Hi!

I have been searching an answer to this question that keeps puzzling me. This is my first post/question, and I apologize if the topic has already been discussed somewhere.

So, I was wondering about starships and planetary/imperial law regarding entering planets and landing your starship. Obviously, in space, you can fly around pretty much where you want, but is this true planetside?

The question is: do you have to land at designated space ports? Or can you fly around with your starship all over the planet (for example Correlia) and land wherever you want, like in the wilderness? For example, if my group wanted to smuggle weapons to some rebels on an imperial planet, it would seem wise to just meet up somewhere in the wilderness, far away from spaceports and nosy custom inspectors etc.

So are starships restricted in some way on planets? Also, does your ship always show up on "radar" when you get close to a planet? If so, would it be possible to "slip by" the security and get to the planet's surface unnoticed? Or just outrun the patrolships and hide somewhere? How difficult would that be, and what skill checks would it prompt?

Maybe I have missed something in the books, it seems like an important aspect of travel, smuggling and generally keeping out of the way of people your group does not want to meet.

Sorry for the somewhat long post. Would really appreciate if someone could help me out here

Thanks in advance!

The short answer is it depends on how much you want to emphasize bureaucracy, red tape, and governmental oversight in your campaign. Encounters with Imperial inspectors or CorSec rangers are ripe opportunities for roleplaying. But they may not fit the flair of your campaign if you instead want to emphasize a more freewheeling style of planetary travel.

The long answer would be to consider how airspace works in the real world and extrapolate from there. Urbanized airspace (like Coruscant) is likely to be heavily controlled. Rural or backwater airspace (like Tatooine or maybe the forests of Corellia) is likely to be less controlled. That said, any planet with a functioning government is likely to have some sort of "air traffic control" that pilots must communicate with upon arrival in orbit, but you could just hand wave this as something the ship's transponder automatically does, only requiring comlink communication if the players want to go somewhere restricted.

Defaulting to the 40k answer.

Across the thousands of worlds in the empire, the degree of imperial control varies hugely and thus the laws and customs will vary wildly.

One some worlds you'll be able to land where ever you want. On others you'll get shot out of the sky for moving off designated routes.

As above, with a couple of examples:

Tatooine: you could probably land anywhere. Whether you want the Hutts to take notice is up to the story. And of course space ports have contacts for fencing, smuggling etc.

In an upcoming adventure I need the pc's to land at a private landing pad on Corellia. I'm going to say it had to be cleared in advance with the main space control, and they need to present the cleared flight path and not deviate from it on approach.

As already stated, depending on the importance of the planet, security will vary. Imperial ships can run picket duty or there may be defense platforms stationed in space or a combination of both. Communication/sensor or spy satellites can be deployed to cover greater areas in varying amounts. The more importance the more measures will be taken.

As others have said it will vary.

Pretty much any planet that has a formal spaceport will also broadcast a generic message to spacers message that will act as a basic kind of greeting and cover simple info like how to request a landing permit, what channel to transmit an emergency request on, any pressing restrictions like quarantines, that sort of stuff..

Beyond that it'll vary, Some planets may just tell you where to land, and expect you to fly safe. More civilized ones will transmit a flight path and make sure you follow it. And "Imperial" grade worlds will usually require by law that you activate your ships autopilot and link it to their spaceport control, allowing their spaceport master computer to fly your ship in for landing.

The second question that hasn't been answered is: How does this translate to your game? As a GM you've got a responsibility to your players to make their adventures interesting. By extension this means making sure nothing is ever easy.

So smugglers can face any number of issues, and just "landing in the middle of no where" doesn't have to be the easy blue milk run the players expect (if anything smuggling by definition should never be a blue milk run.)

So how a planet does it's interdiction can vary just as widely as it's landing protocols. Perhaps it's got a trio of customs corvettes in orbit, or regular low altitude TIE patrols, sensor nets on the ground looking up, Probe Droids at high altitude looking around, sensor satellites looking down. When it comes to smuggling runs even an unofficial channel can ruin your day. A camper out on vacation might make a call in about your ship flying low and unsafe, or might even mistake it for an emergency landing and ask for fireships and medivac support.

The cargo plays a huge role too. Bootleg Palpatine bobble heads aren't as hot as Spice or Weapons, and so there's less likelyhood that the info about the operation would get back to the law. Even if your players run the most secure operation in the galaxy, it's possible that the people you're selling to are as secure. Rebel cells get infiltrated all the time after all...

