That first part jives with what the OP said: the NPC pilot knew he was outclassed at the moment, and withdrew to gather his wits/observe his opponent better/however you want to describe it.

Although that reasonably only ought to happen once the NPC pilot actually knows this - the talent itself doesn't throw up a giant status effect symbol, so unless/until the pilot actually takes a few shots, they won't be any the wiser.

The standard TIE fighter is one of the fastest, most maneuverable starfighters in the galaxy. The Interceptor even moreso, and I presume these prototypes have something going on that makes a test pilot giggle like a child on Christmas morning. Now, imagine you're out with your friends, and Mazda has given you a set of concept Miatas, with engines more powerful than a car that small has any right to have. It corners like it's on rails, it accelerates like Thor himself just smacked it in the rear with his hammer. Also it has laser guns.

Suddenly some schmuck in a Winnebago busts through the gates into the experimental test track, with his redneck buddies hanging out the side firing shotguns at you. Eager to see what this thing can really do, you say, "Alright, boys, let's light these turkeys up!" You start driving crazy circles around this thing, blasting at it with your hood lasers, when suddenly the Winnebago flips a 180 degree turn, somehow gets back up to speed almost instantly, rams into a pile of tires, launching himself into the air, flipping over you while the rednecks fire gleefully at the ground through the sunroof, lands like some kind of graceful hippopotamus behind you, and carries on driving as if nothing happened.

Now, perhaps you don't realize you're mechanically unable to attack, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna realize something crazy just happened, and maybe you should take a step back and observe this situation for a minute from a distance.

Laughed. So hard.

You know my first reaction to reading through this is wondering why the argument?

Did they really shoot up 3 TIE Phantoms?

Had I been running this I would have revealed afterwards the TIE they used the talent on was ordered out of the combat and replaced with a standard TIE they blew up without realising the charade...

So the Empire still has a working prototype and they gain a new nemesis and why you shouldn't argue about something that really isn't that important!

Still I'm glad this thread continued some of those responses have been simply incredible!

What do you all think of the "Interpreting the Dice Pool is Metagaming" claim?? I've tried to tell the player that interpreting the dice pool is the ESSENCE of this system, but it's an uphill discussion. And I feel it would be condescending to ask him to read the 290s ish pages from the Core Rulebook or listen to the Order 66 podcast to learn.

Here are my 2 eurocents. Nope, not (too) metagaming. I call it bull on PC side. In my experience PCs usually metagame as much as they can. In this system less than in others. The point about how would have PCs wanted to do it is very good.

Only way to certainly avoid PC metagaming is to keep all rolls secret. (Which doesn't fit this system at all.)

I was left with few thoughts about this situation:

- PCs took it more as tactical game than narrative system (D20 background?)

- Op as GM and PCs could have handled the situation better.

- One of the largest problems seems to be different interpretation of talent.

Good question is also: would it have been more fun and cinematic to play it with PC interpretation? I.e. TIE fighter shooting them, but shot being magically deflected away, and TIE practically being a fish in the barrel? End result is same in both cases, PCs won. IMO you (OP) should speak with your players and make sure no bad blood was left between you. Also, make sure that if PCs are targeted with same ability, that situation is handled in same way.