Hey all,

We had an excellent session yesterday in which the PC's modified YT-1300 escaped from an ISB base on Fondor. A summary of events were: they left the surface, shot down two minion patrols of TIEs while avoiding ground based turbolaser fire, then reached orbit where they were intercepted by two more minion TIE patrols, flew into and through an ISB space station, destroying it from the inside before exiting and proton torpedoing it into oblivion, they then made for the hyperlimit evading a star destroyer before making a risky (RPPP) jump into hyperspace.

This series of encounters went great, but we came away with some confusion about how starship movement is actually intended to work!

The main issue is the number of maneuvers related to movement that don't actually cause any movement to take place.

For example, a starship with a speed of 4 would seem to need to accelerate for 4 rounds without moving before taking a fly maneuver on the 5th round in order to actually move at full speed without suffering system strain!

The way it worked for us went like this:

Round One: lift off/accelerate to 1, use action to Supreme Full Throttle, Punch It maneuver to get the ship to Speed 6 (8 system strain taken out of 14). Notice the ship hasn't actually moved this round (we narrated it as hovering after take off as the engines built power, but the PCs were definitely confused by this).

Round Two: Fly maneuver to move from Close to Medium range from the surface (the ship moves actually moves!), Second maneuver to go to Long range from the surface (2 more system strain, down to 4, Mechanic does damage control gets a Triumph and I let him recover 2 system strain, back to 6). (surface turbolasers fire and miss, TIE Patrols at Medium range at Speed 3 use two maneuvers to get to close range fire and miss due to angled shields). Gunners fire getting many advantage using linked to devastate the pursuing TIEs.

Round Three: Fly maneuver to reach Extreme range from the surface (orbit), Second Fly maneuver to approach the ISB space station (much faster than anticipated due to the ships speed so they're still scrambling to get shields up and defenses active). (2 system strain taken\, 1 recovered via damage control, down to 5). (Orbital TIE Patrols at medium range, speed 5, use 1 maneuver to reach close range and fire, but miss) (ISB Station will come on line next round due to Triumph on a piloting check).

Round Four: Full Throttle expires, ship drops to speed 4, Fly maneuver to move into main hangar bay, Action to torpedo a hole into the central axis of the station, Fly maneuver to fly through the core of the ship (RRPP with 4 setback for "terrain"- both RR downgraded by co-pilot action of astromech droid) (check succeeds with Triumph, base YYYG with 2 skill jockey's to remove 2 of the four set back) (net 1 system strain due to damage control, down to 4). Quad-lasers blast the interior of the station.

Round Five: Decelerate maneuver drops speed to 3, no fly maneuver taken so technically the ship doesn't move. Quad-lasers shoot the hell out of the inside of the station. (1 strain regained due to damage control, back to 5). I required a piloting check anyway (now RPP with 4 setback which succeeds), but again confuses the players who said "we didn't move, why do we need a piloting check?".

Round Six: Action to torpedo an exit out of the far side of the station. Accelerate maneuver brings speed back to 4 (sys strain goes up to 6 due to damage control). Quad lasers eviscerate interior of station (Space station has stats as Nebulon B Frigate, but I ruled in only had armor of 2 if shot from the inside). Piloting check succeeds (again no Fly action so no actual move occurred).

Round Seven: Full Throttle Action to increase max speed to 5, Fly maneuver to exit to medium range of station, Second action (taken via Master Pilot) to fire torpedoes back into the now disabled station (missed). (System Strain now at 4)

Round Eight: Accelerate to speed 6 (but no Fly maneuver so no change in range), Action to Fire torpedoes into the exit hole of the station (success with enough advantage to activate linked and blast destroying the station).

You get the idea.

This was a great scene! The only thing that slowed it down and confused the players was the fact that the maneuvers Punch it, Accelerate, and Decelerate did not also involve any movement. They didn't understand why they were suffering System Strain to decelerate in particular (especially after they got the free drop from Speed 6 to Speed 4 when Full Throttle expired).

Did I handle this appropriately or have I misunderstood the starship movement rules?

Thanks in advance of any experiences you can share or insights you can give!

In that first round the PC's would have been better using Supreme Full Throttle as an action:

Maneuver: Punch It

Action: SFT

Maneuver: Fly

(Edit: I'm suggesting that I would not have required a maneuver to "lift off")

So a couple of tips:

Sounds like you have specialists on the ship doing specific tasks: perfect. A pilot, a Mechanic and a Gunner are a great start. Having a Co-Pilot/Navigator is an excellent 4th option. Then more Gunners, mechanics and a leader to get the most out of everyone.

