Hi guys,

I'm a pretty new DM to this system and I'm finding balancing stuff I find cool a difficulty.

My current group have so far done about 4 sessions into what I guess is the intro or prologue of my Campaign.

They're now about to arrive to the stage where they will recieve their group ship but one of my players is far more experienced than both myself and everyone else in the group. For this reason, and because I like the idea of something different I wanted to give them the option of three ships that were different from the usual 3.

Any suggestions?

The group are Bounty Hunters and the campaign revolves around that theme so something that might be useful in that line of work would be good.

Hi guys,

I'm a pretty new DM to this system and I'm finding balancing stuff I find cool a difficulty.

My current group have so far done about 4 sessions into what I guess is the intro or prologue of my Campaign.

They're now about to arrive to the stage where they will recieve their group ship but one of my players is far more experienced than both myself and everyone else in the group. For this reason, and because I like the idea of something different I wanted to give them the option of three ships that were different from the usual 3.

Any suggestions?

The group are Bounty Hunters and the campaign revolves around that theme so something that might be useful in that line of work would be good.

It depedns how big is your group. A group of 6 isn't going to fit in the Firespray for example. I still think that the starting ships YT-1300 and Firespray are very good starting ships (if the idea of starting ship has any meaning, you don't see people changing ships frequently in the movies). If you want to give something different for the same budget og 120k there are the Loronar E-9 Explorer, which is quite good, but has reduced cargo, or the Ghtroc 720 aka space turtle; it's very tough ship with armor 5 but a -2 handling and it is lightly armed. It has a very big cargo hold a 4 HP to modify it.

If you are willing to give more expensive ships going into the 130-140k range you have a couple of excellent ships: the YT-2400 and the Nova Courier. The YT-2400 is better armored and has 2 twin guns, but the Nova Courier has 2 missile launchers in addition to 2 single guns, so it's quite well armed.

For the record the beginner game features a YT-1300 already modified for bounty hunting (cages, smuggling compartment and improved ion engines) which could be quite interesting to the players because they don't have to spend money on those upgrades.

I'd let em pick something approriately sized they all like.

It depedns how big is your group. A group of 6 isn't going to fit in the Firespray for example. I still think that the starting ships YT-1300 and Firespray are very good starting ships (if the idea of starting ship has any meaning, you don't see people changing ships frequently in the movies). If you want to give something different for the same budget og 120k there are the Loronar E-9 Explorer,

You can find that deckplans here. https://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/characters/red-talon . I broke it up into pieces that could printed on 8.5x11 in paper, either 4 or 6 (I forget which) sheets per deck. Since then I've exclusively switched to paying office depot/office max to color laser print maps in 17x11 in 80 lb (the step below card stock, it's pretty durable). I use gimp to scale them image to the canvas size (change the dots per inch setting) and then cut the image into the pieces that office max/office Depot prints. Is something like a $1.20 per 11x17 in sheet ofor 80lb paper. The quality and durability is totally worth it.

which is quite good, but has reduced cargo, or the Ghtroc 720 aka space turtle;

it's very tough ship with armor 5 but a -2 handling and it is lightly armed. It has a very big cargo hold a 4 HP to modify it.

If you are willing to give more expensive ships going into the 130-140k range you have a couple of excellent ships: the YT-2400

and the Nova Courier.

The YT-2400 is better armored and has 2 twin guns, but the Nova Courier has 2 missile launchers in addition to 2 single guns, so it's quite well armed.

For the record the beginner game features a YT-1300 already modified for bounty hunting (cages, smuggling compartment and improved ion engines) which could be quite interesting to the players because they don't have to spend money on those upgrades.

Chris West made star wars rpg/minis game maps for WotC back when they had the license.

The YT-2000 appears to be tailored for use as a starting ship. It's a bit better than the YT-1300 in several ways and edges right up to the 120,000 credit limit.

I'm not too fussed around whether it has a plan or not as we don't use minis.

The group is 4 atm with the potential to grow to 5 soon ish.

