Excerpts from "Starship Maneuvers for Dummies, Third Edition - Revised and Expanded" by Admiral Westend
All starships are propelled forward through realspace using sublight drives of one type or another. All starship combat takes place in realspace and knowledge of the speed and maneuvering capabilities of your vessel is essential. The bridge station that controls maneuvering is known as the helm and the officer manning that station is the helmsman.
Sublight speeds are measured in the number of space units that a ship can move per round at its normal speed. While they do not begin to approach light speed, sublight drives are very fast; here are some very rough estimates of travel times for example:
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Five minutes to fly from orbit to a safe hyperspace jump point. |
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Half an hour to fly from a planet to one of its moons. |
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Two to six hours to fly from one planet to the nearest planet in the system, depending upon distance and presence of hazards. |
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Anywhere from 10 to 48 hours to fly from a star to the outer limits of a system, again depending on distance and hazards. |
The "terrain" a starship is moving through is classified by the amount of debris, proximity of other ships, asteroids, etc.
Very Easy: 1-5
Flying a starship in clear space with no navigational hazards
Easy: 6-10
Flying a starship in the vicinity of other starships, such as orbiting a space station or maintaining normal formation. Flying around minor obstacles in space, such as a small, dispersed asteroid belt.
Moderate: 11-15
Flying a starship in crowded space, such as maintaining close formation or in a busy spacedock area. Flying in an area littered with a moderate amount of debris.
Difficult: 16-20
Flying in an area choked with starships, such as a brawl with enemy vessels and starfighters. Flying through an area clogged with debris or asteroids.
Very Difficult: 21-30
Flying a starship in an area of space densely packed with ships, debris, and other navigational hazards (mines, gas clouds, etc.)
Heroic: 31+
Flying a starship through an almost unimaginable terrain, such as the Hoth System's asteroid field, the Cron Drift, or the Maw Cluster.
Starships move through space using their space code. For example, if a starship has Space: 6, it may travel 6 units in one move. A starship can only make one move per round, but they can make this move at four different speeds. A ship may move up to four times its Space value in any one turn, so a ship with Space: 6 can move a total of 24 units in one round. There are several ways to call out the speed of a warship. If there are many vessels moving together and they all need to move the same speed, then the commander will call out a specific number that is within the range of the slowest ship. A single ship can call out its speed using a specific number or use the following table. Be aware that different difficulties apply to the various speeds and they vary by terrain.
| Star Wars | Traditional | Speed |
| Cautious | Ahead 1/3rd | 1/2 Space Code |
| Cruising | Ahead 2/3rds | 1x Space Code |
| High Speed | Ahead Full | 2x Space Code |
| All-out | Ahead Flank | 4x Space Code |
Cautious
This is a very slow movement; the ship goes up to half of its Space Code, rounded up. In Very Easy, Easy and Moderate terrain, cautious speed movement is a "free action" and the helmsman does not have to make any rolls. In Difficult, Very Difficult or Heroic terrain, the helmsman must make a roll, but the difficulty is reduced one level.
Cruising
This is a starship's normal movement speed, equal to its Space Code. It is also the fastest speed that a ship can travel for long durations. Moving at cruising speed counts as an action, but the helmsman automatically succeeds if the terrain is Very Easy, Easy or Moderate. The helmsman must make rolls for Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrain at the normal difficulty.
High Speed
High speed movement is pushing a starship for additional speed; moving it up to twice its Space Code. The helmsman must roll for Very Easy, Easy and Moderate terrain and difficulties are increased by one level for Difficult, Very Difficult or Heroic terrain.
All-Out
A ship moving at all-out is being pushed to its limits and may move up to four times its Space Code. Ships moving at all-out speed is essentially transferring all available power to the engines and structural tensor fields. No other actions may be taken by a ship at that speed, including evasive actions and firing weapons (shields can remain up, but cannot be raised or relocated.) Very Easy, Easy and Moderate terrain difficulties are increased one level and Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrain difficulties are increased two levels.
Starships normally increase or decrease their speed one level per round, i.e. from stop to cautious or from cruising to high speed. Starships may attempt to accelerate or decelerate faster, however this puts enormous stress on the ships hull and could cause serious damage to the vessel. The helmsman must maintain careful control of the ships speed during acceleration and deceleration so as not to shake the vessel apart. Make a standard maneuvering roll (capital ship piloting plus maneuverability) against the following difficulty. If the helmsman exceeds the difficulty, the ship speeds up or slows down perfectly. However, if the helmsman fails the difficulty, roll the damage against the ship's hull code. If the roll fails, the ship takes damage accordingly; if the roll succeeds, the ship still accelerates the proper speed, but there is quite a bit of instability for a few seconds and other systems receive a 1D penalty for one round due to power fluctuations.
| Change In Velocity | Difficulty | Damage |
| 2 Levels | Moderate | 2D |
| 3 Levels | Difficult | 3D |
| 4 Levels | Very Difficult | 5D |
Moving at high velocity for long periods of time can cause severe strain on a ship’s engines and other systems. Moving at High Speed (Full) requires a starship to make a hull check every 10 rounds and ships moving at All-Out (Flank) requires a starship to make this check every 5 rounds. These checks begin with a Very Easy difficulty and increase one level with every check the vessel must make. If the ship fails the roll by 1-10 points, it’s suffering strain and must slow to cautious speed for twice as long as it has been moving at that speed level. If the ship fails by more than 10 points, it has experienced extreme stress and must completely power down the entire ship while the engineering teams take 5 rounds to analyze the damage and recalibrate the drives.
