I have an upcoming mini campaign I'm running with my girlfriend and my bestfriend(roommates) and I'm planning on the game being just the two of them for now. If others end up interested in joining, awesome, but for now they're just a duo. Best friend is a stealthy/smuggler type, girlfriend is a gunslinger pistolero type, I'm contemplating adding in a third character as sort of a "DMPC" but I'm waiting until I'm sure of what they're final build will be, if I do it will be a Sathari ace pilot type.

What ship would you suggest for a crew of two? They're wanting something with a fairly decent cargo capacity but they need it to require minimal crew to operate. They also need the ship to be capable of carrying/mounting/launching a starfighter before and/or during combat. They will be receiving an ugly(mix of different ships, including a Naboo N1, TIE Bomber, and some other bits here and there but it will act as a gunship).

They're both looking for build suggestions on their characters as they are both new to Edge of the Empire but both are big Star Wars fans. Best friend is definitely wanting to go with the stealthy role, potentially using sniper rifles in combat but he is open to suggestions, and he wants to be a slick, smooth smuggler/criminal type of character reminiscent of Han Solo and Hondo Ohnaka. The girlfriend on the other hand wants to be a gun bunny type. She's using a Dragoneye Reaper with mods on it that make the thing an absolute monster(I believe 13 damage) and she'd like some explosives/demolitions skill as a back up. Both would like to be mechanically inclined so they can repair the ship(him), work on droids(him), use tech in combat(her) and modify arms and armor(her)

I think there was a really famous smuggler ship that had a crew of two. The... Aluminum Falcon , was it?

As for class pitches, the things you list are a bit much to cover with one specialization.

For him, you could suggest Smuggler: Scoundrel (no better spec to become like Han or Hondo), and he could later on add Mechanic for more focus on ship repairs or Droid Tech (/Droid Specialist, if Fully Operational ever hits the stores) for more focus on droid working. That should cover everything he wants apart from sniping (but I don't see a good way to fit that in with 2 or fewer specs).

As for her, there are a few ways to go about it: Hired Gun: Demolitionist sounds like a good way to start (if she wants to start with a bit of explosives expertise), as does Bounty Hunter: Gadgeteer (for the modification aspect). From there on, if she chose Gadgeteer, Sapper would fill out her needs nicely (again, can we have Fully Operational already?), and Demolitionist would be complemented well by Outlaw Tech. For more Ranged [Light] firepower, Gunslinger is always an option, too.

I would go with a hwk-1000 and not worry about the ugly because the hwk-1000 will out perform it as a star fighter, no weapons but 5 hp that you can use to add weapons. Alternatively look at the yg-4400... a rear facing concussion missile launcher as the only weapon, speed 4, sil 4, hand -1, 3 armor, 75 enc 2 hp (which I'd be very tempted to use the paramilitary conversion rules found in dangerous covenants on) either that or high output ion turbines and a quad laser turret (plus all the zero up attachments like gunner, pilot, astrogation droid brains). I generally require a minimum base speed of at least 4 so ion turbines can bring it up to 5 (same as a tie fighter or xwing), and a hull of 3 or more.

Scoundrel is likely the best option but I would also consider bounty hunter-skip tracker. Btw bounty hunter operator is my favorite pilot spec and a star fighter pilot should strongly consider it.

Your girlfriend should look at bounty hunter: gadgetry. It seems purpose built for her. I get that it seems odd that 3 out of 4 specs I recommended are from the bounty hunter career but it's the most well rounded career in the game.

