Interstellar Travel

Ships travel through hyperspace. Distance through hyperspace is proportional to distance in real space, and while it’s generally possible to drop into real space and then resume, it’s costly in terms of time, which increases the danger from encounters. Each jump takes one week, regardless of distance, while higher jump ratings allow for longer jumps by diving deeper into hyperspace (pretty much like Traveller or Stars Without Number).  It is possible to travel between points farther apart than the jump rating of a ship by making multiple jumps, as long as the ship has a Navigator.  Ships relying on Nav-Crystals must stick to routes that they can traverse in a single jump.

Ships usually carry enough fuel for multiple jumps, and it is possible to interact with other ships in hyperspace along the way, as well as denizens of hyperspace and other features such as temporal storms, hyperspace currents etc.  In order to initiate a hyperspace jump safely, ships must be outside the 100 AU “hyperlimit” of the star system.

Interrupted Travel

If a ship has to drop out of hyperspace part-way through a jump, perhaps due to an encounter or event during the trip, it will have traveled a distance towards the destination proportional to the time spent in jump and consumed fuel in similar proportion.  E.g. Halfway through the jump is half the distance, half the fuel. A new navigation roll will be required to plot a course for the remaining distance, but the ship should have enough fuel complete it left over from the initial jump.  The time to jump the remaining distance is still 1 week, since all jumps take approximately one week, regardless of distance.

Travel Costs

Passage on a starship.

Type of Passage	Cost
Working Passage	pays 5, 10, 15/jump net after travel, depending on skills (unskilled, skilled but non-shipboard, shipboard)
Low Passage (cryogenic suspension)	50/hex
Steerage	500/hex
Shared Stateroom	1000/hex
Luxury Stateroom	1500/hex
Cargo, per 100 kilo	25/hex

Fuel for ships

100/hit die of ship, times 10^Size category of the ship.

For every week as a passenger, 8-hour watch as a crew-member, or navigation roll you make as a Navigator (including being a secondary navigator learning a route) you have to roll a Will save vs. DC 10 or gain 1 level of Hyperspace Fatigue.  Navigators may apply their prescience die to the save. Hyperspace Fatigue has the following effects based on level, cumulative:

1. Time Ghosts.  You see occasional visions of older and younger yous moving about the ship; they are unable to see or interact with you.
2. Figures constantly at the edge of perception.  -1d on init.
3. Uneasy sleep.  No longer regain Psiburn or Stamina with a night’s sleep.
4. Insomnia. No longer regain Luck or heal naturally.
5. Temporal fugue.  When you try an action that requires a roll, roll a d3 in addition, on a 3 you bifurcate and there are two of you acting independently for 1d3 rounds (this may be an advantage, or it may not.  E.g. if there is only room for one more in the lifeboat…).  At the end of the period, flip a coin to see which one remains.
6. Voices in your head.  Gain a random minor mental corruption.
7. Catalepsy.
8. Death.

Hyperspace Fatigue levels can only be reduced by leaving hyperspace; for each day in real-space a DC 10 Fort save reduces the level of Hyperspace Fatigue by one.  The symptoms of Hyperspace Fatigue can be masked by a successful medic roll vs DC 10+Level of Fatigue, but when the drugs wear off after one day they all come back plus one additional level of fatigue.  Natives to hyperspace never suffer Hyperspace Fatigue.

Convoys

Hyperspace is dangerous, so ships often travel in convoys. To make sure they all follow the same route one Navigator must be chosen as the lead Navigator before the plotting the course: it is the lead Navigator’s Astrogation check that determines the parameters of the route.  The other Navigators must make an Astrogation check, but as long as they roll a success (12+) they will follow the lead Navigator’s ship with the same result as the lead. Ships must be in sight of each other in order to follow the leader in this fashion, and all the Navigators must know the destination intended, though they need not know the route.  Hostile ships may likewise follow the leader into hyperspace, but only as long as they too know the chosen destination. If they get it wrong, treat it as if they rolled a 1 on their Astrogation check.

Hyperspace Astrogation

In setting with psi powers, Hyperspace Astrogation is a psychic power that anyone with class Navigator has innately, and other psychics can learn. In a setting without them, it can be learned by anybody with a suitable background.

