My PC's have a ship that is not meant to be a juggernaut of space battles but rather a more defensive (could have +5 setback) smuggler ship which makes sense for the group. So basically, if they are looking to leave a planet/sector/etc. they will be making an astrogation check shortly after getting out of atmo. But what happens when they get intercepted by an enemy and initiative is rolled and they go first? Their first instinct is going to be hightail it out of there via a jump and as they probably know where they're going it will most likely be a fairly easy check, easy + 1 for duress, maybe +1 if damaged and setback die or two due to any space junk, but with the navigator having 4 int has good chance to succeed. Therefore, how long before the jump happens after the check? Narratively, is it that you have the course to make the jump but to fully input it, it will take X rounds with X + or - with dependent on number of advantages or threat? Do they instantly succeed and jump completely ignoring combat?

I wouldn't want to just eliminate combat, it's not that they didn't go combat capable because they don't want to participate but it was fitting to back stories. And as they have enemies that are likely to attack them in space, I would be wary of not having them be attacked but would also like to make sure that it is a hindrance that they can't just instant astrogate away from.

This hasn't been a problem yet as we've only had a few sessions but would like to be prepared, this is also a semi-general astrogation mechanic question.

From my notes:

-Plotting the hyperspace jump: Average astrogation check

+3difficulty Damaged/missing astromech/navicomputer

+1diff Ship is lightly damaged (<1/2)

+2diff Ship is heavily damaged

+1diff Old/outdated info (unlikely)

The check takes 6 rounds, -1 for each success after the first. Advantage makes the travel time shorter. Triumph either greatly shortens travel time or completes check immediately.

Threat decreases jump accuracy. Despair makes something truly awful happen. Failure adds time to the initial six rounds.

Add in tractor beams and potential boarding actions and you've got an encounter!

There's also Interdictors, that can pull a ship out of hyperspace.

That said, if they've gone to a ton of effort to be the best at avoiding conflict, I would think very carefully about times when I wanted to throw combat at them anyway, lest they grow resentful all their talents and abilities being ignored.

Have you considered just not having them get attacked when they're in their ship?

If you're the GM, you kinda control that stuff so it wouldn't be too hard to just not have much or any space combat...

By ignoring ship combat all together, wouldn't that counter all the mods they put into their ship to ensure they could mess with people and survive?

2 of the characters have obligations linked to a pirate gang. Would be nice to play on these obligations by setting traps or messing with them while they attempt to perform smuggling jobs. This would be a great way to play on their obligations and push them to want to get out of it. If they show up and can just run away, where's the challenge?

Like I said, it's also meant as a general astrogation rule question of do they instantly pop into hyperspace or is there some lag between the roll and the jump?

The way I played "jump to hyperspace" ever since we started back in the days... like almost 20 years ago.... was that you needed to reach a certain distance from the planet before jumping to hyperspace... since WEG 2nd Edition (where ships had speed factors), we used a grid and they had to reach 40 space units before jumping (in that system, A-wing could go 6 squares a turn, X-Wing 4, etc.).

In this system, you could just do a chase scene that lasts 5 rounds before they can jump to hyperspace.

But since open space is usually boring, have them escape a huge space station with tons of civilian traffic, or chase through a asteroid field, and they can't jump until they have cleared it.

Maybe they avoid space combat because they find it boring or they don't want to damage their ship because of repair costs.... find out why they try to avoid it that much and adjust your game to their liking.

Kudos!

Speaking only for myself, my LE-series repair droid [0] would make a point of pre-calculating several astrogation jumps as soon as they arrived in-system, and based on where they currently are a couple of them would be likely next stops, a couple would be places that should be relatively safe for them to go to, and a couple would be places that would be considered to be highly unusual for them and therefore no one would be likely to look for them at those spots.

That way, whenever it came time to make the jump to hyperspace on the way out, if we decided to go to one of the places that had been pre-calculated then all the work had already been done and we could make the jump as soon as we were out of the gravity well.

But as the GM, if one of your players always did this, I guess you could have them pre-roll the positive dice for the various destinations but hold off rolling the difficulty dice until such time as they actually need to make the jump, thus allowing you to keep some element of variability and surprise.