Also think about getting a few undicurr jump speeders, they're the speeder bikes that fold into a crate that were introduced in the clone wars episode with the force wielders, the appear in endless vigil under the entry for the ?ETA? Class shuttle

Agreed the HWK is small, yet more than a two-person starfighter. I wouldn't make a GM-PC at all. Concentrate on running the adventure. Why do GM's want to have an NPC/PC in the fray? One, they want to play, too. Two, they're afraid the existing PC's are short on 'necessary' skills. Three, the GM can use the NPC to lead or suggest ideas to the PC's without the GM revealing his card. In which case, make the GM-PC a template NPC, no xp, does not advance. For #1, you shouldn't play and GM simultaneously. The game will slow to a crawl when you are working in your 'PC" along with all of the NPC's. Players tend to follow what the GM-PC does because "he knows" what's really going on. If you make your PC do something 'wrong' to show you aren't acting on inside knowledge, they'll resent you for it. For #2, let the PC's play with what they have. It will be more thrilling when/if they make the Hard Computers check with only 2 green dice. You can't make up for every shortcoming by making GM-PC's. You'll have 6 of them to get in COmputer, Mechanics, Knowledge skills, Piloting, etc... Again, use a template/pre-gen NPC. That way you have no interest in its development. It can be killed off or swapped out as part of the story.

57 minutes ago, DurosSpacer said:

Agreed the HWK is small, yet more than a two-person starfighter. I wouldn't make a GM-PC at all. Concentrate on running the adventure. Why do GM's want to have an NPC/PC in the fray? One, they want to play, too. Two, they're afraid the existing PC's are short on 'necessary' skills. Three, the GM can use the NPC to lead or suggest ideas to the PC's without the GM revealing his card. In which case, make the GM-PC a template NPC, no xp, does not advance. For #1, you shouldn't play and GM simultaneously. The game will slow to a crawl when you are working in your 'PC" along with all of the NPC's. Players tend to follow what the GM-PC does because "he knows" what's really going on. If you make your PC do something 'wrong' to show you aren't acting on inside knowledge, they'll resent you for it. For #2, let the PC's play with what they have. It will be more thrilling when/if they make the Hard Computers check with only 2 green dice. You can't make up for every shortcoming by making GM-PC's. You'll have 6 of them to get in COmputer, Mechanics, Knowledge skills, Piloting, etc... Again, use a template/pre-gen NPC. That way you have no interest in its development. It can be killed off or swapped out as part of the story.

A GMPC is a very common mistake among new GMs... I made that mistake back in 1992.

The hwk-1000 can take 100 enc, has speed 5, a positive handling, and armor 3, 2 crew 2 passengers, it's basically the big brother of an xwing.

If you're going to have an NPC in the party I would encourage it to be a droid, or maybe the droid avatar of the ship's AI, so that the droid NPC would be a servant to the PCs so they lead it rather than being led by it.

If neither PC is particularly interested in flying the starship, have you considered just not having one right now? With only 2 PCs and none of them being focused on pilots, I'd consider the rules for businesses in Far Horizons. They could operate a space station servicing other ships, run a bodyguard outfit protecting high rollers on Kwenn Station or the Wheel, or be scavenger guides in the wastes of Ord Mantell, whatever. While ships are a key component of Star Wars, not every campaign must have one.

3 hours ago, OriginalDomingo said:

If neither PC is particularly interested in flying the starship, have you considered just not having one right now? With only 2 PCs and none of them being focused on pilots, I'd consider the rules for businesses in Far Horizons. They could operate a space station servicing other ships, run a bodyguard outfit protecting high rollers on Kwenn Station or the Wheel, or be scavenger guides in the wastes of Ord Mantell, whatever. While ships are a key component of Star Wars, not every campaign must have one.

Space combat doesn't have to be a thing, a starship can just be a transportation plot device

Just now, EliasWindrider said:

Space combat doesn't have to be a thing, a starship can just be a transportation plot device

Exactly, so who cares what ship it is then?

As far as GMPC goes, I agree to limit that. Rather than GMPC, if they are short skills, give them a droid. I prefer droids as NPC's anyway, I never have liked how any of the systems turned them into PC's.

If they are short on skills, just give them more starting XP and/or extra specs for free. Just don't allow them to spend all their XP in one place, they need to be "well-rounded", at least in the beginning. The default for this game is that each PC will be "decent" at one or two things, and pretty much suck for everything else. But the default also assumes the PC is part of a group of 4+.

