Yet again, its me!

In one of my other threads, someone mentioned Genelocks and Self Destruct to curtain my groups incessant looting.

The thought has just occurred to me...

As soon as ive done that one... my group will become VERY specific that they NEVER touch the grips of the weapons, will loot them anyway, and then my tech will declare he can 'remove the genelock'.

How do you combat that kind of thinking?

As soon as ive done that one... my group will become VERY specific that they NEVER touch the grips of the weapons, will loot them anyway

Well, you might get more than 1 try out of it. They might not pick up on why it exploded the first time. And I certainly wouldn't just tell them why it happened OOC.

And I wouldn't put it on ****-standard blaster pistols, but highly-modded, rare and/or expensive custom weapons? Hell yeah.

Then there's the situation of who exactly is going to buy a weapon with a cracked gene-lock on it? That's clearly stolen goods and may not even be truly usable by anyone else, ever.

On the flip side, maybe give them something so they're not quite so hungry that they engage in this kind of looting. Maybe make their payouts a bit bigger. I dunno. Only you know if being a little less hungry and getting some of the gear they want would either curtail this behavior or worsen it.

Knowing my players, I could give them a wind fall of a million credits, and they will STILL loot everything they can get their grubby paws on.

Knowing my players, I could give them a wind fall of a million credits, and they will STILL loot everything they can get their grubby paws on.

I don't really know what to tell you in that case. If their actions are bothering you so much (and it seems like they are, from the other threads you've opened), they're unrepentant about their attitudes after talking to them and their behavior has become a point where you're trying to outmaneuver each other (given how it's impossible to totally outmaneuver a GM if you truly want to be ruthless, but that can cause a whole other set of issues that spills into OOC)....is it really worth it to keep running this game?

Genelock can certainly be removed. It's designed to prevent immediate use by unauthorized users, but it wont stop somebody from stripping down the weapon, taking the genelock out, and reassembling the weapon with a standard safety.

Its really only one player, and I have tried to talk to him.

I will try and talk to him again, since ive not seen him in a week.

However, part of the issue may well be my GMing, which is why I am looking for advice. I've realised that I am probably giving them an easy ride on many things, and this could well be the source of the problem. I am not the most experienced GM, and my groups previous games have been very different style.

However, if it really does stop being enjoyable, I will be pulling the plug. Which unfortunately, will means its the second time I have dropped alot of cash on a system, that never gets used.

Using gene locks to combat looting is not a smart idea. It is passive-aggressive and shouldn't have any place in your relationship with your players.

Gene locking a very specific item is fine. But using it to "trap" your looting players is just a really crap thing to do. In addition to the passive-aggressive adversarial nature of the "trick," like you point out, it's only gonna work once and then you're back to square one.

Additionally, the exploding gene lock thing is only supposed to happen if an unauthorized person tries to *use* the item, not just if someone picks it up.

There's lots of good advice floating around for stopping looting. I missed your original topic, but I'll see if I can scrounge up some old pointers I found helpful as a budding GM in Saga Edition.

If they're making too much money salvaging weapons, make NPCs rely on talents to be effective in combat instead of weapons.

Alternatively, give them a very large, dangerous and illegal weapon (of a type they don't use) as loot, and have ISB track them down when they sell it.

Using gene locks to combat looting is not a smart idea. It is passive-aggressive and shouldn't have any place in your relationship with your players.

Gene locking a very specific item is fine. But using it to "trap" your looting players is just a really crap thing to do. In addition to the passive-aggressive adversarial nature of the "trick," like you point out, it's only gonna work once and then you're back to square one.

Additionally, the exploding gene lock thing is only supposed to happen if an unauthorized person tries to *use* the item, not just if someone picks it up

There's lots of good advice floaton ng around for stopping looting. I missed your original topic, but I'll see if I can scrounge up some old pointers I find helpful as a budding GM in Saga Edition.

Its the one title Wealth Obsessed Players, or similar, on the first or second page.

