I'd like some suggestions on plausible ways to get players to travel about on a planet without flying there in a starship. I've considered restricted airspace, bad weather, and heavy vegetation canopy. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I have also considered a world where the surface is uninhabited and all the locations are in subsurface tunnels (natural and excavated).

In our current adventure the party has woken up with a massive hangover and found themselves on a mission they appear to have agreed to. They can't remember where they left their ship!

Restricted airspace is a good idea, bad weather might be but a pilot worth his specialisation will ignore a bunch of those setback dice.

Make the target location only reachable by ground transport, without coordinates usable when flying, only directions based on things that can be seen from the ground, like a formation of rocks resembling some local deity, a cross road, a local plant growing somewhere it shouldn't ... But restricted airspace is good, not respecting it brings down the wrath of the empire, or local law enforcement and the entire legal system on them, add in some hidden turbolasers or ion cannons firing at anyone leaving the fly zones, or a lot of patrol squads of cloakshapes, TIEs, Z95s.... Make it not worth the hassle that a speeder bike or train ride would save them from. Or make any ship arriving landlocked for a set amount of time due to some recent outbreak of some disease that can't be brought off world...

Soft ground, rough ground, excessive vegetation may prohibit landing.

On some inner core worlds maybe the paper work and take off permissions could take too long if the players have to make multiple hops.

I'd suggest some increased maintenance cost or fees depending on your situation. Flying around the atmosphere puts more stress on the hull vs space. Weather conditions could also cause problems such as rain (or acid rain). If you introduce those into the game the players will get the hint when they have to replace X,000 worth in credits to fix their ship. In addition, if its a civilized planet, landing and docking fees could also be used.

Stealth.

Spaceships are big and noisey. Then lets talk about sensors. Those maker finding space ships much much easier.

And when a ship is landed its shields usually aren't powered up. Much much easier to destroy.

If all they're doing is flying close, landing, then traveling to their destination, then I don't really see an issue. If they're flying everywhere and landing at the destination, then it becomes an issue. Take into account the fact thatost civilized planets will have traffic control or somesuch and that you will need to land in spaceports or other legitimate sites. On uncivilized or "rural" planets it may be other factors like landscape that may make landing anywhere problematic. You may be able to get close, but not all the way to your destination.

I'd like some suggestions on plausible ways to get players to travel about on a planet without flying there in a starship. I've considered restricted airspace, bad weather, and heavy vegetation canopy. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I got one that's super easy: cost! Which one is cheaper: flying a 747 loaded with cargo from A to B or driving a semi with same? I seem to recall that each half hour of atmospheric flight eats up one of the ship's 50 fuel cells. Plus add in increased maintenance per flight hours (meaning more things will go wrong if the ship's engineer is not diligent) and suddenly the costs in time and money start to really mount up.

I'd like some suggestions on plausible ways to get players to travel about on a planet without flying there in a starship. I've considered restricted airspace, bad weather, and heavy vegetation canopy. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I got one that's super easy: cost! Which one is cheaper: flying a 747 loaded with cargo from A to B or driving a semi with same? I seem to recall that each half hour of atmospheric flight eats up one of the ship's 50 fuel cells. Plus add in increased maintenance per flight hours (meaning more things will go wrong if the ship's engineer is not diligent) and suddenly the costs in time and money start to really mount up.

In my experience with real world helicopters, flying a loaded ch-47 to just about anywhere is easy, landing a loaded ch-47 anywhere, not so much. Most spacecraft are bigger and heavier then a 47, so while the players can fly to any location, finding a big enough clearing, without random rocks and trees that might damage the ship, and with soils firm enough that your wayfarer won't sink in down to its belly is gonna be a lot harder.

These are not things that EotE really bothers with, and it's not really what I'm looking for.

Fine - then handwave it with some generalities. Knock 20% off when they complete the run with their ship for fuel and upkeep and start assigning black dice for potential of breaking down if the tech person doesn't say "Tonight I'm going to spend the evening scrubbing out the intake filters" from time to time.

