I've got a few armor related questions that I haven't had good luck finding answers for (the joys of keyword only search engines!).

Weapons attached to armor

We see a few Bounty Hunters that put various things into their armor, ranging from grappling hooks to blades to even flame throwers.

If there isn't a rule for it yet (or if I missed it during my rather rushed readthrough), how would you handle putting a modification like a weapon onto a suit of armor?

Environment Suits

I know we haven't seen races that need these just yet, such as the Ubese, but I would like to have ideas for this before I decide to start throwing bounty hunters and the like at the party.

Basically, I can see this being worked out as "Adverse Environment Gear" with Vacuum Sealed. Of course, this means any alien specied needs to take at least +5 Obligation even to get the armor in the first place.

A slightly different approach to the "Space Suit" could work, but my concern there is how "flimsy" it would be for a sentient that needs to be in a suit at all times.

The only other option I can see is taking either laminate or heavy armor and adding Vacuum Sealed to it for our bounty hunting non-oxygen breathers.

Any input?

A Query on Hardpoints

I haven't run a campaign yet, so I don't know how much madness can occur in this version, but I know previously players LOVED adding as many modifications they could to their armor.

Has anyone run into a player that didn't have "enough" hard points to make an idea happen? A prime example was a player of mine who was a HUGE fan of Boba Fett to the point where, instead of getting paid and having a favour owed to him by a Hutt, he called it in and wanted Mandalorian Armor of his own and help getting a Firespray ASAP. Even before getting to this point, he had the Given working on modifying his Stormtrooper armor to mimic some of Fett's tricks, like the Macrobinoculars in the visor, a full comm system in the helm, etc.

So has anyone run into this problem yet, and if so, how did you work around it?

GM Perspective: "Proper" and "Improper" Times to Wear Armor

Essentially, how often do you make it a problem that the party is wearing armor that would draw attention to them? I know this game is geared toward living on the Edge of "proper" society, so some armor is pretty acceptable, but where do you draw the line, and how have your players creatively ensured that they have access to their armor when a fight does inevitably break out?

Weapon on armour: I'd handle something like a wrist laser to have stats like a hold-out blaster, plain and simple. Maybe let it have less ammo, like the heavy blaster pistol that can run dry with 3 threat. For flamethrower use the flamer stats, only reduce them (those are for heavy flamers, if i recall correctly).

Environment suits: Sure, you have the right idea. Adverse Environment Gear, with the vacuum sealed quality and/or a breath mask built in.

Hardpoint: Players are never going to have enough hardpoints for all they want to do. That's sort of the point of limited hardpoints, they have to choose which modifications to make to a given set of armour. If they don't like it, tough - you can't have everything. Have them spend credits on buying multiple suits of armour that they can mod to do different things as the situation calls for.

Times to wear armour: I have a common-sense approach. Stuff like heavy clothing and armoured clothes fit in anywhere. Padded armour and up will at best get you a lot of strange looks, and at worst will have police pulling you aside every time they see you walking down the street. And if they've modded weapons onto the armour they're looking at a hefty fine, at the very least. Of course, this is for civilized worlds where there's law enforcement and such. Places like Nar Shaddaa armour is just sensible daily wear.

As for players having their armour when a fight breaks out - sometimes they won't. Sometimes they'll have to go into a fight without all their goodies. You can regulate this in several ways. One is to not let the opposition have access to armour either, levelling the playing field. Another is to add challenge; a fight that would be a cakewalk if everyone were suited up in laminate armour will suddenly be a little more challenging if all they have is their Brawn as Soak.

Has anyone run into a player that didn't have "enough" hard points to make an idea happen? A prime example was a player of mine who was a HUGE fan of Boba Fett to the point where, instead of getting paid and having a favour owed to him by a Hutt, he called it in and wanted Mandalorian Armor of his own and help getting a Firespray ASAP. Even before getting to this point, he had the Given working on modifying his Stormtrooper armor to mimic some of Fett's tricks, like the Macrobinoculars in the visor, a full comm system in the helm, etc.

So has anyone run into this problem yet, and if so, how did you work around it?

I would probably gently remind the player that there is an actual, REAL Boba Fett in this universe. And more importantly, he doesn't really take too kindly to people treading on his name. Or looking like him. At all. There is cannon that actually supports this in the EU.

