Here's the setup. The Players/PC's decided to purchase a used Gozanti C-ROC and they made the appropriate social acquisition skill rolls. (Congrats, they're now the proud owners of a used C-ROC).

The group are a Rebel Alliance Special Forces team and they are picking up a needed cargo from an Imperial world (Fedalle M10).

They came in with an empty cargo ship from an Agriworld (and their intended cargo is going back to said agriworld). But custom's is baffled as to why they didn't load up on FFV's* . . . (Their ship was inspected twice already).

The group also hired four "Academy Flunk outs" to help crew this bigger ship.

Did I also mention that one of the PC's is a known force sensitive who was recently 'rescued' from the Inquisition? (And they want her back).

And during the session the players rolled a despair . . .

I have some 'obvious' complications in mind, but I'd love to see what complications you can envision.

* FFV= Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.

The ship could be stolen and the seller is just wanting to get rid of it.

The ship could have a specific malfunction that will need to be fixed before it is vacuum capable

The ship has an unusual stench to it inside and the PCs can't locate the source

The ship has strange modification in the Storage Bay which requires supplies to be stored in a not-so-orderly way and reduces max capacity by 5%

One of the academy flunk outs is a manchurian candidate

18 hours ago, Varlie said:

The ship could be stolen and the seller is just wanting to get rid of it.

The ship could have a specific malfunction that will need to be fixed before it is vacuum capable

The ship has an unusual stench to it inside and the PCs can't locate the source

The ship has strange modification in the Storage Bay which requires supplies to be stored in a not-so-orderly way and reduces max capacity by 5%

Stolen? This crew has stolen ships in the past and they have ways to "quiet the title" so while this is a cool idea I've already hand-waved this complication often enough in the past to not make this an issue.

Malfunctioning! Yes! Oh my yes . . .

I was thinking of ROUS'es. They create stenches?

Strange modifications Like an undisclosed series of smuggling compartments? This is new. I like! Thanks!

17 hours ago, Samuel Richard said:

One of the academy flunk outs is a manchurian candidate

"One" of the flunkies?

BTW, I'm so happy that my gaming group doesn't hang out on these forums.

Keep 'em coming!

"You go to fire the gun, only to realize your ship didnt come with Tibana gas!"

Navicomputer has a virus, hyperspace shenanigans happens

The C-ROC was tagged as a suspicious vehicle by the ISB

Suprise dark side force ghost!

Theres a stowaway and hes/shes is not friendly.

One of those dropouts sell the party out to some pirates!

Whats this sticky stuff on the engines?

Your ship becomes the focus of a budding imperial navy lieutenant who will use his/her/their Raider ii corvette to chase the players around the galaxy.

One of the flunkies is being hunted by a bounty hunter.

1. The ship was used for smuggling something by somebody, and they were forced to stash the item in a super secret spot inside a panel or something. They since lost the ship, but are willing to do anything to get that item back. And they don't care that the PC party is now in possession of it.

2. The ship was the last known location of a particular person, either a crew member or passenger/cargo (maybe a slave, who knows). A loved one of the missing person, has been trying to locate them for months/years, and their investigation dead ended at the ship in question. They now MUST get into the archived data logs of the ship to try and see where the person disembarked, and time is of the essence, and they don't really care that the ship is under new management, for all they know, it's the same crew in fact, and they are more than happy to try and kill the PCs to get mis-placed revenge. Think the "WHERE IS SHE?!?" scene from Batman, but in space. Or, if you want a more comical route "WHERE'S THE MONEY LEBOWSKI!?" scene, where they are dunking the head (figuratively speaking) of the wrong person entirely.

3. The ship has a deeply buried hyperspace trigger encoded in it's onboard systems, and when a particular trigger condition is met, the ship is programmed to auto-jump to some pre-determined location. Perhaps a rival of the previous owner of the ship left a trojan horse, to send the ship to a death trap, and didn't bother to turn it off when the ship changed hands. The PC's now have to escape the trap made for someone else with little to no information on how to escape the cunning trap.

4. TRIBBLE INFESTATION!! (or equivalent pest)

5. Stowaway! (Why is there a girl in carbonite stasis in our holding bay?!) Could easily tie into points 1&2 above, as object of importance

On 10/17/2019 at 11:58 AM, Mark Caliber said:

Here's the setup. The Players/PC's decided to purchase a used Gozanti C-ROC and they made the appropriate social acquisition skill rolls. (Congrats, they're now the proud owners of a used C-ROC).

