I've been thinking hard about actions that Pilots can take and it feels like the pilots got left out when it comes to actual actions. (Gain the Advantage being the only one) So I designed my own pilot only action and I'd like some feedback.

Lets be honest, ship to ship fighting is very abstract (as the designers put it), and I just feel as though the actual skill of the pilot is lost when it comes to ship Vs. ship combat. As it seems to work now, a narrative driven combat story happens with both ships seemingly able to attack each other every turn, even if both can only fire forward.

So, I would like to introduce the "Dogfighting" Action. (Pilot Only) My hope is that with this action, a pilot will get an opportunity to actually use his piloting skills to gain a positional advantage over his target, moving in behind the target so that only he can get a firing solution. (Assuming his target doesn't have turret mounted weapons)

The way it works is like this.

1. Build a dice pool for an opposed piloting check.

2. Upgrade pool based on ship speed differences.

3. Upgrade pool based on silhouette differences.

4. Add boost or setback dice per the handling value of the ships involved.

Explanation.

(1) Building the opposed piloting check pool should be self explanatory.

(2) The faster ship gets an upgrade to its dice based on there relative speeds at the time of the check. So if ship E for (enemy) is gong speed 3, and ship P for (Player) is traveling at speed 4, then the players green ability dice get 1 upgrade. If the players ship is moving at speed 5, his green ability dice would get 2 upgrades. If ship (E) is moving at speed 4, and ship (P) is moving at speed 3, then the opposed purple difficulty dice would get 1 upgrade.

(3) This works pretty much the same as step two, except in this instance, the smaller silhouette ship gets the upgrades. So for example, ship (E) is a large silhouette 4 light freighter, and ship (P) is a smaller fighter with a silhouette of 3, then the players green ability dice get 1 more upgrade.

(4) This step takes a little bit more working out and is a touch abstract. Since this is an opposed skill dice roll, the type of dice you add depends on which side is doing the adding. Example one, the (P) player is flying a Z-95 Headhunter with a handling of +1, and the (E) enemy is flying a GAT-12H Skipray Blastboat with a handling of -1. So, since the (P) has a positive (+1) good handling, he gets to add 1 blue boost die to the pool (Since that will aid his side of the opposed dice pool). And the (E) enemies ship has a -1 handling, but we can't add a setback die to the pool since that would aid the (E) enemies side of the dice pool, so we must instead add another blue boost die to the pool, making the total dice added to the opposed check 2 blue boost die.

Example two, lets switch the ships these guys are using and see how it changes things. So (P) player is now flying the GAT-12H Skipray Blastboat with the handling of -1 and the (E) enemy is flying the Z-95 Headhunter with the handling of +1. Since (P) is now flying the ship with the negative (-1) handling, we need to add one black setback die to the pool. NPC (E) flying the Z-95 with the (+1) handling, adds a second black setback die to the opposed pool. Why? because remember this is an opposed skill dice check, so the (E)'s side of the dice pool is all the negative dice, so anything good for the (E) has to be added as black setback dice. So this would make the total dice added to the opposed check 2 black setback dice.

Example three, lets pretend both (P) and (E) are flying the Z-95 Headhunters with the good (+1) handling, how does that affect what we add to the dice pool? Well (P) is going to add one blue boost die, and (E) will add one black setback die, since this will aid both sides.

Example four, for our last example, lets pretend both (P) and (E) are flying the GAT-12H Skipray Blastboats with the bad (-1) handling. For this example, player (P) is going to add one black setback die, (because the -1 handling hurts his side of the dice pool) and enemy (E) will add one blue boost die, (because the -1 handling hurts his side of the dice pool).

Now, lets actually look at a opposed skill check dice pool between (P) and (E) and see what it would look like.

(P) has 4 agility and 2 piloting (Space) for his skill set. (E) has 2 agility and 1 piloting (Space) for his.

(P) is traveling at speed 4. (E) is traveling at speed 3.

(P)'s ship is silhouette 4. (E)'s ship is silhouette 3

(P)'s ship has a handling of +2. (E)'s ship has a handling of 0.

