Do Star Destroyers have "Bay Doors" in the main hanger? I seem to remember having bay doors on my old Die Cast Star Destroyer back in the 70s, but I've not seen this is canon anywhere...and every game and movie reference has the bay doors open.

Also, if a group of PCs wanted to steal a Gozanti (which is parked in the hanger of a Star Destroyer), whilst the Star Destroyer is in hyperspace, using the new canon from Star Wars Rebels, is it possible for the Gozanti to leave the Star Destroyer and fly out of the hanger whilst still in hyperspace?

Please site any canon references.

I can't imagine that there would be a ship that doesn't have physical doors in addition to "ray shields", I think every ship so far has those. Even the Munificient Class ship that obi and ani board in the beginning of ep.3 has doors, and droids don't care about vacuum.

Reeealy interested in the Hyperspace question, because that a very current question on our table, meaning it WILL come up next session.

Its about to come up for me next session as well.

This from Wookieepedia:

It was technically possible for a vessel, such as a shuttle, to disembark from another vessel while in hyperspace, but the procedure carried extreme risk. Such a move would tear the disembarking vessel violently out of hyperspace.

I've never seen anything, canon or legends, that ever seemed to imply that an ISD bothered with a physical door on its bay. That said, there's certainly nothing preventing you from explaining that this was an older model and that it did include doors.

In the SW universe, ships rely on magnetic shields/fields to create an invisible barrier that keeps atmosphere from passing through while allowing the passage of larger objects like ships. We see it on-screen all the time, and in the EU featured prominently on ships like the Quasar Fire class carrier.

Going of EpisodeIII here as well, it wouldn't surprise me if most bigger ships had emergency shutters like the Invisible Hand (Grievous' Flag Ship).

The bridge had those as well, not just the hangar bay.

I wouldn't have a problem with either having them or not having them, whatever fits the narrative. Consitency is key though, no jumping around between the two at a whim.

In regards to the Hyperspace question. Sure why not. Personally I'd probably upgrade the difficulty of the Pilot Check at least twice. With base difficulty maybe dependend on the speed and size of the carrier vessel?

Once out of the hangar the ship would drop to realspace basically immediately.

Alternatively engage hyperspace as well, directly from the hangar. (TFA style). A check for this would probably be equally if not more difficult though.

It's an upgrade and drives up the sticker price so the Empire said no way....

I'm sure they probably have them, but like aircraft carriers unless the poodoo is hitting the air circulator they leave em open, and even in those cases if they're conducting operations they likely leave em open just like a carrier.

Is this Legends canon or "official" canon?

If it's legends, I disagree with that quote from wookiepedia about the ship being wrenched out hyperspace, as quotes I remember about the harbinger and the misplaced hyperspace jump had an escape pod dragged along with it even without a direct connection. Not sure about something the size of a gonzati cruiser though

I also want to point out that the consequences for messing up the Pilot check would be VERY SEVERE! The kinds of forces in hyperspace are massive, and a ship the size of a sith dreadnaut was absolutely torn apart during less than ideal circumstanes for a jump (the drive was partially sabotoged), and only held together by the will of a Sith who was also burning through Ligian crystals.

If they failed the check, it would probably be between absolute destruction, and merely major structural damage.

So, my normal answer to this question would be “Sure — if you want it to be that way.”

However, I don’t think the normal answer will be sufficient for you in this case.

In the scene with the Rebel Blockade Runner CR90 at the start of Ep4, doesn’t that hangar bay have doors?

What about the scene in Ep3, where one of the capital ships surprises one of the others by firing turbolasers from a hangar bay? I know that wasn’t an ISD, but a Venator instead, but I think that would still be instructive.

For the big hangars where they are accessed vertically, and used for Sil 5 ships, I think they have doors on them, in addition to the shielding. And these doors are frequently used, where the shielding is only turned on for the period of time when the door is open.

For the smaller hangers that are accessed horizontally (like Sil 4 shuttles or smaller fighters flying in under their own power), I think the primary space barrier that is used is the shielding, but I do believe that they have blast doors that can be closed, if necessary.

As for ships separating in hyperspace and both parties surviving, I would point to the example from Rebels, where Kanan and Ezra separate from the Ghost while in hyperspace, and lead the Inquisitor(s) that are tracking them away from the rest of the group.

I know that’s a weak example, but it’s the best I can think of at the moment.

