Space travel #

Never forget, traveler, that space is trying to kill you.

Oh, sure, the Negaverse is dangerous. The Wraiths, powered by spite; the Maw and its eternal, unceasing hunger; the corrupting energy that flows like black water and spreads pestilence, famine, and drought wherever it leaks into our world — all of those are exceedingly perilous to life and limb.

But here’s the thing — none of that remotely compares to the dangers posed by the empty, unknowing, uncaring void of space.

Getting around #

In space, everything is really, really far apart. It takes considerable time and energy to get from point A to point B, so you’ll make use of two technologies to cross those vast distances: the positron drive, which is safe but slow, and the jump drive, which is fast but risky.

Positron drive #

The positron drive is the primary method of propulsion for interplanetary travel. It is powered by the annihilation of matter and anti-matter and allows for travel at one one-thousandth the speed of light. You can travel one astronomic unit (AU) in approximately 6 days while spending 2 units of fuel.

When you are within the bounds of a stellar system, you can take advantage of orbital mechanics and gravity assists to save fuel — you can plot out an optimal route which takes three times as long but uses half the fuel. You can also accelerate your trip by executing a controlled burn, which halves the time required but costs three times as much fuel.

While a table of orbital distances and periods for each planetary object would allow you to calculate the exact distance between planets at any given time, you can simply use the following chart to read the average travel time and fuel cost between any two planetary objects.

Jump drive #

While traveling between stars using a positron drive is possible, it can take millennia to make even the shortest trip. For example, a journey to Alpha Centauri, the closest system to the Terran home system, would take over four thousand years.

To cross interstellar distances, humanity relies on a reality-warping device colloquially known as a jump drive. The jump drive enables travel through hyperspace – the liminal space between the physical universe and the Negaverse where time and distance become meaningless.

A basic, alpha-rated jump drive allows a ship to instantaneously move one 1/1000 of a light-year, or 60 AU, using only 2 units of fuel. More powerful drives allow greater distances to be covered using the same amount of fuel. A delta-rated jump drive, for example, would enable a ship to cross the distance between the Terran system and Alpha Centauri using only 8 units of fuel.

Breaking the laws of physics comes with certain risks, however. First, while hyperspace jumps appear instantaneous to observers in the physical universe, conscious travelers report horrifying experiences. To them, time can stop completely, flow at varying rates, or run backward. Space grows and loses dimensions and folds in upon itself in unimaginable ways. Some travelers even report frightening encounters with the forces of the Negaverse.

To avoid these experiences, living creatures always enter cryosleep before undertaking a jump and the ship’s AI navigates hyperspace on their behalf. Stasis sickness, which resembles a combination of hangover, motion sickness, and jet lag is occasionally reported upon waking from cryosleep. While suffering from stasis sickness, all of your damage rolls are impaired.

Second, hyperspace is filled with dangerous obstacles: rogue probability waves, causal tsunamis, entropic storms, and strange attractors. Fortunately, brave explorers have mapped many of the popular routes between star systems, making voyages between known locations considerably less perilous. Additionally, massive orbital structures called jump gates act like lighthouses in hyperspace, aiding navigation and reducing risk even further.

Unusual effects of hyperspace travel #

At the end of hyperspace travel, roll on the following table. If you are traveling a mapped route through hyperspace with a jump gate at the destination, roll 1d6. If you are traveling either a mapped route or traveling to a jump gate, but not both, roll 2d6. If you are traveling into the uncharted depths of space, roll 3d6.

1. Nothing unusual happens.
2. Nothing unusual happens.
3. Nothing unusual happens.
4. Nothing unusual happens.
5. Stasis sickness. Passes after a few moments.
6. Stasis sickness. Persists for up to an hour or until medically treated.
7. Stasis sickness. Persists for up to a week or until medically treated.
8. Your body is left-right mirrored.
9. Your birthday and all records of it shifts by one day in either direction.
10. Your name has changed, though all memories and records of it have changed along with it.
11. You are ever-so-slightly taller or shorter and none of your clothes fit quite right.
12. A random everyday object is now known by a completely different word than you are used to.
13. You are now fluent in an additional language, but you don’t know why you know it.
14. You feel an overwhelming sense of loneliness that won’t go away. Persists for up to a day or until your next jump.
15. You begin to hear whispers. Sometimes you can tell what they’re saying. Persists for up to a week or until your next jump.
16. You begin to have terrible nightmares of alien geometries and fearful symmetries. Persists for up to a week or until your next jump.
17. You can no longer remember who you are or why you are traveling in space. Persists for 1d4 weeks or until your next jump.
18. You experience severe hallucinations and a detachment from reality. You can’t tell what is real and what is not. Lasts for 1d4 weeks or until your next jump.

