So after watching the Mandalorian: Chapter 3 with my roommate (whom is also one of my players), he posed a question that I've now been pondering the last few days.

"What if the Mandalorians used Beskar to make slugthrower rounds?"

My first thought was "Because it would have almost no practical uses as compared to swords and armor." However, the more I think about it, the more I'm not convinced by my initial reaction. No matter what, it would be expensive to produce as beskar is limited resource, HOWEVER.. what sort of qualities would such a round have? Vicious like the Beskad sword in CotR? Pierce for being such a durable material? Perhaps the chance for it to be recoverable? Immune to the Reflect quality?

Has anyone else had this question pop up before, because I'm finding it potentially very interesting if something like this were introduced

Why would it be vicious? Nothing about beskar makes me think vicious. Maybe pierce.

1 minute ago, Daeglan said:

Why would it be vicious? Nothing about beskar makes me think vicious.

I also thought that when I saw the Beskad stats, but maybe it's because of how it's forged? I just tossed it out because it's an example of beskar in weaponized form

Just now, GameboyAK said:

I also thought that when I saw the Beskad stats, but maybe it's because of how it's forged? I just tossed it out because it's an example of beskar in weaponized form

The mando did have beskar knives.

It would be pretty expensive, for one thing.

It's been a while since I've read up on ballistics, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Beskar is a quite hard and durable metal, so it would not fragment as easily. Bullets are often made out of fairly soft metals so that they fragment dramatically inside the target so that they can maximize internal damage and bleeding. Ammo that is made out of a harder material maximizes penetration power, but sacrifices expansion, and by extension, damage. The compromise here is to have jacketed ammo where the outside is Beskar but the interior is a softer metal, allowing more penetration power but not sacrificing expansion and damage as much. Soft-nosed bullets would probably what you'd want for Vicious as they have much greater expansion.

My conclusion is that Beskar would just be too expensive for not enough benefit to use as ammo for slugthrowers.

Not sure how this applies to the Whistling Birds, though. They might operate on different principles entirely.

The whistling birds seems to be some kind of rocket powered beskar needle.

3 hours ago, penpenpen said:

The whistling birds seems to be some kind of rocket powered beskar needle.

Kinda reminds me of mini versions of Yondu's arrow from Guardians of the Galaxy.

I would argue that due to the supposed properties of Beskar it would be similar to depleted uranium rounds. I would probably give Beskar weapons low base damage and the breach special quality, to reflect their ability to penetrate but not produce large trauma-inducing wounds through "mushrooming" or fragmentation. The real danger comes in the form of the whistling birds, which, like modern "bunker busters" have an explosive charge added to the beskar tip, which it uses to puncture the armor, and then explode inside on a delay, adding trauma after armor penetration.

I would have ruled it this way:

1: The bullets would obviously not have been made entirely of beskar. It would just have been a coating of beskar on them.

So, I'd give the slugthrower weapon -1 damage, but also pierce 1 due to the armour piercing qualities of the metal (rather, the strength and resistance to deformation). I would also rule that they cannot be deflected by lightsabers.

All in all, it would be a very expensive modification with very little benefit.


EDIT: Now, cortosis bullets... that's where it's at when you're fighting Jedi.

Have a slugthrower weapon using bullets with a cortosis core. That'll shortcircuit the lightsabers of jedi who try to deflect the bullets, leaving them open to attack. That said, it would be an expensive affair since cortosis ain't cheap, and since it's very fragile, I'd assume it would be a costly process to make cortosis core bullets.

On 11/28/2019 at 10:10 AM, OddballE8 said:

So, I'd give the slugthrower weapon -1 damage, but also pierce 1 due to the armour piercing qualities of the metal (rather, the strength and resistance to deformation).

My main issue with that is it holds no benefits other than the ignoring reflect. One success against the same amount of soak whether with a base round or beskar round ends up being the same damage, unless you're dealing with Cortosis quality armor and then the beskar round is LESS effective. If I were to go that route, I would give it at least Pierce 2 to give it more benefit since it would be much more rare and expensive to produce.

On 11/30/2019 at 1:57 AM, GameboyAK said:

My main issue with that is it holds no benefits other than the ignoring reflect. One success against the same amount of soak whether with a base round or beskar round ends up being the same damage, unless you're dealing with Cortosis quality armor and then the beskar round is LESS effective. If I were to go that route, I would give it at least Pierce 2 to give it more benefit since it would be much more rare and expensive to produce.

Fair enough.

On 11/27/2019 at 1:42 PM, Kyla said:

due to the supposed properties of Beskar it would be similar to depleted uranium rounds. I would probably give Beskar weapons low base damage and the breach special quality, to reflect their ability to penetrate but not produce large trauma-inducing wounds through "mushrooming" or fragmentation.

On 11/28/2019 at 10:10 AM, OddballE8 said:

It would just have been a coating of beskar on them.