Ships never stop moving (mostly) so even in an A-Wing at speed 8 your just zipping around in circles, dog fighting, UNLESS:

Use the chase rules. If one ship is trying to catch up with or escape from another then use the chase rules every time, also include hazards to add setback. Then there is always forward momentum to narrate, it's the gap between that changes.

So you could have (I'm not saying you did it wrong, your example is great) had a Chace sequence throughout the entire encounter:

Start on planet chased by Ties, the Space Station is terrain for the chase, blowing it up a secondary option to distract/occupy Gunners, speeding up and slowing down is all part of the Pilots turn, but movement happens between rounds.

Basically use the normal rules where movement is not very likely; defending a slow transport, attacking a space station or ground base, straight up dogfighting, hiding within an Asteroid field.

Use Chase rules where there is lots of movement, escaping, catching up with, complex dogfighting, trench runs on a Death Star,

I've done some further reading of the rules and searching of the forums and want to add some thoughts.

The problem seems to revolve around the idea of relative movement versus absolute movement and be especially evident when these two things collide. For example, in yesterday's scene the TIEs were moving relative to the PC's ship, but the ship was moving in absolute terms from the planet, to the station, and on to the hyperlimit. This makes the Fly/Drive maneuver somewhat problematic.

If I want to Fly from one spot to another spot I would use the Fly/Drive maneuver. If I had a speed of 0 nothing would happen here, so I must spend several rounds accelerating first if I want to make the Fly/Drive maneuver at a speed greater than 1. The Accelerate maneuver can also be the "take off" maneuver (if you Accelerate to 1 you lift off). So once my speed is up I then take the Fly/Drive maneuver to actually travel. This is where things get sticky for me. Combat uses completely relative range bands and speeds and nothing really talks about how long it takes to cover any distance (which is fine if it is understandable to the players).

I had determined that reaching orbit meant going to Extreme Range from the surface of the planet. The players accelerated to Speed 6 and did it in 3 Fly/Drive maneuvers (over 2 rounds) (2 maneuvers to make it to Long Range, 3rd to reach Extreme). However they were being pursued by TIE patrols which started at Medium Range from the PCs. Their movement was relative to the PCs then. So I should have used the Chase Mechanic instead!

But couldn't I have used the chase mechanic all along? In essence you can think of all travel as a chase.

Your departure point is pursuing you at speed 0 and you are chasing your destination which is moving at speed 0.

Had I used the chase rules I could have run the scene like this:

Round 1: (Planet Surface) Accelerate to 1 (lift off!), Action to Supreme Full Throttle, Punch it to 6 (7 System Strain sustained).

Round 2: Competitive Piloting Check (PCs vs. TIE Patrols vs. the Planet) (No difficulty dice for the ships and the planet has an automatic null result)

PCs (speed 6): win and move 7 range bands (beyond Extreme) from the planet (1 range for winning, 6 for speed differential) (Fly/Drive maneuver used to indicate moving to orbit).

TIE1 (speed 3 at medium range): lose and fall back to Extreme range from the PCs (medium plus 4 range bands) (TIEs use two accelerate maneuvers to reach speed 5, 2 Strain)

Round 3: (Orbit) Two orbital TIE Patrols (TIE 2) move to intercept from Medium range (at Speed 5). PCs decide to move toward the Station (at Extreme Range). Competitive Piloting Checks for all (no difficulty dice, Station has null result).

PCs (speed 6): Win the Piloting Check and move 7 range bands closer to the Station (from Extreme to Close) using one Fly/Drive Maneuver.

TIE 1 (speed 5): remains at Extreme range.

TIE 2 (speed 5) slips to Extreme range (Medium plus 1 for losing plus 1 for higher PC speed) from the PCs.

Round 4 (Station):

PCs (speed 4): Full Throttle expires (speed drop 2); Catching the station before its shields are up or weapons can fire they use a Fly/Drive maneuver to enter the hangar bay, an action to fire torpedoes and blow out the rear wall, and a second Fly/Drive maneuver to fly into the interior of the station (2 strain) (Piloting Check is RRPP with 4 setback for terrain, but co-piloting and skilled jockey drop it to PPPP with 2 setback, PC pilot succeeds). PCs manning quad-lasers fire on the interior of the station.

