So, this may or may not be an issue, but I thought I'd see what other people have done in this situation.

I've started my players with a basic YT 1300 (actually a Dynamic but not having found any Dynamic stats I just borrowed the YT since the Ebon Hawk was a blatant imitation of the Millennium Falcon anyway). A basic YT is, as it should be, a bit pants, and the few space encounters we've had have been pretty simple (basically a few waves of two fighters at a time is about as much as they can handle). I am keen to get my players to upgrade their ship so that I can run some more interesting vehicle encounters, but as you'd expect upgrading a ship costs a lot of credits, and I don't want to just give them loads of cash because I fear they'll spend most of it on personal gear and then they'll be overpowered on the ground and still vulnerable in the sky.

I'm tempted to just run them off on a side quest where they get a new ship or get their ship significantly upgraded, but I'd prefer to avoid deviating too far from my plot as it's already taking much longer than I expected.

My current plan is this, they have an as-yet unspecified amount of Ionite Ore on their ship, looted in their previous mission. Their ship is currently very battered and they need immediate repairs. I am going to have the shipwright offer to take the entire cargo of Ionite Ore at a good price (maybe give them 30,000cr, but they have 7,500cr damage repair costs) if they will accept trade credit (i.e. can only spend it on repairs and upgrades). Otherwise if they just sell to the bulk cargo dealer NPC he'll take a fair chunk of their profits (maybe give them 20,000cr). They'll still have enough to pay for repairs and buy some other stuff, but it won't be such a good value deal. This is the soft approach, I don't want to force them to invest in their ship if they don't want to, but I want to give them the chance to without letting them chose to spend loads and loads of money on overpowered personal weapons and armour instead.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

A Dynamic???

I hope you're playing in the Old Republic era or your players are cruising around in a very ancient and rare (and probably valuable to collectors) ship...

Nah, nothing ever changes in Star Wars. This is a "new model" Dynamic, just like car companies keep bringing out new versions of old models.

Set up encounters where they need to use their ship to get there every 3rd-4th sessio if possible,... Maybe tight canyons, an island 20-30 miles offshore etc.. when they get a fail/despair the pilot has to bank UP out of the canyon or avoid a massive tidal wave, The baddies picks them up on radar and sends out some fighters,,, playtest the encounter yourself first to see how many ships make it easy or difficult to overcome, i reckon 3-4 Headhunters should do it

Upgrade the fighters speed, give the players a reason to consider the need to upgrade the ship. Instead of giving them a carrot, hit them with the stick instead,, in a nice way

Run the encounters the way you want to... if they get into trouble they may learn the error of their ways but no, you can't force them to upgrade. Consider the films or Rebels, a decent mix of gun battles and dogfights,,, start an episode, sorry game session, in space combat, They've come out of hyperspace to early on the edge of a system, right into the sensor range of pirates, imperials or somesuch...

Consider an upgrade in part payment if they suceed/fail in their Negotiation roll too. Don't just pay the group in hard credits.

Hope this helps.

We don't play all that often, so I'd rather avoid adding in a lot of extra stuff right now, but I think if my current strategy doesn't work I may go that way. So far they've had two major space combats, both times they got pretty messed up, so I think they know their ship is not great. Before the last encounter I specifically warned them as they are unfamiliar with the space combat and I suggested they not get over confident because they're used to being pretty good at personal scale encounters. Hopefully they've taken the hint and will take my offer, otherwise my plot will become increasingly tenuous as I ratchet up the difficulty on the ground but somehow the Imperials never seem to throw much at them in space.

Don't coddle them when it comes to vehicular encounters, if they continue to beat whatever it is you throw at them, they won't want to spend the cash, but if you give them a serious challenge. A near death experience has a way of opening players eyes.

The simple way is to blow up their ship. That'll put them in the market for a new ship real fast.

'course they might get ticked off about it, so let them know that they're on a planet with a lot of ship vendors before you do it as a hint.

Don't coddle them when it comes to vehicular encounters, if they continue to beat whatever it is you throw at them, they won't want to spend the cash, but if you give them a serious challenge. A near death experience has a way of opening players eyes.

The first space combat we had they got wrecked lost all their loot repairing their ship, the second they got away with 7 hull trauma left as they fled to hyperspace. So, yeah, I agree and I have been.

