Equipment Ratings - Factions

[Maelwys]

So one of the rules under Time of War for equipment is if the piece of equipment you wish to buy has a faction associated with it, and you don't match that faction, the availability and Legality increase by 1. If the equipment doesn't have a faction associated with it, or if the your faction matches the weapon's, then you use the rating as is.

So how about taking it a step further? Would it really throw things out of whack if you take this to its next logical step? If your faction matches the faction of the equipment, you subtract 1 from the legality and availability (or 1 from the availability if you don't want to go too far).

What do y'all think? Would it really throw things too far out of whack?

[BirdofPrey]

I figured the ratings was for the equipment's place of origin.
If you have a lot of PCs with low equipped ratings, throwing them a bone in the form of giving them a break when using stuff from their own faction might be good though.  Having to blow a few hundred XP just to get something better than a sidearm and flak vest sucks sometimes.

[Maelwys]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, though I haven't gone through and actually looked at how the modifications play out.

If I had to guess, I'm pretty certain it wouldn't be game breaking since you still have to deal with the tech rating, which doesn't change.

After looking at a few items...

An Intek Laser Rifle for a FWL character would require an equipped Trait of +2 under these rules, instead of +4.
The M61A would require +3 instead of +5 for a FS character.
A Mauser 1200 would require +4 instead of +6.

So a two step in reduction for those three pieces of gear, which isn't that bad. You could stick with a faction's gear completely and get the most out of it, but I would guess most characters might wind up spending half the savings in order to acquire other gear. Still, its a nice bonus that doesn't seem that out of whack.

[Darthvegeta800]

Go for it! Sounds logical!