Hey folks!

I know that a character's starting equipment can not include restricted items, but does rarity matter? Can a character just buy it and have stroy reason why they would own it, or do they need to roll for rare items?

Thanks in advance!

Naw, you could have come from anywhere, after all. Rarity is relative, fluid and subject to GM fiat. Rarity is more of a way to flavor the play than to deny you items.

Cool. I thought that was the case, but just wanted to get clarification. Thanks!

Basically just check with your GM, and you're good to go!

I checked on this, and you can't buy anything of rarity 8 or higher at character generation. It's either too expensive or restricted.

I was going to houserule it, but it seemed I didn't have to.

I checked on this, and you can't buy anything of rarity 8 or higher at character generation. It's either too expensive or restricted.

I was going to houserule it, but it seemed I didn't have to.

Yeah...with a starting budge of 500 (if I remember correctly), players are extremely limited in what they can buy regardless.

I checked on this, and you can't buy anything of rarity 8 or higher at character generation. It's either too expensive or restricted.

I was going to houserule it, but it seemed I didn't have to.

Yeah...with a starting budge of 500 (if I remember correctly), players are extremely limited in what they can buy regardless.

With Obligation you can go as high as 3000, but even that's not enough to get things of a higher Rarity.

Actually, you can get 4000 if you increase it by 15 purely for creds.

oh yeah, forgot about adding obligation. My group kinda glossed over obligation (just taking the starting values) since we're still learning the rules.

After studying the equipment lists I figure on limiting my players to picking rarity 5 or less for weapons and rarity 3 or less for everything else. I prefer having them obtain better gear themselves through effort or purchase in-game. In my experience, it also makes them appreciate the gear more when they have to actually go out there and get it themselves.

After studying the equipment lists I figure on limiting my players to picking rarity 5 or less for weapons and rarity 3 or less for everything else. I prefer having them obtain better gear themselves through effort or purchase in-game. In my experience, it also makes them appreciate the gear more when they have to actually go out there and get it themselves.

Basically just check with your GM, and you're good to go!

I agree. Not having items as starting equipment lets the GM use them as "treasure" during later adventures, which in my opinion adds to the fun.

-Nate

At five hundred credits I think I bought a Blaster Pistol (400), Heavy Cloths (50), a Comlink (25), a stimpack (25). That pretty well did it. Five hundred goes fast. I think my wife bought her character a full medpack, and didn't want to take the cash obligation option, so she couldn't even buy a gun. The only way to afford the rarer stuff is obligation, and even then it will disappear very quickly.

In my spring-time fling group I had a pair of twin characters that pooled their 500 credits together to buy shared equipment. Mostly the players (my little brother and long time friend) wanted to try starting out with the default credit assumption, so they got creative. They ended up with a shared heavy blaster pistol as one of their items. Zyg and Zhag were a hoot in play, and at one point in Escape from Mos Shuuta Zyg rolled a failure and a Despair for the first action of the first combat of the session. We decided that he expertly grabbed his...well the air where his blaster should have been. Meanwhile, not in combat...Zhag had a heavy blaster pistol stuffed in his flight suit.

The 500 credit thing has been the fishbone in the cheek for a lot of GMs, but it can work if you can get the players to dig into it. And as mentioned above, it makes looting an extra blaster pistol something of a moment early in the career of a dirt-poor scallywag.

The 500 credit thing has been the fishbone in the cheek for a lot of GMs

I've built three characters (to use as pregens in a game I hope to run) so far: a Colonist: Politico , who is a sort of con man social climber; a Hired Gun: Mercenary Soldier who is basically just a mercenary soldier; and a Smuggler: Pilot who leans more toward pilot and less toward smuggler. The Hired Gun is the only character for whom I didn't feel like the starting funds were sufficient to credibly outfit him, and so ended up buying him 10 Obligation points worth of extra cash. That was enough to start him out with a Blaster Rifle and Armored Clothing, leaving him with enough cash to buy a few grenades, a pair of shock gloves, and some miscellaneous personal equipment, but ran out of encumbrance before I ran out of credits.

And as mentioned above, it makes looting an extra blaster pistol something of a moment early in the career of a dirt-poor scallywag.

I'm not sure i consider that a positive. Looting corpses doesn't "feel" Star Wars to me, and I'm afraid that if the starting credits really are too low, that might over-incentivize looting early in the play experience with the game and thereby "normalize" it.

As an aside the enc rules seem to discourage looting items. Armor , blaster and a melee weapon for a combat character and you cant pick up much more, unless you are near transport.

Back on topic though - with additional creds would it be possible to start with custom gear like adverse condition armor with enhanced optics optics suite, or force pike with balanced hilt or even blaster rifle w/ forearm grip

Looting corpses doesn't "feel" Star Wars to me, and I'm afraid that if the starting credits really are too low, that might over-incentivize looting early in the play experience with the game and thereby "normalize" it.

Who said anything about looting corpses?

I guess that's just how I interpreted "looting an extra blaster pistol" to refer to looting bodies. Sorry about that.

Han, Luke, and Leia all loot Stormtroopers for their blasters and their armor.

As an aside the enc rules seem to discourage looting items. Armor , blaster and a melee weapon for a combat character and you cant pick up much more, unless you are near transport.

Back on topic though - with additional creds would it be possible to start with custom gear like adverse condition armor with enhanced optics optics suite, or force pike with balanced hilt or even blaster rifle w/ forearm grip

If you start with +15 obligation so you have 4000 credits, you could get laminate armor and a blaster rifle with a scope, but the armor mods are out of reach.

As an aside the enc rules seem to discourage looting items. Armor , blaster and a melee weapon for a combat character and you cant pick up much more, unless you are near transport.

Back on topic though - with additional creds would it be possible to start with custom gear like adverse condition armor with enhanced optics optics suite, or force pike with balanced hilt or even blaster rifle w/ forearm grip

If you start with +15 obligation so you have 4000 credits, you could get laminate armor and a blaster rifle with a scope, but the armor mods are out of reach.

Adverse environment gear cost 500 creds 1 hard point

Enhanced optics suite 1750 creds hard points required 1

100 creds for the customisation

Total 2350 creds

Unless Im missing something, couldnt this be done