I love EotE, but I have to say that space combat is a bit underwhelming (IMO), especially if you are the pilot, which is a bad predicament for the game to be in.

Nobody in my group wants to pilot the ship because they all feel it is boring.

That's an issue.

So I hope they add some punch to the space combat in this next game. I'll play test that.

Piloting a freighter and a snub fighter are two entirely different things in my experience.

Just curious, is it the fact that your not rolling dice to do maneuvers that you find boring? Because that seems to be many people issues.

I'm expecting more fighter based combat with flying in a squad as a focus for the new game.

I have to respectfully disagree that the current space combat system is boring. While it hasn't the strategic and cumbersome tactical detail that RCR introduced and that SE simplified, which had all kinds of notions about how and why and rolling, I find this system to be placed brilliantly somewhere in between d6 and OCR.

For one I think the chase mechanic is underrated and not used enough - which I understand since its a sidebar and seems to have been added almost as an after thought, but you don't even have to use it as a chase mechanic, it can brilliantly add rolling to the combat, you don't even have to tweak actions and manoeuvres much (at all I think). While a chase is considered over when you've left them behind and moved beyond extreme range, or when you come within close range, I don't think you have to stop the chase there, it can become even more high octane if you don't. Let the pilot roll while gunners shoot, his rolls adding benefits or drawbacks as the ship turns, jumps, slides and spiral through traffic, asteroid fields and the underbelly of Nar Shaddaa or Coruscant. Have the co-pilot attempt to make rolls easier for the pilot, let a crew member yell out firing solutions or slice the enemies shields, boost your own shields and so on. It's an event the whole thing where everyone should partake in the action. Otherwise the ship is a goner quite quickly.

Some pointers:

1) The pilot should get heavily into the talent tree to get access to more rolls, actions and manoeuvres.

2) The ship should be modified, preferably a speed upgrade is important, but much more too.

3) Be creative with the existing mechanics, use the chase mechanism, allow defensive flying and luck, i.e. add extra setback dice to your opponents pilot or gunnery rolls when getting excess advantages, or give boost dice to allies on the ship.

4) Encourage the pilot to describe and narrate what he's doing, this sets the scene for the gunners and others, let the pilot give orders and cue in his crew when to shoot and so on, let him or her take some control of the whole scene, he is after all the pilot.

I agree with Jegergryte.

The space combat in EotE is a great way to handle it within a non-military, narrative way. You must remember that the core mechanic within this system is narrative based, they are called narrative dice. This means that the majority of what happens is narrated by both the players and the GM. The dice are there to facilitate good storytelling.

The one drawback that I see to the current system is that it is really centered on small numbers of ships. It is not meant for mass ship battles with 10-50 capital ships + 100's or 1000's of small fighters all mixing it up in the same sector. This is what I hope AoR brings to the table....or at least the way to have this going on while the main action is your characters trying to manuver into position to take out that newest Imperial technology.

Keep in mind that the narrative dice system is pretty open ended and a good GM could use it for just about anything.

Also, if you want some detailed strategic star wars starship combat, they make a little game called X-WING....

The one drawback that I see to the current system is that it is really centered on small numbers of ships. It is not meant for mass ship battles with 10-50 capital ships + 100's or 1000's of small fighters all mixing it up in the same sector. This is what I hope AoR brings to the table....or at least the way to have this going on while the main action is your characters trying to manuver into position to take out that newest Imperial technology

I hope it doesn't focus on mass combat too much, if at all. I'm not interested in playing war simulations with fleets and such. Some quick resolution rules if needed, but most of that should be left to plot development. At most, maybe the actions of the players can affect the result of the mass battle in some way, like taking out a battlestation. As to mass battles affecting player characters on their front, that should be easy enough. Much like chases, a huge battle will create obstacles that the players will have to navigate in order to get to where they want to be or away from their pursuers. Once there they can continue their action on their scale, even if it may have much bigger consequences to the mass battle.

I think that any ship or vehicle combat would be exactly as you suggest...it woudl be story driven and involve obstacles created (advantage or threat) to affect player scale plot development. I guess what I am looking for is some interesting "guidelines" on how to create "scalable" ship combat sequences. I also would like to see more info on land/air battles including the use of "beasts" or mounts....like dewbacks, taun tauns or Banthas.

Ultimately, the system they have provided in EotE is pretty **** good and can be scaled easily to fit most situations because of its narrative focus. This being the case, are we to expect just more "fluff" with some new species, resources and adversaries? What warrents it being its own game, if it doesn't build onto the "crunchiness" somewhere? Why do a new basic book, if really they are just adding content that could be added through supplements much more cheaply? Are there enough players that would ONLY want to play in this era withought Jedi and as a "military man"?

I would like to see some rules/guidelines on running large scale battles with AoR. I like mixing in some wargaming into my RPGs (its like Reese's mixing peanut butter and chocolate).

I found the beginner game combat bland, but from what I've seen of the Edge Book- the Critical Hits for vehicles is where it gets interesting. Haven't tried it out, but I would probably just start implementing those critical hits as base effects and have players scramble to repair them as a major part of vehicular combat in Edge.

However in Age- I do think the combat should pick up focusing on more dogfighting type stuff. Not so much more maneuvers and rules as more tables of what goes wrong (critical tables/components) and how you can deal with it from the perspective of sitting in that little cockpit.

I was thinking you could easily add "wingman rules" where your wingman can aid you in combat. giving you boost die, or setback to the enemy based on his "Orders"

Kind of like how a co-pilot would work currently, but as an NPC. Heck, even throw in an R2-unit to act as a co-pilot using the current rules.

I was thinking you could easily add "wingman rules" where your wingman can aid you in combat. giving you boost die, or setback to the enemy based on his "Orders"

Kind of like how a co-pilot would work currently, but as an NPC. Heck, even throw in an R2-unit to act as a co-pilot using the current rules.

Why not simply use the assisted action rules when appropriate? The boost dice is also a good idea for less direct assists.

I was thinking you could easily add "wingman rules" where your wingman can aid you in combat. giving you boost die, or setback to the enemy based on his "Orders"

Isn't this already handled with Advantages?

One could probably create some wingman/squadron rules for flying in pairs, by allowing the co-pilot action and the one above, about reducing terrain setback dice... basically by applying the assisted check rules, perhaps tweaking them slightly, but allowing two pilots to cooperate and adding a linked +1 to any weapons they fire simultaneously could work, adding some limitations should also be done probably, along with some other advantages perhaps.