Can a character with Brawn 5 use a Heavy Repeating Blaster without the tripod?

Question

Can a character with a Brawn of 5 use a Heavy Repeating Blaster (page 162 of Edge of the Empire) without the tripod?

The Heavy Repeating Blaster has a Cumbersome 5 rating, but is described as using a tripod.

Answer 1

Yes

The Heavy Repeating Blaster comes with a built-in Tripod (page 162):

Heavy repeaters are far too unwieldy to fire effectively without a tripod, unless the bearer has truly remarkable strength [...] The cost of the weapon includes a tripod such as the one found on page 193.

The Tripod's base modifiers (page 193) state:

Decrease weapon's Cumbersome rating by 3 when set up. May not move the weapon (except to pivot) once tripod is set up.

Therefore, when using a Tripod, the Heavy Repeating Blaster would only have a Cumbersome 2 rating. When using the Heavy Repeating Blaster without a Tripod, its Cumbersome 5 rating is unchanged.

A Brawn 5 Character may use a Heavy Repeating Blaster without penalty.