*getting back on topic*

Having the handouts that explain the dice symbols helps a bit until one gets used to them. Then again everyone needing a Rosetta stone to interpret dice results IS (IMHO anyway) clunkier than a narrative system where you don't have to. You may want to consider Apocalypse World (lots of hacks for that one), FATE, NDS, etc...most use fewer dice types which means just reading pips or arabic numerals.

If you wish to stick with FFG there are 3rd party dice apps where you can fully customize the faces so instead of symbols you literally get results of "2 advantage, 1 failure, 1 threat, 3 successes." Which some folks may find easier to convert.

I went ahead and used the player handouts from the Free-intro modules as well as FFG's die app... find after some repetition, it got easier.

Good luck whatever you decide.

And BTW "just use chases for space combat" stops working very fast once the guy running await ain't the guy who gets away. Handling, speed in silhouette can easily allow mediocre TIE-Pilots to catch up to good pilots in big ships. Once you are at close and those TIEs used GtA against you, the chase and your lives are over.

If the enemy can mass enough glass cannons on you, then yes — waves of TIE fighters will bring down just about any ship they’re likely to be chasing.

But TIEs are particularly vulnerable glass cannons, and will almost always be wiped out with a single shot. So, get and keep good gunners, and have good guns for them to use, and you’re much more survivable against TIE fighters. At least, you might survive long enough to make the jump to lightspeed.

Issue with TIE-Fighters against freighters is that they can pick the attack vector against silhouette 5 and up and just need an easy GtA check to dodge most a sil 4 freighter's weapons. As they proven to be a match in pilot skill in the chase before they should have a real easy time with GtA. Now you better hope for minion pilots, because ace pilots with master pilot or double init slots will dish out hard while maintaining GtA, while rivals are still dangerous thanks to their evasive maneuvers options and increased chance of despair on gunnery rolls.

But yeah, you can definitely can buy time with good gunnery rolls und scratch at least something of your six IF you do not have a blindspot on your freighter. Still, the default configurations usually has blind spots, which really can ruin your day even more.

This is where taking the Racer spec from the Sentinel career comes in handy. Take the entire Full Throttle talent set (Full Throttle, Improved Full Throttle, Supreme Full Throttle), and you could potentially outrun a tie fighter in a Silhouette 5 freighter, such as the YZ-775, YZ-900, or VCX-100.

VCX speed becomes 5 sure, but the handing stays -2, while the TIE-Fighter has a handling of +3. That's on average 1 and 2/3 success extra for the TIE-Pilots. And it just makes them catch up slower by one range band per round instead of two if they are good enough to win the competitive checks against you, so better hope that they don't have an ace squadron leader or operate as larger minion groups to drive up their skill above yours. Sure Full Throttle, it helps, but talents like shortcut and skilled jockey help more consistantly and can compensate for the bad handling and/or enemies who are indeed better pilots. .

BTW, the three Full Throttle talents are as well part of Ace: Driver and Ace:Pilot. They are awesome for GtA. In a chase, not so much …

IF you combine that with the fact that all of these ships have turret mounted guns that can decimate a Tie fighter with a single hit, and shoot at targets coming from all directions, GtA really doesn't do the Tie Fighters much good.

IF you combine that with the fact that all of these ships have turret mounted guns that can decimate a Tie fighter with a single hit, and shoot at targets coming from all directions, GtA really doesn't do the Tie Fighters much good.

Actually, they have usually ventral and/or dorsal turrets, you just come from dorsal and lose on fighter per turn while blasting away easy shots. And in the best case scenario like an unmodified VCX you stay on the belly and abuse the fact that the ship has no ventral turret. In the very worst case you still get your bonus from evasive maneuvers, potentially two times twice if the TIE squadron leader is an ace (nemesis) with a squadron and you own pilot is actually trying to evade fire on his own. So yeah, still doing GtA and bringing the pain.

RAW, GtA has no effect on what weapons the opponent can use to return fire. GtA only affects what arc of the opponent gets hit by the attacker.

RAW, GtA has no effect on what weapons the opponent can use to return fire. GtA only affects what arc of the opponent gets hit by the attacker.

May I refer you to the FAQ topic? Not that it matters in context of sil 5 freighter like the VCX-100 as in that case you just narratively tell from which vector you attack with or without GtA.

GhostofmanGM

It's not mentioned in the rules, but one of my players e-mailed the developers and got the answer. Gain the advantage allows you to pick an arc for your shots to land, and it does indeed also become the only arc your target can fire on you from.

So if the starviper is up against a small number, or well managed opponents, it might be better to be able to GtA and avoid return fire altogether.

The difference here is that there is no “Dorsal” or “Ventral” arc as far as this game is concerned. At least, not so far as I know.

Narratively, yes — there are ships with weapons mounted on the Dorsal side and none or fewer on the Ventral side, but mechanically that doesn’t seem to have any impact with regards to the Rules As Written.

