How do i figure out what dice to roll when in space combat?

On 11/30/2020 at 3:07 PM, oh_grapes said:

How do i figure out what dice to roll when in space combat?

That depends. What are you trying to do?

Are you talking about piloting, or trying to shoot an enemy ship?

If you're trying to shoot an enemy ship, there's a table in the Starships and Vehicles chapter in the section on combat that shows how to compare ship silhouette to get the difficulty.

If you're talking about flying through difficult terrain, you compare your current speed to your silhouette divided by 2 (rounded up). The larger number determines the difficulty, and the smaller number upgrades the difficulty. So a TIE going at speed 5 is facing a difficulty of 5 (Formidable) upgraded twice (3/2 rounded up = 2).

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

That depends. What are you trying to do?

Are you talking about piloting, or trying to shoot an enemy ship?

If you're trying to shoot an enemy ship, there's a table in the Starships and Vehicles chapter in the section on combat that shows how to compare ship silhouette to get the difficulty.

If you're talking about flying through difficult terrain, you compare your current speed to your silhouette divided by 2 (rounded up). The larger number determines the difficulty, and the smaller number upgrades the difficulty. So a TIE going at speed 5 is facing a difficulty of 5 (Formidable) upgraded twice (3/2 rounded up = 2).

I realize now that attacking requires the Gunnery skill, how does the speed of a ship affect movement? (or does it not?)

Just now, oh_grapes said:

I realize now that attacking requires the Gunnery skill, how does the speed of a ship affect movement? (or does it not?)

In the same section, maybe one or two page earlier, there is a description of how far you can move at a given current speed under the description for the "Fly/Drive" Maneuver.

Just now, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

In the same section, maybe one or two page earlier, there is a description of how far you can move at a given current speed under the description for the "Fly/Drive" Maneuver.

Ohhhhhhh *facepalm* Thanks. I've been trying to find this information for a while.

Just now, oh_grapes said:

Ohhhhhhh *facepalm* Thanks. I've been trying to find this information for a while.

No problem.

Hey all. Another question came up while i was making an encounter. If an ISD is making an attack, what dice do I use?

5 minutes ago, oh_grapes said:

Hey all. Another question came up while i was making an encounter. If an ISD is making an attack, what dice do I use?

That depends on what sort of attack you are rolling.

Lets take a typical example, it's going to fire using 5 identical weapons in the same fire arc. You use a minion group for this, taking the stats for the Imperial Gunner (2 Agility, Gunnery). Since there are 5 gunners, that's 4 skill ranks compared to a Characteristic of 2, giving you a pool of YYGG.

Now if you are rolling one of the special attacks, it gets a bit more iffy. For an NPC ship, I'd either group all the gunners for the guns (max skill rank of 5) and use that pool, or I'd have a particular character (ship's captain, for example) roll the Gunnery check, representing him commanding his ship to focus fire.

On a PC ship, one of the characters would roll their Gunnery skill.

If you are interested, here's an alternate way (houserule) to run NPC ships. I think it works better and is easier to use:

The ship's crew is a single NPC with Characteristics and Skills. At the most basic, here's how it would work: If the ship has a captain NPC, both the captain and the crew get an initiative slot. The crew gets 1 Pilot Only Maneuver, 2 Not Pilot Only Maneuvers, and an Action.

Then the guns are fired using minion groups as per usual on the crew's initiative slot. Any special attacks (Concentrated Barrage, Blanket Barrage, etc.) would be made with the crew's Action and Gunnery or the Captain's Action and Gunnery. It's worth noting that the crew could use their action to fire a single weapon, which works well in the case of a single weapon like an axial mass driver or superheavy turbolaser like some ships have.

Here're some examples: Imperial Minion , Imperial Rival , Imperial Nemesis .

8 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

That depends on what sort of attack you are rolling.

Lets take a typical example, it's going to fire using 5 identical weapons in the same fire arc. You use a minion group for this, taking the stats for the Imperial Gunner (2 Agility, Gunnery). Since there are 5 gunners, that's 4 skill ranks compared to a Characteristic of 2, giving you a pool of YYGG.

Now if you are rolling one of the special attacks, it gets a bit more iffy. For an NPC ship, I'd either group all the gunners for the guns (max skill rank of 5) and use that pool, or I'd have a particular character (ship's captain, for example) roll the Gunnery check, representing him commanding his ship to focus fire.

On a PC ship, one of the characters would roll their Gunnery skill.

If you are interested, here's an alternate way (houserule) to run NPC ships. I think it works better and is easier to use:

The ship's crew is a single NPC with Characteristics and Skills. At the most basic, here's how it would work: If the ship has a captain NPC, both the captain and the crew get an initiative slot. The crew gets 1 Pilot Only Maneuver, 2 Not Pilot Only Maneuvers, and an Action.

Then the guns are fired using minion groups as per usual on the crew's initiative slot. Any special attacks (Concentrated Barrage, Blanket Barrage, etc.) would be made with the crew's Action and Gunnery or the Captain's Action and Gunnery. It's worth noting that the crew could use their action to fire a single weapon, which works well in the case of a single weapon like an axial mass driver or superheavy turbolaser like some ships have.

Here're some examples: Imperial Minion , Imperial Rival , Imperial Nemesis .

So say I use an Inquisitor to make the checks. Do I just use his stats for all the weapons? (for the houserule one)

EDIT: oh wait Nevermind figured it out.

1 minute ago, oh_grapes said:

So say I use an Inquisitor to make the checks. Do I just use his stats for all the weapons? (for the houserule one)

The Inquisitor would be captaining the ship and would get his Maneuver and Action as per usual. If he has access to the gunnery controls, he could fire a single weapon using his normal Gunnery skill. But only that weapon. All the others would be controlled by minions as per usual.

If he is using one of the special attacks like Blanket/Concentrated/Overwhelming Barrage (those are in the AoR Core Rulebook [CRB]), then he doesn't need access to the gunnery controls because he is coordinating the gunners. Then he'd use his skill to make the check. If you don't have AoR, then this part isn't very relevant to you.

I think I understand. I'll ask questions as they come up. Thanks again P-47!

Just now, oh_grapes said:

I think I understand. I'll ask questions as they come up. Thanks again P-47!

No problem! Glad to help.