Hi,

Relatively new player and have a question about buying gear. It's clear that to locate items based on their rarity you make a skill check, Negotiation in the case of legal purchases and Streetwise in the case of illegal ones. What's not clear to me is the cost.

Under the Negotiation skill description, there is an implication that a Negotiation check can reduce the price of the purchased item: "Any time a character wishes to purchase goods or services, he must either pay the seller's asking price or utilize the Negotiation skill." There is no other sentence or further explanation as to how this might apply to buying items. For selling, it is stated that extra successes on a Negotiation check "may be used to increase the acting characters profit by 5% per success."

In the Gear section, pages 150-151, there is no description of buying item price being variable anywhere, although there is again a lot of discussion about PCs selling items and how skill checks may affect the sale price (2 successes to raise to half price, three to 3/4, etc.).

So how are you guys doing this, since it seems to be left up to the GM? Do you consider extra successes or advantage on the skill check made to locate the item and have those affect the price? Do you make a second skill check, one to locate the item and one to haggle for it? In either case how much do you allow list price to be reduced? Or do you always have PCs buy at exactly list price, and just have one skill check to locate the item?

I'm leaning towards two skill checks. One to locate the item (streetwise or negotiation), and one if they want to haggle that is opposed check against the seller, with the second check always being Negotiation regardless of whether item is black market or not.

I'm leaning towards two skill checks. One to locate the item (streetwise or negotiation), and one if they want to haggle that is opposed check against the seller, with the second check always being Negotiation regardless of whether item is black market or not.

This is more or less how I run it, except that extra successes, advantage, and threat on the check to find the item in the first place will affect the initial asking price, as well as the type of place they find the item. Some shops, particularly upscale ones, will not allow haggling on price. I like to mix it up and throw different kinds of NPCs in as shopkeeps to keep variety.

I wrap it all up in one roll. The roll will show the player, if they can get an item and at what cost. If they don't like it, they have to look further. Sometimes I will allow consecutive rolls, adding more and more Setbacks and increasing the search time with each additional roll, like 1 h for the 1st, then 2 h, then 4 h etc.

If at all possible, just use one roll. Rolling just to be able to make more rolls gets tedious really fast.

What HappyDaze said. I typically make my players roll only for the more obscure pieces of equipment, maybe 6 and up, and Restricted stuff. When it comes to paying for it I go with the listed price, no haggling. That's for personal equipment, of course; if they're buying in bulk for resale that's another story.

The one roll works well, and it makes a good negotiator all that much better if they can lower the price for even basic equipment. However I usually let the situation dictate if the advantages and threats will result in a cost in money or in time.

If my players are trying to get equipment for their raid in an hour then I usually have advantages mean they get it in less time (provided they succeed), and threats make it cost more (5% per threat), representing the seller having them over a barrel. Conversely if they have all day and do not need it and could walk away if the price is no good I have advantages reduce the cost (5% per), and threats represent that it's not available that day, but is coming in later (maybe half a day per threat delayed).

I do like how this system works out availability. After living in Seattle, then moving to Montana, you quickly understand the difference between something existing for sale, and your ability to find and buy it. I usually say that any item under 4 rarity (after modifications for location) is available for general purpose at cost and doesn`t require a roll. Simplifies things when you are in a core system and can just pop into the local star-mart for common goods, or out in the backwaters of dagobah where you couldn`t find a clean bottle of water for sale if you`re life depended on it.

If you have players with long lists (like mine often do), just pick the highest difficulty item, add one difficulty, and have them roll. I usually allow them to get some of the lesser items if they fail. Just a quick and dirty way to get through the often annoying part of equipping characters.

It depends on the circumstances but what I usually do is set a threshold for an item's cost.

If they fail the Negotiation check, they either can't find it or (depending on the item) they might be able to find it for twice its listed price. Otherwise I figure something like a base price if they get one success and maybe half the price if they get 4 or 5 success, with 2 or 3 successes falling somewhere in between.

I don't have them roll to find it. If they want something, they can have it. In many cases what I require is a slice of life role play scene posted on the Obsidian Portal site going through how they got it. For rarer items, I incorporate them into the story.

For example: the group managed to come by two imperial speeder bikes. Because these are restricted items, they had to find a contact willing to buy the goods from them. It ended up being at a Sabaac game where they negotiated over the sale of the bikes during the gambling. They also managed to find ancient Jedi pottery from a ruined temple on a jungle world. They have to find someone interested in purchasing Jedi relics. Not an easy task in this climate. They will need to do some networking and I'll incorporate the trail of bread crumbs throughout a few sessions, culminating in a collector willing to have a gallery of Jedi relics in an Empire that absolutely hates Jedi.

If they initiate a haggle, I have them roll negotiation.

I like that some items are hard to find and I wouldn't want to lose that. However, the system doesn't really work out as well as I'd like for having some things available as a given while others should just not be able to be bought simply because your Streetwise roll was amazing.

I like that some items are hard to find and I wouldn't want to lose that. However, the system doesn't really work out as well as I'd like for having some things available as a given while others should just not be able to be bought simply because your Streetwise roll was amazing.

You've always got the option to tell your players that the item can't be found where they are. If they really want it, they'll do whatever they can to get it, and that can be a plot hook for an adventure in itself. Maybe they need to raid a military supply depot to acquire that Sidewinder the Heavy wanted, or something like that.

Thanks for the replies guys!