Can anyone describe or narrate a full space pirate boarding scene for me?

Have you done a pirate boarding encounter in your game? How did you do it narratively and mechanically?

Are there any sections in in any of the books I should read?

Sensors are acting wonky, roll. You are able/unable to detect jamming originating from starboard above. The ship is rattled as pirates have collides a pointy ship again your hull. Luckily nav shielding has encapsulated both ships and atmosphere integrity has not been compromised. Roll. You are able/unable to stop them from accessing your ships emergency PA and inform the crew that this is a robbery and that if they all cooperate they'll make it out alive. Roll. You are able/unable to discern that he is lying and none of you will be spared. What do you do?

Sensors are acting wonky, roll. You are able/unable to detect jamming originating from starboard above. The ship is rattled as pirates have collides a pointy ship again your hull. Luckily nav shielding has encapsulated both ships and atmosphere integrity has not been compromised. Roll. You are able/unable to stop them from accessing your ships emergency PA and inform the crew that this is a robbery and that if they all cooperate they'll make it out alive. Roll. You are able/unable to discern that he is lying and none of you will be spared. What do you do?

Thank you. But how would you describe the actual ship boarding or breach? How does that work? I didn`t see boarding anywhere in the index of the CRB. Where can I read about it?

In DC:62 is a Stinger Boarding Tube described

For more information about pirates and raids i recommend this book http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pirates_%26_Privateers

I think boarding happends in the exact same way docking occurs, the difference is the airlock or access ports between the two ships are locked down on the defending ship, requiring them to override the door through slicing or brute force.

In Episode IV the Tantive was boarded by a Star Destroyer as we all remember, the Rebels weren't scrambling to random points on the ship, they knew where the Imperials would gain access to the ship and attempted to mount defenses.

I think boarding happends in the exact same way docking occurs, the difference is the airlock or access ports between the two ships are locked down on the defending ship, requiring them to override the door through slicing or brute force.

In Episode IV the Tantive was boarded by a Star Destroyer as we all remember, the Rebels weren't scrambling to random points on the ship, they knew where the Imperials would gain access to the ship and attempted to mount defenses.

Thanks. Where can I read more on docking?

Have you checked out the,old WEG Pirates and Privateers?

It covers several different aspects of boarding actions, with emphasis on narrative and techniques, not mechanics.

First 5 minutes of Star Wars Episode 4.

First 5 minutes of Star Wars Episode 4.

That is a huge ship sucking up a smaller ship. But yes, have thought of that one too.

I suggest watching Ice Pirates and anything they did, don't.

I guess to me it depends on what are you looking to accomplish with the scenario? Are the PCs the pirates or victims? A realistic portrayal of an act of piracy? A big messy episode 4 shootout in the hallways? Just ideas for skill checks for PC pirates to make?

Watch the TCW episodes Revival (Season 5, E1) (Hondo's crew attaches to Maul and Savage's ship, though they aren't opposed); or, better, episode A Test of Strength (Season 5, E7), where Hondo attacks the Jedi ship with younglings in it.

I guess to me it depends on what are you looking to accomplish with the scenario? Are the PCs the pirates or victims? A realistic portrayal of an act of piracy? A big messy episode 4 shootout in the hallways? Just ideas for skill checks for PC pirates to make?

It`s all good I mostly try to picture how the boarding/docking works, with breaches, doors, tubes and entering a ship from another ship. It might happen in my next or an upcomming game and I want to be able to describe it to my players narratively speaking and to run it mechanically speaking. I`m sure there are lots of ways to do it and to be creative with it, so I just wanted a little inspiration.

Read Han Solo's Revenge. There is a scene in there when Han is on a public transport that is boarded by pirates.

Sensors are acting wonky, roll. You are able/unable to detect jamming originating from starboard above. The ship is rattled as pirates have collides a pointy ship again your hull. Luckily nav shielding has encapsulated both ships and atmosphere integrity has not been compromised. Roll. You are able/unable to stop them from accessing your ships emergency PA and inform the crew that this is a robbery and that if they all cooperate they'll make it out alive. Roll. You are able/unable to discern that he is lying and none of you will be spared. What do you do?

Thank you. But how would you describe the actual ship boarding or breach? How does that work? I didn`t see boarding anywhere in the index of the CRB. Where can I read about it?

I'd narrate it something like this.

The sound of a large explosion echos around your ship followed by an eerie silence as your engines go dead; seconds seem like minutes as panic sets it your scanners are showing nothing but you know they're out there waiting.

Just as your nerves start to settle you're thrown to the floor as a pair of magnetic harpoons strike the ship and begin to reel you in; you know you have only a few minutes until the pirates will have latched on and sliced through your airlock.

What are you going to do?

Assuming the players are then going to defend the airlock I'd do a combat sequence similar to New Hope or if the wanted to hide and jump out and let them set up an ambush

Watch the movie Ice Pirates

One of my favorite authors is Jerry Pournelle, his CoDominium series is probably his best work, and well worth reading.

His description of space piracy goes something like this: A Pirate ship will lie in wait in a region of space where freighters or merchantmen most commonly drop put of hyperspace with its engines on standby, but most of its other systems powered down. When a target ship appears, the Pirate moves in fast pursuit, bringing shields, sensors, weapons, and targeting computers online. Pirates will generally only run down easy prey (because no Pirate wants to risk being caught after having the tables turned on them), summoning them to surrender after firing a few warning shots. If the target surrenders, boarding is easy; if they resist the boarding party, the pirates would likely have no qualms about killing the target ship's entire crew as a lesson.