Also this brings up other issues. The wilderness is a great place to avoid customs inspectors, but its also a great place to get bushwhacked. The Rebellion is certainly "the good guys" but not every member is a GOOD guy. While Princess Leia will be happy to recieve whatever supplies you can get her, random Rebel #3 that's along providing security might have called up his old swoop ganger buddies with a great plan to highjack the shipment. After all, since it's a deal going down way out in the boonies, by the time any Law or backup might get there, they'll be long gone with the guns.

By extension if you're running spice, whose to say your contact doesn't decide to just kill you, take the spice for himself and his cronies, and report back to his boss that you just never showed up?

That's one of the reasons you want to smuggle TO cities. Your drop point may be more public, but it also means everyone is more likely to play by the rules, since a bad move is more likely to end with everyone in prison.

So you see, there's a lot that can go wrong, and a lot of possible complications. Which is the whole point. Make it fun, make it exciting, make the players get creative.

Thank you all very much for your response!

It seems reasonable that the security and regulations would vary between worlds, as you have put forth. Genarally, civilized worlds would not want (sometimes heavily armed) starships flying around everywhere since they can pose a real security threat, apart from smuggling, avoiding taxes etc. A guess it boils down to an equal part common sense and what seems most appropriate/fun for the adventure. And like you said, landing out in the wilderness could provide for its own hazards.

It also seems sensible that spaceships needs to communicate with some sort of air traffic control upon entering the airspace. On planets like Coruscant, this probably would include the entire airspace of the whole planet, since security would be tight. On planets like Tatooine, traffic control would probably be limited to airspace close to settlements; e.g. Mos Shuuta or Mos Eisley.

Regarding if I would let my PC:s "slip through" the controls unnoticed I guess I will measure up some appropriate skill check in relation to the specific planet/area. And if PC:s would want to just "fly through", they will probably get noticed, chased and/or wanted for questioning or other legal punishment.

Maybe the upcoming smuggling book will explain these questions further

Maybe the upcoming smuggling book will explain these questions further

Shame on Fantasy Flight Games if it doesn't.

Did you ever see the film version of Miami Vice? It's not great but there are some cool bits in it that are good for smugglers. Your player characters' ship could approach the planet in the "sensor/radar shadow" of another craft, making Space Traffic Control effectively blind to the characters' approach. This would require your heroes working with more than one ship; ether more than one PC has a ship of his/her own, or they have a NPC connection willing to run with them as the beard. This would also require some difficulty checks to make sure the pilot never deviates from the path and exposes his/her ship to the planet's sensors.

Another trick using multiple ships--have the lead spacecraft towing the second ship into the planet with cables. The second ship is completely powered down. At the last minute before the ships fly into the spaceport, the cables detach, the second ship powers up (hopefully below the planet's sensor/radar shield, and takes the contraband to the drop site. The degree of sophistication of the planet's sensors could inform how this goes. Maybe they can't read the second ship at all, or maybe if it's completely powered down they assume it's damaged. Maybe control scans the ship and doesn't find any lifeform readings--does your PC group include a droid that can power up the ship and pilot it at least well enough to land in a remote area?

Does the PC group include a slicer? Have him/her/it transmit the ship's ID/transponder with a trojan horse virus that scrambles the sensors/radar, or shuts it down completely for a short amount of time--enough for the players to land wherever they want.

If they don't have a slicer, this could be a great place to build a NPC contact for one of your players. The on-duty space traffic control operator recognizes the ship and knows your pilot or captain from when they were kids. He might be willing to let the players slip through as a favor (Charm skill check?) or a bribe (other check). If the check succeeds but has any disadvantages, maybe you reveal that while this "old friend" of the player character seemed helpful at first, he's always held a grudge against your heroes and allows them to land only to sell them out later on.

Seems like good and fun ideas all of them

Maybe if the PC:s somehow maps out the radar/sensor ranges and/or how potential patrolboats patrol the area they could figure out a place and time to sneak in unnoticed. Guess I will let my PC:s try to find a way and reward them with success if they make up a good/fun plan, coupled with the appropriate skill check.

This will probably only be a real issue on more civilized and controlled planets.

But yeah, since space travel, smuggling and customs enforcers play a relatively important part for the setting, it would be nice if it was explained further in some book ^^ Or maybe I'm just making too big a deal of these things

Maybe if the PC:s somehow maps out the radar/sensor ranges and/or how potential patrolboats patrol the area they could figure out a place and time to sneak in unnoticed. Guess I will let my PC:s try to find a way and reward them with success if they make up a good/fun plan, coupled with the appropriate skill check.

Somewhere in the galaxy somebody must have that information. Obtaining those kinds of maps could be a side-adventure for the characters: tracking down the right info-merchant and buying it could cost some credits or obligation.

Or... make the PCs do their own legwork. Scout the system themselves like thieves casing a bank before a heist.