Hello there,

I'm currently planning for a new campaign, this time again on the outskirts of the galaxy and my players suggested starting the game being imprisoned somewhere.

I really like this idea and feel like its a great starting point for the campaign, but now I've hit a snag.

How would you handle starting Gear?

I thought of their gear being stored somewhere in the prison, but then again I want their characters to meet in an imperial prison station and then shipped to a mining colony (where they then would get the chance to break out somehow).
And their gear would probably not be shipped with them, or just be taken by someone.

I'd be grateful for your insights and/or ideas

As the players are fully aware that they start imprisoned, then they won't be disappointed to lose it (or even need to choose it at all).

I'd suggest three options:

1. Just don't have any and don't worry about it. They'll (presumably) find enough to be going on with early, and it's only 500 Cr (they presumably won't spend extra obligation/duty/morality on Cr!).

2. Don't have any, but they gain access to their bank account with their credits at some point.

3. Let them pick starting equipment, and have them 'discover' it during session one (and trust that they players meta-game to start with what they would have picked - rather than things others picked).

Personally I'd go with option 1.

Thanks

I really like these 3 options. I'd personally also go with option 1, but i'll run these options by my players to make sure we'll be on the same page.

I like option 1 because it fits the "down on your luck" themes of EotE.

I've done the prison break start. They grabbed enough on their way over the wall that they never noticed or cared.

Unless it's something they could get away with in a prison, otherwise the rest is safely stored away where they can pick it up after escaping or being released from prison.

Does that sound better to you?

Color me skeptical the Empire would pay for/maintain warehouse square footage for law breakers personal effects....

29 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

Color me skeptical the Empire would pay for/maintain warehouse square footage for law breakers personal effects....

I could see an entire Imperial division devoted to the repurposing and reclamation of confiscated resources. Man, wouldn't that be a fun warehouse to raid.

24 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

Color me skeptical the Empire would pay for/maintain warehouse square footage for law breakers personal effects....

Depends on how much of the prison system rolled over from the Republic, and what those personal effects are. I mean for most people you're not talking a pile of weapons and armor, more likely its exactly what you have on yourself right now. A change of clothes, watch, wallet, comlink, and a few other random items of not much scope or scale. A gallon ziplock worth of stuff is not a big deal.

That said... I'd probably do it like this:

To have an exciting jailbreak and following story progression, I'd insert a Tobias Beckett style NPC to present the players with the core plan, be a fix/foil as needed during the execution, and be the, or a transition to, follow on quest giver upon successful escape.

So from that perspective, I'd probably do something like tell the players they'll get their starting gear and/or credit upon escape up front. Then upon escape Beckett tosses them a duffelbag full of clothing, gear, and some walking around money, and let the players use their starting credits to tell me what's in the dufflebag.

Players still get starting credits/gear, don't double down on untraceable looted items, but do get a chance to buy any specialty gear they couldn't loot (so like, no Mechanic not having a toolkit or something), and it even gives a nice scene for a little RPing for Cad Bane to pull out a hat out of the bag and comment on it.

If they're a Courier with Hidden Storage (Improved), they might have some "gear up the rear" for use in the opening scenes. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. If you're playing with normal rules, they're only losing 500 credits per PC, and that's easy to get back in no time with a little looting.

If it wasn't known up front before characters came up with their concepts, then I'd be suggesting a lot more care about approach.

But with it known up front, you start with nothing is absolutely fine.

It is the unexpected loss of things you invested your limited starting resources in that causes issues.

I agree with the others, that so long as your players know up-front that the campaign is starting them off in prison, then having them not be in possession of any gear beyond their prison uniforms is perfectly fine. After all, they can properly "gear up" once they've either made their escape or do so while in the midst of making that escape.

Of course, if they've only been recently imprisoned, you could always let them choose their starting gear as normal, and then re-acquire it during their prison break. While the Empire as a larger entity doesn't place much stock on the rights and well-being of the individual, it's not going to let possible usable resources go to waste either, especially the resources that your typical galactic adventurer is likely to have, so their gear would likely be put through a processing procedure to sift out what's valuable enough to be seized by the Empire with everything else being disposed of. And while said process may not be the height of efficiency, it does put a bit of a time limit on the PCs to bust out and get back their stuff before it's too late.

When I'm a player, I love playing characters that pick up things along the way. Kind of like being a MacGyver of murder. In starfinder I have a warrior that has weapon specialization in everything so I can use whatever is the best thing I can get my hands on. The interesting thing about doing that in Star Wars is that, for once, it would make loot drops important.

My character's stuff goes bye bye when they're locked up. The Empire isn't going to spend time and resources storing people's personal crap.

In regards to using what they seize, they blow up terrestrial worlds so I'll take 'Who doesn't have a recycle program, for 2000 Alex?'.......