TIE1 (speed 5): Use a Fly/Drive to reach Close range of the Station (it will cross 6 range bands by pursuing the 0 speed station).

TIE2 (speed 5): same.

Therefore since the PC ship's movement is within the station they are all now at Close range (though the PCs can't be hit while inside the station unless the TIEs follow them in).

Round 5 (Station interior)

PCs (speed 4): Decelerate to Speed 3, Piloting Check succeeds (RRP with 4 setbacks). Fire on interior of Station some more.

TIE1 (speed 5): Uses two Decelerate maneuvers to drop to Speed 3 (2 strain).

TIE2 (speed 5): maintains speed and waits to catch PCs at Close range when they exit the station.

Round 6 (Station interior)

PCs (speed 3): Accelerate to Speed 4, Blow an exit with Torpedoes, and Fly/Drive out (Piloting RRPP with 4 setbacks, 2 strain for two maneuvers)

TIE1 (speed 3): Fly/Drive to enter station (RRP with 4 Setbacks). Action to fire on the PCs ship (now at Close exiting the station).

TIE2 (speed 5): same as round 5

Round 6 (Station Exterior)

PCs (speed 4): Action to Full Throttle, Punch it to reach speed 6, Master Pilot to use maneuver to fire torpedoes into the now disabled station (only 2 strain for master pilot as taking an action is not a piloting only maneuver).

If the missiles take out the station all together I will narrate the death of the TIE1 inside (in yesterday's case this shot would have missed so we'll go with that).

TIE1 (speed 3): (if the station survives) Fly/Drive to exit the station (RRP with 4 Setbacks). Action to fire on the PCs ship.

TIE2 (speed 5): maneuver to aim at the PCs, action to fire on them.

Round 7 (Station Exterior): PCs try to escape to recommence pursuit via Competitive Piloting checks.

PCs (speed 6): Win Piloting Check; Fire torpedoes into the station (and destroy it!), Fly/Drive maneuver to head for the hyperlimit.

TIE1 (speed 3): Fall back to Extreme range from the PCs (speed diff+1) unable to attack.

TIE2 (speed 5): Fall back to Medium range from the PCs (speed diff+1) unable to attack.

Round 8 (Hyperlimit)

PCs (speed 6): Jump to lightspeed and escape!

It occurs to me now that I could set destinations as a number of range bands (without actually designating them as short, med, whatever).

So in my example, from the surface to orbit could have been 5 range bands (which is what it actually was to get to Extreme).

But reaching the station from Orbit could have been 10 range bands which means in Round 3 the PCs could not have reached it in one round.

Likewise the Hyperlimit might have been 15 range bands away which would have given the TIEs some time to pursue and possibly with good rolls have caught up to the PCs.

Does that make sense? Does using the Chase mechanic allow one to account for distance in a fashion that makes sense?

Hey RichardBuxton,

I was writing this when you posted. I had the same thought that the Chase Mechanic was what I missed.

But it occurs to me that since the ground and the station could have fired at them that including them in the chase (but with null results due to speed of 0) would help with determining when they entered the ranges of different weapons as well as how many rounds it actually took to get there.

What do you think of my idea?

And thanks for your comments! Very much appreciated!

I would have set a number of rounds required to reach the Space Station rather than specific distances. The distance is just relative to those involved in the chase. Also flying through the Space Station would have used the Dangerous Terain rules for ship movement, the checks at Speed 6 would have been even harder. I probably would have had the Ties start at higher speeds too, or just Punch It themselves to keep up, those things should be fast. If I wanted them to keep up I possibly would have minion groups of 4 or 5, so dice pools of APP or AAPP plus handling to make their checks that much better.

I would have set a number of rounds required to reach the Space Station rather than specific distances. The distance is just relative to those involved in the chase. Also flying through the Space Station would have used the Dangerous Terain rules for ship movement, the checks at Speed 6 would have been even harder. I probably would have had the Ties start at higher speeds too, or just Punch It themselves to keep up, those things should be fast. If I wanted them to keep up I possibly would have minion groups of 4 or 5, so dice pools of APP or AAPP plus handling to make their checks that much better.

I agree, in the beginners book the PCs were trying to exit space battle, but had to do it in a number of rounds. This length could be altered depending on certain things like... rolls(triumph) or if they fixed the hyperdrive (I can't remember exactly what it was they could do to alter it, but it wasn't flying or speed).

