What exactly can co-pilots do during a combat encounter? I know there is the additional action listed on page 248 where they can reduce the pilot's piloting check, but is there anything else. Are they still considered a pilot and therefore are allowed to perform a pilot only maneuver as stated on page 245?

Honestly there's a lot of stuff to do during a combat encounter, even if you aren't the pilot. Angle deflectors, slice systems, jamming, countermeasures, repairs and strain recovery, senors...lots of options...

What exactly can co-pilots do during a combat encounter? I know there is the additional action listed on page 248 where they can reduce the pilot's piloting check, but is there anything else. Are they still considered a pilot and therefore are allowed to perform a pilot only maneuver as stated on page 245?

The co-pilot crew position can be used to fly the ship just as the pilot station can be. However, the rules only allow one operator to perform pilot-only maneuvers per turn. The co-pilot can fly the ship while the pilot does other things, and can do so from his station without having to spend maneuvers to switch stations.

Thanks for the responses.

The co-pilot crew position can be used to fly the ship just as the pilot station can be. However, the rules only allow one operator to perform pilot-only maneuvers per turn. The co-pilot can fly the ship while the pilot does other things, and can do so from his station without having to spend maneuvers to switch stations.

What about on page 245 of the AOR rulebook that states that some ships have multiple pilots and each one could perform a pilot only maneuver, and the ship only suffers strain. Wouldn't this allow both the pilot and co pilot the ability to fly the ship the same turn? I was not for sure if co-pilot was considered this other pilot, or if there were some ships that stated that they actually had two pilots because in this section of the rules, it states that those ships are rare. I hope I am making sense. Thanks for your help.

I think the "multiple pilots"-thing is mostly there for larger ships, capital warships and the like, where you have a whole bridge crew helping with all the various tasks that need doing. Not so much for small freighters and the sort of ships your players are likely to trundle around in.

Of course, by the rules multiple pilots on vehicles with Silhouette > 4 are pretty useless too.

honestly if your encounters have environmental hazards or obstacles (something making it harder for your pilot to do the things he wants to do), and you should absolutely have these in every encounter, then the assist and co-pilot manoeuvre and action are very important.

when you look at the method for calculating the difficulty of pilot checks you will see the faster the ship is moving the harder the checks get, so if your transport full of PC's is trying to dogfight at speed 4 the check can make things very difficult (also for the NPC's) so downgrading difficulty and providing boost dice can completely change the outcome of the encounter

Having a co-pilot reduce the difficulty of the pilot's rolls is highly useful.

A co-pilot can do pilot only maneuvers, but only if the pilot isn't doing. Otherwise, he's doign 'assist', or else running the systems board - sensors, damage control, spoof missiles - the general "fighter backseater" sort of thing.

But does the rules actually state that a copilot can not use a pilot only maneuver when the pilot uses one? I can not seem to find that anywhere in the rulebook. Thanks for your help.

But does the rules actually state that a copilot can not use a pilot only maneuver when the pilot uses one? I can not seem to find that anywhere in the rulebook. Thanks for your help.

Good question, but knowing what I know, if 2 pilots are trying to control the craft then it would be devastating. There are controls in the craft to prevent that except for the copilot assisting in pulling up hard or a turn or whatever (hence the copiloting assist), and that was in old fly by cable craft. Modern craft actually has to be turned over by the pilot to the copilot, hence the copilots having assists.

Remember the actions happening in a role playing battle are happening simultaneously.

Example: Pilot try's to bank right and the copilot decides to go left, by your thoughts the maneuver is moot due to the conflict of control inputs. Could you thematically do it? Yes if the pilot and copilot were attuned to each other by the force, and only then.

You kind of lose that in turn based stuff, but that's where your imagination comes in.

the limiting factor is that a Ship can only perform a single Pilot Only Action or maneuver (sill 1-4 can suffer 2 system strain to perform 2 maneuver) each round, just as a weapons system on a ship can only be fired once each round.

This is covered on EotE p232-233 and AoR p245-246.

look under the 2 sub-headings Maneuvers and Actions, in the paragraphs directly following those sub-headings, should clear it up for you

Sorry guys, I am not trying to drag this on, I am new to RPGs and GMing in general.

Remember the actions happening in a role playing battle are happening simultaneously.

Example: Pilot try's to bank right and the copilot decides to go left, by your thoughts the maneuver is moot due to the conflict of control inputs. Could you thematically do it? Yes if the pilot and copilot were attuned to each other by the force, and only then.

