pvgttm-web/src/pages/astral/adventuring.md

title	description	date_pub	section	content_type	short_code
Astral Adventuring	Notes and rules for adventuring in the astral plane.	2023-02-19T15:10:00-05:00	astral	feature	aa1

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Astral Travel Procedure

The steps to take for each phase of astral travel:

1. Setup: Referee describes the situation
2. Decide Course: Players decide on their course of travel for the phase and any planned activities for the day.
3. Complication Check: Referee makes a complication check.
4. Description: Referee describes the regions passed through, any points of interest that the party comes across, and any complications they encounter.
5. Actions / Responses / Complications - Party declares actions, referee describes the results.
6. End of Phase: The referee updates time records.
7. Repeat: Return to step 2 and repeat until travel ends.

Complication Check

Roll 1d6, ignoring results of 4+ for the first 2 checks.

1. Encounter: Wandering creature or vessel, social encounter, or some other random interaction.
2. Signs / Portents: Indications of possible encounter nearby - could be a clue, indications of a creature nearby, etc.
3. Locality: Some environmental or external event that affects the PCs - psychic storm, fragment, etc.
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).
5. Lose Direction: Each phase spent moving in the wrong direction adds 1d4-1 additional phases of travel.
6. No Complications

Distance

• 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).
• Wandering creatures are encountered 4d6 × 10 yards away, and are usually not surprised by astral vessels.
  • If either side is surprised (see Encounter procedure), this is reduced to 1d4 × 10 yards.

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.

Frequency of Check

• In the deep astral, check once every other day (once every 6 phases, roll 1d6 to determine which phase).
• Near a port or outpost (within 1-2 days travel), check once per day, or even once per phase (for busy outposts).

Calendar

!!!include(today.md)!!!

• Each day on the astral plane is broken up into 3 phases of 24 astral-hours (to keep the astral calendars in sync with the material planes).
  • Additionally, each phase while traveling on an astral vessel is broken up into 3 shifts.
• There are 3 shifts in a phase, 3 phases in a day, 6 days in a week, 5 weeks in a month, 3 months in a season, and 4 seasons in a year.
• Each day is named after one of the elements:
  • Urtday (Earth)
  • Aerday (Air)
  • Fyday (Fire)
  • Warday (water)
  • Kayday (Chaos)
  • Lawday (Law)
• Each month is named after an alignment (Law / Kay / Nu)
• Each season is named after a natural element:
  • Urtson (Earth)
  • Aerson (Air)
  • Fyson (Fire)
  • Warson (Water)

Currents

Invisible flows of psychic energy that permeate and swirl around the astral plane.

• Creatures move up to 10x faster when moving with the current (or faster).
• Vessels designed to ride on these currents are called astral cruisers.
  • They can use the currents to move at travel speed.

Distance and Measurement

• Ranges are measured in yards, rather than feet (3x increase).
• Areas of spell effects, blasts, etc. are still measured in feet.
• Movement rates:
  • For creatures - measured in feet.
  • For vessels - measured in yards.

Missile Weapons

• Gain an additional attack range option, Distant:
  • -4 to attack rolls.
  • Range is 1 mile.

Fragments

Pieces of other planes (usually floating) in the astral plane. The shape is typically determined by the plane of origin:

• Fire: Fragments from the elemental plane of fire are usually globes of elemental fire (used in Dwarven fire engines and some Drahki weapons).
• Water: Fragments from the elemental plane of water are usually globes of water.
• Earth: Fragments from the elemental plane of earth are usually irregularly-shaped chunks of rock and dirt.
  • Large fragments of earth are called islands, and often used to support a stronghold or outpost in the astral void.
• Air: Fragments from the elemental plane of air are usually globes of air (used to supply some ships traveling to airless planes)
• Chaos: Fragments from the elemental plane of chaos are usually jet black globes, and tend to function as spheres of annihilation.
• Law: Fragments from the elemental plane of law are usually globes of crackling, radiant energy.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Gravity

• Subjective, with capable creatures (INT 5 or greater) able to change "down" with a thought (CHA check if under duress).
  • Falling speed is INT x 30' / combat round, specific maneuvers require a CHA check.
• Objects float in space unless able to move on their own (as above) or acted upon by an external force.
• Unintelligent creatures fall "down" at 100' / round.

Languages

• Alignment languages are the same throughout the multiverse.
• The same version of Common is spoken throughout the multiverse, with only the perceived accent of a speaker changing (along with certain slang).
• Each racial language spoken and written on a given plane is a dialect of that same language on other planes.

Outposts

A stronghold, shop, or town in the astral plane, usually established on a large island.

• Those interested in trade will have one (or more) docks for passing ships.
• Outposts with permanent portals to other planes are called ports.

Psychic Clouds

Thin streams of psychic "vapor", hundreds to thousands of miles across, which appear as clouds when viewed from distance.

• 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.

Portals

Usually manifest as flat, shimmering discs of various colors that appear to float in place.

• Can be used by passing through to arrive on the destination plane.
• May lead to any other plane (Inner, Outer, or Material).
• Each different destination has its own color, and a portal leading to a character's home plane will always look silver to them.
• Most portals (99%) are temporary, lasting 1d20 hours.
• 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.
• 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.
• Temporary portals which lead from the astral to other planes are called pools.
• 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.

Surprise

Wandering astral creatures are not usually surprised by traveling vessels. Special circumstances (ex: thick astral clouds, or a psychic storm) may alter this.

Temperature

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.

Time

• Time is quickened: 3 rounds pass in the astral plane for each round that passes in a Material Plane.
• Spells cast in the Astral plane appear to last 3 times as long as listed
• The effects of time don't happen while on the astral plane. This means that characters in the Astral Plane:
  • do not age,
  • do not need to breathe,
  • do not need to eat or drink (which also means that they can't expend a ration to heal), and
  • do not need to sleep (which also means that they can't heal from sleep), although they do still need to rest for 8 hours each day

Travel

Travel by astral cruiser (via the astral currents) to any known location within the astral plane usually takes 3-30 days.

• Travel between most ports under the control of the Astral Trade Union only takes 1d6+2 days.
• 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.
• It takes 1 turn for a ship to dock, and 1 turn for it to disembark.
• An astral cruiser cannot travel by currents while within 1 mile of another active vessel or large astral body (like an island).
  • 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).

Visibility

• An astral body (such as a fragment, island, or even a dead god) may be spotted at a distance of hundreds of miles (based on its size).
• Vessels (and large creatures) may be sighted at great distances by the contrails they leave behind in the psychic clouds that permeate the plane.
  • 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.