I can't seem to find any guidelines in the book about the subject. I don't want the players to be able to instantly jump out of any bad situation, but on the other hand, jumping away during combat should certainly be an option. I was thinking that one turn per silhouette size of the ship would be a reasonable delay after a successful astrogation check to represent the time needed to charge the hyper-drive.

How do you handle it?

I would say that it depends on the navicomputer and where you are going. If there are absolutely no problems all instantly, on a micro jump or long jump. Failures on the dice could mean miscalculation (depending on the roll you could have a despair you don't catch or a triump that does something else), and a jump into a bad place. In Escape from Mos Shuuta it takes 6 rounds after the fix of the HMRI due to the stresses (space battle) and distance you want to go. So it is situational and roll specific. There is another post on the forum about how long it takes to get to a destination.

I can't seem to find any guidelines in the book about the subject. I don't want the players to be able to instantly jump out of any bad situation, but on the other hand, jumping away during combat should certainly be an option. I was thinking that one turn per silhouette size of the ship would be a reasonable delay after a successful astrogation check to represent the time needed to charge the hyper-drive.

How do you handle it?

Yeah, that's how I've hand-waved it, but with letting the PCs spend extra success on the astrogation roll to reduce the time.

I would agree with all the above.

This thread topic pops up from time to time, and there are always a lot of good answers. It's likely worthwhile to search and see what we've all said in the past in case you don't find what you're looking for in this thread. Still, my favorite answer is "when it feels right for the story."

@themensch: You're probably right. I guess I'm still having a bit of trouble adjusting to the generally loose rule set in this game. I'm more used to having a written rule for every occasion and then adjusting as needed as opposed to this game where the rule of thumb seems to be more flying by the seat of the pants and simply making the rules be what "feels right" in any given situation.

There used to be a whole host of rules in D6 about when a ship can jump to hyperspace. Back then, you needed to be at least 50 "spaces" away from a planet before you could pull the lever to make the jump to light speed. Any closer, you could do it, but it increased the difficulty to jump, and the rules gave the distances that these occurred at.

That's how I remember the rule, but I could be WAAAY off...I'll check my books and get back to you

This was a chart I found in my notes:

Distance : Difficulty (with Base Difficulty 10)

0-25 : Cannot jump

26-31 : Cannot jump

32-37 : 40

38-43 : 30

44-49 : 25

50-61 : 20

62-75 : 15

I'm now going to try and find where I got that from...wish me luck.

@themensch: You're probably right. I guess I'm still having a bit of trouble adjusting to the generally loose rule set in this game. I'm more used to having a written rule for every occasion and then adjusting as needed as opposed to this game where the rule of thumb seems to be more flying by the seat of the pants and simply making the rules be what "feels right" in any given situation.

It's definitely a change but I've found it to be a pleasant one once I sit down to build a story with my pals. The lack of a concrete mechanic for every last thing is one of the most appealing parts of this system to me.

You could certainly pull in the results of an Astrogation roll or even Piloting if there's action happening, and depending on the outcome, narrate away. Since a hyperspace jump involves both calculating a route and pointing the ship in that route, under duress you could do a lot with skill checks, but ultimately it would be up to what you and your pals feel is right.

And so after much searching, there is this from WEG Star Wars 2nd Edition p110

Ships must fly at least 50 units from a planet before being able to jump to hyperspace.

In Star Wars second edition revised and expanded, p116-119, you will find "very rough guidelines" including:

It takes "5 minutes to fly from orbit to a safe hyperspace jump point. Additionally, "calculating a route takes one minute if the character is using a well-travelled route or is using pre-calculated coordinates. In emergencies, a character can try to jump in one round.

I tend to pick a number of turns as a base, and let a successful Astrogation check reduce that number.

This is only if it's very important how long it takes to make the jump. "The PCs must survive for 6 turns before they can successfully jump." And then they're attacked by TIE Fighters or space monsters or whatever.

If it's not crucial to the plot, then how long it takes could be "a few minutes".

If they are in a bad spot and trying to jump quickly, give them a setback for the stress, increase the difficulty for the standard modifiers, and upgrade the roll for how close they are to the planet. Close Range 3, Short 2, Medium 1, no upgrade at Long or greater.
Failure could mean that they are having trouble accurately punching in the calculations (ship getting rocked about), Threat could cause an error that takes a second to clear up (they have to wait a turn before trying again) and Despair could mean that there is something wrong with a component. Up to you what to do with that. It could be broken, it could be loose. I would suggest minimum of 2 turns lost and require successful mechanics check to figure it out.

Using the old WEG guidelines of five minutes to get our of the planet gravitational pull, i'd say that a minimum of 6 turns is a good time, which you can increase as needed, or add setback dices if the group want to jump asap...maybe add boosts if they take their time and use 1 or two rounds more than the minmum. That should offer a decent trade-off between the risk of atying in combat more than needed and making a safer jump....especially to far off places.

The way I typically do this is like this...

They have to be a certain distance from the planet. The exact distance is not defined... I just decide how long they have to fly away from the planet or to a certain set of points. It's based on "Speed of Plot" that Joss Whedon often speaks of. For example, in one case, the crew was clearing a space station in an asteroid belt. Because of this, it required that they get out of the immediate belt before they could jump. This time, it took a while. Other times, when the plot doesn't require it, they get there fast... I don't recall ever actually defining the amount of time directly.