During the course of events my players happened on a droid repair shop (the owner, who owed them credits, was kidnapped). While there a player who is playing a droid that is obsessed with upgrading himself was asking if there was anything available for him to use for upgrades.

Now, I try to find reasons to say "yes" to players, but I'm not sure what would be available for him as an upgrade that wouldn't provide the player with something the rest of the group would have access to. The only thing I can think of right now is to say that there is nothing here that is any better than what you already have, but you can collect a few spare parts in case of some unforeseen "accidents".

Background:

This shop is owned by a zabrak slicer who is an associate of the NPC the players picked up earlier (she stole something from a crime lord and he wants it back... badly). This crime lord started going after any known associates trying to get to her (she needs the slicer because he's the only one, that she knows, who is skilled enough to crack the code of what she stole -- a droid brain with, she hopes, coordinates to a vast treasure).

(Note that I didn't expect to have this type of character in my group or I would have planned it differently -- he joined after the game had already started).

Look through the book for some common equipment that he might be able to find built-in versions of. This might be a headlamp (glow rod, 10 credits) or even night vision photoreceptors (scanner goggles, 150 credits). Things like a datapad are good too. For weapons, built in shock gloves are nice without being too crazy. In short, nothing tue other PCs couldn't buy at a shop, and just set a max credit value that's reasonable for your game.

Those are some great ideas! Thanks!

Good idea HappyDaze.

My only nugget of wisdom is don't be afraid to turn around retcon what he found. We had a similar situation happen few months ago.

The players had just escaped Kessel on a ship with a faulty primary hyperdrive. Their secondary was only functional enough for short jumps so they decided to stop at the nearest planet they could find. Which just happened to be Honoghr.

This was before I read the Thrawn trilogy so I only had what I knew from Wookieepedia and the information about the Noghri I gleaned from the O66 podcast.

Anyway, they ended up at a wreckage yard full of old CIS warships. The outlaw tech (who invested his talents into salvaging) went nuts. He asked if there was anything worth salvaging. I don't remember the result, but I recall not being able to come up with anything at the time.

In between sessions I realized how lame I must have been so I made a few notes and pulled him aside before the next session. I handed him a few neat things he found that I wasn't able to think of at the time. He was a happy and so was I.

Most GMs will give the advice of "Never let them see you sweat", but I am pretty honest with my players. If I can't come up with something, or I am having a hard time being creative, I will tell them. Usually they will step in and start making suggestions and contribute to the story.

It helps that all of us but my wife have issues with immersion. She can get really into it, the rest see gaming just as an excuse to be awesome, drink beer, and play star wars.

Most GMs will give the advice of "Never let them see you sweat", but I am pretty honest with my players. If I can't come up with something, or I am having a hard time being creative, I will tell them. Usually they will step in and start making suggestions and contribute to the story.

Actually many a time - especially with the new narrative bent the game has, if I come up dry with a good idea, I tell them "So, 3 advantage and a triumph huh? Tell me why you are awesome at what you were doing!"

In between sessions I realized how lame I must have been so I made a few notes and pulled him aside before the next session. I handed him a few neat things he found that I wasn't able to think of at the time. He was a happy and so was I.

We started our roll20.net campaign last night with the beginner box but using full rules and non-pregens. I told them up front, "I will probably make mistakes, but we will continue on and I'll learn and do better next time. My goal is for us to have a good time and tell an exciting story. Rules can be clarified later."

It worked. :-)

I think people are way more forgiving with a new system. Hell, we're 6 months into playing and we still go "Wait - how does that work? What page is that on?" as we all scramble for books and start looking up Game Mechanic X. . ..

I would offer him the chance to "buy" equipment to the value of reward you think appropriate for that shop to contain. Most items of equipment can have a functional equivalent as a Droid option. Improvements to skills and talents purchased with experience points can also be given the flavor of being from upgrades from the droid shop. A few units of "spare parts" functioning as emergency repair patches (stim packs for Droids) would not be at all out of line either.

If nothing else, say yes, you gather up some likely looking circuit modules and spare parts, I'll let you know next session exactly what you got. Then work it out with the player later.

I'm one of those "tell them the truth" GM's - if I get stuck, I'll let them know. Apparently I'm also quick thinking on my feet though, because they've told me the compromises/quick stories I've given have fit well into the game.

That being said, the game already has a system in place that can easily be used for something like this (which I've used/encouraged them to do once already) - the destiny tokens. On p.28, under "Luck and deus ex machina," the book even suggests retroactive facts (flip the token - "good thing I bought those gas masks at the last port").
When they find a tresure trove of goodies like that (and it would make sense that they DO find something), tell them "yes, you find some good stuff... but I don't know what it is just yet, let me think on it." Then, when you come up with something you feel justifiable for them, let them know what it is. In the meantime, if they come to a situation where they need/want something that they COULD have found in that trove.... have them flip the destiny token and the answer is "Yes. Yes, you did find [that thing or something similar] in the trove earlier."

I think people are way more forgiving with a new system. Hell, we're 6 months into playing and we still go "Wait - how does that work? What page is that on?" as we all scramble for books and start looking up Game Mechanic X. . ..

You know, I really think its the opposite for us. I mean, in d20 it seemed that we were always looking stuff up when an action affected the story., to make sure it was "legal". Now, with narrative, I think we go with the flow much more, and check much less. Interesting.