I don't get how this works. From the description I understand that depending on the speed of the vehicle it costs more or less maneuvers to move through range bands.

What I don't get is if you are at speed 1, does it mean that you cannot get farther away from an object than Short? or that if you are at Medium you cannot get closer to it if you are at speed 1? (The same question but with the Long ange band and speeds 2 - 4).

Thanks in advance,

Yepes

While it is not clearly specified in the Beta book that each speed has a boundary, I think that it makes sense. At speed 1, it would take a LOT of turns to move beyond Short range. Here is a summary of the range band distances from the Beta book (Chapter 7: Starships and Vehicles):

Close: Several Kilometers

Short: Several Dozen Kilometers

Medium: Several Hundred Kilometers

Long: Several Thousand Kilometers

Extreme: No Limit

At speed 1, it states that it takes 2 maneuvers to move from Close to Short range (several kilometers). It would take a "dozen" times this to reach the edge of Short range. That means it would take around 24 maneuvers to move from Short to Medium Range (12*2=24).

For the sake of simplicity, it makes more sense to put a boundary on each speed, and just require the ships to speed up to move to the next range band

@Farsox

Yes, I agree with you. I tought this as a possible plausible interpretation, just that I would feel better if the designers would have included some sort of explanation.

I would say the same thing based on the Beta book. I'm hoping that the extra time to hash out the core book will make it more explicit in regards to details like this.

I sure hope that they do make the space stuff a little more clear. I'm always afraid of vehicular combat in RPGs, and given the fact that Star Wars is Star Wars, ship combat is inevitable. I want to make sure that I can make memorable encounters for my players!

Does the Fly/Drive maneuver upgrades to an action if there is check?

Does the Fly/Drive maneuver upgrades to an action if there is check?

Trick question! I would say "no", because the Fly/Drive maneuver never requires a check. The Fly/Drive maneuver is a simple act of moving through range bands by moving closer or farther from another object.

You are sometimes called upon to make a Piloting check in combat, but that isn't a maneuver. None of the maneuvers in combat require a check. In fact, a maneuver is defined as an action simple enough to not require a check because there is no chance of failure.

An action, on the other hand, is defined as "any action complex enough to warrant involving a skill check". If there's a chance that you might fail at what you're doing, it's an action.

The starship combat sections of the Core Rule Books don't specify a piloting action in the list of actions a pilot does, but they do state in a sidebar ("Combat and the Piloting Skill") that you might be occasionally asked to roll for a Piloting check to control your vehicle or avoid disaster. It does provide one example of a kind of Piloting action, "Gain the Advantage", though that's clearly not the only kind of Piloting action you might take in a vehicle.

Nico may be referring to the check to navigate dangerous terrain. I think it's Silhouette Difficulty upgraded by half the speed of the vehicle? Something like that. It's a check required to move through very difficult terrain.

In that case I would not make the fly/drive maneuver become an action, it would just be an additional check, but I think it would be up to the GM to decide.

Good day everyone,

At speed 1, it states that it takes 2 maneuvers to move from Close to Short range (several kilometers). It would take a "dozen" times this to reach the edge of Short range. That means it would take around 24 maneuvers to move from Short to Medium Range (12*2=24).

For the sake of simplicity, it makes more sense to put a boundary on each speed, and just require the ships to speed up to move to the next range band

No, per RAW it takes 2 maneuvers to change any range band at speed 1. So to close in on something at extreme range you actually need 2 maneuvers, no mater the speed. Speed 8 needs 2 maneuvers from extreme to long and speed 1 needs two maneuvers from extreme to long. You can narrate that it took really long in the slow ship, but it doesn't matter maneuver/action wise. You basically cut from the fly scene to the next scene where the ships are in the new range band and your speed doesn't really mattter because it doesn't add to the story. Unless you want it to matter, then you can make it a race or a chase and have a faster ship arrive somewhere several rounds earlier than a slower ship. And in my example of a speed 1 vs. speed 8 ship I actually wouldn't even use the normal chase rules, because according to those rules the speed 1 ship actually has a chance of winning if the pilot is really good. So for speed differences >3 I would just narrate that the faster ship wins. Unless it is really difficult terrain and it makes sense that the slower ship has a chance to take a shortcut that would be too difficult for the fast ship to maneuver through.

In short: It is a narrative game, you don't make the PCs spend 24 rounds to get somewhere, unless something else is going on and it actually adds to the story. Somehow, people seem to switch to a round based game whenever they enter a ship or vehicle and want count hexes/measure distances and speed. Don't do that. Only use structured time when absolutely necessary.

