How does Force tracking or tracking in general work?

[MattMartin23]

Okay so I get that Boba Fett followed Han through the garbage dumping to track him to Cloud City but I want to know how.

Is he able to read Han's navcomputer plotcourse, or hack into its gps, so to speak. Just curious?

Here is the reason for my question: I have some NPC Jedi who aided some smugglers from getting off an Imperial world. I am trying to figure out the best method for the Imperial to be in hot pursuit for them. Do I have Star Destroyers dispurse Imperial Probe droids throughout known space looking for the Jedi or smugglers or their craft? Could Vader and Palpatine sense where the Jedi are and follow them once they are on a distant planet? Bounty hunters on the hunt? Assassin droids or bounty hunter droids on the hunt? All of the above?

Looking for a good way for them to be searched out and found that makes logical sense and is super cool and creative. Looking for any takers on this.

Thanks,

Matt M

[Fallon Kell]

Depends on whether Han made the journey in realspace, or on a backup hyperdrive. In realspace, Fett could have just tracked him by his sublight drive emissions. If he made the trip in hyperdrive, Fett would likely have had to plot out possible destinations along Han's jump vector. Unreliable as backup hyperdrives are, Han would likely have chosen Bespin the (closest) even if Lando wasn't the Baron Administrator. This would have made it a pretty easy guess for Fett.
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[Ankhanu]

If they're present during the hyperjump, it's possible to ascertain the vector at which they made the jump (probably a Sensors roll), then determine the likely destinations based on their starting location and vector (Astrogation rolls, likely high difficulty)... this has some fun in that there could be multiple destinations likely from that vector, depending on the route they chose... though some may be more likely than others.

If they've already left, which it sounds they have, it kind of depends on how well connected the Imperials are.
-- They could have an alert out through the Imperial network/databases, "a ship matching this description was seen blasting its way off of Tatooine", in which any Imperial vessels would be scanning ships against the known problem database, and might catch them wherever they appear in Imperial space.

-- If they're super powerful, they could do the probe droid network like Vader did to find the heroes... though I expect to acquisition that sort of resource allocation, they'd need to be fairly powerful in the Empire.

-- Bounty hunters could certainly be useful, but, again, depends on resources available to the Imperial in question. A general bounty through the Imperial system, rather than directed by your specific Imperials could work too.

-- If they're well connected outside the Empire, your Imperials could make use of local networks within the underworld, or local bureaucracies to be on the look out for your smugglers/Jedi...

-- Re: The Force, yes, you could have Palpatine/Vader/others sense the Jedi on the far off world. It's a little deus ex machina, but it does work, and is thematic in the time frame. The Empire has Jedi hunters/inquisitors in the galaxy, not just the big two, and if your Jedi accesses the Force in the wrong place/time, it's possible they could be located by one of them. Thing is, the Jedi hunters/inquisitors likely have more power (and autonomy) than your Imperial chasers... and would likely take the hunt upon themselves, rather than report to your guys.

So, yeah, finding someone that's escaped through hyperspace, especially if they're clever enough to plot a multi-jump, twisting route, is a daunting task. Make use of networking to find them most realistically... though that's a method that takes time and effort. You can speed it up to incorporate whatever you need to in order to get the story told, though.
_________________
Hotaru no Hishou; a messageboard about games, friends and nothing at all.

Donate to Ankhanu Press

[CRMcNeill]

Don't forget that in both situations, the Falcon was a high priority target, so information exchange might have been expedited (i.e. with Vader having ordered a massive search for the Death Star plans on Tatooine, then left to rendezvous with the Death Star, he could've left standing orders for any new information to be forwarded to him.

As far as tracking the Falcon through hyperspace, on page 103 of the Imperial Sourcebook, mention is made of an improved Hyperspace Signal Interceptor. While the standard HSI is only capable of detecting ships entering and exiting hyperspace, the I-HSI is capable of detecting "flux shift" with much greater accuracy, thereby allowing vessels so equipped to calculate a trajectory, and therefor a possible destination. No mention is made of how rare, expensive and/or bulk such a piece of sensor equipment may be, but it is easy to see how useful it would be to a bounty hunter, and even if you were to pick only one bounty hunter in the galaxy who might have access to it, my money would be on Fett.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[ZzaphodD]

If you cant track a ship through hyperspace, then logically its lost.

Tracking vectors and such is totally useless if the ship does not travel in a straight line (and obviously hyperspace lanes are not straight). Also, the method of travelling for a certain distance, drop out of hyperspace and set course for the real destination would make any vector analysis worthless.

So, we are stuck with following them through hyperspace. Regarding the Boba vs Han case, I wouldnt give that much importance to that. Probably the script writers didnt know an army of nerds would analyse the movie down to every split seconds.
_________________
My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[garhkal]

Well, we know from many novels that the imps routinely use the 'track their outgoing hyperspace vector' to plot where they went with reasonable accuracy (its how isard found out where one of the bacta stores went to in the bacta war).
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

I know the Black Fleet Crisis books mentioned Soliton Wave Tracking, which allows a ship to follow another through hyperspace. When the wave cuts out, it indicates that the ship being tracked has dropped out of hyperspace. Combined with an I-HSI, a ship at the target ship's starting location could potentially track the ship when it jumps to hyperspace, make a jump down the same vector, then drop out when the soliton wave generated by the target vessel vanishes, hopefully in close proximity to the target (possibly what the Devastator did to track the Tantive IV to Tatooine).

As far as Force power options, I know WH40K mentions an astropath power that allows tracking a ship through hyperspace by planting a psychic homing signal in the mind of one of the ship's crewmembers. Range for the plant is as far as 1000 kilometers in clear space. I don't know if any conversion stats have been made for this power, but the idea is there.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[ZzaphodD]

[ZzaphodD]

[CRMcNeill]

[ZzaphodD]

[CRMcNeill]

[ZzaphodD]

[ZzaphodD]

[CRMcNeill]

Hmm. That kind of on-the-fly astrogation would seem to require something like the Nav-Computer Route Astrogation Bypass module from Galladinium's Fantastic Technology. My understanding was that a ship in hyperspace had to stick to a plotted course, and to change course would require the ship to drop out of hyperspace, recalculate, then jump to hyperspace again.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index