Gain the Advantage question

By whafrog, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Re-reading after a session I realize I got it wrong. I was making it in effect permanently (barring enemy pilot taking it away), but it's only in effect to the end of the following round. But another issue came up: assuming the opposing pilot doesn't try to GtA (or fails), does the difficulty reset after it expires? Eg: Krayt Fang (speed 4) vs TIEs (speed 5):

Round 1: KF pilot has initiative, attempts GtA at Hard difficulty, succeeds. TIE pilot just shoots.

Round 2: KF pilot attempts Fire Control, gunners shoot, TIE just shoots, GtA expires

Round 3: KF pilot has initiative, attempts GtA at Hard difficulty...or Daunting? In any case, pilot fails. TIE attempts GtA at ... Easy? Or is it Average because of the previous success in Round 1?

It seems to make the most sense to me that it resets. Because otherwise you'd gain one or two advantages over the course of a dogfight, and that would be it, nobody would ever get another one.

Or maybe that's where an extremely capable pilot can show his stuff, and squeak a couple more rounds out of it...but if that's the case, it seems like a lot of effort to mitigate a single setback die.

This question came up during the Sam Q&A Order 66 podcast, but I can't for the life of me rmeember the answer. I wanna say his answer was it was up to the GM to do it either way.

IMO, rather than having escalating difficulty, once the effect ends, I'd have the difficulty reset again. It makes sense in my mind, because once the effect ends, you're back on equal footing, so to speak, and have to do it over again.

Edited by Rookhelm

I can't remember Stewart's response to that.

I'd reset it if there was one round where neither pilot tried to GtA.

If one, or both, failed their check then I'd let the difficulty stay where it was until the next attempt. I must say I haven't given this much thought though.

Also, this is but a related thought: if the opposing pilot does not, or cannot, GtA I would consider not making the check increase for each attempt, because to me that means that there is no dogfighting opposition, unless they at least perform the Evasive Maneuver manoeuvre... if they can.

I'd reset it if there was one round where neither pilot tried to GtA.

If one, or both, failed their check then I'd let the difficulty stay where it was until the next attempt. I must say I haven't given this much thought though.

I like the reset after one round, good compromise. The attempts don't drive the difficulty though, only successful ones.

This question came up during the Sam Q&A Order 66 podcast, but I can't for the life of me rmeember the answer. I wanna say his answer was it was up to the GM to do it either way.

IIRC, Sam said the difficulty actually increments for every pass of the GTA loop: you dogfight until the underdog decides either to not risk it (everyone takes their shots) or chokes (the overdog gets his shot). Then it resets.

Edited by Lorne

I would probably houserule it back to beta wording, it doesnt end unless you outmaneuver and BREAK it. Would probably make sense that a co-pilot or gunner would assist in the pilot check.

I would probably houserule it back to beta wording, it doesnt end unless you outmaneuver and BREAK it.

Sounds like that would be different from a GtA attempt, because you both end up with no advantages. What difficulty would that be?

Another layer of complexity: I read in a different thread you only gain advantage over a single opponent, which makes sense, but is one minion group a single opponent? I would think it would have to be.

So if there are two minion groups of 2 TIEs each, you could do Evasive Maneuvers, and try a GtA against group 1. Both groups will suffer from your EM, but if you try to target group 2 you suffer too. So if your gunners blow away group 1 and have no targets left next round but group 2, they still get the EM penalty.

Well, I guess did it all wrong in my game! Tracking all this is complicated, then throw in passing boost dice to friends or sending setback dice to the enemy...there's gotta be a way to track all that.

Oh well, I got the gist of it, and the players all had fun.

I would probably houserule it back to beta wording, it doesnt end unless you outmaneuver and BREAK it.

Sounds like that would be different from a GtA attempt, because you both end up with no advantages. What difficulty would that be?

I dont know what you mean by that.

Once someone is on your six, its pretty easy for them to stay. Even if you are maneuvering they are following and have little difficulty hitting you thru your evasive maneuvers. Being in a dogfight is essentially already 'evasive maneuvers' to anyone that is trying to hit you that ISNT in the dogfight already, so it makes sense to me.

Wasting an action every other round to get on someones six? Doesnt make sense to me. If they get on you, they're there til they dont want to be or you shake them.

Okay, but you're not translating that to the game mechanics. If you outmaneuver and break someone's advantage, do you then get the advantage? From your wording it sounded like you had a different result in mind.

Also, remember, while there is some disagreement about intent, the rules as written states that the advantage from GtA is applied to the pilot, not anyone else, as opposed to the evasive maneuvers and stay on target manoeuvres. So if the gunners aboard a ship attempt to fire while the pilot is executing evasive maneuvers they get the penalty, regardless of his success or not.

Of course it seems a normal house rule is to let it apply to the whole ship and all its gunners. I did it last session too. Although I do see the reasoning behind an interpretation applying it only to the pilot.

We did the beginners adventure and in the end you have the Krayt Fang vs. 4 TIEs battle. If I would have used more gain the advantage checks for my TIE fighters, I guess my players would have suffered less hull damage as they did in this session. I replayed this battle scenario with my wife today (she is the Droid piloting our party) and tried some things with the GtA.

First of all, it really seems logical, that you split it by the two minons. Means if both minons gained the advantage you have to decide which one you want to break up in order to ignore the evasive maneuver penalties in the next round. The TIE can decide afterwards to get back the GtA or to aim and shoot. I also thought, that the GtA never expires until the opponent gets it but this way it urges everyone to try it as soon as possible and keeps him from shooting. Really necessary because 3 or 4 strong hits with a linked TIE fighter shot could blow your party right away.