How to let players choose weapons/armor

[Marcethus]

Well it depends on what area of NA your charas come from limit the gear to a specific Geographical location

[Killer Cyborg]

I do not wish to limit my player’s choice

Get over it.
Limit the hell out of them.

[Kalinda]

Let them choose stuff from only the Rifts main book to start out. All the weapons in there are good, solid choices for a beginning character.

Remember, the less you give away at the beginning, the more the characters have to look forward to as they gain levels and money to buy equipment. It's a lot more fun in the long run to take that Ja-12 rifle off the body of the juicer you beat in a hard fought battle then it is to just be handed the same weapon at character creation.

[MADMANMIKE]

..Keep in mind that adventuring is an expensive job. Characters are carrying around 10's to 100's of thousands of credits worth of equipment at any given time.

..That's alot of moolah. Bring that point home by limiting their income and starting them out with cheap equipment. Maybe one medium cost item and the rest rock-bottom priced. Used equipment that doesn't work quite as well, slightly damaged armor or salvaged armor, SDC vehicles (about 10% of the value of MDC equivilants).

..It's a role-playing game, and role-playing comes easiest when the characters are at a disadvantage. There has to be conflict for there to be drama.

..Just keep in mind if you choose this road that the same goes for baddies as well. Don't deck out the npc's with top of the line stuff and kick the characters butts from one side of the battlefield to another without breaking a sweat (too often, heh )

-Mike >8]

[Ronin Shinobi]

Go with the standard suggestions listed under the Characters chosen Class. Throw in maybe at the most a few goodies like Medical Kits and such. I make my players work toward there betterment. There gear starts Mediocre or should I say enough to get them through games

Agreed, unless you were planning on starting the campaign at a higher level. Standard issue for the occ/rcc is more than enough for them.

[Athos]

How should I let players pick their characters equipment?

What should I do, other than limited their starting equipment choices to the Rulebook? (Wilks laser pistols anyone? )

Make a list of weapons that are listed as commonly available on the North American black market and give them the list to choose from, if it is not on the list, they can't have it.

From other posts, it is clear a lot of DM's allow players to recharge their own EClips, which I think is a mistake. Where you can really limit their firepower is by making them get their EClips recharged in towns. No more burning a whole clip at a time, EClips cost money and recharging costs money.

[The Galactus Kid]

lol

Right now in our campaign the Player group is being hunted through China by a mercenary group being led by a really mad mega-juicer because they intercepted a supply shipment that had the Megajuicers favorite weapon in it. It happened to be an Impaler rune sword, which was something that the juicer wasn't just going to let go. The GM warned of repercussions if they looted the shipment, but they took things anyway. So now they have the juicers to deal with on top of all of the chinese entities and demons. fun time.

[The Galactus Kid]

the GM has arranged that,

[Kalinda]

It's all in their history!

You can't have a suit of armor if you've been a homeless vagabond for your whole life; you can't afford it!

Yeah, but for a lot of the OCCs it says things like 'two weapons of choice' or 'pilots a robot or powered armor' without saying what kind. it worked fine when all we had was the basic book and the sourcebook, but now some players expect to be able to pick weapons from SA or japan just because it says 'weapon of choice.'

That's where saying NO comes in handy...

[Kalinda]

It's all in their history!

You can't have a suit of armor if you've been a homeless vagabond for your whole life; you can't afford it!

Yeah, but for a lot of the OCCs it says things like 'two weapons of choice' or 'pilots a robot or powered armor' without saying what kind. it worked fine when all we had was the basic book and the sourcebook, but now some players expect to be able to pick weapons from SA or japan just because it says 'weapon of choice.'

That's where saying NO comes in handy...

That's were a good GM steps in and says: "How did your character get the millions to buy the power armor?

Some OCCs get power armor or a robot as part of their basic equipment you know.

The problem is when the player wants to have a top of the line naruni bot at first level rather then a terrain hopper or a sampson.

[GaredBattlespike]

In the case of my PC, my GM had me make up his background/history to explain his skills and used that as the basis for gear selection: My Headhunter has born and raised in Ishpeming/NG and was trained in the Northern Gun Corporate Guard, Armor Division. This is why he started with NG-X9 Power Armor Elite (Trained by those who built 'em and use 'em the most) as well as the NG-IP7 Ion Pulse Rifle, the NG-E12A Heavy Plasma Ejector Rifle, the NG-45LP Particle Beam Pistol and all my (6) Hand Grenades were NG variety...No "outside name-brand manufactured" equipment was going to be available- but he did allow me to remove the polyglot of camping gear and replace it all with (the muchly superior) NG-S2 Survival Pack!

