Personally = I only hand waive droids (and other NPCs) if it fills a gap the players sorely need.

Example: a crew really doesn't want to spend piloting skills, as they're heavily ground-emphasis skill sets. So they got a droid to handle the flight dice rolls (and basically only that).

I'm sure you've picked a solution by now, but in the case of the protocol droid, if their knowledge skill sets leave them hanging high and dry repeatedly ... a freebie or debt-handout may be justified. Otherwise, they should probably earn it in game.

On 4/29/2019 at 8:39 AM, bsmith23 said:

...would you hand wave it, or turn it into a side quest/adventure?

Thoughts or ideas?

Our latest PBP adventure had players roll a (net) combined 7 Adv's on a series of checks in a scrapyard and I had to figure out what one could find there. Our group is noticeably deficient on some Presence and Knowledge skills, so a protocol droid made sense. Rather, they forewent paying for parts and stuff since I said the 7 Adv's were most of the parts they needed. From there, we rolled crafting checks from Special Modifications. They came up with a capable droid to fill some needs. I decided to roll a positive and negative quirk without needed the rolls for it. It comes out lees than what a normal protocol droid is, but it serves the job. They'd have needed several more Tri-Suc-Adv's to get it up to that level. Crafting time reduced by 2hrs for Successes didn't sit right for me, so I had Successes count as Adv's as far as getting enhancements went. I also swapped out a talent for Etiquette and Protocol, which I thought it should have.

My thought on side quests of any kind is as follows... they are great if you have a gap in your schedule. In other words, if you are hot and heavy in the midst of your arc's main through-line, side quests break the flow, kill the tension, and just get in the way. Stopping mid-stream to build a lightsaber or acquire a ship or droid or make major modifications should be hand-waved in that circumstance. However, if you have some downtime and a dramatic downbeat or tonal change-up is called for, you should turn it into an adventure!

This is very similar to arcs in television series. You'll usually have a few episodes mid-stream that have only a cursory relation to the main plot. With the old X-Files show these were the "monster of the week" episodes that didn't have much to do with aliens or government conspiracies. With the Mandalorian the action of the middle episodes [4-5-6] is book-ended with his being on the run, but isn't directly connected to what goes on in the episode. Those are more character and world building episodes than they are "plot arc" episodes.

For my games I tend to plan out a 3-4 episode arc movement that focuses the big theme with the idea that I'll end it in such a way that we can a downbeat. This gives us a breather and gives the players a more personal focus on things they want for their characters. So my question is this: is getting the droid urgent enough that it has to happen now? And, if it is, will it interrupt the flow of your games higher level arc? If so, you should hand-wave it. If not, make an adventure out of it.

On 4/29/2019 at 4:53 PM, DurosSpacer said:

Any time players have added a droid to the group, it amounted to nothing. The players all have comparable (or better) skills so it only came into play sometimes that the droid could contribute to a roll. So, I think a lot of answering your question is: Why do the PC's want one? To boost their social skills? In an RPG, the players usually interact with the NPC's in conversation so it seems weird to have a PC do the talking and then roll the protocol droid's social skill.

OTOH, droids can cost a lot, so I don't know what position they are in to purchase one. It might require a separate adventure to acquire one, yes. Depends on what course you have plotted for your group as to whether it would sidetrack the campaign. You can always make an adventure of something like that.

To be honest, owning a dozen crafted repair droids for a ship is super helpful. They can assist in repairs or do them on their own. Group skills are after all not that bad when the groups sizes are maxing the skills. And if you hide a few droids with an assassination protocol in a bunch of repair droids … your ship's "crew" offers some nasty surprises. It sometimes can be as well the better option over hiring more crew members to man all weapon stations, do the manual labor stuff, etc

NPC Droids are useful. But good droids need to be crafted or acquired by an adventure of their own, while standard droids are useful, just not for stuff the players like to do themselves anyway. Parking a ship or rescuing the group by catching them from a roof of a skyscraper are still useful task that don't require a lot of skills. It just requires leaving a droid npc on the ship and praying that the opposition was not prepared to intercept a starship. 😉

Besides a protocol droid is worth a lot as as translator alone.