In the beginning, every character was Silhouette 1. Then came a few Silhouette 0 species and then, finally, a species with the option to be Silhouette 2. But how much does character Silhouette really matter in the game?

Silhouette has an impact on combat, but when the range for characters is 0-2, it usually only matters for Sil 0 vs. Sil 2 interactions and those (hopefully rare) times when planetary scale weaponry fires on characters (which is a terrible part of the system all around). I know of a few Talents that care about Sihouette, and the Move power does too, but beyond that...?

Per RAW, Sihouette does not really interact with gear much at all. A Sil 0 Chadra-Fan and a Sil 2 Dowutin can both use the same blasters or even the same armors. Both of those characters can operate the same vehicles without any special adjustments (riding mounts is a little different). Both characters have the same Encumbrance limit excepting the minor differences attributed to their Brawn scores (and carrying those characters should they be unconscious is similarly only slightly impacted by differences in their Brawn scores). Silhouette doesn't appear to factor into skills (like Coercion or Stealth) at all.

So, is character Silhouette really just meant to be a frequently irrelevant combat modifier?

Also to add to your point it does not stack right? So it gets modified once but not more than that like it does in Vehicle Combat. At least it reads like that to me anyway. I would imagine they did not want people playing Jawas and other little aliens just to min/max so they could easily avoid attacks from larger species and creatures.

2 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Also to add to your point it does not stack right? So it gets modified once but not more than that like it does in Vehicle Combat. At least it reads like that to me anyway. I would imagine they did not want people playing Jawas and other little aliens just to min/max so they could easily avoid attacks from larger species and creatures.

That's the way I read it too. Sadly, that thinking didn't make it to their vehicle combat rules until Genesys.

Quick scan down the Creatures listing in the Viluppo index. All these are Silhouette 3, which affects combat with any Sil 0 or 1:

• Adult Chemilizard
• Aiwha
• Bantha
• Blood Eagle
• Captive Rancor
• Great Ibbot
• Mustafarian Lava Flea
• Nuuno
• Phemis Canyon Charger
• Salerodrex
• Styanax
• Trained Keelkana
• Tunnel Worm

Several others are Sil 0, 4, and 5.

It matters if your a Sil 2 Dowutin and take the Headbutt talent.

33 minutes ago, DarthHammer said:

It matters if your a Sil 2 Dowutin and take the Headbutt talent.

That's one of the few talents that it matters with, and even then, not really so much when your opposition is largely Sil 1 peoples.

A Sil 0 character Headbutting any near-human could cause area effect Stagger where every man nearby cringes and covers.

“They call me the nutcracker!”

-Puttchuk, Ewok brawler of some renown

*redacted*