Introduction

This course covers the clothing and armor that will—or won’t—keep your character alive in the face of the countless threats across the galaxy. It will also cover more exotic forms of protection, ranging from shields to shield generators.

Unlike weapons, most protection doesn’t require any special training or skill to use. Any character can put on an Armorweave Cloak or Blast Armor and benefit from the protection. This means that almost every character who can afford protective gear will have some, at least when they expect to run into trouble.

Clothing and Armor

The most common form of protection is full-body coverage in the form of clothing or armor.

Armor

In our Possessions system, the Armor item type covers all forms of clothing. It’s divided into four categories:

• Attire is regular clothing, and offers no additional protection. The vast majority of beings in the galaxy live their lives in Attire.

• Light Armor offers basic protection. It will withstand glancing cuts and blows but will buckle against medium to heavy blunt force, direct strikes from bladed weapons, or attacks from blasters and slugthrowers. It’s common among those who don’t want to appear dangerous or don’t expect to see combat, or those who simply can’t afford better.

• Medium Armor offers more substantial protection, offset by reduced mobility. This category of armor can take glancing hits from both blasters and slugthrowers, as well as withstand cuts and blows and even a few direct hits from a sword. Medium Armor is common among soldiers who are not on the frontlines, scouts, and law enforcement on less peaceful worlds.

• Heavy Armor offers the best protection, typically including full face coverage, but is heavy and difficult to move in. It can withstand cuts and blows, but will buckle under four-six direct attacks. It protects from small arms such as low-powered blasters and smaller caliber slugthrowers, but not against stronger or vehicle-based weaponry. Heavy Armor is only encountered among violence professionals: combat infantry, bounty hunters, or warrior cultures such as the Mandalorians and some ancient Sith.

All characters are able to wear any armor you choose to equip them with. You aren’t limited by your Order or faction, although some characters might not react well if, say, a non-Mandalorian parades around in full Beskar plate.

Encumbrance

If Heavy Armor provides the best protection, why not wear it all the time? Besides being conspicuous, noisy, and uncomfortable, armor limits the character’s mobility. We call this Encumbrance. A character in Medium Armor effectively loses a point in their Athletics and Stamina Skills. A character in Heavy Armor loses two points.

Characters who spend a lot of time in armor learn to compensate for this. Characters at the rank of JM1 or above may take the Second Skin Feat, which mitigates one point of Encumbrance. At EQ1 and above, Second Skin removes Encumbrance entirely. Other characters may have more specialized training; for example, high ranking members of the Inquisitorius learn to move stealthily even when wearing heavy armor, gaining access to the Won’t Attract the Worm Feat.

Robes/Special Armor

Most forms of armor are always in the same category. For example, Imperial Stormtrooper Armor is always Heavy Armor. But each rank tier gets access to one type of Special Armor. These prototypes represent the highly customized robes worn by the elite members of the Brotherhood. When you purchase one of these items, you will be able to choose whether it’s considered Attire, Light Armor, Medium Armor, or Heavy Armor using the Upgrade Slot: Special Armor Category. For more information, see the section on Modifications below.

Robes come in two types, “tailored” and regular. Tailored robes are meant to be used with the custom robes option and have more flexibility in design. All other robes must match a robe you have access to in the selector. See below for more information.

Cover

Cover refers to anything loose outerwear that covers your clothing: cloaks, capes, even the noble poncho. Most of these provide style or some protection from the weather—rarely both—but more exotic examples provide a layer of defense. The Baffleweave Cape confuses weapon scanners, making it easier for you to sneak weapons in where others would prefer you didn’t. The Armorweave Cloak takes a more direct approach, mitigating the occasional blaster bolt that would otherwise ruin your outfit.

Clothing and Armor Modification

Most clothing and armor, depending on rarity, is customizable. The main exceptions are items that you receive for free, such as society awards.

Aspects

The most common customization option is a Cosmetic Aspect, which is your chance to describe what the outfit looks like. In addition to a few pre-written options, you may write a custom aspect. Custom aspects must follow the Regent’s Item Aspect Approval Policy. Among other rules, the Counterfeit Rule means that one item prototype cannot look like a different one. For example, if you want Dark Age Sith Armor but don’t want to pay six figures for it, you can’t buy Clone Trooper Armor Phase I and say it looks just like Dark Age Sith Armor. Some items, such as Casual Attire, have vague descriptions, which allow for more freedom in describing appearance. Other items have specific appearance descriptions and may be limited in what can be altered.

