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 × 10 yards away, and are usually not surprised by astral vessels.

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 “vapor”, 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.
< Back to Astral Info