Anyone else having trouble conveying just how dangerous warp-travel is? The group I run's navigator routinely beats the roll with multiple degrees of success (Warpsbane Hull + Foreshadowing + the Rogue Trader's inspiration (?) special ability), so that even trips that should be long and treacherous tack 2-3 days. Fair play to them and all, but it makes it hard to sell why people fear warp-travel...

Have the Gellar Fields fail on them for just a second or two and then have them spend the next three sessions of the game hunting down the warp spawn that is eating their crew at around a 1000 souls per day.

Col. Orange said:

Warp travel is risky, yes... but it's not so risky that it can't be relied upon - if it were too unreliable, then interstellar civilisation could not exist, afterall.

One thing to consider, though, is changing the prevailing conditions (which in turn add modifiers to the tests required) - add regions of Warp Space that're more difficult to Navigate, where the Astronomicon can't be easily seen, or where Warp Storms and other phenomena make it slow or difficult to travel. You're dealing with uncharted space when it comes to traversing the Koronus Expanse, so throw in surprises and complications and other factors to make your Navigator's life more difficult. Remembering to make use of the Warp Travel events is useful as well... just because a trip was brief doesn't mean it was uneventful...

Even at best of times, you always roll on the mishap table once each encounter. Every mishap can be very very dangerous. The first one that occurred in my game almost resulted in a mutiny. Use them viciously and people will get reluctant to travel soonest.

I think the problem I have with the table is that it just seems too short. If weird events happen every five days or so fine, they can dodge them, but I don't like the idea of help being just two days travel away. This is the frontier - they should feel like they're all alone.

Once again, thanks for the advice guys. I've a feeling I'll be revising Warp travel on the sly with your suggestions in mind.

Col. Orange said:

Remember that the conditions that allow your group's Navigator to pull off such brief journeys (which, it should be remembered, is partially your responsibility as GM - the GM determines the base travel time for any given voyage, afterall) are all ones linked to his circumstances - not everyone will have that particular Navigator power, a Warpsbane Hull, and/or a Rogue Trader available to keep their chances up. Your group's Navigator is, all things considered, particularly well-equipped to travel the Warp quickly... but don't assume that the same can be said of everyone else.

I don't honestly think you need to make any specific modifications... the simple act of making a few decisions differently (base travel times and test modifiers are subject to GM adjudication in all cases) can have significant effects.

It's worth going through the process in a little more detail with this idea in mind, pointing out places where your decisions are most crucial.

Stage One: Determine Duration of Passage: It's worth noting here that the example durations of passage on Page 184, particularly for the shorter journeys, refer to stable warp routes, accurate charts and detailed knowledge of the warp in that region... none of which are guaranteed for a ship traversing the Koronus Expanse or another area beyond the Imperium. Look on the Koronus Expanse map in the front and back of the rulebook, and compare it to the equivalent one for the Calixis Sector. The coruscating white lines linking systems are known warp routes... and there aren't many of those Warp Routes in the Expanse. Also note that you only have to give the player a rough estimate of the duration if the Navigator is familiar with or has good information about. If he doesn't have that knowledge or info, then you don't have to tell him anything. In short, the duration of the trip is determined by you alone, with the example durations of passage representing good conditions which are unlikely to be present on the frontier.

Stage Two: Location of the Astronomicon: The Astronomicon is a given within the Imperium... but you're dealing with a storm-wracked expanse of uncharted space, so there may be occasions where the Astronomicon can't be located. I'd not play this card too often, but the occasional beacon-obscuring Warp Storm can shake things up a bit if you really want to slow the group down (as it defaults the Navigation (Warp) Test for Stage 4 to a -60).

Stage Three: Charting the Course: Largely inconsequential to travel time, but it affects the potential hazards on the way, which themselves may hinder progress.

Stage Four: Steering the Vessel: This is the important bit - everything else before this point is essentially optional. The modifier you apply to this test, along with whether or not the Navigator found the Astronomicon, determine the speed and success of the journey. The difficulty of the trip should always be represented by the application of a modifier, with charted and stable routes adding bonuses, while unstable, storm-wracked routes impose penalties.

Stage 5 isn't really important for this matter; you don't get to that stage until you've already travelled through the Warp, at which point the issue of journey duration is all in the past.

Hopefully, that's made it clear that there's plenty of leeway for you to increase the travel times of trips through the Warp without needing to change any of the rules...

Even if a proper mishap doesn't occur, I still chuck in at least one weird event per trip in the Warp. They are travelling through a dimension made up of psychic energy, and which may or may not be Hell itself, so it's never going to be a dull experience, even if no physical danger arises. I find Warp travel is a great opportunity for dream sequences, flashbacks and even the odd flash-forward.

kelvingreen said:

And, if you can manage it, a flash-sideways - something happening in a different location right now. One of the PCs in my previous WFRP campaign was woken from an unsetting dream of being a massive undead wolf smashing against the gates of a coaching in, by a loud banging from outside... he then realised to his horror that it wasn't a dream, but rather it was actually happening, and that the undead were almost through the gate.