1 hour ago, EliasWindrider said:

Recheck the armor crafting rules @Tramp Graphics , in particularly look at special embellishment which costs 2 advantage.

@Daeglan I would be willing to give a player a limited port of special embellishment (omitting resilience and stealth), the gist of it is you can spend 2 crafting advantage to provide 1 advantage to all of 1 type of skill check and the skill in question can be chosen from charm, coercion, negotiation, leadership. And I would only let you get that benefit when it is prominently displayed without it being held (which would cover up a good part of the fancy paintjob-ish features). It might not be what you want but it's as close to what I think you're asking for that I might allow at my table as GM.

This is pretty much what I was going to suggest. Pick a general skill (not a combat or knowledge skill) and the lightsaber provides an automatic Advantage on those checks in certain circumstances.

The big issue here, I think, is that there are only so many mechanical aspects of a weapon that can be affected by crafting, and 2 Advantage just isn't enough to have an effect on most of them.

--You can't increase Damage, because that's the effect of the 1 Advantage ability, which has a downside of making the weapon two-handed and increasing Encumbrance.
--Decreasing Encumbrance is, as you mentioned, useless if the weapon is already Encumbrance 1.
--You could technically probably go with decreasing the cost of the hilt, but that affects the stats of your wallet, not your lightsaber, and so is probably not something you'd be interested in.
--A lightsaber is a melee weapon, so you can't change the Range.
--Critical Rating is a major ability that is worth much more than 2 Advantage. The closest thing on the lightsaber crafting chart is the Finely-Tuned Emitter, which adds 1 automatic Advantage to checks with the 'saber, and that requires a Triumph, I believe (away from my book right now).
--Adding Hard Points is already on the chart and is worth a lot, because each Hard Point allows for major customization.
--And the last major availability would be adding or modifying weapon Qualities, but most qualities are worth a bit more than 2 Advantage, as they're either worth a Hard Point (through using an attachment to get them), or they're worth 3 to 4 Advantage, as given on the chart.

So that (and page space) is probably why there's no intriguing option on the chart: the minor weapon statistics that can be affected by 1 or 2 Advantage are there, but you don't find them interesting (which is fair), and the others are too potent to mess with for that low a cost. So my best suggestion is look at other crafting charts, find something that costs 2 or less Advantage that's not already represented on the Lightsaber Crafting chart, and use that. My best suggestion is the special embellishment from the Armor Crafting chart. It normally costs 2 Advantage which is where you are, and it can affect a social check. That's probably the best you're going to get.

And, speaking personally, I think that the +[A] abilities from various sources are quite unobtrusively powerful. It's the one I'd go with, in your position .

10 hours ago, Absol197 said:

My best suggestion is the special embellishment from the Armor Crafting chart. It normally costs 2 Advantage which is where you are, and it can affect a social check.

I can live with this on armor, since it’s clothing of sorts, but I have a bit of an issue with effects based on looks paid for in Adv. Example: you build a lightsaber hilt, get a couple Adv, and select some effect based on the embellished look; now I also build a lightsaber hilt but I deliberately make it so it looks exactly like yours. I succeed (maybe against upgraded difficulty, seems appropriate), but without Adv. Should my hilt get the same effect? Why (not)?

Like I said, I’m ok with this when it concerns armor - I’ll assume the execution of the build was extra artful or something. I just find that a much harder sell when it comes to smaller and utilitarian items. But to avoid more recriminations: their table, their game, their rules, their fun.

Well, the simple answer is this: if you didn't score the 2 Advantage and spend them on that effect, then even though you might have been trying to make it look just like my 'saber, you didn't quite do it. Sure, it looks similar , but you missed some of the tiny details that makes it pop and grants the bonus.

My sister is in the middle of painting a complex Warhammer model, so let me use that as an example. Let's say you see this model assembled by a skilled modeler. It's assembled just perfect, the painting is pristine. Everyone who sees it goes, "Wow! That's awesome! Look at the detail!" So you decide you want to build the exact same model with the exact same paint scheme to get those same reactions.

But, you're not as skilled a modeler, not as skilled a painter, and don't have access to the same quality tools. You put yours together and paint it, and it looks great! Everyone who sees it says, "Hey, that's pretty cool! It's like that other version of this model I saw once!" You tried to replicate it exactly, maybe even followed a step-by-step tutorial, but because you didn't have the same skill (i.e. get the 2 Advantage), people don't react to your version of the model as strongly as they do to the one you're copying.

