So, I've noticed how daunting all the equipment can be for new players, so I came up with some "Kits" that new players can choose from to start the game with instead of choosing 500 credits worth of equipment. They all assume that the GM will provide at least a weapon to start with, and hopefully armor as well. They all include a comlink, a backpack of some sort, at least two stimpacks, five days of rations, and a glow rod. After that they vary slightly, though often just by an item or two. I hope they'll prove useful to someone else, so I'm posting the document link here. I've also added a list of non-standard starting weapons and armor, and a list of starting vehicles that are around 120,000 at most, all non-standard. Any feedback is appreciated.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atKuMorsggCEyxBq8DW1kN1obFSe9_29/view?usp=sharing

I don't have much to contribute here, but the Slicer Kit doesn't include Slicing Gear. I would also suggest removing stimpacks and backpacks, maybe even ration packs, from a lot of the kits. For example, does a Slicer really need emergency rations, a backpack, and medical supplies?

what I would break the kits up.
Make an adventurers basics kit. then have job kits.

So the adventures kits should be striped down to just the basics. then strip out all the duplicates out of the other kits.

That way when you grab both you end up with a complete kits and not duplicates.

9 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I don't have much to contribute here, but the Slicer Kit doesn't include Slicing Gear. I would also suggest removing stimpacks and backpacks, maybe even ration packs, from a lot of the kits. For example, does a Slicer really need emergency rations, a backpack, and medical supplies?

The kits are all meant to be at most 500 credits. A slicer's kit costs 500 credits. So, the kit couldn't contain anything else. I run my games as any electronics equipment CAN be used to slice, it's just not the right tool for the job. The basic supplies are included because the kits are meant to be used in any campaign type. Everyone needs stimpacks, and a backpack has been considered basically required gear by everyone I've played with. Rations because they cost almost nothing and it allows the GM the option to track rations or not.

7 hours ago, Daeglan said:

what I would break the kits up.
Make an adventurers basics kit. then have job kits.

So the adventures kits should be striped down to just the basics. then strip out all the duplicates out of the other kits.

That way when you grab both you end up with a complete kits and not duplicates.

The kits are meant to be standalone. I think I get what you're saying, but if I do that, some of the kits won't be able to contain the items they do because they don't contain some of those duplicates. The way I've run it is that you just grab one kit, and it takes the place of your 500 starting credits.

1 minute ago, Astrelan said:

The kits are all meant to be at most 500 credits. A slicer's kit costs 500 credits. So, the kit couldn't contain anything else. I run my games as any electronics equipment CAN be used to slice, it's just not the right tool for the job. The basic supplies are included because the kits are meant to be used in any campaign type. Everyone needs stimpacks, and a backpack has been considered basically required gear by everyone I've played with. Rations because they cost almost nothing and it allows the GM the option to track rations or not.

Fair point on the Slicer Gear.

There are some campaign styles where those supplies are not as necessary though. Perhaps you should have two or more baseline kits, then "mod packages" to add on, sort of like careers and specializations. So you get a base Adventurer kit (stims, backpack, etc), and then you pick the Slicer kit, or the Politico kit, etc. Or you can start with a... I don't know... City Slicker kit, which contains a different set of equipment and maybe some extra credits instead, to which you then add the Slicer kit, or the Politico kit, etc.

1 minute ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Fair point on the Slicer Gear.

There are some campaign styles where those supplies are not as necessary though. Perhaps you should have two or more baseline kits, then "mod packages" to add on, sort of like careers and specializations. So you get a base Adventurer kit (stims, backpack, etc), and then you pick the Slicer kit, or the Politico kit, etc. Or you can start with a... I don't know... City Slicker kit, which contains a different set of equipment and maybe some extra credits instead, to which you then add the Slicer kit, or the Politico kit, etc.

That makes sense. The different kits for other campaign types. I'll try out some combinations and see what I can come up with.

This is a great idea. Thanks for sharing, @Astrelan

1 hour ago, Astrelan said:

The kits are all meant to be at most 500 credits. A slicer's kit costs 500 credits. So, the kit couldn't contain anything else. I run my games as any electronics equipment CAN be used to slice, it's just not the right tool for the job. The basic supplies are included because the kits are meant to be used in any campaign type. Everyone needs stimpacks, and a backpack has been considered basically required gear by everyone I've played with. Rations because they cost almost nothing and it allows the GM the option to track rations or not.

