Hi All,

We had a small speeder chase happen during last nights session, and again, the component hit versus cover debate came up.

The character obviously wanted to fire at the vehicles that were firing on them. The PCs were in a speeder truck, 4 of the character were in the cabin, whilst the droid was in the rear "tray" of the pickup. The pursuers were in a single truck (similar to the PCs) and two minions on speeder bikes.

The PC Droid in the back fires his heavy blaster rifle at the speeder, but wants to hit the driver. Which is true:

1. PC fires on the speeder truck driver but takes a setback due to the cover of the speeder.
2. PC fires on the speeder truck driver but takes two setback due to the shot being at a "component", namely the driver.

Now the same PC, later in the chase, decided to start firing at the speeder bikes which provide no cover:

1. PC fires on the driver but takes no penalty.
2. PC fires on the driver but takes two setback due to the shot being at a "component", namely the driver, and not the speeder.

I know this has been asked before, but I can't find it (I know because I asked it I think) and it has been covered on the Order 66 Podcast.

Thoughts, suggestions or re-directions?

In both cases I'd say since you're attacking an individual NPC in an unarmored vehicle, you'd build the difficulty pool based on Range and add a Setback to the first example because of the cover of the speeder truck (if you think it's sturdy enough to deserve it). I'd also add a Setback to both pools for (and any other attacks) because of the high speed of the chase, unless the target was right alongside or the firer had some sort of weapon mounting.

If you were firing at the engine or something, you'd build the difficulty pool based on Silhouette (an easier task against the speeder truck) and add two Setbacks for targeting a component (which makes it close to even for the truck, but pretty hard against the bike).

Not based on Order 66 or anything, just how I'd play it.

This is how I'd run it if it occurred in my campaign:

First, determine how much of the driver is visible and add setback dice accordingly. For someone riding a speeder bike-type vehicle, I'd say 2 setback dice, someone riding an open-top speeder like Luke's in ANH I'd say 3 setback dice, and in a completely enclosed cabin I'd rule that you either can't target the driver directly or that the surrounding windows/doors/walls add a certain amount of soak, subtracting from damage.

Then I'd require the attacking characters to use the "target a component" manoeuvre; using one manoeuvre would allow an attack with the setback dice listed above, while using two manoeuvres would use one less setback dice.

I might also add additional setback dice for the relative differences in speed between the attacker and the vehicle (it's hard to hit someone going 150 km/h).

That's just how I'd do it, which hopefully isn't so complicated that it should slow down gameplay. Just add some dice and roll, then see what happens and narrate the result.

I think I’d do a little less setback, compared to Krieger22. Only one setback if the chaser was on a speeder bike, two for being in an open-top land speeder, and three for being in an enclosed speeder truck.

But I think you’d also have to increase their Ranged Defense, due to being in the speeder truck, and I’d apply a situational difficulty upgrade due to the speed of the chase and the potentially catastrophic results if you have a Despair. And you might also give the driver some added Soak, to account for having to shoot through the plasteel windscreen in order to hit them.

IMO, it should be really tough to hit and do damage to a driver in a speeder truck that is chasing you at high velocity, but it shouldn’t be impossible. And if the characters are really talented and skilled, then maybe it’s not actually that hard for them.

For example, if they have 4 Agility and 4 skill in Ranged Heavy, take time to do a Double Aim, have three setback, three difficulty dice and one challenge die, according to the EotE Dice Roller, they’d still have better than 50/50 odds of getting at least one Success, better than 40% odds of getting at least one Advantage, and almost 30% odds of getting at least one Triumph.