SWSE, being at heart a d20 system game, inherits the weapon and armour proficiency rules from most d20 systems - you get a bunch of proficiencies from your class, you can buy more using feats if you want, and if you use an item without the proficiency you suffer a penalty. That's all reasonable enough.
Where it falls down is in the groupings of proficiencies, and in who has them.
Here's the thing: in the six Star Wars films (not to mention all the EU material I've seen), there is precisely one instance of a character using a weapon without proficiency, excluding scenes where the character is specifically shown to be training. That scene occurs in "Empire Strikes Back", when Han uses Luke's lightsaber to cut open his dead Tauntaun.
That's it, that's the only one. Padme, who in "Phantom Menace" is a pampered child politician with no formal training, quite happily makes use of blaster pistols in the assault on the palace. Luke is shown to be "good in a fight" - knowing how to use blaster rifles, blaster pistols, and even the weapons on an X-Wing without any difficulties. And Obi-Wan, in "Revenge of the Sith", is able to swallow his contempt, pick up a discarded blaster, and shoot Grievous in the heart several times, all while hanging off the edge of a platform.
So, that's one issue I have with the weapon proficiency rules in SWSE.
The other issue concerns the groupings: weapons are listed as pistols, or rifles, or whatever. Once you have proficiency with the group, you can use all weapons in the group without penalty. Now that's fine, mostly. But when the group contains both a blaster pistol and a heavy blaster pistol, where the latter is strictly better than the former - more damage, access to autofire, with the same range and same magazine capacity. There's a very slight differential in cost (but given the priorities of most players, not enough), and a differential in 'legality' (which never shows up in-game). So, the 'standard' version of the weapon is just redundant.
IMO, a better solution would be revert to the standard three-level proficiency arrangement - character's can be proficient in 'normal' weapons, 'military' weapons, and 'signature' weapons.
The 'normal' weapons designation would include all simple weapons, all the so-called "advanced melee weapons", and also the 'normal' uses of pistols and rifles - that is "point and shoot". However, switching the weapon's mode (set to normal vs set to stun) would require a standard action, and they'd remain non-proficient in autofire (and burst fire). All classes would give this level of proficiency.
The 'military' weapons designation allows the character to switch the weapon's mode as a swift action, and grants proficiency in autofire. Only the soldier class would gain this proficiency for free.
Finally, the 'signature' weapons are heavy weapons, lightsabers, and similar. And they work as you would expect - without a proficiency you take a -5 penalty on attack rolls; with the proficiency you do not. Done.
As for the weapons themselves... these should be separated out into 'civilian' weapons and 'military' weapons. The civilian weapons would have a single mode (normal damage or stun damage or ion damage), would be limited to the lower damage level (3d6 for pistols; 3d8 for rifles), and would not have autofire. Military weapons, by contrast, could support multiple modes, grant more damage, and allow autofire. In general, PCs should only be allowed to buy military-grade weapons if they're actively in military service or via the black market (at a hefty mark-up, say x5 cost).
For the record, I'm pretty much happy with the way armour and armour proficiencies work in SWSE - armour is basically useless, but that's in keeping with the depiction in the films.
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