Instead, I would gently encourage him to set out and do his own thing. And if he doesn't, and insists on copying Fett down to the ship and armor... well, he's not the best bounty hunter in the galaxy for nothing. Use Fett's imagination.

Why can't you look/be a Mando? I wouldn't paint my armor to match Boba though, just like the above poster said. Fett wouldn't like it.

Why can't you look/be a Mando? I wouldn't paint my armor to match Boba though, just like the above poster said. Fett wouldn't like it.

Because at one point Fett was the *last* Mando.......until someone decided, oh wait...no...they've been hiding on their planet all along!

I would probably gently remind the player that there is an actual, REAL Boba Fett in this universe. And more importantly, he doesn't really take too kindly to people treading on his name. Or looking like him. At all. There is cannon that actually supports this in the EU.

Instead, I would gently encourage him to set out and do his own thing. And if he doesn't, and insists on copying Fett down to the ship and armor... well, he's not the best bounty hunter in the galaxy for nothing. Use Fett's imagination.

Sadly, the campaign crashed shortly after this happened due to schedules or else I would have had Fett come knocking (take that as you will). Also, the EU note you are mentioning is, if memory serves correctly, Jodo Kast. After Fett was done with him, he added the armor to his collection as a "backup").

Weapon on armour: I'd handle something like a wrist laser to have stats like a hold-out blaster, plain and simple. Maybe let it have less ammo, like the heavy blaster pistol that can run dry with 3 threat. For flamethrower use the flamer stats, only reduce them (those are for heavy flamers, if i recall correctly).

That part all makes sense, but the next part of the question: would you enforce a set number of hard points for this and, if so, how many would it take? To further the note, would you call for a Mechanics check to make it happen, or just hand wave it to be done?

Environment suits: Sure, you have the right idea. Adverse Environment Gear, with the vacuum sealed quality and/or a breath mask built in.

Glad to see I'm on the right page. With the concept of a breath mask built in (as would be the case of an Ubese), would you enforce a hard point to be spent on the mask, or just hand-wave it as a minor attachment to allow general living?

On that note, where do you draw the line on "life support" given as a freebie? I know Kel Dor, Gand, and a few other species don't need full suits, but some do. Opinions?

Hardpoint: Players are never going to have enough hardpoints for all they want to do. That's sort of the point of limited hardpoints, they have to choose which modifications to make to a given set of armour. If they don't like it, tough - you can't have everything. Have them spend credits on buying multiple suits of armour that they can mod to do different things as the situation calls for.

I think that's always going to be the case. I just wonder if it's possible to use the current rules to replicate some of the things we see in canon, or anywhere near what we see, or if we'll be waiting for later publications or house rules to allow it.

For example, in canon, Stormtrooper armor (in general) can supposedly allow the trooper to survive in vaccuum for a few minutes, so it starts with vaccuum sealed. But when you get to the other variants, we get environment protection, macrobinoculars, and other modifications. It makes me wonder if this armor is truly different than standard Laminate, as I don't think Laminate has enough HP to cover everything the armor is stated to do.

The same goes with how Jango and Boba Fett had so much added to their armor; the closest I see to it in EotE is the Heavy armor, and I wonder if even THAT has enough to cover it.

Times to wear armour: I have a common-sense approach. Stuff like heavy clothing and armoured clothes fit in anywhere. Padded armour and up will at best get you a lot of strange looks, and at worst will have police pulling you aside every time they see you walking down the street. And if they've modded weapons onto the armour they're looking at a hefty fine, at the very least. Of course, this is for civilized worlds where there's law enforcement and such. Places like Nar Shaddaa armour is just sensible daily wear.

I agree that common sense is key, and in some areas (worlds like Coruscant, on a passenger liner, etc), wearing armor would be all but impossible without getting into some serious trouble unless there's a reason for doing so (like the Skakoans and their pressure suits).

But since we aren't doing the "norm" in EotE, I'm more curious as to where people draw the line. I know padded armor gets some strange looks, but padded armor also appears to be pretty close to the padded jumpsuits that we see in older versions of the SW RPG; bulky enough to be odd, but can serve multiple purposes that are "acceptable" on the fringe worlds.

