I'm just curious about how anyone would know if you had a restricted weapon. There are so many weapons of so many brands out there. How would they know whether that was a Holdout Blaster or a Disruptor Pistol? Short of firing it or disassembling it, I don't know how anyone could tell. Any thoughts?

You can tell a disuptor from a regular blaster the same way you can tell a shotgun from a rifle: it looks different. Same thing for a holdout blaster - it's small, compact and easily concealable. People who know their guns, like law enforcement officers, soldiers and the like, can tell.

I'm just curious about how anyone would know if you had a restricted weapon. There are so many weapons of so many brands out there. How would they know whether that was a Holdout Blaster or a Disruptor Pistol? Short of firing it or disassembling it, I don't know how anyone could tell. Any thoughts?

It would be a perception check, you could increase difficulty or setback dice depending on the size/type of weapon, or opposed roll. Advantages would be used to get more info on the check, I.e type of weapon.

I don't disagree... but...

On the other hand, there are so many variations throughout the galaxy. Even if there are relatively obvious differences, surely someone would disguise one.

Even today, not everything is what it appears and it would at least take a close check to verify it.

I used to have a Boer rifle, which looks like a double barrel shotgun, only its not. One barrel is a shot gun, the other is rifled. If you are walking about in the bush in Africa, you never know what you might run into. (The shotgun barrel is for birds and snakes, the riffled barrel is for bigger game.)

Furthermore... my father did smuggle a few guns for his private collection. He painted the barrels with cheap latex green paint, and dropped a $5 fishing rod down the barrel and called it a fishing rod case. (FYI... he was one of those hoity toity bird shooters, nothing criminal.)

Which reminds me... there's no 'disguise' equipment mod.

Away from my book at the moment, but what sort of weapons were restricted? Military grade weapons mostly, weren't they? Normally a might bit larger than the non-restricted weapons? And then the disruptors: infamous weapons, the use of which is might universally regarded as a crime against humanity!

Fair enough, I suppose, that at a range, someone wouldn't be able to tell a disruptor pistol from a blaster pistol, at least until they see the effects. But under inspection, I'd imagine most people "in the know" would be familiar enough to tell the difference without much difficulty.

I suspect that the high tech weapon scanners would be able to determine how much "blaster gas" the weapon contains. According to wookieepedia, disruptors have a lot more blaster gas than a standard blaster weapon.

UHF it still would be a perception check, unless they got their hands on it, it would be perception vs disguise skill or whatever increased difficulty you want to use.

Which reminds me... there's no 'disguise' equipment mod.

I like this idea... maybe when the spy/politico/thief sourcebook is released?

I would go with having Perception checks whenever they are around any type of Security or Military, or anyone you'd think would notice these types of things and it would matter to the story (a rival smuggler, a crime boss and his thugs etc.).
I'd have passing looks from these as Normal difficulty (2 dice), going through "Customs" or something similar as Easy (1 die).
I'd then add Bonus or Setback dice if the weapon is out and has fired or if an attempt to disguise the weapon has been made.

The reason for making these weapons illegal is in part to keep PCs from having them available all the time, so they fit in with the setting and aren't Soldiers but Fringers, so I say do these checks whenever it seems appropriate. Don't look at it as a way to penalize the PCs, but a way to make these generally more effective weapons special rather than commonplace, which is what they should be. Commonplace = boring. Basically when someone pulls out that illegal Disruptor or that Military grade Blaster Carbine it should be something of note showing that this guy/gal means business and they ain't afraid of no Law Man...

I'd assume the guards (or whoever) are going to be familiar with most of your major brands. If you get something a bit more esoteric they can make a perception check, and add a bunch of black dice to reflect that this gun is only manufactured on the third moon of the Graglemax, in the Thrantomar system during the third night of the Jum Jum Festival.

Alternately, a good weapon scanner can probably give said guard a bunch of boost dice to counter.

You can tell a disuptor from a regular blaster the same way you can tell a shotgun from a rifle: it looks different. Same thing for a holdout blaster - it's small, compact and easily concealable. People who know their guns, like law enforcement officers, soldiers and the like, can tell.

Plus a great many spaceports have weapon sensors and scanners in the customs areas and key locations - they'd be able to pick up power outputs outside the normal blaster range.

Thanks everyone. There are a lot of ideas here.

I totally get that the rules are designed to prevent the players from running around with incredibly lethal equipment. Presumably players will be a lot more experienced by the time they are getting into carrying illegal weapons everywhere.

From my perspective, if its not disguised, its pretty obvious. But you'd still have to do an average PP perception check to casually identify it. Easy P if physically held, looked at, scanned, or heard\seen in use.

If is disguised, I'd ratchet things up a lot, to like PPPP to casually spot. Disguised weapons should cost a lot since they would be rare, and of course illegal. I'd go with the 'superior' cost. PPP if held, looked at, scanned, or easy P if heard\seen.

From my perspective, if its not disguised, its pretty obvious. But you'd still have to do an average PP perception check to casually identify it. Easy P if physically held, looked at, scanned, or heard\seen in use.

If is disguised, I'd ratchet things up a lot, to like PPPP to casually spot. Disguised weapons should cost a lot since they would be rare, and of course illegal. I'd go with the 'superior' cost. PPP if held, looked at, scanned, or easy P if heard\seen.

I would suggest using Setback dice (B) rather than Difficulty (P) because you're altering the chances of recognizing the weapon as illegal, not spotting that the weapon is unusual (a disguised weapon would likely look like a highly modified weapon rather than just a normal weapon).

So a lightly Disguised weapon would be PPB, a professionally disguised one PPBB etc.