So, to give a brief background, my players have decided to try and establish their own smuggling ring, and as part of this they want to establish a personal network of secret hyperspace lanes they can use in their business. This is all well and good, but I'm not entirely sure how to run such a scenario. Obviously, charting a stable hyperspace route requires a good bit of time and expensive equipment to do this, otherwise everyone would be doing it by now. Another problem I can see in this scheme is that not every hyperspace lane is shown on the galaxy map - for example, Mandalore would obviously have a stable route that is well known, while Yavin very likely has a route known only to a handful of people (i.e. the Rebel Alliance). This then brings up the question of whether or not a hyperspace route to their destination already exists, which would change the task from charting a new route to charting a shortcut.

So, in the end, I suppose I need three questions answered;

1.) How would you work the charting of a new hyperspace route with the in-game mechanics? More precisely, what kind and how many rolls of what difficulty, how long would it take, how expensive and bulky would the equipment be, etc.

2.) Would charting shortcuts for existing routes be easier, and if so, by how much?

3.) Lastly, would such an operation even be feasible, or would it just be a huge chunk of tima and effort that would be better used elsewhere? Im leaning towards yes on this one, but would like opinions.

The community's help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

This is just my first set of ideas upon reading your question, so I may be back later with more fully fleshed out ideas, but here goes:

1. Personally, I'd rather not make the player roll multiple times to chart the course. I would ask the player how they were going to prepare for doing it, and adjust difficulty down from a set point. For something this difficult, maybe a Daunting roll with a good number of Challenge dice thrown in there to account for the possibility of flying right through a supernova or something. If the player wants to prepare by using hyperspace probe droids (I'd honestly just use the basic probe droids for this since we've seen them travel through hyperspace in Empire) then maybe it gets easier and loses a few difficulty dice. Prep work and research done to prepare for the charting of the course would also downgrade the check. Using a ship specifically prepared for scouting or with an upgraded navigational suite might net the player some boost dice. Ultimately I'd say that it can take as long as the player wants, but the more time, effort, and money expended should make the check correspondingly easier or less dangerous. I'd argue for Astrogation here but if a player made a good case for using Knowledge (Outer Rim) or Knowledge (Core Worlds) I might be inclined to let them use their knowledge to make the Astrogation check a little easier..

2. Charting a shortcut would likely be easier (at least at my table) than charting a whole new course. I'd still make it at least a Hard check and probably wouldn't have it shave all that much time off the route (it's still a long distance to cover, even with a shortcut). I may also make it harder depending on what kind of ship the player wants to be able to use the shortcut. Larger ships might have a harder time skirting the gravitational pull of different stellar phenomenon and the like. An X-Wing is probably going to be able to use a lot more shortcuts than a Star Destroyer.

3. Oh yeah! Definitely. I love the creativity your players are showing with their approach to this. I'd argue that in general the publicly known hyperspace route is probably the one with the best average speed and safety. So alternate routes might be faster and more dangerous, slower and safer, or just awkward to use but which will get you around known customs checkpoints or the like.

Like I said, I may have more ideas later if you're interested but I hope this is enough to get you started on your own ideas!

Then the question becomes, who else might also know about those alternative routes?

What might they think of someone horning in on their territory?

What might they do to someone who had horned in on their routes, even if their use of those routes was for totally different purposes?

Then flip that around — someone else has found out that these guys are searching for new routes, and they have their own reasons for wanting new routes. What kind of spying might someone like that do? Once these new routes get discovered, who might these spies then sell those routes to, and what might those customers do with that information?

Once you start exploring the unknown, there’s all sorts of interesting story possibilities that can crop up.

So, to give a brief background, my players have decided to try and establish their own smuggling ring, and as part of this they want to establish a personal network of secret hyperspace lanes they can use in their business. This is all well and good, but I'm not entirely sure how to run such a scenario. Obviously, charting a stable hyperspace route requires a good bit of time and expensive equipment to do this, otherwise everyone would be doing it by now. Another problem I can see in this scheme is that not every hyperspace lane is shown on the galaxy map - for example, Mandalore would obviously have a stable route that is well known, while Yavin very likely has a route known only to a handful of people (i.e. the Rebel Alliance). This then brings up the question of whether or not a hyperspace route to their destination already exists, which would change the task from charting a new route to charting a shortcut.

So, in the end, I suppose I need three questions answered;

1.) How would you work the charting of a new hyperspace route with the in-game mechanics? More precisely, what kind and how many rolls of what difficulty, how long would it take, how expensive and bulky would the equipment be, etc.

Well, off the top of my head, I would probably do the following things on the mechanical level. Narrative stuff will come after.

1. Make any astrogation checks have 1 red die, as trying to plot an uncharted course is RIPE for Despair type situations. If a Despair is rolled, have some random encounter waiting for them in that leg of the trips destination. Maybe they come across a random group of smugglers, who also had the same idea as them, and they're willing to kill the players to keep the secret. Or some interstellar anomaly to mess with their systems, and they have to fly through obstacles to get clear, so they can safely jump away. Things like that.

2. I'd make the astrogation checks at least hard, if not 4 dice difficult. They are literally trying to blaze new trails through uncharted, interstellar space, that is not something you casually do after taking a community college course on astrogation. **EDIT** Actually, make the checks a bit easier, now that I think about it. The goal, is to get them out there so that you can expose them to fun adventure hooks. Making it really REALLY hard is probably contrary to that goal. Make it like 3 dice difficult, but with 1 of those being a red, and several setback die (potentially). Maybe let the allies do things to remove those setback die, if the astrogater doesn't have talents to ignore them anyway.

3. Make it a skill challenge. Require a certain number of total successes on a series of Astrogation checks (boosted by the allies rolls to help out). If they don't succeed, they are only able to map to a certain point closer to the goal.

