One of the major complaints about the Star Wars Roleplaying Game has been space combat. The first edition's "abstract model" was criticized as not being as concrete as players would like, and the new grid-based system often results in time consuming battles that don't capture the fast paced excitement of the movies.
A few quick simplifications to the existing rules, however, can completely change the style and the pace of ship-to-ship combat. The movement and combat rules in Chapter _ of the Revised Core Rulebook, and the stats given in that section, remain the same with the following exceptions.
Reduce shield and hull points of starfighters and transports to 1/10 of their original values. Reduce values on capital ships to 1/5 of their original values.
Reduce DR to 1/5 of its original value. Damage Reduction applies to both shield and hull damage.
A ship has system points equal to its (modified) Damage Reduction, with a minimum of 1. 1 point of system damage can be repaired with a succesful Computer Use (DC 10). Restoring system points is a move equivalent action. A ship that has suffered system damage, recieves a penalty to all attacks, maneuvers, and defense equal to the damage sustained. A ship that has been reduced to 0 system points does not function until all system damage has been repaired.
Dice rolls for weapon damage have been eliminated. Instead, weapons do 1/20 of their maximum damage.
Ion cannons do 2 point of damage which bypasses Damage Reduction. Ion damage is applied to Shield Points. Once the targetted ship's Shields have been lowered, Ion damage is applied directly to a ship's system points.
Critical Damage is applied to both Hull Points and System points and ignores Damage Reduction. Critical Hits from Concussion Missiles and Proton Torpedoes do double damage.