Ok GMs/PCs...

I bet Credits to Donuts that in the Smugglers book we will not have rules for us to create a syndicate or something that is on the level of Jabba the Hutt.

So my question is how would you create one? My PC is a Pilot/Gunslinger (I do hope that there will be a Gun-slinging Spec. but I digress) And his 1 desire besides jacking an X-Wing is getting his hands on a CR92A! I could do many a bad thing w/ that puppy! Yes the Keldabe Class Battleship will do more damage, but it is not as subtle. And that coming from me Mr. Battleship in a Bathtub is saying something. I just like the more scalpel effect of a CR92A than something bigger. Anyhoo, the problem w/ trying to get a Cap ship is getting the people to run the ship than your 5 or 6 PC team.

So how would you guys go about starting up a "Legitimate Business Venture" enterprise??

I'd ask my GM if we could do a campaign where that happens.

Seriously, I can think of tons of adventures around growing your enterprise out of nothing:

• Low-level opportunities that reap unexpected results
• Finding and convincing new blood to join the ranks
• Turf war with rivals
• Trouble with the local enforcers
• Coming to the attention of established syndicates and negotiating alliances
• Betrayal and powerplays within the ranks

If there were rules for that happening in the background, well, I don't think I'd be as attached to the business.

I took my campaign, we ran Escape from Mos Shuuta and Long Arm of the Hutt, but instead of following it all to the letter, I switched it up, I mentioned that Teemo was causing issues within the Hutt Cartel, and Morella, my created Hutt, was trying to get rid of him to help boost himself within the Cartel. Just remember that Hutts are greedy, and do not like being taken advantage of. My particular Hutt is more of a nice guy then I should probably make him, but my players amuse him, so he thinks of them as competent workers and part time jesters.

You got tons of options.

Go on a Pirate-esk recruiting drive.

Anchor somewhere out of the way and begin recruiting some spacers as muscle, recruit some of the NPC friends they've made over the sessions you've played before to be the higher up in the chain of command, purchase a bunch of battle droids, etc...

It opens up a bunch of potential sessions.

You get boarded by Pirates/ISB/Imperial Customs/Navy/Local Security

There is a Mutiny and you need to put down some of the not-so reliable crew(I knew not to trust that Rodian!)

You hire your warship out for escort duty to the highest bidder and have to fight off Pirates, brigands, and other scum.

Maybe you shack up with the Rebels and are on permanent retainer(for a sizable fee of course)

Maybe your group becomes Pirates and begins raiding merchant ships, while drawing the attention of the Empire.

Eventually, your little group has their own fortress and small private army on an out of the way planet they use as a base of operations.

Depends on your GM.

Running capital ships is expensive. If your GM does take this into account then you'll need a lot of backing to get started or else a substantial nest egg.

Two general things on the pre-flight checklist of your criminal empire:

1) Make lots of connections and a network of favors owed both ways. People who owe you favors can sometimes be called upon to give aid. People to whom you owe favors might be persuaded to help keep their interest alive to keep getting installment payments on what you owe them.

2) Build up some stable methods of income to cover the costs of large crews and ship maintenance.

In my regular weekly game, the players acquired a marauder corvette and have been slowly acquiring crew to fully man it. However, they didn't work out any infrastructure so now they are eating through their nest egg of credits and if they don't get a few good piracy scores soon they'll tumble into debt and lose some of their crew to mutiny as well as possibly the ship as it falls into disrepair.

Kind of curious how did they get the Marauder Liloki? My group tends to get capital ships regularly and we're always looking for new ideas on ways to obtain them.

Some of our favorite methods

1: Starting with them or being assigned them by whatever group we belong to. (Fine in military campaigns but not preferred in pirate, privateer or other independent campaigns.)

2: Buying them (Only works if we have a ton of money or massive favors owed us to help cut the price down Usually done mid-campaign rather than as a starter.)

3: Serving on a prize crew assigned to one, or somehow play a key role in capturing it <My first character to command a cap ship was a fighter pilot who knocked out all of the ship;s weapons in one arc for example> (Usually done at the start of a campaign but sometimes mid-campaign especially if the PCs aren't near or at the top of the chain of command on the starter ship and we want to move up or are some other type of group seeking a capship.)

4: Salvaging and repairing one (Can be done at any time in a campaign, usually done at the beginning of a campaign. Rarely done mid campaign unless we either stumble across a ship that really suits our purposes well wrecked or adrift and have the resources to fix her up, or our earlier ship gets destroyed or wrecked beyond repair leaving us without the resources to by a ship but enough, or at least close to enough to fix one up.

5: Mutiny (A classic starter though very risky)

6: Take out a loan either of money, or more rarely a ship (Good starter but with high risks)

7: Outright steal it from some form of dock, whether construction, repair, dealership, or space station varies. (Always mid-campaign due to the skills and contacts needed to pull it off.)

Kind of curious how did they get the Marauder Liloki? My group tends to get capital ships regularly and we're always looking for new ideas on ways to obtain them.

In this particular campaign, the PCs are misanthropic criminals. The marauder was taken when they were caught in the middle of a territorial dispute between three different factions in an outer rim system. All three sides had hired mercs and the ones that had a marauder as their primary command ship happened to be crushing the opposition forces. The PCs intervened and managed to steal one of the merc group's shuttles from the spaceport and flew up to the orbiting marauder. Fast-talked their way aboard then proceeded to get a couple of the PCs onto the bridge posing as maintenance crew. Since most of the mercs were performing on-planet operations the PCs only had to deal with a minimal crew. Seizing the bridge and main engineering gained them effective control. They jumped the ship out before the mercs could respond and send reinforcements, then swept the ship deck by deck for those mercs who didn't leave in escape pods.

TL,DR: They were jerks and stole it from mercs who were also jerks.

Sounds like a blast. I bet your party is ICly praying that those mercs either get wiped out or at least leave without enough money to buy another warship, or place a decent bounty on the Marauder though.

We have a three creaky freighter Ryll smuggling combine that owes a cut to Jabba the Hutt, as well as ship payments. We were on the cusp of becoming profitable when some Imperial cronies of the competition raided us and shutdown the Corellia operations of our Ryll buyer (the critical stop of our three cornered trade route.)

I can't imagine why you'd want to be a low level crime organizer. None of the other PC's or the NPCs ever pays any attention to my elaborate schedule. I have to do almost all the maintenance for three ships. I don't even get to fly the ship I'm on ('cause I'm the only decent gunner). And the two furry PC's just spent a week ferrying the fighter I'm personally responsible to Jabba for, halfway across the galaxy. (You have never seen such a mess.) And they brought the "evil relic thing" the scholar is studying on-pain-of-death from his backstory goons in its cargo box for good measure. When the touchy force-sensitive assassin finds out it's still around, guess who's fault it is going to be?