All starships have multiple banks of low velocity
ion thrusters to allow the vessel to maneuver in space.
While these thrusters cannot be used to augment the vessels speed when it
is using its primary drives, it can provide slow movement in all directions when
the primary drives are offline or powered down.
Maneuvering thrusters can move a starship a number of units equal to the
number of maneuverability dice it has (rounded down). The ship can move forward, backwards, or to either side,
however this movement is limited to five rounds.
Z-Axis Movement
Even though space is three-dimensional, starships combat normally takes place on a two-dimensional plane of battle. A starship may sometimes wish to raise or lower itself out of the general plane of battle. This normally requires little skill, but occasionally it will provide an advantage. At the gamemaster’s discretion, he may wish to add a bonus to an attack roll or in some other way incorporate the tactical advantage into the battle.
While warships avoid complex maneuvers that are involved in starfighter dogfights they still require a skilled helmsman to pilot such large and cumbersome craft. All maneuvers are performed at the ships current speed, and therefore take the place of a "move" in the round they are performed. Maneuver difficulty is determined by adding the modifier of the maneuver to the terrain the ship is moving through plus any speed modifiers per the above explanation. The following table outlines many of the basic maneuvers and what is involved. Each diagram shows an Imperial-II Star Destroyer at its cruising speed (6 units per round.)
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Sliding Starships may slide sideways by using their maneuvering thrusters in conjunction with their sublight drives. The heading of the ship does not change, it simply "changes lanes" in space. So long as the ship is underway, it may slide along any angle up to 45 degrees from its current course using its present move (each diagonal unit counts as 1.5 space units.) If the ship is standing still it may use its maneuvering thrusters only per the above rules. Note that Z-Axis slides can also be made in this fashion. Sliding a ship increases the difficulty by one level. Example: If the ship is moving through Easy terrain at Cruising speed, the difficulty would be Moderate and no roll would be required. |
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Gentle Turns Turns up to 45 degrees are considered gentle turns which are very easy to accomplish. The ship turns very slowly and travels its full move throughout the turn. This maneuver also applies to gentle dives and climbs. Gentle turns increase the difficulty by one level. Example: If the ship is moving through Moderate terrain at Cruising speed, the difficulty would increase to Difficult and a roll would be required. |
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Sharp Turns Turning between 45 degrees and 90 degrees is more difficult than the gentle turn because more stress is placed on the hull. Ships still travel their normal move but turn considerably sharper. Traditionally this is called a hard turn, such as "Hard to starboard" in this case. This maneuver also applies to dives and climbs. Sharp turns increase the difficulty by two levels. Example: If the ship is moving through Easy terrain at High speed, the difficulty would increase to Difficult. |
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Bootlegger A bootlegger is a turn more than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees. It is essentially a "U-Turn" and is traditionally referred to as an emergency turn. This type of turn is much harder to execute and the ship looses a considerable amount of speed during the turn due to angular deceleration. A ship would move half of its current speed, but the speed resumes its full rate the round immediately after. This maneuver also applies to half-loops. Bootleggers increase the difficulty by three levels. Example: If the ship is moving through Very Easy terrain at Cruising speed, the difficulty would increase to Difficult and a roll would be required. Note that calling out a reduction in speed is not necessary, it takes place automatically. |
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Rotation A rotation, while underway using sublight drives is an extremely difficult maneuver which involves completely shutting off the sublight drive very briefly and controlling the ships yaw with thrusters. Powered by its inertia, the ship continues at its present speed throughout the move. If performed correctly, the ship can spin up to 180 degrees and end up at a dead stop at the end of its move. Rotation at any speed above cautious increases the difficulty by four levels. At cautious speed increase the difficulty two levels. If the ship is standing still it is considered a free action. Example: If the ship is moving through Easy terrain at Cruising speed, the difficulty would increase to Heroic! |
Officers in the Imperial Navy tend to refer to some things on the ship and direction of things around the ship using their own lingo. This is a short lesson that covers a lot of the basics.
