After the fight is over, if an enemy has better armor or weapons than my character, can he take it?

If there's no time issue or narrative restriction, sure.

If you didn't destroy it with blaster fire, vibro-blades or what not, I guess you can if you can risk taking the time and can hope to not be seen as a sicko of a murdering thief and grave robber.

Awesome. I'm just used to KOTOR where there was a chance.

If you didn't destroy it with blaster fire, vibro-blades or what not, I guess you can if you can risk taking the time and can hope to not be seen as a sicko thief and grave robber.

You misspelled "Opportunist". Lol

If you didn't destroy it with blaster fire, vibro-blades or what not, I guess you can if you can risk taking the time and can hope to not be seen as a sicko of a murdering thief and grave robber.

You misspelled "Opportunist". Lol

In some sectors and systems this is true.

I think the big danger in looting isn't in taking and using gear -- it's in the "salvage economy" mindset that some players have when it comes to the leftovers. I think every GM has had to deal with players in any system who want to take a longsword/chain mail/blaster rifle/grenade and sell it at the local pawn shop for quick cash -- and even the "only getting 10% of original price" isn't enough to deter them. Be ready to impose strict understandings about looted gear: the buyer will be unwilling to buy Imperial gear, or even gear looted from pirates, if he/she wants to keep their vendor license.

After playing some computer RPGs that deal with this, I think you can take some lessons. Games like The Elder Scrolls Online have Thieves Guilds which are the only groups you can sell "stolen" gear to, and even then, you have a daily limit for how much you can sell. Something to that effect can be done here: not only are you getting just 10% of the store value of the item, but the buyer will only take 2-3 off your hands before declaring the whole venture too risky.

First off, you should always ask your GM if you have time to loot it, that is if you aren't GMing. Second, you shouldn't try to loot every minion group you take down, if a group of players tries that with me, we will start getting really particular about encumbrance real fast. Third, in my experience it is pretty rare that players worry about looting in this system, because the narrative seems to suck them in and they just want to move on to the next story beat. Besides, a great way to reward perception and vigilance checks that roll a triumph is with finding some piece of awesome gear, depending on the situation of course.

I had a specific example and then thought more general.

"We need to get into an Imperial base. we take out a few guards and take their armor and weapons to act as a disguise. After the mission is over my character decided to keep the E-11 blaster rifle."

I think it's a given with PCs starting out. Besides, who wouldn't pick up an extra gun or two in a place like Star Wars. Now, stripping some person out of their full suit of armor might be a little more time consuming to do regularly. Common sense should be the guide.

I think the big danger in looting isn't in taking and using gear -- it's in the "salvage economy" mindset that some players have when it comes to the leftovers.

I consider this a very important distinction, and one which I'm trying to instill in my players. After having finally managed to get them all out of the traditional 'murder-hobo' mindset, I'm now finding that some of them have swung too far in the opposite direction and don't want to loot anything from vanquished foes. I tell them: "If a bad guy had something cool that you want to keep and use ; that's perfectly fine! It's things like collecting the blasters from every last mook and selling them that gets into (IMO) tonally-inappropriate looting."

After playing some computer RPGs that deal with this, I think you can take some lessons. Games like The Elder Scrolls Online have Thieves Guilds which are the only groups you can sell "stolen" gear to, and even then, you have a daily limit for how much you can sell. Something to that effect can be done here: not only are you getting just 10% of the store value of the item, but the buyer will only take 2-3 off your hands before declaring the whole venture too risky.

I hate that kind of economy in games. IMO it's stupid when NPCs magically know how player has acquired certain item.

I think it's a given with PCs starting out. Besides, who wouldn't pick up an extra gun or two in a place like Star Wars. Now, stripping some person out of their full suit of armor might be a little more time consuming to do regularly. Common sense should be the guide.

Interestingly, my group didn't loot a single enemy during our previous session. (we play maybe 5-7 times a year, 2 to 3 days on a row.) I think that because PCs cannot carry 20 rifles, 30 armours and some other gear in this game, that restricted my PCs. In our pathfinder campaign we had a PC who could carry a wagon which had other PCs in it. We cast a flying to him, and invisibility sphere to wizard sitting in wagons and super carrier PC flew us to center of enemy castle. It as perfect surprise attack.

"We need to get into an Imperial base. we take out a few guards and take their armor and weapons to act as a disguise. After the mission is over my character decided to keep the E-11 blaster rifle."

IMO, this is excellent situation where "looting" is acceptable. And I wouldn't dislike the after mission keeping the E-11. What's the option? Throw perfectly good plot device away? "You have imperial rifle? How have you got it scum!?!?"

I generally take the stance that the armor of anyone you kill is probably time consuming to remove and heavily damaged, so impractical and unusable unless you're willing to invest time/money in repairing and refitting it. Aside from that, I think it's fine as long as you keep an eye on encumbrance, time, and narrative concerns. Encumbrance from weapons and armor (that you aren't wearing) adds up quickly in this system, and I agree with many of the other posters here that standard-issue Imperial equipment is probably easily recognizable as such, and liable to get the characters in trouble if they don't manage to off-load it discreetly.

After the fight is over, if an enemy has better armor or weapons than my character, can he take it?

He can .

Whether it is wise to do so is another matter entirely.

