I'm reading The Hutt Gambit again and thinking about Han's early years as a smuggler. He worked so hard and saved for a while just to be able to lease a junker from Lando. I know the core rulebook says a party gets a ship as part of their obligation, but I am thinking about a more challenging start up. I think starting with a 100k plus resource and then shopping for a backpack seems like a stretch. Anyone else ever think about this or not a huge deal?

Set it up however you want, but with all of the Obligation each character starts with giving them a ship is only fair. Each party member will have things to do and people to see around the Outer Rim, and they'll need a way of getting there. In fact, in many games (certainly the one I'm running) paying off said ship is a huge part of the group's collective Obligation.

There's been a couple schools of thought with my group.

The first is that they've thrown everything they've had into getting the ship, so money for major supplies has been pretty tough.

The second is that the group recently lost everything and had to scrape up new supplies. This is what my players had to go through recently, and they liked it.

The third thought was the concept of "personal" gear. The items they buy at the beginning are the things that they carry with them at all times, and see it as their de facto gear.

The fourth that came up was regarding how the characters got the ship. You mentioned how Han saved up and got his first ship from Lando; when you think about it, all Han had gear-wise was his blaster and the clothes on his back, so it makes sense. His ship selected by the player and/or assigned to him at chargen was whatever he was leasing at the time.

The fifth came up during a discussion about Firefly. Some of the players here are living on the Outer Rim on planets that don't have very much going for them, so some of the major technology, like blasters, may be pretty rare, making slugthrowers the common weapon of choice.

If you had the means to give a ship away, would you give it to an inexperienced unknown group of scoundrels? Having said that, I'm thinking about having the first series of adventures planet side and seeing where it goes.

The characters are not necessarily total newbs, even if they're not the best-known smugglers in the Rim.

Also consider how lenders would give credit for ships in the very same way unscrupulous lenders caused the housing bubble in the US that burst in 2008.

I'm reading The Hutt Gambit again and thinking about Han's early years as a smuggler. He worked so hard and saved for a while just to be able to lease a junker from Lando. I know the core rulebook says a party gets a ship as part of their obligation, but I am thinking about a more challenging start up. I think starting with a 100k plus resource and then shopping for a backpack seems like a stretch. Anyone else ever think about this or not a huge deal?

I've been thinking about a campaign in which the PCs are at first down on their luck on Tatooine, and have to work up to acquiring one. Although it's not standard, it does provide a good early benchmark for the party's achievements.

-Nate

I changed it up on my players. They started by crash landing on a relatively abandoned planet so the first episode involved them trying to find a ship to get off planet. They found an abandoned lambda class shuttle that had most of its guns broke and its primary hyper drive on the deck of the ship. As a reward for creativity they "found" three parts to fix one system.

I gave my players "Defacto" gear
Backpack, Knife, webgear and a med pack etc...

and started them off as labor on a heavy freighter

then they were offered an option to work in trade for a junker they could fix up later...

they managed to turn the tables and earn the ship and steal a slightly better ship...!

The whole concept of being cheap with credits to start and just giving a 6 figure ship to players is silly I think. It also completely ignores a great hook for a group. Making what they start with the first session. Love the idea of starting them in jail and the prison break is the first game.

I think starting with a 100k plus resource and then shopping for a backpack seems like a stretch. Anyone else ever think about this or not a huge deal?

Well, you could always do the WEG route and say the ship owner starts with a ship and X obligation in a debt to a loan shark / bank / whatever. On the other hand, I've never had it as a problem, starting the characters with a ship. You need for them to get from place to place for games to happen and its tough to smuggle on public transport.

Also, think of it as a YT-1300 shaped hole that they throw credits into. Maintenance, upkeep, repairs, fuel and other fluids, consumables, docking fees, licenses, and bribes will quickly run them a pretty penny.

So yeah, I wouldnt worry about it.

Smuggling on public transports (including passenger liners) is actually very common. Not every smuggler fills entire holds and makes a full throttle blockade run. Many are content with what they can hide on their persons or luggage, and they thrive on just hiding among the masses.

