Interstellar Travel Draft
Passenger travel between systems is priced by what you can pay — from working passage on a hauler to a luxury yacht. PCs each start with a free 3rd-class ticket to Thides they may take, upgrade, or trade down for cash. Ships carry transponders; fleet vessels ping unidentified hulls and can order inspections, and only the Federal Marshal Service codes a transponder legally.
World Rules
- Inter-system passenger travel takes many forms, priced by what the traveler will pay: working passage (e.g. maintenance hand on a cargo hauler), 3rd-class passage on a transport, an arranged berth as merchant marine on a cargo cruiser, up through luxury yacht travel.
- Every PC is offered, as part of their hire, a free 3rd-class ticket to the Thides system. Each player chooses: take it straight, leverage it toward better accommodations, or trade it down to a worse form of transport to pocket some extra cash.
- Every ship in traffic carries a transponder. Federal fleet vessels working a system's lanes ping any hull broadcasting no identification and can order it to submit for a transponder inspection on arrival. Blank transponders exist and fit a ship's system, but a transponder is only legal once coded by the Federal Marshal Service — which makes a properly coded one black-market currency serious enough to trade a kidnapping for.
Overview
Passenger travel between systems takes many forms, mostly decided by the credits you’re willing to offer. At the low end you hitch a ride as a working hand — say, maintenance crew on a cargo hauler; at the high end, a luxury yacht. In between sit the common options: 3rd-class passage on a transport, or an arranged job as merchant marine aboard a cargo cruiser.
Details
- Working passage — trade labor for a berth (maintenance hand, deckhand). Cheapest; least comfort.
- 3rd-class passage — the standard cheap ticket on a transport. The default PC fare.
- Merchant-marine berth — an arranged job aboard a cargo cruiser; passage in exchange for service.
- Luxury — chartered or yacht travel for those with the credits to spend.
Known transit times. The charted gate route from the Eris System to the Peric System takes six days in hyperspace (Eris-Peric Route). Confirmed Session 10. A blind vortex jump from the Peric System to the Katha System took four days. Confirmed Session 11.
Transponders and Fleet Enforcement
Every hull in a traffic lane is expected to be broadcasting. A Federal Republican Interstellar Fleet vessel — The Montgomery in the Eris System — pings an unidentified ship, accepts a transponder that comes on late, and politely orders an inspection on arrival. Blank transponders are a junkyard commodity (the House of Parts stocks them) and will run on a ship’s system, but only the Federal Marshal Service codes one legally. A properly coded transponder therefore trades on the black market at a price Roselyn Monroe set at one kidnapping. Confirmed Session 7.
Arrival Decision (Player-Facing)
As part of your hire, every character is given a free 3rd-class ticket to the Thides System. It’s up to you whether your character:
- Takes it straight — ride 3rd class, no fuss.
- Leverages it — put it toward better accommodations on the way in.
- Trades it down — swap for a worse form of transport and pocket the difference as extra cash.
- System lockdowns. A system under a Federal Republic military lockdown is closed to all traffic in and out, and may reopen with a mandatory search of every ship leaving it through a gate (The Katha Lockdown; see Politics and Citizenship). Confirmed Session 12.
Cross-Domain Links
- Federal Credits — passage is priced in credits; what form of money you carry shapes what you can buy en route.
- FTL and Hyperspace — the gates and lanes these passengers actually ride.
- Politics and Citizenship — the Marshal Service that codes transponders, and the forged IDs that get a crew past the checkpoints the transponder gets a ship past.
- Thides System — the destination, and (per MacMillian’s grip) a system whose traffic in and out is tightly controlled.