My players tend to be of two minds regarding the starship(s) the group uses. Some view it as a piece of gear, easily replaceable (assuming credits are available) if it gets shot down or a better one comes along. Others view it as a core part of the group and don't want to even think that it could be shot down (and they'll dismiss all thoughts of a 'better one'). This has created some interesting conflicts (as well as some rather uninteresting conflicts...).

So how does your group view it? Do you have your beloved 'Not-Falcon' like the OT characters or do you switch ships as they come around like the PT characters?

In the OT, Han and Lando were really the only ones that really treated the Falcon as anything more than "just a ship." Chewbacca, due to his life debt and all, was happy assisting with repairs and co-piloting the Falcon, but that was more because it was Han's ship.

My players have varying degrees of attachment to the ships they've flown in. One ship, though, was a YT-2400 they flew exclusively throughout the majority of one Dark Times/Rebellion Era campaign. When the same ship popped up, all rusty and battered, in a later NJO campaign, the players had their characters go through hell and high water to take it from its current owner (a bounty hunter who was after them) and renovate it to its "former glory." A little meta, to be sure, but I thought it was cool that the players themselves had formed at attachment to the ship as something more than just "a piece of equipment."

Other ships, though, they have invariably viewed as a means to an end.

Make new friends, but keep the old... It's a member of the group unless you can barter/steal a better one

A good ship is valuable... but your primary loyalty is to your life, not a hunk of metal.

I'm for the side that sees it as a part of the group.

See, I like to deck out my stuff. From blaster rifles to [omitted], land speeders to cruisers, I pump the credits into them to make them my own.

I never do this with a bit of equipment; it has to attach itself to me. Either by a series of lucky tosses, or just happening to be in the right place at the right time. But once that's done, I go through hell to ensure it never gets broken to the point that I can't put it back together. If one of my ships died, it would probably end up taking me with it.

A good ship is valuable... but your primary loyalty is to your life, not a hunk of metal.

A good ship is loyal to your life as well. And it should be cared for in return.

I get what you're saying, but the way you approach it leaves you with nothing but vanilla ships. A properly outfitted star fighter can beat out many vanilla transports with ease. A well equipped squad of fighters could hold their own against a Cruiser, if the rolls go their way.

We tend to go though ships like a hermit crab goes through shells.

Only real exception was the "Righteous Acquisition", which was a consular ship my main groups stole of the rebels (along with the rebels inside). That mat have had more to do with them never finding anything better they could crew, thinking on it.

A good ship is valuable... but your primary loyalty is to your life, not a hunk of metal.

A good ship is loyal to your life as well. And it should be cared for in return.

I get what you're saying, but the way you approach it leaves you with nothing but vanilla ships. A properly outfitted star fighter can beat out many vanilla transports with ease. A well equipped squad of fighters could hold their own against a Cruiser, if the rolls go their way.

IME, anything with concussion missiles or proton torpedoes has a huge advantage. Vanilla fighters like Y-wings and X-wings can be total death to even a tricked out transport. It doesn't really matter how much you put into a light freighter, it's not going to survive heavy firepower all that much better than a vanilla one will.

We went through a lot of crap to get our ship. Due to our setting and situation, we played about 5-6 months to acquire 'Rusted Justice'. She is very much part of the group.

My group, with the exception of the ship's pilot who still owes money on it to a loan shark, regards their ship as a piece of gear.

I think this will come down to the players honestly, in my D20 Star Wars game I had two characters who were best described as smuggler pilots in EotE. They were very attached to their individual ships and other group members eventually acquired their own ships and were equally attached. However, in a Saga campaign our original ship got the landing platform it was on blown out from under my character's reaction? "Taxi!", that was it no real attachment to it and no real caring if it was the fastest most powerful ship ever. I just kind of went about my day, mainly because I was a Jedi and Jedi have no attachments really. So as I said I think this falls down to character mindset.

Though this does give me an idea for either an EotE or AoR adventure in rescuing Luke's X-wing from Cloud City and the Empire.

Depends on the character. I played a smuggler who owned his ship. To him and the Technician, the ship was much more than a hunk of metal; she was a character with personality. To the other players, she was a means to an end.

Our pilot calls his ship "my baby", our politico is the one that stole it from a rival and won't part with it, our r2 unit basically has a relationship with the ship and was already on board when the politico stole it and spends every waking moment taking care of "her"... Definitely part of the team!

