Hyperspace Early Warning System

[CRMcNeill]

In the spirit of the source material, the HEWS installations would be placed to cover major star systems, detecting incoming hyperspace tracks, with particularly large ships, large groups of ships or ships approaching from abnormal hyperspace vectors standing out.

For instance, at Kuat (see Platt's Starport Guide), hyperspace travel to and from the system is limited to a handful of planets depending on whether the ship is civilian or military, or whether it's approaching or departing (ships traveling to Kuat must travel to an interim system before jumping to Kuat on a designated course, and must travel to a different interim system when departing). Kuat would be one of the systems most likely to be protected by such a sensor, so any ship not approaching down the designated travel paths would attract attention, with a heavy military response already laying in wait at a bogey's predicted hyperspace exit point.

So, if a group of characters wanted to jump to Kuat covertly (as in, trying to sneak into the system rather than using fake identities and normal methods of travel), they'd be almost certain to run into Kuat system defense force ships the second they drop out of hyperspace. Of course, they'd know this (Easy Planetary Systems roll, for example), and thus make alternate plans.

And that's pretty much it as far as practical application. PCs aren't going to have access to the platforms, and they will be practically invulnerable (using static hyperfield generators to literally hover in hyperspace) unless the PCs somehow manage to get ahold of the access codes needed to make the platform drop into realspace (and said codes would be one of the most closely guarded military secrets in the system in question).
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"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.

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