Droid Razor. If You Can Help, Please do

I've Turned Off Auto Correct, Auto Cap, Swipe, But That Didn't Work Here Anyway, And Auto Punctuation

got it. I had to get them to reset my phone! woot! no more auto cap with every word!

I've got a loot table you can check out on my blog (link in signature) that may be helpful if the players are hell-bent on looting...

Holy webpage batman! You sure have an epic list of everything! This will definitely make my job easier in the future, thanks!

Thank you everyone for the excellent ideas! I think I will have to pick and choose some of the ideas, like booby-trapping the bodies to suppress looting, add time crunches to the time they have after an encounter, destroying their weapons with multiple despairs, adding weapon modification, and using encumbrance as a deterrent to hold too many items.

With all of these new ideas I think it will really help with being able to keep them where I want them to be equipment-wise. Since I don't have the CRB yet, can anyone tell me what the typical encum rating is for humans and wookiees? I have the GM screen so all the weapons show the encum rating and I have found some others listed on various fan websites.

"Characters have an 'encumbrance threshold' of 5 plus their Brawn rating, which limits how much they can carry under normal conditions and without penalty. A total encumbrance value over the threshold means the hero is 'encumbered.' and suffers one [sB] to all Agility and Brawn rolls for every point of encumbrance over his limit. This is cumulative with any [sB] dice suffered for strain or other conditions, should any be in play." (EotE CRB p152)

There's more penalties for higher and higher encumbrance, but this is the basics. Many pieces of equipment add to the encumbrance threshold so players can actually carry stuff. However, getting over a 20 encumbrance requires a lot of gear from a lot of different sources -- and that's one of the first things my characters buy.

Ubiquitous use of expensive options such as Gene-Lock should not be common place. Standard issue battlefield/military equipment, on purpose, doesn't have any kind of security like that. Tanks, Hummvees and the like don't have keys, they just have an on button. The reason is, on the battlefield, any soldier, at any time, might be pressed into service to pick up a weapon or drive a vehicle. They may not be trained on it or as proficient with it as they could be, but in combat, necessity trumps safety.

Now, for special-issue 'top secret' or advanced weapons, gene lock to your heart's content. However, a standard Stormtrooper rifle should be able to be used by just about anyone.

Umm, I am pretty sure all the Humvees they had in my unit had keys. Sorry but you are 100% wrong there. Even when I was in Iraq they had keys.

I can't speak to what they have today, I can only speak to what they had when I was in (1996-1998). In our units, everything was pushbutton on. 'course, we had a lot of junk leftover from Gulf 1 and even some stuff from 'nam, so it might have been upgraded in the years since.

I guess the irony here is that your comment and mine showed that the military learned the lesson of not doing this. Which means it is very likely in a crazy tyranny it is likely they were super paranoid too, which could mean they lock things, and use gene locks because they don't trust even their own units.

I'm going to second the 'no keys' thing. Sure, you signed out keys from the motor pool, but those were for the locks on the door, not to start the actual vehicle.

Ubiquitous use of expensive options such as Gene-Lock should not be common place. Standard issue battlefield/military equipment, on purpose, doesn't have any kind of security like that. Tanks, Hummvees and the like don't have keys, they just have an on button. The reason is, on the battlefield, any soldier, at any time, might be pressed into service to pick up a weapon or drive a vehicle. They may not be trained on it or as proficient with it as they could be, but in combat, necessity trumps safety.

Now, for special-issue 'top secret' or advanced weapons, gene lock to your heart's content. However, a standard Stormtrooper rifle should be able to be used by just about anyone.

Umm, I am pretty sure all the Humvees they had in my unit had keys. Sorry but you are 100% wrong there. Even when I was in Iraq they had keys.

I can't speak to what they have today, I can only speak to what they had when I was in (1996-1998). In our units, everything was pushbutton on. 'course, we had a lot of junk leftover from Gulf 1 and even some stuff from 'nam, so it might have been upgraded in the years since.

I guess the irony here is that your comment and mine showed that the military learned the lesson of not doing this. Which means it is very likely in a crazy tyranny it is likely they were super paranoid too, which could mean they lock things, and use gene locks because they don't trust even their own units.

I'm going to second the 'no keys' thing. Sure, you signed out keys from the motor pool, but those were for the locks on the door, not to start the actual vehicle.

Every vehicle i drove or was driven in while in the air force in the US or deployed to iraq had keys to drive it. No push button start, keys. Even when I was working with army personnel there were keys to drive the vehicles.

Not sure if you had different vehicles that we had access to, but apparently we had different experiences while in uniform. That does not make my comment / observations invalid. So I reaffirm the "keys are a standard military thing for operating a military vehicle".