Yeah, re. the hyperspace thing, I'd be inclined to place the results somewhere between "very bad things happen" and "game over". Simply put, surviving such a maneuver in any meaningful sense would constitute being smiled upon by whatever higher power the PCs look to in desperate times.

The first thing I thought of in this case was in the Han Solo Adventures when Han spaces Torm while in hyperspace. Obviously he died. That's not really a fair comparison though, since the same thing would have happened in realspace. The event, however, was described with something along the lines of "the collection of atoms that used to be known as Torm ceased to have any meaning". This, to me, implies something a bit more serious.

At the *very* least, I'd tell players in my group that such a maneuver, whether they intend to stay in hyperspace or immediately decant, is going to involve some *serious* computing power and luck. Depending on the story, I'd probably require them to get (whether by remote slicing patched in from their ship, on-site slicing from somewhere in the parent ship, or some other means) navigational data that accurately describes the parent ship's course, speed, heading, whatever. With that data, they're also going to need a really good navicomputer with the same charts as the parent ship ("Grab those while you're slicing"), or an astro droid with the same. It's also going to press any navcomputer or astro droid outside of some exotic model (say...a custom model designed for exploration in the unknown regions) to its very limits, and even with all of that, it's going to take some time to account for all of the extra variables in the equation.

Luckily, this time can be taken before the ship leaves, so if they're escaping real quiet like, they can probably get to the ship and get started on this stuff before the alarm goes up.

As far as the case in Rebels, very subjectively personal opinion: I'd reject it out of hand. It's something that looked cool for kids. Looks cool but flies in the face of the rest of the established body of lore, so it's thrown out. (Incidentally, I'd say the same for the Millennium Falcon 's tricks of jumping from the hangar, and decanting within a planet's gravity well in TFA.) However, if you need to rationalize it, I'd say the Phantom benefits from instant, real-time data exchange with the Ghost 's computers, and as such, while still a terribly stupid and risky maneuver (just decant, detach, and go back into hyperspace...not that difficult), the danger was mitigated somewhat by that cooperation between systems.

We see lots of bays with open shielded ports. But, I think there would at least be a physical emergency door retracted and waiting for a big red button to be pushed. So, the ISD normally doesn't bother with closing the big slow door so they don't have to worry about opening, the big slow door. It's there, just retracted, but rarely used.

Does anyone have any pictures of an ISD with any sort of bay doors at all?

I know we absolutely do not see anything like that in the movies, but is there something elsewhere? Maybe a passage in a book I haven't read that is giving people the idea that there are these huge doors?

Does anyone have any pictures of an ISD with any sort of bay doors at all?

I know we absolutely do not see anything like that in the movies, but is there something elsewhere? Maybe a passage in a book I haven't read that is giving people the idea that there are these huge doors?

No one is arguing that they must exist or have ever been seen. Some of us are saying they should or could exist.

Kind of funny, but there IS a Star Destroyer in movie canon that has no hangar bay at all.

Does anyone have any pictures of an ISD with any sort of bay doors at all?

I know we absolutely do not see anything like that in the movies, but is there something elsewhere? Maybe a passage in a book I haven't read that is giving people the idea that there are these huge doors?

No one is arguing that they must exist or have ever been seen. Some of us are saying they should or could exist.

Kind of funny, but there IS a Star Destroyer in movie canon that has no hangar bay at all.

No reason that they should exist. This is a universe where tech can last centuries without lots of maintenance. Where parked ships just keep floating off the ground (like Luke's speeder, or all the speeders/aircars that we see in the various movies). You'd think it might be arrogance to not have a way to close the deck to protect against attacks, but just having a wing or two of fighters plus the rest of its guns makes runs at it a bit suicidal for a small number of fighters. Also, the hanger bay on an ISD is huge. Looks to be about 20-25% of the length of the ship. The outer section appears to just be a place for them to take in larger ships, like the Tantive IV, with the actual hangars with their magcon fields being up high and off to the side in that outer section.

The doors in the Phantom Menace big battle weren't at the exterior at all. Per other sources, those giant ships were massive cargo vessels. The doors were interior separators to different parts of the ringed cargo ship. Look at the battle more closely and you'll see that there are more than just the two openings into the ship. As the camera pans around the ship blowing up, there are various large openings on the inner side of the ring, most likely for more places to load/unload cargo from.

Yeah, re. the hyperspace thing, I'd be inclined to place the results somewhere between "very bad things happen" and "game over". Simply put, surviving such a maneuver in any meaningful sense would constitute being smiled upon by whatever higher power the PCs look to in desperate times.

