A Campaign in Space / Balancing of Spaceships with different SM

[Onkl]

Hi

One of the groups I play with recently decided that they are interested in playing a high TL space campaign. Their idea is to play a group of space-faring adventurers, each commanding his own ship, making a buck by any means available. The kind of guy you play in the computer games series Elite, or more recent: Privateer.

We are still in the brainstorming phase, still I already have a major problem, that of spaceship size and the corresponding cost. It makes a lot of sense that modules on larger ships cost more than modules on smaller ships. I now have a problem with balancing that.

Say one of my players wants to play a freighter (SM+10) Captain, the next wants to command a science vessel (SM+8) and the third wants to play a deep-strike fighter (SM+6) pilot.

If I got the rules correctly, the freighter costs a multitude of a fighter, as it should. My question now is IF/HOW can I incorporate these different ships into a fun game. It's not just the starting money to buy a ship with that's worrying me, but also rewards... as a module for a SM+10 ship has a lot more worth than for a ship with a smaller size, so if I give them money, the fighter will have the best systems in no time while the freighter wasn't able to buy a single new system.

Does anybody have any experience with such a mixed group of player controlled ships?

Of course I thought about just telling them that they all must pick a ship of a certain SM and give them an appropriate amount of credits to buy a ship that fits their needs. But if it is avoidable I would like to give them as much freedom as possible when designing their starting ship.

Thanks for your suggestions and tips!

Onkl