I'm in need of some quick suggestions for this. I'd appreciate any help rendered.

How much would someone reasonably pay a crew to carry twelves crates from Nar Shaddaa to Rorak 5, the space station orbiting Rorak 4? The cargo is slave collars - legal in Hutt Space - and the employer is a (largely) honest man: he used to fight for the Republic before Palpatine's New Order began (he was discharged shortly before the end of the Clone Wars for a crime he didn't commit).

Thoughts?

5-10k

I've put that he's offered five thousand, plus an extra one thousand if they do the job quickly, and to the satisfaction of their client. He's also provided some more weaponry for them in the form of a few blasters and stun grenades - as it happens, the cargo they're there to haul has been half-inched by another freighter captain, whom they need to 'convince' to return it.

So final (maximum) payment would be: 5,000 base + 1,000 bonus + blasters + stun grenades.

Sounds fine to me.

Seeing as how the cargo is fairly small and also legal, I think you're being rather generous - especially when you're also handing out several thousands worth of equipment.

In my campaign I'd lower the original fee somewhat but give the characters the opportunity to take on additional cargo on their own to fill up some of the available space. This could either be speculative trading (buying cheap at their point of origin and trying to sell expensive at the destination) or simple drop-point delivery (them getting paid X credits to carry Y amount of cargo between points A and B).

The nice thing about this approach is that it gives the characters a chance to actively do something to generate money beside taking on jobs for others. It also gives them an incentive to increase non-combat skills and talents. With speculative trading there's the Negotiation check to buy and sell, and possibly an Outer Rim check to see if they know what sort of goods they're in the market for at their destination. With drop-point delivery there's the Negotiation check for finding cargo (I use successes as an indication of size of cargo in Encumbrance, and Advantage as price per point of Encumbrance) and the Astrogation check to get there in time to get bonuses and avoid penalties for early/late delivery.

Be sure to leave an opportunity for a negotiations check. I wish one of my players invested in this skill. They're always complaining that their broke. Time to poke them and remind them of the obligation system.

Opportunity to negotiate was given.

There is a method to my madness regarding the generous payment: the players will find that in taking on this job, they are effectively stealing property, and possibly committing murder in the process; they have the alternative option of running the shipment for the legal owner - it pays less, but allows them to walk the lighter path.

Also, providing them with weaponry is intentional, regardless of pricing: at this time, only 2/6 of the characters have any sort of armaments; and the same number have the only combat skills of the group. This is good in that it means the rest have a vast array of skills at their disposal, but bad in that all combats lead a greater risk of character death.

Giving them weapons (weak ones, but weapons nonetheless) offers them the chance to at least fight back ; furthermore, it allows them all justification to train a rank or two in combative skills, to help even the score.

One final thing: at the start of this job, the crew's freighter is running on final fumes. Most of the credits they make will go toward the ship's maintenance, meaning that they'll need to take on more work almost immediately after.

Ah, well in that case it makes more sense.

They're also dealing with a volatile employer, who could very well refuse to work with them if they don't do as they're told. If this happens, they might have to take a loan - from the Hutts in order to keep flying (gotta love Obligation).

I've also had questions about an average fee for transport. If were lucky it'll be in AoR.

I've probably given by pcs an extrordinary amout of credits for jobs, that the employers were desprate, the job required combat pay, or the return, for the boss, would far out weigh the costs.

This is slightly by design and soon the Empire will be closing its fist on these jobs, making credits hard to come by, and instilling a vast dislike for the Empire as well.

But some guidelines about the "fair" costs of smuggling or working legit, would be most helpful.

When I feature tramp freighting in my sessions I lump them into two general types of missions or runs: mundane/legal cargo and illegal/obligation-driven cargo.

Anything that wont serve as an interesting or complicated mission due to being legal or obtained through a legit contract is kept as a simplified low risk-low reward method to pad out the cargo hold alongside more lucrative missions. I try to abstract these into one Negotiation check to find available contracts or goods to buy, the successes/advantages determine things like size/value of the goods and the destination. I keep the descriptions of these transactions to a minimum; Luke selling his speeder before leaving Tatooine wasn't a long exchange of dialog and negotiation the movie, so that's what I aim for in EotE.

I'm a real tightwad and like to keep the PCs hungry for money, so most contracts are around 10-30cr per ton (maybe a couple crates or 5-10 Encumbrance, depending on what makes sense for space) X the standard travel time (class 2 hyperdrive). So on their way to Rodia they might grab a no-nonsense job to deliver 50 pallets of datapads. They're in another region so maybe a week of space travel. Total could be 700 to a thousand credits.

The real money is in smuggling, especially with all the pressure the Empire puts on small independent spacers. Getting the better end of an illegal deal requires finding a reliable contact, good streetwise, negotiation skills and general know-how of illegal goods, or some connections already established by another party through a PC's Obligation. These should have enough complications from the law, criminal rivals, dangerous travel routes, and hostile delivery requirements that adventure is built into the mission. That way it can be padded out into a good session with lots of room for the PCs to plan and make arrangements to complete the run on their own terms as much as possible.

I tend to simplify the payment into a flat fee of 1 to 2 thousand credits depending on the danger involved, plus a few hundred to a thousand credits per day of extra travel. The primary smuggling mission to Rodia could pay a total of 5,500cr as an example, though it could take a whole session to obtain the goods, get to the drop-off point in a dangerous jungle, and some show of force to ensure payment. Bottom line is I keep the mundane stuff brief and encourage adventures around the high risk-high reward missions.

You guys got it made!

We decided to go with a very starved economy to help make our campaign last. We scrape by constantly just to keep our heads above the sand. Most of our jobs have paid to the group 200 Cr. plus what we collect while out. We have managed to scavenge a turbo lift cargo truck though and some other fun stuff. We hit our biggest payday yet with our last mission.

With not having much luck in the coin department, we decided to strike out on our own instead of taking jobs from our usual "fixer". We found a help wanted poster in regards to trouble with Akydi (sp, think lizard like Tauntaun) rustling. We handled the situation and collected a bounty for a grand total of 7,500 Cr. Only one problem though. One of the characters took a nasty crit and lost an arm. There goes all that coin and then some!

One of these days we will get ahead!

Just enough for food, gas and space tolls.