Travel

Starship travel is measured in hours or days. Standard starship engines can be used to go into orbit or land, travel point-to-point on a planet, travel to a planet's satellites and moons, and travel within a system. Drift engines enable hyperspace travel via the plane of the Drift and are used to travel within a system, or between distant systems. Using Drift engines, travel time is based on the region of space you wish to travel to: Near Space or the Vast. A planet is classified into these interstellar regions not by location, but by the number of Drift beacons in the vicinity. Thanks to the Starstone, Drift travel to Absalom Station is always swift, making it a galactic hub. While other galaxies exist, the distances between them and the galaxy of the Pact Worlds— known as Desna's Path—are so incredibly large that there have yet to be any confirmed instances of intergalactic travel.

Drift lanes first appeared in the aftermath of the Drift Crisis, a year during which the Drift was dangerously unstable. Drift lanes are essentially hyperspace highways through the Drift with consistent end points. They connect two locations in a chain and can't be used to rapidly reach other regions of space not on the chain, nor can they be entered at other locations. Some Drift lanes have one or more nodes along their route, which are early exits, similar to a highway's off-ramp. Like the Drift lane itself, these stops are consistent and don't change. Exiting at a node along a Drift lane shortens the overall travel time by an amount determined by you, likely by half or a third depending upon how many nodes are along a Drift lane's route. A starship that purposefully flies out of, or is knocked out of, a Drift lane is deposited in a random location in the Drift and must begin to Plot a Course through the Drift, as normal.

Typical travel times using standard engines, Drift engines, and Drift lanes are noted on the Starship Travel Time table below. These travel times are further modified by the result of a PC's check to Plot Course.

Depending on how you track movement, the adventuring party might track the overland distance they travel in feet or miles based on the characters' Speeds with the relevant movement type. Typical rates are shown on the Travel Speed table. Groups traveling in vehicles instead use their vehicle's Speed, as noted in that vehicle's entry.

The rates on the Travel Speed table assume that the characters are traveling over flat and clear terrain at a determined pace, but one that's not exhausting. Moving through difficult terrain halves the listed movement rate. Greater difficult terrain reduces the distance traveled to one-third the listed amount. If the travel requires a skill check to accomplish, such as mountain climbing or swimming, you might call for a check once per hour, referencing the resulting distance on the Travel Speed table to determine the group's progress.

The Navigate and Sense Direction activities enable characters to detect north, navigate complex paths, and plan a short journey. To plan an interstellar journey, characters instead Plot Course. You can combine these checks with Recalling Knowledge about the area—typically using Nature or Society—for the PCs to get their initial bearings or learn about important locations along their route. The DC for these checks is usually trained or expert but can be more challenging for unexplored or remote regions. Some of these locations might be useful, such as a transmission tower, a fruit tree, or a space station. Others might be mysterious or dangerous, such as an alien's hunting grounds, an asteroid, or an abandoned laboratory. It's best to point out two or three landmarks and let the group decide on their course from there.

When PCs are traveling through space, exploring the wilderness, or navigating twisting city streets and space stations, they might get lost. This is usually a consequence for failing at checks to Navigate or Sense Direction, or critically failing at a check to Plot Course, but it can also happen based on the story, such as if they crash-land on an undiscovered planet, pass through an interstellar portal, or emerge from an underground passageway into a forest. Playing through the process of trying to find their way can be fun for a party, provided they do so for a short interval. If a party is lost at the start of a session, they should usually have found their way and reached a significant destination by the end.

If the PCs get unlucky or are just awful at Piloting and Survival, they might end up stuck with no way to reorient themselves. In these cases, have someone come to them! They might meet some locals, get captured by predators, or even stumble upon a dangerous location. They've figured out where they are, even if it's not where they wanted to be!

You might want to include some encounters if the PCs are in a dangerous area, especially if they travel for a long time. For these encounters, choose creatures and characters that live in that type of environment. Remember that not all creatures attack on sight. An interactive scene with curious creatures, friendly travelers, or cautious locals all work well as travel encounters.