The first thing I thought of in this case was in the Han Solo Adventures when Han spaces Torm while in hyperspace. Obviously he died. That's not really a fair comparison though, since the same thing would have happened in realspace. The event, however, was described with something along the lines of "the collection of atoms that used to be known as Torm ceased to have any meaning". This, to me, implies something a bit more serious.

At the *very* least, I'd tell players in my group that such a maneuver, whether they intend to stay in hyperspace or immediately decant, is going to involve some *serious* computing power and luck. Depending on the story, I'd probably require them to get (whether by remote slicing patched in from their ship, on-site slicing from somewhere in the parent ship, or some other means) navigational data that accurately describes the parent ship's course, speed, heading, whatever. With that data, they're also going to need a really good navicomputer with the same charts as the parent ship ("Grab those while you're slicing"), or an astro droid with the same. It's also going to press any navcomputer or astro droid outside of some exotic model (say...a custom model designed for exploration in the unknown regions) to its very limits, and even with all of that, it's going to take some time to account for all of the extra variables in the equation.

Luckily, this time can be taken before the ship leaves, so if they're escaping real quiet like, they can probably get to the ship and get started on this stuff before the alarm goes up.

As far as the case in Rebels, very subjectively personal opinion: I'd reject it out of hand. It's something that looked cool for kids. Looks cool but flies in the face of the rest of the established body of lore, so it's thrown out. (Incidentally, I'd say the same for the Millennium Falcon 's tricks of jumping from the hangar, and decanting within a planet's gravity well in TFA.) However, if you need to rationalize it, I'd say the Phantom benefits from instant, real-time data exchange with the Ghost 's computers, and as such, while still a terribly stupid and risky maneuver (just decant, detach, and go back into hyperspace...not that difficult), the danger was mitigated somewhat by that cooperation between systems.

The Han Solo event isnt canon, anything in the films, rebels, and the clone wars and the Disney era books are. Hyperspace appears to work differently than it did previously, travel times is one example. This is another, as is communication between ships during hyperspace as well as being able to travel alongside other ships.

So to answer the question , canonicly yes it is possible to decouple while in hyperspace, Ultimately, regardless of how you feel about it (lightsaber copters anyone?), once it's in Rebels it's canon.

Didn't the ship used by Kallus in the pilot episodes of Star Wars Rebels have bay doors?

I recall explosives being used to create a breach and I think they slammed the doors shut to prevent them being sucked out into outer space (well i think some were swept out)?

In that episode they activated a shield,

Yeah, re. the hyperspace thing, I'd be inclined to place the results somewhere between "very bad things happen" and "game over". Simply put, surviving such a maneuver in any meaningful sense would constitute being smiled upon by whatever higher power the PCs look to in desperate times.

The first thing I thought of in this case was in the Han Solo Adventures when Han spaces Torm while in hyperspace. Obviously he died. That's not really a fair comparison though, since the same thing would have happened in realspace. The event, however, was described with something along the lines of "the collection of atoms that used to be known as Torm ceased to have any meaning". This, to me, implies something a bit more serious.

At the *very* least, I'd tell players in my group that such a maneuver, whether they intend to stay in hyperspace or immediately decant, is going to involve some *serious* computing power and luck. Depending on the story, I'd probably require them to get (whether by remote slicing patched in from their ship, on-site slicing from somewhere in the parent ship, or some other means) navigational data that accurately describes the parent ship's course, speed, heading, whatever. With that data, they're also going to need a really good navicomputer with the same charts as the parent ship ("Grab those while you're slicing"), or an astro droid with the same. It's also going to press any navcomputer or astro droid outside of some exotic model (say...a custom model designed for exploration in the unknown regions) to its very limits, and even with all of that, it's going to take some time to account for all of the extra variables in the equation.

Luckily, this time can be taken before the ship leaves, so if they're escaping real quiet like, they can probably get to the ship and get started on this stuff before the alarm goes up.

As far as the case in Rebels, very subjectively personal opinion: I'd reject it out of hand. It's something that looked cool for kids. Looks cool but flies in the face of the rest of the established body of lore, so it's thrown out. (Incidentally, I'd say the same for the Millennium Falcon 's tricks of jumping from the hangar, and decanting within a planet's gravity well in TFA.) However, if you need to rationalize it, I'd say the Phantom benefits from instant, real-time data exchange with the Ghost 's computers, and as such, while still a terribly stupid and risky maneuver (just decant, detach, and go back into hyperspace...not that difficult), the danger was mitigated somewhat by that cooperation between systems.

