I am terrible at math.

So, now we've got that out of the way, can anyone help tell me how long it would take to travel from Bothawui, Bothan Sector, Bothan System, Mid Rim to Jovan III in the Giordian Reach?

I am really looking to find this information...

Well, by speed of plot seriously though, you could go with that, but of course even the plots need to be consistent, unless you're George Lucas (and a series of other poor storytellers within which ranks we GMs are not, of course, included ).

So, going by the CRB and the location of these two systems (R-14 and P-6 are the map coordinates), you have to decide whether this distance is "across the galaxy" or just "between regions", which means that using a Class 1 hyperdrive you're looking at somewhere between 3 days and 3 weeks, double that if using class 2 and so on.

Now you have to make a case for what distance category the journey fits. If going with "between regions" I'd say use the upper end, i.e. close to 1 week. If going by the "across the galaxy" I'd go for the lower end, which is... duh duh duuh! one week. The decision here could also be informed by how well planned the journey is, are they having any stops along the way for refuelling? What route are they using? The not so well travelled (but cheap to get hold of) roundabout way that stops by Boz Pity (S-9) and Quermia (S-5) before going more or less straight for Jovian III, this way avoiding customs a few places and the most pirate infested areas? or are they going by the major hyperspace lanes? For instance jumping on the Corellian Run from Druckenwell, changing lane (doh) to the Hydian Way somewhere in the Inner Rim and follow that all the way back to the Outer Rim?

I'd think the latter one above could be quicker than the former. It also depends if you allow direct course plotting, or if you need your crews to follow existing paths, hyperspace lanes and so on.

I'd probably put the travel time at around 1 week, give or take a few days before astrogation check and multiplication according to hyperdrive class. I'd give them two or three alternatives when it comes to what route to take, adjusting the difficulty with the travel time - and of course risks of pirates, customs, and so on; whatever fits the plot, campaign, group and your play style. Stops along the way could be used, for instance a three hour "flight" in dead space from one jump point to the next one, it's a quicker route, but with higher risk for pirates and other dangerous deep space phenomena.

Corellian Run from Druckenwell, changing lane (doh) to the Hydian Way somewhere in the Inner Rim and follow that all the way back to the Outer Rim

That was exactly the route I imagined!

1 week sounds perfect. Thanks this is a big help!

I am thinkg of an alternative structure for the astogation checks. I'll have the player role 4 average checks, every failure brings a setback to the following checks which work cumulatively then finally I'll use the last of the 4 checks as the definitive check which is used to see whether they succeed or fail. That way they get the feel of a somewhat longer journey but withouth having the mishaps happening along the way but only influencing the end of the journey..

Officially, it takes however long the gm says it does.

Hyperdrive travel times haven't been presented for every route to every other route, even George isn't exactly consistent with it.

Heck, even WEG,who established a lot of this stuff can't make up its mind. (Tatooine to alderaan is 7 hours, tattooine to coruscant is over 20 days, alderaan to corascant only 16 hours?)

So just figure out what works. I'd probably go with several days to a week and a half...

Bear in mind speed of plot can be ridiculously fast. I mean Sidious must have known some really snazzy shortcuts to get from Coruscant to Mustafar in a few minutes. Forget the Kessel run, that guy's shuttle must have been using the engines from the Enterprise in Star Trek V!

@Dante: That's one way to do it. Not a bad idea, moving mishaps to the end can make for quicker and still somewhat detailed journeys.

It just depends on how much time you want to spend on the travel bit. If you want to spend more time and add a feeling of longer journey, you could have the players decide upon stops along the way, from Bothawui the first one would probably be Druckenwell before they go on to the Inner Rim. The difficulty of the check could then, potentially, be based not only on reliability, validity and age of the hyperspace data, but also the distance travelled in one jump. Fewer stops on a long journey are harder, but take shorter time all over, so for instance a one jump plot from Bothawui to Jovian III could have a base travel time of less than a week, but the difficulty could be Formidable, upgraded once or twice... so chances for failure are higher, and chances are that even if successful the trip will take about as long time as a journey with a few stops along the way due to Threat results on the check.

@MrDodger: Good point, but due to relativity and that force sensitives are prone to premonitions and stuff like that, you could ju-ju your way through that argument

Bear in mind speed of plot can be ridiculously fast. I mean Sidious must have known some really snazzy shortcuts to get from Coruscant to Mustafar in a few minutes. Forget the Kessel run, that guy's shuttle must have been using the engines from the Enterprise in Star Trek V!

He was using Apparition.

Also Palpatine speaks Parseltounge, but it doesn't come up in the films...

I always thought that maybe ol' Papa Palpatine learned how to fold space from the Spacing Guild.

"Never heard of the Millennium Falcon? She made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, she can go point 5 past the speed of plot, she fast enough for ya kid?"

A lot of this doesn't really matter, because it's more about how clean and direct the hyperspace route is. There is no lightspeed-equivalent to a hyperspace engine rating, until somebody does that it's kind "whatever you want". Two systems could be in the same region but have too much junk between them to make the route direct or fast. Consider that Hapan space is very close to the Core, but nobody could chart a route to it for centuries. Mustafar might be in the Outer Rim, but presumably Palpatine had a secret quick route worked out, he'd been there many times in the past (per TCW), and heck, maybe he used a wormhole or something to cut the distance. The plot for the TCW Citadel arc was centered around routes that led directly to each faction's core worlds, presumably avoiding bottlenecks and fortified/interdicted positions.

