This may have been asked before & if it has my apologies.

Does anyone know why in the rules for the tractor beam you can't pull a ship closer to you. If you can use the 1 template to booster them forward surely you could use the same template backwards.

Being able to do this could get your opponents ship within range 1 attack.

Because the rules don't allow that (mostly I suspect because it references the boost action which is moving a ship forwards).

From a fluff perspective, because you can't pull the ship in the opposite direction to that its engines are firing in.

The Boost action would be to pull it in a fixed straight line, and you can use the Barrel Roll to pull it closer to you in a lateral direction.

I would have liked this being in the rules. Makes the tractor beam offer a new mechanic.

Does anyone know why in the rules for the tractor beam you can't pull a ship closer to you.

You can, if they're pointing towards you, or sideways...

You can barrel roll backwards I suppose that was close enough for them.

The ship is assumed to be thrusting while being TBed, so the best you can hope for a ship facing away from the TB is a lateral move. When attacking with TB on a perpendicular angle or face on it is easy to 'reel them in'. Note that you don't have to BR or Boost the target closer to the attacker, the ship can be moved regardless of the attack orientation, pushing it 'farther away' and into a rock for instance.