Badan Rana's Sith Armor

[Hardcorhobbs]

I'm a little late, but Highlife's talents do give him contacts that get licenses at a discounted price.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Looking through the books last night I had a suggestion. What about upgrading to a fiberwave armored flight suit? Gives you DR 10 once per combat. (I think that was in the Kotor book?)

[erilar]

After reading through this thread, I have to say that it sounds like Ken is being unnecessarily stubborn.

If a good guy character wants to take out a Sith trooper, loot his armor, and re-purpose it for himself, and redecorate it purposefully to make it obvious to all that he's not a Sith, I see no reason Baden needs to receive negative modifiers towards average citizens, especially in the Fringe. If he re-anodizes it blue, with a couple racing stripes and a big Binary Transports logo, it's saying one thing: I'm not a Sith, reject what they stand for, and what's more, kicked some Sith's ass to take it.

Now, the reaction of a Sith Patrol upon seeing Baden wearing said armor - that might be another thing altogether.

In the end, it seems like you're worrying more about what it says in the book vs. what Jon's trying to do story-wise and thematically.

What we're talking about here is essentially the KotOR version of Boba Fett's armor. I doubt anyone thinks that Boba Fett is an actual Mandalorian, but they do suspect he's a bad MF'er.

[setanta14]

Or... it could mean: "I used to be a Sith Trooper, but needed to find alternate employment after we lost the war, and I'm trying to disguise my old bad-ass armor"

[Lars Porsenna]

Historical anecdote: the Afghani army was issued and continued to use ex-Ausrian (and thus ex-German) M1916 Stahlhelms well into the '70s, and into the '80s even!

Similarly Syria was still using ex-German Pz IVs, and Jpz IVs in the '67 war!

Heck, the Israeli army in the '40s and '50s were using ex-German Kar98Ks, MG42s, and even Avia S199s (Czech built copies of WWII German BF-109Ks)...

Damon.

[setanta14]

And this analogy doesn't hold true in a Galaxy Far Far Away... because as much as they would have liked to, the Nazi's didn't have evil force powers like the Sith.

Historical anecdote: the Afghani army was issued and continued to use ex-Ausrian (and thus ex-German) M1916 Stahlhelms well into the '70s, and into the '80s even!

Similarly Syria was still using ex-German Pz IVs, and Jpz IVs in the '67 war!

Heck, the Israeli army in the '40s and '50s were using ex-German Kar98Ks, MG42s, and even Avia S199s (Czech built copies of WWII German BF-109Ks)...

Damon.

[Lars Porsenna]

And this analogy doesn't hold true in a Galaxy Far Far Away... because as much as they would have liked to, the Nazi's didn't have evil force powers like the Sith.

How do you know? Hitler did have the Lance of Loginus in his posession. Maybe they just didn't figure things out in time...

Damon.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Hang on, I don't think Ken is being stubborn on this at all. Mainly because we the players are the ones who set the precedent. Remember our first reactions when we saw the sith-uglies? We wanted to blow them out of the sky! Sure, turns out that they were trying to strong-arm us away from some questionable salvage, but we found that out later. Our first reactions were that they were bad guys simply upon them showing up. So why wouldn't it be the same for someone wearing Sith armor, even if it is modified?

[NukeHavoc]

This thread's pretty much beaten to death, but I'll club it one more time.

My thoughts on stormtrooper armor were/are that they are not generic battle armor. They're elite trooper armor, worn by the best troops in the Imperial army. It's not generic German uniforms or some weapon used in WW2 that showed up in a half-dozen conflicts later on; it's SS uniforms or some other elite group.

As such, the armor isn't just armor, it's a representation of the State. When you see a stormtrooper, you see the iconic power of the Empire made real. The same goes for Sith armor IMHO; either in the Great Sith War (where such armor has Krath influences) or during the Jedi Civil War (where it's the sleek modern armor associated with the StarForge)

It's not just battle armor; it's a reflection of the Sith and their ideals. Wear that armor, and I don't think it's a huge stretch for people to believe you associate with those ideals. I think part of what makes Star Wars so effective as a series is that it did such a great job of evoking such feelings in those of us who watched it.

