So we were playing a game last night and I had a bunch of knife guys Attack the group who are mostly ranged. The ranged guys, whenever it was their turn, just used a maneuver to take a step back away from the knife guys so they would no longer have to suffer increased difficulty for shooting at engaged.

Am I missing something cos I went into the book and I couldn't find anything to stop them from jumping back out of engaged range to avoid the difficulty?

Not really. The penalty is spending their one free maneuver to disengage.

As per raw, nothing stopping them. As for a gm though;

-dead end (comes out of nowhere with enough threat.

-pin talent

-immobilized (with stagger if you really want to be mean)

-spending 1 threat to remove the benefit of a prior maneuver (usually for taking away cover or defensive stance, but with good narrative can be used to negate their disengage if they rolled an unconcealed threat).

-net launcher

-bola

These are all the ways I mess with my range players. Use 1 or 2 in one session at most. I like to introduce them as threat but if you want to guarantee some hair raising just add it when they least expect it (dead end works well in this). Just be wary of making your players go into combat if they don't want to in the first place or aren't made for combat.

That's why it's dumb to bring knives to gun fights.

Not really. The penalty is spending their one free maneuver to disengage.

That's also one less maneuver to Aim with...

On the upside, that trick works both ways.

Jedi PCs: SNAPHISS! CHARGE!

Stormtroopers: NOPE! Back up and FIRE!

Suddenly my players are spending XP on Bind and credits on some ranged weapons with things like disorient. Also, the glowsticks have a few options that other melee weapons don't have... Hawkbat Swoop, Saber Throw, Reflect, Force Leap as a maneuver, so the effectiveness of this stunt varies wildly...

Other fun things that can prevent either the charge or disengage:

Cryogrenades (Can lead to Star Wars on Ice, and the deadly Frozen reference like "Do you Want to Build a Snow-Ewok?")

Oil slicks (like Star Wars on Ice, but less eco-friendly)

Goop/glue guns

Retractable bridges/"why is this randomly opening and closing force field here?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi/The Chompers (also known as "This episode was badly written!")

Tight spaces

Collapsing ceilings

Or really all sorts of other fun things that tickle your fancy.

On the upside, that trick works both ways.

Jedi PCs: SNAPHISS! CHARGE!

Stormtroopers: NOPE! Back up and FIRE!

Suddenly my players are spending XP on Bind and credits on some ranged weapons with things like disorient. Also, the glowsticks have a few options that other melee weapons don't have... Hawkbat Swoop, Saber Throw, Reflect, Force Leap as a maneuver, so the effectiveness of this stunt varies wildly...

Other fun things that can prevent either the charge or disengage:

Cryogrenades ( Can lead to Star Wars on Ice, and the deadly Frozen reference like "Do you Want to Build a Snow-Ewok?")

Oil slicks (like Star Wars on Ice, but less eco-friendly)

Goop/glue guns

Retractable bridges/"why is this randomly opening and closing force field here?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi/The Chompers (also known as "This episode was badly written!")

Tight spaces

Collapsing ceilings

Or really all sorts of other fun things that tickle your fancy.

Ranged guys sing "LEt us Go, Let us Go!, Stop charging and start to Slow! Let us Go Let us Go! Before our big guns make you Glow!.

We Don't Care how you want to play!

Let our guns Rage On

You knives never bothered us anyway!"

On the upside, that trick works both ways.

Jedi PCs: SNAPHISS! CHARGE!

Stormtroopers: NOPE! Back up and FIRE!

Suddenly my players are spending XP on Bind and credits on some ranged weapons with things like disorient. Also, the glowsticks have a few options that other melee weapons don't have... Hawkbat Swoop, Saber Throw, Reflect, Force Leap as a maneuver, so the effectiveness of this stunt varies wildly...

Other fun things that can prevent either the charge or disengage:

Cryogrenades ( Can lead to Star Wars on Ice, and the deadly Frozen reference like "Do you Want to Build a Snow-Ewok?")

Oil slicks (like Star Wars on Ice, but less eco-friendly)

Goop/glue guns

Retractable bridges/"why is this randomly opening and closing force field here?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi/The Chompers (also known as "This episode was badly written!")

Tight spaces

Collapsing ceilings

Or really all sorts of other fun things that tickle your fancy.

Ranged guys sing "LEt us Go, Let us Go!, Stop charging and start to Slow! Let us Go Let us Go! Before our big guns make you Glow!.

We Don't Care how you want to play!

Let our guns Rage On

You knives never bothered us anyway!"

*slowclap into standing ovation*

As someone who loves a good song parody, I deeply regret that I didn't come up with that. My hat is off to you!

lol thanks

Keep in mind that Combat Rounds are by default around a minute and are basically simultaneous so it's best not to think of it as them disengage quickly but the end result of a Maneuver.

Jedi PCs: SNAPHISS! CHARGE!

Stormtroopers: NOPE! Back up and FIRE!

This is why you bring both types to a fight. The melee types to engage with the enemy that doesn’t back up and fire, and gets them to focus on you up close and personal in their face, while your own ranged guys lay down liquid death to everyone else.

Oh, and if you want to get the magic force users involved, just have them start using Move to throw large objects around and watch everyone else get all sheepish and shy as they can’t do anything anywhere remotely that damaging.

Jedi PCs: SNAPHISS! CHARGE!

Stormtroopers: NOPE! Back up and FIRE!

This is why you bring both types to a fight. The melee types to engage with the enemy that doesn’t back up and fire, and gets them to focus on you up close and personal in their face, while your own ranged guys lay down liquid death to everyone else.

Oh, and if you want to get the magic force users involved, just have them start using Move to throw large objects around and watch everyone else get all sheepish and shy as they can’t do anything anywhere remotely that damaging.

At the moment my game is all mag... I mean force users,but that was by design, and several of them have the talents and powers I mentiond... hawkbat swoop, saber throw, move, force leap... so even at range, you can still get glowsticked to death, crushed by the nearby scenery or your fellow combatants, or grenaded. So. Many. Grenades.

OH! You mean... yeah.. the opposition goes both country and pop. Yeah, no, I have a nice stock of both in the "big fight scenes" because I learned an inquisitor without an army of stormtroopers is "lunch." It also helps to field small vehicles and maybe artillery at the Jedi. Though my players will have a few nasty surprises in their upcoming adventures. I look forward to it.

... or grenaded. So. Many. Grenades.

I removed grenades from my game, well made them more Plot devices by making them only available in certain circumstances. It keeps the game more Star Wars'y and less video game'y

I'll second that the penalty is using the maneuver, since you have a maximum of only 2 per round, using 1 to decrease the difficulty is a fair trade. Also it works for characters moving closer to get a better shot, say from medium to close. A maneuver can do a lot of things

Also, it only gets a PC from Engaged to Short and doesn't get you to Cover so it's not a big deal for their opponent to move up and they gain no defensive bonuses. Plus the GM has every right to force a roll if the PC wants to move to a position that would conceivably be blocked by their opponent and if they have to make a roll that's their Action.