One of my PCs still brings up the time he bought the crew some local drinks only to tell them later they were effectively made from the insectoid resident's "secretions".

"Slurm! It's highly addictive!"

In 50 Fathoms and Pirates of the Spanish Main, crews that have been at sea for a long time start taking Fatigue. The only way to remove this Fatigue is to stop in port and allow the crew to Carouse for a couple days. The various NPC "extras" are assumed to spend their wages, while the PCs make a Carousing roll. If they roll well, they are entertained and refreshed through mild debauchery. If they roll poorly, they blow a lot more money, have to be dragged from the gutter back to the ship in a cart, and probably pick up a nasty case of the clap. Needless to say, some players prefer to roll poorly.

You might introduce a similar idea to be brought out every so often. After a couple hours in the car with my wife and kids I start to lose it, and these are my favorite people in the world. These folks are blasting around the Galaxy in a tin can together for days on end. The Trandoshan's breath smells like rotting meat, the Bothan has fleas, and have you ever been around a Gand with the runs? Next time they pull into port, say, "Excellent, you meet your contact and get paid. Looking around, you realize you can't stand the sight of each other for at least a couple days, and your back hurts just thinking about getting back on the ship. What would you like to do?" Then let them do that. If a story opportunity comes up, great. If not, don't sweat it.

Regarding using the ship as their standard transportation, it's all about terrain. On Tatooine, yes, sure, fly that sucker everywhere. Well, not the canyons, but everywhere else. Endor? Felucia? Kashyyyk? You gotta take whatever clearing you can find. Weather is going to be another problem. Consider how much trouble an airplane has in even a small storm. Now remember that all of these starships are the opposite of aerodynamic. Wind can impart an incredible amount of force on a large surface. Also, Starships are more easily tracked and more closely monitored by those who do such things. They fly higher, put out more power, and are often up to no good. If your group is trying to avoid notice, they're probably going to park out of the way and rent some speederbikes. Or a van with sick wizards and dragons airbrushed on the sides. Yes, that van is less conspicuous than a YT-1300.

Landing right next to the target? Okay, Rey landed right next to Luke

Using the ship as a hotel? Okay (something I've done in real life)

Hanging out in the turrets? Seems reasonable. That chair looks comfy.

I don't see how any of this is abusing the game.

As for the temple scenario. The inability to land next to it should be central to the design of the temple. If the temple is just sitting out in the open for all to see with plenty of space to land next to it, then any method you use to prevent the players from landing next to it will be seen by the players as a contrivance (which it is).

Landing right next to the target? Okay, Rey landed right next to Luke

Well, not really. Not at all. She has a long atmospheric montage of climbing up a monutainside and exploring ruins. It may not contain any encounters, but it definately could have in a different situation. Instead it contained some excelent GM narration of scene setting and flavour to prepare the PC for the upcoming scene, which would have been missed if she just landed on the top right next to Luke.

Nevertheless I don't dissagree with your point, I am generally in favour of letting the PCs doing whatever they want and adjusting the scenarios to keep them challenging and fun for the players regardless.

Landing right next to the target? Okay, Rey landed right next to Luke

Using the ship as a hotel? Okay (something I've done in real life)

Hanging out in the turrets? Seems reasonable. That chair looks comfy.

I don't see how any of this is abusing the game.

As for the temple scenario. The inability to land next to it should be central to the design of the temple. If the temple is just sitting out in the open for all to see with plenty of space to land next to it, then any method you use to prevent the players from landing next to it will be seen by the players as a contrivance (which it is).

Landing right next to the target is fine in certain circumstances, but occasionally I either want them to pass through a town/city/spaceport first, or actually have the chance for an en-route encounter.

Using the ship as a hotel, I admit it's a lesser of the issues, my only concern is that sometimes I want to give my players better or different accommodation for their stay on a planet. Plus I feel that a ship can get very cramped, have you ever been at home and felt like you needed to get out? That's what I feel a ship is like, it's fine for the journey and some stays, but occasionally you just need to 'get out'. Contrivance...yes I admit that, and I also see nothing wrong with that if it leads to interesting stories. I feel this makes sense from a realist POV.

Same for the gun turrets, I don't think people would sit in the gun turrets 24/7, it doesn't seem very plausible to me as an individual. I also disagree, that place looks cramped. I feel it's a way for my players to avoid spending a maneuver to man the turrets when really...that extra maneuver they get never matters.

My intention for the adventure was for them to land in a spaceport and get some ground transport that would lead to a thrilling ground combat senario and chase that evoked a similar feeling from The Last Crusade. What I did not want was for them to land as close as they could and then be left with no vehicle with which to fight a tank.

