Since switching to EotE I've tried to run using my standard routine of a steady buildup of wealth and equipment options. If players come up with interesting money making enterprises, and some of my role players always do, I allow them to succeed as long as skill rolls and plan feasibility favors them.

What makes me batty though is the D&D mindset of solving problems through violence to take an NPC's loot. It came to a head in a recent game when one of my two greedy players used an ion bomb to disable a convoy of Imperial speeder bikes escorting a land speeder carrying a prisoner the "heroes" had been hired to help escape (by the Rebellion). The Rebels were going to replace the downed speeder bikes with their own so the convoy would appear as if nothing had happened. The plan was set to take place in seedy Blue Sector where there's minimal law to react.

So back to the ion bomb part. I thought the player was being creative so I allowed it (with the right roles). What I failed to foresee was how he flipped out when the Rebels started blasting at the ioned speeders. The player got upset and announced that he was jumping in the way of the Rebel's attacks. All too late it dawned on me, he wanted to get four brand new armed speeder bikes to use or to sell for "phat lewtz" even though this was only their fourth game on these characters.

This mentality frustrates me. I have two good role players and I try to present a balanced non-D&D game for their sakes. However, the two greedsters in the group enjoy the thrill of defeating the GM and getting their hands on the power and equipment to dominate, story be damned.

Don't get me wrong, riches and equipment come with time. But not at the expense of the story. Plus, if you are bulletproof early in the campaign where's the challenge later?

End of rant. Just wondering if any other storytellers face this challenge?

It should be mentioned that in the prior session the "heroes" were meant to get some key information from the leader of a swoop gang. I had written up this whole scene that would culminate in having to take the leader's place (he had a broken leg) in a race with a rival gang. Upon winning the race the leader would share the information.

Instead, because unlike d6 there's no dark side point mechanic, greedster #1 killed one of the swoop gangsters. He used that to intimidate the leader into talking. What was worse was greedster #2 helping himself to the dead gangster's swoop bike. This is the same guy that wanted four free Imperial speeder bikes the next adventure. And since he didn't personally kill anyone he considers it morally fine.

I gave them obligation for it but only the two role players worry about that. The greedsters love obligation, it means more confrontations and more loot.

I think that kind of thing is pretty much a constant, and I agree it can be frustrating especially when it threatens future plans. The most irritating part for me is when I have a cool story derailed by 2 hours of discussion on how to deal with the (insert derailed plot here). It's hard to swallow and just roll with it at the moment, but there are ways to handle it if you step back. When it happens, just take a 5 minute break.

First is the "ounce of prevention" thing. It helps to have a clock ticking that makes salvage difficult or risks mission failure. Clocks are kind of critical if you want to keep things on rails without it being too overbearing. The AoR GM screen adventure has a great clock plot device.

But even if they do salvage, there's a hundred ways to trim it down. The person they're selling to will find the military ID and wants a deep discount to fence clearly stolen goods; or the Imperials catch up to them and they have to run before fencing their loot; or a Hutt could use the bikes in exchange for an Obligation reduction (no cash); ...etc. If it's clear you're doing it arbitrarily (like just have a thief steal their stuff) then it would be cause for resentment, but you can use any reasonable loophole to make it less worth their time.

I'm not sure whether it's really "at the expense of the story," though I can see how it'd make your job harder as a GM if you can't pin down what motivates the players. Evidently this is a story about some seedy characters who are ostensibly working for the good guys, but are heavily motivated by personal greed rather than purely altruistic motives. For "Edge of the Empire," that seems to be perfectly in keeping with the sort of character types featured. For "Age of Rebellion?" Not so much.

For my own campaign, honestly, I'm having a rough time trying to figure out where the group wants to go on the heroism-vs.-personal-greed scale, too, but I don't think I'm having much more trouble than the players themselves are having. (Different players pull the group in different directions, and there isn't much agreement on anything.) Given that, story-wise, the PCs were basically thrown together by fate when we started with the pre-fab adventure that involved getting off Tatooine with the Krayt's Fang, versus having them be a bunch of buddies who were presumably a team for YEARS before the action started, I can deal with a certain sloppiness to group cohesion here. If someone heads off TOO far from the rest, then there's a chance someone's going to have to write up a new PC in order to stay with the group. (I've already had one player tell me that there are certain directions that -- if the group goes that way -- he's prepared to retire his character and come up with a new concept, just because he doesn't think his current PC would go that way, even if as a PLAYER he doesn't have a problem with it.)

As it is, since this wasn't a campaign where we started with some agreed-upon premise such as "We're all HEROES of the REBELLION!" I'm not going to give the players too much guff. "Edge of the Empire" seems to be about playing in the grey fringes of the Star Wars universe, rather than expecting the players to be Good Guys with capital "G"s in the fight against the Empire/Sith. The Empire being what it is, conflict is bound to come sooner or later, but I'm not going to force it.

As for YOUR campaign, though ... well, the PCs got hired by the Rebellion. Is the whole PC group fine with the crazy money-grubbing ways of a couple of its members? If a PC is jumping in the way of blaster bolts to try to protect "phat lewtz," that strikes me as a bit of a self-imposed HINDRANCE (I mean, he could get shot!). It'd be more of a problem if he started shooting at the Rebels (in which case the rest of his group is going to have to decide which way to aim their blasters in the ensuing fight). If the PC group *as a whole* just isn't really into the idea of heroics for the Rebellion, maybe you should go for more of the adventures where they're working for Hutts or crime syndicates, or otherwise getting in trouble in more neutral territory where there's no clear "good guy" or "bad guy." Then, it can be up to the players themselves if they're willing to engage in heroics or not, rather than the situation just being imposed upon them.