With my 3-party group, I was pretty generous with XP, and waived the extra spec costs (with limits, to prevent cherry-picking). We also found that using a 3/3/3/3/2/2 attribute split made it easier to be well-rounded, plus, that first Dedication is pure gold because you then have 4/3/3/3/2/2. If you start with 4/3/2/2/2/2, it takes 2 Dedications to get the same result.

For my son's OR Jedi campaign, where he was the sole PC, I basically threw XP at him (again, with limits) and he started the game with 3 Sentinel specs open. Since OR Jedi were usually acting solo, it really embodied the flavour. It's not that he was amazing at everything, he still had his strengths (Deception and Cunning-based things) and weaknesses (Piloting, Mechanics, Brawl), but he was able to draw on a wider range of resources to meet challenges, and, more importantly, I could make the challenges credible.

Of course, your players have to buy into the "breadth vs depth" way of building their PC in order to make it work.

The rebel base and business/homestead rules do include options to make additional skills count as class skills for XP purposes. That may help.

7 hours ago, OriginalDomingo said:

Exactly, so who cares what ship it is then?

narrative elements (does everyone get their own room, does it have secret cargo compartments), silhouette, and encumbrance capacity could still matter if it was only transportation/storage for their gear when they're not there.

Roommate does intend to be fairly decent at piloting as he plans on being a smuggler so the ship is semi important.

After looking through a bunch of options and presenting them with those options they've decided on the Wayfarer Medium Freighter as their ship of choice.

21 hours ago, DJCrazee said:

Roommate does intend to be fairly decent at piloting as he plans on being a smuggler so the ship is semi important.

After looking through a bunch of options and presenting them with those options they've decided on the Wayfarer Medium Freighter as their ship of choice.

They might want to reconsider with the kst-100 (it's in dawn of rebellion) in the mix, at 120K credits it's a legal starting ship and it's awesome,

Pros: sil 3, speed 4, +1 handling, 1/1 defense, 25 HT, 20 SS, 70 enc, 2 crew, 4 passengers (and they each get their own rooms), 2 months consumables, 4 hp, 1 pair (1 attack with linked 1) light laser cannons, it looks freaking awesome

Cons: 2 armor, x3 hyperdrive, you're highly unlikely to find a deck plan

Meh: short range sensors (it's better than close).

This is the ship for someone who wants to be a starfighter pilot but also wants to live on their ship.

This is hands down my new favorite starting ship for eote game with 6 or fewer non droid pcs (droids don't need their own rooms).

BTW you can land this thing INSIDE THE HANGER of a sil 5 ship (that has a hanger), so a minstrel or a marauder come to mind.

2 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

...

BTW you can land this thing INSIDE THE HANGER of a sil 5 ship (that has a hanger), so a minstrel or a marauder come to mind.

Or a c-roc with an added hanger. Or an interceptor IV with added hanger.

Either or option works great for not having a large crew... although a droid crew works too.

But yeah a minstrel or a maurader are great... if only the maurader only needed 20 or less crew it would totally rock.

As to the kst-100... someone needs to get on a deck plan for it right?

3 minutes ago, jayc007 said:

Or a c-roc with an added hanger. Or an interceptor IV with added hanger.

Either or option works great for not having a large crew... although a droid crew works too.

But yeah a minstrel or a maurader are great... if only the maurader only needed 20 or less crew it would totally rock.

As to the kst-100... someone needs to get on a deck plan for it right?

Maybe someone could suggest it to colonial chrome?

What does the KST-100 look like? I've never seen one before but that sounds perfect for the crew

In theory somene posted one here, and I found 1, ONE 1, on wookipeedia

A little like a cross between an e9 and an arc 170 maybe?

10 hours ago, DJCrazee said:

What does the KST-100 look like? I've never seen one before but that sounds perfect for the crew

It's the reddish ship, the cockpit looks like the bottom half of the page, notice that lasers are apparently flying through the cockpit which means it's an artsy way of presenting it.