Ebak, on 31 Dec 2015 - 10:32 PM, said:

Hedgehobbit, on 31 Dec 2015 - 11:33 AM, said:

Landing right next to the target? Okay, Rey landed right next to Luke

Using the ship as a hotel? Okay (something I've done in real life)

Hanging out in the turrets? Seems reasonable. That chair looks comfy.

I don't see how any of this is abusing the game.

As for the temple scenario. The inability to land next to it should be central to the design of the temple. If the temple is just sitting out in the open for all to see with plenty of space to land next to it, then any method you use to prevent the players from landing next to it will be seen by the players as a contrivance (which it is).

Landing right next to the target is fine in certain circumstances, but occasionally I either want them to pass through a town/city/spaceport first, or actually have the chance for an en-route encounter.

Using the ship as a hotel, I admit it's a lesser of the issues, my only concern is that sometimes I want to give my players better or different accommodation for their stay on a planet. Plus I feel that a ship can get very cramped, have you ever been at home and felt like you needed to get out? That's what I feel a ship is like, it's fine for the journey and some stays, but occasionally you just need to 'get out'. Contrivance...yes I admit that, and I also see nothing wrong with that if it leads to interesting stories. I feel this makes sense from a realist POV.

Same for the gun turrets, I don't think people would sit in the gun turrets 24/7, it doesn't seem very plausible to me as an individual. I also disagree, that place looks cramped. I feel it's a way for my players to avoid spending a maneuver to man the turrets when really...that extra maneuver they get never matters.

My intention for the adventure was for them to land in a spaceport and get some ground transport that would lead to a thrilling ground combat senario and chase that evoked a similar feeling from The Last Crusade. What I did not want was for them to land as close as they could and then be left with no vehicle with which to fight a tank.

I think telling your players they cannot land next to the temple because of the environnment is the best solution. As the GM you decide what is possible and what is not.

As for the other issues, You can also talk to them out of the game about your expectations. Your players are clearly metagaming to avoid troubles and you have the right to tell them you dont like it.

So let them have a few rounds of fending off a tank on foot. If they get to the ship, the tank can open fire before anyone mounts on the guns or jumps into the driver's seat and then they need to repair the damage.

Oh, but they need parts. So they limp their ship to town since it's too unsafe for space flight, and now they need to haggle for a safe landing zone away from praying eyes or any questions. Bribes.

Parts? Expensive in a rush. Labor? Can do it cheap and slow or expensive and fast, or more expensive for fast and well done.

And what's this? Someone who could have lent them aid and vehicles had they met them before going to the temple? Well color me a fool for skipping the bustling town.

Looks like someone wasn't bribed enough and now the big bad is coming in to investigate the port. How those repairs coming?

Make the PCs suffer heavy strain, whether it is sleeping in the sub-par bunks of the ship, or staying in the gun turret for hours on end. In addition, point out that the entire point of the game is to create the best life they can for their characters. Another option is giving the players a clearly tangible reward while staying at a hotel. For example, have a heating unit in the ship be malfunctioning while the players are doing something on a cold planet. Therefore, the players are forced to stay at a hotel while they wait for a part to arrive. While in the hotel's lobby, have them overhear a conversation that is relevant to their task at hand.

A lot of the "Ship as Hotel" issue may be about your characters view of the ship vs yours. I have a character that's running an exploration ship - it's designed to go 3-6 months without stopping at a port for resupply (It has a 1 year rating). For my character, it's his home and saying he's going to take strain for staying in it rather than a hotel room somewhere is just absurd - my bed is exactly as soft as I like it, the lighting is the perfect intensity and tint, the music system has my favorites programmed - ditto with the food processor, though delivery is my preferred if I know the planet.

The flip side is that I don't hunker down in it 24/7 when I'm on planet. On a civilized planet, I'm out selling my cargo/data and on virgin planets, I'm out getting that cargo/data.

For your specific scenario, if I understand it correctly, you want the characters to have a land based vehicle or 2 to handle an AT-ST or similar grade vehicle rather than the ship - which should be overpowered for that. There are a variety of reasons that your players may need to leave a ship behind and mostly they have to do with the setup for the planet and where you place the temple.

