So... we're starting a new campaign this coming Friday, and the ship of choice among my players is the YV-929. Now, the ship costs 380,000 credits right out of the box, and that's a bit much for a starting group. Not to mention, it's got a veritable armory of weapons.

What I've done is disable all the weapons except for the Ion Cannons. They won't be defenseless in space, but they won't have the laser cannons or the missile launchers. I've also given the hyperdrive a bit of a hitch. You can read about it here .

(It's the only page I've put on the wiki so far, and I haven't even finished the landing page for the site yet. You can go other places on the wiki, but there's nothing there to see.)

Anyway... fair or unfair?

Interesting story associated with that ship!

Will the players buy the ship off of Urgot or steal it?

I assume they will need to change its id unless their obligation is to Urgot and he hasn't told them the state of the ship?

Be interesting to learn their reaction and how you handle how they gain possession of the ship!

Replacing the broken weapons won't be that costly, repairing them even less, I believe.

When I let my players get hold on a YV-929, I only had the launchers badly damaged and depleted, of course, so they wouldn't be defenseless.

But then, I had the consumables down to two weeks, the hull damaged by a few points, and the ship suffering from the "Shields Failing" and "Engine Damaged" crits.

Furthermore, I chose a few quirks from Norsehounds "Wear and Tear" list: Outdated Targeting Computer and Overloaded.

Last not least, the paperwork was outdated (as was the astrogation data) and screwed up. So they had to apply for or forge a new license, before they could go to any civilized world without facing difficulties from the authorities.

It took the players quite a while, a load of credits and lots of effort to clear up everything, of course.

Seems quite reasonable to disable the heftier weapons. Personally I'd make them more then simple disabled by the CSA. That type of disabling typically means a few critical parts are missing. I'd also assume that the tibanna gas was drained. But years of neglect should introduce other problems. The actuators that move the guns could be vacuum welded so that even live, they only shoot in a fixed direction (something uselessly off to the side is best). Recoil dampeners could be failing or missing, leading to system stress every time the weapons fire. Maintenance neglect might mean that any Threat results in the weapons going down for a round or more.

Ideally, if you spin it correctly, the cost of fixing the weapons should be just a hair less then buying new ones. But the trouble to do so should be hugely and comically greater. Tracking down old stocks of outmoded parts, finding a mechanic that knows the old systems, or fixing it themselves with a few errors along the way. At first it should seem easy to do, so the players don't just buy a new weapon for the mount. But as they spend more time and credits it should get harder. Eventually the players should feel that they should have simply bought new ones, but since they've already spent so many credits on the fixes they need to continue on.

And of course it should seem like it's easier to get parts for an older weapon then it is to buy a new, possibly restricted, weapon.

I'd also put in some persistent quirks: the door that sometimes sticks no matter how many times the group's mechanic fixes it, a light that flickers annoyingly for no apparent reason, strange noises in the plumbing, a stain or patch of corrosion that won't go away, repulsorlifts that surge erratically making simple landing and docking maneuvers bumpy and embarrassing...

If you do it right, and I'm trying to do so myself, the players should eventually feel frustrated with all the incidental problems, but not ever to the point where they want to upgrade to a different ship. In fact, what I'm hoping for, is that the players get to love their quirky ship so much that they'll actually be defensive when someone else points out a flaw.

Seems quite reasonable to disable the heftier weapons. Personally I'd make them more then simple disabled by the CSA. That type of disabling typically means a few critical parts are missing. I'd also assume that the tibanna gas was drained. But years of neglect should introduce other problems. The actuators that move the guns could be vacuum welded so that even live, they only shoot in a fixed direction (something uselessly off to the side is best). Recoil dampeners could be failing or missing, leading to system stress every time the weapons fire. Maintenance neglect might mean that any Threat results in the weapons going down for a round or more.

Ideally, if you spin it correctly, the cost of fixing the weapons should be just a hair less then buying new ones. But the trouble to do so should be hugely and comically greater. Tracking down old stocks of outmoded parts, finding a mechanic that knows the old systems, or fixing it themselves with a few errors along the way. At first it should seem easy to do, so the players don't just buy a new weapon for the mount. But as they spend more time and credits it should get harder. Eventually the players should feel that they should have simply bought new ones, but since they've already spent so many credits on the fixes they need to continue on.

And of course it should seem like it's easier to get parts for an older weapon then it is to buy a new, possibly restricted, weapon.