Modifications

Some armor has one or more Upgrade Slots, allowing you to select from a variety of prewritten upgrades that provide additional protection or other benefits. As a general rule, the higher an armor’s rarity is, the more upgrade slots you have, the more options you have to choose from, and the more powerful those options are. Armor that comes with an enclosed helmet may come with a special upgrade slot with unique options like air filtration systems or heads up displays.

The Crafting Skill

The Crafting Skill represents “an individual's skill with creating, tweaking, or modifying armor and weapons.” In roleplaying sessions and graded fiction, this Skill determines your character’s ability to make, modify, or decorate their armor and attire.

However, this does not affect your ability as a member to purchase or modify items in the Possessions system, nor will this circumvent the Counterfeit Rule. Although competition and roleplaying session organizers will vary in how strictly they enforce loadouts, you should generally assume that your character’s loadout is the equipment they have for the duration of a given story. How they got those items is up to you, and the Crafting Skill could explain that a character has access to top of the line custom armor because they made it themselves. But you will still need to earn credits through activity and purchase or otherwise earn those items to use them.

The Crafting Skill is also separate from the Crafting system in Possessions, which currently does not include armor.

Other Protection

Armor and clothing aren’t the only protective equipment available to members of the Brotherhood.

Gear Kits

The Gear Kit item category includes several affordable items that protect characters from harsh conditions, such as the Biohazard Suit and Enviro-suit, both of which are worn over the character’s armor or clothing. The Squad Deflector Shield Generator provides protection for a small area. Gear Kits are equipped on the Equipment section of your loadout, allowing a character to carry several at a time.

Jetpacks

Sometimes the best way to deal with a threat is to avoid it, and that’s where Jetpacks come in. Although strongly associated with Mandalorians, any character can equip and use a Jetpack with the Pilot Skill. Equite characters have access to a Feat, Rising Phoenix, that provides additional training in jetpack use. Jetpacks are equipped in the Back slot on your loadout.

Shields

Shields are objects a character carries as portable cover, not to be confused with the more common deflector shields. These are wielded in combat like weapons, and a character’s ability to use them effectively is covered by Skills like any other weapon. When looking at a shield, the item description will include an item type, either Weapon (Blunt) or Weapon (Lightsaber). The item will, naturally, use either the Blunt Weapons or Lightsabers Skill.

Technology

Something of a catchall, the Technology item category includes a wide variety of equipment for every situation. Technology can protect a character from everything from senors to direct observation, from potentially lethal falls to a bad glare. The most direct protection comes from the Combat Enhancement item type, which includes personal deflector shield generators and implants to compensate for injury. How these items fit on your loadout can vary, but most can be equipped in the Technology or Equipment sections of a character’s loadout.

Acquiring Protection

As with any other possession item that is obtainable in the Brotherhood, there are multiple ways to acquire attire, armor, and other protective items. Equipable attire and armor can be earned through ranking up through societies via writing fiction, playing games, producing art, and other forms of activity, but most members of the Brotherhood will spend their credits to buy them in our Item Stores.

Stores

Antares Consolidated Armorers

From the Resources menu on the site’s navigation bar, you can select Item Stores and Antares Consolidated Armorers. This is the primary source of purchasable attire and armor in the Brotherhood’s resources. The ACA will sell you everything you need for protective wear including capes, vocational wear, formalwear, casualwear, and more protective gear such as various sorts of armor, military uniforms, and safety coverings. The ACA is also one of the best places to purchase back equipment, such as jet packs and equipment packs. They also stock back-carried shield generators, scanners, and bacta tanks. The price range here starts at 100 credits to over 60,000 for some of the most rare armor in their inventory.

Other Stores

There are four other shops in which armor can be purchased. These are either unique variations of versions available in Antares Consolidated Armorers, customizable variants of the Society earned armor, or just rare models only available for purchase at certain times per year. The first of these shops is Regent’s Rarities a shop where there are powerful, rare, and expensive models that can’t be found anywhere else. The second shop is The Vault, where certain models can be found, but only after their free versions have been unlocked, such as the case with the society-rewarded armor. The third shop is The Mandalorian Forge. As the name suggests, the armor and back equipment found here are the same models that are used by some of your favorite Mandalorian Bounty Hunters. The final shop is the Celebration Store. This store is open only during certain holiday periods in our club, such as Life Day and May the 4th. A special note about the Celebration Store: the items purchased here can be sold back at full retail value, but you cannot buy them back until the store has reopened, so be careful with those choices.

