Heading

A starship’s heading determines the direction it’s pointing toward on the sensor map. The GM usually determines the heading of all ships at the beginning of a starship encounter based on the circumstances that led to the encounter; if the player starship is approaching an enemy fleet, it doesn’t make sense for their starship to be facing the opposite direction! Otherwise, the crew member helming the pilot console determines the player starship’s heading at the beginning of combat. A starship changes heading when a crew member helming the pilot console uses Turn or another station action that changes the starship’s heading.

A starship is off-guard to attacks made from the opposite direction of the starship’s heading. Starships in the same zone always treat each other as being in the direction of their heading. Specific rules and actions might have different results depending on starships’ headings.