Dark Stars: Transitional Space
In the world
of Dark Stars all faster than light travel comes from the use of the
Transitional Drive, while all local system travel uses Foldspace Engines, a
form of localized warp drive. Mechanically any vehicle can be equipped with
both drives; the technology for transitional drives is proportionate to the
size of the vehicle moving through transitional space, so there is actually a
diminishing return with larger vessels….but sometimes, the need is worth it,
and most naval fleets in the Dark Stars universe are comprised of immense
dreadnaughts and battle cruisers primarily so they can carry the necessary
firepower to punch through the shields and armor of their opposition.
Transitional
space (also called T-Space) is the term used to described folded dimensions through which ships “travel”
when the drive is on. From a physics view it effectively wraps the vessel in
higher-dimensional space (of 26 possible dimensions, most of which are folded
in on themselves at a quantum level) allowing it to move outside of the normal
spacetime continuum. In transitional space starships can move over vast
distances, averaging one parsec (3.26 light years) for a class I T-drive, while
avoiding problems with relativity.
There are
only a couple downsides to T-Space travel: the first is that these dimensions
are where gravitons operate, creating gravity waves in normal spacetime (see
navigation below), so large gravity wells are really, really dangerous in
T-Space. The second problem is more
difficult and more dangerous: T-Space is where nonbaryonic matter (dark matter)
interacts with regular matter, and is where gravitons also interact with said matter,
leaving dark matter’s weird “footprint” all over normal spacetime. Nonbaryonic
lifeforms….some very cunning, intelligent and organized are out there, and they
really, really don’t like us using their space for fast travel; especially
since they can’t do the reverse. While in T-Space this is the only time
nonbaryonic beings and normal beings can interact.
Foldspace Drives
All ships
have foldspace engines, which are used for routine in-system navigation.
Foldspace effectively creates a localized warp bubble around the ship, pushing
it forward in the direction the ship wants to go. It has two huge benefits: it
lets ships move quickly in-system, reaching most locations in hours or less,
with low energy cost, and no relativity issues; 2: it helps to avoid the
problem of moving at high velocities with sudden evasive movement causing
terminal results for the squishy crew inside; to a ship in foldspace the ship
is motionless, and the universe is moving around them. All ships still use
artificial gravity (graviton generators) and inertial dampeners….but the risk
of death due to high-gee maneuvers is space is severely lessened. GMs may rule
that on a natural 20 in ship combat an attacker can roll a second time…and if a
second 20 comes up, and damage is dealt, then the targeted vessel’s foldspace
drive is knocked out. Such ships are sitting ducks.
Foldspace
can be used for FTL travel, by the way; but it doesn’t allow for anything close
to the speed of T-Drives; a ship moving at foldspace speeds can traverse 1
parsec in approximately 3 years. Very, very large foldspace engines with
immense energy requirements can do the job faster, but are highly impractical.
Ships with old foldspace technology used for FTL travel usually date back to
the old human colonization era nearly 1,500 years ago and are considered
bizarre relics.
FTL Drive Types
FTL drives
in Dark Stars come in six ranks. A rank 6 T-Drive is the slowest (but cheapest)
costing only 100 extra credits to install on a ship without a drive, or free if
the ship comes preloaded with FTL. A Type 6 drive takes one week to traverse a single
parsec. Other drives are faster, and cost more as follows:
Drive Type Cost Speed
Type 6 100 1 parsec/week
Type 5 200 1
parsec/5 days
Type 4 500 1 parsec/4 days
Type 3 1,000 1 parsec/3 days
Type 2 2,000 1 parsec/2
days
Type 1 5,000 1 parsec/day
Type 0* special 1 parsec/hour!
*Type 0 are
hypothetical drives; a few alien relic ships are known to have them but no one
currently knows how to make one this effective. Type 0 are good found tech, but
navigating with such fast engines always imposes a -2 navigational penalty (see
below)
Navigational Hazards
Navigational
hazards while folded within higher dimensional space are just as important to
consider, and some navigational issues (such as black holes) have a severely
pronounced effect while moving through transitional space, due to the fact that
graviton particles, which are responsible for gravity waves in normal
spacetime, propagate rapidly through the higher dimensional spaces.
This means
that any ship which moving at FTL speeds in Dark Stars needs to make a
navigational check to see how smooth the ride goes. Pilots (and any pilot-based
class, or class with some sort of pilot ability or skill) can make a saving
throw with a +2 bonus when rolling to plot an FTL course. Other characters
attempting to pilot without special skill or class abilities get no bonus. If
the region the ship is moving through has significant stellar anomalies (such
as strange special distortions, black holes, wormholes or dense star clusters)
the GM should apply a penalty of -2 to -5.
Familiarity Option: pilots on a routine course, which is already charted in their astrogation system, do not need to make a roll; GM instead rolls a D20; on a 17-20 something unusual could happen, and the pilot must make a roll.
After making
the roll, check the following table for the result (target save is the TS of
the pilot; modifiers are applied to the die roll):
Navigational Save
Roll Was: Result
Natural 1 Meltdown!
