Currently you can use Jury Rigging (there may be other ways as well) to get the Activation of Auto Fire down to a single Advantage. A lot of us are finding this is having an enormous negative effect on combat. It's just too powerful when higher ranked PCs can activate extra damage for each single uncancelled Advantage they roll.

Since AoR is still in Beta this is a great time to reassess this rule to make sure that this is the intended effect before it gets printed again.

I'm suggesting that people send a note asking them to reassess this rule to:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_faq.asp

thanks FG

May I simply suggest the GM say no if a player requests to do it? Assuming that the GM and group agrees, at least with a majority.

I doubt that FFG will be modifying rules in the way that you desire after publication of EotE. Good luck with the petition though.

May I simply suggest the GM say no if a player requests to do it? Assuming that the GM and group agrees, at least with a majority.

I doubt that FFG will be modifying rules in the way that you desire after publication of EotE. Good luck with the petition though.

Well, they did tweak a couple things in the EotE errata that were brought up during the AoR Beta. Nothing major though.

As for Auto-fire... that went through a lot of testing and revision during the EotE Beta, and the odds of FFG doing that kind of revision are pretty slim. They do pay some attention to these forums, even if they don't interact with the community, so if they do think that it's enough of a commonly occurring issue and not just an outlier case, they may address it in the future.

Wasn't it stated in another thread that this only works if you assume that you can Jury Rig the same item multiple times, which may be contrary to the RAW?

Wasn't it stated in another thread that this only works if you assume that you can Jury Rig the same item multiple times, which may be contrary to the RAW?

No. Reducing Auto-fire from 2 Advantages to 1 Advantage is currently a rules-legal use of a single rank of Jury Rigged.

The other thread was covering using two ranks of Jury Rigged on the same item to drop a Critical Rating from 3 to 1.

Ahhh gotcha, my mistake.

So I got a response from Sam:

Hello Greg,

In regards to Jury Rigged and Auto-Fire, the rules are working as intended.

You may post this answer publicly.

Sam Stewart

Senior RPG Producer

Fantasy Flight Games

It's pretty much what I expected but it's still disappointing that such a powerful exploit would be allowed to stand. The problem we're having is that the one gal with the Heavy Blaster Rifle just lays waste to adversaries within a few rounds and the other players in the group are feeling like they don’t have much to contribute to combat anymore, no real time to maneuver or do special stuff, and their shots in comparison don’t count for much. If I gang up on her it’s obvious and unfair, and if I bring out more adversaries to balance it out and give the other’s something to do the non-combat centered PCs get walloped. Anyway I guess thats what happened in the play test and they’re okay with that so as much as I avoid House Rules I'm going to make this exception: Jury Rigging brings down only the first Activation of anything.

This was brought up in the EotE thread on this:

So you don't want Disruptors to have a Crit activation at 1 Advantage either?

I haven't had this issue yet but I'll use the same House Rule for this one as well.

If you really need to change how Autofire works just house rule it that you can't use the effect on a single target. Remember that when anyone fires a blaster at a target they are not just pulling the trigger once. They are firing multiple shots. Even a Repeating Blaster with no Advantage rolled has fired multiple shots. So it's entirely feasible that Autofire can just be used for multiple targets.

That doesn't make a lot of sense nor does it particularly address the issue. In fact, spreading fire out for 1 Advantage per extra shot is more of an issue for GM planning than being able to 1-shot an enemy by tagging them 6 times. There's already weapons that can 1-shot a single foe easily; not so much for 1-shotting a medium group with one action.

Thanks Zar but I'm not trying to gimp Auto-Fire just bring it down a notch. I think making it only activate once at a single Advantage and the rest as normal is a fair compromise. You're still pretty much guaranteed to activate at least once (doubling your damage or hitting two targets) for the Jury Rig so it's still very much worth the EXP, you just won't be putting out twice as many hits all the time.

As I said before I avoid House Rules as much as I can and only consider one if I see actual disappointment during a session at the table and it makes some sense to do so. In the very rare instances I do make a HR it's as conservative and as simple as possible, changing as little as is necessary to get the desired effect.

