In the most recent adventure, my players got their transport taken out while trying to run an Imperial blockade. While the ship they were escorting managed to take out the last Imperial, and they fixed the party ship up enough to limp into hyperspace, it seemed like a situation where simply hiring a mechanic to fix the ship was too easy of a fix.

Since they were feeling they might be more comfortable moving to a SMALLER ship (they were feeling the penalties from a Sil 5 ship fighting Sil 3 TIE Fighters), I've been putting some thought into how they could obtain a new ship. A decent ship is expensive. Waaaaaaaay too expensive to just drop in their lap. And more than they could afford if they pool every credit they have (unless they bought a barely space worthy junker).

So I've been tossing some ideas about the air, but I thought I'd ask; How would you deal with the party needing a new ship?

Buy one, steal one, rent one, salvage one, whatever works. GM willing, Obligation can be taken in exchange for a ship.

What if they trade in their silver 5 as part of the purchase?

• Steal one.
• Sell the current one to buy a new one.
• Salvage one.

Another option would be to give them some fighters to use themselves. Perhaps some RC drone fighters they can control from the safety of their ship. Like vulture droids without the droid part. Since they just attach outside the ship they wouldn't have to get a hangar mod either.

Win it in a game of sabaac... but you get obligation because A previous owner (not the IMMEDIATELY previous owner) wants it back (maybe something valuable and illegal is hidden in it. And the PCS put up their previous half sagged ship as an ante (just like the other guy did)

My players stole their current loronar e-9 and found out the hard way that it was very run down. They're currently limping across the galaxy with a class 4 hyperdrive and every chance they get they eye up potential upgrades (ie. Every ship they come in contact with). Plus they haven't bothered to change the BoSS transponder tag so they have all sorts of odd encounters with the previous owner's business partners and run ins with people looking for said owner. I expect they'll soon be attempting another grand theft starship and will start the process all over again.

How you do it is pretty much what everyone else suggests and is dependent wholly on your party and their outlook and moral compass . Thieves?. Steal it. Legit? Buy it (either with creds or obligation). Crafty? Salvage and rebuild one. Charming? Win one? Any one or combination of the above works.

Salvagers won't take long to find a derelict ship in the space lanes, perhaps the merry band could shipjack something nicer.

You'll want to think about your campaign and how much time you want to devote to this side-quest. As others have suggested, grand theft spaceship or trading obligation for a new ride are options that would take a session or less.

Another idea: the captain/owner of a small freighter wants out of the smuggling game but has to run one last dangerous cargo to pay her debts. Agrees to trade her ship for the PC's help. Unfortunately, her debts are overdue, and the impatient crime lord she owes them to has a bounty hunter on retainer.

Or... hired on as crew on a ship. after some time and successful mini adventures the "Dread pirate Roberts" let's them in on a secret:

I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired 15 years and living like a king on Corellia

Run the Modular encounter in Lords of Nal Hutta Source Book titled "Welcome Aboard".

Gist: Pirates fake a distress signal then hostile board PC's ship and try to steal it ... Have PC's turn it around and end up stealing the pirate's instead.

On 8/18/2017 at 11:43 PM, warchild1x said:

Or... hired on as crew on a ship. after some time and successful mini adventures the "Dread pirate Roberts" let's them in on a secret:

I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired 15 years and living like a king on Corellia

That's part of the session that ended up my campaign.... they were getting raided by the pirate Robert dread (the used subtlety to kick his @$$)

Whelp, I should have looked in more recently, or hit the notify button. XD

On 8/19/2017 at 0:10 AM, Ahrimon said:

• Steal one.
• Sell the current one to buy a new one.
• Salvage one.

Another option would be to give them some fighters to use themselves. Perhaps some RC drone fighters they can control from the safety of their ship. Like vulture droids without the droid part. Since they just attach outside the ship they wouldn't have to get a hangar mod either.

I suppose a fighter screen would have helped them some. They normally do have a pair (A custom variant of a Z-95, and a HWK-260), but their fighter pilot is unavailable for game for a while, and the rest of the party was split between two ships, and couldn't afford to devote someone to a (still damaged) fighter.

