Hi there! I am a new GM and just had my first session with my group. We have created custom characters, and I ran them through the first part of "Under a Black Sun" the RPG day adventure. After they finish the adventure, I am going to run them through my own custom campaign.

What are people generally do with loot drops, or are they done at all? Let's say my PCs finish off a Nemesis, and afterwards they search through his starship and find... whatever. Are GMs generally leaving loot around for players? Or do most just use the monetary system and allow PCs to buy their own stuff.

I kind of feel a combination would work. Just wanted to know what other GMs are doing.

Mine are fine with money and just weapons or gear they can sell. I intend to give them some custom attachments and what not eventually. I like loot to be plot hooks though. Right now mine are sitting on some artifacts they gathered escorting an Archaeologist. They're worth cash, but they've got to go meet a contact in the Corellian system and make the negotiate/streetwise checks to determine how much they get.

I do whatever makes sense. There's typically a cash payout for completing assignments, any any additional loot is based on what would actually be at any given location+perception results.

I do occasionally toss out a special piece of kit, or unique item if I think the player earned it or the gear provides some value added beyond just being a nice piece of kit...

If they are constantly shaking down dead opponents D&D style for credits, start making them crack the credchips. This gives any slicers something to do and failures can ruin the chip and even have authorities come looking for them if you want such looting to stop.

here's a loot table, if that sort of thing might be helpful

http://kainrath.wordpress.com/category/loot-table/

I've never understood this whole "We murdered someone! Lets go through their pockets!" mentality. Is having a stash of 50 comlinks really that characters driving motivation in life? I guess if he was OCD or something, but otherwise why do it.

. . .Actually the OCD character, obsessed with getting one comlink from everyone they meet, keeping on the ship in chronological order, sorted by color and alphabetized - and then flipping out when someone tries to use one of his comlinks might be kind of amusing. However, otherwise I don't see the point.

EotE is all about the story. If you're trying to tell a story about junk collectors, then let them roll the stormtroopers. If stealing from the dead is what makes everyone at your table happy, then more power to you I guess. However if your players are more interested in going through the pockets of Dead Jabba then they are telling the story, then you're doing something wrong.

I've never understood this whole "We murdered someone! Lets go through their pockets!" mentality. Is having a stash of 50 comlinks really that characters driving motivation in life? I guess if he was OCD or something, but otherwise why do it.

. . .Actually the OCD character, obsessed with getting one comlink from everyone they meet, keeping on the ship in chronological order, sorted by color and alphabetized - and then flipping out when someone tries to use one of his comlinks might be kind of amusing. However, otherwise I don't see the point.

EotE is all about the story. If you're trying to tell a story about junk collectors, then let them roll the stormtroopers. If stealing from the dead is what makes everyone at your table happy, then more power to you I guess. However if your players are more interested in going through the pockets of Dead Jabba then they are telling the story, then you're doing something wrong.

Can I have your share?..................

EotE is all about the story. If you're trying to tell a story about junk collectors, then let them roll the stormtroopers. If stealing from the dead is what makes everyone at your table happy, then more power to you I guess. However if your players are more interested in going through the pockets of Dead Jabba then they are telling the story, then you're doing something wrong.

Looting bodies doesn't have to derail the story. I'm not talking about emptying every pocket, but readily accessible high-value items (like blasters) are going to get taken by many players. Fencing them off is actually one of the biggest sources of income and can actually help the story by preventing the need for monetary rewards where they don't make much sense.

here's a loot table, if that sort of thing might be helpful

http://kainrath.wordpress.com/category/loot-table/

Like the table have you thought about replacing a couple of the listings of Nothing for Rare on the Generic Items section?

Regarding looting all of the bodies have you thought about adding something that can either be traced or linked them back to the victim?

Could reveal the corpse was actually wanted for something and being out on parole had something that should have been secured on their person but they had it hacked so they could dump it somewhere so they could get away with some crime and not come under suspicion... however when the troopers come looking its the PC who has the tag... all it takes is that someone erased the information on the victim and now those troopers think your PC is the perp!

Now what if that victim was important and now they discover the PCs selling items belonging to their "loved" one could even reveal they're carting something important that the PCs may have overlooked although they still took it so now they're being hunted...

One side because they may rightly or wrongly think the Pc killed their loved one whilst the other could even be an Imperial Agent who might mistake the PC for their contact... now what happens when they find out they're wrong?