I'm fine with modding the armor to strip out those influences (repainting, hobbling it together with other bits of armor, painting on your own emblems and symbols) to make it your own (and if I wasn't when the thread began, I am now. ). My suggestion was that such modding might cost credits, but I'm fine with getting rid of that and saying that Shim, Zulan and the rest of the mechanics in Binary Transport are more than capable of doing the job with spare parts.

My issue is more with the armor as a symbol, and how people react to that symbol, and specifically to the idea of wearing unmodified stormtrooper or Sith armor. You could argue the Great Sith War is sufficiently distant to mute people's reactions -- it has been 15 years -- but wear a German SS uniform complete with with swastika to the mall, and see how people react to you. *

As for the Mandalorians ... I think Mandalorian armor is an equally powerful symbol in its own way, but without as much negative connotations (at least before the Mandalorian Wars). I think wearing Mandalorian armor primarily says you're a self-sufficient bad ass.

* I freely admit that Sith = Nazi isn't a perfect comparison. From the video games, it seems clear that in some areas of the galaxy, some (especially aliens) view the Sith as another kind of Jedi, and really don't get the philosophical differences behind the war. But I think there are plenty of others who've suffered under the Sith to know the truth ... and to have a reaction against armor that epitomizes it.

[erilar]

Hang on, I don't think Ken is being stubborn on this at all. Mainly because we the players are the ones who set the precedent. Remember our first reactions when we saw the sith-uglies? We wanted to blow them out of the sky! Sure, turns out that they were trying to strong-arm us away from some questionable salvage, but we found that out later. Our first reactions were that they were bad guys simply upon them showing up. So why wouldn't it be the same for someone wearing Sith armor, even if it is modified?

If the Sith ship would have been a private vessel, painted fire engine red w/ a big shipping company logo emblazoned on the wing, would you have had the same reaction? Or would you have thought, "now there go a bunch of smugglers with some big brass ones."

[NukeHavoc]

If the Sith ship would have been a private vessel, painted fire engine red w/ a big shipping company logo emblazoned on the wing, would you have had the same reaction? Or would you have thought, "now there go a bunch of smugglers with some big brass ones."

If I used the word "Sith" anywhere in the description, I'm pretty sure the reaction would be "Burn holes in Sith meatbags!!!!"

I should note that at some point JPD-14's red lightsaber could have consequences. As long as he's with the Jedi it hasn't been a big deal 'cause hey, Jedi. But given the right (wrong?) circumstances, well, things could be interesting...

[Jonkga]

Yeah, ultimately the mistake was mine, as I wanted the armor for no benefit other than I thought it looked cool. I wasn't thinking about campaign or in-game reactions at all.

As it is, Baden is going to stay with his armored flight suit and personal shields, and not upgrade to any other sort of armor. Yes, a number of you have pointed out alternatives, and while they are good ones, here's my rationale. The flight suit has almost the best stats of light armor. And, it provides up to 10 hours of life support in the vacuum of space. I don't really want to trade that for a once per encounter DR or any of the things the other armor has that only would really give him one more Ref point. And, I don't really want to go with heavier armor and restrict his movement or his Dex bonus.

Similarly, he won't be upgrading to a light repeating blaster rifle, or a commando special rifle, etc. He is sticking with his blaster rifle. Sure, the others available give him possibly a higher die for damage (3d10 or 3d12 instead of 3d8), but he would give up a great deal of shots per powerpack, especially using autofire like he does. So, I am going with the slightly lower, but still awesome, damage, and be able to go for longer without reloading.

He will be looking around for a grenade launcher to mount to his blaster rifle, however. Specifically, he'd like to get some ion and stun grenades, so that he has an alternative to the deadly firepower of his rifle should he need the options.