Space Travel

FTL Travel

FTL travel exists in the Novarion Sector, through the miraculous device known as the spike drive. Every interstellar starship has a spike drive.¹ Every spike drive has a rating, from 1 to 6, though 1 to 3 are the only ones that can be made in modern times. A spike drive "drills" a hole in space, allowing the ship to slip into a metadimensional space, where it can cross vast distances in a relative eyeblink.

FTL travel, called drilling, is done system-to-system. A ship must be in any region on the edge of the system. To drill, the ship needs a target system in range, fuel, a rutter, and thirty minutes to drill. Once these are in place, the pilot or navigator makes a skill roll, with a difficulty determined by the course.

The systems of the Novarion Sector is mapped out on a hexmap, as shown below:

Every system is a number of hexes away from each other, representing how close they are in metadimensional space. A ship can travel to systems a number of hexes away equal to their spike rating.

The ship's navigator also needs a rutter, a course record of the currents and flows between the origin and the destination that guides the pilot. Rutters are usually turned in by newly-arrived ships at local stations, and most common trade routes will have days-old rutters. Less common routes will have their rutters jealously guarded by their owners. Common rutters (typically <6 months old) are marked on the map with purple dashed lines.

A single spike drill uses up one load of fuel, regardless of distance. A standard spike drill takes thirty minutes, but if needed during combat, a ship can rush its drill, taking only one round. When the ship is ready, the navigator or pilot makes a Pilot/INT skill check, against a difficult of 7 with the following modifiers:

If the skill check is successful, the spike drill goes off without a hitch and the ship spends time travelling in metadimensional space. A spike drill takes six days per hex traveled, divided by the spike rating of the ship. A navigator can trim the course to increase the ship's speed. When trimming the course, the spike rating of the ship counts as 1 higher.

If the skill check fails, the GM rolls on the Spike Drill Mishap table and applies the result:

In metadimensional space, the ship must be piloted by a human-equivalent sentient mind (including e.g. a VI). Expert systems are not intelligent enough to handle the random dangers, and lack certain sensory processing abilities to render metadimensional space comprehensible. Ships typically have at minimum 3 people for this reason, and a single person drilling will require wakefulness drugs.

At the end of the travel period, the ship emerges in an edge region (see below) of the target system. Each route into a system leads to a specific region; this can be used by pirates and navies to set traps and patrols.

However, there is no other FTL tech. There are no ansibles, and no lightyear-distant psychic communication. Messages and information travels at the speed of ship, and if a ship is not sent with a message, it just won't arrive.

System Travel

A system is divided up into regions. Regions are an abstract area. They might be a planet and its orbital area, a gas giant and its moons, a deep space station, or just a region near the system's Oort cloud.

Inside of a system, ships must travel at slower-than-light (though still stupendously fast) speeds, through the combination of the spike drive and fusion reactor's connection to the grav rudder to enhance the acceleration and deceleration from chemical rockets.

Traveling from one region to another takes 48 hours divided by the ship's spike rating, and travelling within a region takes 6 hours divided by the ship's spike rating. A pilot may try to "trim the course" with a Pilot/DEX check against difficulty 9. On a success, the ship's spike rating is treated as 1 higher; on a failure, the travel takes twice as long.

By default, starships cannot land on planets with atmospheres and near-Earth gravity.

Travelling within a system takes a negligible amount of fuel. Taking off from a planet with Earth or higher gravity requires one load of fuel.

Fuel

A starship uses fuel to drill to a system and escape gravity wells. By default, starships can hold a single load of fuel. Fuel can be purchased from gas giant orbitals and ports, though anywhere that is TL4 and has access to large water deposits can provide starship fuel.

A load of fuel's cost is determined by the ship class:

• Fighter: 175 credits
• Frigate: 500 credits
• Cruiser: 1500 credits
• Capital: 4500 credits

Scanning and Detection

It is difficult to spot ships and stations in deep space, but if a ship's energy signature is identified, it becomes possible to follow the ship's movement anywhere in the system. This is called a detection lock.

When a ship enters a region (or takes off from a planet, or comes online, etc.) it becomes capable of scanning for other objects in the region. This ship (the observer) may scan actively or passively. Active scan is easier but alerts the target. Passive scanning is harder but the target remains unaware. (A captain can also choose to do no scanning at all.) Once the type of scanning is decided, the observer's comms officer makes an opposed Program/INT roll against the target's comms officer. On a success (ties are not successful), the observer gains a detection lock on the target. On a tie or failure, the observer does not get a detection lock, and must wait 24 hours to fully sift through the noise and try again.

The opposed scanning roll for the observer and target's hull class and position:

If a target is attempting to land on a body or planet, and avoiding any known population centers, it can get a bonus to its roll.

Detecting large space objects (planets, asteroid belts, gas giants) is obvious, though detailed information on those objects is not provided until the objects are adjacent and actively scanned, as described below.