That's the point of the dice symbols: you can try to do anything, and you might even get close. But the symbols determine if you succeed or not. Trying to mimic the effect without paying for it means you got close, but you missed the final spark that made it pop.

Hopefully that makes sense. That's why I can see it working. Obviously I wouldn't make it a normal feature of the crafting chart, but if a player like @Daeglan asked and gave his reasoning? Sure, we could make an exception, especially if he happened to be the only one to get less than 3 Advantage on the crafting check.

2 hours ago, Absol197 said:

Well, the simple answer is this: if you didn't score the 2 Advantage and spend them on that effect, then even though you might have been trying to make it look just like my 'saber, you didn't quite do it. Sure, it looks similar , but you missed some of the tiny details that makes it pop and grants the bonus.

My sister is in the middle of painting a complex Warhammer model, so let me use that as an example. Let's say you see this model assembled by a skilled modeler. It's assembled just perfect, the painting is pristine. Everyone who sees it goes, "Wow! That's awesome! Look at the detail!" So you decide you want to build the exact same model with the exact same paint scheme to get those same reactions.

But, you're not as skilled a modeler, not as skilled a painter, and don't have access to the same quality tools. You put yours together and paint it, and it looks great! Everyone who sees it says, "Hey, that's pretty cool! It's like that other version of this model I saw once!" You tried to replicate it exactly, maybe even followed a step-by-step tutorial, but because you didn't have the same skill (i.e. get the 2 Advantage), people don't react to your version of the model as strongly as they do to the one you're copying.

That's the point of the dice symbols: you can try to do anything, and you might even get close. But the symbols determine if you succeed or not. Trying to mimic the effect without paying for it means you got close, but you missed the final spark that made it pop.

Hopefully that makes sense. That's why I can see it working. Obviously I wouldn't make it a normal feature of the crafting chart, but if a player like @Daeglan asked and gave his reasoning? Sure, we could make an exception, especially if he happened to be the only one to get less than 3 Advantage on the crafting check.

So how about if I am a skilled enough painter, and have all the tools I need? Adv is not skill. Adv is a result from a check. Skill is a measure of how well you can do a task of a particular nature. Adv is a measure of how well you did on one specific instance of such a task. The other modeler’s check was to see if he painted a model successfully. He did, and got some Adv to boot, so it looks great. My check is to see if I can make something that looks exactly the same. That’s a different check. Probably a much harder check. But if I get my Success, regardless of Adv, my check succeeds and I have an identical looking copy of the model.

And if it’s a couple of tiny details I missed, would that even matter to the overall look of a hilt? Enough that someone looking over the hilts from several feet away can instantly see the difference so one gives the benefit but the other doesn’t? This is why I’m more or less ok with this working with clothing - clothing is meant to be seen and meant to visually affect others. Lightsaber hilts? Not really, at least not beyond being recognizeable as one, unless you invent some kind of known symbolism. But if you do that, it’s not a matter of Adv any more, it becomes a matter of successfully applying this symbolism. If electrum detailing on your lightsaber hilt means something to other Jedi, you either incorporate that in your build or you don’t; what you can’t do is build a regular hilt and find that it has electrum detailing on it just because you did a great job putting all the non-electrum parts together.

Adv has nothing to do with whether you succeed. You can generate a ton of Adv and still fail. Adv is for turning your basic success into a great one. Because of that, what you do with Adv has to be something that represents having done what you did particularly well. If you build a melee weapon, generating a buttload of Adv might make it extra sharp, or extra well balanced, or particularly sturdy - any of a number of qualities associated with a very well made melee weapon. What a buttload of Adv will not do is let you make something you can shoot with or travel on or slice into a network with, because that’s not what you were trying to do. What you can do with Adv on a crafting roll depends on the type of item you made. There are different tables for this. That’s by design, because it makes sense.

15 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Recheck the armor crafting rules @Tramp Graphics , in particular look at special embellishment which costs 2 advantage.

@Daeglan I would be willing to give a player a limited port of special embellishment (omitting resilience and stealth), the gist of it is you can spend 2 crafting advantage to provide 1 advantage to all of 1 type of skill check and the skill in question can be chosen from charm, coercion, negotiation, leadership. And I would only let you get that benefit when it is prominently displayed without it being held (which would cover up a good part of the fancy paintjob-ish features). It might not be what you want but it's as close to what I think you're asking for that I might allow at my table as GM.

