Astrogation Rules | Draco Galaxy

Star Wars 3 rd Edition Astrogation Rules

Hyperdrives

Hyperdrives propel starships into an alternate dimension known as hyperspace, where it's possible to travel at many times the speed of light. Ships in hyperspace can cross the incredible distances between stars in a few weeks, days or even hours. When a ship jumps to lightspeed, the hyperdrive motivator engages the hyperdrive. The ship rapidly accelerates to and beyond the speed of light while the ship crosses into hyperspace. (When a hyperdrive is deactivated, the ship automatically returns to realspace at the speed it had before the jump to lightspeed.) Hyperspace is coterminous with realspace — if you head north in hyperspace, you are also heading north in realspace. Objects in realspace have a hyperspace shadow — a presence in hyperspace at the same location. This means that there's an inherent danger in traveling through hyperspace. Contact with an object's hyperspace shadow results in the instant destruction of the ship. (The

object in realspace remains undisturbed.) Starships have "mass shadow sensors" to detect hyperspace shadows and shut down the hyperdrive to avoid collision, although these systems are not entirely reliable. While deep space collisions are very rare, they also tend to be quite deadly. Astrogators must plot safe paths around interstellar debris. Due to the incredible speeds achieved in hyperspace, the margin between safe passage and a collision is often only microseconds.

Nav Computers

To handle the overwhelming complexities of calculating hyperspace trips, most ships are equipped with navigation computers ("navicomputers" or "nav computers" for short).

A ship's astrogator uses the nav computer to plot a safe trip along known hyperspace routes. Nav computers hold a tremendous amount of data, storing the coordinates for hyperspace routes and the locations of stars, planets, debris, gravity wells, asteroid fields, gas clouds and other hazards. Ships without nav computers often use astromech droids--- such as R2 units — to store astrogation coordinates.

(Pilots can try to make hyperspace jumps without navigation coordinates, but this is an incredibly risky proposition.)

Hyperspace Routes

"Hyperspace routes" are established paths through hyperspace linking major planets, just as roads link major settlements on planets. These routes are known to be safe, allowing ships to reach exceptional speeds. As a route becomes well-known and its hazards are better understood, hyperspace journeys can be plotted with more precision at faster speeds: eventually, travel times between specific planets may actually decrease. Travel times can increase, as well, if obstacles drift into the hyperspace route. In general, the greater the physical distance between planets, the longer the journey in hyperspace takes. However, even systems that are in close proximity to one another may require roundabout hyperspace routes because of debris and other hazards.

(Caution is always called for: the positions of over 90 percent of the objects in realspace are unknown. The hyperspace shadow of anything larger than a boulder can destroy

a ship, and there are countless such things drifting undiscovered in deep space. There is always a slim chance that something has drifted into a hyperspace route.) Brave pilots may plot new routes in hyperspace, but this can be extremely dangerous. Scouts often use a series of very short micro-jumps, scanning ahead prior to each jump, eventually reaching a system after dozens of such jumps. This is a time-consuming, painstaking process, but it is much safer than "blind jumping" into unexplored space. Due to the complexity of astrogation coordinates, it's virtually suicidal to try to change course while in hyperspace. It's much safer for a ship to drop back to realspace to calculate a new hyperspace course. Note, a planned drop out of Hyperspace to realspace is different than a unplanned drop out of Hyper space. Unplanned drops require the astrogator to determine his ship's current position and then compute hyperspace coordinates. Planned drops out of hyperspace follow the regular rules.

Hyperdrive Multipliers

A hyperdrive is ranked by a "class," or hyperdrive multiplier. The lower the multiplier, the faster the drive. Most civilian ships have a Class Two (x2) or higher hyperdrive. Many military vessels and starfighters have a Class One (xl) hyperdrive, which is twice as fast as a Class Two drive. The Millennium Falcon has a Class 0.5 (xl/2) hyperdrive, making it one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. Class of a hyperdrive is determined by how good a navigation computer the ship has, how efficient the hyperdrive is, how good the nav data is, and how good the navigator is. Each hyperspace route or journey has a duration. Multiply the duration by the ship's hyperdrive multiplier to find out how long it takes the ship to reach the destination. (The "Astrogation Gazetteer" lists travel times between many planets.)