One thing you have to erase from you mind is that in space battle, rarely are both ships flying in a straight line even when moving from one distance to another. Along the way they are spinning around each other, looping, barrel rolling (dog fighting). Also a ship going a speed 5 vs. a ship going speed 1 just means that ship going 5 is circling around the other ship faster, not speeding away faster (that would be chase rules, unless specifically using a maneuver to fly distances). I'm not implying that you don't know this, just for other people seeing this.

Thanks guys,

I'm afraid that a number of rounds will be just as confusing as my original scenario was because it's arbitrary. Calculating a jump to hyperspace (as in the Beginner Box) taking a few rounds is consistent with how we expect things to work. It takes an amount of time to make the calculations (or the repairs as I believe the case was in the Beginner Box).

But if their speed doesn't really affect how long it takes to get somewhere I'm afraid they'll feel the same way as they did with the confusing choice of maneuvers in my first post.

As you mention my players and I do get the abstraction that you reference. That you can be going at speed 5 but not change range bands relative to each other because you're dodging and weaving at a higher velocity as opposed to covering ground.

But they have trouble with the Fly/Drive maneuver because then it seems like this should define how long it takes to actually get somewhere. I'm not sure what else this maneuver is for, but the distance rules are so strange that it's hard to visualize what this means.

That's why I suggest using the chase mechanics for all movement and setting the distance to a destination by a number of range bands. Then you can determine how long it takes to get somewhere just by knowing the speed the ship is moving (they always move speed+1 range band away from or toward a stationary location). I'm also thinking that weapon ranges would be defined with Long and Extreme as 2 range bands each (so you must cross 8 bands to move from Close to beyond Extreme) (Tallied as you exit a range so Close is 1, +1 short, +1 med, +2 Long, +2 Extreme, +1 to go exit Extreme).

My other thought to simplify things (as opposed to using the Chase Mechanics) would be to include the effect of a Fly in the accelerate, decelerate, or punch it maneuvers. So any of those moves can also allow the ship to travel (if the players want it too, but they can always narrate dog fighting if they want to hold position and accel/decel).

I'm starting to like my chase mechanic idea. I may run the scenario we played on Saturday again trying that and assigning a range between locations that the ship must take a Fly maneuver to cross but with the Chase Mechanic determining relative distances at all times. (So a pursuer can actually use both maneuvers to accelerate because their piloting check result determines range to their target regardless of Fly maneuvers taken).

If I run it I'll let you know how it goes!

I believe that the Fly/Drive Maneuver is meant to represent acceleration or deceleration towards or away from a particular point in space. Otherwise, you’re assumed to be going the same speed and direction as the previous round. That’s why you can choose to do other maneuvers in a round and yet still move towards or away from a particular point in space.

I think using a given number of rounds to get to a safe distance would normally be fine, because that would assume that you’re not being harassed by craft that are shooting at you or otherwise trying to prevent your escape, and you don’t have significant obstacles to overcome like asteroids, etc….

But when you’re being chased, that makes things different. It is now harder to calculate the jump to light speed, because you don’t have a constant vector — instead you’re having to bob and weave in order to try to evade pursuit. If the pilot would be doing the calculations for the jump to light speed, they would instead be pre-occupied with trying to avoid being shot out of the sky.

I kind of like your idea to include stationary objects as speed 0 participants in the race but you'd have to change the range-band concept quite a bit because otherwise your ground cannon will almost never be able to fire at a fast ship. Basically you'd need to rewrite the rules for range-bands and speed and maneuvers needed to travel between them.

To stay closer to RAW I use the following 2 options:

If both parties (PCs and NPCs) try to get somewhere the fastest, I use the racing rules from the "Taming the Dragon" modular encounter https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/08/a4/08a47941-8125-46f7-b043-49ef58a8951b/taming-the-dragon.pdf with a set number of rounds to get to the destination and speed only matters in terms of how many range bands you leave your opponent behind. Once you reach the destination, this will tell you how many range bands the slower opponents have to cover and therefore how many rounds you have before they get there.