To shake a detection lock, the targeted ship must go to another region, at which point the opposed skill check is repeated. On a success, the detection lock remains. On a failure, the detection lock is lost. Observers in the new region can attempt to gain a detection lock.

A detection lock will only give the ship or station's hull class, and no other information. However, communication can be opened with a targeted ship.

Scanning for Information

When a ship or space body is within combat range, it can be scanned for information. A basic short-ranged scan of a ship will reveal its hull type (e.g. Strike Fighter, Free Merchant, Corvette, Fleet Cruiser), any obvious weapons or damage, and its transponder code. A basic scan of a body will reveal its general temperature, atmosphere, basic geography, unshielded advanced energy-using communities, other ships or stations in orbit, and any surface features visible from orbit.

The comms officer can interrogate the basic scans by asking a single simple and direct question. The comms officer then rolls a Program/INT test against difficulty 8. On a success the question is answered in 3 hours, on a failure the data is insufficient for an answer and no more questions can be answered that day. Each additional question in a day increases the difficulty by 1.

Ship and station questions might include detailed weaponry or fitting information; good boarding points; the cultural or planetary origin of the craft; or any other oddities with the ship. The sensors can probe a meter into the hull, but can't intrude on ship computers or map interior areas.

Planet questions might include the location of major cities, industrial zones, or spaceports; unusual weather patterns; unique atmospheric hazards; local broadwave transmissions; or hidden or low-tech communities of sufficient size.

The Survey Sensor Array fitting always crews to read newspapers from orbit. They can also ask questions about underground areas, visible surface life forms, some interior space mapping, and anomalous energy readings.

Space Pursuits

One starship can chase another if the pursuer has a detection lock and is in the same region. The ship pilots make an opposed Pilot/INT check, adding their Spike Drive rating to the roll. If the pursuer wins, it forces an engagement and the ships get within combat range. If the pursued ship wins, it gets six hours of distance modified by the ratio of the pursued's Spike Drive rating to the pursuer's.

A pursued ship can use any time gained to try to get to a specific spot in the region, or to a new region. The pursued ship must build up enough time to enter the new region or location, as determined in System Travel above.

Starship Combat

{under construction}

Other Starship Procedures

Cargo

Each ship has a Cargo statistic, measured in tons, which indicate how many trade goods, spare parts, and heavy equipment the ship can carry.

Trade goods are measured in units that can range from 0.1 ton per unit to 100 tons per unit. The tonnage of the trade good will be indicated in the trade good's information.

1 ton of cargo space can store up to 10,000 credits worth of spare parts for the ship's maintenance and repair.

Heavy equipment includes vehicles, large weapons, and other massive devices that would need several people or a mount to move. These objects take up a different amount of tonnage depending on their size:

Many items may have a specific tonnage as well. Depending on the type of item and the details of the starship, the GM may say that it can't be loaded even if the ship technically has the required cargo space.

Life Support, Cold Sleep Pods, and Supplies

Ships have a minimum crew number needed to operate the ship at sublight speeds, and a maximum crew number that the ship can support. VIs count as a single person, and each active shell of a True AI counts as a single person. If the number of crew and passengers exceed the maximum crew number, there is a 50% the life support system becomes overloaded and disabled. This check is made when the life support is initially exceeded, and once every 48 hours divided by the multiple by which the maximum crew is exceeded, rounded down.

Hired crew on a starship have a wage of 100 credits per day.

Some ships have cold sleep pods. These are stasis pods, and their inhabitants require no life support or supplies. Safely unfreezing someone requires six hours. As long as they are powered, they can keep people on ice for centuries. If the pod is damaged, or the inhabitant undergoes a rapid defrosting, there is a 25% chance that the inhabitant is killed.

A ship by default has enough supplies to sustain its maximum crew for two months. One day of starship supplies for one person costs 20 credits.

Maintenance and Repair

Every ship must spend 5% of its total non-crew cost every six months on basic maintenance. Each period this is ignored increases the maintenance debt and applies a cumulative -1 penalty to all ship rolls. At -4, the ship has a 10% chance of breaking down entirely until all backlogged maintenance is undertaken. Maintenance requires a day for a fighter hull, a week for a frigate or cruiser hull, and a month for a capital hull.

Lost hit points can be regained at a cost of 1,000 credits of spare parts per point, with up to the lead engineer's Fix skill of points fixed per day. A disabled system can be jury-rigged to functionality for one-tenth of its cost in spare parts and one day per 25,000 credits of spare parts spent. A jury-rigged system that is disabled is destroyed. Full repairs of a disabled system cost one-quarter of its cost.

Repairs made in combat do not need to be paid for afterwards, and require no further repair after the battle.

Repairs and maintenance is typically done in a shipyard. Field repairs require spare parts, but require quadruple the amount of time.

Modification

See Stars Without Number Revised, pp. 108-109.