So I just got Lords of Nal Hutta and there is a topic in there I hadn't really thought of before.

Guarding Hyperspace lanes.

It says that the Hutts are very protective of their Throneworlds in the Bootana Hutta region.

My question is, with a Hyperlane running right through it, how can they stop anyone?

I read that pirates might move an asteroid into a hyperlane to force a ship to drop out of hyperspace and I know that Imperials have Interdictors.

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

Guarding, easiest way? Mines or ships.

Stolen ship... Detective work. Spaceport officials questioning, asking underworld/streetwise people about what they may have heard, etc. Tracking devices on the ship before it is stolen... multiple ways. You could look if the energy signature is listed as landing anywhere? mostly lots of detective work. It is a big galaxy... good luck.

So I just got Lords of Nal Hutta and there is a topic in there I hadn't really thought of before.

Guarding Hyperspace lanes.

It says that the Hutts are very protective of their Throneworlds in the Bootana Hutta region.

My question is, with a Hyperlane running right through it, how can they stop anyone?

I read that pirates might move an asteroid into a hyperlane to force a ship to drop out of hyperspace and I know that Imperials have Interdictors.

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

Data control is actually the easiest.

Remember that Navcomputers run off regularly updated chart available from various sources. So all the Hutts need to do to keep your typical neer-do-well riff raff out is just make sure that every chart that goes to BoSS, or the Correlian Merchant's Guild, or the Poodleplap Transport Cooperative, or whatever, has a few gaps. That way anyone trying to fly through will have to drop out of hyperspace at that point, where the Hutts can have Customs stations, refueling stations, and so on.

For good measure pepper the surrounding area with regularly repositioned asteroids, sensor bouys, minefields, and such and you've got a reasonably secure security net that will keep out all but the most devoted of smugglers.

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

Pretty much Detective Work. You get a vector when they jump, then compare that to charts and routes you know to see if anything matches up with where the thief most likely took it.

If you've tagged the ship with an S-thread tracker or similar device that of course makes it easier.

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

You know, it would be really interesting if someone put secret devices to scan transponder codes into every hyperwave transceiver and every spaceport and refueling depot, and then sent that information back to a central location so that the comings and goings of every single vehicle could be tracked over the galaxy.

Not that it would be called something like ECHELON, or anything.

So I just got Lords of Nal Hutta and there is a topic in there I hadn't really thought of before.

Guarding Hyperspace lanes.

It says that the Hutts are very protective of their Throneworlds in the Bootana Hutta region.

My question is, with a Hyperlane running right through it, how can they stop anyone?

I read that pirates might move an asteroid into a hyperlane to force a ship to drop out of hyperspace and I know that Imperials have Interdictors.

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

Data control is actually the easiest.

Remember that Navcomputers run off regularly updated chart available from various sources. So all the Hutts need to do to keep your typical neer-do-well riff raff out is just make sure that every chart that goes to BoSS, or the Correlian Merchant's Guild, or the Poodleplap Transport Cooperative, or whatever, has a few gaps. That way anyone trying to fly through will have to drop out of hyperspace at that point, where the Hutts can have Customs stations, refueling stations, and so on.

For good measure pepper the surrounding area with regularly repositioned asteroids, sensor bouys, minefields, and such and you've got a reasonably secure security net that will keep out all but the most devoted of smugglers.

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

Pretty much Detective Work. You get a vector when they jump, then compare that to charts and routes you know to see if anything matches up with where the thief most likely took it.

If you've tagged the ship with an S-thread tracker or similar device that of course makes it easier.

I had to look up BoSS. Thanks for that. It was their own ship that was stolen and I'm hoping that I can drag out the pursuit over a couple sessions by dragging them through Hutt space. They are really good at finding shortcuts that I hadn't thought of. I want to make it hard, but not impossible.

Thanks again.

A side question, besides getting a read on where a jump was made from, how might the PCs go about tracking a stolen freighter? Is it just detective work?

Thanks!

You know, it would be really interesting if someone put secret devices to scan transponder codes into every hyperwave transceiver and every spaceport and refueling depot, and then sent that information back to a central location so that the comings and goings of every single vehicle could be tracked over the galaxy.

Not that it would be called something like ECHELON, or anything.

You know, that's sort of how they found out that their ship was going to Hutt space. They were able to find a buoy dropped by pirates that was capturing transponder codes and other info.

My Google-Fu isn't helping me with ECHELON...care to enlighten me?

ECHELON was a covert real world government program to spy on citizens. There is a wonderful Wikipedia article on it even.

(Hint: next time try Bing it had the answer, Google isn't the be-all/end-all of information)

I think he was referring to that the ISB or other Empire Org might be spying on all traffic.

ECHELON was a covert real world government program to spy on citizens. There is a wonderful Wikipedia article on it even.

(Hint: next time try Bing it had the answer, Google isn't the be-all/end-all of information)

I think he was referring to that the ISB or other Empire Org might be spying on all traffic.

I wasn't even thinking "Real Life". Uggh. I was adding qualifiers like "star wars eu", "Star trek", "babylon 5" and "warhammer 40k".

This sounds good though. If they get stuck they could try sneaking into an ISB communications hub or something like that.