Disclaimer: I don't know your campaign or your players, so I don't know if any of this applies or not.

Actualy might not be THAT out of character: scum/smugglers would loot their foes for all they could get and then black market the hell out of it. Rebel guerillia forces might also try to aqquire more equipment from defeated imperials. Now lemme guess, it's the jedi characters who are stealing speeder bikes right?

Solution to exxessive greed(o) and hoarding gear:

Have jawas steal their stuff when they are asleep. (and nail the gaming table to floor, because they might flip it)

I roll "need".

I gave them obligation for it but only the two role players worry about that. The greedsters love obligation, it means more confrontations and more loot.

Sounds like they're still playing D&D1. Obligation doesn't mean more confrontations necessarily because there must be other ways for Obligation to kick in. If the word is spread that these guys aren't trustworthy, fewer and fewer people will deal with them, or they will charge them more and more for the PITA they cause. The prices in the book are based on "all things being equal". If they aren't playing nice, hey, prices just went up when they buy, and down when they sell.

I'm lucky to not have to deal with players quite at that level (my one greedster is tempered by the others), but I wouldn't have a problem eventually sending overwhelming force and capture...which means no assets at all. There is a great Traveller adventure module called Prison Planet, and if they don't learn any social skills doing that one then they never will and you've done your best.

It comes up pretty regularly. Jumping in front of a gunline because you want a couple motorcycles is a new one though...

Solution are pretty easy in this system/universe:

Encumbrance is a pretty good motivator....

Weapons/Gear/Vehicles looted from Imperial and Government sources can start with the ® rating when it comes time to sell. Requiring the item to not only be sold at 25% if it's value, but also you can only do it on the black market, and the GM is well within his rights to upgrade the check to do so. Despairs are not fun.

Holding on to Imperial gear (for later sale or personal use) is also risky, as the longer you hold it the more likely it is to be noticed. Cruise around some Imperial-held world on an Imperial military speederbike with a stormtrooper utility belt and things won't go well. (Compare this to cruising around your home town in a military humvee, with mounted machine gun)

If they just want monies... get Far Horizons, show them the Entrepreneur Spec. Kitted out you get 500 credits every session just for showing up. No risk, no rolling.

Obligation actually is a DSP type mechanic: Remember at 100 total Ob there's no more XP expenditures for anyone. Doesn't matter how much XP you get, you don't advance. Also check the chart on page 308. At 100+ Obligation you're basically untouchable, even the Black Market won't buy form you anymore because you personally are just too hot. Too much more then 100 and you go from "Most Wanted" right into "We think he's here, lets just level the entire building with a Proton Torpedo" territory.

I'm lucky to not have to deal with players quite at that level (my one greedster is tempered by the others), but I wouldn't have a problem eventually sending overwhelming force and capture...which means no assets at all. There is a great Traveller adventure module called Prison Planet, and if they don't learn any social skills doing that one then they never will and you've done your best.

That reminds me of a book called "the power gamers guide to roleplaying", it had a list of how gun (use) could be substituted for other skills*:

Persuasion: KLICK- "you agree with me right?"

Barter: KLICK- "how much?"

Streetwise: KLICK- "tell me who runs these streets!"

Stealth: if they are all dead they can't see you.

Perform: KLICK- "are you not entertained?"

* all done tongue in cheek (at least i hope so)

Play the Paranoia RPG: The only rpg in wich players will acitivly try to AVOID aquiring new gear!

Paranoia also solves other player related problems such as rules lawyers and anti-team players.

The computer is your friend.

I gave them obligation for it but only the two role players worry about that. The greedsters love obligation, it means more confrontations and more loot.

Now, this touches onto something I've actually been struggling with on occasion. I've got some players who play characters who still have some fear of things in the galaxy. On the one hand, the mechanics are fairly forgiving of the heroes: If a PC slams his ship headfirst into another, it's a Major Collision, and he's going to take a Critical Hit (expensive!) but at least he won't be stardust. Now, the other guy? If he's just an Extra, he's toast. If anything REALLY bad happens to the heroes, it's largely because of a GM decision (it's up to me to figure out whether that Despair while fooling around unskilled with a lightsaber meant that you shorted it out, or you just lopped off your own hand -- and that's a LOT of leeway).

So, that puts a certain amount of pressure on me. When the RULES say "such-and-such horrible thing happens to you," I can just shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh well! Bad dice!" But when it's up to me to figure out how bad BAD is, then I feel a certain temptation to go easy on things so there are no bad feelings.

This can be a problem when you have overly-bold heroes who think they can spit in the face of a Hutt crimelord and walk out of the room on their own power WITHOUT a live thermal detonator in hand or some sort of bargaining chip to keep that Hutt's pride in check. (And even then, what's to say the Hutt won't shoot you anyway? Not all NPCs are required to be RATIONAL. There's such a thing as pushing it too far.)