On 8/19/2017 at 2:43 AM, warchild1x said:

Or... hired on as crew on a ship. after some time and successful mini adventures the "Dread pirate Roberts" let's them in on a secret:

I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired 15 years and living like a king on Corellia

This, I absolutely love. Not the game for it, but I might need to pull something like that at some point.

I hate to do it, but with this particular game, I might have to force the crew into a scripted adventure to get a new ship. Half of the party doesn't seem ready to accept the fact that their ship is so badly off; They want to take the time to fix it, despite the fact it's been so badly damaged. I guess they're pretty attached to the old girl.

If at least half the party doesn't want to part with her I'd encourage them to go in that direction. It's very Star Wars to keep what should be an inferior ship for sentimental reasons. They just have to fix it up a bit to make it more practical for them. If there are any hard points left, attachments are much cheaper than a new ship.

They still need to fix their ship. At a suggested 500 credits per hard point repaired that can still be pretty pricy but nowhere near new ship pricy. Obligation would work great for this if the party is credit poor. A crime boss, the Alliance, a diplomat, planetary government, whoever else fits into your campaign. They fix it up, your players owe favors. Since the 5 silhouette was the big problem, the benefactor fixing it could suggest mod(s) that improve handling and/or defense. You could tack on some extra obligation for one or two and/or have the entity suggest "Oh, you want a 'blank'. I know where you can get one of those but it won't be easy...". The benefactor could also install hidden tracking, smuggler compartments with a MacGuffin inside, ect. to add another hidden cost to not outright paying for it themselves. You could also make that 5 silhouette central to paying back obligation. The benefactor needs something really big moved. A couple of Rancors, shield generators for a rebel base... something that's going to be really fun for the PCs to have to move around the galaxy.

Bottom line, if the PCs are already attached to their ship I'd encourage it. Having them invested in the ole clunker adds more flavor and you're adding more adventure options rather than resorting to a canned one.

50 minutes ago, monkysundae said:

It's very Star Wars to keep what should be an inferior ship for sentimental reasons.

Is it really? I can't think of any actual examples of keeping an inferior ship. I mean an actually inferior ship, not something that looks inferior but actually outperforms almost everything out there. Solo's love of the MF is actually more of an exception than the norm. In both Legends and Disney Canon, most of the characters go through ships & vehicles rather quickly.

Good point. It may not be quite as ubiquitous as I was inferring but it still feels pretty Star Wars to me. It's been a while since I've watched the Clone Wars but I believe the G9 Rigger is "Already considered an antique by the start of the clone wars." and it survived almost all the way through. A Jedi general and his Padawan could certainly have gotten a better ship after all that time. That's at least one more example. Also I figured that by the time the player ship was fixed up and modded out it wouldn't actually be inferior anymore. Maybe not MF level, but certainly better than it might look.

Buy a cheap. lousy one and start a new with acquiring resources. In an Edge of Empire campaign it is imo appropriated to take sometimes heavy losses to your resources. And it would be a good moment to take an larger obligation to either allow for a little better ship or at least pimp out the one they can afford with attachments and mods. Lastly their old ship should be still worth a decent amount of credits. Repairs are relatively cheap.

44 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

Buy a cheap. lousy one and start a new with acquiring resources. In an Edge of Empire campaign it is imo appropriated to take sometimes heavy losses to your resources. And it would be a good moment to take an larger obligation to either allow for a little better ship or at least pimp out the one they can afford with attachments and mods. Lastly their old ship should be still worth a decent amount of credits. Repairs are relatively cheap.

Actually, most small (silhouette < 5) vehicles and stasrships are relatively cheap in this game compared to personal gear. A blaster pistol is 400 credits and a light freighter is about 300 times as expensive. In today's world, you won't get decent yacht for 300 times the cost of a basic pistol. Speeders are even cheaper compared to modern cars, and several of them cost < 10k credits.