General Equipment Rules

Resource Points

In most games Heroic characters do not have to pay Character Points for ordinary equipment like cameras, and guns, radios, gas masks, swords, and the like. They get that sort of gear by paying money in the context of the game. Yea screw that, I don't want to create an interstellar economic system. Instead, we will use the Resource Points system as described in the Hero System 6th Edition - Advanced Players guide. It's an abstract system that allows for player characters to be flexible in the equipment their characters own and carry on any given expedition. Don't worry about the details, here are the basics.

Characters start out with 75 Resource Points that can be allocated to one of five categories: Equipment, Vehicles, Followers, and Contacts. This means that the Money perk is, well, not worth the paper it's printed on. One resource points is worth one active point that can be spent on equipment, vehicles1, followers, and contacts.

For instance, if you want your character to have an Ion Blaster as described in Hero System 6th Edition - Star Hero, it would cost 22 Resource Points. (An Ion Blaster is 22 real points. It would be easier if most equipment purchased comes from a book (Hero System Vol. 2, Star Hero, Equipment Guide) and is not home-built, but it is unlikely all desired kit is available in a source book. Please feel free to reach out to me to get the equipment you want.

Please note, I am more than happy to run a "rag-tag group of itinerants get their first scow" introduction, it's not much of a StarHero campaign if there's no ships. A brand new, fresh out of dry dock Merchant Ship costs roughly 100 Resource Points, so everyone should considering donating some to the party's ship. Remember, Jayne was the only member of Serenity's crew that had military grade weaponry. It's not necessary for the plot.

Followers and Contacts work as defined in the core book, but Resource Points must be used to purchase them instead of character points.

Gaining and Losing Resource Points

Resource Points are going to be the currency of the game - you may here them referred to as Galactic Credits or Space Bucks. That means successful business ventures will reward you with them and you can "spend" yours right away to upgrade your arsenal or ship. But that's not all you may spend money on.

If a particular mission requires collateral in escrow, or a ransom to be paid for a prisoner, or bribery, it will be paid in Resource Points. It represents having some hard cash or liquid assets laying around, which isn't always a bad thing. No, I won't make you pay track of rations or ammo, but high risk high reward missions may require investment.

Access

Access to equipment works differently than the perk in the book alludes. Every character has access to civilian equipment - handguns, semi-automatic rifles, light armor, basic transportation, low-level LI/TO goggles. The more advanced you want your equipment to be, if not home made, must be paid for by purchasing Access perk. There are four levels: Civilian, Law Enforcement, Military, and Advanced Military. They cost 0 CP, 3 CP, 5 CP, and 10 CP respectively.

The Advanced Military level is verboten at character creation, and Military grade equipment is quite unlikely. If you want access to Law Enforcement level equipment and medium armor, we can discuss the 'why' but expect heavy resistance. Really, just assume Civilian grade equipment - weapons won't high burst, basic transportation only, 6 PD/ED max for armor.

Please note, this is required to gain the equipment legally. If you care to role play getting them another way, well, there's lots of ways in the 'verse.

Notes

1 As per the vehicle creation rules, 1 Resource Point give you 5 Real Points of a vehicle.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License