The back and forth over it is a bit annoying and wastes the time of every reader.

Every vehicle i drove or was driven in while in the air force in the US or deployed to iraq had keys to drive it. No push button start, keys. Even when I was working with army personnel there were keys to drive the vehicles.

Not sure if you had different vehicles that we had access to, but apparently we had different experiences while in uniform. That does not make my comment / observations invalid. So I reaffirm the "keys are a standard military thing for operating a military vehicle".

The back and forth over it is a bit annoying and wastes the time of every reader.

I don't believe anyone said your comment was invalid. I'm also sorry you find my, and presumably Braendig's, differing experiences annoying - this is in no way a personal attack against you. You are, of course, free to run your games however you and your players enjoy. That said, by the same token, your differing experience does nothing to diminish anyone elses' observations or experiences, correct?

However - my experience was that non civilian ground vehicles - IE HMMWVs both up-armored and otherwise, and even fixed wing aircraft, required keys to gain entry to the vehicle but not for the operation of it, where the engine was started in both cases with toggle switches.

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I had a somewhat similar problem initially with my players, in that they wanted to grab everything from corpses both to better arm themselves, and to sell. I had luck solving the problem by first enforcing encumbrance, and two, suggesting that using obviously Imperial equipment would be suspicious (my party is 100% non-human). Your millage may vary, but you might also want to ask them, out of character, why they want to loot everyone. If it's for wealth or gear "to stay competitive", you might try adjusting the payout of your adventures.

Guys, I'd like to suggest that whatever real militaries do or don't do isn't especially relevant to the discussion, maybe we could drop that part of the discussion?

In Star Wars nobody seems to lock their vehicles, based on what we see in the stories. Personally that's how I run it in my games. A ship or vehicle is only 'locked' if the story has a powerful need for it to be locked.

Taking 2 views of the real world military showing differing methods of handling the lock situation = perfectly valid as a way to punctuate that using a lock and/or key is possible. Also when I pointed out about how it is entirely possible with the tyranny of the empire they are extremely paranoid locks are valid even gene locks.

Never said I use them or that anyone should really. I was commenting on the likelihood of them being available due to someone commenting that overusing an "expensive mod" isn't realistic. Real world experiences say it is entirely realistic which makes transitioning to a fake universe easier.

The "argument" part of the conversation is counter productive, I agree, and I stated as much in my reply.

I've got a loot table you can check out on my blog (link in signature) that may be helpful if the players are hell-bent on looting...

Bookmarked! You have a huge amount of useful info there. Though I'll try to discourage D&D style looting, if I let them loot something your tables are a great place to start.

got it. I had to get them to reset my phone! woot! no more auto cap with every word!

I'm so disappointed that I can only click "Like" once for this.

I want to echo the thanks for advice on discouraging looting. Reinforcements coming around will be a big one, wary glances for carrying the odd/rare items and signature gear from others like Stormtroopers, and modifications to their "favorite" weapon will be a good reason to leave the garbage on the corpses. Encumbrance and little value selling salvaged stuff I was already planning on using.

I've got a loot table you can check out on my blog (link in signature) that may be helpful if the players are hell-bent on looting...

Bookmarked! You have a huge amount of useful info there. Though I'll try to discourage D&D style looting, if I let them loot something your tables are a great place to start.

got it. I had to get them to reset my phone! woot! no more auto cap with every word!

I'm so disappointed that I can only click "Like" once for this.

I want to echo the thanks for advice on discouraging looting. Reinforcements coming around will be a big one, wary glances for carrying the odd/rare items and signature gear from others like Stormtroopers, and modifications to their "favorite" weapon will be a good reason to leave the garbage on the corpses. Encumbrance and little value selling salvaged stuff I was already planning on using.

npc: "how much for this rock?"

me: "5,000 credits, and your watch"

npc:" sold." as he's walking away "heh heh. I ripped her off."

Umm, I am pretty sure all the Humvees they had in my unit had keys. Sorry but you are 100% wrong there. Even when I was in Iraq they had keys.

No keys in mine either. Unless you count the key to the padlock for the steering wheel locking cable. "Tanks" didn't have ignition keys either.

Edit: Sorry replied on page 1 before reading the rest of the above posts.

Regarding clothing and armor loot, you can always just tell them it doesn't fit.

This works especially well if they are non-humans. My droid player is the worst at trying to loot every last item. I often have to remind him that his metal body cannot fit into armor designed for humans or organics. At one point, I allowed him to wear human armor, but the padding and fabric got caught up in his mechanical joints, it was pretty funny.

npc: "how much for this rock?"

me: "5,000 credits, and your watch"

npc:" sold." as he's walking away "heh heh. I ripped her off."

