I've seen a lot of people who are in the mindset (like myself most of the time) of giving your players a regular or below average ship to begin with.

I will usually follow this rule, however when my PCs steal a ship, as opposed to own it beforehand, I will usually make it stand out as clearly good mechanically, whether it's tougher than usual or armed to the teeth, despite its appearance as usually being junky, as I feel it helps them bond with it and feel more attached to it.

Anyone else have weird habits when giving PCs ships and vehicles?

2 minutes ago, ALFRED1182 said:

I've seen a lot of people who are in the mindset (like myself most of the time) of giving your players a regular or below average ship to begin with.

I will usually follow this rule, however when my PCs steal a ship, as opposed to own it beforehand, I will usually make it stand out as clearly good mechanically, whether it's tougher than usual or armed to the teeth, despite its appearance as usually being junky, as I feel it helps them bond with it and feel more attached to it.

Anyone else have weird habits when giving PCs ships and vehicles?

It depends upon the game, and/or the "starting" XP of the characters. The game We just started involves a mix of high level and starting characters, the high level characters (including my own) include characters which have been previously played in other campaigns, even converted from other systems. My character has a YZ-900 modded out into a Jedi training ship.

In another "Knight Level" game I'm playing in our party of padawans have been assigned to a ship much like the Crucible .

Ships are in a weird place for me. On the one hand SW has some iconic ships, it’s nicer if the players have a ship (or ships) that truly feels like their own, and it’s not like we lack for options. On the other hand, unless it's a military campaign with actual space combat that you really need to win, it’s not like the stats usually matter. If you’re in trouble, you hoof it away through hyperspace. If something’s stopping you from doing that, you’re probably in too much trouble to win even if your ship is above-average. And the same thing goes for the other guys. Plus, the space combat mechanics/rules aren’t really all that great. So all in all, we tend to go for cool and quirky more than for performance.

In the campaign I am currently running, I had the PCs pool a portion of their Obligation to form a 'Ship Debt.' I then allowed the PCs to pick a ship from a chart I made, and depending on their choice the debt went up or down. They could also take on Obligation to get modifications for the ship at 2 per 1000 credits. I set a hard limited on the starting Obligation to keep it from going crazy. That didn't stop them from maxing out their Ship Debt. The first session triggered the group obligation with doubles. The next 2 sessions triggered it without doubles. Next session is the first time the Obligation hasn't triggered. The loan sharks want the first down payment right away!

On 5/24/2018 at 5:07 PM, ALFRED1182 said:

I've seen a lot of people who are in the mindset (like myself most of the time) of giving your players a regular or below average ship to begin with.

I will usually follow this rule, however when my PCs steal a ship, as opposed to own it beforehand, I will usually make it stand out as clearly good mechanically, whether it's tougher than usual or armed to the teeth, despite its appearance as usually being junky, as I feel it helps them bond with it and feel more attached to it.

Anyone else have weird habits when giving PCs ships and vehicles?

When I was gm (before my son was born, he's now 10 months 3 days, 6 hours and 49 minutes old) I started my knight level eote/aor spec pcs with a highly modified loronar e-9 explorer (same stats as a yt-2400 except speed 4). And then I upgraded them to a highly modified consular (hybrid consular and ir-3f stats, better of each).

These days I'd start with a kst-100 from dawn of rebellion, which at 120K is a raw starting ship

On 5/24/2018 at 5:29 PM, nameless ronin said:

Ships are in a weird place for me. On the one hand SW has some iconic ships, it’s nicer if the players have a ship (or ships) that truly feels like their own, and it’s not like we lack for options. On the other hand, unless it's a military campaign with actual space combat that you really need to win, it’s not like the stats usually matter. If you’re in trouble, you hoof it away through hyperspace. If something’s stopping you from doing that, you’re probably in too much trouble to win even if your ship is above-average. And the same thing goes for the other guys. Plus, the space combat mechanics/rules aren’t really all that great. So all in all, we tend to go for cool and quirky more than for performance.

Hoofing it is why speed is important

36 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

Hoofing it is why speed is important

Hit hyperspace and you’re golden. I know that how long Astrogation checks take is left vague by the RAW, but none of the rulings I’ve ever encountered or seen on these forums made it likely for that to take more than 2-3 turns for a party that’s put a little effort into getting this done in a speedy manner. I’ve never known a party not to do that, so...