3 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

I can live with this on armor, since it’s clothing of sorts, but I have a bit of an issue with effects based on looks paid for in Adv. Example: you build a lightsaber hilt, get a couple Adv, and select some effect based on the embellished look; now I also build a lightsaber hilt but I deliberately make it so it looks exactly like yours. I succeed (maybe against upgraded difficulty, seems appropriate), but without Adv. Should my hilt get the same effect? Why (not)?

Like I said, I’m ok with this when it concerns armor - I’ll assume the execution of the build was extra artful or something. I just find that a much harder sell when it comes to smaller and utilitarian items. But to avoid more recriminations: their table, their game, their rules, their fun.

I agree with @nameless ronin on this. The reason why Armor has that option is because it can be built with specific purposes beyond protection from damage, specifically ceremonial , or inspirational. This has actual historical precedence as well. Highly ornate armors were often constructed for ceremonial purposes, or for wealthy nobles and royalty to show status. And barbarians, and other more primitive cultures decorated armor in ways to primarily serve to intimidate their opponents. This is also, as @nameless ronin said, Armor is essentially protective clothing . And under this system, all clothing is "armor".

25 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

So how about if I am a skilled enough painter, and have all the tools I need? Adv is not skill. Adv is a result from a check. Skill is a measure of how well you can do a task of a particular nature. Adv is a measure of how well you did on one specific instance of such a task. The other modeler’s check was to see if he painted a model successfully. He did, and got some Adv to boot, so it looks great. My check is to see if I can make something that looks exactly the same. That’s a different check. Probably a much harder check. But if I get my Success, regardless of Adv, my check succeeds and I have an identical looking copy of the model. And if it’s a couple of tiny details I missed, would that even matter to the overall look of a hilt?

First of all, we're talking about lightsabers not warhammer models, and that's an apples to brussel sprouts comparison, because models just have to look pretty and lightsabers have to work. So if you were my player, you'd be facing the exact same difficulty for crafting the lightsaber as the other guy whose lightsaber you're trying to copy, because that's the primary objective to build a functioning lightsaber, and in order for it to look exactly the same as his you'd have to roll enough advantage and then choose to spend it on special embellishment, and chose the same special embellishment skill that he did, otherwise they are "is that x's lightsaber? It looks kind of similar but different somehow"

2 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

First of all, we're talking about lightsabers not warhammer models, and that's an apples to brussel sprouts comparison, because models just have to look pretty and lightsabers have to work. So if you were my player, you'd be facing the exact same difficulty for crafting the lightsaber as the other guy whose lightsaber you're trying to copy, because that's the primary objective to build a functioning lightsaber, and in order for it to look exactly the same as his you'd have to roll enough advantage and then choose to spend it on special embellishment, and chose the same special embellishment skill that he did, otherwise they are "is that x's lightsaber? It looks kind of similar but different somehow"

Really? How would you handle forgery? The primary objective is not to build a functional item, it’s to build one that looks identical. What if I try to build something that looks exactly like your lightsaber hilt, but doesn’t work because it doesn’t have the necessary components on the inside?

7 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I agree with @nameless ronin on this. The reason why Armor has that option is because it can be built with specific purposes beyond protection from damage, specifically ceremonial , or inspirational. This has actual historical precedence as well. Highly ornate armors were often constructed for ceremonial purposes, or for wealthy nobles and royalty to show status. And barbarians, and other more primitive cultures decorated armor in ways to primarily serve to intimidate their opponents. This is also, as @nameless ronin said, Armor is essentially protective clothing . And under this system, all clothing is "armor".

There are decorative/ceremonial weapons in the real world too, and decoration in armor in this game is an add on feature that costs 2 advantage. I see no reason why decoration wouldn't also be an add on feature to weapons, and if permitted it should also cost 2 advantage just like it does for armor. Now a lightsaber hilt is significantly smaller than armor (excepting chainmail bikinis, a trope in rpgs) so in order to get the advantage it would have to be prominently displayed and not covered up by holding it in your hand.

4 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

Really? How would you handle forgery? The primary objective is not to build a functional item, it’s to build one that looks identical. What if I try to build something that looks exactly like your lightsaber hilt, but doesn’t work because it doesn’t have the necessary components on the inside?

