194 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
194 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Astral Adventuring
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description: Notes and rules for adventuring in the astral plane.
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date_pub: 2023-02-19T15:10:00-05:00
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section: astral
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content_type: feature
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short_code: aa1
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---
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[[toc]]
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### Astral Travel Procedure
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The steps to take for each phase of astral travel:
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1. **Setup**: Referee describes the situation
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2. **Decide Course**: Players decide on their course of travel for the phase and any planned activities for the day.
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3. **Complication Check**: Referee makes a complication check.
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4. **Description**: Referee describes the regions passed through, any points of interest that the party comes across, and any complications they encounter.
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5. **Actions / Responses / Complications** - Party declares actions, referee describes the results.
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6. **End of Phase**: The referee updates time records.
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7. **Repeat**: Return to step 2 and repeat until travel ends.
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#### Complication Check
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Roll 1d6, ignoring results of 4+ for the first 2 checks.
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1. **Encounter**: Wandering creature or vessel, social encounter, or some other random interaction.
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2. **Signs / Portents**: Indications of possible encounter nearby - could be a clue, indications of a creature nearby, etc.
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3. **Locality**: Some environmental or external event that affects the PCs - psychic storm, fragment, etc.
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4. **Pilot / Ship Issue**: Pilot / power source exhaustion or some other ship complication, takes 1d6 shifts to resolve and resume travel (50% chance the ship will have to remain in dock for 1d6 phases to make additional repairs).
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5. **Lose Direction**: Each phase spent moving in the wrong direction adds 1d4-1 additional phases of travel.
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6. **No Complications**
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**Distance**
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- Astral encounters between ships usually start 1400 + (1d6 x 100) yards out (about a mile, the distance at which two ships will pull each other out of travel speed).
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- Wandering creatures are encountered 4d6 × 10 yards away, and are usually not surprised by astral vessels.
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- If either side is surprised (see [Encounter procedure](/rules/adventuring.html#encounter-procedure)), this is reduced to 1d4 × 10 yards.
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**Location**: Astral encounters may occur either in the open astral plane or on land (such as a fragment, island, or dock), if the party lands or docks at some point during the day.
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**Frequency of Check**
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- In the deep astral, check once every other day (once every 6 phases, roll 1d6 to determine which phase).
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- Near a [port](#portals) or [outpost](#outposts) (within 1-2 days travel), check once per day, or even once per phase (for busy outposts).
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### Currents
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Invisible flows of psychic energy that permeate and swirl around the astral plane.
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- Creatures move up to 10x faster when moving with the current (or faster).
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- Vessels designed to ride on these currents are called **astral cruisers**.
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- They can use the currents to move at [travel speed](/astral/vessels#travel-speedl).
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### Distance and Measurement
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- Ranges are measured in yards, rather than feet (3x increase).
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- Areas of spell effects, blasts, etc. are still measured in feet.
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- Movement rates:
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- For creatures - measured in feet.
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- For vessels - measured in yards.
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#### Missile Weapons
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- Gain an additional attack range option, **Distant**:
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- -4 to attack rolls.
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- Range is 1 mile.
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<!--
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### Chases
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#### Evading
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Evasion chance is determined by difference between the movement rates of the two sides’, listed in the table below.
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- **Success**: Pursuers lose track of fleeing side, can't catch up until next day (and only as a random encounter).
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- **Failure**: Continue to **Pursuit**.
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#### Pursuit
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- Time passes in rounds.
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- Pursuit begins at normal encounter distance.
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- Pursuing side closes in on fleeing side
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- Distance between sides decreases by the difference between their movement rates (minimum 30' per round).
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#### Ship-Based Evasion
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- Vessels use the same table, replacing feet with yards in the measurements speed.
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<div class="dividedTableWrapper">
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| Fleeing Side’s Movement Rate | Chance of Evasion |
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| -------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
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| Faster than pursuer | 80% |
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| 0’–30’ per round slower than pursuer | 50% |
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| 31’–60’ per round slower than pursuer | 40% |
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| 61’–90’ per round slower than pursuer | 35% |
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| 91’–120’ per round slower than pursuer | 25% |
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| 121’+ per round slower than pursuer | 10% |
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[Astralborne Evasion Chance]
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</div>
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-->
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### Fragments
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Pieces of other planes (usually floating) in the astral plane. The shape is typically determined by the plane of origin:
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- **Fire**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of fire](/planes/elemental.html) are usually globes of elemental fire (used in Dwarven fire engines and some Drahki weapons).
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- **Water**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of water](/planes/elemental.html) are usually globes of water.
