In my group we have a lot of situations where using ship bound weapons vs ground troops is strictly a good play, so they do. It's hard to CONSTANTLY come up with repercussions to prevent using this (On less popualted worlds, for example) strategy. Also, realistically a successful shot from a ship weapon doesn't mean a direct hit; it just means the shot was close enough to deal damage (Through explosion damage) but then taking full damage from the hit doesn't make sense.

Anyone else experiencing a problem with ship bound weapons being too good and having a solid way to deal with this?

Shoot them down.

Are you determining the difficulty correctly based on the size differences of the ship and the ground fighters correctly?

We can assume you have a ship of silhouette 4, since nearly all recommended vehicles are of that size. A silhouette 4 vehicle firing at a silhouette 1 target is a difference of 3. Based on the rules, that would be a daunting difficulty. That's 4 purple dice, not something you can easily scoff at.

Also if they're moving at altitude I'd add a setback die or two to show the increased difficulty of hitting a small target you can't really lock onto at that range and speed.

I've tried to get my party to blow up the bad guy's house with our ship and they always say, "no."

In the last session I ran a player used his ships guns to strafe a pirate base, from a low altitude. There was a sil-5 ship in the open and that's what he aimed at. The dice were on fire, and since I already had an idea for what may happen if the pirates were defeated, I just narrated the ship being blown up and pirate bodies being blasted high into the air.

They did this on a newly discovered world, whose only population are the players, some NPC's and the pirates. If this had gone down on a core world, all hell would have broken loose. The players would be chased by every major faction for a while and they would have been smacked with a criminal obligation of about 15 to 20.

Use the story, to encourage your players not to blow the crap out of everything from the air. If that doesn't work a few squadrons of Ties should do the trick.

Some good tips so far (especially the notes from kaosoe and swiftdraw). Here's a few other things to note:

1) Anti-Aircraft weaponry. While it may not sound like much, a big enough squad with missile tubes may be an issue. Also, most bases will have vehicle scale weaponry to fire at targets from the air, so it would make sense for pirates or similar groups to have that as well.

2) Fighter Support. Normally if it's a base and someone starts a strafing run, fighters scramble and the dogfight begins. If it's one ship strafing against a squadron of TIEs, that strafing won't last long.

3) Transponder Codes and getting spotted. My party is deathly afraid of using their ship for anything so blatantly illegal (like blowing things up) and getting caught doing so by anyone. While pirates may be fair game, if no one knows it was pirates, it could lead to some odd questions when they get stopped by an Imperial Patrol that wants to hold them for questioning, especially if they have illegal cargo on board.

As a note, my players opened fire on ground targets ONCE, and that was because they were trapped in the docking bay and needed to supply cover fire for their three members to come back aboard with the target. Even at point blank, they couldn't hit a target, but it made everyone duck for cover and run for their fighters!

So our slicer is inside the ship of the badguys, he's managed to take control of the systems weapons (to turn off a security measure that armed the gun in the first place). We are outside having a fire fight with bad guys. We kill them off except for the last one, the leader, who is wounded pretty badly. We convince the slicer to take the ships gun and fire at this leader before he gets the chance to do something stupid..... Instead we do something MORE stupid lol..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9E3B71WOSQ&feature=share&t=49m

our first experience using ship to ground weapons... =P

Surely your players have blown up the Wrong Person by now. You can't just go around blasting people with cannons and go unnoticed!

My favorite trick is to take the heroes' tactics and turn it around on them. They use shipboard weapons against soft targets? Well, so do AT-STs.

** Of course you don't want to kill them, you just want to scare them good! **

** Of course you don't want to kill them, you just want to scare them good! **

Sometimes you can't do one without the other. IRL, threat of harm is an effective control mechanism to prevent people from doing stupid, terrible, and/or terribly stupid things. Sometime that harm involves a bullet (or many bullets) that end the life of the offender. It's OK for this to happen in games too, or else you might be guilty of inadvertently promoting their stupid, terrible, and/or terribly stupid actions.

** Of course you don't want to kill them, you just want to scare them good! **

Sometimes you can't do one without the other. IRL, threat of harm is an effective control mechanism to prevent people from doing stupid, terrible, and/or terribly stupid things. Sometime that harm involves a bullet (or many bullets) that end the life of the offender. It's OK for this to happen in games too, or else you might be guilty of inadvertently promoting their stupid, terrible, and/or terribly stupid actions.

Well sure, you don't want to TELL them you're not going to kill them. The GM's most powerful tool is the players' imaginations, it won't take much to put the fear in them.

I see people do stupid things and go on living every day, so while I agree with you in principle I don't find it as black & white as all that, IRL or in game. Sometimes one can just have a streak of dumb luck....

I see people do stupid things and go on living every day

Are these people doing stupid things while armed with lethal weaponry and frequently engaging in armed conflict with foes also carrying such firepower?

If the answer to that one is 'yes' and these people go on living, I'd be very surprised.

I see people do stupid things and go on living every day

Are these people doing stupid things while armed with lethal weaponry and frequently engaging in armed conflict with foes also carrying such firepower?

If the answer to that one is 'yes' and these people go on living, I'd be very surprised.

Well, depends on how dangerous you think a college-aged girl texting and driving in rush hour traffic in a construction zone on the highway while putting on makeup and talking on the phone can be. Blaster, Scion, you'll probably get the same bodycount.

I see people do stupid things and go on living every day

Are these people doing stupid things while armed with lethal weaponry and frequently engaging in armed conflict with foes also carrying such firepower?

If the answer to that one is 'yes' and these people go on living, I'd be very surprised.

Ever charge a squad of Storm Troopers on a Death Star? Good times... Good times...