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Episode 1928: Definitely Not a Loose Cannon

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Always remember that a vehicle-mounted weapon can always aim at least as well as the vehicle itself. If your Driving or Piloting or whatever skill is good enough (i.e. higher than your Gunnery), then you don't need to use a Gunnery skill at all. Just make the easier driving roll to point your guns at the target!

Note for GMs only: Yes, definitely let your players get away with this. 😉

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

That's some strong vehicle armor if all an explosion did was make the cannon get stuck in place. Also, I have to wonder if there's a problem with the top gunner position if this fancy flying is needed to shoot the PIE. Can't argue with the results of course, but Finn should have had at least a couple rounds to switch turrets. Or maybe the explosion also caused the gunner seat to stick in place as well. The seat and cannon directions were linked in The Original Movie if I remember correctly, so that could make it take longer than normal to switch if the seat no longer properly responds.

I'm amused that Pete's acting like this is a ship that needs air moving across wings in order to fly given his previous complaint. There are no control surfaces anywhere on the burger-and-side-olive ship that could possibly have a stall condition, let alone the whole ship. However, doing the unexpected is a great way to defeat a faster and more maneuverable vehicle. And when every spaceship seems incapable of gliding without engines, who would ever think that turning them off would be a good idea? Rey even managed to restart and flip the ship right-side-up after without crashing again! Side note, the Millennium Falcon's underside looks really odd. Side side note, I think this is the second time Annie's driving lessons has been mentioned; good enough for running joke status yet?

Hmmm. While the GM may just be using flavorful language here, I can't help but wonder if there's something else going on. Time control is already something we've seen in the comic, and somehow in the movie too! I'd already been thinking about temporal manipulation from the last comic, but it turns out "temporal blur" is just another name for "motion blur" or how we see (or really, can't see) fast things in motion when our brain can't compensate for the motion fast enough. Having time explicitly stated as slowing down here, I don't think there's much that could explain it away as something else. The only issue I have with claiming time control is happening is that I have no idea what could cause it seeing as Kylo is nowhere close to the action here.

Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)

Well done Pete! An unexpected maneuver, and you've managed to catch the enemy by surprise in a move that a World War I biplane would be proud of. A forced stall to turn around and aim a non-mobile gun in the other direction.

How old is Sally now? 2 years per movie, this is 7, so that's 12 years after the first one, she's in college now, I think we were told - so if she's getting driving lessons now, she's a late driver. Depending on where you live (New York, San Francisco), that's very believable. Heck, even Los Angeles used to have a public transport system good enough that you didn't need to drive.

I am surprised that, with all the motion blur, the Falcon's images are so crisp and sharp. As is the image of that robot stuck on the ropes. You'd think that they were shot in a studio with models on fixed wires being moved slowly by a computerized motor or something :-)

Transcript

Rey: You said the cannon was stuck, right?
GM: Correct.
Rey: Ah, so it can still fire! I have an idea.
Rey: I turn sharply through a hole and go up into a steep stall...
Rey: ... tumble and cut the engines so we drop vertically...
Rey: ... turret facing the gap where the PIE will emerge behind us...
GM: Time slows down...
GM: Your sights drift across the fighter...
Finn: Fire!! 14!
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
[SFX]: Ka-boom! {Finn’s shots destroy the PIE fighter}
Rey: ... and open the throttle...
[SFX]: vooooomm!!... {the Falcon pulls out of the fall and arcs back up into the air just before it hits the ground}
BB-8: Awesome!
General Hux: Have you been taking driving lessons from Annie?


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Published: Tuesday, 08 December, 2020; 01:11:02 PST.
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