Star Wars RPG: Gadgets And Gear

If you hope to become a legend in the Star Wars galaxy, you’ll need the right tools. The most iconic heroes and villains all have their own gadgets and gear nearly as famous as they are. As you travel across the galaxy, what tools will become your iconic weapons of choice?

Join us today as we preview the tools found in Gadgets and Gear, a new sourcebook for Star Wars Roleplaying!

This sourcebook gathers weapons, armor, attachments, and gear from all three Star Wars Roleplaying game lines including Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny. It also adds new pieces of equipment, including weapons and armor used by heroic and villainous characters whose deeds are whispered about across the stars.

Best in the Galaxy

Even iconic smugglers like Han Solo had to start somewhere in the galaxy. An orphan from Corellia, Solo started with nothing, but through wit, skill, and a little bit of luck, Han became a living legend.

A gift from renowned thief Tobias Beckett, Han Solo’s blaster has been at his side for years. Han’s blaster retains the boxy frame and detachable macroscope of the standard BlasTech Model DL-44, but it conceals a number of special modifications. Beckett’s hair trigger and low-power pulse warning in the grip remain, but Han also tricked out the capacitor to selectively overcharge blasts for better armor penetration. The blaster is never far from Han’s side, usually in a low-slung gunfighter’s holster.

If you happen to come into possession of Han Solo’s blaster, you can set it to fire an overcharged shot once per round. Upgrade the difficulty of the next attack with this weapon once to add the Pierce 7 item quality to that attack. This can rip armor to shreds but comes with a severe drawback, as your GM might have the opportunity to have Han Solo’s trusty blaster run out of ammo at the worst possible time!

Handcrafted shortly before Chewbacca’s hrrtayyk coming of age ceremony, Chewie’s bowcaster has been helping him fulfill his life debt to Han Solo for years. A traditional weapon of his people, the bowcaster is effectively a high-tech crossbow that fires explosive quarrels encased in an energy sheath to cut resistance. The quarrels hit hard enough to penetrate the hides of Kashyyyk’s most dangerous creatures and then detonate, causing immense damage to the softer flesh underneath. Chewie installed an automatic recocker system on his bowcaster, so he doesn’t have to manually reset it between shots. Chewie usually wears a bandolier filled with alternate ammunition, such as armor-piercing quarrels, ion quarrels, and a variety of others.

Once per encounter, the wielder of Chewbacca’s Bowcaster may spend a maneuver to load a specialized quarrel and either add the Blast 6, Breach 1, Concussive 1, Disorient 2, Ion, or Vicious 4 quality to the next combat check made with Chewbacca’s Bowcaster.

While Han Solo was learning the ropes of smuggling, his childhood friend Qi’ra was ascending through the ranks of the underworld, finding success through manipulation and intimidation. Qi’ra’s chrome-plated S-195 was a gift from Dryden Vos to celebrate her ascension to lieutenant within the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate. The clean lines of the polished, elegant sidearm draw attention to Qi’ra, giving her an air of nobility—a far cry from her humble origins as an orphan living in Corellia’s sewers.

Once per encounter when making a Coercion or Negotiation check, the wielder of Qi’ra’s S-195 may, as an incidental, draw or gesture to the S-195 to upgrade the ability of the check once.

The Right Tools

Gadgets and Gear also contains hundreds of other pieces of equipment that are a little more common throughout the galaxy, making Gadgets and Gear the ideal book to keep track of your Star Wars equipment.

If you prefer your combat up close and personal, you can equip your characters with damaging blast knuckles. This unusual weapon consists of a heavy, armored glove with a small, integrated blaster emitter. Impact-sensitive plating across the knuckles fires the blaster when the wearer lands a punch, delivering a devastating blow. The blaster emitter is tiny, with almost no Galven circuitry to speak of, giving it a maximum range of mere centimeters. While blast knuckles are undeniably effective, they are also dangerous for the wielder, who may suffer the effects of overheating or even splash damage should the glove bunch awkwardly.

When a character uses blast knuckles, every successful hit inflicts 1 strain on the wielder, making them a dangerous choice of a weapon.

The “Mercy” grenade is a unique gas-based stun grenade which is typically used by large corporations and by covert agencies via shell corporations. The Mercy grenade is a failed riot-control device rejected due to acute side effects including nightmares, memory loss, and intense paranoia. Intelligence agencies, corporate security, and criminal syndicates use the Mercy grenade to cover their tracks, incapacitating potential resisters and erasing witness memories. They can use the Mercy to capture persons of interest, interrogate them, implant tracking devices, and then return them totally unaware that anything had happened.

Anyone hit with one of these grenades must make a hard resilience check, with anyone who fails having a jumbled memory of the encounter, making these grenades an ideal weapon for those who don’t want to be seen.

With so many weapons in the galaxy, you’ll need the right kind of armor to protect yourselves from any threats. Some of the heaviest non-powered personal armor on the market, Steelskin armor is illegal on most worlds and sure to draw significant attention in even the roughest of Outer Rim settlements. The sheer weight of the armor deters many potential users, and only the most physically able of warriors can wear it for any amount of time. Those who can handle the suit’s bulk gain an unrivaled increase in resistance.