Starship Travel

Interstellar Travel

• A starship can travel up to a number of hexes equal to its drive rating each time it drills.
• Travel time between stars is 6 days per hex, divided by spike drive rating.
• Can "trim the course" to add +1 to the drive rating for purposes of travel time only (not hex range of drive). 
• To spike drill safely, a ship with a spike drive requires the following:
• Positon: In the "gravitic transition zone" of a star or black hole, where its gravity is present, but at its weakest (the outermost orbit of the solar system).
• With mods, can try to drill from elsewhere at great risk to the ship, and possibly to the departure point (p.109).
• Fuel: One load per full travel distance of drive (one load = 1 hex with drive-1, 2 hexes with drive-2, etc.). A ship carries 1 load of fuel, +1 load per Fuel Bunker fitting.
• Time:  30 minutes to enter metaspace safely. Can be rushed to 15 minutes (1 space combat round) at greater risk.
• Course record/"rutter": a report of metadimensional currents/energetic weather en route, as recent as possible.
• Commonly-traveled routes are freely available; frequent trade routes are usually only a few days old
• Can try to travel without one at extreme risk
• Pilot: Requires a "sentent-grade" intellect (human-level or advanced AI) to safely navigate the chaos and complexity of metadimensional space.
• INT/Pilot skill check vs. a difficulty of 7, modified per the "Spike Drills" table below.
• If the final difficulty is 6 or less, the trip is so safe and simple that the ship succeeds automatically.
• If the roll fails, roll 3d6 on the "Spike Drill Mishap" table below:

Travel Within a System

• Within a system, each place of interest and its satellite areas are considered one "region" of the system.
• Examples of regions: A planet and its moons; a pirate lair in an asteroid belt; a space station; a distress beacon;a ship detected deep in the system; a fortified system arrival zone; the transition zone at the rim of the system.
• Base travel time between two regions in a system is 48 hours. Base travel time within a single region is 6 hours. 
• Actual travel time equals base travel time divided by the ship's effective drive rating (no skill check is usually required).
• Can be faster at the GM's discretion
• Can "trim the course" to add +1 to the effective drive rating for travel time calculation (INT/Pilot check, difficulty 9)
• Failure on a roll to trim the course results in travel taking twice as long as usual

Sensors and Detection

• It's hard to spot a ship in deep space, but once a ship's energy signature is identified, it's easier to track. This positional fix is called a detection lock. A ship that's been locked by an observer can be tracked at any distance in the system. 
• Fixing a lock on a target requires the observer to be in the same region of space, and to spot it on their sensors
• The observer makes an opposed INT/Program skill check against the ship’s comms officer (see modifiers below)
• If the observer wins, they get a detection lock on the ship, and can continue to track it anywhere in the system
• If the observer loses or ties, they remain oblivious to the ship's presence and can try again in 24 hours
• The active sensors used to form a detection lock can be detected by the target; they know they’ve been made
• If the observing ship uses passive sensors, the lock is undetectable, but it’s more difficult to obtain
• When rolling for observation, only roll once for any given group, outpost, or planet, using the best modifiers available
• Thus, a battle squadron including a cruiser and 3 frigates uses the skill bonus and +2 modifier for the cruiser's crew
• A separate pirate ship in the same region would roll as well, because they’re a separate force in the region. To break a lock, the ship must leave the region, and then the observer and ship repeat their opposed skill check
• If the observer wins, they continue to track the ship, while tie or loss means the ship slips the lock
• Observers in the new region can try to pick up the ship immediately and then once every 24 hours

Pursuit and Escape

• A pursuer must be in the same region of space and must have a detection lock. Of course, if the pursued lacks a detection lock on the pursuer, they’ll have no idea that they’re being chased.
• Both ships make opposed INT/Pilot skill checks, each adding their spike drive rating to the roll.
• If the pursuer wins or ties, they force an engagement and the ships are moved into combat range.
• If the pursued ship wins, it gets six hours of distance, modified by any difference in spike drive ratings.(Thus a drive-1 ship being chased by a drive-2 ship would have three hours, for example.)
• Pursued ship's pilot can try to speed things up by trimming the course.
• Instead of following, the pursuer can head to a different region if it thinks it knows where the ship is running. If they can keep detection lock when pursued ship crosses the sub-stellar border, they can end up close on their prey’s heels.