In my games civilized places don't like heavily armed people walking around - but my players understand it. Pistols are usually ok, especially if concealed (not in plain view). But if you try to walk into Bespin carrying heavy rifles and dressed up in heavy or laminate armour - it means that you're looking for trouble. And local security - be it police forces, gangs etc. will at least take SOME interest in you.

Maybe not arrest you on the spot, but check your intentions - for example a licensed bounty hunter would be allowed in - usually. The PCs can always carry their heavy weapons in a bag or a case - unless the place's security is really tight, no-one will scan them.

On the planet my last game frequented, open carry was legal for pistols and one-handed melee weapons but concealed carry was a serious crime. Any carrying of grenades, Ranged (Heavy) or Gunnery weapons was illegal. Any use of a weapon against an unarmed individual was prosecuted more heavily by the local law enforcement, and even threats made by an armed individual against an unarmed individual were taken very seriously. IOW, if you wanted to pack heat, you could but then you were under much more serious scrutiny by the local law.

When forming a pool yoou do explain the dice?

The fellow at the party needs a coersion test, that is two purples, I am adding a red dice as you are armed with weapons that shouldn't be carried at a party. The wookie wants to assist, OK, that's a black dice from the wookie with the vibro axe.

Later that same day.

OK breaking in to the door, that is a regular test 2 purples, oh, you didn't coerce the code from the guy at the party so thats another purple and a red dice. The door opens and there are 8 guards, is that a despair? Looks like you can see reinforcements coming from the ally to your left and the street to your right. Maybe that guy at the party told them you were coming?

At the end of the failed adventure you can then add 5 obligation to your employer for having them bail you out. Also Mr Gun and Wookie add another 5 as they understand it was your extra weaponry that caused the whole mess.

Having illegal weaponry penalizes Coercion? I don't buy it.

Having illegal weaponry penalizes Coercion? I don't buy it.

I could buy that illegal weaponry upgrades the difficulty, but it would also be a boost die or two there, cus the big gun looks scary . The upgrade is that sooooo much more could "go wrong" with that big gun involved in the picture. A despair could maybe be used to call local juridical forces that show up in armed and armored speeders, wearing special weapons and tactics gear to take down these heavily armed suspects.

Though personally i would flip a DP for that red d12.

If you're comfortable with splitting the party, it can also be quite entertaining to have the heavily armed guys left outside. Say it's a Hutt's party and trouble breaks out. The characters inside with maybe pistols or holdout blasters get to deal with the security, while the guys outside get do deal with the heavily armed bounty hunters that the Hutt has on retainer.

At the start of our campaign, I gave my players a brief speech about how in the past I've seen players become too identified with their characters, to the extent that they don't want their character to fail at anything and go to great lengths to keep them from failing. But what we're playing is Star Wars adventure, and the heroes in Star Wars fail ALL THE TIME. This just heightens the drama and raises the stakes. As the GM, my responsibility is to play fair with you all but that doesn't necessarily mean every fight will be fair or that every challenge will be winnable. It just means you should have a great adventure and a good time.

"Fail forward" is a good phrase to use here: even if an action fails, it moves the situation forward. For instance, in a recent game session, one of the PCs was roundly defeated and captured by the baddies. While he regained consciousness, the baddies were monologuing the secrets of the nefarious plans near him, and he woke up in the middle of the villain's (rather fragile, as it turned out) lair.

There's an element of trust needed between the GM and players that the GM isn't just out to hose the PCs. The Apocalypse World Principle of "Be a fan of the PCs" is apposite here: the GM should put the PCs in awkward situations to give them a chance to show how awesome they really are!