I typed up a reference document for skill uses, since I'd like to see skills used in more interesting and unexpected ways. The Skills chapter does a good job of providing examples of various skill uses, but one thing I'm left wondering about is different states of starship piloting. Obviously, when in space, you'll be using Piloting (Space) to fly your ship. But what happens when you fly inside a planet's atmosphere?

Why I'm wondering about using Planetary instead is because you now have gravity, weather, an atmosphere, and other planetary effects that are absent in space.

Obviously, there are few times when you would roll a Piloting check inside an atmosphere outside of maybe a chase or the continuation or an exciting dogfight. It's just something to ponder as an alternative skill use.

Thoughts?

I think either would work just fine.

I see Space and Planetary as more along the lines of Starships and Not Starships. So if you were flying an X-Wing you would use Space both in atmosphere and in space. If you were flying a Swoop you'd use Planetary. I do this because it feels right to me. I think imposing a Setback die might be reasonable for a starship in atmosphere, on top of whatever Setbacks you might add for weather effects. Just my opinion though.

It's up to you, but it's generally accepted that no matter where you actually are all spacecraft use Space, and all repulsorcraft and other ground vehicles use Planetary.

So your starfighter uses Space when in atmo for the same reason your LAAT uses planetary when in low orbit. Just because you're flying it in nonstandard environmental conditions doesn't mean the controls suddenly change.

As mentioned, you could use either, but my belief/opinion (like Ghostofman and Dbuntu) is that you still use space.

I can respect the argument that when in atmo you have gravity, wind, weather, etc that has a bigger impact than most "normal weather" you have in space, but there are some differences to consider.

Space covers piloting spaceworthy craft, as they tend to be rather complex with how many systems are crammed into one little space (at least IMHO). Knowing how to pilot a T-16 Skyhopper doesn't mean you'll be able to pilot a Ghtroc 720 correctly as they are literally different beasts.

Planetary covers anything that is at home in at atmosphere (like airspeeders), but also includes other fun vehicles like wheeled/tracked/walker vehicles as well as boats. I think this is where Planetary really shines in this regard as it covers these odd vehicles that are under different types of propulsion and drastically different controls.

Also note that in previous versions of the RPG, they were pretty specific as to what you could pilot, so having them in two skills is a boon but leads to these sorts of questions.

The way I see it: if a craft is even able to be flown in atmo, then doing so is part of the training.

As mentioned already, and how we run it.

If it was designed to fly in space then we use Piloting: Space.

If it was designed to fly in atmosphere then we use Piloting: Planetary

also, if it is a beast we use Survival.

The Piloting skill is based on the type of craft not the environment, however it is perfectly acceptable to add Difficulty or Setbacks to a Pilot's challenges if they are having to navigate an unfamiliar environment.

Thanks for the feedback. It's always interesting to see different perspectives on things lime this. While I was looking at it from a usage and environment standpoint, similar to how many other skills are used, you are all looking at it from a controls standpoint, not unlike how combat skills are used. Stocking to Space does keep things simple, and certainly does make sense since the controls aren't changing.

Good feedback.

I believe this question was asked by someone on the order 66 podcast witha reply from either sam or jay themselves. I can't remember which cast it was but if I recall they said that any ship that can jump (or survive a jump) to light speed is space, while the rest are planetary. I think it was brought up because of the cloud cars in the jewel of yavin campaign book used planetary pilot skill.