Hello FFG community,

First of all, this is my first post on these forums so thank you for taking the time to read over my post. Before I jump into my question, i'll give a little background info.

I am currently running an EotE campaign merged with a Force and Destiny one as well. I let my players create a character from either book and am currently balancing mechanics in order to allow the party to consist of force sensitive characters as well as traditional ones. I just finished running the adventure Lessons From The Past. During the last bit of the session, the party decided that they wanted to contact a friend and see if his Hutt master could fix the wrecked Hammerhead ship for them.

Rather than simply saying no, I had Durga the Hutt bring the ship wreck to a shipyard and start repairing it. Durga has offered to repair the ship if the party works off their newfound obligation (debt) to him. What is a reasonable ammount that the party would have to pay the Hutt? If the party does not work on behalf of the Hutt, Durga plans to simply take the ship for himself and leave the party to die.

Any suggestions how i could handle this sitution?

Looking in the book for a ship with comparable size would be a good start. I'd also tack on costs for having to get compatible parts on such an old ship or bringing it up to modern standards. Adding weapons, restoring lab/med equipment, or anything else will cost them extra. I wanna say this would end up being tens of millions of credits.

Okay looking over the Hammerhead it is roughly the length of a Nebulon-B. The Nebulon costs 8,500,000 so Repairing the Sanctuary would cost close to that with a discount for still having the hull. That's a lot of credits and the thing needs a big crew. Honestly I do not think it's a good fit for EotE, Maybe to get on the Hutt's good side by giving him the salvage but a ship like that attracts a lot of attention. Though I can fit a light freighter inside if you want a mobile base of operations.

Also for a slower less well armed version the Star Galleon is also similarly sized and far cheaper at 1,500,000 but still has a crew of 150.

Both of these serve just serve as base lines for what a ship like that might have stat wise. It's up to you and maybe the players to figure out the exact stats. Maybe strip it down but leave lots of upgrade slots to play around with.

Personally, I wouldn't let the players have the ship. Its a bit much for a group of PC's to have, and the upkeep on it would be more than they could ever hope to earn. But, if the group is bound and determined to salvage it, I would make sure they PAY for it. "Well, this this pretty **** old, to begin with. Couple that with sitting within spitting distance of a red giant...plasma streams and shockwaves. Hell, you guys are lucky it made it this far without disintegrating. Whats left is going to need some serious reinforcements along the superstructure...half of the bracings are completely worthless, and the rest are weaker than a watered-down whiskey. Between you and me, this thing is going to have to be rebuilt from the keel up. And thats gonna cost ya..."

Well I would start with this:

The Hutt's techs have looked over the ship and come to the conclusion they can fix it, but they need parts and equipment. There is an abandoned Insert system name shipyard used by the Old Republic where it was originally built its currently infested with a pirate band who have been using it to attack the Hutt's ships. If you clear it out you might be able to find materials to fix the ship. Once the group has cleared out the pirate problem depending on how well they did they might get some repair equipment some raw materials the schematics for the ship and a mystery encrypted datapad.

After decrypting it or giving it to the Hutt to decrypt for more obligation they learn its transponder codes for that class of ships. They can use those to possibly locate other ships of the class to salvage parts all they need to do is break into the BOSS archives on Imperial Center. The Hutt is more then willing to help them. but that would require a specialist in fake ids to get past Imperial Customs. Sadly his family's usual expert is a horrifically bad gambler and has gone on a binge on a certain Cruise Liner can you go fetch him for me and we'll call it even on the ids. Unknown to the group the specialist has racked up a couple hundred thousand credits of debt with the Black Suns and the pitt boss on the ship has tipped them off to the specialists location. Of course the Hutt is lying to them and its actually a Graanee Noopa with the winning Hutt family getting the specialist as the grand prize. All the players have to do is hold on to him until the end of the event...

