Star Wars RPG

A few times. They've had a few droids and some goons on loan from the organization they're working for. I try to run them as lowkey minions and not steal any of the PC's thunder. It definitely helps with larger ships to have the random turrets and/or fighter compliment crewed by the basic hirelings.

I think the trick is to just keep them very generic and in the background, like extras in a Star Wars show.

It also depends on how much detail your group likes to keep track of. I tend to ignore things like fuel costs, payroll, etc. But some groups have that one spreadsheet person who loves that kind of thing. If yours does, don't be afraid to offload some of it on that player.