Narrative : Incorporate other rolls to try and help with this. If you have players who are specs that would help with this (ones that have Astrogation as a career/spec skill), give them a chance to help provide boosts. Maybe have the Archeologist go book diving in some archive, to try and find any previous star charts for the area, that might help minimize their risk, by adding slightly more detail to the hyperspace lanes. Maybe the scoundrel type character can spend some credits with the criminal underworld, to see if any smugglers are willing to sell astrogation information for the area, or possibly sell entire sections of the hyperspace trip. Remember, a hyperspace lane doesn't automatically mean you make the trip in one jump. It could be several legs, as you go from system to system, reorienting the ship and then jumping again. These could provide boost die to the various rolls. Include setback dice based on various factors. Distance to final destination (meaning more legs of the trip, and more chances for a mistake), accuracy of the star charts they are using for the areas (updated astrogation charts from last week would be great, but they might only be able to get ones from several years ago, not so great). Etc

2.) Would charting shortcuts for existing routes be easier, and if so, by how much?

Yeah I would say it's easier, but it might have it's own problems. If they are, for example, trying to avoid Imperial exposure, and they decide to make their shortcut off of a Core World lane, they're still likely to run into Imperials. If they do the route entirely on their own, while they still might run into problems, the chance of it being the Imperial kind of problem will reduce. I would probably reduce the number of suxx they need to accumulate by 2-4, depending on how much of a shortcut it is.

3.) Lastly, would such an operation even be feasible, or would it just be a huge chunk of tima and effort that would be better used elsewhere? Im leaning towards yes on this one, but would like opinions.

Sure it would be feasible. If you have players who have a Pilot focused character, this is probably the kind of stuff they want to do. Don't just make it a tedious "connect the dots" kind of thing. Make it a mini-campaign in it's own right. Make it a group effort, and give them encounters in these stops along the way. Remember "uncharted systems" doesn't mean "empty of stuff to do". It just means "nobody's really bothered to look closely at these systems in an official capacity." They could stumble across rogue space stations, hidden colony worlds, ancient remnants of the Sith Wars. Seriously, how cool would it be to have your players jump into a system, and you describe the silhouette of a massive capship (silhouette 7+), outlined by the local star, amidst a debris field of massive size? They could decide to explore it, and maybe look for salvage. This could provide you with an infinite number of plot hooks. Maybe they search the navicomputer, and find some other systems in the database, that might be ancient sith/republic worlds, outposts, with weapons, and records....maybe an ancient sith/jedi holocron so that your Force Sensitive character can start learning to be a Jedi like he's been wanting to for the last 5 sessions. Maybe the ships got a still active core (on low power), and the droids are still active on the ship, and see the players as the enemy. Boom, combat encounter.

You are literally able to paint an infinite number of stories and plot hooks with this objective of your players. They are asking you to let them blaze a new trail into the "great unknown". You, have the wonderful opportunity to populate that "unknown" with whatever you want, to make the story great and fun. Don't see this as a chore, see this as a great opportunity.

I've always thought of hyperspace as something other than a void. So there are currents, eddies, whirlpools, storms, etc. Also, some areas are simply thicker than others slowing travel. So the majority of known hyperspace lanes are used because they're mapped, stable, a allow quick travel. Many of the other areas either have side currents or eddies that make travel difficult by affecting your final destination or storms that will destroy a ship outright. Others are clear, but he hyperspace is thick enough that travel takes longer.

I've always envisioned that the proper equipment to map hyperspace currents and such was very rare and expensive, that's why few other than governments can map hyperspace without taking great risks.

Plus it adds to the legend that Han did the Kessel run in 12 parsecs by traveling dangerous and unknown routes.

Should there be some sort of research check before making the astrogation check? Research should take a substantial amount of time with the final astrogation check being just as quick as others. Researching ends with the new hypothetical route's path entered into the nav computer. How bad or good you did on research would affect the astrogation attempt?

Should there be some sort of research check before making the astrogation check? Research should take a substantial amount of time with the final astrogation check being just as quick as others. Researching ends with the new hypothetical route's path entered into the nav computer. How bad or good you did on research would affect the astrogation attempt?

My opinion, is that the "research" is the actual Astrogation check itself. Other forms of checks could assist that roll, by checking archives, bribing smugglers who operate in the area for more up to date star charts on the local level. Letting your Archeologist maybe investigate some ruins, rumored to be remnants of a ship that crashed, coming out of unknown space. Basically make it a group effort.

To be clear we are speaking of a new route to a KNOWN target? Not delving a new route into unknown space? Reviewing the Essential Atlas, it speaks of exploring new places through hyperspace taking a huge amount of time moving ahead using microjumps.

To be clear we are speaking of a new route to a KNOWN target? Not delving a new route into unknown space? Reviewing the Essential Atlas, it speaks of exploring new places through hyperspace taking a huge amount of time moving ahead using microjumps.

No clue honestly, the OP hasn't responded yet. I'm assuming it's a known destination? And they are simply trying to find some less trafficked ways there. I mean, trying to smuggle stuff to the unknown reaches of space seems less than profitable. You don't know if you will run into customers out there. But simply trying to blaze a new path from Point A to Point B, that doesn't use the heavily trafficked (and monitored) lanes, seems way more smuggler-esque to me.

Thanks for all the great ideas guys, it's all been extremely inspiring, and it's definitely sparked some amazing ideas in my head. To expand on the last posts before this one, the player who came up with the idea decided to set up a shadowport on Naos, which is at the far end of the Corellian run, and then chart a network of secret hyperspace routes along the southeastern edge of the galaxy to act as a non-policed backdoor route for smuggling goods to known locations. Which makes for many opportunities to discover or encounter interesting things, as they're plotting routes at the edge of known space.