What Can I Run Into Once I Get There?
What Can I Run Into Once I Get There?
Passing Time on Trips
Interstellar journeys can take hours, days… even weeks. Since the ship's computers handle most routine functions, crew members and passengers often have few responsibilities.
Luxury liners provide a wide variety of entertainment: gourmet meals, music, dancing, holo-shows, and even theatrical performances. Ship personnel often spend time studying astrogation and other vital skills. Others pursue hobbies such as model building, playing games, reading, or gambling.
Smaller ships are another story. Being cooped up in a cramped freighter for days at a time takes its toll even on the closest of friends. The autochef's food may be nutritious, but there's only so long people can tolerate three square meals a day of white, pasty, flavorless "autochef surprise." Ships' computers may carry holonovels, games, and other pre-recorded entertainment, but these libraries are usually limited to whatever the captain and crew personally enjoy.
In play, you can often skip over the trip and cut to when the ship emerges into realspace and closes in on its destination.
Trips can also be used to good effect. The characters might meet interesting people aboard a cruise liner: • "You run into this fellow, Dram Parkins, at a sabacc game." • "One night you are invited to dine at the Captain's table and strike up a conversation with a kindly-looking old alien."
You can plant rumors or news the players will find useful: • "Shipboard scuttlebutt says there are pirates out toward the Alderaan system."
You can even stage a major encounter aboard ship: an Imperial spy, a pirate attack, or the characters stumbling onto an illicit cargo.
Arriving Insystem
When a ship arrives insystem, it relies on two key systems: • Sensors • Communications
Sensor Modes (Typical Listing)
• Scan: 25/1D
• Search: 40/2D
• Focus: 1/3D
Starship sensors have four possible modes: passive, scan, search, and focus. Each mode lists two numbers (for example, 6/0D): • The first number is the sensor's range in space units (used in starship battles). • The second number is the die code bonus added to the operator's sensors skill.
Passive mode sensors only receive information about the ship's immediate vicinity.
Scan mode sends out pulses in all directions to gather information about the environment. Scan ranges are greater than passive ranges, and the die code bonuses are higher.
Search mode scans one specific fire arc (front, left, right, or back). Search ranges are greater than scan ranges and bonuses are higher, but the sensors receive no information about the other three arcs.
Focus mode concentrates on a very small portion of a specific area. The number listed is the radius (in units) of the focus area. The maximum focus range is the same as the maximum search range. Focus gathers a lot of information about a tiny area, but nothing about areas outside that focus.
Typical passive listing: • Passive: 15/0D
Sensor Countermeasures
Ships can use several countermeasures to make themselves harder to detect: • Hide behind a large body: Since sensors are essentially "line of sight," a ship can hide behind a planet or other sufficiently large object. (Sensors may still detect strong energy emissions.) • Use passive sensors: A ship set to passive is less likely to be detected than one using scan, search, or focus. • Run silent: Power down major systems (engines, weapons, shields) and drift with only life support on limited power. Ships can seldom run silent longer than five minutes before life support must be shut down for lack of power. Running silent greatly improves stealth at long distances. • Jam sensors: Flood the area with "static." Nearby vessels will likely detect the jamming, but it becomes difficult to tell whether it's caused by a freighter… a Star Destroyer… or an entire fleet.
Some ships also carry dedicated devices, usually listed in their sensor statistics: • Sensor decoys: Pods or shuttles that duplicate the launching ship's sensor "image," creating two identical contacts. • Sensor masks: Conceal emissions. When activated, add a number of dice to the difficulty to detect the ship.
Sensors (Using Them)
Starships carry sensors to detect other ships, planets, and hazards; the sensor operator uses the sensors skill.
Sensor difficulty numbers are based on range and modified by conditions that affect readings. It's much easier to detect a ship in open space than to find one hiding in an asteroid belt. (See the sensors description in Chapter Three, "Attributes and Skills," for complete information.)
Communications
Starships usually have several communications systems (explained fully in "The Galaxy"). Communications systems only work in realspace—none operate while a ship is in hyperspace. • HoloNet Transceivers: Rare, extremely expensive, and power-hungry. Typically found only on high-level military vessels. • Hypertransceivers: Usually reserved for military vessels and large private starships; too expensive for most freighters and require substantial power. • Subspace Transceivers: Most ships have subspace transceivers for near real-time communication. Many vessels carry short-range units (for example, an X-wing's max range is 25 light years). With enough power, signals can be boosted to 100 light years or more. Also used for distress calls. • Comms (speed-of-light): Standard ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet communication. Starports broadcast METOSP ("Message to Spacers") on preset channels with landing protocols, traffic patterns, and conditions. • Intercomms: Onboard systems for communication between ship sections.
Communication Frequencies
It's extremely difficult to locate a transmission without knowing its frequency—there are billions of possible comm and subspace frequencies.
There are established military and government bands for the Old Republic, Empire, and New Republic, plus "secret" encrypted frequencies for secured messages. Local governments regulate civilian, business, emergency, and military bands. Groups may use unauthorized frequencies for covert communications.
Encounters in Space
While every captain hopes for a smooth run to the destination system, it's not always that simple. Hostile forces and unpredictable conditions mean most starships mount at least a laser cannon or two for protection. A hyperdrive misjump can even dump a ship into an unexplored system.
Here are some possible encounters: • Pirates: Despite the best efforts of authorities, pirates remain a threat. They lurk in remote regions of populated systems—or "block" hyperspace routes with asteroids and large masses to force ships into realspace, then swoop in. Pirates are usually businesslike; atrocities are rare, though kidnapping for ransom happens. • During the Empire, piracy is punished harshly: pirate ships are destroyed when found, and piracy often carries the death penalty. • The Rebellion and some alien governments issue letters of marque and reprisal, authorizing privateers to prey on enemy shipping. The Empire makes no distinction between pirates and privateers. • Slavers: Among the most brutal criminals, slavers traffic in sentient beings. Their trade is profitable in the underworld and on remote worlds. During the Empire, slavery was sometimes even encouraged; species such as Wookiees and Mon Calamari were openly bought and sold. • Imperial Patrols: The Imperial Navy garrisons many worlds and customs officials can appear without warning. Interdictor cruisers can create gravity wells to yank ships from hyperspace for inspection. The Empire claims the right to halt, board, and search any ship—often unpleasantly. Abuse is checked only by the death penalty for corruption, though "anti-Rebel" brutality is widely tolerated. • Republic/Rebel/New Republic Patrols: • The Republic Navy conducted patrols for illegal cargoes and Separatist activity; officials sometimes expect bribes. • During the civil war, Rebel patrols used hit-and-fade raids to disable and capture Imperial freighters. • After the Empire, New Republic patrols are generally more honest, but some officials—especially from provincial worlds—still expect bribes. • Aliens: Many alien governments maintain patrol fleets, and unknown civilizations exist beyond major borders. A misjump into unexplored space may lead to contact with unfamiliar—and possibly hostile—ships. • Traders and Smugglers: The spacelanes are full of freighters, haulers, and liners. Some are smugglers. Encounters can provide information (or misinformation), job leads, or news about the destination. • Natural Hazards: Gas clouds, rogue planetoids, asteroid fields, and strange energy storms can disrupt travel. Some lifeforms survive in vacuum, including mynocks and space slugs. Hazards may force a drop to realspace or trigger a hyperdrive mishap—often a great adventure hook. • Unexplored Systems: These may hold alien civilizations, rich mineral deposits, lost caches of technology, artifacts, or forgotten colonies.
Source: REUP:125