1) The temple could be in a nature preserve/military testing ground/neutral zone location where flying in a ship would be hard to impossible to do without attracting the kind of attention that doesn't leave you time to search a temple - or even locate it if you just have a general description. This option doesn't bar them from taking in the ship, it just makes it much less attractive - flying hundreds of klicks just meters above the ground is going to be extremely wearing on the pilot - strain is almost a certainty here. Then you have the risk of damage to the ship from just a minor miscalculation - ripping off belly turrets/landing gear/anti-boarding guns - and possibly damage to the ion drives from the accumulation of dust being kicked up. All of that is just to try to slide in undetected; if they get spotted, they may have a maximum of 10 minutes before scouts arrive to investigate (10 minutes to go from orbit to ground from the Hutts of Natal adventure) then perhaps another 10-15 before they have located the ship, landed and arrived on site to do some "hands on" investigation.

2) The temple is on an archaeology planet - there is a dead culture on the planet and it's been quarantined to prevent relic pickers from stripping the planet before the archaeologists can do their job. You can land at the ports near the X biggest digs, but any landing outside those zones is considered a relic raid & is responded to by the customs agents. But trips to farther sites can be arranged through the research center - give the forger and the brains a specific role in the setup to get out there, forging documents declaring your medic Professor Correlia Solo - Dr of Antiquities. Variations might include a planet wide quarantine due to an outbreak of Pikarian Plague, only medical teams can come in and everything has to go through the ports, or through the orbital quarantine facilities (4 outdated Star Destroyers).

3) The temple is on a resort planet for the wealthiest of the wealthy of the Galaxy, security is high because it would be too easy to kidnap someone and vanish into hyperspace. Therefore, all hyperspace capable ships must land at one of the security ports - failure to do so results in an immediate armed response. Variations might include - the Empire is also looking for the temple and has imposed the security precautions to ensure they find it first.

In most of these, it's not impossible to get the ship down, it's just not the most favorable way to get where they need to go. You're not forcing them to leave their ship behind, you're making the risk/reward for doing so unbalanced enough that they choose to do it by themselves - as it often is in the real world; we don't insert Seals into a covert operation by landing a C130 outside the compound they are raiding for a reason.

Even if you don't prohibit them from landing the ship close to the temple, there may be a wide variety of reasons it's not available to them; terrain is the most obvious - if the temple is in a valley, it can easily be too narrow to accommodate the ship or it could be too unstable to handle the ion wash of the drives, threatening to crumble & bury the temple if they attempt to land the ship in the valley itself. Likewise, it could be too wet - it's a valley, there could be a river that takes up 90% of the valley floor leaving no place to land - or the only places to land are swampland.

All of these cases are more about making the lack of the ship organic rather than forced. "Oops the repulsor system just happened to break down so you can't lower yourselves into the valley" feels like being railroaded, whereas "<Rolls dice behind screen>Bob, in the lower turret, notices that a large chunk of rock and dirt from the cliff collapses into the valley as the ship starts to descend." leaves the choice to the players.

Yeah, and that's what I was trying to do, let the story and setting divise why you couldn't take the ship, so it wasn't simply me saying "YOU CANNOT TAKE IT!" I'm not a GM who just says stuff like that to players, I like to have reasons why things like this would happen.

I hope one of them will work out for you.

The norms of space travel are that ships should always land at the space port if there is one in the region, it's how customs are enforced and what air traffic control will tell you to do.

Space ports are a big part of the local economy, with a union to repair/fuel/load/unload the ship's and truckers to transport the goods over the planet. Hotels, bars, shops, speeder hire and hundreds of other businesses rely on ships landing at the ports, you wouldn't be allowed to land anywhere else without good reason.

For this reason crew are encouraged/forced to sleep in hotels instead of their ship, the port has a responsibility to the other ships security and letting 6 armed men camp inside the space port is bad for business.

All ports are different so feel free to make up different rules for each port if it fits the plot.

There are ways to avoid ports, the party could blag their way to a different destination (medical emergency, perishable goods, landing at a mechanic's dock etc.), a pilot could attempt to avoid the planetary sensors, a slicer could fake a valid flight plan, permit for atmospheric travel, fake id with location of a personal dock, a techie could rig up something to keep the ship off the sensors.

Avoiding ports is what smugglers are for.

It gets far easier to land wherever you want in the rim where there are sparsely populated planets that may not have planetary sensors, imperial customs, air traffic control.

Landing wherever you want brings its own risks and you need to secure your own ship. A local crime Lord might assume you are smuggling on his turf, a random imperial/pirate patrol may spot the ship, wildlife/jawas any damage the ship, there may be a malfunction and you're grounded a long way from a mechanic.

Train your party to look for good landing spots, a cave mouth or a large overhanging rock would hide the ship and avoid nasty surprises even if it meant a bit of a trek to the site they are going for.

So how did you end up running it Ebak?

