How is that handled (with weapons without the Sunder quality)? Is it different for held items (like a blaster) versus worn items (like a jetpack)?
Last night I had a player disarm a bad guy with a non-damaging Brawl attack (I didn't see modifiying the dificulty based on silhouette as there's not a huge difference between the two).
Targeting a specific item or something worn is under the Aim maneuver (page 201). You take two setback dice to target said item.
Wow... how did I miss that? It even makes sense to be under the Aim maneuver! (I'm AFB right now: does it still get you the Boost die for aiming?)
If you get three (3) Advantages or a Triumph on your Attack you can spend those on Disarming. As for the difference between held and worn I'd say a worn item would be more resistant to being pulled off completely and so a strait Disarm result wouldn't have the item drop but you could have the same effect and say that a shot temporarily knocked a part loose or opened and that the item in unusable until it's readjusted. The adjustment would take the same number of actions to do as would picking up a dropped item.
Wow... how did I miss that? It even makes sense to be under the Aim maneuver! (I'm AFB right now: does it still get you the Boost die for aiming?)
No, but spending two maneuvers reduces it to one Setback.
And there's an upgrade to the Move force power to be able to move objects worn or held by another person.
If you get three (3) Advantages or a Triumph on your Attack you can spend those on Disarming. As for the difference between held and worn I'd say a worn item would be more resistant to being pulled off completely and so a strait Disarm result wouldn't have the item drop but you could have the same effect and say that a shot temporarily knocked a part loose or opened and that the item in unusable until it's readjusted. The adjustment would take the same number of actions to do as would picking up a dropped item.
I see on Table 6-2 (pg. 206) where they mention using 3 Advantages to disarm (or disable) an opponent or 2 Triumphs to destroy a piece of gear. The issue is: non of those option are contingent on you aiming for them or not. That implies if you aren't aiming for a specific piece of gear you can still disable, disarm, or destroy something the opponent has on them. It seems like a better idea, mechanically, to Aim twice to get the two Boost dice, then activate the advantages (which are now easier to get without those pesky Setback dice) to do the disarm.
For me (and for my group) I need something from RAW that I can reference.
They don't really reference how that works. If you wanted to specifically aim to disarm someone, they can use the Setback Dice specific aim version. Then, on a success, the item is disarmed, but it does no damage to the player. But, perhaps if they roll 3 advantages or a triumph, you can make it damage the player as well, as the reverse of what happens with a regular attack.
I could have sworn I read somewhere that a direct hit to a weapon inflicts damage to it, but now I'm not finding it.
Regardless, that's how I would tend to run it. If a player chooses to target a weapon:
This, I think, would at least make it a viable alternative to inflicting wounds and dropping the weapon on 3 Advantage.
I really wished i had remembered this variant of the aim maneuver when running my game the other day. The wookie in the party is a pacifist and was trying to disarm an opponent. He rolled one success and two advantage to his brawl three times in a row. He eventually succeeded, by knocking the guy unconscious.
After reading it again and given that it's a two Setback die penalty (which seems basically about equal to requiring 3 Advantages) I'd say you should get a Disarm result.