The kits are meant to be standalone. I think I get what you're saying, but if I do that, some of the kits won't be able to contain the items they do because they don't contain some of those duplicates. The way I've run it is that you just grab one kit, and it takes the place of your 500 starting credits.

1 hour ago, Astrelan said:

The kits are all meant to be at most 500 credits. A slicer's kit costs 500 credits. So, the kit couldn't contain anything else. I run my games as any electronics equipment CAN be used to slice, it's just not the right tool for the job. The basic supplies are included because the kits are meant to be used in any campaign type. Everyone needs stimpacks, and a backpack has been considered basically required gear by everyone I've played with. Rations because they cost almost nothing and it allows the GM the option to track rations or not.

The kits are meant to be standalone. I think I get what you're saying, but if I do that, some of the kits won't be able to contain the items they do because they don't contain some of those duplicates. The way I've run it is that you just grab one kit, and it takes the place of your 500 starting credits.

I think if you break down the kits by theme. make them worth less then 500 credits

Also remember with Obligation Duty or Morality allows you to get up to 2500 credits. so pulling out the basics and making the other kits task kits will likely work better.

22 hours ago, Daeglan said:

I think if you break down the kits by theme. make them worth less then 500 credits

Also remember with Obligation Duty or Morality allows you to get up to 2500 credits. so pulling out the basics and making the other kits task kits will likely work better.

The way I've run it with the obligation/duty/morality is that those 2500 credits are yours to choose extra starting gear with, the original 500 is what becomes a kit. You only get one kit. Not everyone takes obligation/duty/morality, especially not new players, so building the kits to cater to that system is not what I'm aiming to do. These are meant more for new players who don't have a thorough knowledge of what items there are on offer, not for an advanced player looking for a quick convenience.

1 hour ago, Astrelan said:

The way I've run it with the obligation/duty/morality is that those 2500 credits are yours to choose extra starting gear with, the original 500 is what becomes a kit. You only get one kit. Not everyone takes obligation/duty/morality, especially not new players, so building the kits to cater to that system is not what I'm aiming to do. These are meant more for new players who don't have a thorough knowledge of what items there are on offer, not for an advanced player looking for a quick convenience.

Why cant it be both?

I mean a beginner character might get the 2500 credits and not know what to buy. If you do it my way it is helpful to everyone.

If you make several bundles based on tasks a player can more easily pick what their character needs. Which help experienced and newbies alike.

I never found starting gear to be an issue in this game because they don't give you enough credits to get much of anything.

In any RPG, and this is one is no exception, I find a lot of gear can be picked up on the fly if you allow players to loot bodies. Saying that I like the kit ideas but rather than them equaling 500 credits have them be a little more, as they a prescriptive list of items, or allow the players to take the 500 credits.

Also worth remembering that the 2500 credit boost at the beginning doesn't have to be credits but something that is worth around that much money...

Food for thought: in the real world I always see discounts for bundles (e.g. buy these three things and get 10% off). Maybe the same thing can be applied here? Make your kits, but offer then at a discounted price at character creation (10%, 20%, whatever). That would go a long way toward making the cost of the pricier items more appealing to players.

49 minutes ago, papy72 said:

Food for thought: in the real world I always see discounts for bundles (e.g. buy these three things and get 10% off). Maybe the same thing can be applied here? Make your kits, but offer then at a discounted price at character creation (10%, 20%, whatever). That would go a long way toward making the cost of the pricier items more appealing to players.

That's not a bad idea.

For instance, D&D 5e has various "character packs" of gear which they even say offers the bundled items at a lower price than what it'd cost to buy them separately.

On 4/7/2020 at 11:05 PM, Astrelan said:

The kits are all meant to be at most 500 credits.

You may want to check the math on some of your kits again. The Mechanic kit clocks in at 610, and the Heavy kit clocks in at 440 (counting the 50 bonus credits). I only checked these two and the Medic kit (which was on target).

On 4/9/2020 at 6:53 AM, MrTInce said:

In any RPG, and this is one is no exception, I find a lot of gear can be picked up on the fly if you allow players to loot bodies. Saying that I like the kit ideas but rather than them equaling 500 credits have them be a little more, as they a prescriptive list of items, or allow the players to take the 500 credits.

Also worth remembering that the 2500 credit boost at the beginning doesn't have to be credits but something that is worth around that much money...

