I really want this encounter set up where the players are being chased on a speeder truck by speeder bikes, but it seems a bit silly to have to plug away at vehicle scale hull points in order to drop them. If I had to make it up, I would call it cover; I would conflate the mount maneuver with an interaction with the environment to provide cover. If firing from below, it's two setback dice. Otherwise it's just one. That's what I would do, but I would love to hear some RAW on the subject.
Thanks.
There's an aim maneuver outlined in the book which lets spend a maneuver and suffer 2 setback dice but it allows you to target a specific held object. You can spend 2 consecutive maneuvers to reduce the penalty to just 1 setback. This is a good model for what you want to do. I would start there.
It sounds like what you have described is along that lines. I think you got it.
I would not use setback dice, I would upgrade the difficulty dice depending on the speed they are traveling. First hitting a Ming vehicle is hard enough let alone hitting someone on a moving vehicle. Upgrading difficulty adds the danger of this because of the risk of Despair result.
Why would there automatically be a risk of Despair? Wouldn't that depend on the situation?
Depending on the vehicle, 'exposed' passengers might not be fully exposed, and one or two (depending on how much of the body is exposed) setback dice from cover would be an easy way to handle this. Vehicle speeds might make a difference too, based on relative speed and bearing, but avoid getting too complicated.
Setback die. Also because setback die has a lot of talents that remove it for really talented individuals.
(AFB, so I might be lying.)
Setback die. Also because setback die has a lot of talents that remove it for really talented individuals.
(AFB, so I might be lying.)
For combat checks, Brace is the Talent used.
Setback die. Also because setback die has a lot of talents that remove it for really talented individuals.
(AFB, so I might be lying.)
For combat checks, Brace is the Talent used.
I suppose this means it's not actually in the rules. Ugh. I hate when games do this; it's a good thing I have the experience running the darn things so I can usually come up with what I need to. 
Another thing you might try is to upgrade the difficulty of your shot making use of the "making ranged attacks at engaged targets" rule on page 210. Consider the bike to be engaged maybe? If you generate despair on a success, it's automatically a shot that hits the bike instead. I still prefer my conflation idea. I don't know. That seems like something the game makers should have gone "oh yeah, we should cover that". What happens when you hop on a speeder bike in the RAW? Are you magically surrounded by a force field of 2 vehicle scale armor points? Despite the fact that your whole body is exposed?
When you combine personal and vehicle combat as you would in this fight, weird stuff happens. Namely, the speed issue. This is a good example of that, because all the arms involved will be personal scale. Vehicle and starship combat only cares about size if you're in range. Personal combat cares about range and doesn't even consider things like extreme speed.
I think the game does cover this. Either aiming for specific things as Kaosoe said, or just adding setback die for cover as everyone else said. It's just not the "rule for everything" type game, so you have to go with common sense judgements based on the fiction and narrative.
...or the Indie game hippie answer, "It's okay man, it's abstract. Just go with what feels right, dude. Here, take this black setback die, and maybe a second one for the speed. Now go ahead and roll them. It's okay, everyone's doing it."
Namely, the speed issue. This is a good example of that, because all the arms involved will be personal scale. Vehicle and starship combat only cares about size if you're in range. Personal combat cares about range and doesn't even consider things like extreme speed.
Because their assumption in a dogfight/chase/barfight is that the relative speeds are close enough that geometry dominates. All the other "what ifs" can be wrapped-up in a little black die.
Depending on positioning, you might not have to even roll a Setback die. It's not like speeder bikes offer any sort of cover. Moreover, it's abstraction you should be striving towards, not simulation. More on that below.
Besides that, though, in what version of Star Wars RPG does the rider of a speeder bike suddenly become a part of the vehicle, melded to it and granted it's armor and shields? It's an open-seated bike, for Yoda's sake. The rider might be a lot faster and more dangerous than he would be on foot, but he's still just as vulnerable to a blaster bolt.
To address the concept of Upgrading the attack because the NPC is engaged with their speeder bike...GM say, "no." Unless the speeder bike belongs to the PC and they would be sad if it was lost, a Despair shouldn't be used to hit an engaged inanimate object. That Upgrading rule is for engaged allies.
Lastly, why must the encounter take place at vehicle scale?