Does the Fly/Drive maneuver upgrades to an action if there is check?

Trick question! I would say "no", because the Fly/Drive maneuver never requires a check. The Fly/Drive maneuver is a simple act of moving through range bands by moving closer or farther from another object.

You are sometimes called upon to make a Piloting check in combat, but that isn't a maneuver. None of the maneuvers in combat require a check. In fact, a maneuver is defined as an action simple enough to not require a check because there is no chance of failure.

An action, on the other hand, is defined as "any action complex enough to warrant involving a skill check". If there's a chance that you might fail at what you're doing, it's an action.

The starship combat sections of the Core Rule Books don't specify a piloting action in the list of actions a pilot does, but they do state in a sidebar ("Combat and the Piloting Skill") that you might be occasionally asked to roll for a Piloting check to control your vehicle or avoid disaster. It does provide one example of a kind of Piloting action, "Gain the Advantage", though that's clearly not the only kind of Piloting action you might take in a vehicle.

Hmm, I'm AFB, but I think there is a sentence in the maneuver section (normal, not starship) that sometimes a maneuver might be upgraded to an action due to the circumstances/environment. E.g. if the PCs want to move to somewhere within medium range (personal scale) the GM might upgrade this maneuver to an action because there is some pit they have to cross and this requires an athletics check. The same argument can be made for starship maneuvers. When the pilot wants to fly into an asteroid field, IMO the GM should upgrade this fly maneuver to an action that requires a pilot check vs the stellar terrain difficulty.

So my answer would be, yes, the fly/drive maneuver upgrades to an action when a check is involved, just like ANY maneuver usually becomes an action if a check is required.

And I say usually , because there might be cases where the GM requires a check for a maneuver but doesn't want to upgrade it to an action to avoid slowing things down too much.

In the example of the asteroid field the GM might be better of to require a check from every ship in the astroid field at the beginning of each round. That way you can determine how the pilot is doing within the asteroid field and then have some other action (like shooting) during the round.

May the shields stay with you

Fred

Stellar phenomenon rules just lay out the Difficulty calculation. They don't say the Maneuver becomes an Action, just that a roll should be made for completing the Maneuver where it's not typically necessary. It's a hybrid roll like the Chase rules, an 'in addition to' roll. GMs can call for a roll without it having to be an Action, Resilience roll because there's noxious fumes where a fight is happening, Coordination roll for everyone fighting on top of a careening sail barge, etc.

Does the Fly/Drive maneuver upgrades to an action if there is check?

In short. Yes. You can read the developer answer here .

Nice catch Jegergryte

In Jewel of Javin the PCs and NPCs are supposed to make one flight check per buoy in the race. The NPCs are Rivals (no strain) with talents that sometimes require an action to activate. So, if they need to spend the action on flying (there is always a check), they cannot ever use their talents. Nosense. Then some talents require strain and they are rivals. Another nonsense (or maybe I am missing something ).

Anyway Jegergryte, thank you for linking the answer from SS.

Minions can not suffer wounds to perform 2 Maneuvers and an Action in one round. Rivals can.

Nico: I haven't run JoY with my group so I can't comment on that, but I think the idea with the pilot checks are that they will vary in frequency depending on what is needed for the scenario. Sometimes you need a check every round, but that is a very hectic, dangerous and risky situation. Most of the time you don't have to make a pilot check every round, only when entering into a new terrain or environment so to speak. And only when the new environment or terrain is dangerous.

Some tentative guidelines could be: When in vehicular combat, you may have to make a pilot check every so often to navigate the environment/terrain depending upon the risk the terrain puts on the situation:

Low-risk: no check or once every 3rd or 4th round.

Medium risk: one check every third or so round, if a check should be required.

High risk: perhaps as often as every second round, if necessary.

Reaver-fleet-in-asteroid-belt-level risk: Every round.

Frequency of checks could be affected by current speed and types of manoeuvres used, changing environments, trying to flee or do cool manoeuvres. Creative flying and number of opponents.

Also, sometimes letting checks be maneuvers or adapting the chase mechanic as a pre-round check for involved parties could be useful.

But I think the idea of risk should be central, if there's risk involved, requiring a check is good, but not all the time.

If your round is taken up by dodging asteroids as an action, so are your enemies. Remember when Han flew into an asteroid field with TIEs in pursuit? And used that to shake them. That sort of thing.