I had the planet be inside a nebula which caused perpetual ion storms in the atmosphere, meaning that any starships that were in atmo for more than 10 minutes risked being struck by a direct strike of ion energy. My players figured they better land at the spaceport so the ship could be protected from the elements. They rented a landspeeder for the trip to the canyon, but their little jaunt was interrupted by running into the imperial convoy that was en-route to the temple.

Combat ensued which resulted in the destruction of the landspeeder. My hired gun merc got involved in a fist fight on board the tank and managed to rescue Eliza (who has been a companion of the group since stealing the Jewel). The force sensitive sharpshooter took a position on the canyon and kept taking people down while avoiding fire from the TIE Crawler. The face of the party managed to corral a nearby group of mounts for the players, the inquisitor's speeder escaped at full speed through the canyon. Thanks to a little accident inside the tank with the demolitionist and a well timed shot from the sniper, he took out the driver just as the demo guy blew the back of the TIE Crawler open, causing the sniper to do a double take on his newly purchased sniper rifle.

Arriving at the temple, the inquisitor and his advanced forces coerced the group into taking point and leading them through the temples various traps, puzzles and obstacles, one of which was a gantry over a massive cavern containing a sarlacc. My group nearly died from fear checks once they realized the gantry was over the sarlacc which was very very very hungry. and using its tentacles to strike the platform.

They got to the ancient Jedi machine within the temple, placing the missing piece of the machine, the Jewel of Yavin in the machinery they were then ordered by the inquisitor to find a way to power the machine. Going deeper into the complex they discovered a tomb of the Jedi who constructed this machine along with cryptic instructions on how to get it running, and a protosaber. Which my force sensitive sharpshooter picked up and quickly hid it away.

Activating the machine they were all granted a vision of the future, seeing the end of the war, the beginning of a new war with strange aliens, as well as an alternate future with bizarre X-Wings.

The machine itself started to destabilize the cave, and the Inquisitor went nuts, believing they intentionally sabotaged the machine, a massive blaster battle between the stormtroopers, and my group ensued, as the sharpshooter and Inquisitor dueled with sabers through the cavern complex and onto the gantry over the sarlacc, in a last defying moment, he looked back at the group and tackled the inquisitor off the edge of the gantry, into the waiting maw below.

Things looked bleak for our heroes, when the smuggler (who was away the last few sessions, but returned for the final one) arrived, blasting a hole in the cavern roof with the ships canons, landing close by so they could all jump on the ramp and blasted off planet asap before an ion strike could hit them.

Was a great 'last hurrah' for them, looking forward to the new campaign starting this year.

BRAVO!

That was excellent. Genuinely.

For landing, I will often default to something like "The closest location to safely land the ship is three miles away." Assuming you're dealing with a freighter and not fighters, these ships have pretty big profiles and need a generally flat place to land, sold ground, etc. In addition, like a car parking, they often need more room than just the physical space of the vehicle to properly maneuver. There's also landscape. You can't safely land on a patch of ice, for example. There are reasons that, in spite of Tatooine basically being a vast wasteland of sand, there are docking bays for ships at Mos Eisley.

I like to let my players chose their own form of punishment, though, so while I might say "The closest location to land safely is three miles away," I'm always open to exploring the ramifications of what might happen if they try to land closer. Maybe they risk damage to the ship, or alerting the enemy, or that they won't have ready access to the landing ramp so exit/entry is slowed...

With respect to getting the gang off the ship, I will often explain how unpleasant space travel can be, especially if it's prolonged. Bunks are okay, but they're not real beds. Air and water are recycled. Stuff may be cleaned but doesn't really get a proper cleaning... This works especially well if there are additional travelers on the ship (right now, my PCs are dragging around a bunch of freed slave kids, so all life support systems are constantly strained).

I don't do it every session, but by periodically hitting these notes, it's very easy to get them off the ship. In fact, they're often racing for the door when they land, like everyone jumping out of the family car at the end of a long drive.

As noted at least once in this thread, the EotE game engine gives us a great too to represent this stress (whether staying on the ship too long, or sitting in an gun turret at attention for hours on end) - Strain.

I know it's not the main point of your post, but as far as PCs just living in the gun turret of their ship go, I love it. I was in the army for a while and spent a year deployed, so the thought of constantly having someone on the guns for security is like second nature to me, and it just seems professional. If I'd like to see the PC get out of his turret hole more often I'll just kick off some little events on board the ship that sound like they'd be fun to be a part of. Caged animal breaks loose, inbound message that sounds like it'd be fun to be a part of, just little things to make them realize they're missing out by living in their little corner of the ship.