(Kind of unnecessary background) So, in my recently started AoR as the CIS PbP game, my players decided to go to a planet in spearate ships, as they wanted to appear as two separate groups of three. Now, the party already had a Nova Courier called the Free Ambition, but no second ship. Then, while talking to an Army Quartermaster to get some rifles, crafting parts, and whatnot, the PC rolled 2 success, 2 advantage, triumph, and despair. So, this Quartemaster actually offered them a ship that he fixed himself, (For the triumph) but it was a really bad ship. (for the despair)

(Kind of unnecessary background ends)

So my PCs ended up with a Gymsnor-3, which had varying issues.

• A giant hole in the hull means that the part of the ship with the galley and refresher would be vacuum.
• The engines aren’t powerful enough to handle a descent or ascent on a high-gravity planet.
• The inertial compensator for one on the pipes was miscalibrated, causing one of the engines to have have fuel pumped out of it under certain conditions.
• The intertial compensators aren’t powerful enough to handle a jump out of or into hyperspace, so everyone experiences several G’s during those.
• It also is very noisy in response to turbulence in the atmosphere.

Now, I may have overdone that, but it made for a nice little encounter when the ship nearly crashed after an average landing. And plus, it gives a ship character. The Millenium Falcon had its flaws, after all.

So, I hear a lot about what the “perfect” ship is, but how many of you have gone with less than ideal options? How has it gone?

A ship with flaws is as much fun as a character with flaws ... with the right group, that is. I do like a ship that has character, or can even be a character.

The garbage will do.

6 hours ago, themensch said:

A ship with flaws is as much fun as a character with flaws ... with the right group, that is. I do like a ship that has character, or can even be a character.

When I hear a ship being a character I always think of Rommie

Rommie is essential a replica droid that the Andromeda Ascendant's (Ship's) AI uses as a physical extension to interact with the crew.

And Mass Effect 3 completely didnt steal that idea with EDI

On 4/26/2018 at 10:39 PM, korjik said:

And Mass Effect 3 completely didnt steal that idea with EDI

I think lexa doig is/was better looking than the cgi pics of edi I've seen, back in the day I had a total fanboy crush on her.

True

When I started my game, the player's "new" ship had a literal page long list of issues. The Gozanti is a good ship and all, but they spent more time fixing things like "broken chair in the conference room" and "coffee stains", than they did actually buying upgrades.

Gotta make sure you have great chairs. Need that nice lumbar support.

18 hours ago, Enjeryuu said:

When I started my game, the player's "new" ship had a literal page long list of issues. The Gozanti is a good ship and all, but they spent more time fixing things like "broken chair in the conference room" and "coffee stains", than they did actually buying upgrades.

I'd love for something like this in my games. Other players are so wrapped around acquiring every credit we've started referring to his droid as salvage bot because he tries to loot EVERYTHING.

Another user made this:

I am going to expand it into 2 lists for my game: one quirk that is obvious to the players immediately (stains, loose panels, all displays in Trandoshan, etc), and a "secret" quirk for them to discover later (smuggling compartments, diplomatic past, etc).

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

I'd love for something like this in my games. Other players are so wrapped around acquiring every credit we've started referring to his droid as salvage bot because he tries to loot EVERYTHING.

The key was making it an actual list. I just did it for fun, but having it written out in that form made it much more concrete for people. More so than just repetitively mentioning it in descriptions ever could.

14 hours ago, panpolyqueergeek said:

Another user made this:

 I am going to expand it into 2 lists for my game: one quirk that is obvious to the players immediately (stains, loose panels, all displays in Trandoshan, etc), and a "secret" quirk for them to discover later (smuggling compartments, diplomatic past, etc).

That's a really good idea for the two lists... Also everything being in Trandoshan and all the readouts in base:6 sounds hilarious

I may just start interjecting it into the game and see what the other players think. Most would be cool with it. The aforementioned scavenger bot's player would probably freak. lol.

I'm not really a fan of a "crappy ship". In ANH, the Falcon was referred to as a piece of junk but it worked flawlessly. In ESB, it only had issues for thematic purposes. Back to no problems in RotJ! I don’t see a problem with giving the PC’s a good (doesn’t have to be maxed or most expensive) tricked out ship. They (the PC’s) will break/damage it anyway. Having a list of quirks is nice to pick from to use when thematically appropriate, but shouldn’t be on the level of “crappy”. Humorous effect: Great! Mishap to set up an encounter: Cool. Hard wiring bad stuff into a ship to make it an NPC nemesis: Bad. YMMV

Gotta agree with Stormtrooper. A ship with faults is far from "A crappy ship". The falcon had risks yes, a .5 hyperdrive that could fail... but that was because it was a tinkered and modded ship WITH a .5 hyperdrive.

You've given them a ship with a hole in the hull that they didn't have time to fix before the mission. Seems like the balance is slightly off IMHO. Perhaps the hole in the hull that could be fixed but next time an NPC rolled triumph on an attack with the ships shields down the repair opened up would have been better.

I donno. I feel like in their place all you've done is encourage me to play safe and stack the odds. Fighting my own equipment (for routine tasks) as well as all the usual challenges would hack me off.

That's before we consider all the other nerfs you gave it. A lot would use up a single despair tbh. And you've given 2-3 of that power off the back of one despair on anotherwise successful role.