Hello,
This may be a silly question, but this is my first real table top RPG experience. My group and I just finished the encounters that come with the game and wondering how the purchasing of equipment works. Do we need to go to a "shop" in game? Can we just say we bought it? Or is it completly up to the GM.

Thanks

It is entirely up to your group and gm and the style of game you want to run. Sometimes buying/selling simply gets glossed over if it's not something relavant to the story or you can play out every time your characters need to purchase a new stimpack. Generally though it will be some combination of the two.

For example my group is starting with an obligation of 90 which means we can't really use legitamate channels to buy anything. So we'll have to find black market dealers to buy from which could make for some good roleplay.

Edit: One thing I did forget to mention is that even if you do everything entirely offscreen make sure your characters are actually in a location that would actually be able to buy new equipment before you do it. Being stuff on your ship in the middle of hyperspace isn't really an appropriate place to buy that new blaster.

Sweet! I think finding a black market dealer sounds fun, maybe I can persuade a shady city person to point me in the right direction.
Thanks for the reply

jebusthewhite said:

Like Droma said, it's completely up to the GM.

In most cases, it's just easier to gloss over the shopping trip, and figure the characters did so either during their last bit of downtime, provided they had the ability to go shopping; pretty hard to hit the mall when you're stranded in the desert in the middle of nowhere.

Truthfully, the only time the GM should require the players to role-play the shopping trip is if they're looking for something that's plot-relevant, like the hyperdrive part that the PCs need to acquire in "Escape from Mos Shutta"

Donovan Morningfire said:

In general, I think the rarity of the item can be used to help with deciding how gear should be handled. However, I don't recall at this precise moment of rarity is covered in the Beginner Box rule book. But, basically, very simple and basic things are likely to be within reasonable grasp on most planets (stim packs, a backpack, macrobinoculars, etc..) and can likely be glossed over. Depending on the weapon, armor or gear it could be increasingly more difficult to get it. Stuff that requires black market purchases it would be very reasonable to build an adventure around them trying to get into contact with a supplier or having to do a favor for the fence before they will allow them to purchase what they want. It can also depend on other situational factors, the group is temporarily stranded on some back water town on Tattooine then medical supplies might be hard to come by and replenishing those stim packs could require a bit more work on their part.

Overall though, I'd say hand wave the little purchases for standard consumable items at the least, make them work for the bigger stuff. Then, when they get that customized carbine they've been wanting it means something to them.