This is a theoretical house rule that my playgroup wants to kick around.

What would be the effect of allowing a rebel of imperial squad pay a small point cost to fly one scum ship in the squad (mercenary contract)? Would it be game breaking?

How many squad points would it be worth?

Would the rule be the equivalent of adding a modification card granting the faction affiliation to the scum pilot? If so, what would the effect of discarding that card be (Boba Fett or other discard mechanic)?

Would the rule allow the scum ship to equip rebel only or imperial only upgrades, depending on the faction of the rest of the squad?

It was just a concept that we were kicking around and I wanted to get some input from a bigger community. It might be a game breaker, which would be why there isn't anything like it in the real game. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Fly casual.

Outside of an official tournament, FFG can't actually tell you how to play the game. As long as your opponent agrees, you can do whatever you like with squad building.

Get your group together and hash out some guidelines and try it out. Look at the results and make adjustments for the next time. Playtesting can be fun.

If it's just a house rule maybe just let people add 1 Scum ship for its standard point cost and see how it goes. Adjust the rule as needed.

There's probably a broken combo or two in there somewhere doing that, I can't think of any off the top of my head but if the game isn't being balanced to allow for that during design (and it's not) then it's likely one exists somewhere in a game with this much content.

Allowing one Scum pilot is probably less likely to break the game than if you were to allow mixing of upgrades (Attain on Imperial pilots for instance) but it could happen.

I really like the idea, since the Empire often hired bounty hunters and the Rebellion likely did as well.

I think that specific faction only upgrades should be maintained for the sake of balance, but since you are mixing factions anyhow, it matters very little. I really like the idea, put it on the table and let us know how it goes!

1 hour ago, missedtrashday said:

How many squad points would it be worth?

(...)

Would the rule allow the scum ship to equip rebel only or imperial only upgrades, depending on the faction of the rest of the squad?

You'll have to tweek that one. You could start with something like "every upgrade that is specific to another faction costs 1 point more per upgrade". So Fielding Bossk with 4-lom, Zuckuss and Dengar on the Imperial side would cost 4 additional points. Trial and error.

1 hour ago, missedtrashday said:

Would the rule be the equivalent of adding a modification card granting the faction affiliation to the scum pilot? If so, what would the effect of discarding that card be (Boba Fett or other discard mechanic)?

None. Using Boba Fett on these types of ugprades (R2-D6 for instance) does not destroy the EPT. See Boba Fett in the FAQ.

The only problem I can see is if you decide to allow only one Scum ship , it could easily end up being half the squad. Especially if it's one of the large ships. I would suggest something along the lines of as many Scum ships as you can/like for one third of the squad's total points. If you're playing 100 points, 33 points would be for Scum. That way the Empire/Alliance would still outnumber the Scum should they decide to change allegiance.

Which could also bring up another option: if the main squad is losing badly, should the Scum ships stick around or save their own skins and abandon the fight? I think the inclusion of Scum in a Rebel or Imperial squad could be a lot of fun, but should have a certain amount of unpredictability with it also.

Good luck.

since its casual play, I wouldn't be bothered by paying extra points (besides a boba or kath firespray as the same base cost either way). I've played with a "loyalty" rule before allowing scum to fly with rebel or imperial: Give the S&V collectively a # of tokens equal to the Hits of their employer's ships. Each time either they (the S&V) or their employers suffer dmg, tick off a token. When the tokens run out the S&V bail. The less employers ships (point wise) present means less loyalty on the S&V side, though a deci goes a long way to enforcing the contract *).

You could always make up a "Contracted" condition to apply to each S&V ship, assign loyalty tokens to it (based off a system like I've used or another). Maybe tick off tokens for each point of damage the S&V inflict too.

As long as you are having fun with it...do as you please.

Mixing ships of different factions probably doesn't cause too much trouble, and probably doesn't really need much of a points increase, if any. It'd be nice, for example, to have both Serrisu and Howlrunner leading the same swarm together, but probably not game-breaking.

Mixing factions on the same ship is where things can get nutty. If you could have equipped pre-nerf Dengar with Overclocked R4 and Kyle Katarn, that would have been insane. Or Ten Numb with Boba Fett crew. I'd stick to Scum ships only being able to carry crew or upgrades without factions restrictions, or ones which are Scum only.