The trade behind the legend
Everyone knows the silhouettes — the Mandalorian on the gantry, the assassin droid that never stops walking, the changeling who could be anyone. What gets forgotten is that behind the legend is a trade, with rules, dues, and a code. That's what we've just added to SWURPG.
The Bounty Hunter's Code is a new lore page — the first entry in a new The Underworld section of the rulebook. It's the profession laid bare: the Bounty Hunters' Guild and the rival Houses it fractured into, the Guild services that keep a hunter alive long enough to retire (sanctuary from planetary law, repairs, training, a pension most lone guns never see), the great hunters from Boba Fett to Cad Bane, and the patrons who post the work — the Empire, the Hutts, the corporations, and the banking clan's registry that prices every fugitive from a Local posting to the Most Wanted list.
And at the center of it, the one rule that makes the whole trade function: an assassin ends a life; a hunter delivers one. "No disintegrations" is a contract clause, not a punchline — a client who wants a body as proof will not pay for ash. Keep the code and you work again tomorrow. Break it, and the Houses have a long memory and a longer reach.
The tools of the trade
A code is nothing without the gear to honor it, so the equipment catalog just gained a hunter's kit built around one idea most weapons ignore: bring the mark back breathing.
- Capture weapons — the Whipcord Launcher and Net Gun Restrain a target without a wound to explain to the client, and the Carbonite Projector freezes a beaten quarry solid for the long haul home (it can't drop a foe who's still fighting — the freeze only completes on a mark you've already put down).
- The hunt itself — a Tracking Fob and Homing Beacon to run a mark across a system, a deployable Seeker Droid for when the trail goes cold, and Targeting Macrobinoculars to spot a target for the crew.
- The approach — a Holographic Disguise Matrix to get close and Holoshroud Armor that turns you invisible for the two seconds that matter, for the hunter who'd rather take a mark who never knew they were there.
- The firepower — the EE-3 Blaster Carbine and the two-form Amban Phase-Pulse Rifle, whose disruptor bolt disintegrates whatever it kills… which is exactly why a professional thinks twice before pointing it at a payday.
There's a Carbonite Freezing Unit for transport, a Restraining Bolt for droid captures, a Grav Man-Trap and Bio-Cocoon for immobilizing quarry, a non-lethal Scrambler Grenade, and the Bounty Puck that carries a posting's chain code and terms. The whole kit is on the shelves now.
Build your hunter
None of this needs a special subsystem. The Bounty Hunter class already gives you Mark for Capture, a fearsome reputation, and an arsenal to specialize; the new gear gives you the trade's actual tools; and the underworld your hunts run through — the Hutt Cartel, Black Sun, the Pyke Syndicate — is already statted in the bestiary. Load up the Character Builder, pick your specialty, and the whole galaxy becomes a contract waiting to be posted.
Read the Bounty Hunter's Code →
This is the start of a run of bounty-hunter content — a GM's guide to running the hunt, and a manhunt of your own, are still coming. Bring a hunter to the table. Someone out there is worth a fortune.