I'm running Beyond the Rim for a group of only two players. Due to the small group, they're lacking some important skills, like, oh, Astrogation (which is pretty important to travel to an unknown planet), Pilot (space), Survival, stuff like that.

I've got two options to remedy this: maybe they could hire a reliable explorer to add these skills, or possibly they could buy an Astromech droid. Problem is: I have no idea what would be a good price to hire someone, or how much a droid costs. Are there any guidelines for that anywhere? Does anyone have any good suggestions?

They already went looking for an astrogation chip to put in IT-3PO once he arrives (no idea whether IT-3PO would approve), but again, I have no idea how much that would cost. Any suggestions?

[edit: astrogation CHIP, not ship]

If you look on pg:409 of the EotE Core book, you will find a grey sidebar giving info on purchasing droids.

You could also create a fun mini-encounter based around the idea of hiring a droid to make astrogation calculations for the party WITHOUT letting it know that you are plotting a course to find a legendary lost treasure ship. So there's that.

As far as hiring an explorer, I think that's a great idea. Stat it out for any other assets your group is lacking, and then you have all your bases covered.

Then you can either run the PC or give it to the players to run/take turns running.

Depending on how your adventure goes, you can even make use of the explorer as a plot device. Is he an ISB agent? Sent by Reom to keep an eye on the group? Working for the Yiyar clan? Perhaps just another treasure hunter looking to screw the party over once he gets his booty? These can all be fun plot devices to use when needed.

Just remember not to let the new droid/hired PC overshadow the groups' roles as the heroes of the tale. That will defeat the purpose of playing...

As far as fees and rates go, make it an up front fee of a new PCs starting money (around +/-500CR) and then have them demand a percentage of the profits. This makes sense to me, and I have used it in a couple of plots before, and my group seems to accept it.

I am currently running the last Act of BtR for my group and they like it, and having a well-balanced party really helps!

Good Luck!

I've already had them meet an explorer during the first session; I noticed they weren't finding enough clues and might be on the verge of getting frustrated, so in Tasha's Tap Bar I had them encounter an explorer who knew quite a bit about the outer rim, and gave them 2 blue dice for their astrogation roll. He lost his family at Alderaan, is somewhat depressed and seems somewhat worryingly non-risk adverse. He'd be willing to come along, but at what price? He thinks they're going to hunt Nexu, so he probably wants payment up front rather than merely a share of the profits. Had he known they had a credible lead on the Sa Nalaor, he'd be more willing to work for them for a share of the profits, but the PCs are reasonably discreet about it, using Nexu hunting as their cover.

I was thinking about 1000 Cr up front, which is more than they have. Though considering the PCs get 10,000 Cr for the job, that might be a bit low.

Thanks for the page number on droids. Unfortunately, those prices are way too high for my PCs' meager starting funds. And it also suggests 1000 Cr for the explorer is too little. Maybe they need to take on some debt?

I was also thinking of having Reom give them a guard. Both to help them, and indeed keep an eye on his investment. Maybe that is easier to add to the group. Though any guard of Reom is unlikely to have astrogation, piloting and survival. An extra gun won't hurt in such a small group of course, but I'm counting on the Trandoshan hired gun to take care of most of the party's violence needs (though she won't kill; she scores points with the Scorekeeper by leaving her opponents in combat alive, which is great for recurring villains of course).

Then again, with an Int of 3 and enough blue dice, maybe the astrogation rolls for the detour aren't too hard without training? They already got 2 blue dice, and at the end of the last session, they were wondering if they should go back to Reom to try to get more info out of the pod. 4 blue dice should give them quite some edge.

I'm running Beyond the Rim for a group of only two players. Due to the small group, they're lacking some important skills, like, oh, Astrogation (which is pretty important to travel to an unknown planet), Pilot (space), Survival, stuff like that.

I've got two options to remedy this: maybe they could hire a reliable explorer to add these skills, or possibly they could buy an Astromech droid. Problem is: I have no idea what would be a good price to hire someone, or how much a droid costs. Are there any guidelines for that anywhere? Does anyone have any good suggestions?

They already went looking for an astrogation ship to put in IT-3PO once he arrives (no idea whether IT-3PO would approve), but again, I have no idea how much that would cost. Any suggestions?

Have them bump into some scholarly academic type in the pub who is wanting to go looking for the wreck because of historical precedence but needs the players for protection. He can hire them if you want to reward them more. He can be the Knowledge guy and he might have some assistants for other skill checks that might be needed. Maybe he has a Mich Dundee-esque guide already, but just needs some guns.

I'm running Beyond the Rim for a group of only two players. Due to the small group, they're lacking some important skills, like, oh, Astrogation (which is pretty important to travel to an unknown planet), Pilot (space), Survival, stuff like that.

I've got two options to remedy this: maybe they could hire a reliable explorer to add these skills, or possibly they could buy an Astromech droid. Problem is: I have no idea what would be a good price to hire someone, or how much a droid costs. Are there any guidelines for that anywhere? Does anyone have any good suggestions?

They already went looking for an astrogation ship to put in IT-3PO once he arrives (no idea whether IT-3PO would approve), but again, I have no idea how much that would cost. Any suggestions?

Have them bump into some scholarly academic type in the pub who is wanting to go looking for the wreck because of historical precedence but needs the players for protection. He can hire them if you want to reward them more. He can be the Knowledge guy and he might have some assistants for other skill checks that might be needed. Maybe he has a Mich Dundee-esque guide already, but just needs some guns.

Working for two different patrons simultaneously on the same job sounds like a bit more complication than I want to inflict on them for a first adventure. That kind of conflict of interest could be very interesting later on, though.