Hi all

Simple question: what wonderful, inventive reasons can people suggest for why a droid technician - who has zero piloting ability - would own their own ship (or, possibly, other vehicle)?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Sorry, realised this is misleading. I meant a droid who is a technician, not a droid tech! Massive fail on my part - apologies.

Racecar engineer equivalent

Inherited vehicle from deceased family member

Won it in a game of chance

Built it for a dare

It's a droid piloted vehicle - you use it to be chauffeured around

You appreciate the mechanical engineering, but are deathly afraid of space.

Keep in mind, the "average person" has zero piloting ability. So even Agility 1 characters can get from A to B safely in normal traffic. The dice only come in when there's a crisis. So there's no reason for your droid technician *not* to have a vehicle.

Keep in mind, the "average person" has zero piloting ability. So even Agility 1 characters can get from A to B safely in normal traffic. The dice only come in when there's a crisis. So there's no reason for your droid technician *not* to have a vehicle.

Sure, I get that - I'm not worried about the character failing checks. I'm more looking for narrative justifications - how/why in the Star Wars universe a technical droid ends up possessing their own ship, when they're not actually looking to fly the thing. (If it helps, the character is an Ace/Rigger, but with no free skills or starting XP going into piloting.)

Mobile workshop man. That's what my players droid had on their ship.

I can only imagine when you land the ship, open the side 'windows', roll down the signs 'F3AR's MOBILE WORKSHOP NOW OPEN'

You stole it, just 'cause!

The droid tech was once a maintenance droid for the ship, but over many years, many upgrades, and many owners, the droid achieved sentience and slowly began to take over ship systems and modify itself to allow it to operate independently. Eventually, the droid abandoned the former crew on a supply run to a backwater system, went on to change the ship's credentials, and now tramps through the galaxy helping droids in need, R0BN h00d style.

Droid has OCD and loves to have something to tear apart and put back together constantly...

A flying show piece to market their technical skills to potential employers.....

I can't sail a submarine, but I'd sure as hell like one.....

Droid was working as mechanic on ship for years. While in the Outer Rim, the organic owner (and only other crewmember) dies. Droid takes over ship, and starts looking for additional crew. This could be an interesting all-droid game, or he could be searching for open-minded organics to act as his owner to prevent misunderstandings.

I'm going to assume that we're talking a technician who works on droids and not a technician who IS a droid. . . .

Okay, he was doing a big order of "off the books" modifications for someone of dubious moral fiber. He simply didnt make the connection at the time of "guns + large sums of money + discretion = potential crime", just that "Oooh, I get to restore all of the these awesome ancient warbots! And get paid for it! Cool!"

So, he restores this small army of Ancient Warbots. The last item on the work order is to deliver the droids to Tatooine (or somewhere that an assassination of a rival crime lord could happen). He delivers them to Dabbo the Hutt, entertainment for his gladiator pits or something - and is utterly shocked when the Warbots simultaneously shoot Dabbo in the head, turning him into a fine red mist.

*moment of awkward silence*

And then they open up on the rest of the gathering, people running in terror, screaming and ducking for cover. And here's Technician, standing in the middle of these warbots with a chagrined look on his face.

Once the droids complete their assassination subroutine, they all shut down and heads start peeking over the overturned tables. That's when technician decides that description is the better part of valor and gets the hell out of the throne room, right to Dabbo's personal ship. While everyone is still stunned at the violence, he is able to slip away in his new ship

Of course the Hutts will not allow one of their own to be assassinated, even if Dabbo was kind of a jerk - so they'll be coming after him in droves. And of course lord knows what subplots awaiting him in the cargo hold or stateroom. Slaves? An imperial hostage? Cabin Boy?

I'm going to assume that we're talking a technician who works on droids and not a technician who IS a droid. . . .

Oh ****, no, I meant a technician who is a droid - sorry, that was really stupid of me. Have fixed the post.

Having said that, your suggestions were awesome, and I may well steal some of that anyway!

BOSS has him/it the last crew member on their records and have yet notice the oversight.

Having said that, your suggestions were awesome, and I may well steal some of that anyway!

Okay, how about instead of being the hapless technician who restored the killbots, he was one of the restored killbots in the massacre - who, for some reason or another, didnt open fire along with his "brothers". Say that his "Must Kill Dabbo!" programing was accidently overlooked or didnt take for some reason.

He was there, still ran, still stole the ship - so the story mostly works.

Oooh, how about this - as these tales get told and retold, the narrative slowly morphed from an army of killbots to just one lone assassin droid: you. So the hutts are looking for him, there's a reward out for him, and now everyone thinks he's this super badass terminator.

Droids in the Star Wars universe occupy a strange position in the social strata. They are sometimes "owned" - without being thought of as slaves - and sometimes free. In most places they are considered lesser beings, even if they are free droids. In a great number of cases, the people of the galaxy would agree that a droid actually owning something makes no sense at all. An object, after all, cannot own another object. Because of this, your droid is going to have to deal with troubles on the social level; no matter what justification he has for owning a ship, few people would actually agree it belongs to him.

So why would he have a ship?

• His owner/master/maker passed away and left the ship to his faithful droid.
• The droid technician needs a mobile workshop, like one of the several listed in Special Modifications.
• He might have repaired an old, broken down vessel he found on Jakku.
• He could have stolen the ship.
• Maybe he won it in a game of Sabaac? Probably not against a Wookiee, though. ("I suggest a new strategy: let the Wookiee win.")

Inspired a bit by Futurama...

The ship has an AI "droid brain" attachment and the PC is in a relationship with it.

Gives lots of opportunities for the ship to nag the technician about maintenance and upgrades.

If you want something interesting you were owned by a smuggler who originally owned you and the ship, you were there to keep the ship running but your master made sure you never learned to pilot it well as he was paranoid and didn't trust anyone. Of course on one of his runs he was betrayed and killed during an exchange, by who you don't know. When the sensors read that he was dead and several lifeforms were moving towards the ship you managed to take off. You jumped to the one destination in the Nav computer that wasn't locked (where the campaign begins), you took time during the hyperspace flight to unlock the nav computer and do a search of the ship, but your former master took everything valuable and all the information that was left behind is encrypted.

This should give you a great reason to have a ship, that you know maybe people are looking for, and some threads for the GM to play with later.

The droid had served his master faithfully and like all organics, the master eventually grew old and died. Nearing death, the master wiped the droid's memory banks, set him free and gave him his ship. If you want the droid to have a full breath of experiences to draw off of then don't wipe the memory banks.

This creates a droid who has some age/depth, some quirks, a ship, his own freedom and the galaxy ahead.

If you want something interesting you were owned by a smuggler who originally owned you and the ship, you were there to keep the ship running but your master made sure you never learned to pilot it well as he was paranoid and didn't trust anyone. Of course on one of his runs he was betrayed and killed during an exchange, by who you don't know. When the sensors read that he was dead and several lifeforms were moving towards the ship you managed to take off. You jumped to the one destination in the Nav computer that wasn't locked (where the campaign begins), you took time during the hyperspace flight to unlock the nav computer and do a search of the ship, but your former master took everything valuable and all the information that was left behind is encrypted.

Love this idea. Thanks.