Idea for Crime Based PBP based on Nar Shadda

By Rabobankrider, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game

1 hour ago, Rabobankrider said:

Regarding vehicles, you guys will get the standard 120,000 credits to spend, but not on a ship. You are welcome to spend them on speeder bikes, trucks, swoops etc. Ic as a lot when their separate ways they'd need their own way around. :) It's 120,000 all together, not each by the way :P

I guess an AT-EST/Walker or Orbital dropship/transport craft would be a little obvious. :lol:

Edited by ExileofEnya

Just a tad yeah :P You can look into the bigger air speeder types though used as command stations etc though.

Although I may add some obligation and say you pinched it :P

31 minutes ago, Rabobankrider said:

Regarding vehicles, you guys will get the standard 120,000 credits to spend, but not on a ship. You are welcome to spend them on speeder bikes, trucks, swoops etc. Ic as a lot when their separate ways they'd need their own way around. :) It's 120,000 all together, not each by the way :P

New dynamics, how do we want to direct the party resources?

Example: 2 Smugglers and a Droid Tech could have a side cargo business (or like). That could be useful moving forward with our Nar Shadda growth objective. How do we want to add in the underground doctor? Another side business? I’m set where my character doesn’t need much so I’m open!

Dibs on Grievous' wheel bike!!!

6 minutes ago, Vergence said:

New dynamics, how do we want to direct the party resources?

Example: 2 Smugglers and a Droid Tech could have a side cargo business (or like). That could be useful moving forward with our Nar Shadda growth objective. How do we want to add in the underground doctor? Another side business? I’m set where my character doesn’t need much so I’m open!

I would agree on the side businesses, too. Helps get revenue, reputation, and gives a sense of legitimacy.

Other than that, we'll need to fork over some dosh for some transportation, and then the rest can go to outfitting/equipment/bribes/etc.

I'd personally recommend getting a couple of cheap bikes for people to get around, and then have one guy maybe with a bigger vehicle that when the gang gets together you can use.

4 hours ago, satkaz said:

I would agree on the side businesses, too. Helps get revenue, reputation, and gives a sense of legitimacy.

Other than that, we'll need to fork over some dosh for some transportation, and then the rest can go to outfitting/equipment/bribes/etc.

Yeah, a vehicle with higher encumbrance like a speeder truck and when we are not moving cargo maybe the Doc’s “clinic”?

EDIT: (Best priced party vehicles I noticed)

A-A5m Emergency Response Vehicle : It’s only 100 Encumbrance but could transport the whole party at speed 3 for 10k. The reason I'm prompting this model is its the only speeder truck with speed 3; its 4x + cheaper than the other airspeeders which could transport the whole party at speed 3+, legal, and enclosed unlike the cargo skiffs. The plus side to the more expensive airspeeders with speed 3+ and transport the entire party is they are more prepared for combat.

610-AvA "Dart" Speeder Bike : Speeder bike with speed 2 & +1 handling and a extra passenger for 2.4k OR

Starhawk Speeder Bike : Swoop with speed 3, 0 handling and 1 passenger for 2k.

For our swoop/bikes we can add Maneuvering Thrusters which is +1 handling (cost Sil x 500).

Edited by Vergence
9 hours ago, Vergence said:

Yeah, a vehicle with higher encumbrance like a speeder truck and when we are not moving cargo maybe the Doc’s “clinic”?

EDIT: (Best priced party vehicles I noticed)

A-A5m Emergency Response Vehicle : It’s only 100 Encumbrance but could transport the whole party at speed 3 for 10k. The reason I'm prompting this model is its the only speeder truck with speed 3; its 4x + cheaper than the other airspeeders which could transport the whole party at speed 3+, legal, and enclosed unlike the cargo skiffs. The plus side to the more expensive airspeeders with speed 3+ and transport the entire party is they are more prepared for combat.

610-AvA "Dart" Speeder Bike : Speeder bike with speed 2 & +1 handling and a extra passenger for 2.4k OR

Starhawk Speeder Bike : Swoop with speed 3, 0 handling and 1 passenger for 2k.