I'd also put in some persistent quirks: the door that sometimes sticks no matter how many times the group's mechanic fixes it, a light that flickers annoyingly for no apparent reason, strange noises in the plumbing, a stain or patch of corrosion that won't go away, repulsorlifts that surge erratically making simple landing and docking maneuvers bumpy and embarrassing...

If you do it right, and I'm trying to do so myself, the players should eventually feel frustrated with all the incidental problems, but not ever to the point where they want to upgrade to a different ship. In fact, what I'm hoping for, is that the players get to love their quirky ship so much that they'll actually be defensive when someone else points out a flaw.

This is pretty much the direction I've been headed. It's only a Hard Mechanics check to figure out what's wrong, but the parts? Well... this is the future! 13 ABY, in fact, and the YV-929 isn't being made any longer. Not only are parts scarce, but they're expensive, and often not where you might expect. Top it off with a list of quirks as long as my arm...

Yup. Fun times.

I did something similar with my party's starting YT-2400. I didn't disable anything, but it started with some Hull damage, lower System Strain than normal, faulty thrusters (lower maneuverability). and an argumentative nav computer that caused problems (Setback Dice). The cost for repairs was a little bit more than the difference in cost (modified down by good Mechanics rolls).

I have found that if you go this route, the more flavorful the problems, the better. Having to argue and coerce the nav computer is worth a hundred missing weapon emplacements.

Great ideas here guys.

I'd go for a mix of major problems and flavor issues-
Shields not working or only work at half power.

Primary Hyperdrive is down so they have to use the backup.
Bad maintenance has left a cross-wired mess of bad parts, all Mechanics checks are upgraded until 3 issues are fixed (this can be nasty unless you have a good mechanic).
Lack of maintenance has left many minor issues, reduce strain threshold by X until the ship is fully serviced.
Computer alerts have been scrambled so minor electrical faults are reported as "Power generator is 2 minutes from overload" etc.
The motor for one of the external doors is burned out so it needs to be hand cranked open, this will take a *long* while if it's the main cargo hatch - normally not a problem but will mess up a fast get away.

Bunks have been replaced with storage racks so they have less bunks than people.

The auto chef is jammed on "Traditional Gamorrean".

Climate control is faulty and seems to have two settings - Hoth winter and Tattooine summer.
Toxic mold in the air ducks.
Hard to find water leak.
If the players ignore the last few because there is no mechanical effect I'd consider adding a strain due to them spending too long in poor living conditions.

Edit: Also-
Something unpleasant nesting behind one of the service panels.
A virus on the main computer.
A dead body in one of the smuggling compartments.

To add to that list,

. Atmosphere is calibrated to a different species

. The ship belonged to a pirate, and has some kind of history, like the transponder codes say that this ship still belongs to that pirate

. The lights don't work

. Whenever you turn on the P.A., Gamorrean opera blares throughout the ship

. The refresher doesn't work

These are just examples, but you could use these as a base to try to come up with other little quirks like that for ships

Faults in the ships artificial gravity system. Either have it switch off randomly or due to cross wiring it changes due to something unrelated.

In one of the EU books its states that to help people with the transition the artificial gravity on a ship starts matching the planet the ship has taken off from and then gradually shifts to match the planet the ship is flying to. This way the crew arrive pre-acclimatised to local conditions. If there was a problem however the crew could spend a week in hyperspace at a gravity of 0.9Gs and then land on a planet that is 1.2Gs…

The refresher doesn't work

Or worse it does work but drains somewhere that it shouldn't.

Having to argue and coerce the nav computer is worth a hundred missing weapon emplacements.

So, a money pit for the party to drop money one.

So, a money pit for the party to drop money one.

Pretty much.

They key to making it a money pit is to make them want to spend the credits. If they grumble every time something goes wrong about how they should get a new ship, eventually they will.

I stole Doc's idea of a recalcitrant nav computer. So why not replace it or reprogram it? Well, if it's in a good mood (difficult to judge since it doesn't talk either audibly or via text) it grants a bonus die to Astronavigation and it is on very good terms with the ship's hyperdrive, so it usually shaves 10% off the duration of a hop. That helps compensate for the times that it pops up an alternate destination as a "suggestion" because it's bored with the current course. Or when it refuses to accept a mere "return to where we came" from the first few times it is input. And, if the engines were recently stressed in any way, it might add a few hours to the sublight trek to get out of a gravity well before jumping into hyperspace.

And once my players realize how to keep the navcomp happy (maintain the engines well, go to a variety of places, don't rush it) they'll have more to spend their credits on: extra maintenance of the hyperdrive, extra fuel for a roundabout route, etc.