9little value selling I could get around. I'm a zeltron face with the trader specialization

Trader is nice. Entrepreneur with Unmatched Expertise is nicer.

Me: "Mighty Jabba, I know that my debt with you is nine months outstanding and that your wrath is terrible indeed. Please allow me to offer you this finest sand, harvested from the long lost mythical Sand Fields of Jabutu. You will never find a finer, more pleasing silica anywhere in the universe. I'm sure that these six tons will more than make up for our debt, plus a nice bonus of - oh, say 10,000 credits?."

GM: "That's a pretty tough con job. Why don't we call that a difficulty of . . . "

Me: *flips two destiny points*

GM: " . . . a difficulty of easy."

Me: "Here, why don't I just remove these three setback die while I'm at it. . . . "

I know that trying to use interaction skills against the Hutt Crime Lord in the core rulebook has a horrendous Difficulty.

The way I run looting in my campaign is to have armour and clothes either not fit, or be destroyed when the wearer is blasted. It keeps things from getting ridiculous; stripping a dead guy naked to wear his armour is not particularly heroic or even practical from a real-life perspective.

When it comes to other equipment, it's all up for grabs. If your players is making away with loads of awesome weaponry I'd advice you to give NPCs basic, unmodified gear only. If the stats of said gear isn't good enough, there's a multitude of talents that increase damage, decrease Advantage costs and otherwise adjust equipment stats without actually modifying the equipment. An NPC with a Jury Rigged blaster pistol and the Deadly Accuracy talent can be very dangerous even if he's wielding a vanilla blaster pistol.

And like others have said before me: count the Encumbrance of EVERYTHING the players are carrying. And then have them run into another combat encounter on their way back to their ship with their arms full of loot. Or even better, put them in a chase with their arms full of loot. Make them work hard to get those 10 blaster rifles back home with them.

The way I squashed this was a little more devious. I let them collect it all, lug it around, find a shop that took trade-ins...and then the shopkeeper lost his mind.

PC1: Hello, sir, we'd like to sell you some salvage.

NPC: Ah, excellent. I'm sure you know my rule on trade-ins, yes?

PC2: what.

NPC: No more than 25% original cost!

PC1: Ugh. (ooc) Do you not want us to sell these?

Me: No, please, go ahead.

PC2: We accept these terms. <upends duffel bag of E-11s onto the table>

NPC: WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? AIYAH!!! GET OUT!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!! THIEVES!!! MURDERERS!!! HELP!!! HELP!!! CALL THE MAGISTRATE, CALL THE ARMY, HELP!!!

As for getting rid of an already-existing horde of powerful/expensive loot, I'd recommend not compensating using arbitrary or implausible disasters (like the cargo space they're in 'coincidentally' exploding). While you curb the active looting pandemic (through whatever means. I'd mix enforced encumbrance, concealment of weapons in a lawful environment, battle damage and reduced sale prices for hot items), explore some in-game consequences of owning all these weapons or other valuable items:

-An Imperial customs patrol may stop their ship and demand an inspection. Assuming they don't have time to properly hide the blasters from scanners, the Imps find them but their corrupt Customs agent offers to simply confiscate them, alongside a substantial 'handling fee'. This counters the possibility the PCs don't bother trying to sell illegal goods, and reminds them their actions don't exist in a vacuum but a living universe.

-Inform them that they've had time or a better opportunity to notice substantial damage on some of the items that wasn't clear before. Not all of them per se, just enough to trim the loot pile.

Now, if the PCs simply have enough looted rifles to arm their own party, you'd probably be fine leaving them be. Stormtrooper rifles aren't overpowered in the game and there's always need for small arms that can be taken into a upstanding establishment or fired with one hand. Truly powerful items being shown off publicly can be easily taken by thieves or law enforcement or simply lost in the heat of an encounter. Otherwise you can try throwing some tougher or smarter enemies at them to compensate for being now notorious as a well-armed group.

npc: "how much for this rock?"

me: "5,000 credits, and your watch"

npc:" sold." as he's walking away "heh heh. I ripped her off."

9little value selling I could get around. I'm a zeltron face with the trader specialization

Trader is nice. Entrepreneur with Unmatched Expertise is nicer.

Me: "Mighty Jabba, I know that my debt with you is nine months outstanding and that your wrath is terrible indeed. Please allow me to offer you this finest sand, harvested from the long lost mythical Sand Fields of Jabutu. You will never find a finer, more pleasing silica anywhere in the universe. I'm sure that these six tons will more than make up for our debt, plus a nice bonus of - oh, say 10,000 credits?."

GM: "That's a pretty tough con job. Why don't we call that a difficulty of . . . "

Me: *flips two destiny points*

GM: " . . . a difficulty of easy."

