Hey forums! I'm looking for an interesting hook for some PCs to acquire a ship (beyond the typical kill a bad guy, take his/her ship). Please give me your most interesting / fun / innovative / memorable hooks on how a group of fringers can come across a starship to call home. Bonus points if it works particularly well for a set of bounty hunters...

Thanks for the help!

Several ideas. BH's can compete for an on-planet bounty and the winner(s) gets a ship. The benefactor deals in LOTS of ships and passing off a junker in this annual BH chase is great publicity for his business. Maybe he refurbishes ships? The Bounty can be more like a side-n-seek, non-lethal bounty. It could be that the benefactor 'pays' someone credits to be the 'rabbit', so to speak. That rabbit evades everyone for as long as he can. He obeys certain rules like: no off-planet movement, stays on a certain continent or in a certain city, etc...

Another would be an inheritance. Someone dies or retires and passes it along. Could also tie in a competition to see who owns what % share of the ship. Could still be BH's.

While on a mission with someone else's ship the party finds a derelict ship.

The party builds one from scrap, and just needs that all important hyperdirive.

A benefactor allows them to buy a used ship on the hire-purchase plan.

They are passengers on a small ship that is attacked by pirates. In the ensuing fight all the original crew is killed, but the pirates are driven off.

1 hour ago, DurosSpacer said:

Another would be an inheritance. Someone dies or retires and passes it along.

I love this idea. Especially if the original owner isn’t dead, but hiding in a smuggler’s compartment or something that the PCs don’t know about, and coming out at night to mess with the ship’s computer, or heading, or whatever. Of course he’s invisible to whatever security measures are I place because he programmed them that way. He couldn’t bear to Just pass his ship on to his niece without making sure she was worthy, and the Hutts were getting a little troublesome anyway, so he decided to fake his death and watch for a while.

As much as I love the falcon being Han's ship in the movies, in execution the idea of one person owning the ship has had some rough patches with my group. Everything from everyone having their own ideas on how it gets modified to downright arguments when some characters take it out without asking. Group ownership has hit some snags too, but not as much.

To the original point, we've done stealing the ship in our first session and having it be the payment for the first couple of missions. But I've always like the idea of starting the game with someone owning it. It just hasn't worked out with any backstories with our group.

10 hours ago, Ahrimon said:

As much as I love the falcon being Han's ship in the movies, in execution the idea of one person owning the ship has had some rough patches with my group. Everything from everyone having their own ideas on how it gets modified to downright arguments when some characters take it out without asking. Group ownership has hit some snags too, but not as much.

To the original point, we've done stealing the ship in our first session and having it be the payment for the first couple of missions. But I've always like the idea of starting the game with someone owning it. It just hasn't worked out with any backstories with our group.

If only one of the party is the owner of the ship (and, presumably, Captain), then he (or she) is the only one who should be making decisions on what’s modified, how the ship itself is run, etc. The ship’s Captain has full authority when it comes to his ship because he is the one with all of the responsibility.

It’s when you have too many “chiefs” that problems arise.

3 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

If only one of the party is the owner of the ship (and, presumably, Captain), then he (or she) is the only one who should be making decisions on what’s modified, how the ship itself is run, etc. The ship’s Captain has full authority when it comes to his ship because he is the one with all of the responsibility.

It’s when you have too many “chiefs” that problems arise.

Cooperation is generally better than one player going "I know the way" and everyone else going "No you don't."

If gaming was real life, yes that's true.

1 hour ago, Tramp Graphics said:

The ship’s Captain has full authority when it comes to his ship because he is the one with all of the responsibility.

At the same time, since this is the Edge of the Empire forum, not the Age of Rebellion forum, I assume the crew isn’t even part of a paramilitary organization that can actually impose a chain of command. So while it’s not unreasonable to say that the captain should have the final say, a tyrannical captain can find himself without a crew. If he takes his ball and goes home, he goes home alone.

2 hours ago, LStyer said:

At the same time, since this is the Edge of the Empire forum, not the Age of Rebellion forum, I assume the crew isn’t even part of a paramilitary organization that can actually impose a chain of command. So while it’s not unreasonable to say that the captain should have the final say, a tyrannical captain can find himself without a crew. If he takes his ball and goes home, he goes home alone.

whether the ship is military, paramilitary, or civilian, makes no difference. By maritime law, a ship’s captain has full authority over his or her ship. This is because he ultimately has all of the responsibility f or the safety of the ship, crew, passengers, cargo, etc. This is true even in Star Wars.

3 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Cooperation is generally better than one player going "I know the way" and everyone else going "No you don't."

If gaming was real life, yes that's true.

Yes, and no. As far as party dynamics go, I agree, but if something goes wrong on the ship, it’s only the capital whose head is on the chopping block.