At my table you wouldn't have to succeed on the crafting check to make a functioning lightsaber but you would be facing the same difficulty dice pool and you'd need 2 advantage.

4 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

There are decorative/ceremonial weapons in the real world too, and decoration in armor in this game is an add on feature that costs 2 advantage. I see no reason why decoration wouldn't also be an add on feature to weapons, and if permitted it should also cost 2 advantage just like it does for armor. Now a lightsaber hilt is significantly smaller than armor (excepting chainmail bikinis, a trope in rpgs) so in order to get the advantage it would have to be prominently displayed and not covered up by holding it in your hand.

Yes, there are. However, those "ceremonial weapons" are primarily, or almost purely, ceremonial, with no real combat value . Any potential combat value is of little concern, and most would find using such "weapons" in combat to be abusive to said item because they're not built for it; they're built to look pretty. That's the key difference here.

8 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

At my table you wouldn't have to succeed on the crafting check to make a functioning lightsaber but you would be facing the same difficulty dice pool and you'd need 2 advantage.

So I’d have to make the exact same check and get at least as good a result, it’d just be to craft a fake? Ok, so what if I wanted to forge an item that was crafted with Adv, but the Adv was used for a non-visual quality like an extra hard point or something?

Edit: also, would the fake lightsaber give me the benefit of the embellishment?

3 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Yes, there are. However, those "ceremonial weapons" are primarily, or almost purely, ceremonial, with no real combat value . Any potential combat value is of little concern, and most would find using such "weapons" in combat to be abusive to said item because they're not built for it; they're built to look pretty. That's the key difference here.

You seem to be forgetting that this is fiction and in fiction, such as conan movies, cool looking swords like conan's are still functional despite having significant decoration

4 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

Really? How would you handle forgery? The primary objective is not to build a functional item, it’s to build one that looks identical. What if I try to build something that looks exactly like your lightsaber hilt, but doesn’t work because it doesn’t have the necessary components on the inside?

That's fairly simple: you're no longer rolling on the Lightsaber Crafting table, you're rolling a general Mechanics check to make a forgery. If you succeed, you've crafted a fake lightsaber hilt with a primary function to deceive those viewing it that it's the hilt that you copied. If that includes a bonus effect of adding 1 Advantage to, say, Charm checks when it's prominently displayed (due to the gilding and other accessories), then your forgery has that effect, too, because you succeeded.

However, you forgery is not a functional lightsaber, and pressing the button does nothing. It can't be used as a weapon. In effect you have, as Tramp keeps mentioning, changed the primary function of the item crafted. The primary function is no longer a weapon, with a minor secondary effect on one skill, but instead to mimic an appearance, including any effects of that appearance.

As it is, I have little interest in continuing to argue the issue. As some point, we have to take into consideration not just the mechanical effect, but the narrative and "game" effect, for lack of a better word. If the player in question was going to be crafting as many hilts as possible in order to get the best possible lightsaber hilt, and spending fistfuls of credits on materials and blueprints, and running themselves ragged on every hyperspace trip crafting non-stop, then no, I would not allow something like this at all. You'd stick to the chart. But that's not what @Daeglan appears to be doing. His character is making a single attempt to craft a personal lightsaber, and he wants something a bit more interesting. It doesn't sound like he's going to throw this out three sessions down the line when he's increased his Mechanics rank and try again. This is a one-and-done check. While whoever is was earlier is right that you don't need to account for every Advantage on every check, for a one-off crafting check for a signature item that is not intended to ever be replaced, I'd be comfortable with importing another feature from another crafting table to help make the item unique.

If you're not comfortable with that as a GM, then that's your prerogative. But it's an option for Daeglan to use, and he asked for options. If he likes it, he needs to run it by his GM, and his GM will decide from there.

21 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

So I’d have to make the exact same check and get at least as good a result, it’d just be to craft a fake? Ok, so what if I wanted to forge an item that was crafted with Adv, but the Adv was used for a non-visual quality like an extra hard point or something?

Depends on the definition of "make" in "make the check", you'd be rolling against the same difficulty pool but your objective is to get 2 uncancelled advantage or a triumph for the special embellishment instead of 1 uncancelled success. The difficulty pool just makes it harder to get the 2 uncanceled advantage. The thing doesn't have to be functional it just has to look functional which is why the difficulty is the same.