In-fact, the first prequel book has options for using that boost to buy a lightsaber or a set of basic clone gear.

On 4/9/2020 at 11:43 AM, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

You may want to check the math on some of your kits again. The Mechanic kit clocks in at 610, and the Heavy kit clocks in at 440 (counting the 50 bonus credits). I only checked these two and the Medic kit (which was on target).

I might have fudged the numbers with the mechanic kit because I'm biased towards mechanics. >.> But I missed that with the heavy kit. I'll correct and double-check the others.

As to the comments on the 2500 bonus credits, I just personally don't want to factor them into these. It's not my intention for those credits to be a part of the kits. I'll look at making separate kits for those credits, but these are made with the starting 500 credits in mind.

On 4/9/2020 at 8:39 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

That's not a bad idea.

For instance, D&D 5e has various "character packs" of gear which they even say offers the bundled items at a lower price than what it'd cost to buy them separately.

That's what inspired this. I may make an a pack or two for advanced players with just "basic" gear (Backpack, rope, rations, etc) that may cost less than normal, to allow more freedom. I like that idea.

On 4/9/2020 at 12:35 AM, Daeglan said:

I mean a beginner character might get the 2500 credits and not know what to buy. If you do it my way it is helpful to everyone.

If you make several bundles based on tasks a player can more easily pick what their character needs. Which help experienced and newbies alike.

I think I understand what you're getting at, but the bundles are already separated out by general task. I'll look at making some more advanced bundles that utilize those 2500 starting credits, though.

On 4/9/2020 at 5:53 AM, MrTInce said:

In any RPG, and this is one is no exception, I find a lot of gear can be picked up on the fly if you allow players to loot bodies. Saying that I like the kit ideas but rather than them equaling 500 credits have them be a little more, as they a prescriptive list of items, or allow the players to take the 500 credits.

Also worth remembering that the 2500 credit boost at the beginning doesn't have to be credits but something that is worth around that much money...

You're correct there, but not every campaign involves a lot of fighting, and opponents may not have things like rations or stimpacks. I do think you may be on to something having them equal more than 500, perhaps, allowing for more gear, like the slicer gear or other high-value items, to be included.

10 hours ago, Astrelan said:

I think I understand what you're getting at, but the bundles are already separated out by general task. I'll look at making some more advanced bundles that utilize those 2500 starting credits, though.

What I mean is you have ALOT of duplication. IE the basic adventure kit is duplicated in pretty much every kit. But if you make a base kit that has the stuff that is a go to for everyone. then have your various task kits it would work better. and yes the kits would likely end up as less than 500 that is ok. it would make itr so a scout slicer could get the slicer kit and the recon kit with out having a bunch of duplication.

Maybe make them upgradeable. IT for this amount of credits you get a backpack, for 25 credits more you get this other back pack and so on/ also none of these have utility belts.

The Heavy kit should also have load bearing gear 🙂

You're getting a lot of feedback, which I take as a sign that folks find this idea helpful. I do, too.

One thought for when/if you revise these: In Realms of Terrinoth , a Genesys fantasy supplement, they offer kits like this for quicker character generation. A lot of those kits come with options. For instance, the Scoundrel Career can choose: A dagger OR a cestus, a sword and dagger OR a bow, a fine cloak OR thieves' tools, and traveling gear (backpack, bedroll, rope, flint and steel, 3 torches, and a waterskin).

I'd love to see your Star Wars kits do something similar. Thanks again!

30 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

You're getting a lot of feedback, which I take as a sign that folks find this idea helpful. I do, too.

One thought for when/if you revise these: In Realms of Terrinoth , a Genesys fantasy supplement, they offer kits like this for quicker character generation. A lot of those kits come with options. For instance, the Scoundrel Career can choose: A dagger OR a cestus, a sword and dagger OR a bow, a fine cloak OR thieves' tools, and traveling gear (backpack, bedroll, rope, flint and steel, 3 torches, and a waterskin).

I'd love to see your Star Wars kits do something similar. Thanks again!

That's an idea i hadn't thought about, and I love what they did with Genesys. I'll look into seeing if that's a direction I want to take these.

1 hour ago, Daeglan said:

What I mean is you have ALOT of duplication. IE the basic adventure kit is duplicated in pretty much every kit. But if you make a base kit that has the stuff that is a go to for everyone. then have your various task kits it would work better. and yes the kits would likely end up as less than 500 that is ok. it would make itr so a scout slicer could get the slicer kit and the recon kit with out having a bunch of duplication.