 

	Hyperspace Navigation
	Duration: Varies               Casting time: 1 round or longer           Save: None
General:	This power allows the Esper to trace a pathway through hyperspace from the current location to the desired destination.  Actually getting to that destination in the time and with the accuracy indicated requires a ship and a moderately competent crew.  See e.g. Crawl 11: Life Aboard for an example of handling crew efficiency and “wind speed” (apply % to one day’s travel out of the typical 7). In most cases concentration aids this ability immensely: if cast in a single round the maximum check roll is capped at 12.  Every additional minute increases the cap by 1, without changing the actual roll (you still need to roll well and/or Psiburn for higher results). Travel to the caster’s home (birth) system uses a d24; to a system the caster has spent at least a year in (expert) or with the aid of a first-generation navigator’s log (psychic copy of the navigator’s mind) a d20; systems the caster has made the journey under the tutelage of an expert navigator or with a 2nd generation log d16; with the aid of an expert navigator’s notes and charts or 3rd+ generation log or navigated to before d14; been to as a passenger d12; studied from sources not including expert navigators notes d10; unexplored a d8.
Corruption:	Roll 1d6: 1) Esper’s eyes permanently glow jale or ulfire 2) Esper becomes attuned to destination +1 to casting roll for this destination but increase misfire range by one if attempting any trip that isn’t either to or from the home system. If this is rolled again that first attuned destination gets an additional +1, and all trips that aren’t to or from the home system increase their misfire range by an additional one. 3)  Unstuck in time: every ordinary failure of this spell causes the Esper to become 1d4 years older or younger (50-50 each time)  4) Unstuck in time: every ordinary failure of this spell causes the Esper to become 1d10 years older or younger (50-50 each time) 5) Esper’s eyes become views into hyperspace; anybody gazing into the Esper’s eyes must save vs. Will (DC 10) or gain one level of Hyperspace Fatigue 6) minor Mental Corruption.
Misfire:	Roll 1d4: 1) will arrive at the wrong adjacent system  2) will arrive at the right system, but at a random time (Judge chooses) 3) forget important facts about the system: -1d in trying to get there in the future 4) Dangerous Journey: roll for encounters twice per day’s travel; on last day guaranteed encounter if no encounters so far.
1	Lost, failure, and worse! Roll 1d6 modified by Luck: (0 or less) corruption + misfire + patron taint, (1-2) corruption, (3) patron taint (or corruption if no patron), (4+) misfire.
2-11	Lost, and failure.
12-13	Will arrive at the target system after 6 + 1d4 days objective time, just outside the hyperlimit. Roll 1d24 for what “o’clock” along the circle seen from above and 1d24 for where relative to the  plane of the ecliptic.
14-17	Will arrive at the target system after 1 week + 1d24 -1d24 hours, in a random position (roll 1d24 for the “o’clock”) but in the correct plane of the ecliptic.
18-19	Will arrive at the target planet after 1 week in any chosen position just outside the hyperlimit, 1d5 hours travel away.
20-23	Will arrive within the hyperlimit within 1d5 hours travel of the target planet,  or arrive at the hyperlimit but having shaved 1d3 days off the travel time (subjective time in hyperspace is still 1 week, but objective time may be as soon as the same instant you left).
24-27	Will arrive within the hyperlimit within 1d5 hours travel of the target planet, or arrive at the hyperlimit but having shaved 1d7 days off the travel time (subjective time in hyperspace is still 1 week, but objective time may be as soon as the same instant you left), or at the hyperspace limit but having shaved 1d7 days off of subjective time (fuel consumption reduced proportionately, rolling fewer encounters, suffering less Hyperspace Fatigue, etc).
28-29	Will arrive within the hyperlimit within 1d5 hours travel of the target planet, or arrive at the hyperlimit but having shaved 1d7 days off the objective travel time and having shaved 1d7 days off of subjective time. (fuel consumption reduced proportionately, rolling fewer encounters, suffering less Hyperspace Fatigue, etc). Target planet now counts as an additional “home planet.”
30-31	Will arrive anywhere within target system at least 1 hour from the nearest planet, instantaneously. No fuel was consumed. Target system now counts as an additional “home system”.
32+	Will arrive anywhere on the target system, instantaneously.  No fuel was consumed. At Judges discretion may arrive up to 1d7 days before departure. Target planet now counts as an additional “home system”, and the log of the voyage can be used as a safe “star lane” to make the jump without a Navigator. The value of such a star lane where none was available before is usually enough to buy a ship.