Astral Travel

Travel Resolution Procedure

The steps to take for each phase of astral travel:

  1. Setup: Referee describes the situation
  2. Decide Course: Players decide on their course of travel for the phase and any planned activities for the day.
  3. Complication Check: Referee makes a complication check.
  4. Description: Referee describes the regions passed through, any points of interest that the party comes across, and any complications they encounter.
  5. Actions / Responses / Complications - Party declares actions, referee describes the results.
  6. End of Phase: The referee updates time records.
  7. Repeat: Return to step 2 and repeat until travel ends.

Complication Check

Roll 1d6, ignoring results of 4+ for the first 2 checks.

  1. Encounter: Wandering creature or vessel, social encounter, or some other random interaction.
  2. Signs / Portents: Indications of possible encounter nearby - could be a clue, indications of a creature nearby, etc.
  3. Locality: Some environmental or external event that affects the PCs - psychic storm, fragment, etc.
  4. Pilot / Ship Issue: Pilot / power source exhaustion or some other ship complication, takes 1d6 shifts to resolve and resume travel (50% chance the ship will have to remain in dock for 1d6 phases to make additional repairs).
  5. Lose Direction: Each phase spent moving in the wrong direction adds 1d4-1 additional phases of travel.
  6. No Complications

Distance

  • Astral encounters between ships usually start 1400 + (1d6 x 100) yards out (about a mile, the distance at which two ships will pull each other out of travel speed).
  • Wandering creatures are encountered 4d6 ร— 10 yards away, and are usually not surprised by astral vessels.
    • If either side is surprised (see Encounter procedure), this is reduced to 1d4 ร— 10 yards.

Location: Astral encounters may occur either in the open astral plane or on land (such as a fragment, island, or dock), if the party lands or docks at some point during the day.

Frequency of Check

  • In the deep astral, check once every other day (once every 6 phases, roll 1d6 to determine which phase).
  • Near a port or outpost (within 1-2 days travel), check once per day, or even once per phase (for busy outposts).

Psychic Clouds

Thin streams of psychic โ€œvaporโ€, hundreds to thousands of miles across, which appear as clouds when viewed from distance.

  • Psychic Storms are enormous storms of psychic energy which can disable a ship as well as its crew. Often found crawling with astral zombies. Best to avoid.

Surprise

Wandering astral creatures are not usually surprised by traveling vessels. Special circumstances (ex: thick astral clouds, or a psychic storm) may alter this.

Travel Times

Travel by astral cruiser (via the astral currents) to any known location within the astral plane usually takes 3-30 days.

  • Travel between most ports under the control of the Astral Trade Union only takes 1d6+2 days.
  • Without a ship, the vast distances between landmarks means one could go for weeks, months, or even years before coming across anyone (or anything) else.
  • It takes 1 turn for a ship to dock, and 1 turn for it to disembark.
  • An astral cruiser cannot travel by currents while within 1 mile of another active vessel or large astral body (like an island).
    • If a cruiser comes within a mile of a large astral object while traveling. it will automatically reduce its speed to normal movement (in yards).

Visibility

  • An astral body (such as a fragment, island, or even a dead god) may be spotted at a distance of hundreds of miles (based on its size).
  • Vessels (and large creatures) may be sighted at great distances by the contrails they leave behind in the psychic clouds that permeate the plane.
    • Identification is usually limited to tactical range (approximately 1 mile) in the open astral plane, or as little as 100 yards in a psychic storm.