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Bow - The front of the ship. Sometimes referred to as the ships prow. |
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Stern - The rear of the ship. |
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Amidships - The middle section of the ship. Also means to resume a straight course. |
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Dorsal - The top section of the ship. |
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Ventral - The bottom section of the ship. |
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Starboard - The right section of the ship, or toward the right if referring to direction. |
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Port - The left section of the ship, or toward the left if referring to direction. |
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Quarter - When referring to direction, it means the target lies on a bearing between dead ahead and amidships. |
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Beam - When referring to direction, it means the target lies on a bearing that is roughly perpendicular to the ship's current heading. |
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Forward or Fore - Meaning toward the bow from your current location. |
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After or Aft - Meaning toward the stern of the ship from your current location. |
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Bearing - The direction an object lies in relationship to the ship's position |
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Heading - The direction the ship is currently traveling. |
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Battle Stations - The command orders all crew members to their post and ready for battle. Sometimes referred to as General Quarters. |
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Head - A ships bathroom. Also called a Refresher or 'fresher. |
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CO - Commanding Officer. |
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XO - Executive Officer, the second in command. |
While it is the helmsman that pilots the ship in realspace and actually engages the hyperdrive, it is the navigator that is responsible for plotting all hyperspace jumps. Usually a warship has a nav-computer and several redundancies to assist in the calculations, but the navigators are trained to calculate the courses themselves if absolutely necessary (the mathematics involved are staggering and could take days of calculations for even a simple jump.)
Hyperdrives propel starships into an alternated dimension known as hyperspace, where it's possible to travel many times the speed of light. Ships in hyperspace can cross the incredible distances between stars in a few weeks, days or even hours. When a ship jumps to lightspeed, the hyperdrive motivator engages the hyperdrive. The ship rapidly accelerates to and beyond the speed of light while the ship crosses into hyperspace. When a hyperdrive is deactivated, the ship automatically returns to realspace at the speed it had before the jump to lightspeed.
Hyperspace is coterminous with realspace, meaning if you head north in hyperspace, you are also heading north in in realspace. Objects in realspace have a hyperspace shadow, a presence in hyperspace at the same location. This means that there's an inherent danger in traveling through hyperspace. Contact with an object's hyperspace shadow results in the instant destruction of the ship while the realspace object remains undisturbed. Starships have "mass shadow sensors" to detect hyperspace shadows and shut down the hyperdrive to avoid collision, although these systems are not entirely reliable. While deeps space collisions are very rare, they tend to be quite deadly.
Navigators, also known as astrogators, must plot safe paths around interstellar debris. Due to the incredible speeds achieved in hyperspace, the margin between safe passage and a collision is often only microseconds.
To handle the overwhelming complexities of calculating hyperspace trip, most ships are equipped with navigation computers ("navicomputers" or "nav computers" for short.) The ship's navigator uses the nav computer to plot a safe trip along hyperspace routes. Nav computers hold a tremendous amount of data, storing the coordinates for hyperspace routes and the locations of stars, planets, debris, gravity wells, asteroid fields, gas clouds, and other hazards. Ships without nav computers often use astromech droids such, as R2 units, to store astrogation coordinates. Pilots can try to make hyperspace jumps without navigation coordinates, but this is an extremely risky proposition. Plotting navigation coordinates without a computer or droid adds +30 to the difficulty.
Hyperspace Routes
"Hyperspace routes" are established paths through hyperspace linking major planets, just as roads link major settlements on planets. These routes are known to be safe, allowing ships to reach exceptional speeds. As a route becomes well known and its hazards are better understood, hyperspace journeys can be plotted with more precision and faster speeds: eventually, travel times between specific planets may actually decrease. Travel times can increase, as well, if obstacles drift into the hyperspace route. In general, the physical distance between planets, the longer the journey in hyperspace takes. However, even systems that are in close proximity to one another may require roundabout hyperspace routes because of debris and other hazards.
Caution is always called for: the positions of over 90% of the objects in real space are unknown. The hyperspace shadows of the anything larger that boulder can destroy a ship, and there are countless such things drifting undiscovered and deep space. There is always a slim chance that something has drifted into a hyperspace route. Brave pilots may plot new routes in hyperspace, but this can be extremely dangerous. Scouts often use a series of very short micro-jumps, scanning ahead prior to each jump, and eventually reaching a system after dozens of such jumps. This is a time-consuming, painstaking process, but it is much safer than "blind jumping" into unexplored space. Due to the complexity of astrogation coordinates, it's virtually suicidal to try to change course while in hyperspace. It's much safer for a ship to drop back to realspace to calculate a new hyperspace course.
A hyperdrive is ranked by a "class," or hyperdrive multiplier. The lower the multiplier, the faster the drive. Most civilian ships have a Class Two (x2) or higher hyperdrive. Many military vessels and starfighters have a Class One (x1) hyperdrive, which is twice as fast as a Class Two drive. The Millennium Falcon has a Class 0.5 (x1/2) hyperdrive, making it one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. Each hyperspace route or journey has a duration. Multiply the duration by the ship's hyperdrive multiplier to find out how long it takes the ship to reach the destination.
Hyperdrive Backup
Many ships have a backup hyperdrive. While very slow (some are x10, x15 or higher) they can be used to limp to the nearest spaceport for repairs if the main hyperdrive is disabled.
A warship may make a micro-jump within a star system to quickly deal with threats or to set up multi-pronged attacks. These sort of jumps take roughly one minute to calculate, depending on major obstacles between the ship and the jump coordinates. Defensive fleets usually have predefined sets of micro-jump coordinates for jumping to strategic points within a system and using them can cut the time required in half. Attempting to rush the calculations for a micro-jump, or any jump, doubles the difficulty.