Moreover, it would be trivially easy for a pilot to spin about their axis of forward motion in order to swap Ventral and Dorsal sides on you, and as a pilot it would be much, much harder for you to corkscrew around them to remain on their Ventral or Dorsal side as they spun.

So, I think this comes down to the GM to make a decision as to how they’re going to rule, and I could see that going either way.

RAW, GtA has no effect on what weapons the opponent can use to return fire. GtA only affects what arc of the opponent gets hit by the attacker.

May I refer you to the FAQ topic? Not that it matters in context of sil 5 freighter like the VCX-100 as in that case you just narratively tell from which vector you attack with or without GtA.

GhostofmanGM

It's not mentioned in the rules, but one of my players e-mailed the developers and got the answer. Gain the advantage allows you to pick an arc for your shots to land, and it does indeed also become the only arc your target can fire on you from.

So if the starviper is up against a small number, or well managed opponents, it might be better to be able to GtA and avoid return fire altogether.

The difference here is that there is no “Dorsal” or “Ventral” arc as far as this game is concerned. At least, not so far as I know.

Narratively, yes — there are ships with weapons mounted on the Dorsal side and none or fewer on the Ventral side, but mechanically that doesn’t seem to have any impact with regards to the Rules As Written.

Moreover, it would be trivially easy for a pilot to spin about their axis of forward motion in order to swap Ventral and Dorsal sides on you, and as a pilot it would be much, much harder for you to corkscrew around them to remain on their Ventral or Dorsal side as they spun.

So, I think this comes down to the GM to make a decision as to how they’re going to rule, and I could see that going either way.

Doing a allerion roll certainly can switch ventral and dorsal positions fast, but at the same time it is trivial and just as fast to switch sides from old aft-ventral to new aft-ventral. With the speed of star wars laser cannons this leaves not enough time for shot to actually hit a ship which reacts on time, travel time of the bolt is just to long. No need for a corkscrew to follow that allerion roll.

But indeed as there is only in a few publication an official ventral and dorsal arc (iirc one adventure is using those arcs for a capital ship) and not in the corebooks, you do have a sound argument at least for sil 4 and smaller ships.

Now at the other hand GtA is supposed to lock in arcs between two ships and the ventral and dorsal positions of the turrets are there for a reason.

And the whole discussion is I guess a proof that OP has some point with his topic starter. The game mechanics can get fiddly with rules, faq, interpretations and all spread over dozens of books, forums, and intentional open formulations to give GMs room to decide for their own group. Though at the same time you would never have a discussion like this on a game table, follow the lead of the GM or an experienced player and just move on. And the duality of the dice with success/failure and advantage/threat becomes very fast second nature imho, especially if you keep the earlier mentioned handout close by and the GM ask each time "How do you gain that boost dice, how do you make that disarm…etc".

Once the dice rolling is fluid everything becomes fluid, might not always be exactly raw, but it certainly should be fluid easily.

IF you combine that with the fact that all of these ships have turret mounted guns that can decimate a Tie fighter with a single hit, and shoot at targets coming from all directions, GtA really doesn't do the Tie Fighters much good.

Actually, they have usually ventral and/or dorsal turrets, you just come from dorsal and lose on fighter per turn while blasting away easy shots. And in the best case scenario like an unmodified VCX you stay on the belly and abuse the fact that the ship has no ventral turret. In the very worst case you still get your bonus from evasive maneuvers, potentially two times twice if the TIE squadron leader is an ace (nemesis) with a squadron and you own pilot is actually trying to evade fire on his own. So yeah, still doing GtA and bringing the pain.

Well, Both the YZ-775 and the YZ-900 have both dorsal and ventral turrets standard. In fact, the YZ-900 (the same type of ship my Jedi character, Korath has) has Dorsal and ventral twin heavy laser turrets, a pair of "wing" mounted twin laser cannons with forwar/port and forward Starboard firing arcs and a pair of cuncussion missile launchers one firing foreward, and the other firing aft. All of this is standard on a YZ-900. Simply put, there is no angle an enemy can attack from without being a target themselves, And they're fast too.

It might be worth while for the OP to give the order 66 Kung Pow Chicken episode a listen. Sounds like expectations need to be reset.

IF you combine that with the fact that all of these ships have turret mounted guns that can decimate a Tie fighter with a single hit, and shoot at targets coming from all directions, GtA really doesn't do the Tie Fighters much good.

Actually, they have usually ventral and/or dorsal turrets, you just come from dorsal and lose on fighter per turn while blasting away easy shots. And in the best case scenario like an unmodified VCX you stay on the belly and abuse the fact that the ship has no ventral turret. In the very worst case you still get your bonus from evasive maneuvers, potentially two times twice if the TIE squadron leader is an ace (nemesis) with a squadron and you own pilot is actually trying to evade fire on his own. So yeah, still doing GtA and bringing the pain.