Societies

Four of the Brotherhood’s societies grant armor or attire as rewards for ranking up. The Grand Master’s Royal Guard, Shroud Syndicate, and Inquisitorius grant their armor or attire awards at Ranks V and IX. The Envoy Corps grants special attire and a variety of protective devices along both trophy tracks.

Dossier Robes and Armor

The Brotherhood allows you to select an image of your character’s clothing or armor, either pre-generated or a custom design, to display on your dossier. Older members and some policies call these outfits Robes, as for many years this option was limited to a dark variant of the traditional Jedi Robes. This section describes how to select dossier art and request your own custom artwork from the Herald staff.

How to Select a Robe for Your Dossier

From your Administration page, look for the Profile and Custom Graphics section and select Robe Construction Tool._

The Robe Construction Tool allows you to select art from Armor, Outfit, and Robe categories. This will show all options available to you and allow you to customize it. Most lightsabers will have six options for the color. Older designs may present options as Sith, Krath, or Obelisk; these options will be red, purple, and blue, respectively. Likewise, Guardian, Sentinel, and Consular will be teal, yellow, and green.

Most robes will have further customization options, listed under the Style dropdown.

The tool will show you a preview of your selected color and style options. Press Select and the art will appear on your dossier.

Promotions through the journeyman and equite ranks will unlock several new robe designs with each rank. A few other designs are available through society advancement. Your clan will have one or more unique robes available to members, depending on the unit’s performance in past vendettas.

Herald Policies for Custom Robes

The rules for custom robes are simpler than the ones for Lightsabers and other weapons, but custom robes are available to fewer members. Every member ranked Elder 1 or higher can request a custom graphic for their outfit from the Herald staff. After three months in office, a current member of the Council may request custom armor while they are in the position. They may keep this custom graphic forever, but may not request a new one unless they qualify for it through rank or other means.

On rare occasions, the Herald may offer custom robes as a prize for graphics competitions or other situations. Once unlocked, these robes are tied to the specific member’s account. This is generally a one-time offer, and competition winners will not be able to request another custom robe using this option.

No matter how you have earned your custom robe, you may not request a new one until nine months after your last custom robe request. Unlike lightsabers and weapons, there are no restrictions on what colors or type of robe you may request, although the Herald may deny requests that would be inappropriate for display on the club’s website.

Additionally, entire clans may earn a custom robe for performance in a vendetta. The Herald will work with the unit’s Consul to design the robe, and then it will be available in the Robe Construction Tool for anyone in the unit when they select their robe.

Requesting and Displaying Custom Robes

From your Administration page, look for the Profile and Custom Graphics section and select Request Custom Graphics. This screen will show you any previously submitted requests. Press the green button, + Create Graphics Request, and then select Custom Robes.

From the Robe Item dropdown, select the possessions item you want to have represented. It must be a Tailored Brotherhood Robes prototype—standard robes and other armor types cannot be used. Tailored Brotherhood Robes can only be purchased if you’ve earned access to custom robes. Robe Colors allows you to select two colors for your outfit, and Robe Condition gives you four options for how much wear and tear should be included in the design. These fields are a starting point; you aren’t limited to two colors or the four Robe Condition options.

Just like when you commission artwork from an artist, when you request custom art from the Herald staff, they will appreciate it if you can include references and a detailed description of what you want. The Additional Information field allows you to describe the robe you want in detail and provide links to external reference art on a site like Imgur or Pinterest. It’s optional, but it’s the best way to ensure you get what you want. Good things to include here are the pose for the doll that the robe gets drawn on, a color palette, mood boards, or material references.

The Herald staff will contact you to discuss your request and make sure you’re happy with the design. They will email you when your custom graphic is ready. To display it on your dossier, go to the Robe Construction Tool as described above. Your robe will be waiting for you under “Custom Robes” in the selector. The Herald staff should also send you a high quality copy of the image for personal use on the Wiki or as reference for other artists.

Alternatively, you or another member can create an appropriate robe graphic and submit a request to the Herald staff through the Request Custom Graphics form. These robes are bound by the same rules as those you request directly from the Herald staff.

Conclusion

After going through these course notes, you should have a solid foundation of knowledge in hand to explore all of your options when it comes to clothing, armor, modifications, feats, and aspects pertaining to personal protection. Shields up and have fun spending your credits.

Image Credits

• Anders and Draca by Vailhanz (Bruno Zachi), commissioned by "Aequitas" Anderson

• Syrena’s Armor by Syrena Valkar

• Reiden’s Robes by Malfearak Asvraal for Reiden Palpatine Karr