In a Star Wars game someone else ran they had the Gambler turned Jedi retain some Imperial credentials which they used with wild abandon, lets ignroe the fact they should have become useless after the first time they were used... well I wasn't running that game and leave it at that!

Loot drops can lead to "possesive creep" in many PCs, especially if they have the D&D mentality that Desslok was mentioning. But using the loot drops as a away to get some creds, or to advance story, and leave clues for the group can be nothing but a boon to the clever GM, I just make sure the weapons they find are worse than the ones they already have...

The D&D vs. Star Wars loot issue is largely self correcting though when you just normalize it to the setting.

D&D is a fantasy setting based on medieval Europe (a world of cash on hand, and most items custom made individually by craftsmen), Star Wars is more modern (A galaxy of complex economics and credit, and most items mass produced and marketed).

Roll into a Smithy in 1435 England with a few swords, he might report you, or he might take the thing for a fair price for the steel (seriously look at what that poor dude had to do to get steel back then).

Roll into a pawn shop with a few E-11 blaster rifles with serial numbers, Imperial Military stampings, and "For Government Sale only" stampings, and the shop owner will either report you, or pay you next to nothing simply because he knows the stuff is hot and there's only a handful of possible buyers.

Even the raw currency will be different. A King's footsoldier will probably have a little gold on him, a Stormtrooper will almost never have any credits...

Looting bodies doesn't have to derail the story. I'm not talking about emptying every pocket, but readily accessible high-value items (like blasters) are going to get taken by many players. Fencing them off is actually one of the biggest sources of income and can actually help the story by preventing the need for monetary rewards where they don't make much sense.

Eh, it just doesn't seem very Star Wars-y to me. We didn't see Han running up and down the corridors of the Death Star with an armload of salvaged stormtrooper blaster rifles. Mind you, General Grievous did take the lightsabers of his defeated foes - but that was more of a "Look how badass I am, with all these dead Jedi's lightsabers" and less of a "I bet I can pawn this for 50 bucks!" mentality.

If it makes everyone at the table happy, then I guess that's what really matters. But I'd rather hook my players up with cash by having them smuggle spice or pull heists than pick pockets of dead people.

For some reason, the only times my players remember to loot the weapons off of enemies, is when they're fighting Imps. At which point the Toydarian Pawnbroker they keep harassing tells them to take them out of his store before they get him arrested.

Echoing others, I rarely give 'loot' to my players. More just keep lists of what sort of standard equipment an enemy might have equipped, or might have in a personal locker, and if they decide to go looking, its there. But its rarely anything more than a few spare credits, a stimpack or two, or some personal item.

The latter has lead to my players curtailing their greedy looting pretty quick; when their looting through chests and lockers found too many "photos of the dead guy's family" and not much else, they tend to stop digging for tiny spoils.

They do love digging through cargo crates though.

We fortunately haven't had this crop up often in our campaigns, mostly because my players know there isn't much to be had from my NPCs. This is usually handled by someone saying "we check their gear", and then I tell them that the defeated NPCs have blaster pistols, comlinks and a stimpack or two. Any plot-critical items will also turn up this way.

The players can help themselves to whatever weapons and other gear that I've equipped the NPCs with on the character sheet, obviously. Armour doesn't usually work, partly because it might not fit and partially because it's been shot full of holes (since the guy wearing it is dead).

We didn't see Han running up and down the corridors of the Death Star with an armload of salvaged stormtrooper blaster rifles.

I think there are other legit reasons why he didn't/wouldn't do that, aside from "it doesn't feel narrative." Like encumbrance and fleeing with all due haste. Chase scenes aren't the time to loot. And it comes down to personal style too: Han preferred his pistol when in civilian clothes, not some big, bulky carbine.

Encumbrance is the biggest reason why my party doesn't loot. When we do loot it's because our starship or some other mode of transportation is handy and we chuck the high value items into it. (We do steal a fair amount of speeder trucks this way.) Mostly stealing other ship's cargo and the like. Not too often on stealing blasters, because it's almost never an upgrade to what we already have and we're more on doing missions for people, not trying to be cargo haulers and merchants.

