Touching means you'll require therapy for several months.

Overlapping means you'll have to register as a predator with the Republic. You'll also have stay over 1000 feet from the JedI academy.

The only way for "Touching" to start is to have an Overlap.

The only way for "Touching" to continue is to have neither ship move. (The FAQ under touching and stationary ships.)

If a ship moves at all without a new overlap it shouldn't be touching any other ships.

See, the issue for me to convince TOs is that the word touching means literally physical contact. But the keyword touching makes not all physical contact touching. Rules reference p19 stats a way how to achieve and how to resolve that state, including a specific case when physical contact is not touching.

BUT it does not state that an overlap is the only source of touching, and it does not define how other cases of physical contact are to interpreted. If any other physical contact is considered automatically an overlap then they become automatically touching as defined on page 19 of the rules reference and we are given one specific example when this would be not the case.

I absolutely believe that RAI you are right. I just fear RAW it's not 100% clearly defined which gives me a hard case to make my argument, especially as the local community seems to run with physical contact = overlap since ages.

I did send them a rules question, let's see what the devs say.

Why do you need to "convince" TOs that touching means physical contact? Touching is a clearly defined game term in the rules and as a game term, touching is physical contact, but physical contact isn't always touching.

The rules do state that touching can only come from an overlap, and other cases of physical contact are just that - physical contact, not touching, not an overlap. Just because you can place your ship in such a position that it makes physical contact with another ship or obstacle, does not make it automatically an overlap, and therefore it's not touching either. In order to overlap, your ship base must be on top of another base or obstacle. It's really black and white as far as I can see. And the only foundation for your "argument" is what isn't in the rules, which doesn't really make it a "hard case". If your local community has run with "any physical contact = overlap" then I can only assume they've been playing incorrectly all this time.

I'm hoping your rules question is answered with some degree of explanation, but I've found in the past they can sometimes be a bit short and still leave you asking more questions. Please post the question and answer here when you get it.

I had a situation in a friendly game the other night.

Ship A had already maneuvered and performed action.

Ship B came really really really close to an overlap. We slid the ship across the template and nudged it toward ship A. Ship B's base literally dropped into place and we didn't see a reaction bump to Ship A.

However they were so close that we could not make a 100% call if they were physically touching.

We agreed that the ships were not calling for an overlap and continued playing.

I would think (after reading this thread) that if they had been physically touching then it should not be counted as an overlap or touching, but as physical contact. Kinda like Rubbin is Racing.

you played correctly IMO.

If you're not sure, the RAW solution is still to roll a red die for it IIRC - call hit/crit vs miss/eye for a 50:50 shot.

I had a situation in a friendly game the other night.

Ship A had already maneuvered and performed action.

Ship B came really really really close to an overlap. We slid the ship across the template and nudged it toward ship A. Ship B's base literally dropped into place and we didn't see a reaction bump to Ship A.

However they were so close that we could not make a 100% call if they were physically touching.

We agreed that the ships were not calling for an overlap and continued playing.

I would think (after reading this thread) that if they had been physically touching then it should not be counted as an overlap or touching, but as physical contact. Kinda like Rubbin is Racing.

I don't see anything in there that would create touching ships.

If ships could start "touching" without actually overlapping then the BR into a touching situation would be legal but it is not although you can slide the BR right up next to another ship.