Just racking up more obligation doesn't necessarily cut it. Sometimes we need CONSEQUENCES. Sometimes the bad guys aren't going to fight fair. If the PCs don't learn to keep their heads low and stop making more enemies than they can handle, then eventually someone's going to skip the part of meeting them in a fair fight and just slap some explosives onto the undercarriage of their ship, or put some bad chems in their spice, or whatever. My players know that, and that's why for the most part they're fairly cautious, but every once in a while, there's one player in the group who's a little too sure of himself, and nobody's around to stop him from getting into trouble.

Now, it might break us out of the willful suspension of disbelief, but sometimes I've just taken to explaining right up front that, "If you take this course of action, there are potential CONSEQUENCES." And then I spell it out, BEFORE any dice are rolled.

As in, here is an ancient relic with a trap system that has VAPORIZED the last two guys who messed with it. You do not have parameters for how it works or what its maximum range is. You do not have stats for it. But I'll tell you this much: You can make a Computers check vs. 5 reds to try to disable it, knowing what LITTLE you know now, and if even ONE of those dice comes up a Despair, you are going to be VAPORIZED. No damage, no crits, no save, just gone.

So, THEORETICALLY the super-slicer in the group might work his way through it, but honestly? Those are lousy odds. And an experience slicer should intuitively KNOW that this represents some real danger. I'd be a jerk if I just had this mysterious field and let someone make an attempt to defuse it, and then a Despair comes up and I declare, "Bang! You're dead!" But if I'm willing to tell the player right up front that there are very specific risks involved in just fiddling around with this without investigating further (getting the proper tools, looking up information on this might reduce the risks and the difficulty of the roll, for starters), and it's up to him whether he's going to take that risk anyway.

Similarly, if the heroes are taking on a job with a Hutt crime lord, and one of the players says, "Hey, we can just STEAL this ship he loaned us, and take all the cargo!" and the PCs are supposed to be *experienced* smugglers, and I don't think they're fully weighing the consequences, I might interject, "Yes, you COULD. And you most likely would have a bounty placed on you, and you're such competent heroes you could probably fight off bounty hunters who come after you. However, your REPUTATION would tank. You'll find trouble getting other jobs, because you betrayed your employer with no known justification. People who do business with the Hutts WILL NOT do business with you -- not openly, anyway -- for fear of retaliation. And since you don't really have any friends with the Alliance, let alone the Empire, you won't be able to TRUST anybody. If the Hutts can't touch you, and they have no hope of ever shaking enough money out of you, they'll touch whatever you care about. Family. Your bank account. Your ship. The Hutts have connections."

Okay, so I didn't ramble on for QUITE that much, but the player seemed to get the idea that it would be more than just a random chance of some pushover bounty hunter popping up every session.

Now if they go ahead with it ANYWAY? I've got to follow through. Otherwise, they've called my bluff and they won't trust me again. I just need to make sure I set a reasonable break point. Did the PCs steal cargo worth 1,000,000 credits? Well, while they're in port at some station in Hutt Space, it blows up in the docking bay, because someone planted explosives on it. Or it just DISAPPEARS, with everything on board (including any astromechs the PCs parked on it for security).

This isn't to say I want to punish the group for every time they defy authority. It's just that they might have to carefully pick-and-choose where they'll do business, and they might have to sacrifice their reputation and take up aliases to avoid trouble. There's no guarantee in this game that anytime a bounty hunter shows up, it has to be fairly matched to the PCs' capabilities. The first time the PCs kill a pursuing bounty hunter, it only makes sense that whoever comes NEXT should be better prepared, and the bounty might go up. (Otherwise, by process of "natural selection" we should eventually run out of incompetent idiots. )

The player got upset and announced that he was jumping in the way of the Rebel's attacks.

He got shot right? That's what happens when you leap in front of Blaster fire !

Also the Rebels are making fun of the "Imperial Lover" right? He did try to save them from Rebel fire...

Sorry, but I don't have much advice to give. But I have to ask, if you do not enjoy gaming with these two guys, then why are you? I GM because I love to. I love to tell a good story (or at least try).

For me this game is not about me versus you. If you want that, go play Risk. For me it's about watching my guys become heroes. Yes, I have to set up the encounters and I do have to play the bad guys, but I really try hard not to have that me vs. you mentality.

When I first met my new group, about three sessions ago, I did lay it out for them. What I enjoy about gaming, and why I like to GM. I let them know straight up if they don't like something that I do, to let me know. If they do something I don't like I will let them know. I told them that if mine and their views of "fun" are not aligned, then the group will be modified.

The obvious answer is talk to the players and let them know that is not the kind of game you want to run. If they will not change the way they like to play the game, then you have two options: Change the way you GM to accommodate them, or change your roster.

The last option should be: If they commit murder and you don't like it, then the next NPC is a super tough Bounty Hunter(s) that they cannot beat. I mean like a 900-1200 XP dude or two.

Good luck.

So the first couple of things that should be said (and kinda have been, but I will reiterate):

1. Talk to the players about it

2. If they're disrupting the game more than they're bringing enjoyment to it, ask them to leave

3. If none of those helps, look at options for how to deal with it in-world

Definitely talk to the players about it, and describe to them that you feel like the game would be the most fun for everybody if you tried to achieve a certain Star Wars feel, and that their approaches might be more suited to a D&D game where loot is part of the objective.

If they're not bringing anything fun to the table, ask them to leave the group and find some better players.