My suggestions:
1) Have the encounter take place at character scale. It's a high-speed encounter, but with little relative movement.
2) Abstract the movement of the speeder bikes so that they move around in character scale and create some tension and dynamics, but stay within the range band of the characters' weapons.
3) If your NPCs want cover, have them spend a maneuver to get it (RAW). This means they'll hug their bikes, or possibly try and put their bikes in-between them and their attackers. But they have to spend a maneuver to benefit from cover. And as you say, if they are above the PCs, they might gain from improved cover (2 setbacks).
4) This will allow advantage/triumph rolled by your players to muck up the speeder bikes without having to worry about vehicle stats.
5) As previously mentioned, you can also allow your players to aim (two setbacks, or one setback if they spend two maneuvers) at a specific location on the speeder bike to produce a certain effect (maybe the rider falls off, or their speed/elevation drops a bit, or they lose their maneuver/action next round trying to get their bike back under control.
I would think you would use rules similar to the mechanic of aiming at a specific part of a vehicle or space ship. Treated the exposed pilot as a portion of the ship. So actually decrease difficulty because of size difference but add two setback for aiming at a specif part
I would think you would use rules similar to the mechanic of aiming at a specific part of a vehicle or space ship. Treated the exposed pilot as a portion of the ship. So actually decrease difficulty because of size difference but add two setback for aiming at a specif part
In vehicle-scale combat with vehicle weapons, yes. But not so at character-scale combat, which seems to me the best option for the OP.
Why would there automatically be a risk of Despair? Wouldn't that depend on the situation?
I didn't say automatically, I said depending on the speed. However, watch a few episodes of Tosh.0 or Ridiculousness about doing thing on moving vehicles, lots of Despair.
What about traveling at Ludicrous Speed?
Firing personal weapons at people on speeders chasing them? I'd throw 2 black dice at the situation and call it good.
1 black die for the target being hard to hit due to cover or position. They may be partially covered by parts of the speeder, or they may be hunched over or almost lying prone to pilot depending on the speeder which would reduce their targettable area.
The 2nd black die would account for the fact that you are both moving. The speeder you're in will likely be juking and jiving as will the targets.
If the person shooting has questionable stability. On top of a box truck with no railings, or having to take an odd position in a speeder to line up shots, I don't think upgrading the difficulty is a bad idea. Despair = your vehicle having to take a hard turn to avoid another craft and you rolling out of the craft. Make an athletics check to see if you can grab onto anything to save yourself from becoming street pizza.
I just ran a scenario last night where this actually happened. Open topped speeder, but the players were situated in the speeder in a fairly secure fashion. I did however upgrade the difficulty for another reason. The environment that the chase was occuring in was very crowded with other speeders and pedestrians. Any despairs from the red were actually innocent civilians being hurt. Each hurt civilian ramped up the police response.
Made for some interesting encounters later on.
I just ran a scenario last night where this actually happened. Open topped speeder, but the players were situated in the speeder in a fairly secure fashion. I did however upgrade the difficulty for another reason. The environment that the chase was occuring in was very crowded with other speeders and pedestrians. Any despairs from the red were actually innocent civilians being hurt. Each hurt civilian ramped up the police response.
Made for some interesting encounters later on.
So...in effect you created Grand Theft Speeder for EotE? Cool.
...or the Indie game hippie answer, "It's okay man, it's abstract. Just go with what feels right, dude. Here, take this black setback die, and maybe a second one for the speed. Now go ahead and roll them. It's okay, everyone's doing it."
I apparently ran the indie game hippie answer - my group was in a land speeder and firing back at swoop bikes. I kept the difficulty for ranges and gave them setback dice depending on how fast they were going, didn't really account for cover or any "engaged with bikes" approach. I prefer to keep the game running smoothly, and this meant it was difficult enough for the characters.
If they had missed but gained advantage I would have allowed them to hit the bike instead, depending on how much advantage.
Once a swoop bike got within close range, the assassin droid used athletics to leap from the speeder to the bike, which was a hard difficulty check plus a setback dice given that they're moving at different speeds (the swoop bike was cathing up). He made the jump using a destiny token and began a vibro-blade fight to the death. He won, and now they have a swoop bike.
Blue Dog - That's awesome!
I personally prefer the Indie Hippie Game answer. Fun and cinematic trumps all else.