Letting them choose could be an option but for the fact that A) they might request something over powered without my realising (read: New DM) and B) the way I'm gonna introduce the choice is different too

I'm not too fussed around whether it has a plan or not as we don't use minis.

The group is 4 atm with the potential to grow to 5 soon ish.

Letting them choose could be an option but for the fact that A) they might request something over powered without my realising (read: New DM) and B) the way I'm gonna introduce the choice is different too

Well overpowered just means you throw more targets at them.....

I made a list based off of Oggdude's Character Generator's list of ships at 120k credits or less. Chose 120k or less because that's the suggestion in the EotE core. I think a left out a couple cuz they were lame. Here you go.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PFaSF3uZttAJoNn03NBH2JVNi9QyONndmP1SFEctpNA/edit?usp=drivesdk

Here’s another list of virtually all known starships, sorted by price: http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/?order_by=equipment__price&flattened=true

I'm not too fussed around whether it has a plan or not as we don't use minis.

The group is 4 atm with the potential to grow to 5 soon ish.

Letting them choose could be an option but for the fact that A) they might request something over powered without my realising (read: New DM) and B) the way I'm gonna introduce the choice is different too

Well overpowered just means you throw more targets at them.....

"Don't think of it as being surrounded, think of it as being in a target rich environment"

I'm not too fussed around whether it has a plan or not as we don't use minis.

The group is 4 atm with the potential to grow to 5 soon ish.

Letting them choose could be an option but for the fact that A) they might request something over powered without my realising (read: New DM) and B) the way I'm gonna introduce the choice is different too

Well overpowered just means you throw more targets at them.....

"Don't think of it as being surrounded, think of it as being in a target rich environment"

We're not locked in combat with them, they're locked in combat with us!

I'm not too fussed around whether it has a plan or not as we don't use minis.

The group is 4 atm with the potential to grow to 5 soon ish.

Letting them choose could be an option but for the fact that A) they might request something over powered without my realising (read: New DM) and B) the way I'm gonna introduce the choice is different too

Well overpowered just means you throw more targets at them.....

"Don't think of it as being surrounded, think of it as being in a target rich environment"

We're not locked in combat with them, they're locked in combat with us!

Exactly

If you have 120k to spend, the Skywatcher-class Scout Ship is great. It can hold a lot of people (up to 18 beings and another 12 if they are droids), but it doesn't really need all that many to function. Of course, it's likely a stolen Imperial craft (much like starting with a Lambda-class Shuttle), so that might be an issue depending on the type of game you're running.

The Loronar E-9 Explorer-Class Armed Long-Range Scout Vessel isn't a bad choice.

First of all, what is it that the party do? Are they bounty hunters, sterotypical smugglers, high stakes hiest masters, civilians trying to make a legitimate business in an illegitimate space. This is the kind of thing to consider.

To be honest though I wouldn't worry about making them too overpowered, their ship should help with their occupation thus bounty hunters like gunboats with cells, even though they would likely catch most bounties on the ground. Also refer to repairing; even if the party win every fight that they engage in, space combat is really brutal and their ship will take hits. The standard rate for repairs is 500 credits per hull point lost; meaning that quite literally that space combat is a gigantic money sink.

It makes sense for the party to have a really powerful ship, because that really powerful ship is also likely their home in a wild civilisation that probably hates them. Plus pick a fight with the imperials one too many times and the party could be labelled among the pirates. All for the sake of interesting plot development!

My party use the YZ-775 as our base of operations. We are primarily a rebel cell and thus find ourselves in over our heads; the ship was named the honey badger because it will literally has a reputation for getting into a fight with anything. XD Though that would be pretty powerful for a standard party and the empire would find travellers using Turbolasors suspect.

The Loronar E-9 Explorer-Class Armed Long-Range Scout Vessel isn't a bad choice.