The group are a Rebel Alliance Special Forces team and they are picking up a needed cargo from an Imperial world (Fedalle M10).

They came in with an empty cargo ship from an Agriworld (and their intended cargo is going back to said agriworld). But custom's is baffled as to why they didn't load up on FFV's* . . . (Their ship was inspected twice already).

The group also hired four "Academy Flunk outs" to help crew this bigger ship.

Did I also mention that one of the PC's is a known force sensitive who was recently 'rescued' from the Inquisition? (And they want her back).

And during the session the players rolled a despair . . .

I have some 'obvious' complications in mind, but I'd love to see what complications you can envision.

* FFV= Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.

I've read the post, but the croc gonzati is over the top broketastically overpowered, I'm a starship o-phile (masters degree in aeronautics and astronautics, phd in mechanical engineering, primary author of the nubian design Collective's whole vehicle crafting handbook house rules) and I get grief for liking/recommending ships that other people feel are broken/overpowered (kst-100, hwk-1000). So when I say that the one ship I ban from my table is the croc gonzati it ought to mean something. Back to the point, addressing the title only... the ship gets hit by an asteroid (space rock falls everyone dies) because you don't try that broken stuff at my table. Your mileage may vary.

@EliasWindrider What's your problem with the C-ROC? I don't see any particular issue with it. Is it just that it has a lot decent amount of firepower?

Whatever is wrong with it, there has to be better ways to fix it than banning one of the most beautyful spaceships in Star Wars.

And with just two prep days, this begs the question . . .

What precisely is wrong with the CROC? (I've already let the players know that the CROC was going to get Nerfed, but I don't wan't to overdo my application of foam rubber).

Thanks!

The fluff text description of the croc says it's combat capabilities are scaled down from the original gonzati in exchange for more cargo. The stats say it's been scaled up. So take the original gonzati, give it less weapons, system strain, hull trauma threshold, and the official croc cargo and it should then match the fluff. Whether the speed should be 2 or 3 is unclear.

Actually, its weaponry is already less than that of the Gozanti. It loses the proton torpedo launcher and it loses half of its heavy laser cannons. As far as durability goes, I don't see the issue. The fluff text refers to it as retaining the armor and shielding of its predecessor.

Yeah, I've been doing the A-B comparison and I'm beginning to see some issues.

I'm looking at the Gozanti from AoR and

Weapon wise the CROC only loses the Proton Torpedoes. (But the Gozanti that I'm familiar with also comes with 4 Tie Fighter docking mounts).

The CROC is a little bulkier, but not sufficiently so to justify going from 1,000 EC up to 1,800 EC So, I'm going to nerf the EC down to 1,300 EC (less some smuggling compartments . . .) But that's still 1,000 more EC than the VCX 100 they've been flying.

The added engines should be sufficient to bump up the speed to a 3, so I'll keep that but that stupid fifth dorsal engine nacelle sticking up in the back is going to cost the dorsal quad it's rear arc (so the arc becomes F,P,S instead of "all").

The other thing that I noted is that the CROC had its consumables doubled? And the Passengers were almost doubled too. That doesn't make sense either so, we'll scale back the consumables to 1 month (to match the stock Gozanti) but I'm okay with the added crew quarters. My monthly consumables cost is coming in on $5,000 per month. That usually won't be an issue (once they get this ship back to a rebel base) but immediately the crew is burning through a lot of cash, and their ship hasn't been flying in at least a month. So that's just another $5,000 to get this beast off of the tarmac.

Also the CROC doubled its consumables? Still not seeing enough superstructure to justify that so that's going back down to 1 month. That limits the range on this ship a bit (10 parsecs by my counting) so the PC's will need to make sure they don't come up short and won't be able to flit across the galaxy quite as casually as they have been doing in the VCX-100.

Anyrate the PC's should be able to get the " Lucinda " up and running in no time . . . (Oh yes, the'll want to change the name of the ship so re-registry costs anyone)?

Okay, I think I'm good.

Thank you EVERYONE! Fly safe. It's a dangerous Galaxy out there.

