I'm building an encounter for my next session that revolves around the PCs getting caught in a Gravity Well projector. The PCs just escaped Eriadu in a light freighter with something the Empire wants back and the PCs are trying to make it to Triton for a rendezvous with their Rebel handler.

The Interdictor ship catches them in the Colu system home of Clak'dor VII the Bith homeworld. Looking at the system description I think I'm going to have the PC's ship come out of hyperspace at the edge of the system so that the gas giant and asteroid field are options to hide.

Essentially I want to present several options to the PCs. They can try to make a run for it and travel past the extreme range band while 24 starfighter bear down on them. I was thinking of having them in two groups of 12 that could act as a pincer maneuver allowing the PCs to also rush the cruiser and try to survive a strafing run past the cruiser. Finally the PCs could try to lose them in an asteroid field or in the gas giant.

If it's a straight up fight, I know how to resolve that. If the PCs choose the asteroid field or gas giant I'm not sure what checks need to be made. I'm guessing I would make some use of The Chase side bar (see EotE page 241) with Pilot-Space to avoid crashing into the asteroids or avoiding lighting storms. What other checks could be made for the non-pilots in the group? Maybe Perception/Computers to add boost dies to the pilot? Would Mechanics come in to play? Other skills? I just don't want it to be me and the pilot doing all the rolls. Also what would the consequence of failure be? The TIE fighters can fire if in range but how much damage would an asteroid or a lightning bolt from an electrical storm on a gas giant do?

I'm probably going to rule that each round the PCs spend in the obstacle course they get a range band away from the Interdictor. Is that the right ratio? Should it be two round per range band? They would still need to clear the obstacle to make the jump to hyperspace so I'm thinking at least one round out in the open before they can jump after reaching past extreme.

How does this sound to everyone else? Any ideas suggestions?

If you leave the fighters in two groups it won't be very hard for the players to just pick a vector that avoids the effective ranges of all of the enemy weapons or at least minimizes the number in firing range and just run like hell.

Another thing to consider; would the Empire really launch all 24 fighters against one, lone freighter? 4-8 seems reasonable, 12 if they're really worried about them getting away, but launching all 24 fighters and leaving the Interdictor unprotected seems overkill and an unnecessary risk.

You can stack the deck against the PCs, but you don't have to ram the deck down their throat...

I was wondering about the 24 fighters at once thing too. Two groups of 12 is gonna get redonkulous, I mean that's what, 8 Yellow 3 Green on most checks?)

This isn't Rogue Squadron, two or three groups of 2 or 3 fighters is going to be enough to do some pretty significant damage if you're not careful.

Also if the players duck into the asteroids or gas giant the TIEs will likely be split up into flight groups or elements anyway to form a proper search.

As for the Interdictor pursuit... why not use the Chase rules?

I think they'd be capped at 5 yellow one green. Anyone beyond that is simply ablative wounds.

My thinking on the number of star fighters would be that the interdictor has no idea what it's going to catch so it wants to be prepared. I was under the impression that the gravity wells are like nets and sometimes you catch a minnow and sometimes you catch a shark. I also thought there were multiple places the ships would come out depending on where the gravity wells were projected and the interdictor has like 4 I think (one per bubble on the ship's hull). I'm guessing it would be spread and so would the TIE fighters.

That makes me think the biggest question would be what range band do the PCs start out at when they come out of hyperspace? I'm thinking that the 4 gravity wells would be spread out in a diamond pattern with 4 starships patrolling a sector around those wells with another 8 patrolling the aft of the interdictor in case they're attacked from behind. When the PCs cut out, they're at short range to the interdictor and close range to 4 TIE fighters. They're also medium range from the other 12 patrolling the gravity bubbles and long range from the 8 patrolling the aft.

I'm not that up on my Hyperspace/Interdictor Star Wars technology so I could be wrong ... but once a ship is caught in a gravity well, the ship can't just do a 180 and go back from whence it came can it? Or is it designed to catch capital ships that can't turn on a dime?

A gravity well projector was an apparatus used to create interdiction fields . By simulating the gravity shadow of a planet or other celestial body, often called a gravity well, a ship's travel through hyperspace could be halted or their jump to hyperspace could be rendered impossible within the simulated gravity shadow. These generally large gravity well generators were most often used to counteract hit-and-run tactics and pin outmaneuvered or outnumbered enemies in place. Through history, however, other strategic uses for the technology have been seen.

