I have a PC who wants to spec into Fringer, which has a number of Astrogation talents. Anyone have any interesting situations or good stories using Galaxy Hopper, Master Starhopper, or just a cool Astrogation check in general?

We haven't messed around with weird Astrogation checks too much, but we've had a couple times where these talents would come into play.

Any time the Imperials are hot on their trail, the PCs will want to make a jump to hyperspace. Make sure you come up with the number of rounds it'll take to do the calculation so that the Galaxy Mapper can cut the time in half. If they are in the middle of a dogfight, or something else stressful, pile on the setback dice.

Master Starhopper can be the same sort of thing. In BtR there is a section where you can either make a bunch of easy Astrogation checks, and spend a lot of time flying through space, to reach the destination. Or, the PCs can make a single hard jump that'll get them there in a fraction of the time. This is the sort of choice the players will need to make if they are in a race against time. Make the hard jump high risk/high reward. If they did the easy checks, they'll get there the same time as the bad guys. If they pass the hard one, they'll get there first. If they fail the hard one, they get there last either because the jump worked and was super slow or because they landed in the wrong spot and they have to do a second jump.

The Arda 1 adventure has an interesting way to figure out what happens when the PCs do stuff slow or fast. In one section, it's a race to go make a skill check. If they are slow, then the skill check is harder with setback dice because they have to rush the skill. There is another section where when they arrive someplace they can spen a number of "exploration turns" to check out the area before the timed event happens. The number of "exploration turns" (if any) depends on how fast they get there. This could be used for time to check out the surroundings, start exploring anchient ruins, or setting up an ambush before the timed event happens.

Remember, there are plenty of things that can make the Astrogation checks harder. Not accurate data, punching in the coordinates during combat, jumping to or around nebulas or black holes. Trying to take a shortcut for less travel time or less jumps along the way. It might be worth spending some time jotting down some ideas of how to make things harder so that you have some ideas and can pick one on the fly.

I've also seen it where Astrogation was used to follow a treasure map. Need to follow a map across a planet using the stars for guidance? Make it an Astrogation or Knowledge - Lore check. The Fringer will be able to look at the map and easily lead the party to the treasure.

I hope these ideas help.

Ah, using the stars for plantary navigation...that's a cool idea!

If a player has any of these talents, just give him opportunities to use them. Some of these can be found in the examples that Jamwes gave, but all are things I've had my players do:

• A micro-jump to the edge of the system to intercept a third-party rendezvous
• Navigating through the hyperspace tangle into the Unknown Regions
• Finding a system that doesn't appear on modern star charts, but ancient data says exists.
• Predicting the location of rogue comet Resh 9376, the rumored location of the shadowport Point Nadir
• Navigating through the Deep Core/Maw Cluster to get to a location faster than your competition
• Making any smuggling run: the Kessel Run, the Byss Run, Rycar's Run
• Navigating through the Hapes Cluster / Transitory Mists

I have used Astrogation as a way for players to learn general information about a system

Easiest way would be to decrease the time traveled.