Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Rule Book

THE ECONOMY AS AN ADVENTURE HOOK

T

ogether, the galactic economy is a living thing, al-

most like the Force itself. Every resource, and its

transportation across planets or systems to those

who want to buy it, isn't just some dry fact about a

distant world—it's a seed for an adventure.

Coruscant, for example, is a world with few natural

resources left for its trillion inhabitants. This means

freighters loaded with food and water must travel

to the planet daily to provide for its masses. The

Imperial officials on Coruscant must manage these

resources, providing for their officials and their fami-

lies first, and allowing additional supplies to filter

down to the "rabble" living in the undercity.

What happens if that supply is diminished? Imag-

ine an ambitious up-and-coming crime lord who

wants to rule the Coruscant underworld. With a

small fleet of pirate vessels he can secretly target

some of the suppliers in the spacelanes above

the planet, depriving the citizens below of food

and water.

Legions of common men and women in the

streets begin to grow hungry and thirsty, and

then begin to get violent. The crime lord lets the

trouble rise to its boiling point. There are riots

in the streets, fires in the financial districts, and

battles between the mobs and Imperial troops.

There are many opportunities for adventure

in such an environment. The Player Characters

might be hired as pirates by the crime lord, or

guards for the incoming shipments. Or they

might be able to reduce some Obligation with

their own criminal connections by infiltrating the

pirates and exposing the rival. They might even

use their own smuggling skills to bring food and

water to the starving people—and turn a decent

profit in the process!

terGalactic Banking Clan (the ICBC). Characters can
add value to a cred stick at linked branches located
throughout the galaxy; these sticks are generally se-
cure. They are extremely difficult to tamper with even
by the savviest slicers. Only the most elite criminal or-
ganizations can alter or manufacture fake chips, and if
caught, they are dealt with immediately and severely
by ICBC security forces. The bank's rapid and draco-
nian tactics are almost always backed by the Empire,
local government forces, or both.

MOTIVATIONS

There are two major motivators for the scoundrel-heroes
of EDCE OF THE EMPIRE—Obligation and credits. Obliga-
tion is discussed in detail in Chapter II, and often in-

volves financial responsibilities such as owing a debt to

a Hutt crime lord. But even most scoundrels without

financial Obligations are looking for a payout. Some

are interested in raw credits and the easy life they think

wealth will bring them. Others have their shifty eyes on a

faster ship, a hidden base on a fringe world, or perhaps

even a dowry for an expensive slave-bride.

Most jobs the party takes on should have relatively

low cash rewards (see Keeping the Crew Hungry on

page 151). Commodities such as replacement hyper-

drives, new droids, ground transport, or even space-

ships can be awarded instead—or they might be

gained by taking on more Obligation (or by starting

with it). This grants the party access to the tools they

need to take on new adventures but avoids stockpiles

of cash that would keep them from taking on new jobs.

Rarity

S

ome items are naturally more difficult to purchase

than others based on where a character finds him-

self at the time. After all, the galaxy is a big place and

the vagaries and intricacies of galactic trade mean that

some items that are easy to find in certain locations are

very difficult to find in others. Of course, some items

are rare no matter where one goes and, likewise, some

items are always common and inexpensive.

Rarity in EDCE OF THE EMPIRE is a simple way of measur-

ing how difficult an item can be to find on a scale of 0-10,

with 0 being the easiest to track down and 10 being the

hardest. Of course, whether or not an item is available for

purchase should never solely be a matter of rolling dice.

Instead, the needs of the plot make it at least partially

the Came Master's decision. However, for simple items,

rarity provides an easy way for the GM to determine

whether something is available and let the players easily

track items down. Finding an item on a world requires a

Negotiate check (although the GM may allow the charac-

ter to use an appropriate Knowledge skill check instead).

Table 5-1: Rarity lists the rarities, the difficulty

of the check to find items with those rarities, and ex-

amples of items with those rarities. Table 5-2: Rar-

ity Modifiers lists some general modifiers that can

be applied to an item's rarity, based on location and

the technological status of the world where the item

GEAR AND EQUIPMENT

EDGE OF THE EMPIRE