And yes, moving asteroids into a hyperspace lane, or using an Interdictor ship, would be a good way for an opponent to force someone out into normal space well before they expected, and thus giving you an opportunity to insert a surprise encounter.

[0] Same model as Dash Rendar’s Leebo.

2 of the characters have obligations linked to a pirate gang. Would be nice to play on these obligations by setting traps or messing with them while they attempt to perform smuggling jobs. This would be a great way to play on their obligations and push them to want to get out of it. If they show up and can just run away, where's the challenge?

Such Obligations do not have to involve being intercepted in space. Pirate gangs spend most of their time dirtside spending their ill-gotten gains. Set up some ground-based encounters. They probably won't be expecting them. It would serve them right for tricking out their ship just to avoid the consequences of their Obligations.

For one, if you have PCs who always run (like us ) get really familiar with the chase rules - you'll be using them almost every time.

"It's going to take a few minutes to get the data from the Navcomputer"

6 rounds is a good base, you might even start it a little higher to make sure you still get a couple of rounds even if they roll very well. In addition, we generally play that programing the Navcomputer is a 1 round action, regardless of how long the computer will take to churn out the final route - this lets the navigation player get back in the adventure, rather then sitting out for the encounter.

"Calculate every location on their last known trajectory"

I've often used the idea that the Navcomputer has to (within a margin of error) know where the ship is and what direction it's pointing when the hyperdrive is engaged. Because planets move ~30km/second, a pre-calculated route would require you to fly back to where the planet was when you calculated it then fixing your orientation - all of which can take as long or even longer than calculating a new route.

It's also lead to a couple situations where the dodging, weaving pilot has to spend a round getting to the jump point and setting the ship in the right direction to make the run to light speed.

Most of the time if you are having an encounter in open space, that chances are most players are willing to get out of there unless they have a pressing desire not to. If you want to actually catch them, the most natural route would be to make hyperspace travel not immediately active. Methods include:

Astroids and other space clutter, including traffic.

Gravity (Stars, planets are both very gravity dense, thus one has to totally leave the atmosphere before they can preform a hyperspace jump that wouldn't leave them spread across the galaxy.)

Other large objects or in a place where hyperspace travel simply isn't possible. (Gigantic astroids or space stations may actually elude gravity or other jargon in the sarrounding area, both of which prevent ships from landing or leaving hyperspace within a select distance of said spacestation. Being planetside can also prevent them from making the jump, even if theres no atmoshphere to speak of.)

They simply can't plot a course from where they are: This is especially true of planets like Endor, that is litrally sarrounded by all sorts of natural bodies that makes only the most precise coordinates desireable. Pirates may chose to engage in one of these areas where they have to be in a fairly narrow band in order to make a jump

Other, less natural methods (Indictictors are one due to unnatural gravity wells, Tractor beams are another, and it's reasonable to spend the advantage on making them unable to make the jump even if it doesn't manage to capture them, the stress of it's field makes a safe jump completely impossible.)

Plenty of ways of stopping them, if evading the heat was as simple as plotting a hyper space course, then priates and the empire would have a much harder time of things then they do now.

I'd take my cue from A New Hope. Han & Chewie know ahead of time that they're going to Alderaan, which is a pretty major system (Core Founder), yet they have to finish the hyperspace calculations while being shot at by Imperial warships. Make the escape feel like blasting out of Mos Eisley or bypassing the Executor on your way off Bespin, and everyone goes home happy.

For one, if you have PCs who always run (like us ) get really familiar with the chase rules - you'll be using them almost every time.

"It's going to take a few minutes to get the data from the Navcomputer"

6 rounds is a good base, you might even start it a little higher to make sure you still get a couple of rounds even if they roll very well. In addition, we generally play that programing the Navcomputer is a 1 round action, regardless of how long the computer will take to churn out the final route - this lets the navigation player get back in the adventure, rather then sitting out for the encounter.

