is that all the equipment the character can have.

[griff]

If we take a look at the smuggler character template 2e, we see that the character has starting equipment of a stock light freighter a comlink 2000 credits and s heavy blaster pistol. But what I choose to call unlisted personal items that a character had stored on his ship, ie: extra clothes, tools, and other various items that I let this character have within reason, but didn't have to list on the character sheet. How generous have any of you been with players that had extra capacity to store extra stuff even if it was just an ewok's leather backpack. Was it required to have every item listed, or was there any Santa's gift bags that held any thing and everything?

[shootingwomprats]

The wonder and the joy of SWD6 is that you do not need to have a comprehensive list of anything. Its not like in DnD where you need a comprehensive list of everything from chalk to 50' of rope to iron spikes to a 10' pole. In SWD6 for me if it is reasonable they would have it or it is a common item, they have it. If it something special they want they need to find it and buy it. Very simple, equipment like many others things are available at "the speed of plot".
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[griff]

Mostly it came down to the character for the available "free item" . Arrogant Noble or Old Senatorial from 1e would have the greater likely hood of this game effect because of wealth or the character would have had a life time to acquire stuff. While the Curious Explorer from 2e what was listed plus what ever was in her pockets was it.
I always like to have players help give greater depth to their characters as many ways as possible. One of these ways was to have a very detailed description about at least one, or several pieces of equipment. Because we all have that one thing we can describe very well because it is important to us.

[garhkal]

[Corise Lucerne]

I generally go along with the idea of "common items" as described in the Spycraft 2.0 RPG Rulebook (not Star Wars), and I typically allow players 4 unlisted common items (a little more, a little less depending on the circumstances). And by unlisted, I mean they don't have to tell me in advance if they have it, but it has to be something reasonable.

These tend to be fairly common things that can make improvements to certain skills or somehow fitting to the scenario or plotline, but nothing that significantly effects the plot of the RPG (like a personal weapon). For example, macrobinoculars for scout team, glowrods for a cave, comlinks, basic datapads, minor tools, etc.

So far, it typically works fairly well for me, keeping the players' focus on the plot and not equipment;(I'm speaking about those players who search and loot everything for those "just in case" scenarios). It also gives them a little wiggle room in case I throw something a little unexpected their way.

That being said, this system doesn't always work out with certain players and situations. For example, a new player once state he had a basic, basic, medkit. He proceeded to state that the med kit had multiple scapels in it (including a laser scapel), which he wanted to use as a weapon (they were in an area where they couldn't carry weapons). That didn't work out so well.

Short answer, depends on the players and situations.
_________________
A Game of Galactic Conquest: http://rebelfaction.org/

[DougRed4]

This is another area where I've really 'evolved' and changed on over the years. The first games I ever played were TSR ones (D&D, Top Secret, Gamma World, etc.) and for a long time as a GM I expected the players to write out a laundry list of every little thing they had.

More recently I've moved into other, more narrative games. One, for example (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying) has the players with almost as much narrative control as the GM. So if a player was in a dark underground sewer, they could make a successful roll and declare that they were creating an Asset of a flashlight, even though they'd never articulated that earlier.

So nowadays I'm much more flexible. There are certain games or genres where I'll be picky (say a group does a time travel adventure where they go back in time, or they find themselves in a far-flung apocalyptic future), only because the players are 'stuck' in an environment where they don't have access to things they might want. But generally speaking I no longer make them give me an inventory that tells me every penny or button in their pocket.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[griff]

On a similar note, a character doesn't always have access to all there gear. Do you have them make a secondary list of carried items. I sure only the munchkins would go to the fine dinning establishment wearing their armor with all their weapons on a first date, just because they think you're a jerk GM and they need to be ready for everything all the time.

[atgxtg]

It is also worth mentioning that sometimes too much equipment works against the characters. It's very un-D&Dish but it makes a lot of sense. Guys lying out on the beach all deck out in powered armor and carrying rocket launchers are going to attract attention and put most people on edge.

When (probably not if) the authorities decide to investigate, they will notice all the hardware the characters are toting, and gear up themselves before confronting the characters. That usually escalates the situation and the increased firepower tends to make the fight less forgiving.

Some of the players in our campaigns discovered that by carting the biggest, baddest weapon around, they pretty much painted a target on their backs, and opponents would shoot at them first (often to the exclusion of the other "weaker" characters), and with bigger, nastier weapons than they otherwise would have.

[garhkal]

[vanir]

Our Players are all ex AD&D and kind of get off on comprehensive character sheet listings.

At the same time there are general conventions I think we all recognize, aforementioned, like reasonable standard equipment aboard any starship or different types of vehicle. Once we have a few ships and vehicles we can count on always having subspace radios and a stock of reasonable standard equipment readily available, it makes a big difference to PC party strength in the field, but where that might be metagaming in AD&D it's beneficial to the SWU because it helps base the PC party at vehicles and starships as part of their gaming environment.