The simple way is to blow up their ship. That'll put them in the market for a new ship real fast.

'course they might get ticked off about it, so let them know that they're on a planet with a lot of ship vendors before you do it as a hint.

True, but then they'll need the money to buy a new ship, and if I let them get enough money to buy a good ship they might buy another bad ship and spend the change on missile launchers and heavy armour instead (yes, I know, restrict what they can buy blah blah). That's a solid idea though, and there's definitely ways I can make it work, there are an infinite number of ways I can contrive for the players to get a better ship, but most of them involve a plot detour of probably half a dozen hours of gameplay and we only get to play a few hours every couple of weeks so I'd rather not do it.

Ultimately I think I ask the impossible and am being whiny Degoba Luke and wanting to have my cake and eat it (ok abort sentence, too many metaphors). Or I'm worried about nothing and they'll spend all their money on ship upgrades the next time we play. Who knows. I should just trust the will of Force (I can't help myself).

Nah, nothing ever changes in Star Wars. This is a "new model" Dynamic, just like car companies keep bringing out new versions of old models.

That, I don't agree with.

But to each their own.

The thing is that they might not want to spend much dosh on upgrading an old and beat up ship that they might even fear losing after throwing tens of thousands of credits on the upgrades.

I "solved" a similar dilemma in my game by giving the PCs a long-odds chance of stealing a ship much too large for them. They did manage, by the skin of their teeth, to overpower the skeleton imperial crew and ended up "donating" the ship to the rebellion after the rebellion agreed to supply them with a new ship. The new ship is a bit more beefy than the old one (which got confiscated by the Empire in a double-cross gone bad) and because they donated a ship worth millions of credits to a rebellion that sees potential in the PCs they get a nice new Citadel Light Freighter upgraded according to their requests.

One way to introduce ship improvements is to allow them to salvage a ship system or two from another starship. Perhaps they recover a class 1 hyperdrive from the still smoking remains of a military scout ship (in addition to some information held in the now defunct ship computer or droid). Or maybe a weapon system (Heavy Laser Cannon to replace Light Laser Cannon).

The salvaged ship could be a victim of the PCs success or a find on one of your adventures. Think about what you want them to upgrade to make their/your adventures more unique or interesting.

Maybe have them discover that their own ship has a hidden smuggling compartment well after they have been on it awhile to put the idea of customizing their ship into their heads.

Perhaps introduce an NPC contact who needs something done, and who can only pay with ship improvements (or maybe pays more in improvements than in cash).

If their ship takes major damage, this NPC and any additional story hooks could be introduced. Could take salvage for heavily discounted ship improvements rather than only a smaller percentage of cash payout.

This opens up possibilities to get them to start wheeling and dealing with NPC characters in your game.

The salvaged ship could be a victim of the PCs success or a find on one of your adventures. Think about what you want them to upgrade to make their/your adventures more unique or interesting.

I have the same issues with my PCs as the OP, and decided this is the way to make it happen: drop it in their laps as part of the scenario. Of course, they might spend time trying to fence the part, but you can make that as difficult as you like.

It's probably worth asking the group if they are actually interested in space combat, and if so do they want to each be in a fighter of their own, or 1 light freighter or does capital ship combat excite them? There is no point forcing them to do something their not interested in. Also make sure everyone has things to do during vehicle combat, the Faci is on the come, Tech guys are repairing strain and slicing enemy, gun bunnies each have a gun to shoot and pilots each have a ship or are working in pairs with a copilot assisting the pilot.

Also make sure they are not open space encounters, have terrain and also use the chase rules a lot.

One way to introduce ship improvements is to allow them to salvage a ship system or two from another starship.

Now that I particularly like, and hadn't thought of. Thanks.

It's probably worth asking the group if they are actually interested in space combat, and if so do they want to each be in a fighter of their own, or 1 light freighter or does capital ship combat excite them? There is no point forcing them to do something their not interested in. Also make sure everyone has things to do during vehicle combat, the Faci is on the come, Tech guys are repairing strain and slicing enemy, gun bunnies each have a gun to shoot and pilots each have a ship or are working in pairs with a copilot assisting the pilot.

Also make sure they are not open space encounters, have terrain and also use the chase rules a lot.

All excellent points, but I have already confirmed and/or implemented them. Thanks.

