What skill is used to pilot an airspeeder?

I'm running my players through the Arda I adventure and got to the airspeeder patrol. I had originally thought it would be Pilot: Space. The book suggests using a Rebel pilot which only Pilot skill on the profile is Space. However, my group said that it should be Pilot: Planetary based upon the skill descriptions. I read through the long skill descriptions during the game and at that time agreed with my players, but I'm unsure.

Which skill should be used for piloting airspeeders? Space? Planetary? Both would work?

For Airspeeders, I would use Pilot (Planetary). Even without ranks, most things should be doable by a space pilot.

Kevynn

It's Piloting (planetary). It covers all skills that involves the use of vessels and vehicles that are not spacecraft. As a rule of thumb, if it can go into space it's Piloting (space), and everything else is Piloting (planetary).

It's Space (Planetary).

As a side note, characters that want to be experts at airspeeders should choose Driver over Pilot. It seems weird because of the naming, but it's totally what Driver is made for.

EDIT: ... and by "Space" I mean "Pilot." DON'T JUDGE ME!

It's Space (Planetary).

Is that a new skill, Doc?

(sorry, just in a pedantic mood...)

But yeah, I agree - Driver is for airspeeders and bikes (or riding beasts!)

It's Space (Planetary).

Is that a new skill, Doc?

I've heard it both ways.

It's Space (Planetary).

Is that a new skill, Doc?

I've heard it both ways.

Thanks guys. Makes me wonder why FFG referenced the Rebel Pilot NPC should be used in Arda I for the airspeeders when they aren't stated out with Pilot: Planetary. I suppose the 4 Agility is good enough, but I decided to pretend the NPC had equal ranks of Pilot: Planetary and Space.

Good heads up for the rest of us though.

Thanks guys. Makes me wonder why FFG referenced the Rebel Pilot NPC should be used in Arda I for the airspeeders when they aren't stated out with Pilot: Planetary. I suppose the 4 Agility is good enough, but I decided to pretend the NPC had equal ranks of Pilot: Planetary and Space.

Probably just for flavor. 4 Agility most certainly makes a competent pilot out of anyone, regardless of career. But I do like the idea of "this is our driver/pilot/operator-of-vehicles. He always flies and drives." Such a character could get you out of a jam in atmosphere, but really shines in starships, dodging asteriods and dogfighting and such.

I suppose it might make sense for a higher-level, hyper-specialized character with low Agility to max out his ranks in Pilot (Planetary) so that he can be the dedicated tank/speeder driver in a military campaign, leaving the Ace to take over gunnery or something. But getting to the place where one can rival 4 Ability dice with skills is rather expensive.

While agreeing with the above, I think of it more as driving with ground obstacles is pilot/planetary. So swoops in town, rickshaws, landspeeders, airspeeders near the ground...

Air speeders in a dogfight at high altitude... If I were GMing, I'd let the player use either.

Similarly, TIE fighters chasing an X-wing through twisty mountain passes... again, I'd let them use either.

My driver character only has Pilot/P and /S skills of 2. I used to take the gunnery turret and let the scoundrel fly in combat, but now with high agility and 200 XP of Driver talents it's a no brainer that I should do the piloting when the situation is difficult. We definitely need that Advanced Targeting Array though!

We use Planetary in atmo no matter the altitude, Space in...space. Even in the same vehicle it's different skillsets. Of course most general flying regardless of environment doesn't require any sort of check, so no dinging the guy with three ranks of Pilot (Space) for trying to make a routine, cleared landing on Bespin.

We have always stuck with the vehicle type. If it can fly in space, use piloting (space). If it can't operate outside of atmo (or gravity, I should say), use piloting (planetary)...a good example would be a cargo sled on a space station...operates under the effects of gravity (artificial as it may be) and/or atmosphere, use piloting (planetary).

Even a contemporary (real world) superiority fighter (F-15, F-22 Raptor) would be considered piloting (planetary) in game terms (i.e. T-47 speeder). Where it gets fuzzy is with the NASA STS (Shuttle with boosters, etc) which was made to operate in space...but could only operate in low earth orbit, and had to be designed to operate (or at least glide) in atmo...still, it's not made for extended operation in 'space' proper. And in Star Wars you've got all kinds of systems that are commonplace in space-faring vehicles like hyperdrives, sub-light ion-engines, nav-computers for calculating hyperspace routes, etc.

The FFG Star Wars RPG system keeps it somewhat abstract...it is more of a Space Opera (Fantasy) than a hard Sci-Fi setting. Try not to think about it too hard...worrying about control surfaces, speed, maneuverability, etc. is just going to bog the game down.

We use Planetary in atmo no matter the altitude, Space in...space. Even in the same vehicle it's different skillsets. Of course most general flying regardless of environment doesn't require any sort of check, so no dinging the guy with three ranks of Pilot (Space) for trying to make a routine, cleared landing on Bespin.

I agree with this. X-Wing in a dog fight in space uses Pilot (space), obviously. The TIE fighter flees into the atmosphere of a planet and now they need to switch to Pilot (planetary) even in the same vehicle. Gravity and atmosphere kicks in making things quite different even if using most of the same controls.

I like the simplicity of 2 skills, but it does create some issues. Driving a tracked lumbering Sand Crawler is Pilot (planetary) while flying a nimble Snowspeeder through the air uses the exact same skill. Perhaps the Rebels at Hoth should have taken a recruiting trip to Tatooine to grab some expert Jawa Sand Crawler drivers?

There's also the problem with Luke in Episode IV. Luke the expert Airspeeder pilot (Pilot-Planetary) is assumed to be a good X-wing pilot (Pilot-Space)? In FFG game terms that is not translated well at all. Pilot (speeders, starfighters, transports) and Driver (wheeled, tracked) would have been better to model that concept.