Personally I'd like a ship with a base speed of 4 so a high output ion turbine could be added to get it to speed 5, which means you should be able to out run any capital ships (except 2 or 3 silhouette 5 ships that have a base speed of 4 and could have a high output ion turbine added) and most freighters, and some star fighters.

For that reason you may want to consider a hwk-1000 http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/1831/

which comes with a base speed of 5, 5 hard points, but no weapons. It's 120,000 credits so it could be a starting ship (and is incredibly hard to acquire otherwise because of it's obscenely high rarity)

Im still in the planning (and reading) stage for my group, basically I have suggested the GHTROC 720 / YT-2000 / YT-1300

if it was up to me, I would go for the 720 as i just love the background here, being a company who tried to compete against YT, but couldn't quite do it and now has a small cult following, this would lead into some nice role-playing. its also more defensive than the YT's with a much higher armor rating (but only 1 x twin cannon)

Anyway .... I've asked our captain to pick and include the ship as part of his background story (and/or obligation) ... if he doesn't want to pick one then I will be incorporating the Ghtroc 720 into the campaign as their first ship.

I gave my group a YT-2400 that has had so many negligent owners and faulty repairs that it has a permanent setback die to all Mechanics and Computers checks, and is prone to random failures. They seem to like it, and it will make sure the team's technician feels useful.

I'd love to get my hands on a Hawk, either -290 or -1000, but the fact that they're so damned good takes them out of "starter ship" contention for me. Personally, I'd just take the starting YT-1300 and reskin it. Call it the "Procul Harum 9000" or something, tell them it was a limited-run test bed from a small (now-bankrupt) manufacturer, and they'll probably never know the difference.

I'd love to get my hands on a Hawk, either -290 or -1000, but the fact that they're so damned good takes them out of "starter ship" contention for me. Personally, I'd just take the starting YT-1300 and reskin it. Call it the "Procul Harum 9000" or something, tell them it was a limited-run test bed from a small (now-bankrupt) manufacturer, and they'll probably never know the difference.

This is kind of like when a PC wants to play a different or custom species. It's easiest to just reskin something already in game and call it done if there's a concern over mechanics.

I'd love to get my hands on a Hawk, either -290 or -1000, but the fact that they're so damned good takes them out of "starter ship" contention for me. Personally, I'd just take the starting YT-1300 and reskin it. Call it the "Procul Harum 9000" or something, tell them it was a limited-run test bed from a small (now-bankrupt) manufacturer, and they'll probably never know the difference.

I don't think they are "too good", sure the 290 makes the best "sil 3 fighter", but again these vessels are best used as runners. e.g. I wouldn't favour their chances vs many of the more heavily armoured Fraigthers. Perfect for small parties actually as it's fast enough to be exciting, but soft enough to crumple on impact. XD.

The HWK-290 can stand-in as a STDS9 Runabout.

I'd love to get my hands on a Hawk, either -290 or -1000, but the fact that they're so damned good takes them out of "starter ship" contention for me. Personally, I'd just take the starting YT-1300 and reskin it. Call it the "Procul Harum 9000" or something, tell them it was a limited-run test bed from a small (now-bankrupt) manufacturer, and they'll probably never know the difference.

I don't think they are "too good", sure the 290 makes the best "sil 3 fighter", but again these vessels are best used as runners. Perfect for small parties actually.

I'd love to get my hands on a Hawk, either -290 or -1000, but the fact that they're so damned good takes them out of "starter ship" contention for me. Personally, I'd just take the starting YT-1300 and reskin it. Call it the "Procul Harum 9000" or something, tell them it was a limited-run test bed from a small (now-bankrupt) manufacturer, and they'll probably never know the difference.

I don't think they are "too good", sure the 290 makes the best "sil 3 fighter", but again these vessels are best used as runners. Perfect for small parties actually.

That mandalorian shuttle from friends like these might give it some competition

It's not even competition. The mandalorian "shuttle" has a crazy-high HTT combined with Armor 4, Long-range on the sensors, and it has an astromech socket. Even with all of that, it still manages to hold 75 EC.