Maybe make them upgradeable. IT for this amount of credits you get a backpack, for 25 credits more you get this other back pack and so on/ also none of these have utility belts.

The Heavy kit should also have load bearing gear 🙂

So each of the kits as they are is meant to stand alone, which is why there's so much duplication. I'm in the process of making advanced kits which will allow people to more freely mix and match advanced gear, but cutting out the duplicates for most of the kits leaves them with basically me just pointing out an item or two and saying "You might like this," which feels pointless to me.

I tried to keep it to one encumbrance-boosting item per kit, but I can see the point of adding some to some kits, like the utility belt or load-bearing gear. I'll make some edits.

1 hour ago, Astrelan said:

That's an idea i hadn't thought about, and I love what they did with Genesys. I'll look into seeing if that's a direction I want to take these.

So each of the kits as they are is meant to stand alone, which is why there's so much duplication. I'm in the process of making advanced kits which will allow people to more freely mix and match advanced gear, but cutting out the duplicates for most of the kits leaves them with basically me just pointing out an item or two and saying "You might like this," which feels pointless to me.

I tried to keep it to one encumbrance-boosting item per kit, but I can see the point of adding some to some kits, like the utility belt or load-bearing gear. I'll make some edits.

Well if you are trying to make it easier breaking the kits up by task and then a basics pack would mean a newbie would grab the basics and then packages for what they are good at. And if they are good at multiple things they dont end up with 3 comlinks and back packs etc. I under stand your point but i find if you result in new people having a bunch of duplicates it is not helpful. What you are doing is reducing the size of the list. Which is good. But a bunch of duplicates increases the difficulty back up.

1 hour ago, Daeglan said:

Well if you are trying to make it easier breaking the kits up by task and then a basics pack would mean a newbie would grab the basics and then packages for what they are good at. And if they are good at multiple things they dont end up with 3 comlinks and back packs etc. I under stand your point but i find if you result in new people having a bunch of duplicates it is not helpful. What you are doing is reducing the size of the list. Which is good. But a bunch of duplicates increases the difficulty back up.

I think our design philosophies on this topic really differ. I'm in the process of creating advanced kits for extra starting credits, and I've created a basics kit with just a backpack, comlink, rations, and a glow rod, with 450 extra credits to allow the more advanced player to choose starting gear more freely. What it seems like you want is for me to go back and redesign the kits in a way which is diametrically opposed to what I actually want to do with them. I apologize, but I don't think that is something I will do. Your feedback is great, and you've given me several ideas and I thank you for that, but this specific idea is one which I am not interested in pursuing at this time.

20 minutes ago, Astrelan said:

I think our design philosophies on this topic really differ. I'm in the process of creating advanced kits for extra starting credits, and I've created a basics kit with just a backpack, comlink, rations, and a glow rod, with 450 extra credits to allow the more advanced player to choose starting gear more freely. What it seems like you want is for me to go back and redesign the kits in a way which is diametrically opposed to what I actually want to do with them. I apologize, but I don't think that is something I will do. Your feedback is great, and you've given me several ideas and I thank you for that, but this specific idea is one which I am not interested in pursuing at this time.

What you want is a single kit that a character buys. The problem is that results in a poor experience for the player. As they end up with a one size fits no one solution. Which makes your system less player friendly. Which is why i am trying to get you to do a more player frielndly solution that is more broadly useful for a larger segment of players.

43 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

What you want is a single kit that a character buys. The problem is that results in a poor experience for the player. As they end up with a one size fits no one solution. Which makes your system less player friendly. Which is why i am trying to get you to do a more player frielndly solution that is more broadly useful for a larger segment of players.

I have run games using these kits, and so far they have worked as intended, making things easier for my players. I don't understand how exactly they could make things more difficult than they were prior. I give my players the choice to use a kit or choose their gear; the kits are meant to speed things up and make it easier for someone who doesn't know the system, which is what they do. What has your experience with your players been like when using them?

I am currently broadening the scope of this project, but it seems like it isn't going in a direction that you want, and I earnestly apologize for that. I want to make this idea something that everyone can benefit from, but the way in which you want me to do so does not align with my design philosophy with this project. To that end, I again extend my apologies.