can you hear me now?

[griff]

Interstellar communication in Star Wars. How is it handled in everyone's game. To go with what we have from the movies, holo images are possible and a require some kind of generator, episode one, and can be blocked easily. an astromech droid has the ability to transmit while plugged into a starship at least to a near by planet, Geonosis to tatooine, episode 2. Asteroids can cause interference, episode 5. Any thoughts. It seemed to me that interstellar communication was costly usually only for governments and military. Everyone else had to rely on a word of mouth, or some kind of delivery organization.
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"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[cheshire]

Maybe it has just been the nature of my games, but my characters have either been working for the government, or only making communications in system.

Given the scenarios you've set up, though, I'm assuming that whether you can or can't communicate depends mostly on plot convenience.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Centinull]

I've always been under the impression that electronic messages can be bounced through relays to pretty much anywhere in the core worlds and even eventually to the outer rim.

Within the core being like making a phone call, while to the outer rim it's more like snail mail.

[griff]

Don't forget "several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies.." An interstellar text message. There seems to be a capacity limit. If it took several transmissions to send all of the Death Star plans to Leia. I try to remember that were trying to speculate on galactic wide technology from a late 1970s perspective.
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"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[Ral_Brelt]

I can't recall if it was movies, novels or books that said it, but holocommunication was expensive and during Imperial era restricted to the military. In New Republic era, they open it up some but military still uses it primarily. There are also hyperspace messenger pods to carry important or sensitive messages. For your PCs or rebel forces I equate it to being like WW II ground based radio just on a larger scale.

As to interruption, I move at the speed of plot typically, be it not knowing how to contact a resistance cell or not wanting to drop Imps on their head.

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

I had questions on this issue, too, when I started up my latest campaign two years ago. I ended up asking my player with the most SWU knowledge, but then stumbled upon a section in the 2R&E rules that spells out a bunch on these issues. It can be found on p. 192 and goes into some detail on the HoloNet, hypertranceivers, subspace tranceivers, comms, intercoms, and comlinks.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green