As a GM, I fully support my PC's rights to don obviously-stolen, Imperial-issue armor Or that gun that the bounty hunter dropped? Turns out the bounty hunter survived, and that was his favorite gun (he calls it "Lola"). And now you've got a hunter with a grudge after you, obsessed with not just capturing you, but ruining your life in the process for taking his bright spot, Lola, away from him.

I had a new player try this in our first session. He killed a creature and wanted to loot its hide and skin it. I just flat out told him, "You don't need to think like that in this system. I will give you opportunities to earn money and/or the Rebellion will give you things you need (we are in an AoR campaign). Don't worry about looting. If you really want to, ok, but this isn't going to be worth your while."

I urge you to discourage the practice to get the most out of the system. However, if a PC wants to grab an E-11 for example, sure... that's cool. But by the end of the session or module I might have him drop it or break it. There are narrative things you can do to ensure that the PC's don't just start ganking all superior gear. You can balance the game with a good narrative. But getting out of this mindset will be your best weapon.

"We need to get into an Imperial base. we take out a few guards and take their armor and weapons to act as a disguise. After the mission is over my character decided to keep the E-11 blaster rifle."

While there's nothing saying no you cant, you are carrying around an Imperial branded weapon. This may very well never be discovered - but a wrong glance at the wrong time and you might find yourself arrested and questioned - and perhaps more.

As a GM, I fully support my PC's rights to don obviously-stolen, Imperial-issue armor Or that gun that the bounty hunter dropped? Turns out the bounty hunter survived, and that was his favorite gun (he calls it "Lola"). And now you've got a hunter with a grudge after you, obsessed with not just capturing you, but ruining your life in the process for taking his bright spot away, Lola, from him.

Or, lets say you incapacitate Thrag The Relentless, the hardest Bounty Hunter in the 12 systems and steal his bitchin' armor. Putting aside that Thrag will come looking for his armor and to get a pound of flesh from the one who humiliated him, now you are running around in Thrag's armor and carrying Thrag's reputation. Every two bit goon looking to make a name for himself by killing the great and powerful Thrag will come gunning for you under the mistaken impression that the man inside the shell is the one they want.

General Grievous believed in looting lightsabers.

"We need to get into an Imperial base. we take out a few guards and take their armor and weapons to act as a disguise. After the mission is over my character decided to keep the E-11 blaster rifle."

While there's nothing saying no you cant, you are carrying around an Imperial branded weapon. This may very well never be discovered - but a wrong glance at the wrong time and you might find yourself arrested and questioned - and perhaps more.

Of course, a small amount of credits spent on parts, a toolkit, and a bit of Mechanics skill can cosmetically alter that weapon so it isn't obviously a stormtrooper's E-11.

General Grievous believed in looting lightsabers.

Motivation: Lightsaber Collection.

"We need to get into an Imperial base. we take out a few guards and take their armor and weapons to act as a disguise. After the mission is over my character decided to keep the E-11 blaster rifle."

While there's nothing saying no you cant, you are carrying around an Imperial branded weapon. This may very well never be discovered - but a wrong glance at the wrong time and you might find yourself arrested and questioned - and perhaps more.

Of course, a small amount of credits spent on parts, a toolkit, and a bit of Mechanics skill can cosmetically alter that weapon so it isn't obviously a stormtrooper's E-11.

Which is a great way for the Technician/Engineer to feel like a valuable member of the team.

If people become real murder hobos, that might be a great time to start enforcing the encumbrance rules. Good luck carrying around 20 blasters.

On the other hand, loot could potentially be a reward for a successful encounter, or part of a plot. And sometimes it's cooler to have a story behind a piece of gear rather than just saying you bought it from a store.

At one point our crew needed to sneak into an Imperial prison to break someone out. Two of us took out a pair of Stormtroopers on patrol (we used stun settings, we're not monsters) and used their armor to bluff our way in.

After the adventure we kept the armor because it was very useful. We got it repainted and slightly altered so it wasn't extremely obvious where it came from. My BH has been making tweaks to it since (I'll be looking into attachments and maybe a rank of jury rig talent). But it's cool to have that history to it. Like Boba Fett having a wookiee hair braid on his shoulder or Luke carrying his father's lightsaber (before losing both it and his hand).

So there are good and bad aspects to looting. It depends on how it's done (and how often), why it's done, and what the consequences are. Don't be afraid to make the PCs suffer for going overboard on it.

Also it depends on the item, pick up a bounty hunters disruptor and forget you have on you when you next land on a core world have it impounded and you're arrested by customs quicker than you can say "cavity search".

Now bend over and face the South pole the customs agent says as he snaps on his duralex disposable gloves

I'm just so used to playing KOTOR where stripping dead bodies of useful weapons, armor, and supplies was almost mandatory early game.

One of the groups I'm in has a bad habit of, um..... borrowing starships and ... finding them new owners .... for a price. We've actually received a decent amount for them, but most of that goes into paying mechanics to mod our upgrades since we don't have one in our group. It evens out.

This is the same group that has a player wanting to add an oversized weapon mount to a Ghotroc 720, add in linked turbolasers, and call our space turtle the Blastoise.

I'm just so used to playing KOTOR where stripping dead bodies of useful weapons, armor, and supplies was almost mandatory early game.

Having played through that game countless times in my younger days (and at least 6-7 times on the iPad more recently), I can say that that aspect of the game is my very least favorite thing about it. I wish there was a version of KotOR that played like Mass Effect 2...

And while I'm wishing, I would also like a pet Star Dragon. And to be a player in an RPG campaign instead of a GM. Not sure which of those is more likely