Heroes who cannot afford to buy their own
starship can always borrow, requisition, rent, or steal one as the need arises.
Borrowing a Starship: A character with the favor talent can attempt a favor check (DC 30) to borrow a
starship from a friendly contact, assuming that the contact has a ship available. The contact must have an attitude of helpful, and improving a contact's attitude requires a Diplomacy check. The GM sets the terms of the favor.
Renting a Starship: The issue of starship rental won't come up in campaigns where space traffic is limited to
military vessels. However, in campaigns featuring commercial and privately owned
starships, heroes can rent a starship for much less than it costs to buy one. Only ultralight or
light starships with a restriction rating of licensed (+1) or restricted (+2) can be rented, and the heroes must have the appropriate license to operate the vessel.
Renting a starship for a day requires a successful
Wealth check against one-quarter of the starship's purchase DC. Increase the purchase DC by 2 if the ship is equipped for
interstellar travel or if a trained crew is provided as part of the rental agreement. Renters must
cover any damages sustained by the ship during the rental period.
Stealing a Starship: Characters can steal a
starship only after disabling its security locks (Disable Device DC 40, one check per lock), overcoming any hostile crewmembers aboard, and defeating the ship's onboard computer security system (Computer Use DC 40). A ship's computer security system can be accessed from any onboard computer terminal, although using a bridge terminal reduces the DC by 5. For more information on defeating computer security, see the Computer Use
skill description.