Well, Both the YZ-775 and the YZ-900 have both dorsal and ventral turrets standard. In fact, the YZ-900 (the same type of ship my Jedi character, Korath has) has Dorsal and ventral twin heavy laser turrets, a pair of "wing" mounted twin laser cannons with forwar/port and forward Starboard firing arcs and a pair of cuncussion missile launchers one firing foreward, and the other firing aft. All of this is standard on a YZ-900. Simply put, there is no angle an enemy can attack from without being a target themselves, And they're fast too.

Even in that case you avoid a lot of fire with picking a good attack angle. If you position your TIE-Squadron against just one ventral turret then you lose in the worst case just one TIE per round. And I very much doubt the "fast" comment in context to TIE-Fighters. That looks pretty much like a standard speed 3 sil 5 freighter to me. The Wing Mounted guns should have a forward arc if the following pic is even remotely correct. Depending on your gunnery and the opposing fighter pilots not even that one TIE per turn would be guaranteed, evasive maneuvers and a small signature make it not an easy shot with decent despair potential too.

But yeah, if your weapon arrangement is good on your ship you can avoid to be defenseless when outmaneuvered and if your flying is good and your ship below sil 5 you might bring tons of frontal weapons to bear and just annihilate a whole flight of TIEs in a single-turn. I like the space combat in this RPG because it comes with tons of tactical and strategical options. And this applies already to what ship to pick for the task and for example avoiding enemy ships with superior sensor abilities and down to such details as having your turrets ventral or dorsal can matter. It so beautiful how narrative supports the mechanics and how mechanics support narrative.

Awesome choice of ship btw. We are a little bit more boring with our VCX-100 with official stats. (Which suit the ship very well)

IF you combine that with the fact that all of these ships have turret mounted guns that can decimate a Tie fighter with a single hit, and shoot at targets coming from all directions, GtA really doesn't do the Tie Fighters much good.

Actually, they have usually ventral and/or dorsal turrets, you just come from dorsal and lose on fighter per turn while blasting away easy shots. And in the best case scenario like an unmodified VCX you stay on the belly and abuse the fact that the ship has no ventral turret. In the very worst case you still get your bonus from evasive maneuvers, potentially two times twice if the TIE squadron leader is an ace (nemesis) with a squadron and you own pilot is actually trying to evade fire on his own. So yeah, still doing GtA and bringing the pain.

Well, Both the YZ-775 and the YZ-900 have both dorsal and ventral turrets standard. In fact, the YZ-900 (the same type of ship my Jedi character, Korath has) has Dorsal and ventral twin heavy laser turrets, a pair of "wing" mounted twin laser cannons with forwar/port and forward Starboard firing arcs and a pair of cuncussion missile launchers one firing foreward, and the other firing aft. All of this is standard on a YZ-900. Simply put, there is no angle an enemy can attack from without being a target themselves, And they're fast too.

Even in that case you avoid a lot of fire with picking a good attack angle. If you position your TIE-Squadron against just one ventral turret then you lose in the worst case just one TIE per round. And I very much doubt the "fast" comment in context to TIE-Fighters. That looks pretty much like a standard speed 3 sil 5 freighter to me. The Wing Mounted guns should have a forward arc if the following pic is even remotely correct. Depending on your gunnery and the opposing fighter pilots not even that one TIE per turn would be guaranteed, evasive maneuvers and a small signature make it not an easy shot with decent despair potential too.

But yeah, if your weapon arrangement is good on your ship you can avoid to be defenseless when outmaneuvered and if your flying is good and your ship below sil 5 you might bring tons of frontal weapons to bear and just annihilate a whole flight of TIEs in a single-turn. I like the space combat in this RPG because it comes with tons of tactical and strategical options. And this applies already to what ship to pick for the task and for example avoiding enemy ships with superior sensor abilities and down to such details as having your turrets ventral or dorsal can matter. It so beautiful how narrative supports the mechanics and how mechanics support narrative.

Awesome choice of ship btw. We are a little bit more boring with our VCX-100 with official stats. (Which suit the ship very well)

Yes, that pic is correct. However, that is specifically the White Wing, which had its wing guns locked in a forward firing position, and its concussion missile launchers removed (for some silly reason). However, even in that configuration, you can still get at least 45 degrees to port or starboard with each gun respectively, as well as 90 degrees up or down. So, stock, they're not completely "locked" to a strictly forward firing arc. As for speed, under the D20 rules(which is where the YZ-900 originated) the YZ-900 had a Speed of Attack. The current (and currently unofficial) stats for the YZ-900 do give it a speed of 3 (it is Silhouette 5). However, using a maxed out Full Throttle tree, you can get it up to a speed of 5, matching a Tie Fighter in a flat out run, and potentially outrun it. They're pretty much designed for combat. These stats do also lock down the wing guns, based upon the White Wing specs, but there's no reason n you can't "unlock" them given that, even by that image, they're built into partial turrets, not fixed mounts, such as on an X-Wing.