Astrogation: plotting new routes

[worfbacca]

Any official or house rules on plotting new hyperspace routes?
_________________
"That was left handed!"

[garhkal]

Even the scouts book lacks info on that.
For me, i generally make the astrogation difficulty rather high usually setting it in the higher Very Difficult level or heroic. And i make them periodically drop out of hyperspace, to scan their whereabouts.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Savar]

Read something about micro jumping to your destination to plot longer jumps.

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

Maybe scout ships could be equipped with a dedicated Pathfinder drive that replaces the Backup.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Scout/Survey Hyperdrive
Model: Incom Pathfinder-Type Exploration Hyperdrive
Cost: 10,000 credits plus installation costs
Weight: 10 metric tons (replaces Backup Hyperdrive)
Availability: 3
Hyperdrive Modifier: x6
Notes:
-Designed for efficient operations at low speeds. Reduce consumption of Consumables by 50% when using this drive.
-In game terms, the drive's sensor rating is Search 2 (rounds)/2D.
Capsule:
All hyperdrives are equipped with a dedicated Crystal Grav-Field Trap sensor that scans space immediately ahead along the ship's flight path, looking out for mass shadows that indicate the presence of dangerous obstacles. These sensors are relatively basic, scanning only a few seconds ahead (2 rounds, modified by the ship's hyperdrive modifier). This is generally just enough time to engage the drive's automatic cut-out before the ship crashes into the mass shadow and is destroyed.

A Scout/Survey Drive, however, takes a different approach. Equipped with a small cluster of Crystal Grav-Field Traps, it integrates with the ship's onboard sensors, allowing for more in-depth analysis of detected mass shadows. In addition, because of the drive's slow speed, the ship's crew can detect mass shadows as much as a minute away (2 rounds @ x6 = 12 rounds), time in which the scout ship's crew can get a basic read on the nature of the mass shadow (stellar object, planet, artificial, etc.) it is approaching, and plan accordingly.

In addition, the sensor will also detect the presence of mass shadows that the ship will pass nearby that are not of sufficient strength to engage the ship's hyperdrive cut-out. Getting a sensor read on such mass shadows is more difficult than analyzing mass shadows directly in the ship's path (+5), but it can alert the crew to new and previously unknown phenomenon that would otherwise have passed blindly by, and that can be very useful to a scout.

Obviously, at such slow speeds, a ship operating on a scout/survey drive will not go anywhere quickly, and the ship's crew will often spend lots of time focusing on other activities (training, etc). However, the drive is much safer to use when operating outside of known hyperspace lanes, and also gives the ship's crew a basic ability to sense the universe around them even while in hyperspace.

For obvious reasons, scout/survey drives have also become popular with smugglers, who use the drive's early warning capability to detect and avoid naval interdictions and blockades.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Kytross]

Plotting the course is simple. The location of the stars are known, how they move is dictated by Newtonian mechanics. Plotting the course is merely applied mathematics. The difficult part is all the things that can't be seen from lightyears away.

Rocks, rogue planets, gravity fluctuations, eddies in hyperspace, there are a thousand ways to be pulled out of hyperspace and stranded. You're traveling multiple times the speed of light and you hit a big enough dirt particle. Force still equals mass times acceleration.

Anyway, charted courses are all but guaranteed to be free of these obstacles.

[Whill]

Glad to see you guys are batting this around. I've had an idea for a PC template, Hyperspace Scout, and plotting new hyperspace courses would be their job, or at least background.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

So perhaps a new form of sensors could be made specifically for astrogation scouts.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]