This idea was actually put forth in one of those replies.

I certainly wouldnt put it on a bog standard blaster, no. I was possibly thinking of throwing a fancy weapon on Dobah in the final fight.

Maybe its extreme, but theres plenty to come before that, so it may well be a last resort before the big "This is not what I want to run... and I wont run it if you just want a Monty Hall" speech

If they're making too much money salvaging weapons, make NPCs rely on talents to be effective in combat instead of weapons.

Alternatively, give them a very large, dangerous and illegal weapon (of a type they don't use) as loot, and have ISB track them down when they sell it.

While I love this idea, I dont have the capability to make something up that would work. I am reliant on prewritten material, as I dont have the talent to write anything decent to 'run' as an encounter like this.

Knowing my players, I could give them a wind fall of a million credits, and they will STILL loot everything they can get their grubby paws on.

What's their motivation? There's a reason for it. what is it? The better we ID it, the better we can attack it.

If they're making too much money salvaging weapons, make NPCs rely on talents to be effective in combat instead of weapons.

Alternatively, give them a very large, dangerous and illegal weapon (of a type they don't use) as loot, and have ISB track them down when they sell it.

While I love this idea, I dont have the capability to make something up that would work. I am reliant on prewritten material, as I dont have the talent to write anything decent to 'run' as an encounter like this.

You've got an entire forums' worth of people more then happy to help you. Make use of us.

Sometimes it's as simple as addin an extra skill rank or minion to the group. Other times it might just be a need to adjust tactics. It's amazing the effect a pair of smoke grenades can have on a firefight if one side it composed of aliens that can see through it, or are stormtroopers with helmet packages....

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

There's a bunch of ways to stop this:

1) Start treating everything he picks up as stolen or at least really sketchy, this works really well in a campaign where you bump into Imperials a lot. In my game the Boss NPC flat out told and continues to tell the PC's "no scavenging or reselling or using Imperial Tech, it draws too much heat." And it does. The Empire thinks absolutely nothing of tossing one of its subjects into a slam for a few years for possession of a piece of proprietary tech. The Empire isn't uniform in its application of justice, it's certainly not fair and its almost always excessive - ESPECIALLY if the offender's a non-human. One of the bigger reasons the Empire has such a strong prison industrial complex is because its penal system is where it gets a lot of its slave labor - and the Empire LOVES its slave labor.

This has all sorts of follow-on implications, the most notable of which is the fact that most merchants won't touch Imperial tech either. And the ones who do will maybe offer him ten cents on the credit to take the stuff off his hands - and the REALLY shady ones will buy the stuff then squeal to the Imperials and give you up for a reward!

2) Now if the looter doesn't touch Imperial Tech that's easy too, you can still teach him some really nasty lessons. For one thing, the game system pretty much makes modding weapons and other stuff an always-do - which means that their stuff gets recognized, and again, scrupulous merchants won't touch it because they're pretty sure its stolen, and - again - the ones that will likely won't pay much.

Don't let the players wave the price list under your nose. You're the Game Official, you stand at God's right hand, you decide what a merchant's willing to pay or not pay. And by extension if you want the looter to stop looting you have to make it unprofitable and perhaps even painful to do so. I guarantee you that one situation where a powerful Guild Bounty Hunter has lent his good blaster to his kid brother and now gets a call from a loyal merchant that some schlubb has come in to sell him that blaster - with suspicious blood stains on it - boy believe me your Locust player will start to think twice about grabbing everything in sight.

The other option is to take the guy aside when nobody else is around and tell him flat out that he's being a pain in the keester. He won't like it, but it's not about just what he likes.

Never forget, collaborative storytelling aside, you're in the center chair, it's your game, you call the ball.

Why would players argue the confiscation of ill-gotten weapons?

Also, would it stop just at confiscation? I might teacher it a step further and arrest the whole crew if they possessed stormtrooper gear or equally restricted stuff.