Stealth.

Spaceships are big and noisey. Then lets talk about sensors. Those maker finding space ships much much easier.

And when a ship is landed its shields usually aren't powered up. Much much easier to destroy.

I think this is good and simple, together with a lot of the other suggestions.

If you want your enemy/target/criminal syndicate/enforcers to know you are about to put your nose into their business - drive there in your ship!

In my own game, the players base most of the game in a colonial setting. They can't exactly land in newly built villages all the time with their large, nearly silhouette five YT-1930, so instead they drive a speeder truck. As of yet, they've not really found much need of their ship except for interplanetary travel, which is what I'd suggest.

Of course, not all players see the same logic, so I'd suggest maybe making it plain old annoying to fly in a ship. Say that you can't land at certain locations, you have to pay a lot of money to land within the vicinity, and even then it takes longer and you still have to go by land. Like on Coruscant. You can much more easily drive, let alone walk, then fly, and even driving is a headache.

If there is an active spaceport with Imperial Customs officers stationed there. Any ship that does not land at the space port can be assumed to be a smuggler. Enjoy the consequences when you return to your ship and find an angry Imperial officer with two squads of stormtroopers with itchy trigger fingers.

Otherwise here are some other reasons

Stealth: do not want to be detected by people in orbit or on the planet. Requires to go "Nape of planet" avoiding terrain, and using the planets mass to mask you from sensors.

No safe area to land: Be it much too rocky, swampy, too many tree's, unstable ground.

Following beacon to landing zone, which might be a ways off, but at least you will know where the ship is, and others can find it.

As far as the ground not being suitable for landing, couldn't a starship use its repulsorlifts to simply hover at an altitude of 1 meter to bypass most such difficulties?

Sure, you want to pilot the ship and stay there why the rest of the group goes somewhere else?

Sure, you want to pilot the ship and stay there why the rest of the group goes somewhere else?

I think you can safely let it sit stationary at an altitude of 1 meter and the autopilot could handle that under most conditions. The autopilot is certainly able to handle allowing the pilot to step away from the controls for a time (especially in hyperspace). Worst case scenario, the cheapest pilot droid around can keep the thing in park.

Well, you could leave your ship hovering one meter up - but then we get back to fuel concerns. A car in idle outside of the grocery store is still consuming gas. Perhaps not as fast as the 1-cell an hour of atmospheric operations, but it's still cutting into your profit margin. And what if something goes wrong on the drop and it takes you several days to get back to the ship? You could be left with a horde of angry natives chasing you, an empty gas tank, and a twisted frame when the now unpowered ship dropped 3 feet.

On the other hand, you leave the keys in the ignition just for a second while you run in and grab milk. You come back out and someone has stolen your car. Great - and you still owed the bank 10,000 dollars on the loan. Now, replace car, milk and bank with ship, spice and Jabba. Good going, Mister Smuggler!

Well, you could leave your ship hovering one meter up - but then we get back to fuel concerns. A car in idle outside of the grocery store is still consuming gas. Perhaps not as fast as the 1-cell an hour of atmospheric operations, but it's still cutting into your profit margin. And what if something goes wrong on the drop and it takes you several days to get back to the ship? You could be left with a horde of angry natives chasing you, an empty gas tank, and a twisted frame when the now unpowered ship dropped 3 feet.

On the other hand, you leave the keys in the ignition just for a second while you run in and grab milk. You come back out and someone has stolen your car. Great - and you still owed the bank 10,000 dollars on the loan. Now, replace car, milk and bank with ship, spice and Jabba. Good going, Mister Smuggler!

Don't assume the characters are idiots. A remote key system has been shown in several pieces of fiction. It's no easier to steal a hovering ship than it is one on the ground.

As for fuel, I understand you are focused on it, but the rules just generalize it as Consumables. In this game ships have months of fuel.