Personally, I'd have to play it by ear and see what they are doing and who they are speaking to before I do anything regarding their armor, but that's just me. Do you agree it'll be situational 90% of the time?

As for players having their armour when a fight breaks out - sometimes they won't. Sometimes they'll have to go into a fight without all their goodies. You can regulate this in several ways. One is to not let the opposition have access to armour either, levelling the playing field. Another is to add challenge; a fight that would be a cakewalk if everyone were suited up in laminate armour will suddenly be a little more challenging if all they have is their Brawn as Soak.

All too true. I've always been fond of taking their toys away and kicking them a few times to teach them to think, but at the same time I know doing it too often can be iffy and dull to the players. Let's face it: after the first prison breakout, you aren't going to want to do that multiple times.

Again, just curious what experiences people have with it, especially with the flavours that we are emphasizing here in EotE.

Armor has hard points like weapons. If your GM is all right with it, you could apply the underbarrel grenade launcher or flame projector using the armor's hps. The grenade launcher could be reskinned as a wrist missile launcher. I would be wary about just building it in.

My only comment would be on the Environment Suit:

As with the Gand I would give any given PC the gear they need to survive. If they are methane breathers, or need full vac suits, they start off with one, "free" of charge. I woldn't consider this unbalancing as when the blaster bolts start flying, they are oging to have to worry about venting atmoshpere, whatever that happens to be.

@LibrariaNPC:

Weapons on armour: I think one HP per weapon would be appropriate. And sure, an Average or maybe Hard Mechanics check.No need to make it punitively difficult, but enough that it feels like there's a reason why not everyone is doing it.

Free life support: Like Tenrousei said, anything required for life support should be free and without inherent penalties. Although in the case of (for example) Ubese, who need a full suit, I'd make the full suit completely basic, with no Soak or Hard Points or other goodies. Let the PCs earn the good stuff through blood, sweat and tears.

Stormtrooper armour: I think I saw someone mention that Age of Rebellion had more details on different stormtrooper types and armours. I haven't seen it myself, though, but it would make sense. There's probably going to be more types of armour in future supplements.

Wearing armour: Definitely situational. Just let them know, if they can wear it so can the people they're likely to be fighting.

So after I've thought about this, I've come up with some various stuff that I would use as "guidelines" to modding armor in this way.

First of all, if a weapon exists in mod, that is the only one that can be attached to the armor. For example, the flamethrower is a heavy weapon, and there is a mod attachment. I would rule the mod attachment would be the better option in this case, seeing how there are rules in place for it already. Additionally, I don't feel the cost of 2 hardpoints is restrictive either. I might even consider increasing the HP cost by 1, so that grenade launcher instead of cost 2 hardpoints would cost 3. This would reflect the fact the armor is not the optimal material compared to a gun that has a trigger installed, etc.

Second, the character would have to do all the modifications himself. To me, it would be like bringing RPGs to your car mechanic and going, "Hey, can you install these in the grill?" Not only is it not going to happen, but you could have the authorities knocking on your door. Heavy armor is restricted anyway, so the chances of finding someone to work on it is rare. Hope you spent some points in Intelligence and Mechanics.

Third, I would rule that a critical hit against the character has a chance to "explode" the ammo in the armor. I would probably rule it as a % chance depending on what kind of ammo you are using. Grenades would probably be slightly more touchy then flame, so they'd have a higher chance of exploding and removing your arm. Flame would probably just set you on fire. Any crit would allow me to roll first on a chance to explode table, and if it explodes adds a number of critical hits equal to the amount of ammo. So if you have 3 grenades, get crit, I roll explode, you'd have +30 on the resulting crit hit, and the weapon is out of ammo for the rest of the encounter.

Fourth, reloads would be complex during the heat of battle. If a weapon modded into armor runs out of ammo, you're out of ammo until the end of the encounter.

Fifth, any other weapons would have two types. Blaster Pistols that are modded into the armor like the cybernetic arm attachment (without the arm splitting, of course). These mods would be one range band shorter then the weapon used, but can be triggered however. They would cost 1 HP and would be subject to the critical hit rule. Alternatively, 1 HP could get you a lead shielded hidden compartment in the armor that allows you to smuggle a small weapon, like a holdout blaster or blaster pistol. These would NOT be subject to the critical hit rule. The holdout blaster would get its native bonus to hide and setback dice to find as usual. A blaster pistol would not.

