When it says in its description to add a boost die to perception checks to locate prey, what is the definition of prey? It it restricted to the SW equivalent of deer or grouse? Or if I'm hunting a person does that count?

Sure.

I'm far from a rules expert but we'd played it that anything could be prey so it would work if you're hunting a human but they're non-discriminating. They'll help you find a human, not necessarily the human you're looking for. So scanning a crowd to pick out your bounty isnt really where they help. But, if you happen to know the human you're hunting is hiding in a closed warehouse, when you go there to find him, that's where they work best.

8 hours ago, PrettyHaley said:

I'm far from a rules expert but we'd played it that anything could be prey so it would work if you're hunting a human but they're non-discriminating. They'll help you find a human, not necessarily the human you're looking for. So scanning a crowd to pick out your bounty isnt really where they help. But, if you happen to know the human you're hunting is hiding in a closed warehouse, when you go there to find him, that's where they work best.

Are you suggesting that, if hunting a human in a crowd, they'd help eliminate the Mirialans, Pantorans, Zabraks, and other humanoids so you could just focus on the humans?

2 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Are you suggesting that, if hunting a human in a crowd, they'd help eliminate the Mirialans, Pantorans, Zabraks, and other humanoids so you could just focus on the humans?

If that's how you want to narrate it, yes. Or maybe they're programmed with the profile of the human you're trying to find. Or maybe they have rudimentary facial recognition. Or maybe... I don't know. It's a narrative game; if you want the goggles to assist in finding a person in a crowd, come up with some way to narrate it.

The way I've been running it is that it helps you pick up life forms in any environment that isn't already chock full of other, similar life forms. So spotting someone you're hunting who's hiding among some bushes in the forest would give you a boost die, but picking out the same person when hiding in a crowd of people would not. I imagine them to be mostly like thermal vision goggles.

I just assume they're like NVGs and help with Perception checks in the listed kinds of adverse conditions. Now the structure of the conditions and what you're spotting is up to the GM.

This seems to be the sort of question that would benefit from asking the devs. GMs will always have their own interpretation, but it's helpful to know how the devs view it, since they're the ones that wrote it into the book.

There's a lot of equipment that have descriptions but no mechanical component to define how they work.

Which often means that the devs intended for GMs to make it up on their own, if they feel a need for it. That flexibility in being rules-light is one of the system's great strengths, but it's also one of its greatest weaknesses. Other side of the same coin.

Reading the goggles' full description, "prey" and "quarry" seem to be very inclusive terms in context. The goggles sound high-tech and certainly capable of singling out a human target in a human crowd. As a GM, I think I would require a player to take a few moments to tune the goggles to his surroundings, but yeah, they should ostensibly work in a crowded urban setting.