For our swoop/bikes we can add Maneuvering Thrusters which is +1 handling (cost Sil x 500).

Those are some good choices, especially the Emergency Response Vehicle.

The Darts seem like the better choice if we want to save money since it costs less overall: 3 Darts should cost us 7.2k and hold all 6 of us. 3 Starhawks with sidecars would be 7.5k.

The low speed could help in chases, since we're gonna hit less red dice in the process, while the increased handling will help those driving by quite a bit.

So, out of 120,000 credits...

Emergency Response Vehicle: 10,000

3 Darts: 7,200

Maneuvering Thrusters for each one: 4,000

We'd be down 22,200 credits, which leaves us with 97,800 credits.

Depending on whether or not @Rabobankrider wants us to spend all our budget, we can actually go quite a bit more expensive with this.

The Starhawks are a good choice if we want to buddy up, but the Flare-S Swoop is 3 speed, +2 handling with 2 passengers at 6k each.

A Model 90 Ranger is a good getaway landspeeder at 19.5k.

And if we wanted to get dangerous: We could take Superflares :P

Not much in the way of airspeeders, though, but this one from the Jewel of Yavin isn't too bad.

And for @Tweedledope , your bike of choice is just 750 credits.

I'm a fan of getting the most rundown stuff personally. I mean we're supposed to be a gang that is at the bottom, and fighting it's way up. To have hundreds of thousands of creds in a fleet of vehicles seems contrary to the idea of us scrapping for survival.

We could look to spend some of that cash to buy homestead or business upgrades per the Far Horizons book...

6 hours ago, satkaz said:

And for @Tweedledope , your bike of choice is just 750 credits.

The one I'm referring to has a slightly higher price tag... Grievous' Wheel Bike has weapons!

Homesteads and stuff are fine for purchasing. Thay can include places of work or just homes to love in etc.

I'm agreeing with going the less expensive and practical route.

If we grab 3 Starhawk Speeder Bikes with Sidecar , install Maneuvering Thrusters each bike will operate 1 pilot 2 passengers (3 players), speed 3 (evasive maneuvers minimum), and provide our noncareer pilots with +1handling due to the attachment. Cost is 3.5k x 3 bikes = 10.5k, transportation for 9 characters. We can switch it up beyond this example; I'm just displaying a direct pragmatic option that works with the party in a noncombat focus.

The A-A5m Emergency Response Vehicle is speed 3 (evasive maneuvers minimum), transports the whole party with 100 encumbrance, and -1 handling for 10k. We have 4 hard points to play around. If a noncombat focus we could get Smuggling Compartments (1.2k, 1 HP) which increases the difficulty to find checks by 2 in 25 encumbrance area (mod option 2x, total of 75 hidden encumbrance).

So for a total 20.5k we can get 3 bikes with +1 handling that can move the entire party and a speeder truck with 100 encumbrance that can transport the whole party. (Didn't include any speeder truck attachments to total)

Do you want to do a homestead analysis @Tweedledope ? Being the Droid Tech, you would be centric to any business front development.

33 minutes ago, Rabobankrider said:

Homesteads and stuff are fine for purchasing. Thay can include places of work or just homes to love in etc.

Love, Live, whatever the case might be :D

Well, I'm assuming that the Doctor has a place, as well as a Droid Tech. That should be enough. As for vehicles, I don't mind taking the bottom of the barrel: we could always speederjack/swoopjack newer and better things.

Oh, man. I could have a "legitimate" store front where I repair droids and resell them. All the while, the Doc is in the back shop doing illegal/bootleg cybernetic surgeries using parts I've harvested from the Droids. *steeples fingers*

The doctor could be selling Gamorrean Flu booster shots in the back of the truck :P Before I saw homestead rules suggestion, I figured a cheap front would be moving cargo with a lift droid and the truck could become a clinic when not in use.

I'm in favor of a homestead actually. Having a tangible hideout we can upgrade tickles several of my SFW fancies.

So, Homestead is probably out of the question. It's really meant for non-ecumenopolis planets since it states you get about 10 km or a space station. That said, Business is still a viable option. It would take 50k to start, but the upgrades would be really beneficial. Here are some options:

Assuming we choose a Retail Business, we would all gain Negotiation as a Career skill. If we chose to be purely a mechanical storefront, everyone would gain Mechanics as a Career skill.

