Asteroid Hopping A Primer The goal of Asteroid Hopping is to be the first ship to cross the finish line in a series

s of timed asteroid hops inside your Gun-Cutter around the course. There are two roles that must be filled aboard each Gun-Cutter. 1) Pilot: Person responsible for making the Pilot Tests at the end of every round. 2) Enginseer: Person responsible for modifying/repairing the Guncutter every round. Each round, the Enginseer goes first and selects an action that his ship will perform. The available actions (and the order in which they are resolved) are as follows. If the same action is selected, vessels that are losing get to go first. 1) Jam Sensors: The Enginseer selects one other vessel and makes a Difficult (-10) Tech-Use Test. On success, and for every degree of Success, all Piloting tests conducted by that vessel are increased by one degree. The defending Enginseer may forfeit their action to turn this into an Opposed Tech-Use Test, with ties going to the defender. Example: Enginseer J0-N11 attempts to jam the sensors of the Epoch Trigger, and scores 1 degree of success on his Tech-Use test. That vessel now suffers a -20 to its Piloting tests this turn. The Epoch Triggers Enginseer Artifex Felicis attempts to counteract this, turning this into an Opposed Test. He forfeits his action this round and both Enginseers roll an Opposed Tech-Use Test. Artifex Felicis and J0-N11 each get one degree of success, so Felicis has successfully defended and his ship suffers no penalty. 2) Lock-On Target: The Enginseer makes a Difficult (-10) Tech-Use Test to train the ships Augurs on another vessel. On success, and for every two degrees of success thereafter, increase any Shooting Action against that target by +10 until the end of the round. The Defending Enginseer may forfeit their action to turn this into an Opposed Tech-Use Test, with ties going to the defender. Example: Next Round, Artifex Felicis decides to take revenge and attempts to lock on to J0-N11s Gun-cutter. He scores 1 degree of success on his Tech-Use Test, and thus his vessel only gets a +10 to its Shooting Action. J0-N11 forfeits his action to turn this into an Opposed Tech-Use Test and both Enginseers re-roll. Artifex Felicis wins the opposing conflict by 2 degrees of success, so his vessel now gets a +20 to his shooting action thanks to the poor defending by J0-N11. Bad Luck, bro! 3) Scan the Course: If your vessel might pass an Asteroid this turn, you may make a Challenging (+0) Scrutiny+Detection Test to prepare for the oncoming turn. Success lowers the difficulty by one step for every Degree of Success. Failure by two or more Degrees increases the difficulty by one step for every two degrees. 4) Make her Dance: Make a Difficult (-10) Tech-Use Test. On success, and for every Degree of Success, increase Manoeuvrability by 5 this round. 5) Emergency Repairs: The Enginseer makes a Challenging (+0) Tech-Use Test. For every Degree of Success, restore 1 point of Hull Integrity to the vessel. 6) Floor It: The Enginseer makes a Difficult (-10) Tech-Use Test. For every Degree of Success, increase the vessels speed by 1 for this turn. If you fail by 3 or more Degrees, decrease the ships speed by 1 for every Degree of Failure over 2. 7) Fire Secondary Weapons: If the vessel has other weapons, the Enginseer can take an action during the Shooting Round to fire these weapons alongside the Pilot.

Piloting Actions 1) Full Speed: The Pilot flies at their maximum speed. Tests to turn at an asteroid are a Difficult (-10) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test. 2) Ready to Turn: The Pilot lowers their speed by any number of Void Units (minimum 2). If they reach an Asteroid this turn, they must make a Challenging (+0) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test, with the difficulty lessened by one step for every Void Unit of speed they sacrificed beyond the first. 3) Evasive Maneuvers: The Pilot lowers their speed by any number of Void Units (minimum 2). They make a Difficult (-10) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test, with the difficulty lessened by one step for every VU of speed sacrificed after the first. For every Degree of Success, increase the difficulty of shooting actions made against this ship by one step. Tests to turn at an Asteroid are a Hard (-20) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test. 4) Blocking: Any ship attempting to pass this vessel this turn must make an Opposed Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability, with the lead vessel taking a -10 penalty on this check. Both vessels take 1d5 hull integrity damage. If the vessel that chose Blocking succeeds, the Blocked vessels movement ends. The vessel that chose blocking can only move up to half its speed this turn. Tests to navigate an Asteroid are a Very Hard (-30) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test. 5) Crazy Ivan: The pilot makes a Hard (-20) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test. For every degree of failure, reduce VU Speed by 1. The vessel performs a spin and may attack any one craft within 5 VUs at a -10 penalty. Tests to navigate an Asteroid are a Very Hard (-30) Pilot Small Craft + Manoeuvrability Test. Navigating an Asteroid Asteroid Hopping is just what it sounds like. Along the course will be various asteroids that the vessels race to. On their turn, if they would reach an asteroid they must make a Test with difficulty modified by the above. On failure, the ship suffers 1d5 Hull Integrity damage, with an additional 1d5 points of damage for every 2 Degrees of Failure thereafter. For every degree of failure, reduce your remaining speed this turn by 1 (minimum 0) Shooting Actions After Piloting Tests are completed, the Shooting Round occurs. The pilot may use Pilot-weapons to make an attack against any valid target, and if the Enginseer selected Fire Secondary Weapons, they may fire the other weapons. Sample Round Three vessels are remaining approaching the final Asteroid. The Epoch Trigger is in the lead with 6 VU to the turn. The Bro 32 follows with 8 VU to go. And Brave Folly is trailing with 14 VU to go. All vessels have a base speed of 10 VU. Enginseer Round: The Brave Folly selects Floor It, Bro 32 selects Lock-On Target and Epoch Trigger selects Jam Sensors. Result: Epoch Trigger goes first and scores 1 Degree of Success, imposing a -10 penalty on Piloting Tests for the Bro 32. The Bro 32 then fails its test, resulting in no benefit. Brave Folly succeeds on Floor It with 2 Degrees.

Piloting Round: Brave Folly and Bro 32 select Full Speed, Epoch Trigger selects Ready to Turn with a 3 VU speed penalty. Result: Brave Folly now has 1 Void Unit before the Asteroid, but has not yet reached it. Bro 32 hits its turn, but fails its Pilot Test without shifts, so it takes 1d5 Hull Integrity (4) and its remaining speed (2) is reduced to 1. The Epoch Trigger easily maneuvers the asteroid, and is 1 Void Unit in front of the asteroid.

Shooting Round: Brave Folly gets to take the first shot, and even though Epoch Trigger has been flying better all race, Bro 32 has been a thorn in their side all race. Brave Folly fires on Bro 32, and does enough damage to knock it out of the race. With only two vessels left, can the Epoch Trigger reach the Finish Line for the win?