Example: The freighter Thannik's Thunder has a hyperdrive multiplier of x2. A trip from Tatooine to Bespin has a duration of 16 hours; it would take Thannik's Thunder32 hours to reach Bespin. A ship with a hyperdrive modifier of xl would only need 16 hours to reach Bespin. If the Millennium Falcon was making the same trip, its xl/2 hyperdrive means that it could reach Bespin in eight hours.

Hyperdrive Backup

Many ships have a backup hyperdrive. While very slow — some backup drives are x10,

xl5 or even higher — they can be used to limp to the nearest spaceport if the main hyperdrive is disabled.

Using Hyperdrives in the Game

Three things happen when a character wants to travel to a different system:

• Pick the astrogation difficulty number.

• Make calculations for the jump to hyperspace.

• Determine the trip's duration.

Pick the Astrogation Difficulty Number

The astrogation difficulty can range from Very Easy to Heroic. Most trips have a base difficulty of Moderate, but difficulties can be much lower for easy trips (such as an Easy difficulty for a trip from Coruscant to Chandrila) or much higher for particularly perilous

routes. For example, the Kessel Run requires at least five Very Difficult astrogation rolls due to the presence of the Maw Cluster, a conglomeration of black holes and gas clouds.

Here are some astrogation modifiers:

Astrogation Modifiers

Modifier:	Situation:
+30	No navigation computer or astromech droid
Double difficulty	Hasty entry (see "Make Calculations for the Jump to Hyperspace")
+5	Lightly damaged ship
+ 10	Heavily damaged ship
-1	Each extra hour taken on journey*
+ 1	Each hour saved on journey**
+ 1-30 or more	Obstacles
+12	Micro Jump (moderate difficulty normally)
+15	Data up to 1 day old
+20	Data up to 1 week old (5 days)
+25	Data up to 1 month old (35 days)
+30	Data up to 1 year old (368 days)
+35	Data older than 1 year

* Characters can lower their astrogation difficulties: reduce the difficulty number by one for each extra hour added to the trip.

**Characters can also plot faster routes—making the trip shorter — by adding one to the difficulty number for each hour saved.

The navigator can also use data from a previous trip there. Modifiers apply based on how old that information is.

The starport that the ship is starting from and the port it is going to can also affect the Astrogation difficulty. Use the Following charts.

Starting Port

Imperial Class	Very Easy
Stellar Class	Easy
Standard Class	Moderate
Limited Services	Difficult
Landing Field	Very Difficult
No Starport	Heroic

Destination Port

Imperial Class	0
Stellar Class	+2
Standard Class	+5
Limited Services	+10
Landing Field	+15
No Starport	+20

Example: Rhen is astrogating for a trip from Tatooine to Bespin. The trip will take 32 hours (remember Thannik's Thunder's outdated x2 hyperdrive) and the difficulty number is 12 (a Moderate difficulty). Rhen decides she wants to reduce the difficulty number. She's willing to add five hours to the trip — now the trip takes 37 hours — but the difficulty number is only a 7. Later, Thannik's Thunder is racing back to Tatooine from Bespin. This time, Rhen's in a hurry: she wants to save 10 hours from the trip's duration, so Thannik's Thunder gets to Tatooine in 22 hours. Unfortunately, Rhen's astrogation difficulty increases by 10: her new difficulty number is 22. If the character's astrogation roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty number, the hyperspace trip goes off without a hitch. If the character misses the difficulty number by 10 or more points, the ship cannot enter hyperspace and a new astrogation roll must be made. If the roll misses the difficulty number by 1-9 points, the ship suffers an "astrogation mishap."

Roll 2D for Effect

2 Hyperdrive cut-out and damaged: Moderate starfighter, space transport, capital ship repair roll required.

3-4 Radiation fluctuations: Increase travel time by +1D hours per point roll is missed by

5-6 Hyperdrive cut-out: The ship emerges from hyperspace somewhere along the route travelled. This will still require the hyperdrive and nav-computer to be re-calibrated.

7-8 Off course: Ship emerges in wrong system. If the ship wishes to leave the system, it will be necessary to re-calibrate the nav-computer and hyperdrive before a new course may be plotted.

9 Mynocks: Increase journeyï¿½s duration by 1D days. This effect will continue, if the mynocks are not removed.

10-11 On-board System Malfunction: Any number of ships systems are damaged as a result of the mishap. 1D systems are damaged. The systems damaged is up to the GM.

