So how did the PC's get the ship?

[Dagger75]

I was wondering if I could get some interesting ideas on how a 1st level character got there ship. I actually have no problem with the players having one at low levels in a Sci-Fi game I am just wanting some ideas on how they got it.

Loan Shark- I have done this to death.

Salvaged- Not a very big fan of

Won in a <insert gambling game> -- Nah

Inherited -- Doesn't seem that fun

I do have few ideas I would like to share and get some constructive critism or ideas.

Idea 1- One of the party members is hired by an unsavory sort to go to a government auction and get some cargo that was from a shipment that was impounded. The crew was caught and the contents are being auctioned off. There is something valuable in the cargo. The NPC can't waltz into a government run facility hiself so hires one of the party to buy Lot CG-107.
The PC bids on it no problem when he goes to fill out the paper work Lot CG-107 was not just the cargo but due to a clerical error it is the ship it was on also. The bueracrats don't care, there is a line forming, its all legal and congrats to the luck man. Sign here the ship and the cargo are yours. Now the PC needs a crew for his new ship, the other PC's.
Now some wrinkles: The NPC wants his ship back, it is his after all. Leagally its the players bought with the NPC's money. I would hope the PC would deliver the cargo and run but you never can tell.
Also the former crew might want the ship back. After all the proceeds were menat to pay for the trial, lawyers, and other such stuff. Now they had spend some time in prison.

 

[Dagger75]

Idea 2- A NPC has a beat up ship that barely runs. He gets some people together to fix it up and do some cargo runs. Hires the party. Have them do a few simple runs then the big one.
The NPC needs the party to go to the Main hub worlds with a special cargo. It is sensitive and I can give you some big money. Just drop it off an go.
What the party doesn't know is thier ship is the same as the NPCs real smugglers ship. He is sending the PC's as a decoy to throw them off the trail of the real smugglers. Now the PC's get caught. They are searched and arrested. Nothing illeagal on the ship. The cops know the PC's work for a front for some criminal organization. Help them find themand they will be rewarded or face the consiquences.
Wrinkles- Work with the law and turn over the crooks. Made a nice powerful enemy. Get the ship as a reward for helping the cops
Don't say a word, the party is released after a few days, they technically did nothing illeagal and weren't smuggling anything. Now they can be pissed with the Mob or go back. If they go back the mob is impressed, gives them a ship and permanat job. OR they can just take the ship and leave. The mob may want to know what was said and try to "talk" to the party PLUS the cop knows they are in the mob and begins hounding them.

Any other idead would be very helpful.

 

[wingsandsword]

1. The PC's are captured and enslaved by pirates/slavers, they revolt, kill their captors, and now have their ship. This can be a beginning to the entire campaign, a reason for disparate characters to get together to form a party.

2. The PC's are signed on to be hands on somebody elses ship, but in a battle or accident (pirates, evil space empire attack, alien attack, asteroid collision, reactor breach, whatever fits the setting) the captain/owner and mates are killed, leaving the PC's as the only people on the ship. (If you want to justify it further, you could say the owner left no will, and the law says ownership goes to surviving crew in that case, so the PC's all have an even share of the ship).

3. A shuttle/light cargo ship/similar small launch from a big space cruiser arrives. While the crew of the launch are exploring the planet (the PC's homeworld) another ship arrives, destroys the first ship in a space battle, leaving the launch alone. The crew of the launch gets into trouble with native life/street gangs/local government and calls for help, which never shows up, and they are also killed. The PC's then find a seemingly abandoned shuttlecraft/light cargo ship in a clearing or other out-of-the-way place, it's owners never come back for it, and it's the PC's for the taking.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

1.) Like Wingsand Sword said - Mutiny. Just make sure that they have the skills to run the ship.

2.) The characters are shareholders, each owning a share of the ship equal to their starting money. They owe the rest to a bank, merchant, or holding company; and must pay 12% of the cost of the ship each year for 12 years, otherwise the ship reverts to the bank or holding company. This is closer to the way things typically worked in the real world, and give the characters incentive to become merchant adventurers/privateers. Book of the Sea by Mongoosehas a good trade sytem, and the system can also be found in the older Seas of Blood by the same company.

3.) The ship actually belongs to the Royal Navy (or equivelant) - the Navy gets a percentage of any prizes taken and can call upon the characters for service at need. Close to the way 'owning' a scout ship used to work in first edition Traveller.

The Auld Grump

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Its fairly simplistic...but you'd be amazed how many PCs I've had steal ships before. Even Jedi in Star Wars games have 'borrowed' ships and forgotten to return them. Its also a method that can provide some nice adventures afterwards, as the original owners might not approve of their ship being borrowed.

Stealing also is a good first adventure, while at the same time making the PCs actually earn the ship.

 

[swrushing]

Players in my upcoming firefly campaign, stop reading now!!!

















While planetside near the docs, a calamity strikes, like say a natural disaster (quakes, hurricanes, volcano, sun going nova), unnatural disaster (unexpected release of bio-engineered plague, antimatter power plant going critical, ) or sudden raid by really really bad guys like say reavers, magog or Cleansers of the Purifying Flame.

it should become obvious that staying planetside means dead, or worse.

So the PCs (and possibly a number of NPCs) basically take a ship that is sitting in docs with its owner or pilot missing or perhaps they even commandeer it from such when the current owner/pilot refuse to take refugees on board. The PCs get off world and save numerous people as the disaster wipes out much of where they just were.

Sure, the PCs are somewhat "in control" of the ship (if they choose to be) but keeping control (forging papers, convincing NPCs the PCs are really STILL in charge, etc), dealing with any unexpected surprises (booby traps, creditors or other people looking for/hostile to the original owners and not being overly polite about it, and even "hey, there is a secret compartment here and it contains... OMFG!!!") and potentially dealing with an inevitable return of the original owners or allies of theirs are gonna make their life interesting.

This gives you a quick "bunch of disparate people thrown together" start, gives the crew a resource of unknown quality, and some degree of "common problems".

This one works better if you play a little on planetside before pulling everyone together and have a few scenes to already establish the previous ship owner/pilot as a bad sort of guy, so the PCs have reason to know of his ship AND to not like him or have too many qualsm about taking it from him even if that means by force.

 

[philreed]

Several of the starship PDFs from Ronin Arts are designed for campaign play.

The Daytona is designed to transport hover racers from system to system. In this campaign the player characters can be the hover racers, the maintenace crew, or pilots of the starship.

The Cronkite is an interstellar newsvan. In this campaign the player characters are journalists flying from system to system in search of news stories.

The Black Mantis is presented as a privateer's ship. It's always fun to play pirates.

The Taurus is a safari ship. In this campaign the player characters are big game hunters working for a zoo or wealthy individual.

 

[C. Baize]

1: Bought in an auction.
2: Board a raiding vessel and take it over.
3: They're hired help on a ship and the owner/captain is killed.
4: Rent-to-own.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

"Test this new ship. It has the new and improved Part-X"

"Go check out this anomoly in sector 22-6 in the Nebula of No Return."

"Hi, Jack, hey, here's the codekey to your ship. I upgraded it and stripped out your old serial numbers." - Wrong number

 

[wingnut_dc]

The party are employees of a major corporation. All of their job assignments require the use of a ship and have one given to them to use.