If your players get stuck trying to follow their stolen ship"

• Vector + fuel range gives a smaller amount of possible landing places then just vector alone.
• Filter out spaceports that lack facilities for fast refueling or for that size ship
• Maybe they have contacts at some neighboring spaceports and can simply ask if their ship has been by recently?
• Lacking contacts, credits blown in holonet transmissions and bribes might get a location sighting

That should get them thinking in creative directions is they're not already. But absolutely push it as detective work. Once they find and recapture their ship, reiterate how well they were able to track it... with a slightly ominous tone or sly grin. Might make them a bit paranoid next time they decide to be naughty.

So I just got Lords of Nal Hutta and there is a topic in there I hadn't really thought of before.

Guarding Hyperspace lanes.

It says that the Hutts are very protective of their Throneworlds in the Bootana Hutta region.

My question is, with a Hyperlane running right through it, how can they stop anyone?

I read that pirates might move an asteroid into a hyperlane to force a ship to drop out of hyperspace and I know that Imperials have Interdictors.

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

I don't think of hyperspace lanes like modern highways. They're a bit like a toll road as in there are limited places you can stop. Hyperspace routes don't have nice curves and turns; to change direction you stop first, re-aim, then jump again. So for those homeworld routes, the Hutts know where you have to come out of hyperspace to make the next leg of the journey. I'm sure it's a large volume, but it's still finite and large asteroids, moonlets, and orbits of outer gas giants can make it much more reasonable to watch and patrol.

So the Hutts would be able to see the arrival of almost any ship in their system, and certainly a bit of paranoia with spy satellites would give them a pretty good chance of tracking any of those arriving ships that don't make themselves known otherwise. I'd guess a lot of traffic would simply jump in, realign, and jump out. Being opportunists, the Hutts no doubt have fueling stations out in the system to service travelers so there's no need to approach the planet.

ECHELON was a covert real world government program to spy on citizens. There is a wonderful Wikipedia article on it even.

Not just citizens. The whole world. People used to think that’s all there was to NSA spying, but then Snowden helped expose a whole bunch of other programs that were used in conjunction with ECHELON.

James Bamford has some nice books on the NSA. I highly recommend that you read them all.

But clearly I should have given a bit more context in this case.

But clearly I should have given a bit more context in this case.

The funny thing is that if ECHELON had been a comic-book reference (like SPECTRE for example) most of us would've gotten it. Somewhat sad that real-world reference goes over our heads.

ECHELON was a covert real world government program to spy on citizens. There is a wonderful Wikipedia article on it even.

Not just citizens. The whole world. People used to think that’s all there was to NSA spying, but then Snowden helped expose a whole bunch of other programs that were used in conjunction with ECHELON.

James Bamford has some nice books on the NSA. I highly recommend that you read them all.

But clearly I should have given a bit more context in this case.

As someone who frequently sips at the kool-aid, I also missed it - and went to Wookiepedia first. Shame on me.

Other than that, how do they keep ships from coming and going through this highly guarded area at will?

One thing that the Imps and some pirates do in the EU is an artificial "gravity well". It's a large device that can be turned on or off, mounted inside of a large freighter or Star Destroyer. It creates a gravitational pull (or perhaps imitates one to sensors) strong enough to fool a navcomputer into thinking it needs to drop out of hyperspace to avoid an unplanned gravity anomaly.

I'll confess to only hearing about this from an old 90s module "Operation: somethingsomething" but thought that it was a great idea for a Imperial trap or pirates raiding people.

Gravity well projectors are installed in so-called Interdictor vessels, either in the well known Immobilizer 418 cruiser or the more intimidating Interdictor-class SD.

They also come in form of armed and unarmed 'mines' that you lay out to block a path to a planet/system.

GWPs create the illusion of a mass-shadow that fools nav-comps to make an emergency stop. There is a constant race between the designers of nav-comps and gwp's to outsmart the other.

The Empire uses these ships not only for military actions but mostly for customs or other inspections. Due to the energy demand of a GWP they need about 1 to 2 minutes to warm up. Once they are up the ship slows down considerably.

These ships are less armed compared to other ships of their size but still able to handle their usual targets.

Thanks folks! Luckily, I have a few more weeks until the next session to digest all of this and plan appropriately.

Right now, I think they'll have to do some detective work on Nar Shaddaa. They know one of the thieves is a glitterstim addict and LoNH has some good premade glitterstim dens. I'm also going to work up an ISB Coms hub encounter (for those juicy 'ECHELON' transponder codes )and a spaceport customs encounter if they want to go the slicing route.

From there, hopefully they'll be able to figure out that their ship is heading toward one of the Throneworlds. From there they'll have to figure out how to actually get there safely by bribing someone or more slicing a Hutt's ship and stealing their nav computer data. They might even go the stowaway route. As much as I think getting yanked out of hyperspace and greeted by Hutt vessels in a minefield would be exciting, they are a bright bunch and have been really good at avoiding combat so far.

I wonder if we are all on a list now from saying Echelon so many times...

Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon Echelon

You know, it would be really interesting if someone put secret devices to scan transponder codes into every hyperwave transceiver and every spaceport and refueling depot, and then sent that information back to a central location so that the comings and goings of every single vehicle could be tracked over the galaxy.

I'm presently checking out the Rebels-based "A New Dawn" and they go into the surveillance society of the Empire, no doubt inspired by the US/UK intelligence gathering WHICH IS OF COURSE ABOVE REPROACH. What you suggest certainly fits in well with how they're portraying it.

Plus, Ghost seems to have a transponder masker, which flies in the face of convention as we know it. Applying the last 30 years of technology sure makes for some interesting thought exercises!