The way i see it, it only stops ships from entering hyperspace, and pulls ships nearby who are in hyperspace out of it.

The gravity well shouldn't have an effect on how the ships behave in normal space.

Ok, now I think I see the actual problem.

1)ok the number of fighters the interdictor carries is irrelevant. It carries plenty. That's all that matters. So the question is only how many are needed to accomplish what you need? (To chase the players into the asteroids and gas giant). Figure out how many TIEs are enough to scare the players into running and that's all you need. Its possible you may need more then fighters, but well get to that in point 2. The bottom line is just to think like George. He never counted the numer of fighters a star destroyer carried, it just always carried enough to do what he wanted.

So in the case of your encounter if eight fighters in 4 groups of two will allow for some kills before making it clear the players need to run, that's all you need to worry about. The rest of the fighters are are simply somewhere else. Where doesn't matter.

So point 2...

2) Like in point 1 think like a screenwriter. What's the interdictor commanderz motivation? Why are they casting this net? Is there smuggler issues here? An expected rebel convoy? Pirates? Just an operational training mission to keep his fighters and grav well operators in top shape? Blockading a major political summit to prevent any unexpected visitors from one side or the other? Is he actively looking for the players? Why?

What backup does he have? A star destroyer? A few customs corvettes? A pair of Carracks and an escort carrier?

What's he supposed to do when he finds who he's looking for?

Answering these questions will better define the scene and give you options for how to resolve it. If the cruiser is looking specifically for the players they'll have to figure out a way past. If they are just running training ops, then ditching the ties for a couple days might be enough to get the commander to give up.

You can always toss a couple additional warships into the mix. Interdictors are pretty lightly armed and armored for a capital ship. It will never get used by itself, its too valuable to lose.

After all, if a Pirate capital ship gets pulled out of hyperspace by a lone interdictor, the Pirates will just destroy it or capture it for themselves. The Interdictor needs an escort.

According to the Imperial Source Book, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser has only 20 quad laser cannons and 24 TiE fighters. A normal ship of that tonnage has over 5 times the number of, and much heavier, cannons.

Just about any capital ship will have much more in terms of firepower, and even a squadron of fighters would give it serious trouble even with its integrated fighter cover.

Thinking like a screen writer is really good advice. In general my GMing style is to determine what the bad guys are doing and let the PCs react to it. In the case of the Empire that doesn't necessarily work. There's just too many moving parts.

Let me explain what's kind of confusing to me on the gravity well. When you make a jump to hyperspace you have to be pointed in the general direction of the system you're heading towards (or at least I think this is true). If a ship comes out of hyperspace at the edge of the gravity well, what's to stop it from doing a 180 and going back where it came from? My only guess is that momentum carries the ship in hyperspace and it comes out at whatever range band the interdictor wants it to come out at.

The interdictor wil most likely move to keep the ship within range of its gravety well, preventing it from jumping in hyperspace again.

Thinking like a screen writer is really good advice. In general my GMing style is to determine what the bad guys are doing and let the PCs react to it. In the case of the Empire that doesn't necessarily work. There's just too many moving parts.

Again, screenwriter. You don't need to know what the entire empire is doing, just the mission of these imperials right here.

You don't need a huge backstory, just a sketch of what they are there to do and how that will fit the story you are trying to tell.

Something as simple as "conducting smuggler interdiction. Mission is to stop and inspect all privately operated cargo craft and couriers. In addition to normal fight compliment it also carries an atr assault transport."

And that's it. If the players run, the fighters will pursue, and cruiser commader search for them for a good week or until he catches another smuggler in his net.

Let me explain what's kind of confusing to me on the gravity well. When you make a jump to hyperspace you have to be pointed in the general direction of the system you're heading towards (or at least I think this is true). If a ship comes out of hyperspace at the edge of the gravity well, what's to stop it from doing a 180 and going back where it came from? My only guess is that momentum carries the ship in hyperspace and it comes out at whatever range band the interdictor wants it to come out at.

Its on pg 280 in the breakout box.

The interdictor wil most likely move to keep the ship within range of its gravety well, preventing it from jumping in hyperspace again.

While it may do that, its going to be significantly slower than any freighter the PCs might be on. It might add a couple hours onto the time it takes, but they'll outrun it eventually.