Hope this helps.

From engagement to onboard action, from a prior campaign...

The pirates came at them firing their ion cannon. Once the PC's ship, a YT-1200, is disabled, the pirates tractor (just in case), and bring into contact.

Next, they extend the boarding cutter (from the Hired Gun class book), and pull the target ship against it. Once in place, it magnetically clamps on. The PC's hear the ominus thump.

Next, the pirates engage the cutting system. A ring begins to glow in the port hallway ceiling of their YT-1200...

Players line up around corners. Players wait for the next thump... the plate's cut, but not out of the way.... after a pregnant pause, BANG!!!! the cut plug hits the floor... and pirates drop in and move to cover, making a shot each.

The firefight spreads around the ship. The Pirates suddenly realize that this may have been a bad bounty to take... as there are freaking JEDI aboard. The Pirate captain is ripped from the galley door into the forward lounge, and promptly dispatched. His crew see this, and soon surrender.

The counter boarding is done via lightsaber and airlock doors... Once their hyperdrive is disabled, the pirates are disarmed, then reboarded, the plug lifted back into place, welded back, and the Jedi fly off in search of Illum crystals...

An imperial boarding is much the same... except that, most of the time, it's "Stand to and prepare to be boarded", the docking is done under power without knocking the target ship down, and the first guys through have opened the ship's airlock, by electronic hacking if needed. (They tend to prefer not to hole the ship. Makes the prize crew uncomfortable.)

It may help to envision modern wet-navy boardings, too...

Sea Patrol (Australia's Nine Network; I watched on either Hulu or Netflix) has 1-3 boarding actions an episode... many are pretty mundane.

Several reality TV shows around the world follow active coastal patrols, be they the main navy or a customs patrol... the issues are much the same. The boarding ladder is the airlock. The boat deck is the shuttle bay. Similar issues, except that they can't shoot at you while the inner airlock door is closed...

The firefight spreads around the ship. The Pirates suddenly realize that this may have been a bad bounty to take... as there are freaking JEDI aboard. The Pirate captain is ripped from the galley door into the forward lounge, and promptly dispatched. His crew see this, and soon surrender.

It's unfortunate that the pirates are Blazing Chain.

I also recommend the Clone Wars episodes where Hondo's crew attacks and boards the Jedi youngling cruiser. IIRC, ion cannons to disable the ship, "harpoons" of some kind to anchor the prey ship (though a strong enough tractor beam could do this, too), and a boarding tube to attach to the prey's airlock. They even had a guy in a spacesuit overseeing the careful linkage of the boarding tube.

The Clone Wars is on Netflix. Season 5, episode 7. Check it out. As an added bonus, it features David Tennant as a droid. : )

I go with most boarding attempts occurring after the target ship has been disabled. This can be accomplished by pushing the target over either its Hull Trauma or System Strain Thresholds, provided the critical hit from going over HTT didn't destroy the target.

At this point, nearly any silhouette 4+ ship (and some smaller ones, too) can secure themselves to the target magnetically, and using a small docking hatch or tube, link up to the target's docking hatch or tube. If you look at a lot of the deck planes for ships, you will see these on most of them. On the YT-series, it is usually on the saucer side opposite the loading ramp. In the movies, you also get an example of another docking hatch on the Millennium Falcon when it picks up Luke from underneath Cloud City. Usually these hatches follow an airlock style setup, with an inner door and an outer door. Most security will be on the outer door, though some more secure vessels may have additional security on the inner door.

As for breaching, there are several options. You could cut your way in with an arc welder / fusion cutter / beam drill / lightsaber / etc. This method is dangerous, and generally leaves the target ship unable to maintain atmosphere in some/all of it's interior. You could attempt to hotwire the hatch. I would call this using Mechanics. A slicer could try to gain access to the target's systems, and open the hatch that way, using Computers. Or, through bribery, Coercion, Charm, Skullduggery, or many other methods, the boarders could know they security code or possess a copy of the "key" to open the hatch, much to the target's crew's dismay.

Once breached, the boarders need to deal with the target's current occupants. Gas grenades, are fun. Shutting off the life support with slicing is a cruel, if bloodless, method of dealing with them. Targeting the life support while disabling the target has a similar effect. Charging in for a good old shootout Stormtrooper style is also a valid option. There are many ways to accomplish this part.

Once the crew is handled, what do the boarders do with the target ship? Did they disable it with ion weapons? Did they blast it too barely held together status before they boarded it? Is it capable of flight on its own? Can it be towed? Do they want the ship? It's occupants? It's cargo? All of the above? One of the Above? After you determine motivations, and account for the facts of what already occurred, you can move on. If they blasted the ship into barely held together status, and it had no valuable cargo, but they knocked the crew unconscious with stun weapons, maybe then they take them as prisoners to ransom or sell into slavery, then blast the ship to pieces. If the ship was intact enough to fly (possibly with some repair work), or it can be towed, they might just dispose of the crew through an airlock, and then proceed with taking the ship along with its cargo.

Basically, give the pirates a goal other than simply, "Piracy!" Then, give them tools to accomplish that goal. Then, have them sensibly utilize those tools in pursuit of that goal.

Can anyone describe or narrate a full space pirate boarding scene for me?

Just like a regular pirate boarding scene, but with “space” in front of the name.

There's one in Lords of Nal Hutta, a good way to set the general feel of travel in Hutt Space