Just now, Tramp Graphics said:

whether the ship is military, paramilitary, or civilian, makes no difference. By maritime law, a ship’s captain has full authority over his or her ship. This is because he ultimately has all of the responsibility f or the safety of the ship, crew, passengers, cargo, etc. This is true even in Star Wars.

Sure, but unless maritime law provides for enslavement of the crew, a ship’s captain may find himself without a crew. If I’ve got a PC ship captain who chases off the other three PCs, what am I supposed to do with that? Am I expected to GM a solo campaign with Captain Maritimelaw?

38 minutes ago, LStyer said:

Sure, but unless maritime law provides for enslavement of the crew, a ship’s captain may find himself without a crew. If I’ve got a PC ship captain who chases off the other three PCs, what am I supposed to do with that? Am I expected to GM a solo campaign with Captain Maritimelaw?

That’s why it’s imperative that the players are all in, and understand each member’s responsibility. It’s also important that whoever is the captain knows how to handle that responsibility and not “let power go to his head” and lord his authority over the others. He needs to know how to lead effectively and fairly .

Also, his authority extends only as far as the ship itself and how it runs. It does not extend to off ship situations. A good way to handle that is to split leadership roles between different party members depending on if they’re on ship or off ship, and mission type.

9 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Cooperation is generally better than one player going "I know the way" and everyone else going "No you don't."

Except when someone utters, " This is The Way " followed with, " I have spoken. " That usually decides things, right there. When a gamer utters those phrases at the gaming table, that's the end of the decision-making process. 😁

The intro adventure for my ongoing campaign (started way back in '14) had the PCs being hired by a mystery benefactor to steal a ship and deliver its contents to a third party contact.

Turned out it was the same ship from my old Saga Edition game and they were stealing it from that group. Mystery recruiter was the astromech who claims to own the ship and had grown tired of his old crew. He decided to have his new employees steal it out from under them.

This lets the crew have a fairly diplomatic approach to repairs and mods. Since none of them "own" the ship, they all have equal control.

For us, Session 1 was a prison escape, and their ship was the getaway car from the impound lot. That can be fun because they can have no idea who the previous owner was.

My current Edge of the Empire campaign, started back in early June, and the FIRST SESSION saw the PCs as unemployed, ‘down-on-their-luck’ ship hands (a pilot, a smuggler charmer, an explorer fringer) who are hired [off camera] as ship hands by a slick smuggler / pirate type. Turns out the slick smuggler guy is dealing spice in a mining town, and when the deal goes south, splits and leaves the PCs to “hold the bag” and wind up arrested by the mining town marshal and end up in some dusty old jail cell in this small hick town.

But that is just the beginning...

The slick smuggler guy was but a “lieutenant” in a larger pirate / smuggler operation. And, when Slick’s sale was busted by local law enforcement (the well-intentioned and honest marshal) in conjunction with a dirty corrupt ISB agent, the spice that he “lost” ... turns out all of that spice belonged to his boss - a huge pirate warlord! To cover his ***, “Slick” deceived his warlord boss to make it look like the PCs were the ones who fouled up the spice deal / criminal operation in this mining town. This pirate warlord had frequently raided this world and this town in the past (kidnapping for slaves, etc.) and when he heard that this town’s marshal (NPC) and the PCs had cost him thousands of credits in lost spice (never mind the PCs were duped the whole time by “Slick” and the marshal was duped by the ISB agent who was on the take and *BOTH* of these lowlifes still managed to make off with the spice!!), said pirate warlord vows deadly revenge on the entire town via a holo-vid transmission to the marshal - (the PCs in jail cells overheard the whole thing).

Town marshal has no choice but to trust the PCs (who now have learned fully that they were set up as pawns the whole time by “Slick”), let them out of their jail cells and arm them. The marshal, his deputy, the townsfolk and the PCs make a determined stand to defend this hick frontier town from the pirates. I will spare you all of the thrillin’ heroics, but in the end the PCs rise to the challenge and save *most* of the town’s womenfolk and children from the vicious pirate raid.

The PCs become “instant heroes” to the backwater townsfolk. But being a hero don’t pay no bills, and without a ship, the PCs have nowhere to go and no way to make a living. The townsfolk and the marshal remember that 6 months ago, in another pirate raid, a raiding ship had crash landed off in the prairie some miles away from the village and the miners in town had scavenged and salvaged as much working machinery as they could off the derelict and left the hulk rusting in the hot prairie sun.

Without much in the way of credits, but with tons of goodwill toward the PCs, the townsfolk decide to help the PCs put the parts and machinery BACK into the hulk and restore it as best as they can to a somewhat fly-able condition. [PCs will no doubt have a higher than normal incidence of ‘clutch-scene’ breakdowns onboard the ship, and lots of repairs to make and sink their future hard earned credits into. GM smiles mischievously...]