If you still feel they're worth keeping, others have mentioned some good approaches within the world of your game.

1. Short-change them

In our campaign, the PCs fought some Imperials and stole a personnel transport submarine from them. This was designed to provide them with some loot options, so the sub had a set of Imperial blaster rifles, some grenades, and a thermal detonator.

They took the grenades and the detonator and sold the blaster rifles. Because these are clearly none other than Imperial-issue blaster rifles, they sold them for something like 40% of their 'list price' in the book. The fence who bought them was taking a risk just purchasing them in the first place, so he wasn't offering anything better.

Anything stolen from Imperials is going to be hard to sell, and hard to make a profit on.

2. Obligation is more than just enemies

Obligation can do more than just provide new enemies for your PCs to kill and loot. It can prevent you from being granted an audience with an important NPC because you're too notorious. It can prevent you from being able to deal with reputable merchants. It can force you to deal with the scum of the galaxy, who will short-change you or try to rob you or fail to show up to the meeting, or rat you out to the Empire, or steal your ship, etc.

3. How will they carry them?

How were your PCs planning to transport those 4 stolen Imperial speeders? Drive them down the street, next to passing Stormtroopers and such?

Remember to keep encumbrance and real-world concerns in mind. Without a big transport or something, it would be awkward to move those speeders around.

4. Shoot them!

When the PC jumped in front of the Rebel fire, you should shoot them.

Good points made by many.

I continue to GM Star Wars because I love it, or more accurately I love the writing and storytelling. Where I seem to be getting in trouble is that with no dark side point mechanic two players have gone off the reservation. I get that EotE is about rogues, not Jedis, but they should be redeemable rogues like Han and Lando. You can play a gray character without being a stone cold murderer or greedster.

As for obligation, I hear what you guys are saying. I've started applying consequence but it seems to hurt the role players more than the greedsters. Thank you to whoever mentioned that the higher your obligation the less people will deal with you financially. I had forgotten about that and will use it.

Out of curiosity was there a reason the Rebels couldn't use those speeder bikes?

Admittedly jumping in front of blaster fire is a bit much but if they didn't discuss what was going to be done with those bikes afterwards maybe they ought to be reminded its only loot when its agreed upon as loot and if you don't bother mentioning it and they don't want it of course they'll deprive the Imperials of those bikes...

I'm surprised they didn't try using them to backup their cover since they would be recognisable as Imperial Speeder Bikes and handy if you want to booby trap them once you reach the spaceport in case the Imperials catch on and you need a diversion... oh right they wanted to sell them didn't they...

If they pulled that stunt I'd have had them ship the bikes off so they could proceed to the next part of the mission and when the PCs got back and asked about them, they would learn they were requisitioned and are congratulated on a fine job.

What? you wanted to keep one of them... well okay we'll look into that but things are tough at the moment and we did supply you with gear when this all started so it might take a week or two...

So... what did they do after that?

As for obligation, I hear what you guys are saying. I've started applying consequence but it seems to hurt the role players more than the greedsters. Thank you to whoever mentioned that the higher your obligation the less people will deal with you financially. I had forgotten about that and will use it.

If you want to focus fire on the trouble people just have their black market contacts stop buying "junk" items specifically. Two or three adventures of hauling around worthless trash will make the message clear.

• Imperial items are marked and traceable, so just having your fence say "These are too hot to move, sorry" isn't too odd.
• Non imperial items from less reputable sources can also be adjusted, the further from the core you get, the easier you can adjust them. "OK, they all have blaster pistols, but they are pretty junky. They all have the inferior quality, and judging by the rust they probably aren't worth much." or "These carbines are fine, but they are of a civilian 'sport' design and not really intended for combat, so 2 Threat will cause them to break and be destroyed. By extension they aren't very valuable, maybe 20 credits if you roll well."
• Weapons used by aliens non-humans can also be made less valuable by customizations. "Ok these ACP array guns are in working order, but the Ewoks you took them off of modified them to better fit their hands, so all checks to use them are upgraded for any Sil 1+ character. Hope you know some Jawas that'll pay well cause no one else is gonna buy these...." or "This rifle is pretty sweet, but the Trando you got it off of removed most of the trigger assembly to better fit his hand. So as long as you're carrying this 2 threat is going to be able to generate despair-like results..."
• Good for weapons and vehicles, as well as other personal items; Gene locks are available...if you want to get really nasty Galladinium's fantastic tech had a version that would actually bio-code the item and if anyone other then the owner even handled it they'd get a itchy burning rash. Nothing like getting an STD from a gun to ruin your day...
• All or nothing: Even mundane items can become unsellable easily. "This datapad isn't charged and the power coupler isn't included. How do I know it even works if I can't turn it on?!?"

If you want to be nice about it, just try bribing them; "Guys, knock it off on the excessive looting, and I'll increase all future adventure rewards."

You can play a gray character without being a stone cold murderer or greedster.

As for obligation, I hear what you guys are saying. I've started applying consequence but it seems to hurt the role players more than the greedsters.

Actually, I far prefer greedsters to stone cold murderers. If someone is just "greedy," that's a character flaw if it's done to excess (especially if it leads someone to jump in the way of blaster bolts -- I mean, if he's actually risking getting HIT on a regular basis just for a dubious bit of credit).

