So, I'm curious as to your thoughts.

When a ship is in hyperspace, what do you think happens to an escape pod and its occupants if they eject during the jump?

Do you think they're damaged/hurt? If so how badly?

My inclination is simply that they drop out of hyperspace within a few AU of where they ejected (to account for drift, assuming there is any).

What do you guys think?

It sounds like something would happen in a dramatic situation, so I'd probably heighten the drama. I'd narrate it as something physically drastic, with the pod hurtling around and a feeling of being pulled through another dimension. Mechanically I might have each PC make a Resilience check to avoid taking some strain damage, or perhaps even a Critical Injury (possibly on a Despair from the Resilience check).

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperspace

I would say it depends on what is going on and what story you want to tell. Then you can choose one of the several descriptions of how hyperspace works. If you're entering another dimension then maybe that person would be lost in hyperspace drifting aimlessly. Perhaps if you decide that the mater is converted to tacheons then once you are separated from the drive you and the pod are converted back to regular matter and simply come to a relative stop. If you buy into Einstein's theory of bending space then the pod could get caught in an eddy created by the hyperdrive shrinking and expanding space around the ship. This could potentially throw the escape pod whirling off in a different direction at whatever speed the plot demands.

When a ship is in hyperspace, what do you think happens to an escape pod and its occupants if they eject during the jump?

If they have to bail while the ship is in hyperspace, then yeah — I would just have them drop out within a few parsecs of wherever the ship was at the time.

If you’re in an escape pod at that point, you’re going to be well and truly screwed pretty much no matter what, so there’s no sense in trying to screw them over any further.

That actually got mentioned in the EU once. If anything without a hyperdrive gets launched into hyperspace it is stuck there forever.

A group of imperials who had been enslaved when the species naive to the worlds they were stationed on revolted seizing the bulk of their enslavers fleet in the process including the leader of the nation that had enslaved them. They dumped him into hyperspace in a non-hyper drive equipped pod and took great care to explain just how hopeless escape was for him.

Thanks guys!

Didn't that little shuttle separate from The Ghost while in Hyperspace a couple of episodes of Rebels ago? I seem to recall that they were buffeted about and did the Star Trek Shake a lot, but generally were fine. An escape pod, by it's very nature of "Oh crap! We have to leave! NOW!", almost certainly the same sort of safeguards.

Didn't that little shuttle separate from The Ghost while in Hyperspace a couple of episodes of Rebels ago? I seem to recall that they were buffeted about and did the Star Trek Shake a lot, but generally were fine. An escape pod, by it's very nature of "Oh crap! We have to leave! NOW!", almost certainly the same sort of safeguards.

Yes, the succeeded in exiting hyperspace in a non-hyper capable ship, but that doesn't mean that it was just a simple "Star Trek Shake" and all was fine. IIRC that was a very dangerous thing to do, but, well, Kanan has Jedi/Plot armor to defend him...

Yeah, old EU said you got your atoms dispursed or you were stuck.

New canon says you just drop back into real space in a violent dangerous and rainbowrific manner.

Legends was inconsistant between destroyed, suck or ejected. Canon hasn't had the time to be inconsistant yet. It largely depends on if 1) you assume a hyperdrive is needed to "hold" the ship in hyperspace, or if it's need just "to transition". and 2) if you assume the people building the escape pods included hyperspace emergencies in the warranty. I personally would assume that, unless you really got the budget escape pod option, the pods have the equipment necessary to exit hyperspace if the ship in there at the time they're used.

It would probably be similar to the Rebels episode where they detached the Phantom from the Ghost (Gathering Forces, I think?), some crazy piloting skills required and at minimum a good buffeting ...

It would probably be similar to the Rebels episode where they detached the Phantom from the Ghost (Gathering Forces, I think?), some crazy piloting skills required and at minimum a good buffeting ...

Perhaps a Formidable (5 purple) Piloting (Space) check where failure results in a critical with an additional +10 to the roll for every uncancelled failure beyond the first? Uncancelled threats might deal 2 strain each?

The difference is the Phantom doesn't have a hyperdrive or similar component - it's not designed to be ejected in hyperspace. An escape pod probably is designed for just such an emergency. Star Wars vessels, particularly cargo vessels, spend a good portion of their time in hyperspace, statistically some of your emergencies are going to occur there and you need to be able eject to safety without destroying the pod or killing its occupants.

Otherwise I'd be like having pan-pacific vessel whose lifeboats only work within 15 miles of shore.

It would probably be similar to the Rebels episode where they detached the Phantom from the Ghost (Gathering Forces, I think?), some crazy piloting skills required and at minimum a good buffeting ...

Perhaps a Formidable (5 purple) Piloting (Space) check where failure results in a critical with an additional +10 to the roll for every uncancelled failure beyond the first? Uncancelled threats might deal 2 strain each?

