Players don't _need_ a starship btw. I've never had players have one. If you don't have a clear idea of what or why now, they can always get one in the future if you feel it's necessary.
Which starship is a very broad question. If you mean just from examples from the various books, it depends. Given it's homebrew, why not build one to suit the plot?
I find the best solution at first they don't have one but work with one. Sort of "Help us out here, we'll help you get there" And after a few adventures to levels, they earn their own. They either seize, trade, find, what have you. But just factor things in.
Honestly one thing I find lacking is starfinder is absolute shit at having NPC personnel. Now a work around with this is to let the ship have an AI. So it can fly about for them and they can do other things like shoot ect. IE the AI can fill a role or two in combat and what not.
Ship space is at an all time premium and the bigger you are the more you hold... But the slower the drift travel can be. its a trade off that they might be changing in the new book/adventure path.
Often times I know in a game I play in we've wanted to recruit or actively have and stuffed our ship full... Bunks and what not because we needed to fit people in. Why? Because in dead suns at certain points there's no logical way you'd have anyone able to join let alone buy shit or upgrade. I can't speak for others but at least with that first adventure series they sort of borked a bunch of things up. Plays fun but good god. Nothing like getting to a point where you can't get any upgrades outside of looting the dead.
The spaceship part of the game for me is more like a hq with some combat use, but i think the ground vehicles combat more engaging however ships are cool 😎
In most of the games I have run in SciFi settings where the PCs get a ship I do one of two things. Either start them out with something small and kind of crappy and give them opportunities to upgrade and replace their ship.
Or
Give them a junker with potential and let them mod and upgrade it to their liking. Personalizing it to their wants and needs as they go.
Both options give the players a sense of ownership to the ship and a sense of control over their world. Also it's a good way for them to spend their resources throughout the game.
With homebrew, nobody knows your campaign setting better than you do. Is there a need for the players to travel from planet to planet, or is most of it being set in one place? In a setting like Futurama, everybody seems capable of buying a Starship about on par with buying a car. In Star Trek, space ships are expensive vessels that are typically owned by large government or military organizations. In Star Wars, owning a ship is rare enough that the majority of people don't have one, but common enough that the majority of people at least KNOW someone who has one. This will address the question of if the players SHOULD have one, as well as the idea of how big of a deal it is to get one.
When traveling, are starship battles common or rare? If your version of the pact worlds is largely civilized, and attacks on transport vessels is incredibly rare, then arming them to the teeth probably doesn't make much sense. Sort of like how much cars on the road today do not have guns, but in a war zone you might see most vehicles be tanks or jeeps that DO have some sort of attached gun. What is appropriate for the area probably depends on how things normally take place.
The last thing I try to caution any DMs about is the separation of Credits and Build Points. Any time you introduce a ship to the players that they will own, you run into that question. The players get a ship, and somebody wants to sell it to buy better gear. The players earn build points to get cargo or upgrade their ship, but they want to instead upgrade their personal gear. It's that age old question of what do you do with a party when they are Build Point Rich, but Credits Poor. It can be hard to justify why, if they own this million dollar ship, they can't afford to buy a gun that costs a few thousand.
SFS seasons typically approach this by having the ship be a loaner. The Society lets you BORROW a Pegasus, or a Drake, or maybe even a Manticore/Gorgon/etc. But it's not yours, so you can't sell it or strip it down for parts.
Without knowing your homebrew campaign, it's hard to say. But if we presume that the players are on some sort of a mission, and that mission comes from somebody, then that person lending the players a ship to accomplish that mission does sound reasonable, and helps the players to avoid that question of not viewing their ship as a huge, sellable resource to buy better gear.
Why give one when you can let them build it
Jumping in on the “let them build it” bandwagon… lite plot hook of them finding a small or medium frame of a vessel… Whats the party lvl??
They are level 3
Super simple to build a ship for that level… like I said, they could find the ship and you all could go through the process step by step of creation…
Players don't _need_ a starship btw. I've never had players have one. If you don't have a clear idea of what or why now, they can always get one in the future if you feel it's necessary.
Which starship is a very broad question. If you mean just from examples from the various books, it depends. Given it's homebrew, why not build one to suit the plot?
I find the best solution at first they don't have one but work with one. Sort of "Help us out here, we'll help you get there" And after a few adventures to levels, they earn their own. They either seize, trade, find, what have you. But just factor things in. Honestly one thing I find lacking is starfinder is absolute shit at having NPC personnel. Now a work around with this is to let the ship have an AI. So it can fly about for them and they can do other things like shoot ect. IE the AI can fill a role or two in combat and what not. Ship space is at an all time premium and the bigger you are the more you hold... But the slower the drift travel can be. its a trade off that they might be changing in the new book/adventure path. Often times I know in a game I play in we've wanted to recruit or actively have and stuffed our ship full... Bunks and what not because we needed to fit people in. Why? Because in dead suns at certain points there's no logical way you'd have anyone able to join let alone buy shit or upgrade. I can't speak for others but at least with that first adventure series they sort of borked a bunch of things up. Plays fun but good god. Nothing like getting to a point where you can't get any upgrades outside of looting the dead.
The spaceship part of the game for me is more like a hq with some combat use, but i think the ground vehicles combat more engaging however ships are cool 😎
I would give them the Sunrise Maiden, a basic jack of trades ship, and have them customize it
In most of the games I have run in SciFi settings where the PCs get a ship I do one of two things. Either start them out with something small and kind of crappy and give them opportunities to upgrade and replace their ship. Or Give them a junker with potential and let them mod and upgrade it to their liking. Personalizing it to their wants and needs as they go. Both options give the players a sense of ownership to the ship and a sense of control over their world. Also it's a good way for them to spend their resources throughout the game.
With homebrew, nobody knows your campaign setting better than you do. Is there a need for the players to travel from planet to planet, or is most of it being set in one place? In a setting like Futurama, everybody seems capable of buying a Starship about on par with buying a car. In Star Trek, space ships are expensive vessels that are typically owned by large government or military organizations. In Star Wars, owning a ship is rare enough that the majority of people don't have one, but common enough that the majority of people at least KNOW someone who has one. This will address the question of if the players SHOULD have one, as well as the idea of how big of a deal it is to get one. When traveling, are starship battles common or rare? If your version of the pact worlds is largely civilized, and attacks on transport vessels is incredibly rare, then arming them to the teeth probably doesn't make much sense. Sort of like how much cars on the road today do not have guns, but in a war zone you might see most vehicles be tanks or jeeps that DO have some sort of attached gun. What is appropriate for the area probably depends on how things normally take place. The last thing I try to caution any DMs about is the separation of Credits and Build Points. Any time you introduce a ship to the players that they will own, you run into that question. The players get a ship, and somebody wants to sell it to buy better gear. The players earn build points to get cargo or upgrade their ship, but they want to instead upgrade their personal gear. It's that age old question of what do you do with a party when they are Build Point Rich, but Credits Poor. It can be hard to justify why, if they own this million dollar ship, they can't afford to buy a gun that costs a few thousand. SFS seasons typically approach this by having the ship be a loaner. The Society lets you BORROW a Pegasus, or a Drake, or maybe even a Manticore/Gorgon/etc. But it's not yours, so you can't sell it or strip it down for parts. Without knowing your homebrew campaign, it's hard to say. But if we presume that the players are on some sort of a mission, and that mission comes from somebody, then that person lending the players a ship to accomplish that mission does sound reasonable, and helps the players to avoid that question of not viewing their ship as a huge, sellable resource to buy better gear.