If only one side (in your case the PCs) actually cares where they are going and the other side just try to stay on top of them, I make it a normal chase with the competitive roll at the beginning of the round to determine the relative positions of the participants. Then, during the round the PCs will have to use their maneuvers as normal to close in on their destination, but without changing the relative position to the opponents. The destination is set at a certain distance and speed is relevant for closing in on it per standard rules. That way, the NPCs kind of get free maneuvers towards the PCs' destination, but since they don't actually care about going there, it's not a huge advantage. But the party that tries to get to a certain destination during the chase (here: the PCs) has to decide if they want to use their maneuver to close in on said destination or if they want to concentrate on their opponents first and use it for evasive maneuvers, aiming etc.

All this only works well with all PCs in one ship or at least one destination. With several ships racing in more than one direction (worst of all: in 3D), the range bands between ships can get very difficult to track. My advice: only track those distances you really need and handle the rest narratively (i.e. make them up when you need them.) Example: the PCs split up in two star fighter groups which each have their own dogfight/race/chase scene. Ten, you only need to track the distances between the fighters within the same group. Only when the groups want to re-join you worry about how far they are from each other. And I wouldn't make it more than extreme range, even if during their separate fights they used more maneuvers to get away from each other.

In order to accelerate the ship at the beginning without needing tons of maneuvers or system strain before they actually did anything, I would recommend one of two things: you could either switch to structured time a bit later and just narrate the start: "You take of and bring your ship up to speed 3, but as you leave the space port the ship's alarms start ringing and the sensors show Tie fighters closing in at medium range. Roll for initiative."

If starting the ship takes place during structured time I would use some house rule to determine how long they need to get the ship ready. Smaller ships/vehicles usually start much faster than a capital ship: To cold start the ship I require a piloting check with the difficulty set by half the ship's silouhette. The ship needs as many rounds to start as its silouhette which can be reduced by extra sucesses on the piloting check to a minimum of "I'm Han Solo and my ship starts NOW". Advantages/Triumphs can be used to go directly to a higher speed or to gain a free pilot only maneuver (1 Triuph or 3 Adv.). At the moment I'm thinking about expanding this house rule and requireing extra actions to start up the ships's weapons, shields, sensor array etc. Only for scenes where starting the ship happens within an encounter. Outside of structured time they can usually start the ship and its systems without any checks required.

May the hyperdrive be with you

Fred

Thanks Everyone,

Maybe I'm overthinking this.

GM Fred, you're right I'd have to reconsider range bands if I used the Chase rules for closing distance or a speed 6 ship is out of range of stationary defenses every time.

It may be simple enough to explain to my players that they are still moving regardless of the Fly/Drive maneuver being used, but only Fly/Drive allows them to cover distance during the turn.

Unfortunately it's still vague about how long it would take to cross distance. Speed tells you how many range bands are covered with each maneuver (essentially 1/2, 1, or 2).

You suggest giving a number of rounds to reach a destination. I could say that each round represents 1 range band (the distance a moderately speedy ship would cover with one Fly/Drive maneuver in one round).

So if the station is 5 rounds from orbit, if they are moving at speed 6 and take two Fly/Drive maneuvers they'd actually cover 4 rounds of distance and be at Short Range (1 band to go to reach it). So they can reach it in 2 rounds by going very fast and using extra maneuvers. But this will have no impact on their pursuers whose distance relative to the players is determined entirely by the competitive chase check at the start of the round.

1 round equals 1 range band of distance. That seems simple enough. I think I'll give that a try and see if my wife gets it.

Thanks again!

Finarin

Honestly, the range bands for space combat suck. Especially when you have a dedicated pilot who is using his action to move while the others aim/fire. The problem becomes exasperated when a minion group of single pilot fighters has to go up against them and has to MOVE before it can even get into a firing range.

Most all my space/vehicle combats turn into chases of some form. The pilot is always assumed to be using one maneuver to fly/drive. and can either use an action, convert the action to a maneuver, or do an action and take strain to do a maneuver

In your example, i would just say X rounds to reach outer edges of atmosphere. and Y rounds to close and pass the station before you can jump. someone with astrogation can roll and try to decrease the time of Y

Hey guys,

So I ran using a number of rounds to reach destinations past my group and they found it difficult to accept that speed then didn't seem to matter.

So what we came up with is that in a normal round of space flight you are assumed to be moving toward or away from some location. As long as your speed is 2 or higher this is assumed to be roughly equivalent to one range band.

