Sorry for the flurry of questions, game-day is in 3 days now and I've finished going over the Beginner Box adventure. The rules for space combat seem about the same in the beginner box as in the Core game so I wanted to field it here:

First off, what does the pilot do other then every turn state that he is dodging or flying straight? He doesn't even seem to roll any dice, just says he's going to do it and the gunners get a better die to toss (or the enemy rolls a red die). I'm trying to figure out how to make the pilot a more exciting role!

Second, you are escaping from the planet... you have a few turns before the hyperspace whatever-it-is activates. You have 4 TIE's bearing down on you...

... How does range work exactly? lol! This is why I'm asking:

When it describes ships with a speed of 4 (which is the ship the PC's are on), it says that it costs a maneuver to go from close to short and from short and TWO to go from short to medium or medium to short.

IT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT MEDIUM TO LONG!

Then when it describes a ship with a speed of 5 (the TIES), it says that it cost a maneuver to move close, or go from close to medium, or vice versa. Or two maneuvers to go from close to long, or long to close.

I'm confused.It also says that Medium Range is a loooooooooong distance and so Long is actually realllllllyyyyyyyy looonnnggggggg. I got that much.

So why can't ships with speed's of 4 get to long, if they are fighting an enemy who is going slower then them why can't they move into long distance (is it because its realllllyyyyyy loooooong?). I mean, the speed 5 ships can do it, apparently.

Also, in my above example does that mean that the PC's simply CANNOT get away from the TIES because they could, say, be at Short, get to medium with one maneuver, and then the ties can spend one maneuver to zoom in from medium right into close?

Once they are close, do they need to spend a maneuver to lower their speed to keep up with their slower counterpart, or am I going to far?

Sorry for all the questions!

To answer the first section of your post--I believe Pilots actually have more to do in space combat than anybody else.

Pilots have these Maneuvers:

Evasive Maneuvers

Benefit:When you are attacked, the difficulty of the attack is upgraded once

Drawback: When you attack another ship, the difficulty of your attack is also upgraded once

Duration: Effect lasts until beginning of next round

Stay on Target

Benefit: When you attack another ship, you may upgrade your attack roll once

Drawback: When another ship attacks you, they may also upgrade their attack roll

Duration: Effect lasts until the beginning of the next round

They can also perform this Action:

Gain the Advantage

Benefit: Choose an enemy vessel and make a Pilot check. If you are successful, you ignore

all drawbacks of Evasive Maneuvers

Difficulty: If the target has lower Speed, difficulty is Easy. If the target has equal Speed, difficulty is Average.
If the target has superior Speed, difficulty is Hard.

Duration: Effect lasts until end of the following round, or until enemy ship gains the Advantage on you in
return


I find that if you type out the basic actions that each person on a ship can perform and hand them out to your players, it can make things go a little faster during gameplay.

The movement and range changes is a bit tougher to answer.

Basically I'd make use of the chase mechanic if someone is trying to escape - make a decision of how many rounds it takes for escapee to reach hyperspace jump-point, with Triumphs, advantages, threats and despairs adjusting this ETA. Of course using this mechanic can result in the ship reaching the jump-point ahead of time, but hey, that makes for a real good story to tell some barkeep for a free drink or good laughs around the table at someone in the groups expense ... if you're not destroyed before your navigator has plotted the course.

Also, for normal movement over such distances I'd perhaps double the manoeuvre requirement once for each range band beyond the one listed, so for speed 4, it would require four manoeuvres to reach long. There is no clear ruling on this afaik - could be a question for the Order 66 Q&A with Little and Stewart.

No one can perform more then 2 maneuvers in a turn so there's no way you could use 4. But yeah, that's the biggest question for me because the Core book says nothing about speeds 3-4 getting to long range lol

The movement and range changes is a bit tougher to answer.

Basically I'd make use of the chase mechanic if someone is trying to escape - make a decision of how many rounds it takes for escapee to reach hyperspace jump-point, with Triumphs, advantages, threats and despairs adjusting this ETA. Of course using this mechanic can result in the ship reaching the jump-point ahead of time, but hey, that makes for a real good story to tell some barkeep for a free drink or good laughs around the table at someone in the groups expense ... if you're not destroyed before your navigator has plotted the course.

Also, for normal movement over such distances I'd perhaps double the manoeuvre requirement once for each range band beyond the one listed, so for speed 4, it would require four manoeuvres to reach long. There is no clear ruling on this afaik - could be a question for the Order 66 Q&A with Little and Stewart.

I posted in the Q&A thing, but I wanted to see what you guys thought as well... if the rules state that a ship with a speed of 3-4 CANNOT go to long range, but can go from short to medium with 2 maneuvers, then perhaps that means:

Turn 1) Pilot spends 2 maneuvers to go from Short to Medium.

Turn 2) Long is now Medium (with a new area of space being considered Long) so another 2 maneuvers and their ship is where Long distance was previously.

With TIES, you can just go:

Turn 1) Pilot spends 2 maneuvers to go from Short to Long (Hell, Close to Long!).

I'm with Sanguinous Rex on this. Basically range bars aren't really relevant unless the ships have the same speed. So while the freighter can move to medium with two maneuvers, the TIEs at long range can close on him with two maneuvers. Therefore the freighter can't outrun them ever.

