Perhaps the rules are intended to encourage looting, just as they are intended to make it hard for PCs to die. Sure, you can fight the rules, but that doesn't mean that you should.

My complaint with that is it sounds like it would make it harder for the GM to actively push a couple of the themes of the game: if you're living on the fringe of society, you should be (1) scrambling for money and never complacent about it; and (2) you should be hungry.

Okay. Players are hungry for credits and scrambling for money. Just like heroin junkies. Why does it break the spirit of your campaign that players, when put in that situation with that same level of motivation, behave in the same way that junkies behave (stealing everything that's not bolted down and selling it to fences for pennies)?

The more you punish players for adapting to the lack of money by trying to take things that have value, the greater a problem you're creating.

GIVE THEM AN ALTERNATIVE REVENUE STREAM AND THEY WON'T CARE ABOUT LOOT! (in 99% of cases)

People are smart, give your players credit for being intelligent enough to step over the pennies to avoid pissing off the guy who's giving them the hundreds.

If it's still an issue, TALK to them like they're adults and explain that whatever looting they do that doesn't directly help them with their missions (i.e. stealing a Lambda to impersonate Imperials) breaks what you consider to be the spirit of the game. If they still refuse to listen to you, then they're being assholes and should be treated as such.

When people argue that nobody would buy stolen goods, I have to refer them back the rules for finding buyers and selling such goods with Streetwise. There is no such thing that cannot be sold, but some buyers are harder to find than others. If you have a player with a high Cunning, several ranks in Streetwise, and a few ranks of Street Smarts, don't be surprised if they have little trouble finding someone that's willing to buy hot E-11s and Stormtrooper Armor.

This is certainly (in my opinion, anyway) an excellent example where the GM isn't bound by the rules. It doesn't matter how many ranks in deception/cunning your PC has, you can't convince Palpatine your PC is a long lost lost Sith lord and he should kneel before your power.

If selling the laminate armor and E11's fit the narrative of this particular session then obviously I have no issue with it. It's when the GM has an issue with it and the players EXPECT it that things quickly break down. It defies credulity that a shady middleman can watch a news vid about a firefight where a squad of imperial troopers are mowed down, to then purchase their amor/weapons later in the day. How does he profit? Who is going to be the buyer after the fact?

When the ISB investigates and they find the corpses SANS laminate and weapons, they are certainly going to start tracking them. There aren't enough setback dice in my bag to apply to the streetwise check your PC will need to make with that fence when troopers are kicking in doors throughout the sector.

Okay. Players are hungry for credits and scrambling for money. Just like heroin junkies. Why does it break the spirit of your campaign that players, when put in that situation with that same level of motivation, behave in the same way that junkies behave (stealing everything that's not bolted down and selling it to fences for pennies)?

The more you punish players for adapting to the lack of money by trying to take things that have value, the greater a problem you're creating.

GIVE THEM AN ALTERNATIVE REVENUE STREAM AND THEY WON'T CARE ABOUT LOOT! (in 99% of cases)

People are smart, give your players credit for being intelligent enough to step over the pennies to avoid pissing off the guy who's giving them the hundreds.

If it's still an issue, TALK to them like they're adults and explain that whatever looting they do that doesn't directly help them with their missions (i.e. stealing a Lambda to impersonate Imperials) breaks what you consider to be the spirit of the game. If they still refuse to listen to you, then they're being assholes and should be treated as such.

Okay. This is fair, actually. You're right. If they're broke and desperate, they're going to act like broke and desperate people do.

I'm really talking about the situation where (1) OOC talking doesn't work (generally the best place to start with this); (2) alt revenue streams don't work (they just want MOAR on top of what they get).

There have been several people on these boards with this very issue.

And yeah there is a weird, difficult line you want to set on where the players are getting revenue (and able to buy some stuff they want) but are still "hungry" for money as it were.