How is searching for gear "as intended"?

The reason I ask this is that I've seen everyone try finding a specific item until someone rolled successfully and found it. Once he found it, he'd buy it for the person who was originally searching for it (but failed to find it).

I've also seen where whoever has the best stats for searching for gear rolls for everyone in the party.

Wouldn't the correct "as intended" way of searching for gear/stuff to buy, would be to have each individual person roll for what he/she is looking for and not have anyone else do it for you?

How did the developers originally picture this all going down?

The way the skills distribution is allocated in a standard party configuration, there's usually one "face" character that acts as the social interaction focus of the party. It's 'expected' that this character will handle all (within reason) of the non-immediate social interactions on behalf of the entire party. Therefore, the face character is usually the one that looks for legal goods, arranges jobs, makes friends and negotiates with other entities on behalf of the entire party. If a character within the party is looking for something, it's generally expected that the face character will be the one doing the looking.

There's a secondary role in the party, the rogue, that focuses on K. Underworld, skulduggery and streetwise whose responsibility (again, generally) is to acquire illegal and illicit goods on behalf of the party members. However, due to numbers, this role is often integrated into the face character's responsibilities.

In any event, if the party "splits up" in order to allow multiple rolls to find something --- thus exploiting the statistical model of success/failure in the game, each character making the rolls must be assumed to be operating independently. Therefore they, and they alone, must deal with the consequences of whatever their search discovers.

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

No more calls please, we have a winner.

A Buy Things roll is an all encompassing thing, not a "Blasters R Us didnt have it? Fine, we go to Leroy's Blaster shop. Leroy didnt have it? Then we go to Ammunation. They didnt have it? Okay, we check Friendly Fire. . . ."

One person, one roll and done.

Well I don't know how the devs pictured it, as I am not one.

From just a general GM perspective, you gotta be the referee sometimes and make a call. There's no real right or wrong answer, but I think in most cases a One check per item per location per timeframe is a solid starting point. If not, you end up with the old "if I'm just going to roll until I succeed, why am I even rolling at all?" problem. Braendig also makes an excellent point. If they do split up to try and buy stuff, use that against them. A Despair when you're solo isn't fun.

Shake it up as appropriate too. If the players are way out on some colony world in the Kathol outback and looking for a highly specialized specific piece of high end hardware, it's perfectly ok to make it an "impossible" check, or just outright nix it.

I don't think it really matters who makes the check unless there's some reason a specific person needs to make it. There's several Specializations that have talents specifically making them useful in the marketplace, not letting them use it is kinda weak GMing. Let the Trader do the trading.

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

No more calls please, we have a winner.

A Buy Things roll is an all encompassing thing, not a "Blasters R Us didnt have it? Fine, we go to Leroy's Blaster shop. Leroy didnt have it? Then we go to Ammunation. They didnt have it? Okay, we check Friendly Fire. . . ."

One person, one roll and done.

I so want to open a gun store called "Friendly Fire" now....

FULL DISCLAIMER: That's the name of the weapon store from Saint's Row. I'm not actually that clever this early in the morning on a Friday before I've had coffee. . . .

Or you can just run a shopping time adventure...

I have actually met players who want those kinds of adventures.

Your vehicle for today is a repulsor shopping cart, your weapon--a price scanner gun, your armor---a 1 soak DiY store orange apron. Oh, yeah, a jet pack to reach those high shelves...

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

No more calls please, we have a winner.

A Buy Things roll is an all encompassing thing, not a "Blasters R Us didnt have it? Fine, we go to Leroy's Blaster shop. Leroy didnt have it? Then we go to Ammunation. They didnt have it? Okay, we check Friendly Fire. . . ."

One person, one roll and done.

If searching for legal goods, I'll allow the "mall rats" to assist each other, essentially +1 or +2 Boost to the pool, but just one check, and that by the PC with the best Negotiation.

Quite often, particularly for low-Rarity "mundane" items, I simply tell my players anything up to Rarity 2 is readily located (no check required). Sometimes, someone wants something "character-special", so that PC makes his own check without an assist.

I agree, a shopoholic in the group is fine for helping everyone. If you wanna make it more narrative you can have them develop NPC contacts for types of gear before they can check..."lets go to Gunther, he always has grenades..."

Not more than one roll imo. If you're going to simply keep allowing more rolls in a session for a single item skip the redundant RNG and just give it to them I think.

I agree, a shopoholic in the group is fine for helping everyone. If you wanna make it more narrative you can have them develop NPC contacts for types of gear before they can check..."lets go to Gunther, he always has grenades..."

Not more than one roll imo. If you're going to simply keep allowing more rolls in a session for a single item skip the redundant RNG and just give it to them I think.