If they succeed its on to Imperial Home where they have to escort a slicer droid into the BOSS archives to get the data they need to find possible salvage locations for other ships. Of course the Hutt is using this operation as a front to slip in new ship ids for his smugglers into the BOSS database. He's also double crossed them selling them out to the imperials once the data transfer is completed so he gets his ships new ids the information on where to salvage parts for his secret warships and the reward for turning in some force sensitives.

And so on as you build up tension and throw more and more dangerous things at the group...

Well I would start with this:

The Hutt's techs have looked over the ship and come to the conclusion they can fix it, but they need parts and equipment. There is an abandoned Insert system name shipyard used by the Old Republic where it was originally built its currently infested with a pirate band who have been using it to attack the Hutt's ships. If you clear it out you might be able to find materials to fix the ship. Once the group has cleared out the pirate problem depending on how well they did they might get some repair equipment some raw materials the schematics for the ship and a mystery encrypted datapad.

After decrypting it or giving it to the Hutt to decrypt for more obligation they learn its transponder codes for that class of ships. They can use those to possibly locate other ships of the class to salvage parts all they need to do is break into the BOSS archives on Imperial Center. The Hutt is more then willing to help them. but that would require a specialist in fake ids to get past Imperial Customs. Sadly his family's usual expert is a horrifically bad gambler and has gone on a binge on a certain Cruise Liner can you go fetch him for me and we'll call it even on the ids. Unknown to the group the specialist has racked up a couple hundred thousand credits of debt with the Black Suns and the pitt boss on the ship has tipped them off to the specialists location. Of course the Hutt is lying to them and its actually a Graanee Noopa with the winning Hutt family getting the specialist as the grand prize. All the players have to do is hold on to him until the end of the event...

If they succeed its on to Imperial Home where they have to escort a slicer droid into the BOSS archives to get the data they need to find possible salvage locations for other ships. Of course the Hutt is using this operation as a front to slip in new ship ids for his smugglers into the BOSS database. He's also double crossed them selling them out to the imperials once the data transfer is completed so he gets his ships new ids the information on where to salvage parts for his secret warships and the reward for turning in some force sensitives.

And so on as you build up tension and throw more and more dangerous things at the group...

Wow okay thanks! I love the idea of making them really derail the entire campaign. I kind of want to make the PCs pick between getting awesome stuff or letting them pay off their debt/obligation so that they have to keep making the choice to spend all of their time and resources on fixing the ship.

I'd finish it all off with a grand space battle as a giant Four way battle begins. The Empire has shown up to destroy the ship, The Rebel Alliance has come in to capture it as a propaganda move, The Hutt wants it for his fleet and finally the Black Sun crime syndicate intends to ensure the Hutt never gets his hands on a finished warship. All the PCs need to do while fighting the Inquistor and his elite squad of Merc off is manage to keep the ship from being destroyed until the Hyperdrive is operational, the ship clears the dock and gets into open space with enough time to calculate the jump out of the system.

Personally, I wouldn't let the players have the ship. Its a bit much for a group of PC's to have, and the upkeep on it would be more than they could ever hope to earn. But, if the group is bound and determined to salvage it, I would make sure they PAY for it. "Well, this this pretty **** old, to begin with. Couple that with sitting within spitting distance of a red giant...plasma streams and shockwaves. Hell, you guys are lucky it made it this far without disintegrating. Whats left is going to need some serious reinforcements along the superstructure...half of the bracings are completely worthless, and the rest are weaker than a watered-down whiskey. Between you and me, this thing is going to have to be rebuilt from the keel up. And thats gonna cost ya..."

It would be like a crew from a modern day 5-person fishing boat like the Minnow (Gilligan's Island anyone?) finding a dilapidated/derelict WWII battle cruiser (crew requirements in the hundreds or more) beached up on some remote island in the pacific. And then setting out to restore it to working condition. Ridiculously overwhelming in the amount of work, material and $$$ that would be required for such a tiny crew. That kind of work is the purview of governments and large corporations with lots of resources.