Those are pretty much how I'd run it.

[...]critical hit against the character has a chance to "explode" the ammo in the armor.

I like where you are going with this. Your thoughts seem really balanced. You might consider instead of having critical hits affect having a chance of blowing up the fuel, instead save that only for a triumph, or a dispair on the PCs part.

Or possibly just flavoring some of the more nasty critical injuries as coming from a blown up flamethrower attachment. Blinded, Knocked Sensless, Gruesome Injury and onward sounds perfect for that kind of scenario.

I like where you are going with this. Your thoughts seem really balanced. You might consider instead of having critical hits affect having a chance of blowing up the fuel, instead save that only for a triumph, or a dispair on the PCs part.

Or possibly just flavoring some of the more nasty critical injuries as coming from a blown up flamethrower attachment. Blinded, Knocked Sensless, Gruesome Injury and onward sounds perfect for that kind of scenario.

Thanks!

I thought this was the one area the book was a big fat letdown. I love the idea of putting weapons onto armor, but it has to be balanced carefully or everyone is going to want to wear armor.

Since enemy triumphs are usually going to be used to trigger a crit anyway, I didn't feel it was necessary to punish armor wearing characters by using despair to do the same thing. A despair I would probably say the weapon jams and would be unusable until repaired (or the encounter was over).

As such, I'm trying to use RAW as much as possible. As fun as it would be to create a new crit hit chart, the crit hit chart in the book is actually really well done. I didn't see the need to reinvent the wheel, so I'm just letting it ride. Adding critical hits so jumping up the scale +10 for each one would be bad enough, imho. The GM could always re-describe the injury however he so chooses

So after I've thought about this, I've come up with some various stuff that I would use as "guidelines" to modding armor in this way.

First of all, if a weapon exists in mod, that is the only one that can be attached to the armor. For example, the flamethrower is a heavy weapon, and there is a mod attachment. I would rule the mod attachment would be the better option in this case, seeing how there are rules in place for it already. Additionally, I don't feel the cost of 2 hardpoints is restrictive either. I might even consider increasing the HP cost by 1, so that grenade launcher instead of cost 2 hardpoints would cost 3. This would reflect the fact the armor is not the optimal material compared to a gun that has a trigger installed, etc.

Second, the character would have to do all the modifications himself. To me, it would be like bringing RPGs to your car mechanic and going, "Hey, can you install these in the grill?" Not only is it not going to happen, but you could have the authorities knocking on your door. Heavy armor is restricted anyway, so the chances of finding someone to work on it is rare. Hope you spent some points in Intelligence and Mechanics.

Third, I would rule that a critical hit against the character has a chance to "explode" the ammo in the armor. I would probably rule it as a % chance depending on what kind of ammo you are using. Grenades would probably be slightly more touchy then flame, so they'd have a higher chance of exploding and removing your arm. Flame would probably just set you on fire. Any crit would allow me to roll first on a chance to explode table, and if it explodes adds a number of critical hits equal to the amount of ammo. So if you have 3 grenades, get crit, I roll explode, you'd have +30 on the resulting crit hit, and the weapon is out of ammo for the rest of the encounter.

Fourth, reloads would be complex during the heat of battle. If a weapon modded into armor runs out of ammo, you're out of ammo until the end of the encounter.

Fifth, any other weapons would have two types. Blaster Pistols that are modded into the armor like the cybernetic arm attachment (without the arm splitting, of course). These mods would be one range band shorter then the weapon used, but can be triggered however. They would cost 1 HP and would be subject to the critical hit rule. Alternatively, 1 HP could get you a lead shielded hidden compartment in the armor that allows you to smuggle a small weapon, like a holdout blaster or blaster pistol. These would NOT be subject to the critical hit rule. The holdout blaster would get its native bonus to hide and setback dice to find as usual. A blaster pistol would not.

Those are pretty much how I'd run it.

I think I need to see how my first few sessions pan out first, and then see how well these notes incorporate. It shows promise, that's for sure!