Re: Selling Imperial loot: Actually, I think 40% is overly generous. That's practically wholesale vs. retail. I routinely have merchants offer PCs 25% for used gear (varying it sometimes for flavor when they've done a good job of actually seeking out a buyer who'd SPECIFICALLY want what they have to sell). But obvious Imperial gear? You'd have to travel all the way to some lawless place (such as Hutt space) for a merchant who'd even touch it, and then you run the risk of being cheated.

(I ran a game where one PC without so much as a rank in Streetwise decided to run off by himself on a Hutt world to buy lots of explosives and weaponry from an alien street merchant -- who I introduced as an "Ubese" merchant (i.e., wearing an obscuring face mask) named "Flibby Nightsider." He flubbed several Perception and Streetwise checks yet somehow still managed to get BARGAIN prices ... for what turned out to be a bunch of duds once he got back to the others and they demanded he test one before he brought it all on board. The fun part was the "genuine lightsaber" he bought after a bogus demonstration. Of course, when he went back the next day, the merchant was gone, and the "warehouse" right behind his stand wasn't even his.)

Anyway, I personally wouldn't have a problem with a player who's counting the credits, just as long as everyone seems to be having fun, and we don't have a mood-breaking situation where one player is, for instance, engaging in blatantly villainous (murderous) behavior while everyone else is trying to be a good guy. (That can get awkward, to say the least.) You could be the richest guy in the world, but what really matters is whether you still show up for the next adventure. (If he gets too rich that he's just not interested any longer in adventuring -- well, congrats. YOU WIN! Your hero can retire in luxury. Now, how about a new one who has a little more motivation to stay in the race?)

Now, if the greedsters are WASTING TIME and hogging the spotlight from other players, that's a different problem. For instance, let's say we're running a game and we've just completed a scenario and the greedsters want to spend time demanding that the GM give them a complete inventory of all the stuff they can grab and what it's worth. At that point, as a GM, I might just say something like (just pulling it out of thin air here): "Okay, let's say you can grab up to 12 Encumbrance points of miscellaneous loot that's worth 100 credits each*. It's up to you how much you carry." I don't care WHAT the loot is and I'm not giving an exhaustive inventory -- it's just random junk that the PCs see that they can resell and after a few times of this I'm just NOT going to waste time on the intricate details.

If, plot-wise, the players are in need of some random tool or spare part and it makes sense, story-wise, that it MIGHT be in that miscellaneous junk that the Greedster took, then if I'm in a generous mood I might let the players "buy" the item out of that cache of generic loot. This is how I handled "generic" looting during a zombie apocalypse campaign when the PCs would hit some hardware store, grocery store, etc., and I didn't want to get bogged down in trying to present an INVENTORY of each and every thing that might still be on the shelves. I basically boiled it down to:

1) How much time do you have to start loading up?

2) Is there anything you're SPECIFICALLY looking for?

3) How much can you carry?

And then I'd use my best judgement as a GM, that if the zombies were nowhere to be seen, they have a couple of hours to loot (before trouble arrives), and they've got a pickup truck to load up, then I'd write down a note that basically says something like "Cache of misc. hardware store loot -- 4 cargo units -- $4000 total worth of gear" -- where I'd previously arbitrarily declared that a "cargo unit" represents "as much stuff as you can cram into a typical car trunk," and I've also arbitrarily declared that their pickup truck can carry "4 cargo units" of stuff in the back, provided nobody's riding back there, and they keep it tied down. It involved a bit of handwaving and on-the-spot decision-making, but BOY did it really speed things up. Later on, if they needed some useful tool, they'd have this note that served as a reminder of where it came from and what sort of stuff might be in there ("stuff from a hardware store"), and they could "buy" items from the stockpile, and we'd just assume that any leftover weight was genuinely useless junk grabbed in the heat of the moment. Or, they could use the "miscellaneous hardware" as trade-in-kind when trying to "buy" fuel, food, and ammo from survivor communities.

I have no issue with the heroes accumulating wealth and equipment; however, what I disapprove of is looking for ways to outfox the GM to grab premium equipment early in the game.

I fall back on my example of the player jumping in front of the Imperial speeders to prevent the Rebels from blasting them. It just doesn't make any sense; no character in a Star Wars movie would do that. Looting bodies like vultures gets under my skin too; it just doesn't make sense for a character in an epic adventure to stop and count the credits in a stormtrooper's pouch.

I guess what I'm saying is that I enjoy the roleplayers who try to advance their characters. One of them emailed me today with a between-episodes action of setting the framework of a trade alliance with some worlds in the Unknown Regions (he's a Chiss with some knowledge of these worlds). He's just starting out building the business and we'll enjoy going back and forth with between-game actions that will eventually lead to content I can mine for story ideas. I love that stuff.

I do not enjoy the greedsters and power gamers who try to find loopholes in the story where they can get ahead of the curve. There's an upcoming episode where they'll be dealing with pirates where I have to plan on one pirate remaining behind to pilot their ship away. Why? Because the greedster duo will drop all in-character priorities to steal the ship for a quick flip on the black market. I've seen it before and it's aggravating.

But enough on my rant. The point is that playing the game "to beat the GM" and hit the jackpot takes away from the fun from the roleplayers and the storyteller.

I have no issue with the heroes accumulating wealth and equipment; however, what I disapprove of is looking for ways to outfox the GM to grab premium equipment early in the game.