[Danger]

I do not wish to limit my player’s choice

Get over it.
Limit the hell out of them.

Basically, yes. Otherwise your players are going to run over you like a train meeting a Yugo. You don't want that.

[Danger]

Let them choose stuff from only the Rifts main book to start out. All the weapons in there are good, solid choices for a beginning character.

Remember, the less you give away at the beginning, the more the characters have to look forward to as they gain levels and money to buy equipment. It's a lot more fun in the long run to take that Ja-12 rifle off the body of the juicer you beat in a hard fought battle then it is to just be handed the same weapon at character creation.

Exactly. If they start off with the best weapon/armor in the game, what do they have to look forward to? Home-brewed equipment? Anticipation of improvement is one of the biggest things in role-playing, and this should especially include equipment.

Limit their money intake. They'll be grateful whenever they get a financial windfall of even a few thousand.

Monitor their ammo expenditures. This adds up very quickly, and is also meant to be a money soak, to keep players funds in check. You want this.

Monitor their repairs and maintenance for weapons, armor, vehicles, etc. Same as above.

If you really want to be hardcore, monitor their funds for basic necessities. For me, I usually ignore day to day living expenses, and only ask people to mark off money when they go beyond that (ie buying fancy clothing, eating an extravagant meal, staying in a high-priced inn). That'll in part be decided by the theme of your game. The rest is how much paperwork you want yourself & your players to do.

[Danger]

I also go as far to give PC's trouble say if they have a coalition Issued weapon they aquired Illegally or off the body of a fallen Soldier. Had a game that started out simple but a Weapon one of the mercenaries in the game grabbed brought a ton of Bad things down on the groups head. The weapon was a Gift from Mister Prosek himself. Engraved and all that jazz

My Players for months inspected there weapons to make sure they werent picking up anything overtly uhh Bad

That's classic.

And if you want to start the game higher level just look at the section that says other equipment able to be requested. That combined with a few GM selected items or a GM created table can fix a Higher level game so Players dont start with World Ending guns or some such.

*NOTE* I avoid at all costs the ultra high powerd games so most of my suggestions are to keep the games more akin to realistic. If you want a epic campaign the GM does have to Work closely with Players to make sure not only can the players handle the game that is planned for them but that they dont wisk through it like a hot knife through butter.

[Lando The Archmagi]

Exactly. If they start off with the best weapon/armor in the game, what do they have to look forward to? Home-brewed equipment? Anticipation of improvement is one of the biggest things in role-playing, and this should especially include equipment.

Yep, doing things like this in my Pre-Juicer Uprisings/SoT game, pcs are living in/working for the defense of Kingsdale and are paid on a basis on what they do for the city and can scavenge off the dead CS and others they stop. Typically they sell the gear to one of the weapon brokers/shops and get like 50% retail black market.

They then use this money to repair their gear/replace it or buy new stuff... has has had his Titan armor nearly blown to bits twice now....he's been fixing it a lot.

The others have lost a full suit or two of MDC body armor and lots of ammo used up. Kingsdale has recharged and replaced some gear, but the other equipment is on a "mission loan" basis primarily.

I permit most NG/Wilk's and related gear standard. Rifts Mercenaries/Main Rulebook/Sourcebook I and like New West/Spirit West and some TW devices from Fed of Magic etc are pretty open to standard items for most pcs.

Occasionally I permit something specific or unique if the background/concept makes me like the idea.

[Dr. Doom III]

Limit by geographic location.

[Devari]

I allow characters to start with fairly good equipment so they can customize or upgrade the items as they gain experience rather than simply replacing them with newer stuff. For example, I see no problem with a Headhunter or Operator starting out with the equivalent of a UAR-1 or Titan Combat robot since this puts them on par with the typical giant robot they're likely to encounter. It doesn't give them any particular advantage though, so they still need to rely on good tactics at lower levels. I definately agree that allowing characters to choose Naruni or Kitanni equipment when starting out would be somewhat overpowering, which is why I use the Rifts main book as a benchmark for starting equipment.

[Noon]

I do not wish to limit my player’s choice but OTOH I don’t want to wait 2+ hours while they peruse the GM Guide for "the perfect available gun/armor"

So limit their time. They have ten minutes each to have their choosen gun and armour written down. Go over that time and they go without (if it's not written down by then, sorry!)