The PCs now have their ship - though it certainly is not a pretty sight to behold, it flies. And for the PCs, that is all that matters as they begin their quest to find “Slick” and his corrupt, dirty ISB pal and get some payback.

Oh, and to rescue the handful of townsfolk that the pirate warlord DID manage to steal from the town. Before said townsfolk are “processed” and sold off into slavery by the warlord.

Character's grandmother won it in a raffle. She never really had a use for it.

I did one for my kids, where the opening adventure was capture this smuggler, and his ship (which was actually the property of the crime boss), and bring them back to Jedha.

Obviously when they got back to Jedha with the ship (but not the smuggler), the city had just been the victim of "agressive DS1 based remodeling", and so the crime boss was no more.

Woohoo, free ship.

Thanks everyone! Lots of good ideas in here. Summaries of the hooks are below. I like the idea of the ship being "hot" in some way, where the prior owner is going to come looking and then there is gunna be trouble. The current ideas that I like most are:

1) PCs escaping from prison and need to steal a ship from the impound lot. You can even describe three ships and let them choose. The prior owner (who is obviously in prison) will want the ship back. Or the Hutt / cartel who was the true owner of the ship, wants it (and its contents) back.

2) Benefactor allows them to buy a ship on purchase plan. I like this one as well because now the PCs are in deep debt to a shady character. Some Hutt / cartel now calls in favors whenever they choose. The usurious interest on the "loan" will keep the PCs always indebted to him.

Both of these ideas can lead to a series of other plot devices. My current hooks are:

* PC's ship is flagged by BoSS; they can't go to a legal starport until they get new transponder codes. Need to go to a shadowport and cut a deal with some infochants or slicers to get this cleared up.

* The Hutt or cartel wants their ship back (or wants their payment). Bounty hunters / "debt collectors" spring up looking for it.

* PCs uncover some contents within a smuggling compartment within the ship that they now need to get rid of. Stolen imperial blasters? Spice? A droid that knows too much (imperial or rebel intel)? A spy frozen in carbonite (that has lots of people looking for her!)

Now that I think about it, may make sense to combine #1 and #2. The PCs steal themselves a ship, the true owner comes calling, trouble ensues, and the PCs cut a deal to "buy" the ship on loan, putting the PCs in deep debt to the Hutt / cartel. Thoughts? Improvements? More hooks?

Full hooks:

* Bounty hunters compete for an on-planet bounty where the winner gets a ship as a reward. Like a bounty chase (non-lethal bounty).

I introduced them to the Yiyar clan in their first session, where they stole their ship so I could tie in Beyond the Rim.

In a campaign I ran a few years ago, the PCs were hired by the ship owner to crew his light freighter. The owner was a scholar and bought the ship to... go... scholar... about the sector.

After the first mission, the scholar found himself being arrested on trumped up charges of treason.

The ship was never impounded, and the PCs still had access to it, so they just started using it as their own ship. However, in doing so, they had to occasionally deal with some of the stuff and people the scholar was mixed up with.

We had a game starting on a planet post clone wars, which had been the scene of a battle. They found a old ship in the first session, missing a main engine, hyperdrive, escape pod and a number of broken structural supports. The next few sessions involved trading and working to get these pieces, and working together to build it up.

(Later video footage showed Anakin riding it down from orbit, surviving the crash by jumping off at the last minute (yeah, I know, but Anakin), cutting off the bits he needed to jury rig an escape pod for orbit plus hyperspace, then taking off and leaving).

My Crew started on Ord Mantell and managed to steal their ship from a Smuggling Cartel (which turned out to be a militant and extremist Rebel Cell) while being chased by the ISB and the Cartel.

They managed to change the transponder-code with the payouts from their first adventures, but the history of the ship and the fact that they were present when the ISB stormed the Cartel's building pulled them into an adventure where they had to get hold of the Rebel Cell to prove their innocence while figuring out who they eventually want to side with (Rebels, ISB, Jabba) because pretty much everyone was after the Rebel Cell Leader for different reasons.

My character has an interesting way to "acquire" his ship: he's building it piecemeal from parts at the scrapyard he is a stock-holder in. As an (old) droid, he haunts the place looking for the parts he needs as salvage comes in, or gets commissioned to, the yard. As per the Fully Operational Sourcebook, he has the complete plans for a Sith Fury-class via the "PROVEN EXPERTISE" under Rewards. The fly in the ointment (at least for the other PCs) is he tends to prioritize many things much higher than life support, and (so far) there are few out-of-atmosphere safe places on board the ship, so they have to hole up, or wear a full EVA-rated suit to go anywhere. After all, droids don't need bunks, or air, or other little things like food in order to exist peacefully aboard ship... Lots of plot hooks as the party seeks out different pieces needed to move that project more toward completion.