We're making our first AoR characters. I'm a Devaronian Soldier: Trailblazer with 2 ranks of Ranged Heavy and 1 Melee. We're setting up our base of operations on Taris, which I think is a mix of jungle,toxic wastes, and urban areas. I'm trying to settle on an appropriate weapon and armor set for use on a toxic / urban / jungle world, I'm looking for suggestions. Anyone care to chime in?

Additionally - What are your thoughts on different environments affecting weapon performance? Do you ever have wet environments hamper blaster damage or slugthrower range? I know there is an Environmental Adaptation attachment for weapons so that they don't break down. Have you used that feature at all?

Would a flamethrower be inappropriate? ?

Clone trooper vacc suit with blaster carbine with attachable grenade launcher, slug pistol, atat vehicle?

13 hours ago, Lukey84 said:

trying  to settle on an appropriate weapon and armor set for use on a toxic / urban / jungle world, I'm looking for suggestions. Anyone care to chime in?  

Talk with your GM and find out how he's going to run things. If he doesn't care, that makes it easier. If he does care, find out how.

But we'll assume he cares as much a s I would were I your GM.

So, while there will be some overlap, to a certain extent you'll need to set up individual packages, that you can pull from and modify on a by- mission basis. Finding an "all climate" kit is never going to totally work out.

So ideas...

Universal:

The alliance modular pack is super useful. Look at the mission, take the best modules for the job.

Food and water. It's roughly 5 enc for every 3 days (4 canteens + 10 rations). I know it's dumb and not obviously vital to the story, but making sure you're in top condition when it's time to fight is not a bad idea. Also plan, if you can do things like get water in the field, you can get away with carrying less.

Enc increasing gear. Enc is your true enemy, talk with the GM and find out what he will and won't let stack.

Mission hardware. Don't forget at the very least a long range comm unit, hardened if possible. Additionally you may need special equipment like climbing gear, medkits, scanners, sensors, explosives so on. If the mission is at night, don't forget scanner goggles and lights/flares.

Field gear. Goggles, glowrods, entrenching tools. Learn what these do as they may come in handy. If you are going to be in the field a lot, consider things like tents, and other tools to help prevent setback application.

Extra ammo. Seriously, people forget this.

Military belt pouch+2 stimpacks. Just make this mandatory for all party members.

Jungle

Ditch the armor for something light, or plan to equip the cooling package. Heat and humidity sucks, so wrapping yourself in plastoid and Kevlar is just going to add setbacks. If you insist on armor, go with light options like vests instead of full suits.

Forget rifles. They're going to catch on everything and most things at long range will be heavily cocealed or impossible to even target. Stick to Carbines, heavy pistols, and other short Range weapons like acp repeaters.

Concealment is easy to find, so get camo gear to stack with it.

Concealment is easy to find, so get sensors and scopes to see through it.

Urban

Heavy armor makes more sense here, as you'll need protection more and the climate shouldn't be as bad.

Again, long weapons are going to be difficult to use, so stick to nasty short Range weapons. Grenades and scatterguns might be of increased value since opponents are more likely to be bunched up.

That said, a well placed sniper or anti- vehicle missile can do a lot in the urban areas.

Navigational gear. While good everywhere, in urban locations maps, recon remotes and the like will be extra useful.

Toxic

Protective gear like breathmasks, environmental suits, and sealed armor are critical, as the penalties for such a place can be crippling.

The probability of foraging for food and water being successful is slim. So plan to bring in everything with you.

If the environment is naturally toxic, find comparable terrain and equip for that.

If it's not naturally toxic, then most Flora and fauna should be dead. That means lots of open space. So carry your long guns here. Heavy rifles, sniper rifles, ect are all good options here.

On 8/28/2018 at 6:47 AM, Lukey84 said:

What  are your thoughts on different environments affecting weapon performance  ? Do you ever have wet environments hamper blaster damage or slugthrower range  ? I know  there is an Environmental Adaptation attachment for weapons so that they don't  break down. Have you used that feature at all?

For these "military" campaigns, yeah, I like to do stuff with environmental effects. Compensation gear means encumbrance, and that helps offset all the weapons that could otherwise be hauled around. It's harder to go in when you have to decide if you want to eat, have night vision gear, or a big honking autofire cannon.

Heat, cold, precipitation, toxic atmosphere, each would have a different effect in different conditions. Also duration can matter, one night in the cold is easier to just force your way through than six nights.

Typically the results will be setback application. One or two for temp, another for visibility and/or weather. So on.

Damage to items from weather I use as Threat/Despair results, and I try to keep it to "exposed" items. If it's in your pack, it's probably going to be ok, but if you're using it or have had it out a lot, it's fair game.

This also brings up an interesting point. Your encumbrance threshold can be upped, preventing you from taking setbacks, but the point where you lose your free maneuver doesn't change. At brawn 3 you can carry 10 enc of gear and still have a free maneuver (not every GM follows this rule, but I suspect the idea is to keep someone with lots of pockets from translating that to packing a 30mm auto cannon as a sidearm) . So keep track of what is in your pack and what is on your person. It's ok to drop your pack or other heavy items when the shooting starts. In combat you aren't going to need a lot of your gear anyway, not stopping mid-fight to set up a tent or cook up some rations. Be really smart here. If your long range comlink is just for reporting in and setting up extraction when the shooting is over, dump it before the attack and save the enc for something more useful in a fight. If you need to let the fleet know when the shield is down, or call in air support, you'll probably need it.

I typically don't let environmental effects change what an item does, but there's some things I do apply occasionally.

Weather can really impact things like communications. This is usually about 75% narrative, but there it is.

Taking a weapon like a slugthrower or blaster underwater... Yeah I'll have to look at that. Slugthrowers usually won't work underwater at all. Blasters... Usually they will, but I might make a modification or adjustment to rephow they weren't really built for it, like applying setbacks or possibly reducing range depending on the campaign design and underwater components.

Jungle = mosquito net....

1 hour ago, 2P51 said:

Jungle = mosquito net....

Luke has died of yellow fever.

On 8/28/2018 at 2:47 PM, Lukey84 said:

I'm a Devaronian Soldier: Trailblazer

First off: Excellent choice in terms of species and career.

Have you considered fixing a vibro-bayonet onto a rifle/carbine? Fully modded, I'd consider them better than a vibroknife and in close-quarter settings, they make perfect sense.