On 5/24/2018 at 4:07 PM, ALFRED1182 said:

I've seen a lot of people who are in the mindset (like myself most of the time) of giving your players a regular or below average ship to begin with.

I will usually follow this rule, however when my PCs steal a ship, as opposed to own it beforehand, I will usually make it stand out as clearly good mechanically, whether it's tougher than usual or armed to the teeth, despite its appearance as usually being junky, as I feel it helps them bond with it and feel more attached to it.

Anyone else have weird habits when giving PCs ships and vehicles?

I don't give them anything, if that's weird. Too much gaming potential around finding a ride, hate to just hand wave that away.

8 hours ago, 2P51 said:

I don't give them anything, if that's weird. Too much gaming potential around finding a ride, hate to just hand wave that away. 

Oh yah definitely. Been more inclined to make them steal a ship the more games I GM as it's just too funny to ignore

11 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

Hit hyperspace and you’re golden. I know that how long Astrogation checks take is left vague by the RAW, but none of the rulings I’ve ever encountered or seen on these forums made it likely for that to take more than 2-3 turns for a party that’s put a little effort into getting this done in a speedy manner. I’ve never known a party not to do that, so...

2-3 rounds to calculate and you have to be clear of a gravity well (potentially several rounds, and I run it that being in a gravity well screws up calculations, so calculations start when you're clear of atmosphere, but you could "blind micro jump" in system when you're clear of atmosphere) and have a clear patch of space (e.g. not be in an asteroid field or debris field or in the middle of heavy space traffic around say coruscant). And that's when there isn't a gravity well projector in play.

2 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

2-3 rounds to calculate and you have to be clear of a gravity well (potentially several rounds, and I run it that being in a gravity well screws up calculations, so calculations start when you're clear of atmosphere, but you could "blind micro jump" in system when you're clear of atmosphere) and have a clear patch of space (e.g. not be in an asteroid field or debris field or in the middle of heavy space traffic around say coruscant). And that's when there isn't a gravity well projector in play.

If there’s a gravity well projector in play then “run away” probably is a bit of a shaky plan to begin with for the type of ships most parties have access to, and clearing the atmosphere isn’t exactly all that time consuming for a decent pilot who’s in a hurry. In my experience this is rarely, if ever, an issue - again, for a party that’s done their homework. If it is, then the GM orchestrated it to be, and better stats don’t help against a determined GM.

1 hour ago, nameless ronin said:

If there’s a gravity well projector in play then “run away” probably is a bit of a shaky plan to begin with for the type of ships most parties have access to, and clearing the atmosphere isn’t exactly all that time consuming for a decent pilot who’s in a hurry. In my experience this is rarely, if ever, an issue - again, for a party that’s done their homework. If it is, then the GM orchestrated it to be, and better stats don’t help against a determined GM.

Nothing helps against a GM determined to kill the PCs, but that's not the point. The game is about a gm presenting a challenge or what appears to be a challenge to players, with the point being to show how much what they invested in is worthwhile. When I gm, if the pcs have a speed 5 ship then they can maintain a lead over tiefighters and not have to worry about fighting them if they don't want to. Me being "determined" (to give them a challenge) means throwing speed 6 tie interceptors ar them and I've never done that under this system. Speed 5 is the cost of almost immunity from the empire (or other government) when not on a planet.

19 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

Nothing helps against a GM determined to kill the PCs, but that's not the point. The game is about a gm presenting a challenge or what appears to be a challenge to players, with the point being to show how much what they invested in is worthwhile. When I gm, if the pcs have a speed 5 ship then they can maintain a lead over tiefighters and not have to worry about fighting them if they don't want to. Me being "determined" (to give them a challenge) means throwing speed 6 tie interceptors ar them and I've never done that under this system. Speed 5 is the cost of almost immunity from the empire (or other government) when not on a planet.

All I’m saying is that if they can manage not to get shot up too badly over the course of just a couple rounds, they’re just as immune. Which is completely in line with the movies - if you neither want to nor have to fight, you punch it to hyperspace and you’re in the clear. That’s the point: you really don’t need above-average stats on your ship to be fairly safe.

7 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

All I’m saying is that if they can manage not to get shot up too badly over the course of just a couple rounds, they’re just as immune. Which is completely in line with the movies - if you neither want to nor have to fight, you punch it to hyperspace and you’re in the clear. That’s the point: you really don’t need above-average stats on your ship to be fairly safe.

Exactly. You just need an above average pilot .

58 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Exactly. You just need an above average pilot .