Ship suffers a catastrophic navigational or engine failure
5 or less than
target save major setback;
ship knocked out of T-Space and must spend 1D6 days recalculating route; 20%
chance ship took 3D6 hull damage
3-4 less than
target save minor setback;
ship knocked out of T-Space and spends 1D6 hours recalculating route; 20%
chance ship took 1D6 hull damage
1-2 less than
target save longer trip;
ship took 1D4 times longer than normal to arrive at destination
Save target
exactly Smooth
sailing, no bumps
1-2 more than
target save Smooth sailing, no
bumps. 30% chance ship arrived 20% faster than calculated
3-4 more
than target save very smooth
sailing; ship arrived 20% faster than intended
5 or more
than target save amazing
navigational skills; ship arrives in half the time
Natural 20 Ship
arrives very fast; takes only 1D4 hours for every day of actual travel planned!
Navigational Failure (Fumbles) Chart:
Roll 1D12: Result
1-2 ship
has catastrophic engine failure and dumps out in normal space; engine takes 3D8
damage and requires as many hours to repair
3-4 ship
is attacked by mysterious extradimensional space aliens made of nonbaryonic
matter! Emergency dump into normal space will evade but a new ST must be made
to avoid engine failure requiring 1D12 hours to repair and 2D6 damage
5-6 Engine
failure but ship does not eject into normal space! Requires 1D6 hours to repair,
but ship will continue in a straight line direction with 20% chance per hour of
the following (D6):
1-2: catastrophic navigational failure
(black hole); only escape pods will save everyone now
3-4: nonbaryonic aliens attack (see
3-4 above)
5: psionic warping occurs while
trapped; ST per hour remaining or insanity and hallucinations begin to set in
causing psychotic behavior for 1D12 hours
6: A stellar dragon moving through
T-Space attacks while ship is trapped
7-8 Ship
takes 10 times longer to arrive at destination than intended in real space, but
crew feels like they arrived in the expected normal time.
9-10 Ship
accidentally navigates in to a wormhole and the following happens (1D6):
1:
wormhole drops ship back in time to period that most entertains the GM; PCs
have to find the exit point to return to normal time
2:
wormhole drops the ship forward in time 1D20X1,000 years
3:
wormhole deposits PCs in distant remote location nowhere near their original
destination
4:
wormhole traps the ship in a strange parallel universe; goatees may be involved
5:
wormhole ejects the PCs into normal space but ship is covered in strange alien
parasites
6:
wormhole causes PCs to meet alternate universe version of themselves! Only one
ship may remain to escape wormhole…
11 Ship
suffers a catastrophic navigational hazard collision; a ST from pilot will
cause ship to lose 80% of hull points but escape collision intact; failure
means ship is a scrub and PCs have 1D6 minutes to escape via other craft or
force an emergency drop into normal space before ship is annihilated. Collision
is with a major gravity well of the following type (D6):
1-2:
black hole
3:
neutron star
4:
quasar
5:
timespace rip
6:
unknown timespace anomaly
12 Roll
twice on the chart for two horrible events combined; if you get this a second
time, hard soul GMs may declare the ship is lost in the Space Bermuda Triangle,
otherwise the ship has a Unique Encounter (D6):
1:
ship is propelled back and forth in time, watching the birth, life, heat death
of the universe and a new big bang all over again; a new navigational check
will allow the pilot to stabilize the ship in his “normal time” as well as
normal space…otherwise Time Lords may appear to right the problem as the ship
slingshots through time causing havoc
2:
the PCs actually seem to have a normal voyage but when they arrive they
discover that it is a million years in the future
3:
the PCs begin to evolve in real time, as their bodies mutate into strange and
horrifying monstrosities; is caused by (D4): 1-alien scientist from nonbaryonic
realm; 2-godlike energy being; 3-weird anomaly; 4-someone just awoke latent
psionic powers and T-Space is messing with it
4:
ship explodes, and continues to explode and repeat infinitely in a loop until a
PC makes a ST and is able to notice that they are caught in a time loop;
creative escape ideas allowed
5:
PCs arrive at destination like normal, but are missing time, and later scans
reveal they have been riddled with weird probe devices
6:
PCs black out on the voyage and when they awaken they are slaves of the (D4):
1-Void Lords, 2-Quinlons, 3-Grays, 4-advanced Xenomorphs of unknown nature!
Archaic Propulsion Systems
Early
stellar civilizations which have not yet discovered foldspace technology or
T-Drives are slow, require maneuvering that accounts for the gee forces applied
to crew, and frankly modern vessels can run rings around them. To reflect ships
that are using various conventional propulsion systems note the following:
Such ships
can reach high local speeds but usually require a lot of “break time” to make
course changes. For every 1 point of active speed the sip must spend 1 point to
course correct. So, as an example, a ship moving in a straight line at speed 12
that wants to reverse 180 degrees must spend 24 points to do so. Normal ships
don’t need to do this at all.
Normal ships
have a hard time tracking and locking on the faster vessels equipped with
foldspace technology. As a rule, such ships are at a base -2 penalty to attack
unless they have surprise.