So, step 1, build the opposed dice pool:

2 green ability dice and 2 yellow proficiency dice -- 1 purple difficulty dice and 1 red challenge dice.

Step 2, perform upgrades based on current speed differences:

1 green ability dice and 3 yellow proficiency dice -- 1 purple difficulty dice and 1 red challenge dice.

Step 3, perform upgrades based on silhouette difference:

1 green ability dice and 3 yellow proficiency dice -- 2 red challenge dice.

Step 4, add boost and setback dice per the handling:

1 green ability dice and 3 yellow proficiency dice -- 2 red challenge dice -- 2 blue boost dice.

So Step 4 gives us the final dice pool of 1(green ability), 3(yellow proficiency), 2(red challenge), 2(blue boost)

Roll and count the remaining successes or failures, advantage or threat.

Now for results:

If (P) wins the roll, he can move in behind (E) and prevent (E) form being able to fire at (P). During (E)'s turn, he can now use an action to make another opposed piloting roll, and if he succeeds, he breaks out and away from (P), causing both ships to fall back into an un-advantaged position. If (E) fails his dogfighting check, he remains stuck in front of (P), and (P) can fire at will during his next turn, with no risk to his ship.

I know this action isn't perfect, which is why I'd like ideas and feed back from the rest of you on how it can be made better. I really like it thou because it adds an action that pilots can use that can actually give them an advantage just like in real life dogfighting. And it relies not only on the pilots skill, but the advantages and disadvantages of his ship.

Thank You for reading this long post.

Darthslash

I would just use the Gain the Advantage action. This let's the pilot choose the defense zone that is attacked on the target. Then, I would only let the target fire weapons that can shoot out of the corresponding defense zone. For example, a TIE Fighter gains the advantage against an X-wing and chooses the rear defense zone. The X-wing can't fire back since it has only forward mounted weapons.

I've been thinking hard about actions that Pilots can take and it feels like the pilots got left out when it comes to actual actions. (Gain the Advantage being the only one) So I designed my own pilot only action and I'd like some feedback.

Taking a look at E-CRB, starting on page 232, I see a lot of things that can only be done by the Pilot. No one else on the ship can do these things, otherwise they would be the Pilot. These are actions that affect everyone on the ship, yourself included. They can help set you up to make certain types of things easier or harder, and help create situations that might wind up with lots of Boost or Setback dice.

So, as the Pilot, you had **** well better pay close attention to doing these things well. The alternative is that you, and your buddies, will die real fast.

Now, most of these things that only the Pilot can do turn out to be Maneuvers and not Actions. But there are plenty of Actions that you can take as a Pilot, once you’ve done the really important part of your job — flying the ship. You can shoot the guns, do damage control, or a whole host of other things.

In fact, the way those Actions are written, I think ANY of them can be performed by the pilot. The thing is, they’re not exclusively Pilot-only Actions, they can also be done by other people on the crew. IMO, the primary purpose of a lot of these other Actions being in this section at all is just to give non-pilots the ability to do something useful while onboard ship, as opposed to just sitting on their thumbs.

So, as a Pilot, I wouldn’t be inclined to think that you should be worried about all the things you’re not allowed to do. Instead, I would think about all the things that ONLY you can do, and that you had better focus on doing them well. Otherwise, your trip is likely to end pretty quickly.

Thank you for your replies.

I know pilots have lots of maneuvers that only they can make, this is about adding another action for pilots only. While gain the advantage is fine if you only wish to help make adjustments to any setback or boost dice when making combat checks, this action can give the pilot the ultimate advantage, trailing the enemy. Now, for ships that have 100 degree angle of fire like the YT-1300, this action isn't going to be useful and shouldn't be used. But, if your in a fight between two space fighters that can only fire forward, this is where this action shines. Also, I find it unrealistic that a pilot could do manual repairs, fire discipline, scan the enemy, slice enemy, or spoofing missiles while flying the ship. If you remember, Han had to ask Chewie to lock in auxiliary power while he was flying, and that lever was well within reach.

But hey, if you don't like it, please don't use it. But if you do, feel free to use it and modify it anyway you like, and I hope it adds another option and more depth to your space combat.

Darthslash