The Han Solo event isnt canon, anything in the films, rebels, and the clone wars and the Disney era books are. Hyperspace appears to work differently than it did previously, travel times is one example. This is another, as is communication between ships during hyperspace as well as being able to travel alongside other ships.

So to answer the question , canonicly yes it is possible to decouple while in hyperspace, Ultimately, regardless of how you feel about it (lightsaber copters anyone?), once it's in Rebels it's canon.

Yeah, I guess if you're only concerned with "what is canon", the answer at this point is, "Whatever you want it to be", since there's effectively no sort of consistency.

That's my biggest issue with the approach Disney has taken. Pre-Disney, there was some lousy storytelling, but also some great storytelling, and a lot of internal consistency. Now there's okay and lousy storytelling, and no attempt at all to ensure any sort of internal consistency if it's going to get in the way of their telling another mediocre story.

My personal approach to that is to basically take "new canon" with a huge grain of salt, mostly rejecting it on general principle in favor of the "old canon", which at least had some consistency (which is really what canon in any setting is all about).

That's why I prefaced my post the way I did. I understand that this isn't the opinion held by many, so I qualified it. Pretty much in the way that "new canon" treats "Legends" with "we'll only take what we want, when we want...and the rest is an in-universe story about how things might have been" from what I've seen of "new canon" I approach it in exactly the opposite way: the Clone Wars cartoons never happened, TFA never happened, and the Rebels cartoons are an in-universe tale.

If players in a group of mine said, "We're jumping to hyperspace directly from the hangar bay, then coming back out within the atmosphere of our destination!" my answer would be, "No you don't. The laws of hyperspace don't permit either of those things, and your ship would be destroyed if you attempted it." And if they ignored that and attempted it anyway, their ship would be destroyed.

Does anyone have any pictures of an ISD with any sort of bay doors at all?

I know we absolutely do not see anything like that in the movies, but is there something elsewhere? Maybe a passage in a book I haven't read that is giving people the idea that there are these huge doors?

No one is arguing that they must exist or have ever been seen. Some of us are saying they should or could exist.

Kind of funny, but there IS a Star Destroyer in movie canon that has no hangar bay at all.

Well hangar or no hangar is a separate questions, and I'm certainly not saying that nobody should ever do it in their games, I'm just asking if this notion of doors on ISD bays has any precedent.

It would seem far less of a random leap of speculation if we actually saw anything anywhere suggesting that it's a thing. But without that, to me personally, it seems no more plausible than suggesting ISDs have a giant, 200 meter long retractable spike built into the front of the ship that is used for ramming/skewering other vessels.

Yeah, I guess if you're only concerned with "what is canon", the answer at this point is, "Whatever you want it to be", since there's effectively no sort of consistency.

Actually as the original poster of the question, my initial question clearly indicates that I'm looking for canon references. So for those that are quoting "canon", that's what I'm looking for.

My table rules are that everything that happened in the movies, and TV Series happens as is. As long as the books and comics don't interfere with my plots, they can stay too. I make this clear to my players for consistency of the world they are playing in.

This is what I am referring to:



This is the bottom of the Die Cast Metal Star Destroyer from the 70s, and may be where I've getting my visual from.

There is a "door" which closes on the bay to "trap" the Corvette. I'm just wondering if this became canon-ised anywhere.

This image however suggests that there are NO doors, but the Incredible Cross Section books aren't canon either...not really

This image however suggests that there are NO doors, but the Incredible Cross Section books aren't canon either...not really

I’ve been looking for images of the ventral side of an ISD, and it’s hard to find them. Most pictures of an ISD aren’t canon, and most of them don’t have pictures of the ventral side.

In the canon material, at least in visual media here is no reference to their being doors on star destroyers hangar bays , this being said there was none on the death star either. However in Revenge of the Sith when they blew the shields of the hangar bay entrance of the invisible hand a blast door drew across the gap, similarly when a window got blown out, so I would say there is likely to be safety blast door in place.

The event referred to earlier with agent kallus during Spark of Rebellion did not involve a hangar bay door . It was beside it and the shield in this case was too block off a part of the hull plating, it may have been a cargo door.

I guess its one of those, "GM flips a Destiny Point" moments and says, "This model, has an additional safety feature, and emergency doors close, blocking your escape".