So upon further thought, and based on the comments here, I have come up with two different variations of what a beskar round could look like:

Beskar- jacket slugthrower ammo-

Forged by experienced Mandalorian smiths, these specialized rounds are ideal for attacking armored individuals or lightsaber wielding foes.

Damage : Uses any slugthrower rifle profile/-1 Damage
Rarity : 8 (R)
Cost : 150 per round/+75 to current ammunition (whichever is costs more)
Qualities : Add Pierce 3, this round is immune to Reflect talent

Kadiilir slugthrower round-

As devastating as it is specialized, these solid beskar rounds are designed to attack the most heavily armored infantry and lightly armored vehicles. An experienced marksman can potentially bring down a walker or starfighter with a well placed shot to the pilot, or assassinate high value targets inside armored vehicles.

Damage : 10 (personal scale)
Rarity : 9 (R)
Cost : 500 per round
Qualities : Breach 2, this round is immune to Reflect talent, add SETBACK x2 to any shot targeting an individual inside a vehicle or internal component in addition to Called Shot

Still fine tuning all of this, but I think this gives a distinctive role to each round, gives the potential for higher end slugthrowers to be an option to deal with vehicles rather than having a dedicated missile or grenade user, and a an appealing reward to any marksman, rather than just Mandos

9 minutes ago, GameboyAK said:

Cost : 150 per round/+75 to current ammunition (whichever is costs more)

Phew... I think that's a bit too high. You can purchase AP grenades for that price. If a regular reload for a slugthrower is 25 credits, I'd suggest 150 for a full clip, not one round.

11 minutes ago, GameboyAK said:

Cost : 500 per round

Same issue here. I have some conceptual issues with it punching through vehicle armor, but the main issue I see is with the cost. Again, perhaps 500 for a clip.

4 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I'd suggest 150 for a full clip

4 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

perhaps 500 for a clip

Only problem is some slugthrowers don't have a stated ammo capacity, so how many is a magazine for one vs another slugthrower? It's also meant to be a highly specialized round, not a direct upgrade, meant for those target rich environments that have some tough baddies that need to be taken care of quickly.

1 minute ago, GameboyAK said:

Only problem is some slugthrowers don't have a stated ammo capacity, so how many is a magazine for one vs another slugthrower?

Yeah, I feel you on that one. That's one of the relatively few things that's really bothered me with this system. The one time I had a player using a slugthrower I set prices for types of ammo and we kept track of a limited ammo value.

2 minutes ago, GameboyAK said:

It's also meant to be a highly specialized round, not a direct upgrade, meant for those target rich environments that have some tough baddies that need to be taken care of quickly.

You make a good point, but I still think it's a tad expensive (particularly for the first one) for what it does. That said, the first one's stats are pretty good.

The second one I also feel is a bit expensive, but perhaps it would be better suited to having a weapon specifically designed for use with it. Then the ammo could be priced for a clip to go with that weapon and there would be the added cost of Encumbrance.

24 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

You make a good point, but I still think it's a tad expensive (particularly for the first one) for what it does. That said, the first one's stats are pretty good

Appreciate the feedback anyways, my guy. This is just a first draft, but I also tend to hand credits out a bit like candy, so maybe that's why the prices are reflected as such in my case.

24 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

perhaps it would be better suited to having a weapon specifically designed for use with it. Then the ammo could be priced for a clip to go with that weapon and there would be the added cost of Encumbrance.

That may be a better idea in some scenarios, but I think a dedicated weapon to fire beskar slugthrower rounds would be just as rare, if not more so. As already stated, beskar is a valuable resource not to be wasted lightly, so versatility would be more key in my eyes, especially when there are slugthrowers out there that operate on gravity coil/mag rail tech and could technically use rocks as ammo if need be (as per the words of Kal Skirata). Rounds like this have the potential to down any walker in one to two shots and that's without crits, hence why they are as expensive as they are (which I'm still working on how much I want the solid rounds to crit for since I didn't include that... oops xD).

I suggest a crit of 3 all round. Seems like it keeps the balance between normal slugthrower crit and high-performance blaster crit pretty well. One step back and one step forward, sort of.

Just now, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I suggest a crit of 3 all round. Seems like it keeps the balance between normal slugthrower crit and high-performance blaster crit pretty well. One step back and one step forward, sort of.

Doesn't sound too bad to me. However, I'm toying with the idea of making the solid round crit 4, as it's meant to be a hyper precision round meant to do damage to a single point rather than have the shrapnel do additional damage for it.

As for the jacket round, it will probably keep the crit profile of whatever rifle is using it, maybe add 1 to it in exchange to represent, again, its dedicated armor piercing role.

Why would a Beskar round not be possible to reflect with a lightsaber? I mean, if it's a lightsaber resistant metal a lightsaber won't pass through beskar and I'd assume the opposite is true even in a physics light setting as Star Wars. Ergo, wouldn't a beskar round be more likely to bounce off a lightsaber, as it doesn't melt?