Me: "Here, why don't I just remove these three setback die while I'm at it. . . . "

In case any GMs are suddenly worried about such an abuse happening in their game, you do have the option of deciding that selling a Hutt sand for 10,000 plus forgiveness of all debts is an "Impossible Task". (Sidebar on p.18 of Edge of the Empire) This requires spending a Destiny to even attempt it, with a formidable (5 purple) difficulty, and the player "also may not spend any additional Destiny Points on the check." I'm not sure if it says anywhere that Signature Abilities can override that rule, but it seems to me that the Destiny cost is there to limit such craziness.

Personally, I do try to let players use abilities they've invested XP in. So, if the players wanted to try this, they could do some legwork first. They could start rumors among the Hutt's agents about mystical properties of the sand, plant false records of failed expeditions to find the "lost civilization of Jabutu" etc. Now it becomes just barely plausible, getting rid of that Destiny Point barrier, and the Signature ability can be used. This makes the ability more narrative, and the groundwork could involve other players as well. The Slicer could plant information, and the Doctor could create a "sample" that causes the Hutt to experience phenomenal cosmic (hallucinated) powers.

I've mentioned this counter to looting before. The game is open ended and the players have choices. If they decide to loot, there's nothing saying they can't.

The GM has choices, too, and is under no obligation to keep the rest of the world static while the players do what they do. This goes along with using the time taken to deter looting.

Let's say the players have tracked down the hideout of a rival cartel. There is a huge bounty on the leader. That should be their target. If they stop and loot after every encounter, the run the risk of their quarry escaping. The mistake I used to make was playing it like the typical Dungeon crawl or video game, where encounters are triggered when the party enters a certain area. That's the benefit of a live GM over a pre-programmed game. It gives players more choices, but those choices also have more consequences. It might mean postponing (or just plain discarding) that dramatic confrontation with the villain that you had planned, but in the long run, it will be worth it.

On the topic of looting bodies. Mostly I've talked out of game to my players about the feel of the story. Looting corpses and stripping armor is not a part of the game I wanted to explore as a GM.

One tactic I have employed in the past was the ship impoundments.

Either due to either the PCs behavior in a past game, threat, or despair, have the PCs ship get impounded. This works best when they're away from the ship on a mission and the PCs have a load of contraband on board. At that point the security forces have every right to compensate their ill-gotten booty and depending on the goods on the ship, can get them deeper into trouble. Before I had the talk, my PCs were waste deep into carbines, blaster rifles, and laminate armor. They were lucky to get their wayfarer back after that.

After hearing all the punitive and reactionary measures advocated here, I feel that I must reiterate that the players haven't done anything wrong. Gear taken from enemies is a staple of practically all RPGs and EotE (and FFG SW in general) is no exception.

That said, there are plenty of reasonable in-game and mechanical challenges to being a bunch of murder hobos. As has been said before, ENCUMBRANCE is top among them. If you ever have the opportunity, try grabbing half a dozen pistols and carrying them around without some way to secure them. Now try it with have a dozen rifles. It's -hard- and they get in the way of doing things reasonably well -- further, it's patently obvious that you have a bunch of guns.

Now imagine walking down the street of a major city or town doing that. How long do you think it'll take for the cops to show up?

Translate this to Star Wars and, while heavily armed and armored people are much more common, they still get noticed by the 'authorities'. Perhaps they need to pay some credits for permits or perhaps they get some of that gear confiscated and are given a claim tickets. Perhaps they know about this and have to leave it on the ship. All of these can serve as reasons to deny the party access to resources or present them a challenge in order for those resources to be available.

If you have the time, read some of the Shadowrun GM guidelines and suggestions. I've found those to be very good as to how to limit 'opportunistic' parties.

The way I squashed this was a little more devious. I let them collect it all, lug it around, find a shop that took trade-ins...and then the shopkeeper lost his mind.

PC1: Hello, sir, we'd like to sell you some salvage.

NPC: Ah, excellent. I'm sure you know my rule on trade-ins, yes?

PC2: what.

NPC: No more than 25% original cost!

PC1: Ugh. (ooc) Do you not want us to sell these?

Me: No, please, go ahead.

PC2: We accept these terms. <upends duffel bag of E-11s onto the table>

NPC: WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? AIYAH!!! GET OUT!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!! THIEVES!!! MURDERERS!!! HELP!!! HELP!!! CALL THE MAGISTRATE, CALL THE ARMY, HELP!!!

Oooh, I got a better idea - play out the above, but instead of the shop owner freaking out, he slips into the back to make a discrete call to the local garrison, picking up a very sweet reward for turning in terrorists. Next thing the PCs know, the shop is surrounded by a walkers and platoon of Stormtroopers.