You were the one providing premium equipment, not them. I still don't understand why the Rebels would be destroying perfectly good speeder bikes. Especially since destroying them will 1) remove equipment they could use, 2) leave speeder parts all over the road, making it much easier for the Imps to figure out what happened, and 3) possibly create an explosion which could notify nearby enemies. It sounds like the PCs were just doing the rational thing.

It's pretty unreasonable to dangle pristine speeder bikes in front of a bunch of Star Wars fans and expect them to not want them! Besides, if they had speeder bikes there are tons of new adventures or encounters would could run.

I have no issue with the heroes accumulating wealth and equipment; however, what I disapprove of is looking for ways to outfox the GM to grab premium equipment early in the game.

I still don't understand why the Rebels would be destroying perfectly good speeder bikes.

A valid question. The way the encounter was meant to work out the heroes had been hired by the Rebellion to help free a prisoner being transported through Blue Sector on Corellia. In a previous adventure the heroes had stolen four speeder bikes to gain the trust of the Rebels; the bikes were part of the plan. The idea was that the heroes would be part of the team assaulting the speeder truck carrying the prisoner while NPC Rebels on the four stolen bikes would take out the Imperial escort and then take their place. The convoy would then divert to the spaceport and hopefully get the captive off world before anyone was the wiser.

Now I am well familiar with the PC ability to make a scenario go sideways when they do the unexpected. You just have to roll with it. What ticked me off what where one of the looter PCs came up with a device to ionize the bikes. I didn't make the connection that he was in for the equipment grab and allowed him to construct the device and utilize it. After all, I don't want to shoot down any feasible plan they come up with. Where I took issue was when the Rebels swooped in to take out the bikes and their scout trooper riders this particular "hero" inexplicably wanted to cover the speeder bikes so he could forget the rest of the plan and loot them back to the heroes' ship.

I don't see a character doing that in a Star Wars movie. It's the equivalent of Chewbacca leaving the Rebels behind in "Return of the Jedi" so he could pack his commandeered AT-ST into the Millennium Falcon's cargo hold.

In my last campaign I had put in some very expensive land speeders just as flavor text. They were like Bentlys or something similar. They belonged to a Hutt and some players decided they wanted to steal one. Well, I set the difficulty kind of high for them to break into them, and they did it!! I was not too happy about it, as it kind of set my "planned" scene awry, but oh well. I mentioned they were worth somewhere around the 80K area when I described them. Well, long story short, they got off planet with one. One of the players was going to sell one, I said we could cut to the chase and he could find a buyer who will give him 20K. Or we can play it out, make some rolls and see if he could get somewhere around 30-40K+ for it. He was pretty upset with me about it. He could not understand why if I said it was worth 80K, why he could not get 80K for it. I explained it was hot, while not a one of a kind, it was not common place, and does have a VIN number and other identifies that need to be changed after it was sold. Hence the lower value. He was still pretty mad at me. So I said, ok, you can get 20K for really doing nothing, except have your slicer make a good check. Next time I will just say no you can't try to steal it if your going to argue over this with me. So you can get the 20 grand for "free" or argue with your GM and I will become a ****** and you can't steal anything again...he just really felt like I was ripping them off.....

Wow...I didn't think I was being that unreasonable about it really.

Anyway. I agree why a fence would not keep buying this junk anyway. Hot blasters are just that, hot...or junk. Also, I am a firm believer in high tech sensitive electronics breaking when they slam into the group or have dead bodies fall on it. Usually the blaster barrels get bent breaking the Galven circuitry in the barrel. Comlinks, Datapads and most other stuff gets ruined quickly in battle. Medpacs/stim packs are about the only thing I usually have survive. Also, most people don't think about it, but clothing is very flammable, and these hot blaster bolts can set you on fire. Not game mechanics wise, but if guys get killed by blasters, I usually have them catch on fire too. Not really a danger to anyone else around them, but the can get ptrettyy crispy fast!

@peacck, I would love to hear more about Flibby Nightsider. I am so stealing the name Filbby! I want to hear about this lightsaber demo, and how you convinced the player, and the character that is was real! How much did he drop for it? That sounds Lengen----dary!! I uh, may have to borrow this encounter.

Where I took issue was when the Rebels swooped in to take out the bikes and their scout trooper riders this particular "hero" inexplicably wanted to cover the speeder bikes so he could forget the rest of the plan and loot them back to the heroes' ship.

I still don't see the problem. The Rebels had their four stolen bikes to replace them with so they could complete the mission. Whereas the party had new transportation they could use to escape the scene of the crime. It sounds like the party completed their end of the deal.

Or like Anakin taking a G-9 freighter from the enemy and then putting aboard his cruiser and using it as his personal transport, often taking it on unsanctioned or secret missions.

The only downside I can see from this whole thing is that you didn't want them to have speeder bikes at this particular point in the campaign. But the upside is that they have speeder bikes that they can use later on for more action and adventure.

I'm lucky to not have to deal with players quite at that level (my one greedster is tempered by the others), but I wouldn't have a problem eventually sending overwhelming force and capture...which means no assets at all. There is a great Traveller adventure module called Prison Planet, and if they don't learn any social skills doing that one then they never will and you've done your best.

That reminds me of a book called "the power gamers guide to roleplaying", it had a list of how gun (use) could be substituted for other skills*:

Persuasion: KLICK- "you agree with me right?"

