Note: I'm pretty sure my take on Hyperspace doesn't jive with canon, but I don't care.

I er ah, I was meaning to convey how nice it must be to have THAT as one's job. No more, no less.

A fair point. Well said.

A fair point. Well said.

As were yours, but given my neutrality in this argument I opted not to respond. I think I'm an odd one in that I want to know and understand canon; but canon, the rules, and whatever else that gets in the way of our story goes right out the window without batting an eye. However, it's a lot of fun to figure out how to fit our story into canon somehow, and we often brainstorm kooky ways to make that happen if for some reason we cross paths with a familiar element.

RPGs need the setting's technological limitations to be clearly laid out and understood by all players before it becomes an issue.

That's a nigh impossible task, though. At some point common sense + effective BS has to trump excruciating rules minutiae.

the WEG star wars game from the 80's said real space distance is irrelevant when traveling in hyperspace, since you traveled faster than light in this dimension. Not distance, but how complicated the route was, with shadows from realspace or traffic in hyperspace.

Source?

Your quote seems inconsistent with itself, arguing that distance is irrelevant because of speed. That's like saying it doesn't matter if I'm going to the edge of town or out of state, since I'll be doing 65 mph.it just doesn't make sense. Faster than light is an incredibly high speed, but it's still a speed.

For longer trips that involve multiple jumps, sure, it takes even longer because of having to do it in multiple legs, much like flying to a destination and having multiple layovers instead of a direct flight, but even so, a direct flight from Boston to LA is going to take longer than a direct flight from Boston to DC. Same goes for proportionally similar interstellar distances...if that (single direct) jump from Planet A to Planet B is five times longer than the jump from Platet A to Planet C...with all other variables being the same (hyperdrive, navicomputer, etc.) then the first jump will take 5x longer.

the WEG star wars game from the 80's said real space distance is irrelevant when traveling in hyperspace, since you traveled faster than light in this dimension. Not distance, but how complicated the route was, with shadows from realspace or traffic in hyperspace.

Source?

Your quote seems inconsistent with itself, arguing that distance is irrelevant because of speed. That's like saying it doesn't matter if I'm going to the edge of town or out of state, since I'll be doing 65 mph.it just doesn't make sense. Faster than light is an incredibly high speed, but it's still a speed.

For longer trips that involve multiple jumps, sure, it takes even longer because of having to do it in multiple legs, much like flying to a destination and having multiple layovers instead of a direct flight, but even so, a direct flight from Boston to LA is going to take longer than a direct flight from Boston to DC. Same goes for proportionally similar interstellar distances...if that (single direct) jump from Planet A to Planet B is five times longer than the jump from Platet A to Planet C...with all other variables being the same (hyperdrive, navicomputer, etc.) then the first jump will take 5x longer.

West End Games Star Wars 1st edition(1987)

See "Passage Times".

Very cool, thanks for the reference!

Very cool, thanks for the reference!

No problem:) I posted more of it earlier in the thread. I can repost if the pictures aren't great.

This whole discussion has been fascinating. It has greatly improved how I will handled hyperspace travel in my campaign, and even given me some great ideas for adventures. Even though FFG has fragmented their RPG over seven different forums, little gems like this topic make it worth the effort to search.

I have a question about astrogation checks, that are somewhat related to this:

When a navigator makes an astrogation check, what are some of the things you spend advantage and threat (and triump and despair) on. I see shortening or lengthening the duration of the trip as possible uses, but what other interesting things have you done with these rolls?

Recently on a high advantage roll, my players discovered a new rogue planet.

I've also toyed with the idea of finding lost ships, accidentally stumbling into hyperspace lanes used by militaries, and finding uncharted star systems.

The best part about that is, I can have them find these same things with threats and despairs, but at terrible times and distances.

Failure with triumph or lots of advantages: end up in the wrong place, but discover a new, fast and secret route to that place! Or you discover an uncharted and uninhabited planet.. Or as the comrade said, a broken ship graveyard in space or maybe a spacestation lost to time.. Or you drift around for a while, taking forever to get there, but from now on, you always get two blue dice to travel that route..

