I'm confused how much storage this grants. On the one hand the talent entry suggests that if you put it onto a ship, the compartment is large enough to hold humanoids (or if you put it in personal equipment, a 1-handed weapon). But it also says that it can only hold items with encumbrance up to your total ranks in the skill. That seems inconsistent, since most humanoids would seem to be more than 1 or 2 encumbrance (my PC' encumbrance value is 8, for example). Am I missing some translation of encumbrance from personal to starship scale?

The Dev's answered this on the Order 66 podcast, which Venthrac has kindly transcribed a portion of.

Short answer: there will be more ranks available in talent trees later on.

I was wondering about this talent as well since the wording was kind of vague for the description, but from reading FangGrip's comment the interpretation for this talent seems to be that one rank = one encumbrance of hidden storage since they'll be adding more ranks. Frankly, that seems like a preposterous waste of experience unless you absolutely need to get the talents for something farther down the scoundrel and thief trees, especially considering that the Smuggling Compartments ship attachment grants a whopping 25 encumbrance per compartment with two additional storage mods available to it. Am I interpreting this wrong?

I've been playing it that the storage space is somewhat proportional to the object that stuff os stored inside, so the character can store (Rank x Silhouette) Encumbrance with this talent. That means with Hidden Storage 1, he can store 1 Encumbrance in an Astromech Droid and 4 Encumbrance in a YT-1300.

Am I the only one bothered by this talent? In my game, if a character has enough money and connections to the underworld to have his ship modified with a hidden compartment he will get that hidden compartment. Really don't think this is an appropriate talent, and am seriously considering allowing my players to simply skip it.

Am I the only one bothered by this talent? In my game, if a character has enough money and connections to the underworld to have his ship modified with a hidden compartment he will get that hidden compartment. Really don't think this is an appropriate talent, and am seriously considering allowing my players to simply skip it.

I agree. I don't like equipment based talents like this.

It is an XP sink, but it also doesn't cost any cash and can be placed upon a droid or small vehicle. Most smugglers will want to have a Attachment version, but having another way of doing things isn't bad.

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

edit- fixed the double xp reference

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

True, but what's stopping a mechanic from just getting out his tools and making that compartment for no XP?

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

True, but what's stopping a mechanic from just getting out his tools and making that compartment for no XP?

Nothing except the RAI.

It makes a great deal of logical sense, but the rules were written in such a way as to keep a balance between logic and playability. There should be some sort of drawback, perhaps the use of a cyber threshold or some such in addition to the roll.

That sort of thing is where house rules become so invaluable.

It is an XP sink, but it also doesn't cost any XP and can be placed upon a droid or small vehicle. Most smugglers will want to have a Attachment version, but having another way of doing things isn't bad.

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

It is an XP sink, but it also doesn't cost any XP and can be placed upon a droid or small vehicle. Most smugglers will want to have a Attachment version, but having another way of doing things isn't bad.

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

Its an XP sink that doesn't cost XP? How does that make sense?

whoops, I meant cash.

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

True, but what's stopping a mechanic from just getting out his tools and making that compartment for no XP?

Nothing if you just want a compartment in an object. But if you want that 5 purple difficulty to find the compartment then you need the talent .

Heck, having a holdout blaster built into a secret compartment on a droid could be VERY useful in covert ops.

True, but what's stopping a mechanic from just getting out his tools and making that compartment for no XP?

Nothing if you just want a compartment in an object. But if you want that 5 purple difficulty to find the compartment then you need the talent .

Logically, there would be no reason a small compartment couldn't be shielded against sensors. That is really the point they are trying to make and they are correct. It really just boils down to play ability versus logic.

Another thing to concider when looking at the Talent vs the Attachment, the talent doesn't take up a hard point, which means you're able to get attachment that may be just as useful. In all honesty though I look at it more along the lines of Han having the attachment on the Falcon, and Luke having a rank in the talent in RotJ, which allows him to sneak his lightsaber in to confront Jabba.

Logically, there would be no reason a small compartment couldn't be shielded against sensors. That is really the point they are trying to make and they are correct. It really just boils down to play ability versus logic.

My point being that just because I have an identity doesn’t mean I know how to steal another’s, just because i know about drugs doesn’t mean i know how to use them, and just because I make my living working on electronics doesn't mean I know how to hotwire a car. Someone with Mechanics might have an idea of how to do it, but a Thief or Scoundrel has done it and knows how to hide it best.

Logically, there would be no reason a small compartment couldn't be shielded against sensors. That is really the point they are trying to make and they are correct. It really just boils down to play ability versus logic.

My point being that just because I have an identity doesn’t mean I know how to steal another’s, just because i know about drugs doesn’t mean i know how to use them, and just because I make my living working on electronics doesn't mean I know how to hotwire a car. Someone with Mechanics might have an idea of how to do it, but a Thief or Scoundrel has done it and knows how to hide it best.

That makes very good sense, but I could argue that someone with Mechanics and Stealth would be similarly skilled. It boils down to how important the skills versus talents are in relation to each other. Everybody has different views on that, which is why I would stick with RAW on that and not start fiddling with using Mechanics to do something which would make sense to allow.

That makes very good sense, but I could argue that someone with Mechanics and Stealth would be similarly skilled. It boils down to how important the skills versus talents are in relation to each other. Everybody has different views on that, which is why I would stick with RAW on that and not start fiddling with using Mechanics to do something which would make sense to allow.

In a similar way, we do not allow people to just decide they can understand Binary (a language, presumably spoken by a PC should they happen to be an astromech - using the "everyone gets along and speaks each others' languages" sidebar...).

You need to take the talent to do so. And only a few trees have it. It helps to make the talent (and thus the Spec) that much more special.

One other important thing about this talent, *any* vehicle, droid, or large item of equipment owned by the character will have hidden compartments. At present these will be small, 1 Enc compartments as characters will only have one rank in the talent. However, your droid will have a compartment, your speeder bike will have a compartment, your snow speeder will have a compartment, etc. You can even have multiple compartments on larger items.

Any skilled mechanic could add a storage compartment, but it will not be any more hidden than the glove box on a car. If you want a securely hidden compartment you need the talent, or a smuggling compartment on a starship.

As for the Binary speaking droid, I would rule that under normal circumstances the other party members can understand its beeps and whistles just fine. The last sentence of the sidebar comes into play when things are not normal. The same as for a Wookie, a Gand, etc. when it is important to the plot a character who doesn't speak Basic may become incomprehensible. Want to prevent that from happening at all? Take the talent.

In a similar way, we do not allow people to just decide they can understand Binary (a language, presumably spoken by a PC should they happen to be an astromech - using the "everyone gets along and speaks each others' languages" sidebar...).

You need to take the talent to do so. And only a few trees have it. It helps to make the talent (and thus the Spec) that much more special.

Personally, I'd allow a PC without the talent to at least be able to get the gist of what the droid is "saying," much like how Luke does with Artoo. Granted, Artoo could give Luke a full technical spiel on why his ship can't take off, but all Luke gets out of it is "ship's busted." He'd either need to hook his little buddy up to a computer terminal or find someone that can translate the astromech's chirps, squeaks, and warbles.

After having seen this Talent in use, I'm going to modify my proposed house rule to this:

Change the maximum amount that can be hidden to the container's (Silhouette)² Encumbrance. This means a Sil 1 droid can conceal 1 EC while a Sil 4 light freighter can conceal 16 EC (roughly two humanoids). Whatever is hidden still counts against the Encumbrance of the container (droid, light freighter, etc.). This amount is per rank of Hidden Storage, but the amount cannot exceed the EC of the container.