Hello all!

New player (and GM!) from Barcelona here I have been lurking around the forums, and reading some of your suggested links so far. Quite enlightening! Thanks chaps

I am planning to have a EotE game in brief with a partner. Unfortunately the game seems to be limited to the 2 of us, since our usual game buddies seem to have more and more difficulties to meet (alas, the drawbacks of parenthood). Still, we would like to play, since SW is something we love for its grand drama and soap opera potential amid battles and resounding explosions in space. Like all of you, I am sure.

Now, we are planning around this fact that it will be a solo player. We plan to use EotE. The lone jedi or force-sensitive dude on a quest of self discovery or the rebel operative is something we do NOT want to play (the later might change in the future, though), so we will stick with EotE.

Now, we have a ton of things going on our head

Ther basic premise will be an explorer on the outer. We are in the early development stages, but the player wants to play a human from the colonies that is an explorer and occasional smuggler (you need to earn money somehow!). Trade I information is always cool as well.

Since we want him to explore unknown space and planets, we are currently looking at ships he could use. They need to be ships that a single human operator can fly (with the help of astromech droids as NPC if necessary). Yes, we already looked at the online ship database as well as the ships we have in the core book and the supplements we have.

He wants to have an exploration vessel (sensors) that could double for dogfights in space combat and smuggle some stuff. A low demand, we know xD And obviously here comes our first design problem. Basically, for what you say space combat can be lethal in small craft.

He likes the A-24 Sleuth, but after reading your comments on space combat it seems that it is likely to suffer a terrible and fiery death very fast! (10 hull and 2 armor... on par with an xwing or z95).

The ship we like: https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/5/5e/A-24_Sleuth_EtU.png/revision/latest?cb=20160312052553

We like this deckplan for the ship: https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0387/83/1426662268884.jpg

Other options would be for him to take a jumpmaster, YT1760, HWK290 or WUD500. All of those are larger, though, so we lose on the "dogfight feeling" if he engages pirates, TIE fighters or similar fighters in space. The Skipray does not seem to make the cut for us here because of a lack of autonomy, and being also size 4 is a rather small option.

Do you think a sleuth can cut it, or should he be looking for one of the larger (and sturdier) models? One of the advantages of the Sleuth is its price (very economical!), so he can invest in some improvements without looking too much of a stretch on the starting resources of a character, even an affluent one. Can we make the Sleuth a dogfight ship that is also good at exploration? What about the other options? Suggested improvements? Any other suggestions for a (not very expensive) ship?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,
Xavi

I don't think you can do much better than the Sleuth. Most ships that can be operated by a single person have minimal sensor range (most ships in general do), and the Sleuth actually fills that niche. You'll have to make the choice between survivability and exploration, I'm afraid (or you take a designated fighter and give it a sensor upgrade?).

You can always have the player out on the hunt for mods as well. He can upgrade the Sleuth with extra armour, shields or countermeasures etc. The sleuth has 3 Hard points for this.

Ok. Sleuth it is Any specific suggestions on how to improve the ship with those 3 hard points. He is an explorer and elite courier, but will be fighting/dodging as well, so survivality (yeah, on a sleuth, we know) will be important as well.

2 Hard Points: I would go with the Reinforced Shield Generator out of the EotE core book. It adds another point of defense to 1 zone. And can also be modified to add 2 more.

1 Hard Point: Physical Counter Measures out of Stay On Target. It adds 1 block to any gunnery checks targeting the ship with missles, rockets or Torpedoes. And it can be modded to add another block AND increase the difficulty.