Equipment

The galactic economy turns on the wealth and products of billions of
worlds. Throughout the history of known space, money has gone by many names,
but the basic unit always came back to the “credit.” As the Republic waned and
the Rise of the Empire approached (circa Episodes I-III), Republic credits
(also called “dataries”) no longer had much value beyond the Core Worlds and
the Inner Rim. Instead, local currencies became popular. More often, people
living and working in the distant regions wanted to trade in hard currency, not
electronic credit chips.

This changed when the
Empire came to power. By the time of the Rebellion era (circa Episodes IV-VI),
Imperial credits were accepted everywhere. Even the Alliance used this
currency, as it was the standard throughout known space until the Empire
finally fell.

The New Republic, of
course, minted its own credits after the victory at Endor and the establishment
of the new galactic government. However, individual planets, regions, and
sectors also adopted their own currencies, and the Imperial remnants issued
their own scrip. Exchange rates fluctuated wildly throughout this period. The
New Republic credit was established ten years after the Battle of Endor and
eventually emerged as the leading currency by the time of The New Jedi Order
era.

Alliance. Other characters might be legitimate traders, buying and selling commodities
to pay their way across the galaxy (and subsidize the adventures in which they
wind up participating). Guilds and governments regulate trade. Charters and
licenses are granted, cargo is regularly inspected, trade routes are
established, and port fees are posted. In general, small freighters might come
to the attention of local ports and the occasional inspection vessel, but
independent traers are otherwise given a lot of freedom when they conduct their
business.

Table 8-1: Trade Goods
gives baseline prices for fairly broad categories of goods. The Gamemaster can
get more specific, add or remove items depending on supply and demand in the
campaign, and adjust prices to reflect such fluctuations in the market. Also,
prices can vary greatly in different regions of space, different star systems,
and even between different planets within the same star system.

Selling Items

Sometimes you’ll come into possession of an item that you don’t want.
We’re not talking about commodities here. Commodities are valuable goods that
can easily be exchanged almost like cash. We’re talking about individual items from
the lists presented later in this chapter. In general, a merchant will buy used
equipment at half its listed price. If you have a blaster and want to upgrade
to a heavy blaster pistol, you can sell the smaller blaster for half price.

Restricted Items

Some objects require licenses to own or operate, or are restricted to
qualifying organizations or individuals. In such cases, a character must pay a
license fee to own the object legally. A license fee is a separate expense,
purchased in addition to the object to which it applies.

The four restriction
ratings are as follows:

**Licensed**: The owner must obtain a license to own or operate the
object legally. Generally, the license is not expensive, and obtaining it has
few if any additional legal requirements.

**Restricted**: Only specifically qualified individuals or
organizations are technically allowed to own the object. However, the real
obstacles to ownership are time and money; anyone with sufficient patience and
cash can eventually acquire the necessary license.

**Military**: The object is sold primarily to legitimate police and
military organizations. A military rating is essentially the same as restricted
(see above), except that manufacturers and dealers are generally under tight
government scrutiny and are therefore especially wary of selling to private
individuals.

**Illegal**: The object is illegal in all but specific, highly
regulated circumstances.

Getting a License

To get a license, you must pay the fee required to file the application.
The amount of the fee is a percentage of the object’s normal cost, as listed in
Table 8-2: Restricted Objects. Once you’ve paid the fee, make a Knowledge
(bureaucracy) check against the DC listed in the Skill DC column. You can’t
take 10 or take 20 on this check. On a success, your license is approved and
will be available to you in a number of days as listed in the Time Required
column. On a failure, you spend a number of days as listed in the Time Required
column, but you are not granted the license and your application fee is lost.
You may try again as often as you like if you have the time and credits to do
so.

Whether you succeed or
fail on your Knowledge (bureaucracy) check, your request is recorded in public
records. The more restricted the license, the more in-depth the background
check required, and this leaves an increasingly detailed electronic trail for
others to follow.

1 *The license fee is given as a*
percentage of the licensed object’s base cost.

You can choose to
secure a license through illicit means. If you want to bribe an official, make
a Persuasion check instead of a Knowledge (bureaucracy) check. If you want to
fabricate a false identity or steal another person’s identity, make a Deception
check instead of a Knowledge (bureaucracy) check. If either of these checks
fails by 5 or more, the local authorities are alerted your activities.

The Black Market

Almost anything is available on the black market. However, you must make
a Gather Information check to locate a black market merchant who has the object
you seek. The DC of the check is listed in the Skill DC column of Table 8-2:
Restricted Objects, and the GM may apply a bonus or penalty to the check
depending on the circumstances. (For example, finding a black market dealer on
the smuggler’s moon of Nar Shaddaa is relatively easy and may warrant a +5
bonus on the check.) If you succeed on the Gather Information check, you find a
black market merchant who has access to the item you seek. If you fail, you can
try again later. If you fail by 5 or more, someone notices you’ve been asking
questions and comes to capture, interrogate, or silence you.

Once you find someone
who can get the item for you, you’ll have to pay two, three, four, or five
times the item’s normal price (as listed in the Black Market Cost column of
Table 8-2: Restricted Items) and wait some time for the item to become
available (as listed in the Time Required column).

Weapons

The galaxy is a dangerous place. Most people have access to some kind of
weapon, and those who travel the space lanes often carry a blaster or some
other weapon as a means of defense. A weapon’s legality depends on where you
are. No one would look twice at a character wearing a blaster at this side in
Mos Espa or Nar Shaddaa. The same character would do well to conceal it while
visiting the gleaming metropolis of Coruscant.