So it's less about regions, and more about routes and their cleanliness.

Personally I find it helpful to "know" how it's all supposed to work, that way I can hand-wave more accurately. So here's how I figure hyperspace works: the computer will plot the most direct course with the fewest stops based on the most recent data. Some changes of direction are possible while in hyperspace (like light bending around a star), so just because you're travelling down an established trade route doesn't mean you have to stop at every system on the way. The more bends there are, the slower you have to go, and at some point if you need a radical change in direction (more than a few degrees) you have to drop out of hyperspace, travel across real-space, realign, and take off again, a process that can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. Fuel costs are based on distance, so WEG might not have been wrong, but you'd only take the longer-but-less-bendy route (and save time) if cost was no object. (Keep in mind the straight line for a trade route on the galactic map probably doesn't represent the actual route.) Otherwise the nav-computer is going to assume you want the shortest, safest distance. All the bending and real-space transit is handled for you by the nav-computer, in conjunction with any available information resources in the systems where you have to drop to real-space.

Established routes are easy to get calculated, but if you have to make up your own as you go it will be more difficult and dangerous. If you're running from the law (or the Hutt equivalent) you're better off avoiding established routes. Not doubt there is an entire black market economy devoted to alternative routes. Some of these alternate routes might rely on more "hard" science ideas, like wormholes and warps...that doesn't matter and doesn't even need addressing. If you want Palpatine to get from Coruscant from Mustafar in a few hours, that's because of the benefit the particular route provides. That it uses a wormhole or a trans-dimensional portal is beside the point and very un-Star Wars to talk about

Keep in mind, events that were concurrent in the films may not have truly been concurrent. Yoda's fight with Palps may have been over long before Kenobi had gotten to Mustafar, but he forsaw that Anakin/Vader was going to lose the fight and ordered Akahi to get his shuttle ready.

But yes, hyperspace is the speed of plot

@Dante: That's one way to do it. Not a bad idea, moving mishaps to the end can make for quicker and still somewhat detailed journeys.

Oh yeah, in my home game it might go like that! However I am writing a module I want to "publish" unofficialy and the party is actually pressed for time in that scenario!

But yes, hyperspace is the speed of plot

I confess I find this answer less than useful. The "plot" is about interruptions from the norm, but if there are no interruptions it doesn't mean you arrive instantly. All it means is you hand-wave the story along, but the players might still want to know how long it did take, for future reference. Eg: PCs that have a base of operations, with easy access to certain systems will want to know that kind of thing.

Of course, if nobody cares how long it takes, then the passage of time shouldn't be accounted for, or even mentioned ("...you arrive in hours, or days, or whatever..."), but the minute somebody asks, something fairly concrete needs to be provided.

Assuming nothing goes wrong (and the PCs aren't hunted...yet...), the simplest hand-wave I've come up with is (assuming x2):

- if two planets are on a major trade route, it's no more than 12 hours per 1/5th of the galactic radius. None of the trade routes run directly outward, so going end-to-end on a trade route is likely going to take 4-7 days.

- secondary and minor routes are slower, ie: 12 hours per 1/10th and 1/20th of a galactic radius respectively

- each entry or exit from one route to another adds about 4 hours on average (could be from 15 minutes to a day)

At least with this you can come up with something that won't be entirely invalidated if the players suddenly need to get detailed about the timing.

True. I use that term with tongue somewhat in cheek. I prefer having more concrete travel times in my games. Years ago, it was a real bone of contention in a fantasy-based game where it seemed our group could run on foot hundreds of miles in day.

In my games, if a trip from say Ryloth to the Wheel would take several weeks, I would give them the option of counting it all as downtime, or perhaps building in some road-trippy kind of features into the travel time, with possible sub-adventures along the way. After all, driving across North America never happens on a single tank of gas

I acquired a piece of clear polyester printed with a 1/4" grid pattern- I lay this atop the galactic map in the CRB, and count the grid squares from point of origin to point of destination. Each square equals 1d5-1 days travel (to a minimum of 1), multiplied by the rating value of the hyper drive being employed. Each net advantage on an astrogation check can be used to reduce travel time by 25%, to a minimum of 25%. Calculating and plotting the jump takes 1 round/minute (structured/narrative) per grid square, with each net success reducing calculation time by 25%, to a minimum of 25%. Failure and threat increase calculation and travel times respectively, triumph and despair...well, whatever fits the story.

Hoth to Dagobah traverses @ 6 squares- in a YT-1300 (Class 2 hyperdrive) the base travel time is 12-50 days minus 25% per net advantage on the astrogation check (3-13 days minimum).

Check difficulties are based on the journey being calculated, up-to-date/outdated astrogation data, the availability of following major hyperspace lanes, and etc.

I have players that "chipmunk" food away under seat liners, in tool bins, and in every available pocket because they are absolutely certain that every voyage through the void will leave them marooned and starving to death. My system provides a simple mechanic for me to estimate their travel itinerary, and for the players to better manage their consumables/fuel.