Ah, whoops. I was thinking about it like Cortosis which can deactivate lightsabers.

That's an interesting point. @GameboyAK , maybe remove the "ignore Reflect" bit from the first listing and add Cortosis round which ignores Reflect? Or is there a piece of lore we're missing?

On 11/27/2019 at 2:42 PM, Kyla said:

I would argue that due to the supposed properties of Beskar it would be similar to depleted uranium rounds. I would probably give Beskar weapons low base damage and the breach special quality, to reflect their ability to penetrate but not produce large trauma-inducing wounds through "mushrooming" or fragmentation. The real danger comes in the form of the whistling birds, which, like modern "bunker busters" have an explosive charge added to the beskar tip, which it uses to puncture the armor, and then explode inside on a delay, adding trauma after armor penetration.

Would Beskar atomize like depleted Uranium and cause heavy metal poisoning and continuously expose the wounded to radiation? Or would it act more like a Tungsten AP round and shatter into brittle chunks?

9 hours ago, Eoen said:

Would Beskar atomize like depleted Uranium and cause heavy metal poisoning and continuously expose the wounded to radiation? Or would it act more like a Tungsten AP round and shatter into brittle chunks?

To be honest, I have no actual canon certification on this, but my personal headcanon is that it Beskar is, indeed a heavy metal linked to the many nuclear wars that resulted in large portions of Mandalore being uninhabitable. It would explain the uniqueness of the metal to Mandalore, being an isotope that was artificially created by the circumstances of the bombings, and a secret either not revealed or not repeatable on other worlds. Being only mildly radioactive, the health concerns from contact are low (skin being strong enough to resist it) but the radiation fundamentally altered the metal and these heavy metal properties are what allow it to withstand the heat and cutting power of a lightsaber. Imagine Beskar as being flame retardant and heatproof whereas DU is flammable, but were it to penetrate the skin it would definitely leave heavy metal poisoning - making it ideal for weapons.

Most likely, however, tungsten casing is probably more accurate to the after effects, by being highly resistant to igniting, Beskar would most likely not atomize very well. However, the metal shrapnel caused by the charge within the rounds could cause heavy metal poisoning, as once introduced to the bloodstream the minimally radioactive material would indeed have an effect. That's not to say that only radioactive materials are heavy metals, radioactivity aren't a requirement for heavy metal toxicity, but in this case I consider both as applicable.

Again, this is only my personal headcanon - Star Wars canon has very sparse mentions of Beskar, and doesn't imply anywhere that it's been affected by the wars or where it came from - I just like my headcanon to flow naturally with other bits of info that I have.

7 hours ago, Kyla said:

To be honest, I have no actual canon certification on this, but my personal headcanon is that it Beskar is, indeed a heavy metal linked to the many nuclear wars that resulted in large portions of Mandalore being uninhabitable. It would explain the uniqueness of the metal to Mandalore, being an isotope that was artificially created by the circumstances of the bombings, and a secret either not revealed or not repeatable on other worlds. Being only mildly radioactive, the health concerns from contact are low (skin being strong enough to resist it) but the radiation fundamentally altered the metal and these heavy metal properties are what allow it to withstand the heat and cutting power of a lightsaber. Imagine Beskar as being flame retardant and heatproof whereas DU is flammable, but were it to penetrate the skin it would definitely leave heavy metal poisoning - making it ideal for weapons.

Most likely, however, tungsten casing is probably more accurate to the after effects, by being highly resistant to igniting, Beskar would most likely not atomize very well. However, the metal shrapnel caused by the charge within the rounds could cause heavy metal poisoning, as once introduced to the bloodstream the minimally radioactive material would indeed have an effect. That's not to say that only radioactive materials are heavy metals, radioactivity aren't a requirement for heavy metal toxicity, but in this case I consider both as applicable.

Again, this is only my personal headcanon - Star Wars canon has very sparse mentions of Beskar, and doesn't imply anywhere that it's been affected by the wars or where it came from - I just like my headcanon to flow naturally with other bits of info that I have.

That doesn't work with what's currently established in the lore though, whether Legends or new Canon. Beskar is a naturally occurring ore native to the planet Mandalore and Concordia. According to lore, the Taung discovered the metal when they first arrived on Mandalore. And there is nothing in the lore to even remotely suggest it's the least bit radioactive.

1 hour ago, Tramp Graphics said:

That doesn't work with what's currently established in the lore though, whether Legends or new Canon. Beskar is a naturally occurring ore native to the planet Mandalore and Concordia. According to lore, the Taung discovered the metal when they first arrived on Mandalore. And there is nothing in the lore to even remotely suggest it's the least bit radioactive.

She said it was head canon.

2 minutes ago, Eoen said:

She said it was head canon.

I know.