Edit: I forgot to answer your question, I'm not convinced that an extra hardpoint would be a non-visual quality, but anything that I agreed was a non visual quality, I wouldn't require you to spend advantage/triumph on.

4 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

You seem to be forgetting that this is fiction and in fiction, such as conan movies, cool looking swords like conan's are still functional despite having significant decoration

"cool looking" and built primarily for ceremony are two different things. Conan's sword is "cool looking", but is primarily a functional weapon. A ceremonial blade r Staff of Office are primarily ceremonial , not intended for combat.

1 minute ago, Tramp Graphics said:

"cool looking" and built primarily for ceremony are two different things. Conan's sword is "cool looking", but is primarily a functional weapon. A ceremonial blade r Staff of Office are primarily ceremonial , not intended for combat.

Honestly, it doesn’t even matter whether it’s intended for combat as well or not. All that matters is whether it’s meant to have a ceremonial function, because that means it will be built for that purpose. The point of a Staff of Office is that it’s recognized as such. The crafter who made it, made it so whoever sees it identifies it as one. This is not a happy accident resulting from doing an excellent job building a random staff; if you want to get a Staff of Office you need to craft a Staff of Office and get a Success, not build any staff and get a couple of Adv on top of a Success.

1 minute ago, nameless ronin said:

Honestly, it doesn’t even matter whether it’s intended for combat as well or not. All that matters is whether it’s meant to have a ceremonial function, because that means it will be built for that purpose. The point of a Staff of Office is that it’s recognized as such. The crafter who made it, made it so whoever sees it identifies it as one. This is not a happy accident resulting from doing an excellent job building a random staff; if you want to get a Staff of Office you need to craft a Staff of Office and get a Success, not build any staff and get a couple of Adv on top of a Success.

Exactly.

13 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

That's fairly simple: you're no longer rolling on the Lightsaber Crafting table, you're rolling a general Mechanics check to make a forgery. If you succeed, you've crafted a fake lightsaber hilt with a primary function to deceive those viewing it that it's the hilt that you copied. If that includes a bonus effect of adding 1 Advantage to, say, Charm checks when it's prominently displayed (due to the gilding and other accessories), then your forgery has that effect, too, because you succeeded.

See, this is where I have my issue with this. By this logic, the look of the item is all that matters. That means that the crafter, if he wants to get that specific benefit, has to go for that look. And that has nothing to do with getting the hilt to function right or getting a particularly well-built one, but that is what the crafting tables are for.

16 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

See, this is where I have my issue with this. By this logic, the look of the item is all that matters. That means that the crafter, if he wants to get that specific benefit, has to go for that look. And that has nothing to do with getting the hilt to function right or getting a particularly well-built one, but that is what the crafting tables are for.

Well, let's take it back to the origin of the bonus in question, the embellishment on the armor crafting. How is armor crafted with this bonus for 2 Advantage adding a bonus to Charm checks? It has to be the look, because helping you be suave and personable is not a normal function of armor.

When you roll on an armor-crafting check, you goal is to make a functional suit of armor. If your dice roll 1 Success and 3 Advantage, you've succeeded at making a suit of armor that protects you from injury, as you set out to do. Plus, with those 3 Advantage, you can go "above and beyond" your initial goal. Now, you could spend that extra effort to make the armor BETTER at protecting you, spending them on options to increase Soak, or Defense, or maybe add a hard point to make the armor more customizable after the fact. Or, you could choose to direct that effort towards making the new armor you crafted look exceptionally nice. You're forsaking some of the function you could have gotten for form, and that provides a real, if minor, bonus to certain checks when form is relevant.

This is the same thing, more or less. Yes, I agree that having a weapon, especially one as small as a lightsaber, provide a similar bonus is stretching it, but I don't think it's such a stretch that an exception can't be made for a good player who is not going to abuse the system. If the character chooses to spend more money on their lightsaber hilt than they have to (remember, the other potential option for 2 Advantage could easily be to have the cost decreased) to make it look especially nice, they have a functional hilt (their primary goal with the attempt) that looks much nicer than they had anticipated it would.

If you're rolling a check specifically for form, like a forgery, or crafting an ornate lightsaber that technically "works" but isn't meant to actually be gripped tightly and swung wildly like it would be in an actual battle, then you can get the bonus easier (and possibly get a BETTER bonus), using a "form" crafting check, rather than "function" check. In such a case, the effects would be reversed: success on the check would get you a nice-looking hilt, while a certain number of advantages would allow it to actually WORK as a lightsaber, although probably with no hard points, a basic, integrated crystal that can't be modded, and copious amounts in Inaccurate and Inferior. But it looks nice, because that was your goal.