"Calculate every location on their last known trajectory"

I've often used the idea that the Navcomputer has to (within a margin of error) know where the ship is and what direction it's pointing when the hyperdrive is engaged. Because planets move ~30km/second, a pre-calculated route would require you to fly back to where the planet was when you calculated it then fixing your orientation - all of which can take as long or even longer than calculating a new route.

It's also lead to a couple situations where the dodging, weaving pilot has to spend a round getting to the jump point and setting the ship in the right direction to make the run to light speed.

Most of the time if you are having an encounter in open space, that chances are most players are willing to get out of there unless they have a pressing desire not to. If you want to actually catch them, the most natural route would be to make hyperspace travel not immediately active. Methods include:

Astroids and other space clutter, including traffic.

Gravity (Stars, planets are both very gravity dense, thus one has to totally leave the atmosphere before they can preform a hyperspace jump that wouldn't leave them spread across the galaxy.)

Other large objects or in a place where hyperspace travel simply isn't possible. (Gigantic astroids or space stations may actually elude gravity or other jargon in the sarrounding area, both of which prevent ships from landing or leaving hyperspace within a select distance of said spacestation. Being planetside can also prevent them from making the jump, even if theres no atmoshphere to speak of.)

They simply can't plot a course from where they are: This is especially true of planets like Endor, that is litrally sarrounded by all sorts of natural bodies that makes only the most precise coordinates desireable. Pirates may chose to engage in one of these areas where they have to be in a fairly narrow band in order to make a jump

Other, less natural methods (Indictictors are one due to unnatural gravity wells, Tractor beams are another, and it's reasonable to spend the advantage on making them unable to make the jump even if it doesn't manage to capture them, the stress of it's field makes a safe jump completely impossible.)

Plenty of ways of stopping them, if evading the heat was as simple as plotting a hyper space course, then priates and the empire would have a much harder time of things then they do now.

I'd take my cue from A New Hope. Han & Chewie know ahead of time that they're going to Alderaan, which is a pretty major system (Core Founder), yet they have to finish the hyperspace calculations while being shot at by Imperial warships. Make the escape feel like blasting out of Mos Eisley or bypassing the Executor on your way off Bespin, and everyone goes home happy.

Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

I've often used the idea that the Navcomputer has to (within a margin of error) know where the ship is and what direction it's pointing when the hyperdrive is engaged. Because planets move ~30km/second, a pre-calculated route would require you to fly back to where the planet was when you calculated it then fixing your orientation - all of which can take as long or even longer than calculating a new route.

If I learned nothing else from the movie “Interstellar” and all the … discussion … around it, it’s that Orbital Mechanics is one of the weirdest things in all of Physics, and even if you are a logical scientific-minded person, it doesn’t work anything at all like what you would expect.

So, on the one hand, I would expect that it would be a lot faster to quickly calculate a minor vector difference based on a recent Astrogation calculation, which would be consistent with getting boost or setback dice to doing Astrogation calculations based on how fresh or stale your information is.

On the other hand, Orbital Mechanics is just plain weird, and not good weird but batshit-crazy weird, and once you get Hyperspace and more than three bodies involved, I might believe just about anything when it comes to re-plotting a Hyperspace route.

YMMV.

It's also lead to a couple situations where the dodging, weaving pilot has to spend a round getting to the jump point and setting the ship in the right direction to make the run to light speed.

That’s also a very good point.

Orbital Mechanics is just plain weird, and not good weird but batshit-crazy weird

Not at all. It just requires a good grasp of physics, specifically Newtonian mechanics, and Special and General Relativity. It only seems 'weird' if you're not a rocket scientist or astronomer. Quantum Mechanics, however, truly is weird.

some good sabotage always works to prevent an escape.

Remember you will be setting a precedent, however you decide.

One of our GM's let an opponent jump out of a surrender/hostage situation parlay with an easy roll when we had him cornered in orbit a few hundred km out of atmosphere. This turned into a major long running plot point. Because he jumped out with hostages, including a PC... 'Ha ha suckers... Seeee Yaaa!'

This really ticked me off at the time, as I felt my naval officer character should have known that the GM was going to play it that way.

Now I am just looking for scenarios to do the same as a smuggler... over and over again