If you ask my character, the group's pilot, the (his) ship is the second most important member of the team!

Hated the Krayt Fang Ancipital (a.k.a. the Wandering Grace Southern Sun) at the first. Then, after around the 17th repair, I kinda loved her. That's fading though - things are getting too hot for sentimentality.

Gear > Group > Gear

i think if your group ever gets to the point of specially naming (or re-naming if the original was given as an afterthought) the ship they use, then it's become elevated to a "character" status and you should be careful about how you play against it. it can become disabled or in need of significant repairs but god forbid that you blast the ship to pieces...

The group I run love their YT-1930 "Crimson Clover". Most people modify the guns and shields. This group started modifying the interior and the exterior with new paint, detailing and synthleather seats. Each girl has their own bunks and has decorated their specific areas.

The ship is really more of their home than a piece of gear.

We're still flying the Krayt Fang at the moment. Doesn't really feel like a part of the team yet. I think we'd happily trade it in for an upgrade.

I've had some parties and characters become very attached to their ships and some not. Depends on how long they spent trying to get a ship, and sometimes if the ship is tied to any vital events.

Like others have said, it really depends on the party.

In my first legitimate d20 campaign (and not short-lived summer games), the players went out and stole the first souped-up ship they found and were always on the prowl for a new one. By the time the campaign collapsed (due to the Force Adept racking in the Dark Side Points, a character who joined the Empire and was discreetly getting other characters to join in, the Force-Sensitive Pilot refusing Jedi Training and wanting to stay with the Rebellion, and a party member shooting down a known Jedi), the party had a Firespray, an HT-2200, and a heavily modified YT-2400, not to mention a recently stolen SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht that they were going to sell for upgrades.

Note: there were only five people in this party >_>

In a side campaign with three of the above players (one was deployed in the military and we didn't think it right to continue without him), the party had a Loronar B-7 Light Freighter. . .which they didn't even bother getting to know. The pilot had plans to toss it the first chance he had.

Granted, not all groups of mine were like that.

In a d6 campaign, my players went through the hassle to steal a Marauder Corvette with the crew that was defecting to the Rebellion. They renamed it and were out to make it their own, even after the Rebel Cell they were working with was destroyed and they were on their own. The ship really became a home.

They even had added some fighters they found; three Cloakshapes and three Toscan 8-Qs. While these ships were obviously outdated, they decided to keep them around because they got attached, and they even felt bad when their "personal fighter" was knocked out of commission in a battle.

My most recent campaign was with EotE, and the party had apparently crashed four ships before the game officially began. They worked hard for their new ship and were rather happy with it. Even though the ship barely held the whole crew in double bunks, they stayed with it. Even when new books came out and we entered a beta and saw the new ships, they REFUSED any other ship they could have had. To them, the ship was a home just as much as it was a tool.

I'm curious how my next group will do things, honestly. It's always fun to see what they do!

In my game which will start in about two weeks the ship is definitely part of the team. I'm going to start them with their choice of a YT-1300, Firespray System Patrol Craft., or a Wayfarer Medium Transport just like the EotE book suggests. They'll have obligation to a crime syndicate where they got the credits for their ship.

In every d6 campaign I've run (I've done quite a few), the players always get an emotional attachment to their ship, They look for options to enhance their vessel but I've never seen them ditch a ship. On the occasion the ship is shot down or is destroyed outright (this happened in my most recent campaign) due to a damage roll over 16+ the players that survived mourn the loss of their ship.

So that's my long way of saying the ship becomes part of the team.

I remember one D6 campaign where my character ended up as head of a small independent trader/smuggler/merc fleet, and owner of most of its ships since part of the contract to join the fleet was if you died your personal ship was left to the commander. By the end he owned a Lambada, a YT-2400, a Ghtroc 720, a Barloz, 2 Guardian class Light Cruisers, and a Mansk-class light escort frigate they had bought wrecked from a salvage yard and fixed up.

He would be willing to part with most of the ships in the fleet except for three. The modded Ghtroc 720 that was his first ship, the Guardian class light cruiser which was his second along with being the one he was flying when he met his future wife, and the Mansk which had been part of the rebel fleet at Endor and sold to a salvage yard due to being too badly damaged to be worth fixing in the eyes of the Rebellion/New Republic.His older brother had been its captain until he was KIA at Endor..