So if the GM says it will take you six rounds to reach orbit and 3 rounds from there to reach the space station and 3 rounds from there to reach the hyperlimit (no penalty to Astrogation for being too close to the planet),

then it will take a total of 12 rounds to get there WITHOUT taking the Fly/Drive maneuver. We call this "Flying Casual". So you can move toward or away from a location while taking a single pilot only maneuver per round (Accelerate, Evasive Maneuvers, etc), thus not having to suffer system strain to add a Fly/Drive maneuver while accelerating or evading.

If at any time the players decide to use the Fly/Drive maneuver they gain however many additional range bands of movement they can cover based on their speed (1 more at speed 2-4, two more at speed 5-6, etc).

Note this means they get the Fly Casual range band plus the additional bands covered by the Fly/Drive Maneuver (so there's a little boost here from RAW).

Any pursuers relative distance is determined entirely by the Chase Rules (they are effectively tugged along by an invisible string whose length is determined by their respective piloting checks and the speed differential).

This allows me to measure distances from specific locations (such as for firing guns from the planet surface or the space station) and allows the players to speed up their departure by taking maneuvers designed to get somewhere faster.

They can really tear up the distance by taking two Fly/Drive maneuvers at high speed. For this reason, I consider Long range the equivalent of 2 range bands, and Extreme range the equivalent of 4. So to go from Close to outside of Extreme range requires moving 8 range bands.

Note that with the "Fly Casual" move you don't have to move relative to a location if you don't want too. You can maintain your current band for as long as you like regardless of what speed you're moving.

This seemed to satisfy everyone and we didn't run into any scenarios where we felt we had to do any guess work.

I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on this little tweak we've made.

[...]

I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on this little tweak we've made.

I like it. It's a good combination of the discussed options. It doesn't seem game-breaking in any way and if it works for your group, I can see nothing wrong with it. In fact, it seems like a good option since the ships are supposed to move all the time anyway and it sometimes is a bit silly, that the ship was unable to gain any distance at all, only because the pilot had to enter some data into the hyperdrive. With your option the ship can always cover some distance and it will get there even faster if the pilot concentrates on it with the fly/move maneuver. The only down-side might be, that with your auto-move-rule you might have more work on your hands when tracking lots of ships (unless they all go in the same general direction).

What I would be interested to know is, how do you handle chases?

Chases are handled exactly the same as the rules in the book. That's one of the great things about this "fly casual" idea. It doesn't seem to invalidate anything else.

So if someone were chasing the PC ship they are literally pulled along by the PCs at whatever distance the chase defines for them. So if a high speed PC ship takes the Fly/Drive Maneuver it may move 3 range bands (1 casually, two for Fly/Drive at speed 5+) toward or away from something, but the pursuers stay at whatever range they achieved based on the piloting maneuvers.

For Example: Two TIE patrols begin chasing the PC Ship at Medium Range. All ships are at Speed 5. The PCs are six range bands from the hyperlimit of the planet and want to jump to lightspeed. They make their competitive Piloting checks for the chase, 1 patrol wins over the PCs, the PCs beat the other. So one TIE patrol is now at Short range, the other is at Long range from the PCs. On the PCs turn in initiative, they take the Fly/Drive Maneuver to try to reach the hyperlimit and move 3 range bands closer to it (1 fly casual band, 2 for Fly/Drive at speed 5). The TIEs remain at exactly the same distance (after all even if they took the Fly/Drive maneuver on their turns they can't get any closer to the PC ship as that range is determined by the Chase Rules- I'm pretty sure this works the same in RAW if the PCs took the Fly/Drive Maneuver they wouldn't move farther from their pursuers). None of the ships are in firing range so the turn ends. Next turn both TIEs beat the PCs Piloting check for the chase. 1 patrol is now at Close range (and can fire), 1 patrol is back to Medium range. On the PCs turn they fire on the Close patrol and use the Fly/Drive maneuver to reach the hyperlimit. The pilot jumps to lightspeed (with a difficulty increase for jumping under duress since a TIE is in firing range, but no difficulty upgrade since they reached the hyperlimit).

One of the nice side effects of this is that it helps determine if a ship has gotten far enough away from a planet to jump to lightspeed without a penalty (According to the book Fly Casual entering hyperspace too close to a planet upgrades the difficulty of the Astrogation check once). With these range band rules, the pilot can choose to jump to lightspeed earlier knowing the cost or burn additional maneuvers/system strain to try to reach a safer jump distance from the planet.