Barter: KLICK- "how much?"

Streetwise: KLICK- "tell me who runs these streets!"

Stealth: if they are all dead they can't see you.

Perform: KLICK- "are you not entertained?"

* all done tongue in cheek (at least i hope so)

Sadly this is SOP for one my groups I GM for...

@peacck, I would love to hear more about Flibby Nightsider. I am so stealing the name Filbby! I want to hear about this lightsaber demo, and how you convinced the player, and the character that is was real! How much did he drop for it? That sounds Lengen----dary!! I uh, may have to borrow this encounter.

Okay, just to elaborate, but I hope not to thread-jack:

The background:

My player group started off with the "Long Arm of the Hutt" adventure, and they've been zapping around the galaxy in a YT-1300 that used to belong to a Trandoshan bounty hunter (loot!), which they renamed the Bloody Nexu after some ordeals they suffered through on the jungle world of Choldonna. By in large, they've been playing it "grey," and I've been trying to accommodate them. They try to avoid Imperial entanglements, they'll occasionally do something for someone they suspect of having Rebel ties, or stick their necks out to help someone escape slavery, but they're not ready to pitch in with the Rebellion and they're not above dealing in spice or rigging pod races if it'll turn a few credits.

They've also bought some pretty frivolous stuff. The pilot has spent money on things with absolutely no "game value," such as ridiculously expensive Nexu-pelt seat covers, a holo-projector showing an image of a dancing love interest, various souvenirs from worlds he's visited. He even has an antique toy lightsaber that has a holographic light beam, but can't cut through anything, and wouldn't fool anyone who's seen the real thing (especially with how it flickers and has obvious scan lines). Not that anyone in the group HAS seen the real thing, that is.

Most of the players in the group have recognized that when they're dealing with shady folks, it's important to build a reputation, and to build relationships with reliable business partners. I've made it clear that just because you've got a note that says you've got cargo "worth" 10,000cr in your ship's hull, it doesn't mean you'll GET 10,000cr out of it unless you sell it at the right port, and getting by just with trading tends to result in profits on very slim margins.

Well, the PCs have still been doing fairly well for themselves, saving up for eventually upgrading to a better ship such as a Gozanti cruiser, and hiring on some crew so they can start a serious shipping business (and/or maybe settle a few old scores once they have enough allies).

One time, however, one of the PCs apparently thought he had money burning a hole in his pocket, and he was tired of the others being overly opinionated about all the heavy weaponry he wanted to buy. (He was often dissuaded from this, as you just can't go walking into a cantina with a heavy repeating blaster without causing a stir at the very least.) He wanted to buy big guns, thermal detonators, etc. The PCs were in Hutt territory, and our hero wanted to strike off on his own, without checking with anyone else, or getting anyone to provide backup.

And all that stuff earlier about having no Streetwise, etc.? That applied here. Trying to find heavy ordnance like that, even before it was time to check for Rarity, I figured he should look for a dealer, since this place wasn't exactly respectable. But, hey, you can still roll that even if you have no ranks in the skill. So ... hmm. Fail and Threat. "No problem!" I say. "This is Baal Soota {made-up starport name}. You'll find SOME place selling hardware on the streets!"

So, enter Flibby Nightsider, an Ubese merchant set up in a rickety shack made from a rusty cargo pod sitting in front of a big warehouse, with a starship to the side. Says Flibby, "Of course this is all legit! I'm an honest storekeeper! See, I've got my own warehouse, my own ship -- I've got a REPUTATION to maintain! And so I offer you Flibby's credit-back guarantee! Just bring it back in two moons if you're not ABSOLUTELY satisfied, and you'll get your credits back. I'm just that sure you'll love it!"

I took a moment to explain what an "Ubese" was. "Remember Return of the Jedi, and Leia's disguise to get into Jabba's palace? How she was dressed up in that outfit and that helmet? That's an Ubese. They all dress like that. Nobody sees their faces. Methane-breathers, or something like that."

So, our hero is doing a deal with a storekeeper in a rusty shack, can't see his face, and is taking him by his word that the warehouse he's camped in front of is HIS, and so's the ship.

I called for an Intelligence check (fail), Perception check (fail), and left it at that for the time being. What were those rolls for? Eh, nothing important, and ignore the Threat -- it was just a check for some extra information.

Our hero ended up buying a whole crate of thermal detonators at a remarkable discount, some missile tubes, and -- well, by this point, Flibby could tell that our hero was a DISCERNING customer. "So, hey, I've got this special acquisition. One of a kind! But {looks both ways} the Empire has been poking around, and what with all that hubbub with the Inquisitor, I'm eager to unload it. And you -- hey, you said you're a spacer. You'll be out of here, no problem, but I've got to stay here and tend my business. So feast your eyes on this -- a gen-u-ine lightsaber, weapon of the old order of the Cheddar Knights. Ever heard of them? Oh, no, no, I can't let you HANDLE it -- not up here in the FRONT of the store. Don't want to attract any attention. Let's go to the back to my workshop, and I'll give a little demonstration. If you like it, we can hide it in an empty rocket tube. That won't be nearly so suspicious."

