PCs drop out of lightspeed carrying a known Rebel leader onboard, only to see several Imperial Customs Corvettes in the system as well as a Raider. As it was unplanned, they were still running their original ID signatures.

PCs jump, not blindly, but rolled 3 successes after the "do it in 1 round" penalty. They weren't super close but also weren't super far.

The Imperial presence was increased at that planet because of recent Rebel activity. A ship jumped in, didn't say anything, then jumped out. How much would the Empire have gotten, and what do you think they would do? Would they care? Would they immediately report to all sectors? Would they have gotten enough information to run their signature against a BOSS database and tag the ship and captain as Wanted?

Whatcha think?

Is there a timescale for the PC's to do something analogous to scanning another ship?

If so, use that as a comparison to see if the Imp's would have had time to scan them for their ID codes, taking into account that the Imp's wouldnt have been "unaware" so to speak - previous rebel activity would mean they where on alert.

Is there a timescale for the PC's to do something analogous to scanning another ship?

If so, use that as a comparison to see if the Imp's would have had time to scan them for their ID codes, taking into account that the Imp's wouldnt have been "unaware" so to speak - previous rebel activity would mean they where on alert.

Maybe they didn't have time to do anything at the moment, but their ship's onboard computers probably were able to pick the PC's up and to calculate their most likely destination.

I'd have to wonder if they were within sensor range for the scanners to do anything but a visual identification match.

It really depends on the Imperial commander in charge - one might opt to check it out because of the preexisting circumstance that they were there because of Rebel activity. However, if the world is a major trade hub, the commander might opt to not waste their time chasing every sensor ghost - there are canon examples for both so it's reasonable to play it however the story requires it.

I'm sure it would take several minutes to get a ship ID from BOSS over hyperwave, unless of course someone rolled a lot of Threat or a Despair on their Astrogation check to get the heck outta there.

PCs drop out of lightspeed carrying a known Rebel leader onboard, only to see several Imperial Customs Corvettes in the system as well as a Raider. As it was unplanned, they were still running their original ID signatures.

PCs jump, not blindly, but rolled 3 successes after the "do it in 1 round" penalty. They weren't super close but also weren't super far.

The Imperial presence was increased at that planet because of recent Rebel activity. A ship jumped in, didn't say anything, then jumped out. How much would the Empire have gotten, and what do you think they would do? Would they care? Would they immediately report to all sectors? Would they have gotten enough information to run their signature against a BOSS database and tag the ship and captain as Wanted?

Whatcha think?

Nothing happens.The ship's transponder code is recorded. The imperials take a note of them, mark the ship maybe as suspicious on their ISB record. At worst the next custom exception should be a unpleasant.thorough examination of the ship. But stuff like this happens all the time, and a ship with active and legitime transponder code is not that suspicious. Now if there were incidents with exact that ship type in the region, things change a little, now they have a matching transponder code and a reason to check the ship asap.

Depends how alert they were.

More importantly was there a navigational beacon present because the imperial crew might have missed their appearance but that beacon would have registered their arrival and departure it's only a matter of time before they think to double check?

I'd recommend changing the ship's id at least until they know otherwise.

All depends on a what else was going on. Was the area busy and was it enough to warrant their immediate attention? A busy spacelane can be a hectic thing for the Imp crew monitoring the area. Were they actively looking for anything suspicious? Was the PC ship on a watch list?

Basically,as a GM,you can narrate a number of different reasons for either their quick reaction or lack of attention. Maybe the area was a major hub of activity and the Imps had their hands full. Tbe computers would log the ship's entry and exit. Maybe somebody would get an alert to review the information and send out a query to look into other checkpoint logs for the same ship.

Maybe that calls for some rolls on the GM side to see if it happens (percentile) and if they're successful (skill). There's a lot a GM can do with this to simulate the situation thru the roll of a few dice. Or the GMA can just script it out as a setup for a future encounter. Either way, you don't necessarily have to inform the players what the Imps know or don't know about their jump. Keep them in suspence and let them worry about it.

My 2 credits: We keep putting our current tech into what was originally 1977 tech. "we have a ship with the same markings that blasted it's way out of Mos Eisley". Yes, there is a transponder. It only has a broadcast range of SHORT. If they were medium or farther, they are good to go because the signal never made it to the Imperials. We give too much credit to the tech of Star Wars, time and again we see rebels overlooked. Why? Somebody wasn't watching intently 100% of the time. They don't get caught because the computers are NOT IDIOT PROOF!!! Forget super, supercomputers that flash and beep warnings for everything because humans are lazy and have the attention span of a knat. Think old '77 tech and run with a great story. I think you'll get more fun and mileage that way.

