Appointments, drift travel, and downtime


General Discussion


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I imagine most Starfinder games would have downtime, whether the GM likes it or not. Why? Because of the very nature of drift travel necessitates it.

For example, say you have a benefactor who sends you on a fetch quest. If it takes you 1d6 days to travel there, you won't say "we'll be back in a day or two or four" you say we will return in 12 days, plus whatever amount of time we expect it will take to retrieve the package while in location. In all likelihood both parties will agree to meet again in roughly two galactic standard weeks.

Culturally, people making appointments related to space travel would always say the maximum possible time for their drift engine as it's the only thing that can ever be guaranteed.

So you roll 2d6 for a two way trip and get two ones. Instant downtime.

You won't always be so lucky, but you will have some downtime more often than not.

Sure there may be campaigns without drift travel, such as being stranded on a planet, for example, but I think we can all agree that those would be the exception rather then the norm.

So...don't waste all that free time. ☺


I would imagine it would be like shipping back in the age of sail or early steam powered age. You know about when the ship should make it there but if weather is bad or there are mechanical issues it could take longer or if they got a good wind/current it could be shorter than expected So you are not seeing up an appointment to be there by X day you are setting up an appointment to be there in X window of days.


Always keep a few crates of UPBs on your ship. That way, if getting to your destination takes longer than expected, you can spend time crafting new gear.


It also is why it is a good idea to have one of your ship pod areas setup for entertainment. Trips to the vast are going to take days to weeks so best to have ways to pass the time.


Hmm, maybe require Will saves after the first week in the Drift, if you don't have some notable entertainment options available or work to keep busy with. . .


Metaphysician wrote:
Hmm, maybe require Will saves after the first week in the Drift, if you don't have some notable entertainment options available or work to keep busy with. . .

All Drift and No Play make Ysoki go crazy...

Exo-Guardians

rook1138 wrote:
Metaphysician wrote:
Hmm, maybe require Will saves after the first week in the Drift, if you don't have some notable entertainment options available or work to keep busy with. . .
All Drift and No Play make Ysoki go crazy...

Fast & Furious: Ysokio Drift?


Ravingdork wrote:

I imagine most Starfinder games would have downtime, whether the GM likes it or not. Why? Because of the very nature of drift travel necessitates it.

For example, say you have a benefactor who sends you on a fetch quest. If it takes you 1d6 days to travel there, you won't say "we'll be back in a day or two or four" you say we will return in 12 days, plus whatever amount of time we expect it will take to retrieve the package while in location. In all likelihood both parties will agree to meet again in roughly two galactic standard weeks.

Culturally, people making appointments related to space travel would always say the maximum possible time for their drift engine as it's the only thing that can ever be guaranteed.

So you roll 2d6 for a two way trip and get two ones. Instant downtime.

You won't always be so lucky, but you will have some downtime more often than not.

Sure there may be campaigns without drift travel, such as being stranded on a planet, for example, but I think we can all agree that those would be the exception rather then the norm.

So...don't waste all that free time. ☺

Of course, if you roll the two ones and get back 10 days early, you can call up your benefactor and say "Hey! We're back early. We've got your McGuffin."

Most of the time, you won't need to wait around until the scheduled meet.


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But what you do with all the free time? Crafting isn't so hot anymore, retraining is done with an item... earn a living skill checks?


Just be sure to download your shows before entering the Drift, and binge-watch to your circulatory-system-pressure-organ's content!


What happens in the Drift, stays in the Drift.


Even when flying in the Drift, nobody is going to purge those manifolds except the mechanic, there's plenty of maintenance to do. High stakes card games, envoys filming their vlog, though your team scientist was able to determine that that tree worm that bit Captain Ross wasn't toxic nor a bio-hazard during the field tests, which phylum does it belong, is it a new species, you cannot learn that in a fire fight. You got relationships to build, some crafting to do if you're into that sort of thing, learning new skills, new languages - but somebody better check the scanners, at the edge of your sensor range there's some anomaly trying to keep apace with your ship dipping in and just out of sensory range, maybe it's another ship, but why aren't they trying to communicate - why is it following you...!?

There's plenty to do when it's "down time".


It is like the old age of sail but with more automation. Once you are locked in other than doing your watch on the bridge there is likely an awful lot of free time. Stuff like this is why back in the age of sail people got tasked with a lot of cleaning and random maintenance stuff that probably did not need to be done but kept a ship full of bored men to much free time to be destructive. The crew levels on starfinder ships is pretty low which helps a lot and the ships overall seem pretty roomy for the crew size so gives you room to do your own thing to pass time.


Referring back to the OP< I'd also suggest that the community at large within the setting is less focused on time in the way that we are in real life. Nowadays we expect things in a certain timely manner because we have a decent handle on how long things should take, you can track your packages through amazon, whatever.

But on the larger scale of Starfinder civilization, I'd think it'd be appropriate that people are ok with longer timelines if interstellar travel is expected.


How can I, the owner/operator of the Dead Meet Brewing Company and Dating Service (the only dating service that guarantees matching you with the corpse of your dreams, and the only brewing company to age our solar system-famous porters in a barrel also containing a real live re-dead undead ‘person’) claim to have the freshest corpses around if I can’t guarantee a timely arrival, though?

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