So my players need a new ship. Their current one is completely gutted and being held together by duct tape and bailing wire. I think I have found them a new ship that I like, and I think they will too. When I was looking for a ship. I happened across the Droid Brain Ship modifications, and it got me thinking about an idea... I have wanted to work a Droid NPC into my game (for comedic and flavor purposes) here for a while and just haven't had an opportunity to do so, but this might be it...

Now according to the Droid Brains that are in the books they are basically skill boosts. no personality or anything. (other than the pilot and astrogator have a tendency to get in fights.) I was started thinking, that maybe I could make a "Custom" Droid Brain that is effectively a Droid NPC that is hard wired into the ship. Which seems really cool!

There are just a few reservations that I have. The first is, what role would a Ship droid brain fulfill? I have a Pilot, Astrogator, Ships medic and a couple of people who are able to do mechanics, so I have all of the roles fulfilled here and I don't want to step on any toes.

Also, I am starting to go down the rabbit trail of how to build it... Do I just make it give boosts to specific things or do I build it out with a career as if it were a PC? I mean this NPC is going to be hanging with the group and it would make sense that it would get more powerful as it gained experience, but it is just a ship, so if it gains xp it will just get really good at ship related things and potentially outshine the PCs from which I don't want. Any suggestions about this would be awesome too.

Thanks for the ideas and such in advance.

It could be a backup for the PC's. you could have more fun and in the beginning make things harder cause Ship wants to do something other than what the pcs want.

If it's hardwired into the ship, perhaps its most common contributions will be Assist maneuvers along with the usual droid brain benefits.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 EDI would be a good place to look for inspiration.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 EDI would be a good place to look for inspiration.

Exactly what I was going to say :-)

Do I just make it give boosts to specific things

If it's hardwired into the ship, perhaps its most common contributions will be Assist maneuvers along with the usual droid brain benefits.

Personally, these are what I would go with. It doesn't overshadow any PC action and makes it (the ship AI) useful.

Why not go with a full set, droid gunner, pilot, astrogation droid brains, instead of a separate component they are combined into a single entity with access to the ships com systems and maybe all stored in a basic astromech brain, leading to getting the npc astromech actions as small bonus, all for 1 or 2 hardpoints. If you go with two than there is an access port for PC astromechs too.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_Who_Sang

And: http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Ship_Avatar

Besides: Don't go overboard, droids are sentient, but they ain't culture minds either.

So don't go overboard and build a "Stood Far Back When The Gravitas Was Handed Out" or "Grey Area" style GSV or something. Star Wars is advanced, but not that advanced. ;-)

I'm half tempted to hop on this bandwagon myself. As a mission I had my PCs track down a Corvette (custom job, stats borderline make it broken but that's to take on the big baddies they haven't run into yet). The problem is crewing a decently sized corvette and my GM-plot-crutch character is the only one with leadership.

Maybe rather than try to force everyone to adopt a crew, allow the best pilot of the group to have a semi-autonomous ship that she has to earn the trust of to fully take advantage of it's potential. As it is our doctor has an assistant or two, seeker has a PC padawan warrior and his pets from the Sith empire, and we have a Jawa mechanic that can build an army if necessary. The more I think about it the more i like this plan.

Trust issues, the new ship has trust issues and maybe slight jealousy issues as well. Now I can remove their current bulk transport with no problems.

I'm going the "Rommie" (Gene Rodenberry's starship Andromeda) route, back in the day I had a massive crush on Lexa Doig, close to my then ideal woman in terms of appearance. Note that my wife is much more _C_urvey than Lexa doig.

Anyway look at the last paragraph of Raven's character page on my obsidian portal campaign site

http://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/characters/arica-hrd

Anyway look at the last paragraph of Raven's character page on my obsidian portal campaign site

http://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/characters/arica-hrd

Hmm. If you want “curvey”, then maybe you need some “Marcyverse” help?

Anyway look at the last paragraph of Raven's character page on my obsidian portal campaign site http://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/characters/arica-hrd

Hmm. If you want “curvey”, then maybe you need some “Marcyverse” help?

My wife is _C_urvey (hint about a certain measurement) and she is in the real universe. So because of that and the fact that I love her with all my heart, I don't need any Marcyverse help. It's pretty much impossible for me to have found a woman that's as good a match for me as my wife but somehow it happened. She's even supportive of my gaming hobby.

You could also check out Vilmarh Grahk's ship, the Inferno for an in universe example.

When I was looking for a ship. I happened across the Droid Brain Ship modifications

What book is the Droid Brain in? Sounds like a great addition to my current game...

When I was looking for a ship. I happened across the Droid Brain Ship modifications

What book is the Droid Brain in? Sounds like a great addition to my current game...

When I was looking for a ship. I happened across the Droid Brain Ship modifications

What book is the Droid Brain in? Sounds like a great addition to my current game...

Droid brains are in a couple sourcebooks: Fly Casual and Special Modifications.