Space combat when PCs are not operating the ship

[DougRed4]

I think that's some good advice from SWP. I'd recommend doing just such a sit-down, either at the start of a campaign, or at any time the GM realizes such a situation warrants it.

Ironically enough, in my current campaign we had just the opposite problem! We started out with two ship's captains, and after we realized some logistical problems with that, we moved things to a single vessel. Then both characters were a bit redundant at times, both filling the "freighter captain/engineer" duties for the group. I had to remind one of the players to focus on some other stuff his character was good at (he's also an information broker), to allow the pilot/engineer character a chance to shine, too.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Jedi Skyler]

I will admit that a number of my suggestions do seem to come from a 'punish the lack of foresight' angle; however, everything I suggested also comes from not truly knowing the dynamics you're dealing with.

I agree that if you're wanting to direct your players into an area in which they have no real interest, you might want to rethink what you want to do. Yes, presiding over the game should be as fun for you as playing the game should be to your players, and that needs to be addressed if it's an issue. However, if the players actually enjoy shipboard interaction and want to keep that as a part of their regular gaming, then you should most definitely address the issue of the entire party neglecting to put skill dice into ship board duties. Even if it's only 1D, that STILL puts the skill up above the attribute, and gives them a better chance at success, and is a better foundation on which to build.

It also shows they're willing to diversify their characters for the good of the team; and if you can get the entire group to do so, you'll vastly open up what the group will be capable of doing, which opens the door to many more types of adventures. Might even solidify them as a much better team, too.

[shootingwomprats]

Another thing you can do to help your characters want to change their characters or develop some other skills:

1. Don't make the support people that good. Just a tad over average. If the players don't like it, they can develop the skills themselves.
2. If they are tired of the ship getting blasted to pieces and they are just along for the ride (if a ship is damaged, there is a chance that those aboard will take damage) maybe they will start learning to pilot.
3. If systems get ionized or knocked out with alarming regularity maybe instead of standing around doing nothing they will learn some repair skills. 4. etc etc
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[Dromdarr_Alark]

One of the players has a star fighter. So he wants to do space combat.

I have already run space combat a few times, and the players are still reminiscing on how wacky and fun it was (even though their characters did nothing).

I just want to encourage them to take it into their own hands and take ownership of it. I want them to invest their characters a little more of their own characters in space combat.

As far as expectations from the beginning, I was quite clear that this game was going to be much like the movies, meaning the characters would be jumping from planet to planet with the Empire in pursuit. It was expected that space combat would be a thing. It seems that they already had their character concepts in mind, and assumed that I would provide transport for them (which I did).

But now I'm trying to ween them off of it, and that's why I posted my original question.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[Dromdarr_Alark]

[Ral_Brelt]

You say the Imps are chasing them...you got an adventure thread right there that solves the problem.

PCs hafta go to planet x to do a mission for themselves or the rebellion, while they're on the mission, have the Empire drop the hammer on the NPCs and impound the freighter. Now the PCs have no way off planet after their business is wrapped up, and some of their gear is locked up along with the ship and their friends. Thread can be to boost their ship back and then save their NPC friends from an Imp prison colony, etc. Have them need to fly the ship out and to exfil their friends.

[Jedi Skyler]

I agree with that. The party can have learned about the Imperial raid and be prompted to act on it before the Imps have the opportunity to properly search and empty the ship, but after the NPCs have been sent away. The Imps are usually more interested in dealing with the prisoners first, rather than the ship. They'll figure they have all the time in the world to properly search the ship, which will give the party time to slip on board and break it out of impound. Of course, in order to rescue their friends, they're not going to have the time to hire a new crew.

They might possibly have the time to hire a pilot. Or, what might work better would be to indeed let them be able to take one person on board...I'm thinking someone strong in Tech skills, who also is good enough with Piloting and Astrogation to get them from point A to point B...but having the one person is going to FORCE the party to learn stuff pretty quickly. While they're in hyperspace, they can train. I'm figuring this NPC can be in the Imperials' bad graces when the party encounters him, and since they're already in the process of blasting out of there in their ship, this guy can offer to go with them and pilot the ship to get out of immediate danger, offering to train them during the hyperspace part of the trip. Depending on where you decide to have the NPCs held, you might even be able to reasonably get rid of this 'teacher' NPC before the party makes their actual attack...perhaps he was on his way to a system that serves as a waypoint on their journey, maybe even their last stopping point, which will give them the greatest chance to learn all they can before mounting their attack.

And if you play that out in a long enough period of time, perhaps throwing in a few planetside mishaps, you can justifiably give them some CPs and let them upgrade their shipboard stats before heading out to deal with the actual rescue.

Then, of course, once the NPCs have been rescued, you can have the lot of them decide they need to take some serious time off to recuperate from their ordeal. Have the Imps torture them for information or something so that, even in the relatively short time they'll have been captives, they'll need to take some time off. That will leave your PCs in charge of all duties aboard the ship. And later on, if you so desire, you can bring those NPCs into future adventures...perhaps one at a time would be best, but have them recuperated, retrained, and working for the Alliance in some other capacity. I'd think it'd be a nice touch for the players to see their old 'buddies' popping up from time to time, should they be running these characters for a sufficient amount of time.

[shootingwomprats]

There is the old stand-by. "The pilot is dead, how hard can it be?" Also remind your players that skills default to the attribute at no penalty.

I would also encourage them to spend Character Points to improve those rolls. Trust me, if they have to spend 5+ points in a single adventure to save their collective asses, they WILL spend 3-5 points to learn the skill.

Its cost effective. That seems to be an issue a lot as well. Players never purchase/learn skills they don't really want or they do not think will help them UNTIL they need them. Make them need them.
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

[Dromdarr_Alark]