You could easily translate fuel cell use, extended repulserlift flying, ect into ship strain. If you had a droid keeping the ship aloft, it could also cause strain on the droid's systems. It would be the same with characters running for long distances.

Just because the technology is there to hover doesn't make it ideal for the starship (especially larger ones). In fact most ships have landing gear.

If all they're doing is flying close, landing, then traveling to their destination, then I don't really see an issue. If they're flying everywhere and landing at the destination, then it becomes an issue. Take into account the fact thatost civilized planets will have traffic control or somesuch and that you will need to land in spaceports or other legitimate sites. On uncivilized or "rural" planets it may be other factors like landscape that may make landing anywhere problematic. You may be able to get close, but not all the way to your destination.

This.

It will be easy, even sensible, for the GM to not have a nice, flat landing spot beside every destination. Even on a desert planet, the destination could be a cave complex atop a very rocky range without any flat spots to land nearby. The players will be forced to land their ship on the flat plain nearby then hoof it or take the ship's speeder bikes up the winding path to the top of the ridge. Hovering over the target and launching the speeder bikes? You still need someone left on board to fly the ship away and go wait someplace (see below).

When they can only land nearby, start asking them who will be staying behind to guard the ship in the rural area? This will get their attention. No PCs will want to stay behind. A couple instances of NPCs or guard robots not doing so well guarding the ship will soon have the PCs thinking of other methods. "The ship isn't answering our pickup request!?" Or, "Sorry sir, we couldn't hold off all of the bandits, the ship is damaged and they took half of your cargo". Pilot capable NPC on board the waiting ship? A pirate attack scares the ship back to the local starport and the players have to drive or even walk back home.

Soon the players will be thinking of new ways to get to their destinations. "Maybe we should leave the ship at the starport and rent a landspeeder to drive to our destination?"

*shrugs*

What you see as obsession I see as simple logic - leave the car running overnight, you wont be getting to work the next morning. You asked for ideas on how to stop your players from jetting about doing point to point delivery with their ship, we keep throwing them out, and you keep shooting them down. Fine - it's your game, use what you want, but quit coming down on us for throwing out ideas covering all aspects . . . .

(or if your players are that determined to do point to point shipping that you have to plan for EVERY single contingency like that to thwart them - F' it. Just let 'em do it and get on with the story).

Again, terrain is always going to be an issue. In cities you are not going to hover a ship without drawing the wrong type of attention. As I said, there is some sort of air traffic control in civilization. It is not like hovering a helicopter, but more like hovering a 747 or Herc in the middle of a city. Just not going to happen. As to rural settings, terrain is still an issue. Forests, mountains, crags, etc. will mean you can not get close to the ground. You may be able to find a clearing near by, but there will still be travel involved. Time to haul out the land speeder. I just don't see it as being an issue unless you make it one.

As for fuel, I understand you are focused on it, but the rules just generalize it as Consumables. In this game ships have months of fuel.

*shrugs*

What you see as obsession I see as simple logic - leave the car running overnight, you wont be getting to work the next morning. You asked for ideas on how to stop your players from jetting about doing point to point delivery with their ship, we keep throwing them out, and you keep shooting them down. Fine - it's your game, use what you want, but quit coming down on us for throwing out ideas covering all aspects . . . .

(or if your players are that determined to do point to point shipping that you have to plan for EVERY single contingency like that to thwart them - F' it. Just let 'em do it and get on with the story).

I'm not shooting all of the ideas down. I'm not taken with the idea of fuel concerns, at least not more often than a very rare plot point. The only other restriction that I'm not sold on is the idea of a poor landing area since I believe that the ships can use repulsorlifts to hover for extended periods (this goes back to the point that I believe that the ships have months of onboard fuel capacity). I'm sorry if you believe that I'm coming down on you and others because I disagree on these points. I am not.

Repulsorlifts used minimal power and were reliable enough to be utilized continuously . - from Rupulsorlifts, Wookieepedia.