So back Flibby goes with our hero to a dark back part of the cargo pod with bits and pieces of droids and wrecked speeders and appliances and not really much mention at all of, you know, WEAPONS like what he's selling up front. Well, he makes a big to-do about checking to make sure nobody is watching, has our hero stand on the other side of the workshop "for your own safety so nobody loses a limb," and then carefully activates the saber, waves it around a bit (vwoom-vwoom!) and then SWINGS it at the neck of a rusty cadaverous B1 battle droid partially assembled on the table. There's a snap and a flash of sparks, and the head pops right off! Flibby jerks his head around, "That was noisier than I thought! Do you see anyone coming?" While our hero checks, he tucks the lightsaber handle into some oil rag wrappings and into a hollow rocket tube casing. As he was anticipating -- it's a deal! Without examining the device any further, and honoring Flibby's insistence that they not risk firing it up again, our hero purchases the device for a not-inconsiderable sum, and the rocket tube goes into the cart with the other innocent explosives.

Flibby, much richer, bids our hero fond farewell. (And the other players are squirming around the table and hiding their faces, as I've been really hamming Flibby up.)

And then our hero gets back to the ship, narrowly avoiding encounters with some patrols (at least he has the sense NOT to be obviously carting around crates full of explosives without fear that someone might ask him uncomfortable questions on where he got them). The captain asks what's in the boxes, and when he's told, "THERMAL DETONATORS," the captain demands to check and make sure these things are properly packed, because the crate sure DOES NOT look like it's heavily armored or even padded.

The captain's Streetwise, Kn (Underworld) and Perception are a bit better. He persuades our hero to actually open up one of these detonators to see what's in it.

Huh. Some cheap noisemaker fireworks and a bunch of spare bolts and wires. And the next one? Same deal. And so on. Well, at least he got a gen-u-ine LIGHTSABER out of it!

Genuine lightsaber TOY, that is -- just like the captain's. Now he has a pair!

The captain was actually relieved not to have a crate full of thermal detonators loaded onto his ship, but our hero was a bit less charitable.

Alas, when he headed back through the city ... Flibby was gone. Much of his stock had been abandoned, but it wasn't worth even a fraction as much as our hero had SPENT buying faux explosives. And, no, the warehouse wasn't his, nor was the starship parked nearby.

On the positive side, our hero gained a new motivation -- to track down this "Flibby Nightsider" and exact VENGEANCE! He promptly described him to the others ... at which point the others were wincing because, after all, there was no proof Flibby was really an Ubese at all (I mean, we know the disguise worked for Princess Leia, right? ) or that this was his real name.

Not that this stopped our hero from shooting the first Ubese he saw on Nar Shaddaa with a heavy repeating blaster without first confirming identity, because -- UBESE! Oops. Mistaken identity, after all.

The real stinker of it was that I had an Ubese pop up because I was going to provide an opportunity for the PC to TALK to the Ubese and find out what a real Ubese is like, and thus clue in on that "Flibby is not really Ubese," since the other PCs flat-out SAYING as much apparently was not persuasive enough. Another PC with the requisite skills did some asking around and got a possible lead on a con artist whose MO sounded suspiciously similar to "Flibby," but there was more serious business to tend to at the moment, so it didn't get pursued right away.

(The PCs had finally put away enough money to buy an "Imperial refit" Gozanti cruiser, and were having it fixed up. Alas, some Rebels got in a firefight with some Imperials and decided to steal this obviously "Imperial" craft -- it was still painted Imperial grey -- and thus it was a very pressing matter for our heroes to GET IT BACK....)

I figured that at some point in the future, the hero WOULD get a chance for payback against "Flibby," perhaps by calling in some favors after doing some jobs for better-connected patrons. But now, with the random blasting of a complete stranger ... well, it was the nastiest part of Nar Shaddaa, I suppose, so there's no guarantee of extra karma, but it's just not the sort of behavior that's conducive to gathering information and making friends, ya know?

... and that's about it.

"Flibby" is not Ubese. He's a bit cocky, going by aliases such as "Veela Deela," "Bayton Swi T'cha," "Shella Gamma," "Fingrin Ondascale," etc. He routinely dresses up in spacer costumes that conceal his true appearance, and specializes in gear such as explosives that would be a bit impractical for a dubious buyer to TEST on the spot. He has some crafting skill, as he re-purposes parts from common appliances and droid models to look passable as explosives for the uninitiated. Anyone who has any brains where explosives are concerned aren't going to be doing their shopping in a street market anyway.

Flibby is probably too "clever" for his own good, and if the PCs take too long going about it, he's going to be ALREADY DEAD by the time our heroes catch up with him. He wasn't meant to be that great of a challenge, and if the PC had passed any of his tests in the middle of the encounter, he would've caught on to something being up, and gotten a chance to beat the merchant to a pulp or extort some compensation out of him or whatever. I wasn't too attached to a desired outcome. (I try not to be, as players and dice are naturally unpredictable and tend to mess with plans.)

In any case, I don't plan on pulling the same stunt twice -- I'll consider the group sufficiently educated (most of the players were already), and unlikely to be quite as gullible next time around, so we can just stick to the basic Rarity and gear purchase rules (with Rarity modified by my judgement of how likely the thing is to be found in the location, if applicable).

"Flibby" is not Ubese. He's a bit cocky, going by aliases such as "Veela Deela," "Bayton Swi T'cha," "Shella Gamma," "Fingrin Ondascale," etc.

What? Me a thief? Of course not! And I've got the Deception skill to prove it! (YYYG)