Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Rule Book

Interstellar Travel

Respitetne faCL that the advent of the galaxy-shrink-
Uing hyperdrive has made travel between stars
commonplace, the galaxy is still largely an unimag-
inably vast, empty void dotted here and there with
tiny islands of civilization. The distances involved in
space travel are much larger than those on a planet's
surface. Where a trip of a thousand kilometers over-
land is considered quite long on a planet, traveling
the same distance into space from the surface barely
takes a ship into orbit. On the other hand, a trip of
hundreds of thousands of kilometers, from a planet to
its moon for example, can be considered a short hop.

When traveling aboard a starship, there are two types
of travel: sublight travel and hyperspace travel.

SUBLIGHT TRAVEL

Sublight travel happens in realspace while a ship is run-

ning under her sublight engines. Traveling from a planet's

surface to one of its moons or flying between planets

in the same system are trips that are undertaken at

sublight speeds. These journeys are measured by the

hundreds of thousands and millions of kilometers, and

even at the incredible speeds at which starships travel

in realspace can require many days to complete. Table

7-12: Sublight Travel Times presents a number of

examples of rough travel distances and times to help

both the Came Master and the players estimate the

length of time of their trip and plan accordingly. These

are simply guidelines, however, and should not be taken

as hard fact. There are any number of obstacles or ex-

tenuating circumstances that could shorten or lengthen

a trip, from exceedingly heavy traffic to a freak meteor

shower to the appearance of an Imperial fleet in orbit.

Ultimately, the Game Master should remember that the

exact length of any trip at sublight speeds is left to his

discretion and such movement happens, essentially, at

whatever speed the plot requires.

Trip Time Example

5-15 minutes Time needed to fly from a planet'ssafe hyperspace jump distance. orbit to a

30-90 minutes Time needed to fly from a planet's surface to one of its moons.

6-1 2 hours

Time needed to fly from one planet to

another within the same star system. This

time varies a great deal depending on the

relative position of the planets in question,

and any stellar phenomena between them

12-72 hours

Time needed to fly from the center of a

star system to its furthest limits. Again, this

time varies greatly depending on the size

of the system and any obstacles or stellar

phenomena encountered along the way.

HYPERSPACE TRAVEL

Whereas sublight travel is how ships move between the

planets of a single star system, hyperspace travel is how

they travel between the stars themselves. Essentially

another dimension accessed through the fantastic tech-

nology of the hyperdrive, hyperspace allows starships to

travel at many times the speed of light, shortening a trip

that would take thousands of years at sublight speeds

to a handful of days or weeks. Although it is a mature

technology and ships travel relatively stable hyperspace

routes that are updated constantly, traveling through hy-

perspace is still a dangerous proposition.

Although it has been studied and scrutinized for as

long as the sentient spacefaring races have used it, the

exact nature of hyperspace remains a mystery. What

is known about it is that hyperspace is essentially an

alternate dimension that exists conterminously with re-

alspace. This means that anything traveling through hy-

perspace is traveling the same direction in realspace. It

is this conterminous nature that allows for the mapping

of hyperspace and the establishment of hyperspace

routes. The relationship between objects in realspace

and their reflection in hyperspace is well documented.

Objects, especially large objects with powerful gravity

like planets and stars, cast a shadow in hyperspace,

and thus they exist in both planes at once. For exam-

ple, if a star exists at a certain location, its reflection

exists in the same location in hyperspace. The hyper-

space shadows possess the same mass and gravity in

hyperspace as the objects that cast them possess in

realspace. For all intents and purposes, they physically

exist in hyperspace and present a serious and concrete

obstacle in both planes.

Due to the existence of hyperspace shadows, there

is no straight, fixed hyperspace route from one end of

the galaxy to another. Ships moving through hyper-

space must navigate around these obstacles as they

do in realspace. This is why fixed, well-established

hyperspace routes exist between major population

centers in the galaxy, although fixed is a relative term

due to the fact that the galaxy is constantly in motion

and, therefore, so are its hyperspace lanes.

Navigating even the most well documented hyper-

space route entails a raft of incredibly complex calcu-

lations, which are largely handled by a ship's navicom-

puter. Although the navicomputer does the bulk of

the work, a ship's captain or, in those ships large or

lucky enough to have one, its astrogator, still needs to

enter coordinates and double-check the computer's

final calculations. Under ideal conditions, this requires

an Easy (^) Astrogation check Conditions are rare-

ly ideal for those living on the fringes of the galaxy,

STARSHIPS AND VEHICLES

'EDGE OF THE EMPIRE

TABLE 7-12: SUBLIGHT TRAVEL TIMES