12 Collision: The ship collides with an object, and receives 10D damage.

Make Calculations for the Jump to Hyperspace

A character making an astrogation roll needs to make calculations for the jump to hyperspace. Calculating a route takes one minute if the character is using a well-travelled route or is using precalculated coordinates. (In emergencies, a character can try to jump into hyperspace in one round instead of one minute. The astrogation difficulty is doubled and the character rolls each round until he either beats the difficulty number or suffers an astrogation mishap.) Calculating a route between known systems takes about half an hour: Many freighter captains calculate coordinates while still at the spaceport so they can make a jump quickly if they're attacked by pirates. These calculations take a few hours if the ship has never jumped to the destination system before. If the character doesn't know where he is (if the ship misjumps), it takes one day to determine his ship's

current position and then compute hyperspace coordinates.

Determine the Trip's Duration

Trips between systems have "standard durations": this is how long it takes a ship with a xl hyperdrive to travel from one system to the other. (The "Astrogation Gazetteer" lists

some sample durations.) If the characters are visiting other systems, you must pick a standard duration. Tell the players the duration, since they can try to speed up their trip (with a higher astrogation difficulty), or they may decide to take longer to reduce the astrogation difficulty.

Astrogation Duration

Major Trade Route	No change
Commonly traveled route	+10%
Lightly traveled route	+25%
Infrequently traveled route	+50%
Route not traveled in several years	+100%
Never traveled route before	+150%

Other Travel Time Rules of Thumb

Within a sector	A few hours to a few days
Within a region	A few hours to a few days
Nearby region	Several days to weeks
Across the Galaxy	Several weeks to several months*

*This is assuming one long jump. By breaking the trip into several hops a good astrogator can shorten the travel time.

You'll probably find it helpful to keep notes so you can use consistent durations when the characters travel between systems. These numbers can change during the game: the duration decreases as a route is more heavily traveled, and it can increase if a rogue planet or other hazard drifts into the route.

Micro Jump

A micro-jump is a jump into hyperspace over a very short distance, often within a single star system. The pilot of a starship launches into hyperspace and allows a planet's gravity to pull it back out or jump to certain coordinates, usually just outside the system. Some pilots utilize the gravity-well generated by a gravity well projector to drop into an area, such as a battlezone. Anakin Skywalker used this to survive the Battle of Praesitlyn. Luke Skywalker used this tactic while battling the Yuuzhan Vong while defending Borleias. Micro-jumps are a moderate difficulty, plus any other modifiers.

Sources of Astrogation information

The Spacer's Information Manual, or SIM, is a 5,947-datapage document published by the Imperial Navy Bureau of Regulations and the Imperial Space Ministry. Spacers could purchase it for a nominal fee when they updated or renewed their flight certifications. (25 cr)

Starships at any spaceport can download the latest astrographic data via spaceport control (any era) or HoloNet. (Republic times) It simply requires a current captain's license, ship's operation license, and 150cr.

300cr and a moderate (15) streetwise roll will get you astrographic data via illegal channels.

You could also try to slice spaceport computers and get the information. Very Difficult (25) Comp Prog roll.

Rules of thumb for information on certain regions:

Outer Rim data- generally info is less than 1 month old

Other regions are less than 1 week old

Routes in same sector Less than 1 day old

No data available for deep core, unknown regions, wild space, classified installations and any planet without a certified spaceport. (Standard or higher quality)

Regional Chart for moving from region to region.

	Deep Core	Core	Colonies	Inner Rim	Expansion Region	Mid Rim	Outer Rim
Deep Core	--	+8h / +16h	+16h / +32h	+24h / +48h	+34h / +68h	+48h / +96h	+60h / +120h
Core	+8h / +16h	--	+4h / +8h	+6h / +12h	+10h / +20h	+16h / +32h	+24h / +48h
Colonies	+16h / +32h	+4h / +8h	--	+4h / +8h	+6h / +12h	+10h / +20h	+16h / +32h
Inner Rim	+24h / +48h	+6h / +12h	+4h / +8h	--	+4h / +8h	+6h / +12h	+10h / +20h
Expansion Region	+34h / +68h	+10h / +20h	+6h / +12h	+4h / +8h	--	+4h / +8h	+6h / +12h
Mid Rim	+48h / +96h	+16h / +32h	+10h / +20h	+6h / +12h	+4h / +8h	--	+4h / +8h
Outer Rim	+60h / +120h	+24h / +48h	+16h / +32h	+10h / +20h	+6h / +12h	+4h / +8h	--