My thinking on the number of star fighters would be that the interdictor has no idea what it's going to catch so it wants to be prepared. I was under the impression that the gravity wells are like nets and sometimes you catch a minnow and sometimes you catch a shark. I also thought there were multiple places the ships would come out depending on where the gravity wells were projected and the interdictor has like 4 I think (one per bubble on the ship's hull). I'm guessing it would be spread and so would the TIE fighters.

That makes me think the biggest question would be what range band do the PCs start out at when they come out of hyperspace? I'm thinking that the 4 gravity wells would be spread out in a diamond pattern with 4 starships patrolling a sector around those wells with another 8 patrolling the aft of the interdictor in case they're attacked from behind. When the PCs cut out, they're at short range to the interdictor and close range to 4 TIE fighters. They're also medium range from the other 12 patrolling the gravity bubbles and long range from the 8 patrolling the aft.

I'm not that up on my Hyperspace/Interdictor Star Wars technology so I could be wrong ... but once a ship is caught in a gravity well, the ship can't just do a 180 and go back from whence it came can it? Or is it designed to catch capital ships that can't turn on a dime?

Its costly to keep all of a ship's fighters out, spending fuel (yes, these fighters use fuel) and keeping their pilots out at all hours without a break. In an Interdiction Operation, I feel a lone Interdictor would have 2 fights (8 fighters) out on patrol, 2 more flights ready to launch, and the last two flights on "Alert 5" status (ready to launch within 5 minutes). If the Empire is expecting larger trouble, it would have more support craft, like a Lancer frigate or another Star Destroyer.

Also, if it does catch "larger prey", it will want to try to recover as many fighters as it can before retreating. An Interdictor Captain won't stick around for a fight it can't win, but losing half it's fighters because they were launched and couldn't be recovered in time would at least be seen as a waste of resources and poor judgement from the Captain.

Your question about Interdiction fields; when a ship hits a gravity well and reverts from hyperspace, it appears within the gravity field. The ship in hyperspace detects the mass shadow, cuts the hyperdrive, and the "momentum" carries the ship further into the field. How far in depends on several factors best left up to the dramatic situation the GM wants to portray. So no, a ship can't just pull a 180* and fly a few KM to escape the field. Likely they're well within the Gravity Well and have to spend a few minutes flying to the edge of the effect, assuming the Cruiser doesn't just power up it's engines and follow the craft attempting to escape.

I think two flights out, two on alert 5 and two in stand down would make more sense unless they know when the target ship will be arriving. Having two out, two ready to launch, and two on alert 5 constantly would be an incredible strain on both the pilots and the fighters I think.

Also, don't forget tractor beams. One of the tricks for keeping ships from escaping an interdiction field is for other vessels to grapple with it using their tractor beams, slowing or stopping its movement.

In one of the Zahn novels, Luke is yanked from hyperspace by an Interdictor. Even though he is in a fast, maneuverable X-wing, the Interdictor grabs him with a tractor beam, which Luke has to shake off before he can successfully escape.

The big thing you might also want to take into account is an Interdictor is not a sniper rifle. If may be aiming for the Player's ship but it is just as likely to get 5-10 other ships that happened to be in hyperspace passing through the area.

They even reference this fact in the new book "Tarkin". I won't spoil the scene but it is worth mentioning because, they also point out the direction/orientation of the ship getting handled by an interdictor is practically random, this may playout by requiring a piloting or Astrogation check just to "right yourself" in space.

Speaking of that, don't forget space is 3D so there isn't just left, right, backward, and forward there are also above/below/etc.

Hopefully that helps craft the scene.

Hey All, I have a related question: When a ship gets pulled from hyperspace by a gravity well, does it suffer any sort of damage? I thought I remembered reading somewhere in Legacy material that it was a possibility, but I don't remember where. Wookieepedia didn't really mention any physical effects on a ship yanked from hyperspace and the AoR core rulebook just says: "As for ships being pulled from hyperspace, the actual effects are largely left up to the Game Master's discretion." [AoR, 280 sidebar]. I'm thinking of building an encounter where the PCs get pulled out of hyperspace and it damages their hyperdrive, but I'd like to know if effects like that have any basis in Canon/Legacy. Also, if one wanted to have this effect in general, would it be appropriate to roll on the vehicle critical hit table (maybe in the easy-hard severity range) to generate random damage results? Thanks in advance for any insights,

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