The whole concept of being cheap with credits to start and just giving a 6 figure ship to players is silly I think.

Have you ever owned a house? Same premise. And not everyone wants to start a game with the characters just then meeting each other…on the player OR the GM side. I prefer the baseline being "characters immediately can explore the galaxy and seek their fortune" versus "characters have to earn the ability to leave the starting planet."

The whole concept of being cheap with credits to start and just giving a 6 figure ship to players is silly I think.

Have you ever owned a house? Same premise. And not everyone wants to start a game with the characters just then meeting each other…on the player OR the GM side. I prefer the baseline being "characters immediately can explore the galaxy and seek their fortune" versus "characters have to earn the ability to leave the starting planet."

And some of us like to grow a team from the ground up and start their history together. To each his own.

I'm not saying your way is wrong. Just saying I like the default set where it's at, with ground-up being an optional way to do it instead of the default way that it is for many games.

I liked the Beginner game approach, where the objective of the adventure was to steal a ship as the opening adventure... with everything to follow. So much so that my group has swiped the Krayt Fang, and are about to discover the unpleasantness that awaits them...

The Beginner Game story is a good example of starting part-way into the "backstory," where the Core Rulebook presumes that has already happened.

Also, the six-figure number for the ship is the cost of a YT-1300 "new" and in perfect working order. By contrast a used freighter is 25,000 credits according to Wookiepedia. The new price reflected in Edge of the Empire is consistent with what was listed in the Saga Edition version of the game. The Saga Edition also indicated that a used version of the ship, which would be very common would be 25,000 credits.

Smuggling on public transports (including passenger liners) is actually very common. Not every smuggler fills entire holds and makes a full throttle blockade run. Many are content with what they can hide on their persons or luggage, and they thrive on just hiding among the masses.

I kinda don't want to waste my free time on pretending to be the kind of smuggler who smuggles by swallowing fifty condoms full of coke though.

Drug mule isn't an enormously glamorous career choice.

This sort of thing sounds much cooler:-

At the start, the rum-runner fleet consisted of a ragtag flotilla of fishing boats, excursion boats, and small merchant craft. But as prohibition wore on, the stakes got higher and the ships became more specialized. Large merchant ships like McCoy's Tomoka waited on Rum Row, but specialized high-speed craft were built for the ship-to-shore runs. These high-speed boats were often luxury yachts and speedboats fitted with powerful aircraft engines, machine guns, and armor plating. Often, builders of rum-runners' ships also supplied Coast Guard vessels (such as Fred and Mirto Scopinich's Freeport Point Shipyard).^%5B2%5D Rum-runners often kept cans of used engine oil handy to pour on hot exhaust manifolds, in case a smoke screen was needed to escape the revenue ships.

The rum-runners were definitely faster and more maneuverable. Add to that the fact that a rum-running captain could make several hundred thousand dollars a year. In comparison, the Commandant of the Coast Guard made just $6,000 annually, and seamen made $30/week. These huge rewards meant the rum-runners were willing to take big risks. They ran without lights at night and in fog, risking life and limb. Often, the shores were littered with bottles from a rum-runner who had hit a sandbar or a reef in the dark at high speed and sunk.

Smuggling on public transports (including passenger liners) is actually very common. Not every smuggler fills entire holds and makes a full throttle blockade run. Many are content with what they can hide on their persons or luggage, and they thrive on just hiding among the masses.

I kinda don't want to waste my free time on pretending to be the kind of smuggler who smuggles by swallowing fifty condoms full of coke though.

Drug mule isn't an enormously glamorous career choice.

I was thinking more 'data courier' than drug mule, but there isn't really too much difference in the skills needed between the two - other than the swallowing and defecating bit, but I suppose that you could put your data drive through the GI route too.

In Star Wars, this type of smuggler keeps a droid or something similar and uses Hidden Storage to keep small high value items on it while hiding in plain sight. It's actually not a bad way for a non-Pilot Smuggler to go about things when working independently, and a group can end up pulling off even bigger scams.