Our standard freighter equipment typically includes:
-steerage accommodations for passengers, berthings for crew, cabin for the ship captain (gunners use steerage and take up passenger slots)
-simple head and refresher booth (turboshowers and other starliner class facilites must be custom installed)
-ship's armoury: blaster pistols and a baton or blade for the normal crew listing kept in a coded lockbox, permissable using normal BoSS ship registration (other/heavier personal weapons may require individual permits)
-ubiquitous 2-person escape pods for the full complement listing (eg. 4 pods in a YT-1300), usually stored/fired from beneath engineering deck.
-a crew/passenger lounge with simple entertainment facilities
-a basic galley, primarily for reconstitution of concentrated rations (can be upgraded with custom installations such as a synergetics galley station, which uses culinary arts skill for full starliner class meal preparation, installation would include fresh foodstuffs storage).
-an engineering station with a full set of ship-specific repair tools (+1D transports repair when the ship is shut down for repairs), these can be customized and added to for cumulative bonuses
-large subspace radio set, runs off the ship's power core and has a range of several systems realtime communications and several sectors with skip, can be upgraded with things like a hyperwave transceiver, or jamming equipment, datalinking facilities, etc.
-laundry unit
-emergency airlock bulkheads, seals sections of the ship in the event of cabin depressurization
-utility airlock, all starships have at least one, docking airlocks however have to be installed unless the specific starship has them standard, eg. the YT-1300 and most CEC starships have universal docking airlocks fitted standard for cargo transfer ship-ship. Most other freighters however don't, they just have an airlock crew can use for embarking/disembarking in hostile environments, or for EVA. Otherwise the ramps and elevators are used and cargo is transferred in friendly atmospheric environments, like starports and hangar bays only
-shipboard security system, basic lockout for unauthorized access, uses base crewmember's security skill plus a base difficulty assigned to the class of ship (eg. Moderate for a YT), for a shipjacker to bypass and enter
-medical bay essentially equivalent to the medical-kit backpack in the equipment listings, more elaborate facilities must be installed but any star cruiser (eg. a CEC Corvette) has by default a comprehensive medbay with full surgical and diagnostic facilities, freighters not so much, but scoutships do


Any personal equipment and small vehicles can be stored on starships, but most of it the PCs have to obtain independently then place on board.

[Whill]

I strongly dislike long character equipment lists and the materialistic D&D mentality behind them. Characters that carry too much usually end up losing it or otherwise regretting it sooner or later.

My next campaign will start in media res with the PCs captured by a crime lord and about to be executed Jabba-the-Hutt-style (a more literal walk-the-plank scenario with sea monsters waiting below to devour them). The PCs will start the campaign with no credits or equipment (except for maybe anything small and hidden on their person that could reasonably be missed in pat down by gangster goons). The only thing I'm not sure about is, do I tell the players to not bother listing any items or credits during character creation? or do I let them list reasonable weapons and equipment and/or have the purchase things, just to tell them it's all gone at the start of the adventure?

As far as the ship goes, I do like one of the players to keep a ship's inventory list (mainly to not forget things that have been added there from adventuring). I do sometimes also allow PCs to find unlisted things in the ship's storage if it is reasonable for it to be on the ship, as the story dictates.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage

[griff]

I like the before mentioned description of freighter facilities and equipment. I don't mind if a player list every possession they have, and the longer the list the less likely I'll let them "pull a rabbit out of their hat". I like these system that the rules don't get bogged down in a character's carrying capacity, and a player trying to get as close as that number as possible. In Star Wars RPG the equipment list says to me that these are the things at you will need to get by in this galaxy, anything else is unimportant.
_________________
"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[Tinman]

Generally speaking, we don't worry TOO much about that sort of thing. It largely depends on character background, and in what way characters are or aren't employed or sponsored in the process of doing what they're doing. When new characters enter a game, the player writes down the various things they believe their character should reasonably have, the GM either approves those things or not, and that's that. It usually doesn't require too much discussion, because not much "Monty Haul" play goes on around here.

Characters do pick up interesting things along the way, and players are expected to keep track of them. There have been a few hilarious moments when a GM had completely forgotten that a character had an item which ended up being unintentionally very relevant to a situation much later on. Currency is of some importance because characters actually do need to get things repaired. make a living and pay for fuel and such. Occasionally (such as in one privateering game) the characters were written around the motivation of getting rich.. because that was part of the types of characters they were playing.. but it wasn't overly dwelt upon to the point of distraction from other things.

[griff]

The Ewok's ambiguous collection of shiny objects, has so much potential for "rabbit out of the hat" moments that the GM can have fun with, or the character can try to exploit.
_________________
"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[vanir]

Well, in terms of what PCs actually carry on their persons it does become fairly relevent to keep complete records and prohibitions upon items not specifically equipped. The ex-AD&D players tend to spend a bit of time equipment-mining for useful RP items in every situation.

But also it helps customize the character so that an outlaw tech has a bewildering array of specialized electronic equipment that never fails to come in handy during adventures. There's been times an intuitive PC has just equipped with exactly what was needed to make a problem solving task much easier for the party. It's really cool when that happens.

We have two Mandalorian clansmen in our current party and have been collecting specialised armour. Keeping track of mods to their armour, anything from computer spike attachments to specific types of sensor arrays have enhanced their roleplay experience and makes them stand out and be very special in the party, which everybody enjoys.

Similarly Mercinary PCs armour up and equip with heaps of small items too, except it's on their person attached to a webbing harness or in pockets, but it becomes important to keep detailed lists in part just for their character development and to give them a special place too.

Listing equipment and enforcing listed equipment restrictions is sometimes part of tailoring the PC sheet and their role in the party, I find.