MTFBWY

My 2 credits: We keep putting our current tech into what was originally 1977 tech. "we have a ship with the same markings that blasted it's way out of Mos Eisley". Yes, there is a transponder. It only has a broadcast range of SHORT. If they were medium or farther, they are good to go because the signal never made it to the Imperials. We give too much credit to the tech of Star Wars, time and again we see rebels overlooked. Why? Somebody wasn't watching intently 100% of the time. They don't get caught because the computers are NOT IDIOT PROOF!!! Forget super, supercomputers that flash and beep warnings for everything because humans are lazy and have the attention span of a knat. Think old '77 tech and run with a great story. I think you'll get more fun and mileage that way.

MTFBWY

The range seems to be a good deal bigger, but keep in mind that even orbit around a planet is a lot bigger than just extreme range.

There is another rebels episode which has the Ghost using a secondary transponder attachment to sneak past the imperials with a fake transponder. But I can't remember which episode this was, iirc something in season 1.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Masking_transponder

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Identification_Friend_or_Foe_transponder

And finally found the episode and the mod of the ghost: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Signature_modulator

It's from Rebels Season 1, Idiot's Array

I've seen the Rebels show with the transponder. I was simply going with what I found in print for this game system..

AoR pg. 239:

Transponder: Every space-going vessel possesses a subspace transponder. The subspace transponder broadcasts the vessel’s registry, hull number, ownership, and other pertinent information on a special frequency that can be picked up by any vessel or subspace comm array at close range.

It goes on about being a back up distress beacon and how the Empire really doesn't like people messing with them, etc.

MTFBWY

I totally overlooked that. Good catch, thanks for pointing it out.

It somewhat conflict with FC(p75) which mentioned that a disabled transponder attracts attention from any ship in sensor range. But it certainly makes for me interesting encounters when TIEs only need to get into close to cause problems, while your transponder code is safe until something gets into close. More patrol and chase opportunities and less reliance on high sensor ranges to avoid detection. .

Transponders broadcasting at Close range present some interesting challenges for the Imps and PCs. The Imp passive sensors (at least MED range on a cap ship, I believe) might detect the arrival of the PC's ship if it arrived within that sensor range (based on GM decision or Threat rolled during the preceding Astrogation check). They could then do an active scan to determine class of ship... but the Imp's won't be able to read the TRANSPONDER on the PCs ship until they get up close to it - either with a TIE patrol or perhaps a beacon.

The idea that "they might pick the ship up visually" always makes me chuckle. The rules put the relative distance of Medium range band (in space) at a few HUNDRED KMs. Look up into the sky the next time a jumbo jet flies over: can you see the jet when its at 35,000 ft? That's about 10 KM - which would be CLOSE range in space range bands. So, by the time the naked eye can see a size 3/4 ship (snubfighter or typical freighter), you're already in dogfighting range - which makes PERFECT narrative sense.

A starship sensors would / should pick up a ship WAY before the naked eye can do so. I might say that something as large as a Star Destroyer might be visible to the naked eye at Short space range band (several DOZEN KM), but not beyond that.

If the Imperials were blockading a planet, I think they would have put a ship or something out near the usually hyperlane entry point so that anyone who did hyper in they could quickly ID them, and even scan/inspect/board

Seems rather cheap to allow them to hyper out in a single round and not have to face some Imperials.

But as RAW states, transponders work at close range. The best an Imperial could get at range is a size of the ship, and it's class.

If the Imperials were blockading a planet, I think they would have put a ship or something out near the usually hyperlane entry point so that anyone who did hyper in they could quickly ID them, and even scan/inspect/board

Seems rather cheap to allow them to hyper out in a single round and not have to face some Imperials.

But as RAW states, transponders work at close range. The best an Imperial could get at range is a size of the ship, and it's class.

Heck, a couple small comm probes would suffice, I'd reckon!

I'm with you on allowing a single round jump unless of course the dice dictate that it's so.

If the Imperials were blockading a planet, I think they would have put a ship or something out near the usually hyperlane entry point so that anyone who did hyper in they could quickly ID them, and even scan/inspect/board

Seems rather cheap to allow them to hyper out in a single round and not have to face some Imperials.

But as RAW states, transponders work at close range. The best an Imperial could get at range is a size of the ship, and it's class.

Heck, a couple small comm probes would suffice, I'd reckon!

I'm with you on allowing a single round jump unless of course the dice dictate that it's so.

For a single-round jump, I'd recommend using the "micro-jump" rules presented in "Corellian Shuffle" (Sons of Fortune supp.) Essentially a 3P difficulty check, with a 2-rounds of calculation requirement. Successes decrease the time required to calculate and there are some suggestions in the rule on adding setback dice for type of hyperdrive used (the technique is meant to be used with BACKUP drives), etc

If the jump out was fast enough, I'd probably silently rule no transponder read, but a possible ID of ship type resulting in a low/medium-priority BOLO to the sector, and cursory search of matching ships.

Players wouldn't know this immediately, which is when the fun would begin.