Darzil nailed it with options, but I wouldn’t entirely rule out characters finding their equipment during a breakout, especially while locked up in a fringe part of the galaxy.

The want to create a warden with a multitude of quirks who sells/trades prisoner’s equipment to get what he wants while far away from “civilization” is a given in this situation. Things are hard to get out there, and you don’t come to manage a situation like that for the Empire by being good at your job...

8 hours ago, 2P51 said:

Color me skeptical the Empire would pay for/maintain warehouse square footage for law breakers personal effects....

I like to think that plenty of the Empire's stuff is mired in bureaucracy, so there is likely a department for the management of "repossessed" materials. They likely go through everyone's stuff to check for anything that might link them to the Rebellion and give them a hint as to who else might be in on it. Likewise, they can always scrap/sell all of the belongings to generate more materials for the war machine.

In core worlds, this is likely done by lower members of the ISB who are too loyal to betray the empire, while in the outer rim they might be "convinced" to "lose" some of the belongings where a local gang can conveniently find it and use it. The Empire is filled with corruption, so I like to think there's plenty of places for it in the outer rim. Plus, it makes good rookie duty, so they can stick troopers who under perform on "evidence detail" as punishment.

That's just what I like to think!

Having the PCs' combat gear at the location makes little sense unless they are being held at the site where they were processed immediately following arrest. Even then, if they waste the time to go after mundane gear (we're likely not talking about irreplaceable gear with starting characters) they're likely screwing their chances of escape. If the PCs have been moved from their initial holding to an actual prison, it makes zero sense for their gear to have come with them.

I guess whether their gear is close would depend on what they were imprisoned for, and likely their escape route.

So if they are imprisoned as useful assets who are temporarily inconvenient, and who are going to be given an offer to good to turn down which includes escape, holding onto their belongings would be certainly on the cards.

If they are imprisoned and expected never to be released, forget it.

7 hours ago, evo454 said:

I like to think that plenty of the Empire's stuff is mired in bureaucracy, so there is likely a department for the management of "repossessed" materials. They likely go through everyone's stuff to check for anything that might link them to the Rebellion and give them a hint as to who else might be in on it. Likewise, they can always scrap/sell all of the belongings to generate more materials for the war machine.

In core worlds, this is likely done by lower members of the ISB who are too loyal to betray the empire, while in the outer rim they might be "convinced" to "lose" some of the belongings where a local gang can conveniently find it and use it. The Empire is filled with corruption, so I like to think there's plenty of places for it in the outer rim. Plus, it makes good rookie duty, so they can stick troopers who under perform on "evidence detail" as punishment.

That's just what I like to think!

This mirrors my thoughts as well. Location as well as narrative means everything in this situation, and the OP has a mix of “fringe but not fringe enough to where there isn’t a prison or maybe the PCs are given to a slaver’s guild to work on a mining colony...” so it’s tough to say firmly how valuable starting equipment would be.

After all, does a man in the middle of an ocean put a price tag on a life raft? The same could be said of starting equipment on a fringe mining colony that’s just an asteroid functioning as a desert planet’s moon. Starting equipment is “worth” way more there to the players (or a disgraced Imperial Governor who was allowed to live but shipped off to essentially nowhere) than it would be somewhere more inhabited. Just depends on the narrative and location.

The Empire doesn’t function the same everywhere, which seems to be the point of the Edge of Empire setting.

11 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Having the PCs' combat gear at the location makes little sense unless they are being held at the site where they were processed immediately following arrest. Even then, if they waste the time to go after mundane gear (we're likely not talking about irreplaceable gear with starting characters) they're likely screwing their chances of escape. If the PCs have been moved from their initial holding to an actual prison, it makes zero sense for their gear to have come with them.

Xandar and the USA, not the Empire.....

And...?

And there's a difference between how a progressive represenative democracy treats prisoner/personal property thereof and a facist genocidal dictatorship.

15 hours ago, evo454 said:

I like to think that plenty of the Empire's stuff is mired in bureaucracy, so there is likely a department for the management of "repossessed" materials. They likely go through everyone's stuff to check for anything that might link them to the Rebellion and give them a hint as to who else might be in on it. Likewise, they can always scrap/sell all of the belongings to generate more materials for the war machine.

Absolutely. I've used auction repossession to loyalty as a narrative device a couple of times in my game.

And for what it's worth, post-industrial totalitarian regimes -- particularly the other sides in WWII and the Cold War -- have tended to be exacting record keepers.

20 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

And there's a difference between how a progressive represenative democracy treats prisoner/personal property thereof and a facist genocidal dictatorship.

I actually feel like that opens up MORE opportunities. A corrupt guard taunting a prisoner with his own possessions is a lot more likely then a well-regulated system with lots of procedures. They don't even have to be VALUABLE really, for that to work. See the red stapler in Office Space for an example. It gives you a built in nemesis, too.