Just wondering how other GMs describe the experience of warp travel to their Navigator PCs.

What do they see?

What is it they actually do to "guide" the ship?

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For my Navigator - I've told her that whereas the ship's Explorator has a physical relationship with the ship - her relationship is more intimate.

I've also told her that her soul spreads out beyond the boundaries of the ship - almost covering it like a membrane. To this extent - she will even be able to identify the Navigator's of other ships.

This creates a great stage of rivalry for the Navigator - ship vs. ship turn into duels for the Navigator as she tries to outmaneuver her opponent. Prestige is gained - and the families honor is upheld.

Like a body - she will be only marginally aware of the goings on inside the vessel. She will be able to communicate verbally to the crew - but too much will be a strain upon her.

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And I know the book suggests that the Navigator looks into the warp - finds the North Star, err... Astronomican - and then tells the crew where to pilot.

That's boring to me - and only seems just like having an organic navigation system - not really different at all.

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So - the Navigation Pit (I've seen these used in a handful of books) is actually a kind of "Reading Room" where the Navigator is monitored from the bridge.

On the bridge - a holo-projector displays the room - the Navigator speaks to the bridge in this manner via attached vox-casters.

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As far as what she "sees" - I told her she could take a literal sense, but often that route is dull, inefficient, and sometimes dangerous.

Or - she can visualize. One of the examples I gave her...

"You are a young woman in a red cloak - you alone in an oppressively dark wood. The path beneath you is twisted and hard to see. In the distance - the light of your Father's lantern glows. You know you must stay on the path - for within the woods lurks a great hungering wolf. This wolf will devour you if you stray... "

This makes the experience feel more alien for the rest of the players - if the Navigator tries to articulate that she was a little girl in a red cloak trying to get through a dangerous wood... the other players will certainly look at her like she's completely cracked. A navigator's life is a lonely one.

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So, what do you guys do?

Mine was told to liken it to trying to walk around while on a bad acid trip. In the distance you see a shining light, and it throbs to All Along the Watchtower, and you have to get there, though there are paisly technicolor things sort of oozing out of the walls around you and screaming plaid and brown sounds. The path feels salty and sounds bright blue....

Yes - this would be the equivalent of how I will describe it if she doesn't try her visualization techniques.. which, won't always work anyway and the "crazy" will always bleed in.

Interesting that you also mention the "Getting to the Light" idea - I know in theory that the Astronomican is just a navigation tool much like the North Star was - but I find the idea of being symbolically guided by the Emperor to be far more interesting.

The visualisation angle is one we work with a lot. We sort of imagine it like a lucid dream: you can move around and control your actions, but it still has the feel of a dreamscape. Sometimes it's a forest with beasts, with the moon serving as the representation of the Astronomicon. Sometimes a busy city with a clock tower to ascend. From time to time, the GM throws in some actual "combats" and "encounters" which may modify the result of the Navigation rolls (or are the Navigation rolls) so that it doesn't just become a question of rolling a bucket of dice.

The system has worked great and I always love when we're getting ready for a jump and my Navigator, sitting on his "throne" on the bridge or in his sanctum, has no idea what awaits him this time...

Mir pilots her ship through a tempest of emotions, the blunt form of the cruiser smashing through a sea of anger, fear, sadness, joy, disgust and suprise with all the subtlety of a barbarian at a dinner party given a sledge hammer instead of cutlery. The vessel is as extrinsic as much as the warp and its storm of colours, feelings and conflicting integrities are to anything in real space, here they are both anathema and desirable, the constant reminder being a sound of nails run over a chalkboard as the denizens scratch across the geller fields, wanting them and at the same time wishing to be a part of them.

Her mind is a quantum engine picking infinate parallel paths and probabilities at a speeds the quasi-religious fools in the adeptus mechanicus could only dream of, those dreams creating a tiny ripple of emotion like a tear hitting an ocean that eventually extends across warp space in waves of desire, frustration and anger. A world in conflict sends out a red wind of hatred, pain, fear and anger as thousands die, their souls create a bulge of emotion looming up out of the warp and a vacuum of entities rushing to investigate. She tacks the ship to catch the most of it behind her and it'll be a quick trip this time, better that than becoming becalmed in the wildspace beyond the imperium comparatively devoid of sentient emotions, or worse a place of hunger where the ancient entities are drawn like magnets to what meagre provender the ship contains in its holds.

Lure of the Expanse describes it as different for every Navigator, and encourages Navigator players to flesh out how their character experiences the warp. It also gives several examples of possible interpretations.

So I just make my players put some thought into it and then work with what they come up with.

I do not know about your acid trips, but mine never seemed like any sort of accurate navigation! Of course these were the college years 20 years ago, so perhaps acid has changed since then!

I tell my Navigators that they see a swirling, chaotic mist, with worlds and stellar phenomenon swirling around. They use hand gestures to draw connecting beams of light from their point of origin to the destination. Sometimes this requires alterations to avoid danger. Inside of this swirling mist, the Navigator can detect ominous, strange entities, unspeakable monstrosities which cant be seen, only felt, the way you can feel that something is swimming beneath a boat in the ocean.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Who said anything about accurate navigation?