The problrm is that you can't get the 3000 credits and the additionzl xp needed to raise 4 stats or raise 3 and buy the talents needed to be an effective character at the start. So that leaves you the choice to gimp your charcter in the long run (because everybody knows that the best way to build a character is to raise as many stats as you can) or have an effective character without any decent gear. Considering players always riase stats they always start undergeared. If you take the Gadgeteer of hour example with the 500 starting credits he can either buy the armor or the heavy blaster pistol he needs to do his job (the iconic blaster carbine is already out of budget). So he either goes adventuring armored and armed with a toothpick or goes hunting criminals dressed like Han Solo, which is absurd. The choice between superb gear (+ 3000 credits) or a competent character (+10 xp) is absurd itself. With a bit more starting money you could easily build your charcter better and more in line with any concept more complex than "Ezra Bridger before Rebels pilot airs".

Not everybody wants to play an absolute rookie, and even mildly experienced characters have both some talents and good gear for their job. Starting credits as RAW forbid that.

Tl;dr starting money is too low to get a decent starting gear for most of the characters, starting with 1000 credits would be better without being OP

The problrm is that you can't get the 3000 credits and the additionzl xp needed to raise 4 stats or raise 3 and buy the talents needed to be an effective character at the start. So that leaves you the choice to gimp your charcter in the long run (because everybody knows that the best way to build a character is to raise as many stats as you can) or have an effective character without any decent gear. Considering players always riase stats they always start undergeared. If you take the Gadgeteer of hour example with the 500 starting credits he can either buy the armor or the heavy blaster pistol he needs to do his job (the iconic blaster carbine is already out of budget). So he either goes adventuring armored and armed with a toothpick or goes hunting criminals dressed like Han Solo, which is absurd. The choice between superb gear (+ 3000 credits) or a competent character (+10 xp) is absurd itself. With a bit more starting money you could easily build your charcter better and more in line with any concept more complex than "Ezra Bridger before Rebels pilot airs".

Not everybody wants to play an absolute rookie, and even mildly experienced characters have both some talents and good gear for their job. Starting credits as RAW forbid that.

Tl;dr starting money is too low to get a decent starting gear for most of the characters, starting with 1000 credits would be better without being OP

That's why the Knight rules were written. If players don't want to "work their way up," they can start at Knight level with plenty of money and a good bit of XP, making a solid character.

The problrm is that you can't get the 3000 credits and the additionzl xp needed to raise 4 stats or raise 3 and buy the talents needed to be an effective character at the start. So that leaves you the choice to gimp your charcter in the long run (because everybody knows that the best way to build a character is to raise as many stats as you can) or have an effective character without any decent gear. Considering players always riase stats they always start undergeared. If you take the Gadgeteer of hour example with the 500 starting credits he can either buy the armor or the heavy blaster pistol he needs to do his job (the iconic blaster carbine is already out of budget). So he either goes adventuring armored and armed with a toothpick or goes hunting criminals dressed like Han Solo, which is absurd. The choice between superb gear (+ 3000 credits) or a competent character (+10 xp) is absurd itself. With a bit more starting money you could easily build your charcter better and more in line with any concept more complex than "Ezra Bridger before Rebels pilot airs".

Not everybody wants to play an absolute rookie, and even mildly experienced characters have both some talents and good gear for their job. Starting credits as RAW forbid that.

Tl;dr starting money is too low to get a decent starting gear for most of the characters, starting with 1000 credits would be better without being OP

The GM can do what they like, but I actually like how you have a choice. Remember this is a trade off starting characters can start off with either less obligation, or trade off obligation for extra equipment or trade off obligation for extra starting stats. How about you word it differently everyone starts with +10 obligation and 3000 credits but they can choose to start off with only 500 credits and get a bonus xp 10 instead, doesnt sound so bad then. RAW you seem to think you are entitled to both, starting with one stat slightly lower is hardly a disaster is it, most specs concentrate on 3 at most, and having 3 at 3 and 3 at 2 is fine if you ask me.

In our campaign, rather than having our starting gear reflect our background, we had our background reflect our starting gear.

My BH had nothing much beyond a standard blaster rifle and the clothes on his back (and I had to take on extra Obligation just to afford the rifle). My character had recently hit rock bottom and was fighting just to scrape out a living. Now he's properly geared up for what he does but it took some time to get there. It seemed to work out fine.

My home group started RAW credits/XP and it worked out fine. You can do a lot with the extra Obligation-granted starting creds.

My new satellite group I gave a particular weapon for free as it's ceremonial for their home planet, then any bonus gear was as written.

Starting with a new set of PC's in a few weeks, and I anounced that we will start with the regular rules for equipment but I will talk to each player privately because I want to give each player a "special" item that has its source in the characters story. Something special with a niche, possibly restricted, but not just some uber weapon.

As an example, If the group had an engineer I'd give him a rivet gun, a marshal might have a forensics kit, a scout a field kitchen and so on.

When I was running this, I gave each player one additional item worth up to 500 credits (give or take) based on their background.

Some people went right for weapons/armor (like the Marauder wanting padded armor), while others were rather interesting. For example, a tech was given a tool kit, an archaeologist was giving his tools (and a droid following him around to ensure he took his medicine), a Heavy wanted a Corellian Cutlass (as a war trophy), a smuggler/pilot wanted an old pistol that he claims was given to him by a mentor, and a spy (from CEC parents) wanted at least one piece of standard issue CEC equipment. There was also the one character that was the face of a party that not only took the extra credits at chargen (she wanted to be sure she could pay bribes), but asked for specific types of poisons she can either sneak into a drink or under her nails to drug someone she's making a "deal" with.

I didn't find it too unbalancing in each of the campaigns I did this; if anything, it kept the group from wanting to loot everything, and it also made them feel they have the equipment fitting their character to do the jobs they needed to do, instead of starting the game without the ability to do their actual jobs.

I'm a jerk, and will kill a player for making a bad decision in a heartbeat. So, the sort of make up for the whole Dark Souls, die and start over (or ya know, any game in the 90s and before), I actually start out each player with a lot of different gear all tailored to their career, specialization, and species.

I abstain from anything too huge, as well as anything restricted. I give them a few different options to choose from, allowing them to pick and choose what they believe their character would have, up to their Encumbrance rating and no more.

I feel like it allows for a lot of mobility, and reinforces the idea that this character has lived before this campaign. It's worked well so far, tbh. When I was doing the RAW, which I did for a long while, it seems that the players felt too scared to make a drastic change, which is not totally all on them. I try to set up a lot of realism, and so, it helps to aid em in at least gear.

Combat characters usually have a few different armor options, and weapon options. The utility characters get a lot of utility gear to choose from. And so on. I also allow the players to make a claim for something in a book that I haven't added, as I could miss something, but it usually doesn't work out because they want a 4k restricted Verpine Rifle or something.