Well, you should remember that simply because a player character's WT is exceeded, they don't die - they're knocked out. You have to attain specific high-level critical results to kill them.

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

Sounds like there's a few points to work here really.

Just something different off the cuff... if you are willing to work on writing your own adventure or two, why not use the loot for something? I'm going a little shadowrun here, but can you have an adventure where the players need something specific that isn't a weapon or tool. Like a passcard, or piece of jewelry, or transponder, and have it be something that is just plain totally out of their price range. Buuuuut the guy that has it is willing to accept all that extra loot in trade?

Poof, it's gone, and the players are happy because they got use out of it.

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

Sounds like there's a few points to work here really.

Just something different off the cuff... if you are willing to work on writing your own adventure or two, why not use the loot for something? I'm going a little shadowrun here, but can you have an adventure where the players need something specific that isn't a weapon or tool. Like a passcard, or piece of jewelry, or transponder, and have it be something that is just plain totally out of their price range. Buuuuut the guy that has it is willing to accept all that extra loot in trade?

Poof, it's gone, and the players are happy because they got use out of it.

Becuase I would have to write in something complicated that would stop my players taking the "Shoot him and Loot him" path.

That's a problem though, what if he doesn't have said macguffin. He only knows the location, or it's safely locked away, or he's a powerful crime lord with a whole team of enforcers guarding him and doesn't do business without his protection around.

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

Sounds like there's a few points to work here really.

Just something different off the cuff... if you are willing to work on writing your own adventure or two, why not use the loot for something? I'm going a little shadowrun here, but can you have an adventure where the players need something specific that isn't a weapon or tool. Like a passcard, or piece of jewelry, or transponder, and have it be something that is just plain totally out of their price range. Buuuuut the guy that has it is willing to accept all that extra loot in trade?

Poof, it's gone, and the players are happy because they got use out of it.

Becuase I would have to write in something complicated that would stop my players taking the "Shoot him and Loot him" path.

Give him hutt ties and a few witnesses.

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

Sounds like there's a few points to work here really.

Just something different off the cuff... if you are willing to work on writing your own adventure or two, why not use the loot for something? I'm going a little shadowrun here, but can you have an adventure where the players need something specific that isn't a weapon or tool. Like a passcard, or piece of jewelry, or transponder, and have it be something that is just plain totally out of their price range. Buuuuut the guy that has it is willing to accept all that extra loot in trade?

Poof, it's gone, and the players are happy because they got use out of it.

Becuase I would have to write in something complicated that would stop my players taking the "Shoot him and Loot him" path.

Make him a Hutt, tie a couple of the party obligations to him by means of NPC's around him or in his gang.

When they go to see the Hutt don't have him in the local bar, have him in his palace:

"You approach the gates by foot, landing on or inside the compound would have been suicide due to the 4 Turrets with Dual Heavy Ion Cannons on them. Once at the gates your greeted by a Burly Trandoshan wielding a Heavy Repeating Blaster, and a Twi'leck in Fine Robes, inside the gates you see dozens of armoured Gamorrans Training with their Rifles and Vibro Axes. one things for sure there are a lot of People in this Palace. As your lead through the compound your checked at 5 different checkpoints, all maned by guards, slowly working your way towards the centre of the Humongous building. At what you guess is final checkpoint, close to where you think the Hutt must be, your asked to surrender your weapons, placing them in storage lockers to one side."

i fthey want to guess how many people are in the complex, tell them its probably in the high hundreds, maybe even a thousand... and they are all armed.

Edit: You can easily break up the description so as not to overwhelm them

@Ghostofmen

Its what they have always done.

They take everything they can possible carry, every single time they can.

I have a number of ideas from previous threads (This is one), that I am going to try. But this one required abit more thought, hence the new topic.

But they are slowly creating a stockpile of weapons, so even if they cannot sell them, they will never be short of spares. They will have all the cash they get from Bounties and the like to upgrade things, and they will rapidly become something I cannot combat without throwing some really BIG nasties at them... which they will either all die (Game Over) or beat, then loot, and problem increased.