In the end, it appears that we may be at odds on this, which is fine. It makes sense to me, but it might not to you. Unless we ever sit down at the same table, there's no driving need to agree on this. As long as we can disagree amicably .

EDIT: After writing this, I re-read your initial post and I think I understood the crux of your argument a bit better. You're saying, "What if my GOAL is 'A functional lightsaber that looks nice?'" If I roll a "function" check I might get a functional saber that doesn't look nice, and if I roll a "form" check I might end up with the nice-looking hilt that I wanted, but it doesn't actually work as a weapon.

And I'd response that the question boils down to what gives first. If it comes to it, and either your skill isn't enough or bad luck (materials with tiny flaws, rushed crafting time, poor tools, etc.) forces you to choose one or the other, which goal falls by the wayside when you realize you can't have both? If, at the end of the day, having a functioning weapon is the most important, you're rolling the "function" check, using the normal crafting table. And the other thing to consider is that the idea of this possible bonus isn't that you can't have a nice-looking lightsaber hilt without using 2 Advantage for it. The idea is that, even if someone has no idea what it is, they think it's a nice-looking object , while still not getting in the way of the weapon's ability to be used as, well, a weapon.

I think he's arguing that the ceremonial weapons and armor the form is the function @Absol197 . Thus an embellishment on a weapon not used for Cermony won't be as nice as one specifically made for Ceremony.

As for Daeglan, Just ask your GM if it can help with one of these social checks.

7 minutes ago, Shlambate said:

I think he's arguing that the ceremonial weapons and armor the form is the function @Absol197 . Thus an embellishment on a weapon not used for Cermony won't be as nice as one specifically made for Ceremony.

As for Daeglan, Just ask your GM if it can help with one of these social checks.

Oh, and on that point I definitely agree. But as I recall, the staff of office adds two Boost dice to certain checks? And other things, like jewelry, add at least one Boost to relevant checks. 1 Advantage, by contrast, is at best 1/4 of a Boost die. Hence why I don't feel it's too much of a stretch for a one-off exception. Would I add it permanently to the chart? No. Would I allow it for a habitual crafter? No. But for a character who's making this check once on an item that holds special significance? Sure.

I tend to make characters with high int and mechanics, so I would be one of the no's. But for Daeglans case I'd even argue he could use two advantage to give it a advantage on piloting checks. I'm think he could use it to install as a replacement joystick that somehow gives advantage because story.

29 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

Oh, and on that point I definitely agree. But as I recall, the staff of office adds two Boost dice to certain checks? And other things, like jewelry, add at least one Boost to relevant checks. 1 Advantage, by contrast, is at best 1/4 of a Boost die. Hence why I don't feel it's too much of a stretch for a one-off exception. Would I add it permanently to the chart? No. Would I allow it for a habitual crafter? No. But for a character who's making this check once on an item that holds special significance? Sure.

It adds those boosts to those social checks because that’s its primary function. It’s a mark of rank, which is bestowed upon the holder of that office, and signifying that they warrant certain special privileges.

Tramp at this point you are beating a dead horse. We get it. Let's move on

Just now, Tramp Graphics said:

It adds those boosts to those social checks because that’s its primary function. It’s a mark of rank, which is bestowed upon the holder of that office, and signifying that they warrant certain special privileges.

Very true, it does add those Boost dice because that's the primary function. But just because that's its primary function doesn't preclude it having a secondary function. If it did, then it wouldn't even have a weapon profile, because it wouldn't be able to be used as a weapon. The Staff of Office is, based on its profile, a sub-par weapon assuredly, but it can be used as one as a secondary function.

This would simply be the opposite. Primary function to be a functional weapon, but it looks nice enough that it provides a sub-par bonus to a single social check in certain situations. Designed to be a weapon and works best as one, but is fancy enough to be a conversation starter and maybe get the character in the door when a simple tube of silver metal might not.

Once again, if you disagree, that's entirely reasonable. At the end of this, whether any one of us believes that option is logical or not doesn't matter. It's a potential option in a thread asking for options. If @Daeglan decides its the one he wants to pursue, then it's between him and his GM. If not, then we need to start trying to come up with other options.