I was thinking more 'data courier' than drug mule,

It might be more PC friendly if the players are the ones trying to jack the courier, like in Max and then Kruger in Elysium.

I liked the Beginner game approach, where the objective of the adventure was to steal a ship as the opening adventure... with everything to follow. So much so that my group has swiped the Krayt Fang, and are about to discover the unpleasantness that awaits them...

The Beginner Game story is a good example of starting part-way into the "backstory," where the Core Rulebook presumes that has already happened.

Also, the six-figure number for the ship is the cost of a YT-1300 "new" and in perfect working order. By contrast a used freighter is 25,000 credits according to Wookiepedia. The new price reflected in Edge of the Empire is consistent with what was listed in the Saga Edition version of the game. The Saga Edition also indicated that a used version of the ship, which would be very common would be 25,000 credits

Yeah I been thinking about the opening adventure a little bit. I also like the the idea of used equipment and having it be a part of the adventure, keeping it running etc..

I've also thought about obligation and the starter ship...that seems like a lot of "roleplaying" game time etc that is written off for 5 obligation...I've been thinking about it relative to a D&D party starting with a castle or griffon mounts. All good though, I was just curious about what other people might think about.

I was thinking more 'data courier' than drug mule,

It might be more PC friendly if the players are the ones trying to jack the courier, like in Max and then Kruger in Elysium.

Kruger was pretty clearly a bad guy. I think that playing a 'mule' for the good guys (like the rebels) can still be pretty heroic. R2 was a mule for the death star plans in episode IV.

I've always assumed that the characters start with a used version of the ship. So, 25-40k worth of debt.

The Beginner game makes a nice backstory for any PC group, actually - my players fell in love with the Krayt Fang and built the entire consortium around it. Later PCs had their own ships (or not, and had to hitch a ride on the Fang) but the original ship remains a much-treasured base and credit-sink to this day.

And oh, good to see you contributing, ErikB.

I'm reading The Hutt Gambit again and thinking about Han's early years as a smuggler. He worked so hard and saved for a while just to be able to lease a junker from Lando. I know the core rulebook says a party gets a ship as part of their obligation, but I am thinking about a more challenging start up. I think starting with a 100k plus resource and then shopping for a backpack seems like a stretch. Anyone else ever think about this or not a huge deal?

I've been thinking about a campaign in which the PCs are at first down on their luck on Tatooine, and have to work up to acquiring one. Although it's not standard, it does provide a good early benchmark for the party's achievements.

-Nate

In the campaign that I am in we have yet to acquire a ship. Well, we just found one, but need to get it up and running. It was intentionally buried in the sand and used as a house. I wont go into detail, but we are looking at running this campaign over the course of the 3 books +. We wanted a very gritty, starved economy, slow power crawl (equipment) feel for our game. That way we always have something to strive for. The GM developed the "skeleton" of the star system we are in for Firefly and has been building on it off and on for some time. He finally has us to play in his world. Tons of NPCs, places to go to, "missions" to do, bounties to acquire, speeder races to attend, you name it, he has it, and we haven't even left our home planet.

The most money any single character has had at one time was 1,500 Cr. and that was from winning his speeder race. After his sponsor and the crew got paid, that was his cut of the 10,000 Cr. purse.

No, you don't have to start with a ship.

I don't see the ship as an overpowered magic item, but a base, a shared resource that ties the players together, and a means to getting them from A to B. Yes, there are other ways to do that, but a ship is the simplest way, so that's the default.

Depends on what the players want. A player who wants epic heroic adventure isn't going to be satisfied with hunting rats in the sewers for coppers.

The one player in my group who doesn't play EoE feels that it goes against the strengths of Star Wars. SW is big and epic, and EoE makes you think small, and mundane. I don't agree with him, but I see where he's coming from. My players want to be Big **** Heroes, the Grey Mousers and Han Solos of the fringe, so that's what we play. YMMV.