Is starting equipment an abstract thing? Is there a certain amount of money that characters have to spend on gear or is it up to the GM to decide whether a character can start with something?

WillisRBC said:

You start with 500CR. The first instance of it can be seen on page 31, the bottom table about gaining extra obligation.

-EF

The errata has the missing paragraph in it.

WillisRBC said:

You get 500 credits base, plus 1d100 in "pocket change" that can't be spent to buy more equipment.

Pretty much, if you want more than a blaster pistol, heavy clothing, a comlink, and a stim pack, you'll need to take addtional Obligation.

While a starting character would certainly be hard-pressed to get a suit, I am surprised that this system didn't do anything to limit the availability of Stormtrooper armor. In other settings, where it is amongst the best armor of its weight (contrary to what some people think from the movies), it is also heavily restricted, so that players cannot get it, unless they sell their ship on the Black Market, or kill a similarly-sized Stormtrooper in a way that doesn't compromise the armor. Is the Rarity rating enough to make me wrong, or is it more that "Stormtrooper armor" just happens to fall under laminate armor, as well as several other types of suits?

To the best of my knowledge, this system is among the first in a while to not effort to make armor shite. Saga made it mostly worthless after 7th level, with having to choose between its bonus and your own, barring Talents, and the movies show that, other than pilots, the Fettman, D Vader, and Stormtroopers, next to no one wears armor. I can appreciate, then, that the game might also let me have good armor, while it's already letting me make good use out of it. Am I missing something here, or did they finally relax on it?

venkelos said:

Well, in regards to Saga Edition, it was an intentional design decision as you really only see two types of folks wearing armor; faceless/nameless mooks who die with ease (stormtroopers, clone troopers, Rebel troopers, Naboo security forces, etc) or named badasses like the Fetts and Darth Vader, while the vast majority of other named combatants (Luke, Leia, Han, Padme, Obi-Wan, Anakin) pretty much went without, though it should be noted that only half that group were Jedi Knights, one of whom didn't reach that status until the 3rd film of their respective trilogy. So in that system, armor was made to be something you had to specialize in if you wanted it to be useful throughout your career.

WEG had armor be useful, but the heavier stuff gave a fairly stiff penalty to your ranged attack rolls, particularly if you were a starting level hero, where every die you lost due to penalties mattered. OCR had armor be pretty meh, but RCR made at least some form of armor almost a requirement based on how critical hits worked, with many characters picking up at least a blast vest to avoid getting taken out by a lucky shot from a blaster pistol.

So it's probably a case of the pendulum swinging back the other way, with armor being helpful, but not too powerful (you won't be invincible with just a set of heavy armor) or restrictive (barring the encumbrance value of said heavier armors).