I have a couple of questions about missiles in starship combat that came up in my last game session.

Does a missile reach its target in the same round as it is fired, as in instantaneous like firing a blaster? Or is there travel time involved for the missile?

Also in regards to the action of "spoofing missiles". If there's travel time then a character aboard the target ship can initiate spoofing when the missile of fired, or do you have to have a character dedicated to spoofing just in case?

(And just as i'm writing this I look up the Guided quality and more questions arise .)

When firing a Guided weapon does does that mean then that you wait until the end of the turn to do your attack roll, and in the mean time the targeted ship can try to spoof it?

Thanks in advance.

I just read the section on starship combat, and this is what I've put together. I'm pretty new to the game but I've been reading voraciously.

Guided works only if you miss and can spend 3 advantage to trigger the quality. Then, at the end of the round the guided missile circles back around and makes another go at the target, this time using only it's rank in guided as the attack roll. If that attack missed, it can keep trying as long as it makes 3 advantage to spend on it's attacks.

Spoofing would appear to increase the difficulty for both the initial attack and subsequent guided-triggered attacks with a guided weapon. As such, spoofing needs to be active before the dice are rolled to be effective.

Fortunately, if the first attack misses, you have until the end of the round to use spoofing to increase the difficulty of the guided attack.

Hope that helps!

The missile hits when fired, just like any other weapon. Since a round lasts for as long as it takes for everyone to finish what they're doing, this includes the missile flying to its target.

Spoofing can only be done after a missile has missed its initial attack roll, but after Guided has been activated. You can't spoof a missile when it's first launched, only after Guided has kicked in (if it activates at all). I tend to rule that if Guided is activated, the missile rolls it to-hit check on the next round, on the turn of the character/ship launching it. It's just easier to keep track of that way. So the missile spends a round making a 180-degree turn and coming back for another run, and if anyone has spoofed it in the meantime you adjust its to-hit check accordingly.

So the missile spends a round making a 180-degree turn and coming back for another run

Ooh, I like the idea of PCs still having to worry about a missile hitting even if they've just blasted the ship firing it at them

with the guided property and spoofing (and a good amounts of advantages) you can also try to lead the missile back to its own ship trying to make it lock on them instead of your ship.

I have a couple of questions about missiles in starship combat that came up in my last game session.

Does a missile reach its target in the same round as it is fired, as in instantaneous like firing a blaster? Or is there travel time involved for the missile?

Same round, there's no "travel time."

Spoofing can only be done after a missile has missed its initial attack roll, but after Guided has been activated. You can't spoof a missile when it's first launched, only after Guided has kicked in (if it activates at all).

That's a negative Ghost Rider

Spoofing can either be done in anticipation, or in response to a missed attack with an activated guided quality. You don't have to wait until a missile is already in the air.

Spoofing can only be done after a missile has missed its initial attack roll, but after Guided has been activated. You can't spoof a missile when it's first launched, only after Guided has kicked in (if it activates at all).

That's a negative Ghost Rider

Spoofing can either be done in anticipation, or in response to a missed attack with an activated guided quality. You don't have to wait until a missile is already in the air.

Note it's a normal action and not an interrupt, so when I say you can do it in anticipation, I'm saying that you can spend your turn doing it while assuming the attacker is going to use a Guided weapon against you later in the round. Nothing says that he can't decide not to use missiles when it does become his turn... which still might count as a victory when you consider the damage a missile can do....

Sure, what I meant was that the spoofing won't do anything until the Guided quality kicks in. If you want to spend your action pre-emptively spoofing, assuming that A) the enemy will fire a missile and B) that the missile will miss but with enough Advantage to activate Guided, then by all means do so.

Sure, what I meant was that the spoofing won't do anything until the Guided quality kicks in. If you want to spend your action pre-emptively spoofing, assuming that A) the enemy will fire a missile and B) that the missile will miss but with enough Advantage to activate Guided, then by all means do so.

That may merit a developer question. The table just mentions that the weapon must have the guided quality in order to affect it. I don't interpret as the quality needed to be active.

It seems to me that spoofing affects weapons with the guided quality on all attacks, not just when guided is triggered.

They aren't dumb fired rockets that just switch on when they miss. They are sublight speed weapons that track a target, not direct fire weapons like laser cannons.

That's what I get when I read the rules on spoofing and guided weapons at least.