I think detaching in hyperspace is one of those situations where there could be an automatic upgrade (or two). Then the Despairs can be used for crits, failure for hull trauma, and threat for system strain.

It would probably be similar to the Rebels episode where they detached the Phantom from the Ghost (Gathering Forces, I think?), some crazy piloting skills required and at minimum a good buffeting ...

Perhaps a Formidable (5 purple) Piloting (Space) check where failure results in a critical with an additional +10 to the roll for every uncancelled failure beyond the first? Uncancelled threats might deal 2 strain each?

I would not make it a Formidable Check to replicate what they did in Rebels. The ship was in a spin and Kanan had difficulty reaching the control and not when actually correcting the Phantom. So I would put it Piloting (Space) check difficulty as Formidable (4 Purple) at the highest, but probably just a Hard (3 Purple) or an Average (2 Purple). I would have them do a Resilience check - Average (2 Purple) to see how they handle the Spin and a failure results in a setback Die.

The difference is the Phantom doesn't have a hyperdrive or similar component - it's not designed to be ejected in hyperspace. An escape pod probably is designed for just such an emergency. Star Wars vessels, particularly cargo vessels, spend a good portion of their time in hyperspace, statistically some of your emergencies are going to occur there and you need to be able eject to safety without destroying the pod or killing its occupants.

Otherwise I'd be like having pan-pacific vessel whose lifeboats only work within 15 miles of shore.

Or the main vessel just drops out of hyperspace before everyone ejects. The vessel will already be in a "safe" place else hyperspace would be occluded by the mass shadow of whatever the ship dropped out near anyways and would have been forced out.

Unless the problem causes (or is) that your hyperdrive is jammed or malfunctioning or otherwise cannot safely be deactivated so you return to real space in your regular craft.

Unless the problem causes (or is) that your hyperdrive is jammed or malfunctioning or otherwise cannot safely be deactivated so you return to real space in your regular craft.

In Legends, that meant you vanished into Hyperspace and were done and gone. Not sure about new canon.

Didn't that little shuttle separate from The Ghost while in Hyperspace a couple of episodes of Rebels ago? I seem to recall that they were buffeted about and did the Star Trek Shake a lot, but generally were fine. An escape pod, by it's very nature of "Oh crap! We have to leave! NOW!", almost certainly the same sort of safeguards.

They did, but several of the others argued against attempting it and they were pretty much forced to because they realized they had a tracking device on their ship after they had gone into hyperspace. Separating was a clever way of leading the Imperials astray whilst the rest continued. It didn't look like a good thing to do and I'm not even certain whether the smaller ship doesn't have its own hyperdrive already.

I've mostly assumed that anything that would cause you to evacuate the ship would have already done enough damage to get you to drop out of hyperspace to begin with. Maybe an infestation of nasty little aliens that force you to evacuate perhaps... Though unless you were in a full on Ripley Situation, I would imagine you would still try to drop out of hyperspace first so that you had a better chance of being picked up.

It largely depends on if 1) you assume a hyperdrive is needed to "hold" the ship in hyperspace, or if it's need just "to transition".

Considering sub-light speed and hyperdrive multiplier have no association I think it's safe to assume that the hyperdrive is what's actually pushing you through hyperdrive. This is also backed up by the fact that a mass shadow like an Interdictor can pull you out against your will.

In which case, you will probably be ejected into realspace automatically.

As for dropping out prior to using escape pods, you might and probably would, but I'd assume an escape pod would be designed to work in any situation, rather than likely and favorable ones. Unless you got discount models.

It largely depends on if 1) you assume a hyperdrive is needed to "hold" the ship in hyperspace, or if it's need just "to transition".

Considering sub-light speed and hyperdrive multiplier have no association I think it's safe to assume that the hyperdrive is what's actually pushing you through hyperdrive. This is also backed up by the fact that a mass shadow like an Interdictor can pull you out against your will.

It is a safety feature in the system controlling the hyperdrive that pulls a ship out when it gets too close to a mass shadow not a limit on the hyperdrive itself. There are examples in both the EU and canon of ships with damaged hyperdrives remaining in hyperspace within close proximity to a mass shadow. (In the Clone Wars cartoon a Consular with a damaged nav system almost flew into a star's mass shadow at hyper and in the EU a Praetor with a damaged hyperdrive accidentally jumped and crashed into a nearby world while in hyperspace destroying the ship and cracking the planet.

In which case, you will probably be ejected into realspace automatically.

As for dropping out prior to using escape pods, you might and probably would, but I'd assume an escape pod would be designed to work in any situation, rather than likely and favorable ones. Unless you got discount models.

Not really. We put lifeboats on big ships, but those aren't safe to deploy if the ship is still cruising along at full speed in the ocean. So, same idea here.

A ship should not be able to egest an escape pod until it is in real space. A ship that must be abandoned is unlikely to be in hyperspace, is my thought