My players just upgraded their ship with Nightshadow coating and a Whisperthrust engine to aid them in the smuggling business. The Empire highly restricts both but how easy or hard to detect would you say it is to notice a ship has them?

Say their ship docks at a spaceport. Would passers-by immediately recognize the coating? Would the Imperial Customs officer know what he was looking at?

Or is it more of a paint job? Like the difference between looking at an F-16 and an F-22. Both have similar paint schemes but the 22's paint is special radar absorbing and whatnot.

Well, I’d say that call is ultimately up to the GM.

However, the way I recall it being described, I would think that sort of thing would be pretty obvious to any casual observers who might get close enough to see a ship with that “attachment” applied.

Kinda like “Predator” camoflage, if you get up close and personal with it.

But if you wanted to say that it looks like a normal paintjob to a standard visual inspection, and it’s only once you start examining it much more closely with electronic methods that the special properties become more apparent, then I would say that’s probably a perfectly valid interpretation of the rules for your game.

It's probably VERY obvious.

There are different ways of smuggling. One way is to blend in with 'normal' traffic and get through by being mistaken for a mundane transport vessel (this is really the only type where smuggling compartments are necessary). Another is to be super stealthy and try to 'cold run' without being detected. A third is to go for big engines and/or big guns and trying to 'hot run' through opposition. Generally, any given smuggling ship is only going to be outfitted to do one of these three approaches well.

If you've opted for the 'cold run' then the same tech that makes that possible is a give away any time you try to just blend in.

I would say that it seems likely that the coating could be made to look like normal paint. However, the same properties that the PCs want it for would be the same properties that give it away. There doesn't seem to be any reason not to apply at least a cursory scan to incoming ships. Even if the volume is too large to thoroughly scan every ship coming in, they would probably randomly apply it to 10% of ships or whatever seems reasonable (much like random inspections at maritime and air ports). Eventually, they will notice that those sensors aren't particularly effective on that ship, and then they'll want to know why.

I'm going to go a little different than my gut initially told me to go.

Yes, it's somewhat obvious. Not like super everyone automatically knows obvious, but obvious to anyone that takes a serious scan or otherwise knows what they are looking at.

Now... The reason I wouldn't get too worried, and the thing that's making go a little against my knee jerk feeling:

People in Star wars cruise around with high end hardware A LOT. Like all the time. So, if you don't want to have the local law show up and call the players out... Don't. The Ghost has yet to be searched by customs iirc. So why should your players have problems except when it matters to the story?

Typically ships that use this kind of tech are obvious to trained Imperial Inspectors and don't land in unfriendly space ports.

The tactic they use is they avoid imperial patrols and sensors while approaching and land in an empty field in the dead of night or at a private secret port or even an improvised landing zone that can be taken apart with in 15 minutes. A ship outfitted this way will have a great deal of trouble landing at standard ports with honest customs officials.

This is also where characters have a chance to bribe inspectors or an Ardos disk comes in handy. Some ports may not even care at all especially if they are friendly with the right people on the planet. And of course in Hutt space it will be completely ignored and might get them extra jobs. They could also have documents from the rebellion or empire that expand this as well.

Reading over the entry for the nightshadow coating it seems to be a coating... So similar to say like a matte finish or varnish it would be applied onto the ship and provide "radar absorbing" traits like someone mentioned above.

So on that note, A. I would say its very difficult to notice its on unless you like chip off a piece of it and run it under a microscope. Or Traffic control could be confused when they don't notice you pop on their passive sensors. But then again who when running a spaceport is running only passive scanners.

So in the end I don't think anyone could or would notice it unless they were REALLY looking for it. And I mean... REALLY.

On the note of the whisperthrust engine... That is a bit different. The signature of your ship is going to be different than a "typical" whatever it is you are flying because they are not the stock engines. Or the typical appearance will change as it says "uses special supercooled gases and baffles to reduce" so my guess a well trained eye may notice something off. But then you could always claim your original baffles were destroyed by pirates and you got second hand ones somewhere else. (Chance for rolling some dice!!)

So, a follow-up question would be, if I have Imp inspectors or a typical spaceport supervisor make a Perception check to see if they notice it, what would you make the roll to be? I'm thinking an Average check, with a boost die for any "trained" person (like any Imps or the old supervisor that has been there forever and seen everything come and go) and then a Setback for anyone that wouldn't be trained in spotting such things. Fair?

That sounds reasonable, although I'd alternately allow a Knowledge (Education) check in place of the Perception check, reflecting their general knowledge of starship designs and their modifications jogging their memory that that doesn't look like a standard paint job.

I also told the players to be aware that any hull trauma they take is going to start reducing the effectiveness of the coating.

So, a follow-up question would be, if I have Imp inspectors or a typical spaceport supervisor make a Perception check to see if they notice it, what would you make the roll to be? I'm thinking an Average check, with a boost die for any "trained" person (like any Imps or the old supervisor that has been there forever and seen everything come and go) and then a Setback for anyone that wouldn't be trained in spotting such things. Fair?

Personally.. I'd say that a random customs inspector or port supervisor would never roll to detect it. If it's detection doesn't have some predetermined consequence in relation to the story, then rolling for it is just extra work and potential derailment.

If it's a secondary issue but still relevant to progression, then use Despair/Threat on other related checks to bring that element into the story.

"I use Deception to convince him we're just here to deliver a load of frozen gooberfish"

*Success w Despair*

"Oh... I believe you're here to drop off this frozen fish.... it's what you plan on doing after the delivery that worries me. No simple merchant has need for a stealth package like that. You know that I do have the authority to deny docking visas if I believe a ship, crew, or it's passengers are here to commit a crime..."

Now... if there's some reason for the other individual to need to detect the stealth kit, then I'd make it something straightforward like Hard, +2 Setback if the individual isn't actively looking for or has never seen a stealth coating before. That should allow it to still feel right not being detected by your average dingleberry, but give even odds a more savvy individual would know what he was looking at.

It's also worth noting that not every customs inspector mightn't be that bothered; if he believes that it isn't worth his time, he just might ask for a bribe up front to save everyone's time. So that even when the empire does eventually fall apart, he's saved up enough aside to live quite comfortably on some back water planet. Not everyone's in the empire/rebellion/smuggling for the good of it, opportunists should give both opportunities and complications.