Push comes to shove, I may have them customs inspected and have everything siezed, but I know this will likely result in a massive argument (Game Over).

Sounds like there's a few points to work here really.

Just something different off the cuff... if you are willing to work on writing your own adventure or two, why not use the loot for something? I'm going a little shadowrun here, but can you have an adventure where the players need something specific that isn't a weapon or tool. Like a passcard, or piece of jewelry, or transponder, and have it be something that is just plain totally out of their price range. Buuuuut the guy that has it is willing to accept all that extra loot in trade?

Poof, it's gone, and the players are happy because they got use out of it.

Becuase I would have to write in something complicated that would stop my players taking the "Shoot him and Loot him" path.

Actually it's easy (and also why we are here, to help you come up with something).

The item they need is a special biometeric passcard and authenticator. The person that has it: A forger, a good one.

He doesn't actually have it, he just has all the supplies and connections to make one. So the players pay him, and over the next three days he brings them in one by one, and does a full set of rather invasive tests, scans, and measurements. Somewhere along the line a bunch of guys come and pick up the loots and leave.

"Oh, but what's to prevent the players from just pulling their blasters on the forger and forcing him to make the cards for free"

:

The Forger looks at you with a half smile... "Oh I am? or what? You blast me? Please like I've never heard that before... Lets say I do? What's to stop me from inserting an alert system into the pass codes that'll activate the disruptor array? Or are you going to just make the passcards yourself? Even if you did, this is just half the process, without my connections you'll never get the handshake codes inserted into the authentication center on site, and you'll be looking at a disruptor array again. And besides, I've got an insurance policy. If a death certificate or missing persons report for me shows up on the local enforcement net, an offsite server will automatically kick out a 50,000 credit bounty on whoever killed me. You'll be meevonks deep in bounty hunters befor you can say 'frell.' ... Now where were we. Oh yeah, you need passcards made, and you were just explaining how you were going to pay an additional ,5,000 credits as an apology for being so rude to me."

You guys are lovely

I need to friend some of you!

I will report back after (hopefully) Tuesdays session to let you know how it went. (Trouble Brewing... thats the Adventure... but could also be other things.... how ironic)

As soon as ive done that one... my group will become VERY specific that they NEVER touch the grips of the weapons, will loot them anyway, and then my tech will declare he can 'remove the genelock'.

How do you combat that kind of thinking?

Any attempt to remove the genelock is an identical action to the attempt to use the weapon without deactivating the genelock. And maybe the thing has a micro-thermal detonator explosive inside?

How many times does your tech want to get himself killed and blown up and blasted out into space through the hole that he just punched in the side of the ship?

More importantly, what about all his other gear that just got destroyed by the genelock detonation?

Demolitions is based on Mechanics in this system, so disarming explosives isn't really out of the question for a tech-oriented PC.

Okay, I got one for you. So, they grab blasters off of corpses, and then throw it on the pile of blasters on the ship and just leave it? Fantastic.

They kill and loot a courier for the Empire who was transporting secret documents - serious, big time Death Star Plans level of top secret, like proof that the Emperor was behind everything or something - and it was in a microdot hidden inside a perfectly ordinary blaster. That blaster, worth more than all the tea in china, is wanted by everyone - Hutts. Rebels, CSA, The Empire, Black Sun, Deathwatch, the Boy Scouts - EVERYONE. Suddenly they are attacked at every turn, regular contacts want nothing to do with them, there's a huge bounty on their heads, and they find themselves on the Public Enemy #1-4 spots . . . and they have no idea why.

****EDIT****

Oh, and I dont know if I mentioned this before - before you wheel out all these genetraps and make them wary of looted goodies, try this one out: that's not a Lightsaber, that's just a Thermal Detonator that looks like a lightsaber.

What's the first thing any player is probably going to do with a saber? Turn it on and go cool, right. Well, blow off his arm for his troubles. Cybernetics are cheap!