I'm with most of the folks here. I allow my players one check for any particular item at a given location within a particular time frame. I also allow them to use {(a number of equal to the adjusted rarity of the item searched for) - 2} or for a vendor to be able to procure the item from a failed roll in one half the time frame allowed for the check. The time frame depends on the adjusted rarity of the item.

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

No more calls please, we have a winner.

A Buy Things roll is an all encompassing thing, not a "Blasters R Us didnt have it? Fine, we go to Leroy's Blaster shop. Leroy didnt have it? Then we go to Ammunation. They didnt have it? Okay, we check Friendly Fire. . . ."

One person, one roll and done.

Pfff, within the core the next planet and next roll is just a few hours on the route 66 corellian run or hydian way. And most core worlds have populations in the billions, so the one roll ever idea sounds like a stretch there too as there as there is so much ground to cover. More problematic would be that you can easily assume that such a negotiation roll takes hours or even days of time, making calls, checking contacts, waiting for someone to call you back, etc and while that is going on you naturally are not able to make another roll.

As a GM, I would only allow a single roll on behalf of the party to find a certain item per a certain time period. I would relate the size of that time period to the rarity of the specific item - a party can search the same area again for a low rarity item every few hours under the assumption that they might have missed one of the ubiquitous number of vendors who might sell it, but they would have to wait a week or a month to try to find a particularly rare ship or weapon as there aren't many to go around and the vendors who might have one are few and far between.

No more calls please, we have a winner.

A Buy Things roll is an all encompassing thing, not a "Blasters R Us didnt have it? Fine, we go to Leroy's Blaster shop. Leroy didnt have it? Then we go to Ammunation. They didnt have it? Okay, we check Friendly Fire. . . ."

One person, one roll and done.

Pfff, within the core the next planet and next roll is just a few hours on the route 66 corellian run or hydian way. And most core worlds have populations in the billions, so the one roll ever idea sounds like a stretch there too as there as there is so much ground to cover. More problematic would be that you can easily assume that such a negotiation roll takes hours or even days of time, making calls, checking contacts, waiting for someone to call you back, etc and while that is going on you naturally are not able to make another roll.

If the party changes regions (including planets) then I'll naturally allow another roll. 'course, that'll chew up game time and, if they have a schedule to keep, they might be forced to blow it for the sake of the awesome rarity 8 gun they just can't seem to find anywhere.... Maybe on Corellia?

I agree, a shopoholic in the group is fine for helping everyone. If you wanna make it more narrative you can have them develop NPC contacts for types of gear before they can check..."lets go to Gunther, he always has grenades..."

Not more than one roll imo. If you're going to simply keep allowing more rolls in a session for a single item skip the redundant RNG and just give it to them I think.

I will also combine, average, or otherwise adjust Rarity if they're looking for multiple items so that a single roll gets them some/all of what they're looking for. Threat usually means something(s) on their list is unavailable.

When shopping for multiples from the same vendor, I usually roll based on the highest rarity of the group. That way I can quickly determine what they have in stock. I'll also add setbacks or upgrades based upon quantities (or boosts if things just "go together" such as Extra Reloads and a new pistol or a tent and a thermal cloak).

I'm with most of the folks here. I allow my players one check for any particular item at a given location within a particular time frame. I also allow them to use {(a number of equal to the adjusted rarity of the item searched for) - 2} or for a vendor to be able to procure the item from a failed roll in one half the time frame allowed for the check. The time frame depends on the adjusted rarity of the item.

Can I ask you to make a post with the other four symbols so I can shamelessly swipe those too?

I'm with most of the folks here. I allow my players one check for any particular item at a given location within a particular time frame. I also allow them to use {(a number of equal to the adjusted rarity of the item searched for) - 2} or for a vendor to be able to procure the item from a failed roll in one half the time frame allowed for the check. The time frame depends on the adjusted rarity of the item.

Can I ask you to make a post with the other four symbols so I can shamelessly swipe those too?

Here you go...

Im definitely in the group of GM's who would only allow 1 find check per item. if the PC's want to look again then they need to significantly change their location depending on the size of the space the campaign is being played in:

• move towns if its all on one planet
• move planets if its within a sector
• move sectors if its a galaxy wide campaign

Alternately they need to wait a decent amount of in game time, again depending on the campaign and its rate of time passage.

Im definitely in the group of GM's who would only allow 1 find check per item. if the PC's want to look again then they need to significantly change their location depending on the size of the space the campaign is being played in:

• move towns if its all on one planet
• move planets if its within a sector
• move sectors if its a galaxy wide campaign

Alternately they need to wait a decent amount of in game time, again depending on the campaign and its rate of time passage.