If the two freighters are at long range from each other, one uses two maneuvers to get to medium range meaning they are now at medium range from each other, and the other one can use two maneuvers to get to short range.

No one can perform more then 2 maneuvers in a turn so there's no way you could use 4. But yeah, that's the biggest question for me because the Core book says nothing about speeds 3-4 getting to long range lol

You can spend manoeuvres over multiple turns - some stuff require that, for instance walking from short to extreme range band, on personal scale, requires 5 manoeuvres all together: 1 to medium + 2 to long + 2 to extreme. So multiple round movement is what I meant.

That doesn't make sense though... if you spend 1 to go to medium, then the NEXT round the next range band shouldn't be long any longer.

No one can perform more then 2 maneuvers in a turn so there's no way you could use 4. But yeah, that's the biggest question for me because the Core book says nothing about speeds 3-4 getting to long range lol

You can spend manoeuvres over multiple turns - some stuff require that, for instance walking from short to extreme range band, on personal scale, requires 5 manoeuvres all together: 1 to medium + 2 to long + 2 to extreme. So multiple round movement is what I meant.

That doesn't make sense though... if you spend 1 to go to medium, then the NEXT round the next range band shouldn't be long any longer.

No one can perform more then 2 maneuvers in a turn so there's no way you could use 4. But yeah, that's the biggest question for me because the Core book says nothing about speeds 3-4 getting to long range lol

You can spend manoeuvres over multiple turns - some stuff require that, for instance walking from short to extreme range band, on personal scale, requires 5 manoeuvres all together: 1 to medium + 2 to long + 2 to extreme. So multiple round movement is what I meant.

Not necessarily true, as Long can be more than twice Medium, so it depends on how Long the initial Long was.

Definitely an area I'd like to see get some additional clarity from the devs. I, too, am a bit confused about the method by which how a spaceship with a speed of 3 or 4 can reach a target that's at long range.

I am, like Sanguinious, a bit confused. Indeed as it has been already posted here, the pilot of a ship has a major role, that is clear. My point, as Sanguinious says, is that you don't even need to a be an actual pilot (i.e. skill 0) since, as per RAW, the pilot can each round perform for example, Evasive Maneuvers and Stay on target (which does not require any piloting check).

Said in other words, there is only one thing a pilot can do that requires a piloting check, that is the action Get the Advantage.

(Spoilers) In Escape from Mos Shuuta, my players easily defeated the 4 TIEs. The pilot was just using Evasive Maneuvers and Stay on Target, while the two gunners of the Kray Fang put down the TIEs in 2 rounds. The Krayt Fang only took 3 points of Hull trauma.

That doesn't make sense though... if you spend 1 to go to medium, then the NEXT round the next range band shouldn't be long any longer.

Consider it this way - and let's you personal scale as an example: you start at extreme range from your target, to close to long you must spent 2 manoeuvres. If you spend both in the same round or over two (or more) rounds doesn't matter, but you will stay at extreme range until you've spent 2 manoeuvres to get to long range, same from long to medium and so on.

Now, my suggestion above then means that you are required to spend more than 2 manoeuvres over multiple rounds to cover that distance, since as you say one cannot spend more than 2 manoeuvres in 1 round you must spend multiple rounds doing it. This doesn't break with RAW, but it does allow certain starship to actually cover longer distances.

But what if two ships with a speed of 3 at long distance from one another wish to engage each other at close range? The rules do not seem to allow for this, or at least don't explain how it works.

I would suggest that they would not begin combat until they got into a range where they could interact. If there are other ships with longer range fire in the conflict, that could provide an issue but otherwise KISS. And most capital ships won't be firing upon a single light freighter or starfighter.

I would think a good rule of thumb in this instance would be to keep it cinematic. Have three piloting rolls for any endangered vessel as it travels around the scene of a massive fleet combat. Each failed roll or with threat they might suffer a near miss by one of those massive weapons to provide drama and tension. It would give them a real sense of the peril they are placing themselves into.

Just make it make sense for each individual instance. That is the great thing about free-form systems, they don't have to regulate every little detail or option. Just go with what makes sense for you and your party. If you want some more good ideas on how to be a bit more open with your game, check out the great work done with FATE. If you are coming from a strictly d20 background, that game will blow your mind.

I THINK I've figure it out... sort of.

So, the distance for each "ring" gets bigger and bigger as it expands.

Close is REALLY close (considering space).

Short is longer.

Medium is a lot longer... 100KM? I dunno don't have the book.

Long is LONGGGGG - over 100KM.

So, if it says that a ship needs to spend TWO maneuvers to go from Medium to short, then I would wager they CAN'T go to Long in one turn - implied by the system. So it would take them FOUR maneuvers to get to medium. Two to get to a "closer long" and then 2 more to reach medium.

This shows the comparable speeds of, say, 5-6 (such as a TIE Fighter) that can zoom from long to close in TWO maneuver.

But what if two ships with a speed of 3 at long distance from one another wish to engage each other at close range? The rules do not seem to allow for this, or at least don't explain how it works.

Get the Advantage seems to be the primary thing the pilot does. It's also important to note that piloting rolls are an integral part of chases - and I'd say a large number of space battles are actually chases (for example, the ties vs Krayt Fang thing really seems like it'd make more sense conducted as a chase).