In-setting reason -- hyperspace is full of junk and shadows, and part of the challenge of making a fast run is making the shortest run in actual distance while avoiding it all.

Real reason -- George Lucas couldn't be arsed to do his **** research.

Like most writers, which is why cars explode when they hit, or have a strange tendency to jump into the air in a crash with another car.

Or just basic physics for most any story. Like fist fights where the worst that seems to happen is a slight limp or a bloody lip after a 10 minute brawl. Or people falling 40 feet and just walking away.

Not claiming Lucas is at all rare in this regard... I still don't care for it.

If I were going to make a movie with gunfights, for example, the first thing I'd do is start interviewing people who'd actually trained for and been in gunfights, about what they're really like, what trained combatants actually do, etc.

I'd look at how cars actually react to collisions if there was a car wreck in the movie. .

In-setting reason -- hyperspace is full of junk and shadows, and part of the challenge of making a fast run is making the shortest run in actual distance while avoiding it all.

Real reason -- George Lucas couldn't be arsed to do his **** research.

Like most writers, which is why cars explode when they hit, or have a strange tendency to jump into the air in a crash with another car.

Or just basic physics for most any story. Like fist fights where the worst that seems to happen is a slight limp or a bloody lip after a 10 minute brawl. Or people falling 40 feet and just walking away.

Not claiming Lucas is at all rare in this regard... I still don't care for it.

If I were going to make a movie with gunfights, for example, the first thing I'd do is start interviewing people who'd actually trained for and been in gunfights, about what they're really like, what trained combatants actually do, etc.

I'd look at how cars actually react to collisions if there was a car wreck in the movie. .

I'm absolutely certain that Lukas interviewed several energy blade wielding space-wizard/monks and 300-year old hirsute basketball players when he sat down to write his space fantasy. Absolutely certain...

Heck, airplanes here on Earth don't travel in straight lines to get to destinations as that does reduce the distance they have to cover (and therefore the time taken to get somewhere, heheh).

You mean, greatcircle paths?

Yeah, I can take us down that rathole, if you really want to go that direction.

If I were going to make a movie with gunfights, for example, the first thing I'd do is start interviewing people who'd actually trained for and been in gunfights, about what they're really like, what trained combatants actually do, etc.

I wouldn’t. I already know enough about the subject to know that it would be boring as hell.

In-setting reason -- hyperspace is full of junk and shadows, and part of the challenge of making a fast run is making the shortest run in actual distance while avoiding it all.

Real reason -- George Lucas couldn't be arsed to do his **** research.

Like most writers, which is why cars explode when they hit, or have a strange tendency to jump into the air in a crash with another car.

Or just basic physics for most any story. Like fist fights where the worst that seems to happen is a slight limp or a bloody lip after a 10 minute brawl. Or people falling 40 feet and just walking away.

Not claiming Lucas is at all rare in this regard... I still don't care for it.

If I were going to make a movie with gunfights, for example, the first thing I'd do is start interviewing people who'd actually trained for and been in gunfights, about what they're really like, what trained combatants actually do, etc.

I'd look at how cars actually react to collisions if there was a car wreck in the movie. .

I'm absolutely certain that Lukas interviewed several energy blade wielding space-wizard/monks and 300-year old hirsute basketball players when he sat down to write his space fantasy. Absolutely certain...

The point went that way, if you'd like to give an honest trying at getting it this time...

Lucas couldn't even be arsed to tell the difference between a unit of distance and a unit of time. The viewer either has to make up their own back-explanation for this, or assume Han is an idiot or liar.

Start out standing next to someone holding a rifle. Now run away.

How long does it take you to run out of the range of their weapon, on completely flat, completely open ground?

If its a hold out blaster it is 2 maneuvers.

Light freighters and starfighters running from ISDs don't run in a straight line, typically... they're evading like mad to keep all those capital-scale cannons from hitting them. It's a lot harder to outrun something going in a straight line while you're juking and rolling and so on.

This. So much this. this is what I will use to answer my players why they can't just fly away in a few maneuvers Not represented clearly in the rules, but this is exactly what's going on, but I agree with OP that it is written unsatisfactory in the books.

On another note, in "a new dawn" (a surprisingly refreshing book about kanaans origin, liked it) They jump out of system with the Ghost, only to find an ISD waiting for them. The exact same that jumped from the same point of origin several hours after them and the ISD crew mentions that there isn't much that can outrun the "new" Imperial Star Destroyer in this galaxy - remember, this book is set about 10 BBY if I remember correctly so the ISD are the new shizzle for the emperors dizzle.

A star destroyer isn't built to list lazily to the left, you deploy them to a system and that ends all possible resistance instantaneously, so the hyperdrive is a much bigger priority than the sublight. Who cares if you can outrun an ISD if you can't dodge shots fired from 3?

Also, I imagine a Star Destroyer has a lot more energy to go around. If the captain calls engineering and tells them to giv't ol sh'got that means a bigger change than han rerouting energy from cannons and forward deflector to rear deflectors and sublight engines.

On another note, in "a new dawn" (a surprisingly refreshing book about kanaans origin, liked it) They jump out of system with the Ghost, only to find an ISD waiting for them. The exact same that jumped from the same point of origin several hours after them and the ISD crew mentions that there isn't much that can outrun the "new" Imperial Star Destroyer in this galaxy - remember, this book is set about 10 BBY if I remember correctly so the ISD are the new shizzle for the emperors dizzle.

That isn't anything new. That's been possible since WEG put out the stats for SSDs and such back in 1987. That's the difference in hyperdrive multipliers. If they have a better multiplier (lower number), then the time it takes them to clear a course is much less. Civilian craft usually have a 2.0 or higher multiplier. SSDs had a 1.0 (or less for some) and the Falcon had a 0.5 (probably taking from Han's statement about how she'd "Make .5 past lightspeed", heheh).

using a real life example US aircraft carriers will get beat off the line by a destroyer, but long distance wise the carrier will pass them like they are standing still. it may take a minute to get that much ass up to speed but once it gets going she's flying through the water. i figured that it was the same principle with a ISD. that and the fact that by all appearances all turret fire is centered out in front of the ship so the farther you get away the more weapons they can bring to bear; its only after hitting the engines does the correllian corvette get caught.

I haven't introduced the really big ships in an FFG SWRPG yet

...which raises a tangentially related question: What are the "big Corellian ships" Han is referring to?the CR90 doesn't strike me as terribly large...does CEC produce capital warships as well?

So far the existence of the big Corellian ships Han mentioned has been ignored by every gaming company that has held the license in favor of making CEC experts in freighters and small capital ships. While we know they do produce larger warships none have appeared in an RPG system yet.