In this contest it is usually much, much for efficient to simply directly go for shopping trips, major coreworld, major trade route, etc and boni add up and make it easy to acquire basically everything while it is hard to find even something as simple as a good rifle in the outer rim.

Im definitely in the group of GM's who would only allow 1 find check per item. if the PC's want to look again then they need to significantly change their location depending on the size of the space the campaign is being played in:

• move towns if its all on one planet
• move planets if its within a sector
• move sectors if its a galaxy wide campaign

Alternately they need to wait a decent amount of in game time, again depending on the campaign and its rate of time passage.

In this contest it is usually much, much for efficient to simply directly go for shopping trips, major coreworld, major trade route, etc and boni add up and make it easy to acquire basically everything while it is hard to find even something as simple as a good rifle in the outer rim.

Absolutely, but as GM it's my job to both offer those opportunities and also present situations where equipment that would make a task easy is hard to get.

I think different campaigns change these outcomes too, some campaigns are all about bootstrapping on the fringe, others are high tech high gadgetry affairs where all the best tools are available and yet challenging encounters still abound. Honestly it's one of those things that should be outlined at the beginning of a campaign (although is probably forgotten more often than not). If the Players want to be involved in finding gear, such as one PC being of the shopping variety (Entrepreneur, Trader, Quartermaster), then I sure as heck am going to make finding gear tough sometimes. But if everyone is a pilot or gunner and we are playing Rogue Squadron then it's barely coming up.

In game, we only roll for the stuff we want, assistance from another PC gives a Boost dice, not a complete dice pool roll by that other player... so far, we've been lucky and everything's been available....

In real life, when I do the grocery shopping (HATE IT!!) and I can't find something I phone the wife or ask a store assistant <---- that's quite a s*** analogy really - which is the REAL WORLD BOOST DICE.... imo

I posted this in the Resources thread, but in case you miss it, a ZIP file can be found here .

I posted this in the Resources thread, but in case you miss it, a ZIP file can be found here .

I´m so gonna steal this ^^

Thanks a alot!

Now back to topic:

I let the PCs also only make one roll per planet, but only for objects I think that shouldn´t be availlable so easy. e.g. a cortosis Upgrade which really is quite rare, especialy when there aren´t so much glowstick swingers around) But for easy things like: Food or a stimpack, a belt and so on, I just wave it... except they crashed landed in wilderness or on a totally deserterted planet... or when there are a lot of Holos with theire faces and a big WANTED beneth them to see all over the place... ya know, the usual problems of daily life on the edge ^^

Btw:

On succsessfull rolls: I use for good dicounts or a special advanced deal: "You want this XYZ-Blaster? Well I could give you this standard model or for just 200 extra bucks this one with a special modifikation (accuracy 1)

A will raise the price or add the inaccuraccy treat to the object.

On failure a will bring at least the information that there may be one of the wished objects with "Kalr the friendly neighborhood weapon trader" on planet XY or in city YZ, but no guaranteer, ... the roll will get a on the called location.

A will at least give out the information that the producer has an deliveryproblem and the wished object may be nowhere to find, raising Rarity by 4 for a specific time.

(I admit I just wanted to use the symbols )

In game, we only roll for the stuff we want, assistance from another PC gives a Boost dice, not a complete dice pool roll by that other player... so far, we've been lucky and everything's been available....

In real life, when I do the grocery shopping (HATE IT!!) and I can't find something I phone the wife or ask a store assistant <---- that's quite a s*** analogy really - which is the REAL WORLD BOOST DICE.... imo

Lol, so true, our house it's my wife asking for the boost dice for groceries shopping while she rolls her paltry 2 Ability dice, I think the GM likes flipping Destiny Points on her too.

In game, we only roll for the stuff we want, assistance from another PC gives a Boost dice, not a complete dice pool roll by that other player... so far, we've been lucky and everything's been available....

In real life, when I do the grocery shopping (HATE IT!!) and I can't find something I phone the wife or ask a store assistant <---- that's quite a s*** analogy really - which is the REAL WORLD BOOST DICE.... imo

Thats not a boost dice that is either actually using negotiation as intended, because the whole asking around is the negotiation or streetwise check, or using skilled assistance as obvious your wife has more presence and negotiation skill than you. ;-)

Though the easiest solution is using a negotiation 4, presence 4 protocol droid to do the shopping for you.

Our GM throws in an Obligation or Motivation problems with Threats and Disadvantages... it's all good

when my players visit nar shaddaa (about once every 4 or so sessions) I typically say "rarity pretty much doesn't matter here go nuts" (but I would still disallow a few specialty items like lightsabers)