Operative words are you escape by punching it to hyperspace (which is what I was encouraging you to do), not try to lose them in a slower ship as you fly sublight to the other side of the planet to so they can't see your exit vector... that requires real skill that you were lacking.

I disagree. I did get away after all, and purely on piloting skill. ?

2 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I disagree. I did get away after all, and purely on piloting skill. ?

You bullied the next gm into multiple against raw rulings which enabled that

23 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

You bullied the next gm into multiple against raw rulings which enabled that

Nope. ?

Just because you're not aware that you're being a bully doesn't mean that you aren't being a bully, but if you're coercing someone, particularly someone with authority over you (e.g. a GM) into doing what you want, you're being a bully. Because you couldn't bully me as the GM, you refused to play with me as the GM.

13 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Nope. ?

So let's hear from that GM (killer beard hawk) in his own words

Quote

@Tramp Graphics i think we are going to need to go back and continue the chase at speed 3. Also im strictly not going to let you just spam boost dice with every advantage. Its seriously gaming the die system and in my opinion unimaginative and basically cheating. I as GM will be in control final say of ALL advantage, threat, Triumph and Despair. As you werent even taking penalties for threats, youve lost the privilege of handling your own die results.

Should we just leave it as you voilating the rules set forth by RAW and the GM? Kind of makes it seem like you got away with cheating if we dont     .

And

This is the last straw. I fully believe you were/are cheating at a SOLO adventure. Which is just laughable. You were/are trying to weasel out of setback dice, conflict, and how your talents work. What a waste of time.

First off, I didn’t cheat or violate the rules. Nor did I bully him into violating them. Regarding Full Throttle, in particular, the writing of the talent was open to interpretation without clear adjudication from the developers, and by the time that came through the session was already over. He brought up a question regarding it and I told him how I interpreted it, and he accepted it. It was you and Nytewing who pushed the issue further, prompting the question to the devs. Had the devs responded sooner, the particulars of my use of that taken would have changed. That’s not cheating nor violating the rules. I didn’t want you to GM because you were trying to force me into an untenable position against a Star Destroyer. There is a very valid reason for staying low and evading the enemy before jumping to Hyperspace, two of them in fact. First, the sensors on First Order ships are weak against surface skimming aircraft. This is explicitly stated in TFA by a former First Order soldier. Secondly, and most importantly, the First Order has technology that allows them to track ships in hyperspace simply by tracking their ion trails . This is what they did to the Resistance fleet in TLJ. Therefore, it was vital that I not leave them a trail to follow. The only way to accomplish that was to lose them before jumping into hyperspace. To do that I needed to get out of the range and line of sight of their sensors after removing that tracker. Not only that but even the old Empire could calculate potential destinations of a ship simply by using their last known trajectory. Once again, to complete lose them, I needed to make sure that they had no trajectory to follow. All of these are reasons to lose a tail before jumping to hyperspace.

Can you two take your bickering somewhere else please?

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

Can you two take your bickering somewhere else please?

Harumph

I gave my PCs a YT-2400 which is a tad better than some of the other starting ship recommendations. At the beginning of the campaign I had an NPC named Jof Tungsten (modeled after John Tunsten from Young Guns) reach out to the PCs individually and offer to provide them a ship in trade for 10% of their total profits- however they want to make it. This is similar to how a fishing boat family that owns several boats might run things. They also have a little obligation to Jof as a group. I'm still waiting to put Jof in peril (also similar to Young Guns).

I think this has worked well. It gives them a home base and a common connection. The only downside is that they are sort of connected to the ship and seem a little risk averse when it comes to space combat.

4 hours ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

I think this has worked well. It gives them a home base and a common connection. The only downside is that they are sort of connected to the ship and seem a little risk averse when it comes to space combat.

If you get blown up in space you get blown up in space, whether it’s your own ship or someone else. Being risk averse - unless you’re in a military/law enforcement situation - when it comes to space combat is perfectly normal. Han Solo’s first response to things getting hairy is to fly the **** away. That’s the smart play.

2 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

If you get blown up in space you get blown up in space, whether it’s your own ship or someone else. Being risk averse - unless you’re in a military/law enforcement situation - when it comes to space combat is perfectly normal. Han Solo’s first response to things getting hairy is to fly the **** away. That’s the smart play.

I don't disagree. However, in their case it's more because ships are expensive to repair and they're cheap and thanks to me somewhat poor:)