Cloaking device attachment says: "[...] A character must make a Daunting (4 purple) Perception or Vigilance check to spot a cloaked ship. [...]"

As DMs, how do you treat this exactly? I mean, you allow the starship to be "invisible" also to sensors?

My players are going to play "Force and Destiny" GM Screen adventure, but during their adventures they have adquired a Cloaking Device for their ship. There is an imperial blockade on the planet they have to go, and the pilot is convinced that the imperials would not detect the ship with their sensors. But I think otherwise.

How would you manage this? Is posible to detect their ship with sensors but not be able to see them? Which rolls would you require to them?

I know the description says specifically "spot", refering to visuals, but how would you manage a situation like this?

And Viper Probe Droids? They use sensors, not visuals. Could they detect the ship, but not spot it?

Thanks in advanced.

The cloaking device seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is pretty much a Trek-style cloaking device.

The ship is not readily visible either to the naked eye or on sensors. A gifted sensor operator might pick its engine trail, and that's what the Perception/Vigilance check is.

I like the Timothy Zahn approach. In the Thrawn trilogy, the cloaking devices block any emission in and out. it's effectively a bubble that block electromagnetic rays. No light, no sensor, nothing goes through. Essentially they are flying blind, but can't be seen or detected either. -> They actually use the Force, to detect and guide the crewmembers aboard the cloaked ships.

It's much better concept than the "Magic Invisibility Cloak"

8 hours ago, Rimsen said:

I like the Timothy Zahn approach. In the Thrawn trilogy, the cloaking devices block any emission in and out. it's effectively a bubble that block electromagnetic rays. No light, no sensor, nothing goes through. Essentially they are flying blind, but can't be seen or detected either. -> They actually use the Force, to detect and guide the crewmembers aboard the cloaked ships.

It's much better concept than the "Magic Invisibility Cloak"

Indeed. It's a nice concept - essentially a 'Black globe' from the traveller RPG.

In Zahn's novels - much as I love them - it falls apart at a conceptual level in that shops are invisible but can still fire lasers out of the field.

I like how the tie phantoms do it. they cant fire from cloak. so they cloak move decloak attack recloak move

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Indeed. It's a nice concept - essentially a 'Black globe' from the traveller RPG.

In Zahn's novels - much as I love them - it falls apart at a conceptual level in that shops are invisible but can still fire lasers out of the field.

Well, true. However laser in Star Wars always had a wierd place. It's light, but it isn't. It has mass, but it hasn't. It's fast, but it's slow.

13 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

Well, true. However laser in Star Wars always had a wierd place. It's light, but it isn't. It has mass, but it hasn't. It's fast, but it's slow.

"Laser Cannons" are scaled up Blaster Cannons that use lasers to ignite the gas, rather than actually being laser weapons.

On 2/25/2020 at 12:35 PM, Daeglan said:

I like how the tie phantoms do it. they cant fire from cloak. so they cloak move decloak attack recloak move

So like every user of the cloaking device depicted in Star Trek then (excepting a few special cases in the films)?

41 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

So like every user of the cloaking device depicted in Star Trek then (excepting a few special cases in the films)?

Tie phantoms use Stygian crystals to cloak, there’s more than one kind of cloaking device in the Star Wars universe, it’s not a new technology more like lost or hidden tech.

@Magnus Grendel , @Rimsen , I like your ideas. I think I will treat the ship beign cloaked as going blind (sensors speaking, active and passive), but could be detected via its trail (sensors speaking, as in Hunt for the Red October) or by sight (as with a Predator). Also, any reckless movement will give the sensor's engineer or rival pilots blue dice to spot the ship. I think that with these I could manage a more tense infiltration scene, and not a "ey, we can ignore these scene, passing the blockade is for free" scenario.

Thanks!!

13 minutes ago, hikari_dourden said:

@Magnus Grendel , @Rimsen , I like your ideas. I think I will treat the ship beign cloaked as going blind (sensors speaking, active and passive), but could be detected via its trail (sensors speaking, as in Hunt for the Red October) or by sight (as with a Predator). Also, any reckless movement will give the sensor's engineer or rival pilots blue dice to spot the ship. I think that with these I could manage a more tense infiltration scene, and not a "ey, we can ignore these scene, passing the blockade is for free" scenario.

Thanks!!

This. It's basically an excuse for a "submarine sequence" in space.

To be fair, the very first appearance of the Cloaking device in TV, the original Star Trek episode The Balance Of Terror , was to all intents and purposes the movie The Enemy Below with the part of the U-Boat played by Romulans.

Did the players acquire a fully-functional cloaking device without any flaws? If I recall, true cloaking devices in Star Wars are only detectable through the Force and a very rare and expensive sensor called a Crystal Gravfield Trap (so rare that quality Force users are easier to come by, even at the height of the Empire - the New Republic didn't have a CGT during Thrawn's era, and the Empire only had a handful, hence the New Republic attack on Bilbringi)...but there's nothing saying that the one the players picked up is a perfect example.

Be careful with giving players cloaking tech, it can lead to a lot of frustrating sensor rolls on your part, and now the players can go anywhere at almost any time.

6 hours ago, Eoen said:

Be careful with giving players cloaking tech, it can lead to a lot of frustrating sensor rolls on your part, and now the players can go anywhere at almost any time.

The same thing comes up if you allow SeqTril hyperspace shenanigans.