Federation Commander

Looking at the Black Hole rules - I haven't played a scenario set near a Black Hole yet, this is just a standalone rules question - I see that a ship or other object within 1-2 hexes of the Black Hole is pulled towards it one hex every sub-pulse.

As far as I can see this means that a ship at that range can at best only maintain its position, and there is no way of rescuing the ship from that position with tractors or anything, since these just slow both ships down. The only option looks to be simply to beam the crew off!

Have I got that right? Or is there some way of escape that I haven't thought of?

Also, as a ship gets closer to the Black Hole, and enters a new range bracket, how is the movement rate determined? Is it the range the ship is at at the beginning of the impulse that dictates the rate, or at the beginning of each sub-pulse? No doubt Scoutdad has experience with this, given his liking for Black Hole Mania....

Kang wrote: Looking at the Black Hole rules - I haven't played a scenario set near a Black Hole yet, this is just a standalone rules question - I see that a ship or other object within 1-2 hexes of the Black Hole is pulled towards it one hex every sub-pulse.

That is correct...

Kang wrote:As far as I can see this means that a ship at that range can at best only maintain its position, and there is no way of rescuing the ship from that position with tractors or anything, since these just slow both ships down. The only option looks to be simply to beam the crew off!

Again, correct. Getting within 2 hexes of a black hole is not a good idea...

Kang wrote:Have I got that right? Or is there some way of escape that I haven't thought of?

As currently written, the involuntary movement takes place before voluntary movement. So:
At one hex... you're pulled in, end of game...
At two hexes, you're pulled to one hex, then in voluntary movement, you'll move back out to two hexes... lather, rinse, repeat...
In SFB, you could tractor the ship from range 2 or 3 and then pull it one hex closer to you during the tractor rotation phase. This option is available in Fed Comm. [/quote]

Kang wrote:Also, as a ship gets closer to the Black Hole, and enters a new range bracket, how is the movement rate determined? Is it the range the ship is at at the beginning of the impulse that dictates the rate, or at the beginning of each sub-pulse? No doubt Scoutdad has experience with this, given his liking for Black Hole Mania....

I need to re-read the rules to make sure I was concise when I wrote them... but there should be a new step added to the SOP for each movement sub=pulse called "Involuntary Movement" that takes place before all "voluntary" movement. This is when the Black Hole's sucking effect occurs.