50,000 Base

+2,500 (x4) - Grants 200 credits/player/month. Can be taken up to 4 times to increase base credits gained per rank up to 800 credits per month.

+2,000 - Special Orders. When looking for an item related to our business, reduce the rarity by 2.

+1,000 - Wholesale Prices. When purchasing 10+ of an item related to the business (and modified by Special Orders), reduce the cost by 10%.

+10,000 - Security Upgrades. Can be purchased to buy things like reinforced windows, a security droid, armored plating, or security cameras.

To purchase all upgrades, it would cost a total of 103k. I don't think it would be such a bad idea to maybe create our aforementioned Droid shop with maybe the following:

50,000 Base + 1,000 Wholesale Prices + 20,000 Security (Cameras) and (Locks). + 10,000 for Profits = 81,000c total.

From the 97,800 we had leftover, we still have a total of 16,800 left and we're still bringing in 800 credits each per month in profits.

Maybe @Rabobankrider could create some ecumenopolis vibe options for Nar Shadda based off the homestead rules? What where you interested in @KungFuFerret for a hide-out? Personally, I'm less attracted to retail business and would rather go with technical service or entertainment route with this campaign.

Ok, here's a preliminary idea for some Nar Shadda homesteads. These are up for debate, it's just a pretty straightforward conversion. The prices will be the same, as property in Nar Shadda is most likely to be more expensive while being lower quality:

Basic Slum: Includes apartment, kitchen, access to power grid and water supply, living room and communal garage (shared with other tenants). Can also attract 1 NPC (most likely useless childhood friend you can't shake :p). Costs 50,000

It'd probably only have 1 or 2 bedrooms, but there'd be plenty of space to crash on sofa's etc.

1 minute ago, Rabobankrider said:

Ok, here's a preliminary idea for some Nar Shadda homesteads. These are up for debate, it's just a pretty straightforward conversion. The prices will be the same, as property in Nar Shadda is most likely to be more expensive while being lower quality:

Basic Slum: Includes apartment, kitchen, access to power grid and water supply, living room and communal garage (shared with other tenants). Can also attract 1 NPC (most likely useless childhood friend you can't shake :p). Costs 50,000

It'd probably only have 1 or 2 bedrooms, but there'd be plenty of space to crash on sofa's etc.

That's a good start for slumming it out.

Some ideas to transform homestead into gangster hide-out rules might be less land but more security. Reinforced durasteel windows adds Armor 1 quality to those inside the building rather than a picket fence. 2 watch/guard Anoobas for perception security checks and minion profiles with a domesticated pet talent which adds a boost to commands (survival or leadership). I could go on but, what is everybody else thoughts?

Well the "business" upgrade could simply represent our increasing flow of money from whatever illicit stuff we put in place. Perhaps it represents the "protection" money we get from local businesses, or an amount of credits someone siphoned away from a local bank/casino with a good slicing roll or something, stuff like that. Or a group of pickpockets are allowed to work in our area, for a fee on what they get.

As to random ideas for what the upgrades could be, given a particularly criminal angle.

Contacts/Allies: Could be one thing, maybe two. Our location is known to the local independent toughs and thugs, and they occasionally try and curry favor with us in exchange for information. Ranks would provide bonuses to Knowledge Underworld/Outer Rim checks made by members of the gang. The Allies could be a separate one, and represent something more substantial for the NPC in question. Perhaps replicating some Talent that allows the PC to make a roll periodically (once per session for example) and call a close friend to help get something done.

Security: Yeah, I'm on board for this for sure, for obvious reasons.

That one upgrade that lets us buy things at a lower rarity is thematically fitting, but I plan on investing heavily in Black Market Dealings, so we could essentially replicate that, though it does make it cost more credits.

Crafting/Profession suite of tricks: Since we have a few people with "jobs", some kind of upgrade that gives them a shop to work out of seems more than appropriate.

I'm sure there are some others, but that's all I can think of just random brainstorming.