Something that I've been wondering is how do you deal with groups who are wanting capital ships and how do you run them, my players always want the biggest gun in the universe with every game they play and turbolasers are pretty dam big so no doubt there going to seek out 'acquiring' a capital ship of some kind (most likely the one with the most of them) I've been thinking about this and have though about some ideas but I wanted to hear from people who have done this before or have made plans for this as well. How have you guys approached the issue of cap ships crew requirements, upkeep (replacing star fighters or what not) maybe even what areas it can go to, how do you get people to the ground, what types of missions this opens up to the party and restriction placed upon them with weapons. Any advice that expands from what it says in the books would be awesome and helpful and I'm hoping will help other like minded players and GM's

Most small and independent groups (like Edge of the Empire PCs) can't reasonably operate a capital ship without significant backing. This can come from governments (legitimate and otherwise), corporations, and large outlaw groups (pirates). Without such a backer, keeping any but the smallest capital ship operating (including crew costs and consumables) will be all but impossible.

That said, if you just want to go the capital ship route with a small group, then do it. It worked for the Andromeda series (of course, they also used dildos for weapons...).

Capital ships need at least dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of crewmembers to operate. That tends to pose enough of a limitation in itself. Of course, you can always make a campaign about how your players found a pirate group, recruit underlings and have wild adventures in their hijacked capital ship. If things get out of hand, just have the crew mutiny and send them off in an escape pod towards a deserted planetoid (where possibly Kiera Knightley will drink all their rum).

There are some smaller capital ships, like the Consular-class cruiser from AoR, that have a crew under 20.

The Consular-class cruiser only needs a 9 man crew (not sure if that counts gunners), and Gozanti only needs 12 crew total (including gunner), and is a dirt cheap 200,000 creds.

Both are from AoR.

From experience, from the group having a Consular, it was an on going mission was keep the repairs, fuel and licences funded.

Thank god for the rebellion, if it weren't for the arms dealing, bounties and salvaging, we'd have probably moved in to smuggling and piracy.

Most small and independent groups (like Edge of the Empire PCs) can't reasonably operate a capital ship without significant backing. This can come from governments (legitimate and otherwise), corporations, and large outlaw groups (pirates). Without such a backer, keeping any but the smallest capital ship operating (including crew costs and consumables) will be all but impossible.

Are there rules for monthly expenses for ships? (I was going to say there aren't, but maybe I've missed them somewhere.)

One thing I liked about Shadowrun (back in 2nd & 3rd edition) were the Lifestyle rules. They abstracted the costs of day-to-day living based on the kind of life the PC led. It worked well, I thought, and I've wondered how you might apply it to EotE (or even if you'd want to).

There are not rules that codify such expenses, but Far Horizons let's us know that unskilled laborers earn 500 credits per month, and I'd imagine starship crewmen generally make at least that much (likely considerably higher).

The idea I was thinking was the group running some sort of mercenary outfit with a ship like a marauder with small teams coming and going with some more permanent senior members who might be able mind the ship if they wanted to do smaller mission as not every thing the PC will require a small army and that might get the empires attention with all operation paying some small amount to keep the ship running in return for regular jobs or something like that, this is one such idea that I came up with today not much though on how you would get such a ship but I can see this as being a method of having one in a campaign which could also make for some interesting empire and rebellion missions I'm yet to seriously talk with my group about going for capital ship but I think it would be something fun to in edge of the empire, some capital ships even specifically state they are in use by paramilitary groups and pirates.

As mentioned there are a few capital ships out there that can be fully manned or basically fully manned by decent sized parties. If you don't mind large numbers of NPCs in your crew but your party wants to be truly independent then I would say nothing bigger then a Corvette, Frigate, or small Light Cruiser (I know there are a few larger pirate craft but I feel those were supported by larger organizations) If they want anything bigger then Sil 6 tell them they need to either join or get the backing of a larger group though whether that be a criminal enterprise, a large corporation, a mercenary band, the government of either a solar system, or one of the Allied regions, or the Alliance should be left up to them.

As for where they can obtain the ship there are some capital ships which can be purchased legally, others whose manufacturers will be willing to sell them under the tale for the right price, outlaw shipyards produce copies of many popular small and midsize capital ship designs, some well connected black market ship dealers can get capital warships, and for older models you could find them in scrap and surplus depots to buy or steal, or perhaps salvage a wrecked one from an accident or one that was shot up but is fixable from a major battle zone. (I'm sure there are tons of sites where Clone Wars fleet actions took place that were never fully charted or properly salvaged even in the EOE and AOR era.)