Hi,

I'm starting my first Edge of the Empire campaign in a couple of weeks and have a questions about the party spaceship that I hope I can get some advice on.

Basically, what are people's thoughts on who should own the spaceship?

Should the entire party all have equal shares?

Should it be more like Firelfy, with Mal Reynolds as owner and a crew of friends and hired guns?

Should ownership be different sized shares?

Should a couple of PCs own the ship and have hired on crew members?

I can't decide!

Thanks in advance.

Basically, what are people's thoughts on who should own the spaceship?

Typically the pilot or his backer. The backer can be an organization, an individual, the group/person the pilot owes Obligation to, or even another PC. Really it's pretty flexible.

Should the entire party all have equal shares?

They can... but...

Should it be more like Firelfy, with Mal Reynolds as owner and a crew of friends and hired guns?

As Mal points out in the movie, it's usually better if a single person is identified as Captain, be it the owner or just the guy whose ultimately responsible to the owner.

Should ownership be different sized shares?

Sure.

Should a couple of PCs own the ship and have hired on crew members?

Also an option.

I can't decide!

... so you've got four options, roll a D4 and pick the result.... or if you're like me, roll a D4 and then decide you don't like the result and pick the result you suddenly realize you want.

Yes.

In my campaign, Santos and Zet own the Rainbow Das h together. Their ship is on Nar Shaddaa being held in impound until they come up with the cash to pay their Hutt Debt obligation that they collectively shared during character generation to get additional XP.

The other characters joined them on the way but since they weren't part of their back story they don't have an ownership stake in the Dash at this point. They only just arrived on Nar Shaddaa on Saturday after finally scrumming the credits together.It was what I would consider the finale for season 1. Season 2 begins in July.

I was so happy to unveil the custom painted YT-1300 I had done. I'll provide a pic sometime soon.

Basically, what are people's thoughts on who should own the spaceship?

You're asking the wrong questions - there really is no "should" in this scenario.

The owner is simply whomever has a valid claim of ownership. Who that is (singular or plural) will depend entirely on the situation, so we can't give you an answer unless you tell us how the ship came into their possession.

If what you're instead asking is, "What system of ownership is best for the game?", that will depend on your players and what they will enjoy. If you ask their opinion, the most likely response is that they will want their characters to have equal ownership since (most likely) no player will want to voluntarily be beholden or subordinate to another.

In our game we incorporated a holding company that bought the ship. Which technically means all the original players effectively own an equal part of the ship, but with some caveats and similar semi-democratic nonsense. We still have a designated 'captain' (also known as designated fall guy) who acts a point-of-command on the ship, but they don't have the same directing powers, because they're ultimately responsible to the "board". Also makes a convenient distinction between PC (owner) and NPC (employee)

Anyway, as Matt said, different organizations & ownership can work better for different groups of players or characters. It also doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. You could have a few people who own the ship, and a few who are hooked in for a different reason. The big thing I'd keep in mind is figuring out why the group stays together. I've seen more than a couple of GMs pop up here with issues that stem from a party that has no reason to keep running together. This can be loyalty (Like chewie), part ownership, friendship, or even being owned (as in the case with both droid characters in our game).

I can't decide!

Do what's best for the game. If you're trying to tell a story of a individuals coming together to form a tight cohesive unit, then start as hired crew. If you want games about everyone pulling together to make some money, go equal partners.

And if you want to tell a story about slavery, make one player the ship's owner and everything/body aboard his property.

I probably took the easy route and asked my group point blank at the beginning of the 1st session: "Who owns the ship?" They all pointed at the pilot who looked dumbfounded. Then they all explained the background of how the group came together around that decision. It was actually pretty inspiring to hear them all whip up the story off the cuff.

I wouldn't spend too much time on it. You have plenty of other terrible- er, enjoyable things to plan, including how to use all of their lovely Obligations. Hand that bit of developing off to the players and save yourself a headache.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I am just going to ask them and let them write that bit of the back story, as suggested by Corg. :-)