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- **Earth**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of earth](/planes/elemental.html) are usually irregularly-shaped chunks of rock and dirt.
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- Large fragments of earth are called **islands**, and often used to support a stronghold or outpost in the astral void.
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- **Air**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of air](/planes/elemental.html) are usually globes of air (used to supply some ships traveling to airless planes)
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- **Chaos**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of chaos](/planes/elemental.html) are usually jet black globes, and tend to function as spheres of annihilation.
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- **Law**: Fragments from [the elemental plane of law](/planes/elemental.html) are usually globes of crackling, radiant energy.
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- It's believed that these arise spontaneously when a fragment from the plane of chaos appears, and are equal in size to the chaos ones.
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- When a fragment of law and chaos are combined, the resulting release of energy looks like white and black lightning, and can be seen for thousands of miles around.
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### Gravity
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- Subjective, with capable creatures (INT 5 or greater) able to change "down" with a thought (CHA check if under duress).
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- Falling speed is INT x 30' / combat round, specific maneuvers require a CHA check.
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- Objects float in space unless able to move on their own (as above) or acted upon by an external force.
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- Unintelligent creatures fall "down" at 100' / round.
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### Languages
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- Alignment languages are the same throughout the multiverse.
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- The same version of Common is spoken throughout the multiverse, with only the perceived accent of a speaker changing (along with certain slang).
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- Each racial language spoken and written on a given plane is a dialect of that same language on other planes.
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### Outposts
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A stronghold, shop, or town in the astral plane, usually established on a large island.
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- Those interested in trade will have one (or more) docks for passing ships.
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- Outposts with [permanent portals](#portals) to other planes are called **ports**.
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### Psychic Clouds
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Thin streams of psychic "vapor", hundreds to thousands of miles across, which appear as clouds when viewed from distance.
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- Psychic Storms are enormous storms of psychic energy which can disable a ship as well as its crew. Often found crawling with astral zombies. Best to avoid.
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### Portals
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Usually manifest as flat, shimmering discs of various colors that appear to float in place.
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- Can be used by passing through to arrive on the destination plane.
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- May lead to any other plane (Inner, Outer, or Material).
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- Each different destination has its own color, and a portal leading to a character's home plane will always look silver to them.
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- Most portals (99%) are temporary, lasting 1d20 hours.
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- Most portals (99%) are one-way, and only visible (when open) from the entry side, but become two-way for 1d4 rounds after being passed through.
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- An open portal may be be closed or made translucent (allowing characters to see the other end for one turn) with a successful CHA check within 60' of the portal.
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- Temporary portals which lead from the astral to other planes are called **pools**.
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- Permanent portals which lead from the astral to other planes are called **ports**, and are usually established on a island and attached to an [outpost](#outposts).
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### Surprise
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Wandering astral creatures are not usually surprised by traveling vessels. Special circumstances (ex: thick astral clouds, or a psychic storm) may alter this.
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### Temperature
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The ambient temperature in the astral plane tends towards the tepid side for most humans and demihumans, being roughly equivalent to a warm spring day in a temperate climate.
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### Time
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- Time is quickened: 3 rounds pass in the astral plane for each round that passes in a Material Plane.
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- Spells cast in the Astral plane appear to last 3 times as long as listed
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- The effects of time don't happen while on the astral plane. This means that characters in the Astral Plane:
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- do not age,
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- do not need to breathe,
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- do not need to eat or drink (which also means that they can't expend a ration to heal), and
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- only need to sleep for 30 phase-minutes each phase, although they still need to rest for an entire shift (8 phase-hours), and only gain 1 HP back after resting and sleeping.
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### Travel
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Travel by astral cruiser (via the [astral currents](#astral-currents)) to any known location within the astral plane usually takes 3-30 days.
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- Travel between most ports under the control of the Astral Trade Union only takes 1d6+2 days.
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- Without a ship, the vast distances between landmarks means one could go for weeks, months, or even years before coming across anyone (or anything) else.
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- It takes 1 turn for a ship to dock, and 1 turn for it to disembark.
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- An astral cruiser cannot travel by currents while within 1 mile of another active vessel or large astral body (like an island).
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- If a cruiser comes within a mile of a large astral object while traveling. it will automatically reduce its speed to normal movement (in yards).
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### Visibility
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- An astral body (such as a [fragment](#fragments), island, or even a dead god) may be spotted at a distance of hundreds of miles (based on its size).
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- Vessels (and large creatures) may be sighted at great distances by the contrails they leave behind in the psychic clouds that permeate the plane.
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- Identification is usually limited to tactical range (approximately 1 mile) in the open astral plane, or as little as 100 yards in a psychic storm.
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