Welcome to the crunchy bits as I continue my exploration of hyperspace by looking at what recent movies have shown us. In the previous installments I discussed the basic mechanics of hyperspace, the history and lore regarding hyperspace travel, and then the technology and methods that have been used to interdict hyperspace travel. In this week’s chapter I will begin discussing how to adjudicate when your players try to emulate what they have seen on-screen in Star Wars.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
While nothing crazy happened regarding the mechanics of hyperspace in Solo: A Star Wars Story, I think we need to start here as most of the unusual cases I will discuss later have one thing in common: the Millennium Falcon. From that perspective, the thing we need to focus on most in this stand-alone Star Wars movie is the droid character L3-37 or L3. After the shootout and escape from Kessel, Lando Calrissian removed her neural core and uploaded it into the Falcon’s navicomputer. At that point, L3 became part of the ship and it was her extensive navigation database that enabled Han Solo to plot a course through the Akkadese Maelstrom and make his record-setting Kessel Run.
Mechanically, I think that the impact of having L3-37 as a part of the Millennium Falcon’s navicomputer is to automatically upgrade any astrogation check made using the Falcon’s navigation charts. This upgrade is likely what provided the triumph necessary for many of the amazing things accomplished by the Falcon and its pilots over the years.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens marked two firsts for Star Wars fans: the first time we saw a ship jump to hyperspace from inside a docking bay and the first time we saw a ship jump into the atmosphere of another planet through a shield. It probably helped that both feats were accomplished by Han Solo flying The Millennium Falcon especially with the aforementioned upgrade provided by L3. How difficult should it be for your players to copy these moves at your game table?
First, let’s look at jumping to hyperspace from within a docking bay. Whether it is the bay of a station or a starship, we will assume that the location is in open space and not within a planetary gravity well. As the pilot of the vessel is simply attempting to lightspeed jump to a point in a direct line through the exit of the bay, I would start with an Easy (one purple die) difficulty for the Astrogation check and upgrade the difficulty to one red die to represent being inside a confined space. I would modify the check with an additional difficulty die for making a quick calculation under duress and throw in a setback for exiting from inside a docking bay. An additional setback could be added for heavy starship traffic in the area or for being in the gravity well of a planet for an orbital station. A despair result could result in a major collision as the ship collides with the exit portal while accelerating to light speed or could simply mean that the hyperspace inhibitor completely shuts down the system for a reboot. Threats should definitely result in system strain to the ship and/or strain to the pilot.
How about exiting from hyperspace inside a planetary atmosphere? Again, the basic Astrogation check difficulty is Easy, or one purple die. I would upgrade this difficulty automatically as there is nothing basic about this check and I would add another difficulty die as navigation charts are not going to take into account the notion of jumping into the planet’s atmosphere. Successfully pulling off this maneuver is going to take more than a little luck so I would add a setback just for general purposes. In the case of Han Solo flying into the atmosphere of Starkiller Base, I would upgrade the difficulty again for flying through planetary shields. It may not seem like much, but the final check for Han Solo would be two red challenge dice and one black setback die. He would likely succeed, but there are opportunities for at least two despairs which could mean a collision or other dire consequences. Think about it this way: a lot of people can jump a ship into an atmosphere, but they may not often survive the sudden stop.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
In this movie, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo gave us a tactic which now bears her name: The Holdo Maneuver. Essentially, she turns the MC85 Star Cruiser Raddus and flies it at lightspeed into the First Order Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy sacrificing herself and destroying the flagship of the First Order fleet. The resulting carnage had a shotgun effect that also damaged several smaller Star Destroyers flying as escort for the Supremacy. So why hasn’t this tactic been used more often?
First, it’s a suicide mission. It can only be attempted once per ship and per pilot. So, if using a Star Cruiser it could also be expensive.
Second, it’s not that easy. You are trying to fire a bullet using line-of-sight to hit another moving target. Depending on the range between ships, the slightest miscalculation can have you just missing the target. Think in terms of firing a handgun at a target on a range. If you jerk the trigger just enough when firing the weapon you can pull the aim of the weapon to the right so that you may actually be off-target by ¼ inch at one foot of distance. If you multiply that out then you are five inches off-target by twenty feet, 10 inches at forty feet, and 15 inches by sixty feet. You could completely miss the paper edge of a human silhouette target at 60 feet just by being off by ¼ inch at your firing point. A similar principle should apply to ramming ships at lightspeed.
In game terms, I would use the following method to calculate the difficulty of attempting the Holdo Maneuver. First, compare the silhouettes of the two ships involved. I would estimate the Raddus to have a silhouette of 8 and the Supremacy a silhouette of 15. With the Raddus as the “firing vessel”, the difficulty of attacking the Supremacy is Easy or one purple die. Next, compare the range of the ships. At the time Vice Admiral Holdo turned the Raddus, it was just entering into weapon range for the Supremacy so we can assume that the ships were at Long Range to each other or four range bands apart. Using my pistol analogy earlier, I would upgrade the difficulty for each range band of distance. In this case, I would upgrade that single purple difficulty die four times to end up with two red challenge dice and one purple difficulty die. I would also add two setback dice for attempting to visually line up the attack and for taking fire from the Supremacy. This difficulty pool would go against a Piloting (Space) check for the Raddus taking into account the ship’s handling. On a failed check, the Raddus might simply miss its target, however a success should be treated spectacularly.
In the Next Installment
Next week I will conclude my discussion by dissecting the impact of a successful Holdo Maneuver and discuss Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Until then, may the Force be with you!
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