There is confusing wording in the description for the C-ROC, but it loses more than just the proton torpedoes, it also loses half of it's laser cannons. It goes from 2 twin heavies per side to 2 heavies per side. Those heavies are linked together for some reason, but it is like the statblock for the X-Wing, which has 4 s-foil mounted medium laser cannons with the weapon quality linked 3.

As far as cargo capacity (which I am no expert on), since it goes from _| |_ sort of shape, to / \ sort of shape, I can see why it would be able to fit a lot more stuff. Especially when you consider that the top portion of that is for the crew quarters, then it becomes a much more dramatic difference as you almost double the cargo capacity (which is what is represented by the stats).

Doubling the passengers might be a bit much though.

As far as the dorsal quad, the rear engine doesn't necessarily block the view of the whole rear arc, which I why, I would guess, they allowed the rear firing arc. Similar thing with the sentinel-class shuttle and its dorsal twin light ion cannon.

• All of the weapon hard points were replaced with scientific sensor arrays.
• The bunks are all sized for Jawas.
• The manual controls have been removed and required a droid to interface for piloting.
• The starboard engine is failing, when rolling a Piloting check the ship receives a boost die when turning to the right, two setback dice when turning to the left, and a setback on all other Piloting checks.
• An aggressive or annoying lifeform is living within the hull of the ship (dianoga, mynock, etc).
• The ship has suffered from years of poor system maintenance, reduce the System Strain threshold.
• The hyperdrive is malfunctioning, upgrade the difficulty of checks when attempting to jump to hyperspace (e.g. Millenium Falcon).
• There is a locked and sealed room inside the ship. Who knows what's inside?

The ship is a poisonous gift: The seller is in league with pirates and have installed trackers, override systems, and other secrets on the ship. When next the PCs fly anywhere near where the pirates lay in wait, they'll find the ship suddenly remotelly controlled and on its way to surrender itselt, and whatever cargo the ship carries, to the pirates. Combat and hilarity ensues...

(Many of the suggestions here, including my own, might be too severe for a signle Dispair roll, however).

2 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

The ship is a poisonous gift: The seller is in league with pirates and have installed trackers, override systems, and other secrets on the ship. When next the PCs fly anywhere near where the pirates lay in wait, they'll find the ship suddenly remotelly controlled and on its way to surrender itselt, and whatever cargo the ship carries, to the pirates. Combat and hilarity ensues...

(Many of the suggestions here, including my own, might be too severe for a signle Dispair roll, however).

It also kinda requires the pirates to be psychic enough to know that whomever buys their ship will be worthy of piracy.

2 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

It also kinda requires the pirates to be psychic enough to know that whomever buys their ship will be worthy of piracy.

Well, it is a freighter. Worst case scenario, they recapture the ship and cast out their line again.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Well, it is a freighter. Worst case scenario, they recapture the ship and cast out their line again.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me

On 10/18/2019 at 5:52 AM, Mark Caliber said:

I was thinking of ROUS'es. They create stenches?

Strange modifications Like an undisclosed series of smuggling compartments? This is new. I like! Thanks!

Go for a combination of these. The ship has strange smells, and often the performance varies, almost at random. (add blacks/blues (more blacks than blue), maybe upgrade difficulties or alter speed/damage profiles) If the PC's track it down, they discover that in a hidden compartment, a Jawa (or more than one) has taken up residence. And modifies the ship to maintain its own life support, or just for kicks. When you finally find him, there is a tangled mess of wires, jury rigged systems, and other problems to fix. Although maybe you can convince the Jawa to stay on as crew, just keep his modifications under control.

Chadra-fan would be even funnier (and could explain those haunting shrieks [echoing squeaks] in the ventilation).

To be fair the buyers are all BUT pirates and they can handle themselves quite nicely (thank you very much)!

I went with a mynock infestation. If I'd had a better scope of the deck plans for a C-ROC it might have made for a better session as the PC's combed the ship for uninvited tenants.

As it was, the group was checking out the ship with the power plant down AND drained of fuel rods. As it was, the crew spent a very tense night crawling through the darkened ship with glow rods and blaster pistols playing cat and mouse with mynocks.

One of the players blamed me for running a Halloween session early!

In game the group has two days left to outfit the ship (repairs are effectively done) before their rendezvous returns and then they can advance the plot on another mission.

Hiya everyone!

So, as is usual in my surprises for the PCs, this is a little involved, and will probably take them forever to figure it out what is going on, but it provides a lot of storytelling and roleplaying opportunities.