Onboard your ship #

Space ships suffer from the same constraints that sailing ships and aircraft suffer from: space. Life aboard a spaceship is, even in the most luxurious ships, relatively cramped. Sleeping quarters are small, restrooms are shared, and water use is strictly rationed.

On board a space ship, space is the most valuable resource, and it is never wasted.

Carrying cargo #

By reducing the amount of space between subatomic particles, matter condensers allow ships to pack more and more cargo into the same amount of space. This allows crews to carry additional supplies for long voyages or to carry more freight without increasing the size and bulk of the ship itself. Condensing matter is strictly limited to non-living organisms, as living creatures immediately take 3d6 STR damage when condensed.

A basic, alpha-rated matter condenser allows your ship to hold 60 units of cargo. One unit of cargo is about one square meter of material.

Repairs + refueling #

Your beginning ship is outfitted with a positron drive, an alpha-rated jump drive, an alpha-rated matter condenser, and a cryochamber. It has 1d6 breech protection (BP), can hold 20 units of fuel, and can carry up to 60 units of cargo.

• If your ship reaches 0 BP, then any subsequent breech damage destroys it. Repairing BP costs 1,000 credits per point repaired along with a week spent in port.
• If your ship reaches 0 fuel, then you are adrift. Being towed back to port costs you 5,000 credits per unit of fuel consumed by the towing ship.
• Each unit of fuel normally costs 1,000 credits.

Upgrades #

You can upgrade the power of your jump drive and the capacity of your matter condenser by paying the listed cost and spending a week in port. You pay the cost for each step of each upgrade, though the actual modifications can be made at one time.

For example, if you were to upgrade your alpha-rated jump drive to a gamma-rated drive and move your delta-rated matter compressor to an epsilon-rated compressor, you would spend a total of 220,000 credits: 20k to move from the alpha to a beta drive, 40k more to move from the beta to a gamma drive, and 160k to move from the delta to an epsilon compressor.

When things go wrong #

If you travel through space long enough, things will eventually go wrong, and being prepared can mean the difference between life and death. So you’d better be prepared, spacefarer.

Adrift #

The biggest danger to any space traveler is running out of fuel. If you’re in a well-travelled part of a populous system, you’ll likely be able to summon a rescue ship to tow you back to port. However, if you’re on the outskirts of a system or, worse, between systems, it can take months for a rescue ship to reach you. If you ever find yourself adrift, assume you have 1d4 weeks of food and potable water left.

Electromagnetic pulses #

Alfajiri’s periodic stellar storms generate powerful electromagnetic pulses that propagate through the system at the speed of light. The gravitational fields of each planet largely protect creatures and systems on the surface, but anything in space is vulnerable to interference. When an EMP hits, any electronic system, including drones, robots, ships, and communications systems are rendered non-functional for 1d4 minutes.

Gravity waves #

Ships traveling at relativistic speeds occasionally leave a wake in the fabric of spacetime. An unexpected gravity wave can cause severe turbulence on board a ship. If caught unaware, the occupants of a ship hitting a gravity wave must make a DEX save or lose 1d4 STR from being jostled around.

Hull breech #

When your ship reaches 0 BP, the next instance of breech damage destroys it. Destruction doesn’t necessarily mean a spectacular explosion, however. It most commonly means a hull breech, in which all of the air onboard quickly and violently escapes. If you are near your vacuum suit when a hull breech occurs, you can make a DEX save to get inside it before you pass out from a lack of oxygen and your blood begins to boil from a lack of air pressure.

Quantum foam #

The barrier between hyperspace and the physical universe can be temporarily torn open when a ship uses its jump drive, letting a mixture of uncollapsed wave particles leak into our world. A patch of quantum foam is undetectable until you’re in the middle of it, at which point your senses are overwhelmed by the improbability of hyperspace. Any living creature not in cryosleep must make a CTRL save or lose 1d4 CTRL.

Space junk #

While dangerous objects in deep space are few and far between, planetary space is filled with all manner of micrometeorites, space junk, and rogue objects, each of which does d4 breech damage to a ship or person in their way.