I understand the book talks about turns happening at the same time, but I feel like in some cases, we really are not meant to think this way. For example in a combat encounter, going down the initiate order, we have two pcs standing next to each other, one NPC at short range, and one NPC at longe range with the initiative order PC, PC, NPC, NPC. PC one shoots at the closest NPC group killing them all. Now if things were happening at the same time, PC two, most likely, would have been shooting at the same group of NPCs because they are the closest threat and then they would have dealt with the farther NPCs. However, PC two may now shoot at the other NPC group at long range ignoring the dead group. To me, initiative order is just that, the order in which each character took it upon themselves to do something.

As per your example above, rather than them happening at the same time, it could be that the pilot banked right and the copilot noticed a new threat that the pilot had failed to notice, and had to immediately bank back left (bear in mind I have no experience with flying). Rather than their controls canceling each other out, they worked together with two sets of eyes and two brains seeing more than just one (no need for the force).

I hope I am explaining myself correctly. I guess I need to let you know my current situation in the game I am GMing. I have a pilot of a YT 2400 who has used a pilot maneuver to punch it to speed 4 and has gained the advantage ( I know it is speed 4 required, and a 2400 is speed 3, but they had recently received a +1 boost to speed from a previous roll). Now an enemy NPC (a Vigil Class Corvette) is rapidly approaching, threatening to bring its weapons to bear. They have calculated the location to make a hyperspace jump which is at extreme range from the ship. They have a co pilot which would like to now use a pilot maneuver to fly/drive toward this jump point to escape the Vigil and the current battle. As per page 245, it does state that a ship may only perform one pilot only maneuver and may do another if the ships suffers two system strain. If it has a single pilot the pilot has to suffer two strain or downgrade his action to a maneuver, but it states that some ships have multiple pilots, in which case each can perform a pilot only maneuver and only the ship suffers strain. To me, RAW, this would be perfectly acceptable.

I hope this makes sense. As you can see, I don't post much and don't have much forum experience as well. I have a hard time explaining myself and if their is anywhere else I need to explain (or I need to be pointed to), let me know. Thanks guys, your a lot of help to this newbie GM.

As per your example above, rather than them happening at the same time, it could be that the pilot banked right and the copilot noticed a new threat that the pilot had failed to notice, and had to immediately bank back left (bear in mind I have no experience with flying). Rather than their controls canceling each other out, they worked together with two sets of eyes and two brains seeing more than just one (no need for the force).

this is a great example of the co-pilot action in effect, the pilot is still in controll of the ship, but the co-pilot saw something and spoke up.

I hope I am explaining myself correctly. I guess I need to let you know my current situation in the game I am GMing. I have a pilot of a YT 2400 who has used a pilot maneuver to punch it to speed 4 and has gained the advantage ( I know it is speed 4 required, and a 2400 is speed 3, but they had recently received a +1 boost to speed from a previous roll). Now an enemy NPC (a Vigil Class Corvette) is rapidly approaching, threatening to bring its weapons to bear. They have calculated the location to make a hyperspace jump which is at extreme range from the ship. They have a co pilot which would like to now use a pilot maneuver to fly/drive toward this jump point to escape the Vigil and the current battle. As per page 245, it does state that a ship may only perform one pilot only maneuver and may do another if the ships suffers two system strain. If it has a single pilot the pilot has to suffer two strain or downgrade his action to a maneuver, but it states that some ships have multiple pilots, in which case each can perform a pilot only maneuver and only the ship suffers strain. To me, RAW, this would be perfectly acceptable.

multiple things could happen in this example:

1. the pilot uses his free maneuver, then downgrades his action to get a second maneuver for no strain cost, leaving a copilot free to do as they like, but the pilot will perform no actions for the round
2. the pilot suffers 2 strain so he can perform 2 maneuvers and an action that round, the copilot can do whatever he likes.
3. the copilot uses his maneuver for 1 pilot only maneuver, then has his action to use on something else, the copilot then uses his maneuver to perform a second pilot only maneuver for the ship for the round, he also has his action free to do as he pleases

in all the above examples the ship would suffer 2 system strain as it has performed 2 maneuvers for the round.

And there you go according to RAW. The copilot used his copilot action. The majority of it is narrative.

They can plot course taking setback die off pilot checks.
They can do the copilot action. each success downgrades the pilots difficulty on their check.

Page 248 AoR. same charts in EotE