That doesn't make a lot of sense nor does it particularly address the issue. In fact, spreading fire out for 1 Advantage per extra shot is more of an issue for GM planning than being able to 1-shot an enemy by tagging them 6 times. There's already weapons that can 1-shot a single foe easily; not so much for 1-shotting a medium group with one action.

The rules already do this. What I am suggesting is that Autofire shouldn't reduce the Big Bad Evil Guy to slag on the first round. Adding more bad guys to a fight is a lot easier than figuring out how to make a bad guy last more than a round.

That doesn't make a lot of sense nor does it particularly address the issue. In fact, spreading fire out for 1 Advantage per extra shot is more of an issue for GM planning than being able to 1-shot an enemy by tagging them 6 times. There's already weapons that can 1-shot a single foe easily; not so much for 1-shotting a medium group with one action.

The rules already do this. What I am suggesting is that Autofire shouldn't reduce the Big Bad Evil Guy to slag on the first round. Adding more bad guys to a fight is a lot easier than figuring out how to make a bad guy last more than a round.

Is your problem with auto-fire, or the overarching mechanics of the game? It's a pretty common reaction for players to focus fire on the apparent biggest threat in the room, altering auto-fire might make it harder for only 1 player to take him down, but it won't stop the tactic, unless you pump up the BBEGs soak and WT beyond normal mortal levels.

Actually, I really don't have an issue with Autofire at all. The people in my group aren't trying to make walking tanks. I think we outgrew that a long time ago. I was just suggesting a compromise because I don't think Juryrigging should be changed.

Actually, I really don't have an issue with Autofire at all. The people in my group aren't trying to make walking tanks. I think we outgrew that a long time ago. I was just suggesting a compromise because I don't think Juryrigging should be changed.

When you're playing in a game about being the focal soldiers of a war, then maybe your players will want to outgrow the idea that trying to make walking tanks is a bad thing. They certainly don't have to play tanks, but war stories are one of the times where such characters can be appropriate and are given a true chance to shine.

Jury Rigged states, "The character chooses one personal weapon or piece of armor per rank of Jury Rigged." That sentence is the only time the rank of Jury Rigged is mentioned. It never states anywhere you can use Jury Rigged more then once on a single item. That implies that ranks in Jury Rigged allow more items to be rigged, but you can't rig the same item more then once.

If you think Auto-Fire, especially with Jury Rigged, is too powerful I think you should simply up the base Advantages needed to trigger from 2 to 3. Two is the default Advantages needed to trigger a quality, but the book states (p.154), "unless otherwise stated in their description" . Blast, for example, needs 3 Advantages to activate. So for your group house rule that Auto-Fire also needs 3 Advantages. Jury Rigging Auto-Fire reduces it to 2 Advantages. A minor house rule that fits within the framework of the rules as written.

As I recall, Blast only needs three advantage if you miss to trigger. It only needs the normal two if you hit.

Personally I don't think that Autofire is that big a deal. Yes, a gadget character can play merry havoc on the bad guys. So what?

That's the point of playing that character. If that's upsetting the other players you have a problem, but that's a group specific problem not a system problem. There are some people who can't get past the-grass-is-always-greener issue.

There are several ways around this. The most obvious is that there is no small, concealable, autofire weapon. Make situations where bringing the big gun doesn't work. If I am a paranoid crime lord with something the PCs want, I will not be talking to them while one of them is toting a Browning .50.

Make sure that avoiding combat is just as rewarding as causing it. Let the Face get the big reward by not risking everyone's skins. That's how it works in real life -- salesmen get paid way more than soldiers.

Old school gaming created situations where you always wanted to start a fight. It was worth more XPs. Ever play a computer game where the fight was worth more than playing your character as a good guy? Don't do this.

In late game situations, a lightsaber can cut through armor but the heavy blaster can't. Have the bad guys use vehicles, that require missiles, mines, the Force, or lightsabers.

Autofire ups the difficulty by one no matter what you do. Against an adversary that's three red dice rather than two reds and a purple. Not a big difference, but not trivial either.

To me it sounds like you're playing into the death hose's hand. Get more cunning.