Weapon Groups

Discriminating combatants choose their weapons very carefully. However,
a character who knows how to load and fire a slugthrower pistol can handle a
blaster pistol just as expertly. Thus, weapons are categorized based on their
form and function, and a character who takes the appropriate Weapon Proficiency
feat (see page 89) is considered skilled with all of the weapons in that group.
Exotic weapons such as bowcasters and flamethrowers are exceptions: An exotic
weapon is unique in form and function, and requires special training (that is,
the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat) to wield proficiently.

Advanced Melee Weapons

The most common advanced melee weapons are bladed vibro weapons with
ultrasonic generators built into their hilts or handles. A vibro weapon’s
ultrasonic blade gives the weapon more cutting power with less effort. Advanced
melee weapons include the electrostaff, force pike, vibrodagger, vibroblade,
vibrobayonet, and vibdro-ax.

Exotic Weapons

Unlike other weapon groups, you must select the Exotic Weapon Profiency
feat each time you want to learn how to use a different exotic weapon. Exotic
weapons include the amphistaff, atlatl, bowcaster, cesta, and flamethrower.

Heavy Weapons

Arge, powerful weapons that usually require a brace or tripod to operate
fall under the category of heavy weapons, as do even larger weapons mounted to
vehicles and starships. Heavy weapons include the blaster cannon, grenade
launcher, heavy repeating blaster, missile launcher, and E-Web repeating
blaster.

Lightsabers

This group includes the standard lightsaber (a handgrip hilt that
projects a single blade of energy) and all lightsaber variants, including the
double-bladed lightsaber (as wielded by Darth Maul in Episode I: *The Phantom Menace*). Lightsabers ignore
damage reduction unless noted otherwise. However, a target’s shield rating
reduces a lightsaber’s damage normally.

Pistols

Pistols are ranged weapons that can be fired with one hand. Types of
pistols include the blaster pistol (the most common firearm in the *Star Wars* universe), the heavy blaster
pistol, the hold-out blaster, the sporting blaster, the ion pistol, and the
slugthrower pistol.

Rifles

Rifles deal more damage and have a greater range than pistols, but you
take a -5 penalty on attack rolls if you wield a rifle with one hand
(regardless of the weapon’s size relative to you). Weapons in this group
include the blaster carbine, blaster rifle, heavy blaster rifle, sporting
blaster rifle, light repeating blaster, ion rifle, and slugthrower rifle.

Simple Weapons

Simple weapons include weapons that require no special training to use,
such as the club, combat gloves, knife, mace, quarterstaff, stun baton,
grenades, and thermal detonator. Also included are primitive weapons such as
the spear, net, sling, and bow.

Weapon Sizes

The size of a weapon compared to your size determines whether the weapon
is light, one-handed, two-handed, or too large for you to use.

**Light**: If the weapon’s size is smaller than your size (a Human
using a Small weapon, such as a blaster pistol), then the weapon is light.
Light weapons can be used while grappling, and light melee weapons can be used
with the Weapon Finesse feat (page 89).

**One-Handed**: If the weapon’s size category is the same as your size
(a Human using a Medium weapon, such as a heavy blaster pistol), then the
weapon is one-handed.

**Two-Handed**: If the weapon’s size category is one step larger than
your size (a Human using a Large weapon, such as a light repeating blaster),
then the weapon requires two hands to use (and sometimes a special amount such
as a tripod).

**Too Large to Use**: If the weapon’s size category is two or more
steps larger than your size (an Ewok using a Large weapon, such as a blaster
cannon), the weapon is too large to use. The exceptions to this are vehicle or
starship-mounted mounted weapons, which are housed in a unit that aids in their
use.

Weapon Qualities

When you choose a weapon for your character, refer to Table 8-3: Melee
Weapons and Table 8-4: Ranged Weapons for details about the various weapon
types. The weapon qualities on these tables are explained below:

**Weapon Group**: A weapon’s group tells you which Weapon Proficiency
feat you need to be considered proficient with the weapon. If you don’t have
the appropriate feat, you take a -5 penalty on attacks made with the weapon.

**Size**: The weapon’s size (see Weapon Sizes, above).

**Cost**: The weapon’s cost in credits.

**Damage**: The damage the weapon deals with each hit. Melee weapons
also add the wielder’s Strength bonus to damage, or twice the wielder’s
Strength bonus when wielded in two hands.

Double weapons have two
damage entries separated by a slash; these represent the damage dealt by each
end of the double weapon.

**Stun Damage**: If the weapon has a stun setting, its stun damage is
listed here (see Stunning, page 162, for more information). Ranged weapons set
to stun have a maximum range of 6 squares unless noted otherwise.

**Rate of Fire**: Ranged weapons have either a single shot setting (S)
or an autofire setting (A). A few weapons have both settings and can be set to
either single-shot mode or autofire mode as a swift action. Only ranged weapons
that hold multiple shots of ammunition can have an autofire setting.

**Weight**: The weapon’s weight in kilograms.

**Damage Type**: The type of damage a weapon deals. Some creatures and
objects take more or less damage from weapons that deal a certain type of
damage (see Damage Reduction, page 158). Some weapons deal more than one type
of damage, depending on how the weapon is used:

And: The weapon deals
both types of damage simultaneously.

Or: The weapon deals
one type of damage or the other, chosen immediately before making the attack
roll.

Double weapons
sometimes deal a different damage type depending on which end of the weapon is
used; in this case, the two damage types are separated by a slash.

(Ion): See Ion Damage,
page 159, for special rules governing ion weapons.

**Availability**: Some weapons have limited availability, as noted
below.

Licensed, Restricted,
Military, or Illegal: Ownership of the weapon is limited to certain individuals
(se Restricted Items, page 118).

Rare: A rare weapon is generally available only on its
planet of origin (for example, Naboo for the atlatl and cesta, or Kashyyyk for
the bowcaster) or by acquiring it directly from the manufacturer. When
available on the open market elsewhere, rare items usually cost double the
listed price.