Giving them salvage opportunities is a good way, another way is barter — they do some work for someone, and in return they get work done on their ship. They don’t get paid money for it, but they still get the benefits.

Or, maybe they take on a job that will require they have some upgrades performed to their ship, and in exchange for some Obligation, they get the upgrades done for them by their patron. That reduces the cash payout at the end, but they get the upgrades.

Or, maybe they take on a job that will require they have some upgrades performed to their ship, and in exchange for some Obligation, they get the upgrades done for them by their patron. That reduces the cash payout at the end, but they get the upgrades.

This is what first popped into my mind as I read the first post.

It does not necessarily need to be required for the mission, it might instead be the way they are paid for their job.

"Hello, I have a job for you. I don't have the credits to pay you, but after you're done, you can bring your ship to my landingpad and I'll have my mechanics install some nice upgrades on your ship and resupply you with consumables."

That way you keep credits off the table, maybe toss in some small change for bribes or stuff like that, and the get some much needed upgrades.

Another way is to show them what upgrades can do with an NPC ship. Something along the lines of "we keep getting raided by these pirates in the same ship as you, but somehow they always get away faster than we can catch them. That's where you come in" the PC's do some investigating and discover the pirates fly a highly modified ship. Planning and Intel can offset of their deficiency and the actual upgrades are not required to complete the objective of chasing off the Pirates. But when they do try to chase the Pirates they are left in the dust, Pirates like easy targets so they move on anyway. The big thing is the PC's need to know at the end of the session is that upgrades can make for a far superior vessel.

I've found a salvo of missles and hefty repair bill to be great encouragment for upgrading the ship.

Convincing them to stay in the same one has been tougher, my players are like goddamn hermit crabs.

or give them an NPC ally with access to a shadowport - nothing says 'pimp your ride' like walking them through a star wars equivalent of a hot rod convention.

then, to add to the quorum, offer them jobs with a ship oriented pay off instead of credits.

"sure, I could pay you 2000 credits to do x, but I'd rather offer you 20,000 credits worth of upgrades, and then send you on a smuggling run that pays bank..."

One way I tackled this issue was to have competing NPC pilots with mildly modified, 'better' ships steal business from the PC's.

For example, a wealthy NPC wants to get to Planet X really fast, but the PC's ship has a hyperdrive multiplier of x2. The NPC goes elsewhere.

Or... a merchant wants to hire the PC's to transport his wares, but changes his mind when he learns the PC's ship's defenses, speed, etc. are stock and unimpressive. Even if your PC's make social rolls and/or roleplay to keep their business successfully, at least they should get the hint.

To add insult to injury, and potentially introduce a memorable NPC friendly rival of sorts, you can have the same NPC pilot stealing the PC's business and rubbing it in against the PC's every chance they get; bragging about the NPC's modified ship and how fast it is, all the business they get, etc. Of course, this NPC pilot could poke fun at the PC's lame and stock ship. Sounds like potential for a pain in the ass NPC, who could potentially become a contact and friend of the PC's later.

The better ship almost always gets the better jobs. Perhaps after transporting livestock and having their cargo hold smell like poop for weeks on boring runs for small profit, the PC's will make a change.

One way I tackled this issue was to have competing NPC pilots with mildly modified, 'better' ships steal business from the PC's.

For example, a wealthy NPC wants to get to Planet X really fast, but the PC's ship has a hyperdrive multiplier of x2. The NPC goes elsewhere.

Or... a merchant wants to hire the PC's to transport his wares, but changes his mind when he learns the PC's ship's defenses, speed, etc. are stock and unimpressive. Even if your PC's make social rolls and/or roleplay to keep their business successfully, at least they should get the hint.

To add insult to injury, and potentially introduce a memorable NPC friendly rival of sorts, you can have the same NPC pilot stealing the PC's business and rubbing it in against the PC's every chance they get; bragging about the NPC's modified ship and how fast it is, all the business they get, etc. Of course, this NPC pilot could poke fun at the PC's lame and stock ship. Sounds like potential for a pain in the ass NPC, who could potentially become a contact and friend of the PC's later.

The better ship almost always gets the better jobs. Perhaps after transporting livestock and having their cargo hold smell like poop for weeks on boring runs for small profit, the PC's will make a change.

I like this angle. Do the PCs want to transport cows for the rest of their days or are they interested in something a bit more... interesting?