I do like the idea of stormtrooper or other Imperial armed forces weapons/armor being embossed with Imperial symbology or RFID codes to identify it as government property. I don't think fencing should be the be-all end-all to fix the party's monetary woes. I also think if you come across an E-WEB it stands to reason to stick it in your ship on the off chance you might need it in the future.

I do like the idea of stormtrooper or other Imperial armed forces weapons/armor being embossed with Imperial symbology or RFID codes to identify it as government property. I don't think fencing should be the be-all end-all to fix the party's monetary woes. I also think if you come across an E-WEB it stands to reason to stick it in your ship on the off chance you might need it in the future.

That's how I play it with Imperial gear. It's a mix of having identification codes, imperial symbols, or just plain being galaxy-wide known as a Standard Issue Imperial weapon. Walk into a pawn shop with five E-11s, and the guy may know somethings up, and may not want to buy from you.

Also, if an Imp happens to inspect the players goods at any point and sees the same collection of blasters, there is going to be conflict.

Those kind of things make my players think about what they loot.

I do like the idea of stormtrooper or other Imperial armed forces weapons/armor being embossed with Imperial symbology or RFID codes to identify it as government property. I don't think fencing should be the be-all end-all to fix the party's monetary woes. I also think if you come across an E-WEB it stands to reason to stick it in your ship on the off chance you might need it in the future.

Another good reason to have secret compartments. "Oh yeah Customs Lt. Cevren... that's umm.... my personal side arms... you know, dangerous galaxy and all... never know when I might need to.....defend myself... against a battalion ..."

Stormtroopers carry Blaster Rifles, and those have always been loot-able to us. Though I'm not sure what's up with our group.

If we just mowed through 5 minion groups of Stormtroopers, our players don't typically go diving into their stuff, honestly, we usually just leave the gear be.

Now granted, our other GM and I have been pretty generous with credit rewards for jobs well done. The "culture" of our group seems more interested in getting that 20,000 credit payout from that crime lord rather than nickel and diming their way to financial superiority with hot Imperial goods.

We're also on the Wheel, which we are playing as a shadowport, free of Imperial meddling, but we haven't come across a weapons dealer/pawn shop that we want to frequent yet to unload hot goods.

I think starting players out dirt poor with nothing tends to lead to the loot and pillage behavior. I don't have an issue with them picking up a few weapons to arm themselves and sell off for funds. I spin up pretty quickly rewarding them so it's not like it persists and by the session after next it's not going to be an issue. They'll be flush.

Curiously enough, on Sunday night, I played with a group of teenage boys who surprisingly managed to get into a defensive position and take out a squad of stormtroopers... or more specifically, 4 went down to some lucky shots, and the remaining 2 retreated to call for reinforcements. I was very surprised when not one of these guys actually attempted to retrieve the Stormtroopers' obviously superior weaponry.

I do like the idea of stormtrooper or other Imperial armed forces weapons/armor being embossed with Imperial symbology or RFID codes to identify it as government property. I don't think fencing should be the be-all end-all to fix the party's monetary woes. I also think if you come across an E-WEB it stands to reason to stick it in your ship on the off chance you might need it in the future.

That's how I play it with Imperial gear. It's a mix of having identification codes, imperial symbols, or just plain being galaxy-wide known as a Standard Issue Imperial weapon. Walk into a pawn shop with five E-11s, and the guy may know somethings up, and may not want to buy from you.

Also, if an Imp happens to inspect the players goods at any point and sees the same collection of blasters, there is going to be conflict.

Those kind of things make my players think about what they loot.

These are great examples of Setback dice on the Streetwise test to fence the items. The Street Smarts talent helps greatly in overcoming such Setbacks when selling such hot items.

The video game or D&D style looting is pretty boring to me, but most of my tables insist on it either due to conditioning or as an economic supplement so I roll with it. Killing a thing and taking it's stuff has deep roots.

I have a meta-gamer who comes from the D&D mindset. It's annoying to watch him try and min/max his character and loot everything, but, that's what he's been trained to do I guess. Nothing a few encounters on a weapons/armor restricted planet or well timed imperial search and seizure won't cure him of. I think EotE has done a good job finding ways to prevent looting too much from becoming an issue.

To answer the original question: I like offering my PCs plot hooks as rewards. Things like bases of operations, the opportunity for more lucrative missions, invitations to high stakes sabbacc games, often feel like more of a reward than a pile of credits.