibro-Garotte might increase the Vicious, but is likely to remove the target head rather than strangle them...Of course you would need to increase price and rarity.

I would consider a special rule that unless you are attacking an unaware target, the weapon is Innacurate 2. It just doesn’t work quite as well head on.

10 minutes ago, OriginalDomingo said:

I would consider a special rule that unless you are attacking an unaware target, the weapon is Innacurate 2. It just doesn’t work quite as well head on.

With that kind of thinking in mind, why not make a special rule similar to the palm stunner? When used on an unsuspecting/unaware individual that skulduggery may be used. And an active stun quality, so you could suffocate they target quickly.

Hmmm, and only ensnare 1, as you must actively keep it wrapped around the target's neck.

I agree with the Innacurate quality for aware targets. Nice and simple.

That's a lot of qualities for a piece of wire and a couple of T-handles. I get where you're coming from with the Inaccurate, but I'd probably just toss a couple of Setbacks on a case-by-case basis instead.

14 hours ago, SFC Snuffy said:

That's a lot of qualities for a piece of wire and a couple of T-handles. I get where you're coming from with the Inaccurate, but I'd probably just toss a couple of Setbacks on a case-by-case basis instead.

It's nothing to do with the simplicity of its makeup; it's all to do with the specialty of its function. The purpose it was designed for, and the specific circumstances where it would be most useful, are narrow in scope.

In essence, all you're really doing with this weapon is codifying what a character could spend their advantage on when attacking an unaware enemy from behind with a short piece of wire or rope ?

Thank you all for the great advice. I think I am going to do something like:

Skill: Brawl
Damage: +1; Critical: 2
Range: Engaged
Encumbrance: 0; HP: 0; Price: 250; Rarity: 4
Specials: Pierce 1, Vicious 1, Ensnare 1, SPECIAL: attack must be made from behind/hidden position or weapon is considered Inaccurate, SPECIAL: Ensnared victim may not make any vocalizations

Still, if anyone has clearer thoughts, feel free to share.

Droids won't be able to talk if they're ensnared? I'd also make it stun damage as well to simulate the lack of oxygen over actual harm.

I see your point. I do think, however, that with a narrative game system such as this, common sense would be able to prevail and the GM would be able to explain to the player that the opponent being attacked by the garrote would need to be breathing by the part of the body that is attacked. As droids do not breathe air, I don’t know that this would need to be clarified for the weapon description.

I thought about making it stun damage. It dawned on me though, that stun damage would mean that a person would just be rendered unconscious. I think that a garrotte should definitely have the possibility of killing somebody.

Yeah, I meant that to be silly, but it came off a bit snarky. My bad. What's going to kill them is the crits. After they go unconscious, the additional damage would be additional crits and eventually they die. And if it's not an encounter scene with other stuff going on, it's easy enough to hand wave the extra time away. Most minions and rivals can simply be called dead as well.

Armor could be a problem if you start to get too realistic with it. It could easily be argued heavy armors would stop a garrote. You may also have to consider someone with cybernetic lungs down the road. Or a species like the Gand that don't have lungs.

From just a little reading it's not about cutting off breathing but about cutting off the blood-flow to the brain first rendering them unconscious, then strangulation after the victim is unconscious. So that means, especially for a Force User, that once they are unconscious killing them becomes murder because they are no longer a threat. Plus it's not actually that easy to do it properly, if you don't get it around the right part of the exposed neck and cut off the blood flow it's not going to work that well. Add to that your target's full body weight is going to be thrashing around the whole time and any armor, even something like a high, thick collar will reduce it's effectiveness.

Something else to consider is that a garrote is kinda a pretty brutal way to kill and it is designed not really as a weapon but an assassination or execution device. Anyway it's not very Star Wars-y but it's your game.

49 minutes ago, FuriousGreg said:

Something else to consider is that a garrote is kinda a pretty brutal way to kill and it is designed not really as a weapon but an assassination or execution device. Anyway it's not very Star Wars-y but it's your game.

Well, it IS a weapon that has been in previously-licenced Star Wars games (in the Clone Wars Campaign Guide and the Rebellion Era Campaign guides for Saga Edition, I believe.) Plus FFG does let players play a character called an Assassin... also not very Star Wars-y, I suppose.

1 hour ago, FuriousGreg said:

So that means, especially for a Force User, that once they are unconscious killing them becomes murder because they are no longer a threat.

DEFINITELY some Dark Side Points coming a Force user's way! I suppose that is in the same way it would not be a Light-side kinda move to do a Force choke, either.

1 hour ago, FuriousGreg said:

From just a little reading it's not about cutting off breathing but about cutting off the blood-flow to the brain first rendering them unconscious, then strangulation after the victim is unconscious.

That's a really good point. Choking someone to unconsciousness should be an option, rather than sawing someone's throat.

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

Yeah, I meant that to be silly, but it came off a bit snarky. My bad.

@Ahrimon , I think my reply was also a bit snippier than originally intended. Sorry for that.

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

What's going to kill them is the crits. After they go unconscious, the additional damage would be additional crits and eventually they die.

Yeah. As I mentioned to @FuriousGreg , I think I want to look it it instilling unconsciousness first then running the risk of being fatal.

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

Armor could be a problem if you start to get too realistic with it. It could easily be argued heavy armors would stop a garrote. You may also have to consider someone with cybernetic lungs down the road. Or a species like the Gand that don't have lungs.

Definitely. I think if my player wants to use this weapon, we are going to have to agree on experimenting with it as we go along.

20 hours ago, Ahrimon said:

Armor could be a problem if you start to get too realistic with it. It could easily be argued heavy armors would stop a garrote. You may also have to consider someone with cybernetic lungs down the road. Or a species like the Gand that don't have lungs.

As I mentioned previously rendering someone unconscious is an effect of blood loss not asphyxiation which would take considerably longer. Also any species with thick fur or scales would be basically immune since you need to be able to apply pressure to the artery's and fur/scales would get in the way. Anyway with all the strange species and such in the SW Universe it could lead to a lot of hand waving. One way to overcome the Armor issue is to only make it possible against unarmored or no greater than 1 soak of armor.

If it was me, because it is not really a combat type of weapon, I'd have it be linked to a series of skill checks and a Triumph or Destiny Point expenditure with a big payoff:

Either Turn one or before Structured Time begins:
1) Make a Successful Stealth Action to get in position without being detected. If you fail here begin Combat (if you haven't already) and you can't make any further attacks with the garrote.
Turn Two or after the Stealth Check:
2) Make a Successful Opposed Skulduggery, Melee, or Brawl Attack vs Brawl with a number Advantages necessary to activate, I'd go with 4 which is the Crit rating of a lot weapons so it represents the difficulty of this kind of attack but it's not that onerous. If you fail to activate apply damage normally but the target slips free, you are now in a Brawl situation and your Garrote is essentially useless.
3) If the attack is Successful and the number of Advantages are achieved spend a Destiny Point and the target is rendered unconscious. This makes the result worth the difficulty of achieving it.