Our group just started our new campaign this weekend, and we encountered a situation where our characters needed to get out of a bad situation fast. Is there a set of rules we should be using (allowing for piloting/mechanics checks to speed the process), or is this all just up to the GM to decide narratively? The action sort of ground to a halt while we all searched through books to see if we could find a rule on it. None of us could find anything definitive.

Just looking at what's in the books, I'm thinking it's supposed to be a maneuver.

So for a normal character you'll have:

So Turn 1:Maneuver to mount, Maneuver to Start it up. Turn 2: Punch it and start flying.

When you start factoring in Slave rigs, DVI's, "Let's Ride" and so on, then a more advanced character will be able to go from 0-100 kph in 12.5 seconds.

I can believe that the pre-flight would be as quick as Ghostofman said for fighters and other single-pilot craft. However, for freighters and anything larger, there would probably be at least one action involved in the pre-flight -- spinning up the engines, calibrating the artificial gravity, ensuring all external hatches are sealed, detaching fueling equipment, etc. The larger the ship, the more entailed the pre-flight, at the discretion of the GM.

All this is predicated upon the vehicle having finished fueling/rearming. Some vehicles have their fuel drained when they're not about to be active, so it's possible that the Phantom TIE the party is stealing just happens to be sitting in the hangar without fuel in its tanks...

I would add that skipping steps for pre-flight when you are in a hurry should translate to setback dice and or upgrades to the getaway.

No, there are no official guidelines on this (as far as I know).

As others have said, you could make a justified ruling either way:

- "Realistically" it should probably take at least a few solid minutes to get a ship off the ground, and that's if you rush as fast as possible. Following all of the proper protocols should probably take no less than ten minutes.

- "Cinematically" you can probably allow a ship to take off in only one or two rounds from the time someone reaches the pilot's seat, provided that there aren't any fuel lines or docking clamps or the like holding you in place. This isn't very realistic, but it's "exciting" and it's unlikely that anyone will care.

- As Doc suggested, you might try a sort of compromise where you set a minimum time for a "safe" takeoff (e.g. five minutes) and penalise the characters for every minute they try to skip. "Yes, you can take off in only one round if you wish, but that will mean two setback dice and two difficulty upgrades to all ship actions for the duration of this flight."

Be careful with your choice, though, because this is the sort of thing that sets a precedent. If you allow them to take off in two rounds today, then you implicitly agree to let them take off in two rounds whenever they want (barring circumstantial obstacles).

How my group handles it? Depends on the state of the readiness of the ship. If it's completely shut down and cold, an hour to get it flight ready. If it's in sleep mode, a few minutes. If it's idling - jump in, throw some switches and off you go. A round or two.

Then, of course add in whatever ace and pilot talents to half that time.

I left 4 landing legs behind once, 'cause there were a dozen enemies in the ship and more fighting toward it from the bay. (They had clamped the legs down.)

I don't suggest this... it cost a lot of money to get the legs replaced and the structure repaired afterwards!

(Not to mention the 40,000 credits we all forgot we left in the stolen speeder outside.)

Judging by this video, it can be done rather quickly if need be....

BTW, can we get a full length movie in this style? Please?

This is something that's come up a few times in my campaigns (mostly WEG's D6 system until EotE released) so I made a quick and simple house rule which runs as follows:

A ship that's on "standby", i.e. sitting in a docking bay for a few days or similar it takes 8 rounds to get it started if you go by the book - that means completing a full pre-flight check list, doing everything properly and by the numbers. This is what we typically assume characters to be doing when they're in no particular hurry and you just narrate things like "You all get in the ship and take off".

If the characters are in a hurry they can shorten the time with an Average: Piloting (space) check or a Hard: Mechanics check. Each uncancelled success reduces the time taken by one round. A Triumph reduces the time taken by 3 rounds (unless the player wants to spend it on something else). Advantage can be used as normal or to affect other shipboard systems, like getting power to the guns more quickly or some such. Failure increases the time taken, Threat can add system strain or affect shipboard systems while Despair can mean something goes really bad, like a power surge taking out the hyperdrive or some such.

I think of Empire Strikes Back - inside the asteroid wurm Han gets them up and running very quickly once things get shaky.

Alright, thanks everyone for the feedback. We thought we were just missing something when skimming through all the books, I appreciate the confirmation that we weren't crazy. Our GM is pretty good with allowing us to drive the action, so we'll probably just houserule this a bit unless/until FF tucks a rule into one of the books.

@zathras23 - All those cinematics are awesome!

Alright, thanks everyone for the feedback. We thought we were just missing something when skimming through all the books, I appreciate the confirmation that we weren't crazy. Our GM is pretty good with allowing us to drive the action, so we'll probably just houserule this a bit unless/until FF tucks a rule into one of the books.

@zathras23 - All those cinematics are awesome!

Yeah. They're coming out with a new expansion for SWTOR in October where you get the Smuggler in that video as a companion....

Just wish the actual gameplay looked like that.

Those videos are fantastic. I really need to try that game out.

It takes exactly 4:22.

Those videos are fantastic. I really need to try that game out.

Well as Zathras said, the actual gameplay is nothing like that.