Success with despair or lots of threats: You get where you are going, but you delete all astrogtion codes and logs on your nav computer and have to get them all from npc's and plot them in manually to get them back..or your hyperdrive shorts out and must be replaced.. Or you get where you are going, but crash into pirates or imperials or whatever when you jump out (roll critical hit and get one imidiate oponent)..

I tend to ramble on about hyperspace and it seems from the responses that I get that there are as many views on how hyperspace works as their are posters on the forums. Here I've setup a list of questions to try and figure out which views are the most common. I'm not concerned about canon but how people treat hyperspace in-game, as it's often the case that what works in the movies doesn't work so good in an RPG setting (one example is how fast characters in movies learn new things compared to RPG characters).

1) Is travel in hyperspace in straight lines only? No.

2) Can you change course while inside hyperspace? They do so in rebels

3) Can ships inside hyperspace detect each other or see each other if sufficiently close? They travel in groups in the clone wars cartoon and rebels. And communicate with each other while in hyperspace.

4) Can ships inside hyperspace communicate with each other? With people in real space? Yes. Happens in rebels. Yes. Happens in rebels and clone wars and the force awakens

5) Can a ship in real space detect a ship in hyperspace that flies by it? Unknown

6) If ships in hyperspace are very close, can they shoot at each other? Use tractor beams? Splice? Unknown

7) How long does it take to go from one edge of the galaxy to the opposite edge? Unknown Hours/Days/Weeks/Months/Years?

8) Can droids crawl around on the outside of a ship in hyperspace ala Phantom Menace? How about people?

9) Does gravity itself cause a ship to revert to real-space? Or can a ship actually crash into a planet?

Travel in hyperspace is not in straight lines only, but a straight line vector is a much easier function to calculate than a curve of any kind, and it probably makes you go there faster.

You cannot change course while inside hyperspace, but you can drop out early and recalculate.

Ships inside hyperspace cannot detect each other or see each other because it is impossible to get them to a significantly close distance, unless they start coupled and uncouple while still in hyperspace. Which according to a rebels episode is extremely dangerous.

Ships can absolutely communicate with each other and real space while inside hyperspace. I think we've seen that one in the movies.

A ship in real space can theoretically detect a ship in hyperspace but would not be able to do anything with that information as it is much too slow. That's why those sensors are probably not part of the standard package.

Ships in hyperspace that are very close cannot shoot at each other, unless they fire a hyperdrive-equipped torpedo.

I'm deferring to the nerds to know how long it takes to go from one edge of the galaxy to the opposite edge. For me, the ship mostly goes up to the speed of plot.

Droids, and people, can crawl around on the outside of a ship in hyperspace ala Phantom Menace, but if they let go they are ******.

Gravity itself does not cause a ship to revert to real-space, or Han Solo's maneuver would have been impossible. I'm assuming that failsafes keep ships from hitting planets. I'm also assuming that it is not enough to hit a ship in hyperspace to destroy a planet in real space, or the Death Star would never have been built. Physics says that it would, though, unless the energy of an actual impact has no significant impact on real space objects, only on hyperspace objects.

Edit: Ah, apparently I've done the thing where I respond to the first page and posted long after the question has been answered better than I could 5 pages late. Sorry.

This may seem a little eggheady, but I view hyperspace as something that is theoretically possible in the known universe: wormholes. According to Einstein, faster-than-light travel is impossible. However, his theories do allow for these interstellar shortcuts in the fabric of space-time. Hyperspace lanes are charted wormholes that are known to be stable.

This may seem a little eggheady, but I view hyperspace as something that is theoretically possible in the known universe: wormholes. According to Einstein, faster-than-light travel is impossible. However, his theories do allow for these interstellar shortcuts in the fabric of space-time. Hyperspace lanes are charted wormholes that are known to be stable.

Well... It's all relative. ..

This may seem a little eggheady, but I view hyperspace as something that is theoretically possible in the known universe: wormholes. According to Einstein, faster-than-light travel is impossible. However, his theories do allow for these interstellar shortcuts in the fabric of space-time. Hyperspace lanes are charted wormholes that are known to be stable.

The in use in universe behavior of Hyperspace does not behave like wormholes. Something weirder