It goes a little like this.....

The former owner of the C-ROC was a smuggler who ran afoul of the Hutts (or some other criminal organization - which one is important, as the organization should have NOTHING to do with the PC's, so if they have debts to the Hutts, make it the Black Sun, if they're in debt to the Hutts AND have run afoul of the Black Sun, make it the Crimson Dawn, etc...) and has a bounty on his head. He's hunted by a big bad Bounty Hunter, who (unbeknownst to the smuggler) installed a high grade tracking beacon aboard the C-ROC. Despite the smuggler changing transponders and titles of ownership several times, this **** Bounty Hunter always finds him. The tracker is so high-grade and experimental it fosters a kyber-crystal stealth chameleon system that optically hides it's presence as well as a signal baffling system that uses the ships own communications to send its signal, making observing it without actively looking for it impossible. Basically, you won't find it without knowing it's there. Because of the level of stealth of this tracker though, it takes a little while to locate, which is why the smuggler never caught on that his ship was bugged. It wasn't, "show up and get ambushed" it was always, "he's on my trail and I can't shake him." Leads could bring him to the location with how long it took, but no matter how clear the trail, this Bounty Hunter always found him. Finally, as a last ditch effort, he decided to sell all of his belongings and go native to try and lose him. The PC's are the fortunate (?) benefactors of that decision.

Now, however, the Bounty Hunter is on them ...

See, this smuggler HAS tried everything to cover his trail ... including surgery to change his appearance and nearly everything else. His ship, however, he has kept with him through thick and thin. Until now. The Bounty Hunter, until he can be convinced the PC isn't the smuggler, will think that the PC most resembling him (species, height, weight, etc) is the smuggler with another "face-swap." He might even think that a species swap might have been done (Imperial agents do it to infiltrate alien worlds - no reason to think a desperate enough smuggler with enough credits wouldn't too) if you need it to in order to maintain the story. The point is, the PC's will need to provide a sample of their genetic data, taken by the Bounty Hunter, to prove they aren't the smuggler. THAT can only happen once they talk to the Bounty Hunter, and THAT can only happen once they aren't getting blasted by him in space or on land.

So, just like with the smuggler, the PC's should find a few days after they set down somewhere during the course of a mission or adventure, this Bounty Hunter shows up and just wrecks house trying to get them. Way high grade tech, overpowering weapons, always one step ahead of them, but never quite able to catch them. Behind the scenes, fudge everything you need to in order to make sure that 1)the PC's always get away, 2) the PC's never capture the Bounty Hunter, and 3) the mission always gets royally FUBAR'd and the PCs have to go to great lengths to sort it out and get back on track. It's important that they do - the encounters need to be REALLY annoying, but not game-breaking.

Let the PC's try and come up with their own reasons as to why a Bounty Hunter would be on their trail (sounds like there are already) but all attempts to investigate why THIS Bounty Hunter is on them come up blank. All leads on who he is lead back to him being a exclusive contract to the aforementioned cartel (which should confuse them as to why they would care). Any contact with the Cartel itself will only lead to a dead end, there are no bounties posted on them by that cartel at all, and no representative of the cartel will tell them anything more than, "we don't care about you one way or another," and "well, if HE is after you, it's for a good reason."

In the end, let the PCs (when they either get caught, or arrange a meet) social out the situation. Don't make it easy - he won't reveal who he is after or why EVER (that way, he can pull the "I never mentioned that" thing to prove they are his target). Make the PC's come up with the idea that they aren't who he's after, and then have him offer the genetic sample to prove it. This is LITERALLY how simple it is to get out of the situation, but the PC's will do EVERYTHING to avoid coming to this conclusion.

The longer the hunt goes on, the more the PCs start getting information without trying in to understand the situation and confusion - after a few months/encounters, they might find out who the Hunter is, then a few more months/encounters they find out he works exclusively for the cartel in question, then a few more months/encounters and they find out the name of the target originally and a picture, then a few more months/encounters and they find out the target underwent surgery and now looks like this new guy, then a few more months/encounters and they find out that the target looks like THIS guy, then as foreshadowing they run into the smuggler that sold them the C-ROC living large and enjoying things and he off-handedly mentioned "selling you that crate was the best decision I ever made." So on and so on until they put it all together.

It'll be a blast, I guarantee it!