The Wealth of a Character?

[CRMcNeill]

Another version I read of was that to remove the helmet required that the trooper toggle a tongue switch before removing the helmet (which included an inflating ring around the neck as part of the atmosphere system). Basically, without the switch, you had to really work to pull the helmet off, and if you did, the safety overrides would fry the circuitry, taking out the MFTAS, comlink and whatever else, and rendering the helmet pretty much useless ("I can't see a thing in this helmet!")
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[tetsuoh]

[CRMcNeill]

In that, case, it depends what kind of campaign you want to run. I know there is one scenario in the Tapani Sector Instant Adventures in which one of the characters inherits a lordship in the Tapani Sector, so if you want your characters to hob-nob with the rich and lordly of the SWU, that is an option. Of course, I understand that getting richer doesn't make all your problems go away; it just makes them bigger...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Also, in the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (D20), there is a chapter on Organizations. Naturally, it doesn't port straight over, but it could give you some ideas on how, if your characters are working for an organization, as they go up in rank or increase in influence, their organization can assist them, either financially, or through influence or access...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[griff]

I once created an entertainer template that was not just wealthy but extremely famous. The famous persona being a disguise but had access to millions of credits but influential within many sectors of the core. I always wondered why there was never any rich characters. If someone wanted to play a rich character like Lando, why not let them.
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"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.

[Theodrim]

[garhkal]

[Jedi Skyler]

As for field stripping fallen foes, including stormtroopers: there most certainly is a precedent for having enough time to do so, and that would be on the Death Star in ANH. Luke and Han had plenty of time to resupply after rescuing Princess Leia. In fact, they had plenty of time after summoning that pair of troopers aboard the Millennium Falcon to stun and strip them, and don their armor. There were no issues with having to defeat security measures to strip the armor off the troopers, nor to utilize the comlink in the helmets. We do, however, see Security checking to see why those troopers weren't at their posts. And, fortunately for Luke and Han, they were able to successfully Con security by acting as though there was a technical fault - which, by the way, was only possible because they correctly guessed that the security office questioning them was that transpraisteel window overlooking the hangar bay - and thus avoided detection for that much longer.

garkhal is absolutely correct that, when your party is firing kill shots, rather than stun bolts, you should NEVER be having full, undamaged suits of armor on fallen foes. By that, I mean that wherever the trooper was hit, and the armor didn't soak the damage, that piece of armor is damaged and would not offer more protection. You'd have to combine pieces from the suits that are available, and will come up with a lesser number of viable suits to use.

As for the black market (or even legitimate shops) and gear netted from battle: it is possible, with the right skills, to strip armor and gear down to components to sell. That way, items are not necessarily easily recognized for the equipment of which they were originally a part. That, or then you have components and systems that you can add to the armor your characters already have; that addresses the issue of 'giving your players too much wealth' versus having them griping about not having enough credits to get the gear they want, but can't find. It also gives the players motivation to put skill dice in skills that are not combat-oriented, which is a huge tendency with most players. It's also one of the reasons I started playing slicers some of the time; sure, my characters have dice in combat skills, but as I started creating more tech-savvy characters, I opened up a whole new world. It became less necessary for our parties to find someone with access, because we now had a character on hand who was experienced with computer systems, security and the like.

And that's the kind of thinking that gets players looking at alternative methods of making credits. Slicers can do programming work for hire (which, in addition to earning credits, can provide GMs with another plot hook or two). Gunslingers can do bodyguard or other security work. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the GM and the players, and each opportunity for making creds means opportunities for the GM to bring in various consequences; perhaps a job went wrong. A line of code was incorrect, or perhaps the program had unintended results, and now the employer is looking for a little payback...or perhaps even giving the slicer a bonus because those unintended results meant a much more significant payout for the employer. Either way, encouraging the PCs to actively seek out ways to earn credits can quell any griping about not having enough. It can get them focused on more ways to play their characters, and it can give them opportunities to develop skills that will round their characters out.

That's something I'd strongly suggest to GMs who are encouraging this from their players, and I also offer it up as a method for trying to help gauge what is an appropriate reward, and what is an appropriate method of delivering said rewards. I think it's more conducive to fostering good role playing in the players, and that is something that should ALWAYS be rewarded, be it through credits, CPs, or allowing your players to achieve something without a roll because they put an obvious effort into BEING their character.

The unfortunate thing is that this is not a precise table from which to see what rewards should be offered. Hopefully you're getting ideas that will make it easier to come up with appropriate rewards for your players...

[garhkal]

[Theodrim]

[garhkal]

Perhaps then, dm's need to start putting in more instances where those other skills can shine!
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

Well said, garkhal!

And, as an example of how 8D in Alien Species would actually be helpful...say you are looking for someone you either know, or highly suspect, is disguised as member of a different race...say, a Twi'lek. Someone who had that level of skill in Alien Species would be way more likely to catch the fact that there's one Twi'lek in this whole crowd of them, who's NOT moving their lekku during conversation, a sure sign to others of that species that something wasn't right.

While 8D in that particular skill is a bit excessive for anyone other than a scholar of some kind, it illustrates the point that a creative GM will find a way to reward a player for creating a more well-rounded character, by having them actually USING said skills.

[CRMcNeill]

A technique I use is to allow a character with high Knowledge skills add bonuses to Perception or other pertinent skills based on how well they roll their Knowledge skill.

For example, say a character with 8D in Alien Species is in a sabacc game with a Twi'lek. He racks his brain thinking of anything about Twi'leks that might help him read his opponent. In game terms, he rolls Alien Species against the appropriate Difficulty for Twi'leks, then receive a +1 pip bonus to Gambling for every 3 points by which he beat the Difficulty (I haven't settled on an exact ratio, since 1 for 3 actually seems to be a little generous). On the other hand, if he fails the roll, he receives a penalty to his Gambling roll, since he is basing his assumption on flawed or false information.

But the end result is that characters who normally bypass Knowledge skills or just use them for roleplaying scenes suddenly have more incentive to look at their Knowledge skills for appropriate bonuses if they really want their Perception rolls to succeed.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Whill]

[garhkal]