Geographic proximity doesn't count for a lot with the Drift. It's the power and density of Drift beacons in a place that matters most. Everywhere is effectively equidistant in the Drift from the Starstone, to which anyone can navigate in 1d6 days, because of its sheer power as a beacon. Navigating outward takes more time to Near Space and the most time to the Vast, which is where Drift beacons are least dense. Technically, a destination could be a few light-years from the Golarion System (the Pact Worlds) but still be in "the Vast" in this sense.
It's difficult to revisit specific locations and variable how much time it takes to traverse the same "distance" in the Drift, because the plane is constantly and randomly expanding. Still, one could posit "sectors" of Drift beacons that tend to be relatively "closer" to each other in transit times in both Near Space and the Vast. Such groupings would be inexact, but I could see them being desirable for navigation and commerce.
If you're changing this for your setting, you could make it so the Starstone's influence only applies in the Pact Worlds "sector" and you could build comparably cohesive "sectors" around other major entities like the Veskarium or the Azlanti. And you could transpose "Near Space" to mean those "sectors" closest to the Pact Worlds and "the Vast" to those furthest away. I guess you'd want to adjust some of Pact Worlds a lore (a lot of it is based on the Pact Worlds sharing the same system).
Hey guys,
I Have been enjoying hugely the setting for Starfinder and am currently converting over a Star Wars campaign into the setting and mixing and matching the lore and fluff to keep my players on their toes.One question i have, in "my" setting i have made the pact worlds a whole sector rather than one solar system. This leads me to flesh out other "sectors" of space in the starfinder setting such as the Aeon empire and the Vesk empire.
Those two I can see easily being a sector of space each but im slightly unsure about "the Vast". Is this a huge region of space? or would I be ok making it another "sector".
What do you guys think?
The vast basically is anything not near active drift beacons or ones that are not very strong/not used much. So it could actually be the closest physical star system to your current location but with such a weak drift beacon signal it can take you longer to reach than if you went across the galaxy to something rated as near space or even faster to get to absallon station.
So the vast is not a astrographic location but more how good the roads are to get there.
Yeah, "Vast" could include a system 50 lightyears from Golarion. It could include a system 100 THOUSAND lightyears away. But at the same time a system 100 Thousand LY away could be considered 'close' for Drift purposes if it has enough buoys.
Theoretically if the Triune's clergy are inclined enough, a "Vast" system could become 'close' in mere days if they dumped enough buoys there. Or they could repo some from a 'close' system and make it 'vast' again.
Hi, my personal take on the Vast, is that it is the vastness of space that is not well known among the pact system. Many new creatures, aliens and other otherworldly creations' ships come and go through the pact system, they come from the Vast.
Though my theory is, there's a limit to how 'uncharted' a nearby system can be. A solar system just a handful of light-years away, where you can get good astrographical data on it even just from telescopes? Even if it has no drift beacons, its still not *that* hard to navigate towards.That's not how the Drift works.
It sorta has to though.
In the drift description is also includes stuff about how you can use complex calculations to figure stuff out. It also notes a point in the Drift corresponds to another point in real space.
So there's going to be a way to jump to other systems that have no beacons, otherwise no one can ever explore without doing blind jumps and never being able to return to a space unless there's a beacon.
so there has to be some sort of correspondence between 'real world location' and 'drift exit location' that can be done with math (and sensors, I mean, otherwise how can you as a pilot 'make corrections' within your travel if you can't 'see outside to where you're going'.
And I dunno, it doesn't seem like you have to do a short drift jump pop out reorient jump back into drift, rinse repeat. it seems like you can do it one shot while remaining in the drift.
Not any shorter sure, but it does have to mean there is some way to figure out where Point A and Point B connect without having to use a drift beacon, since not all places start with beacons.
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So most people have explained this satisfactorily, I thought I’d sum up.
So the way that FTL travel works in Starfinder is that there is an alternate plane called the drift. The the drift and prime material (normal) plane are connected in a very strange way. Space and distance in one does not relate to the other in a 1 to 1 way.
If there are a lot of drift beacons in the area you want to go to (or the star stone), then travel TO those areas is easy and short.
If there are a decent number in an area you want to go to, then it is called ‘The near’ and travel is a bit longer.
If there are few to none drift beacons in the area you want to go to, then it is called ‘the vast’ and travel could take upwards of a month.
So going from Absolom station to the Veskarium (perhaps thousands of light-years away, but an area with a decent number of drift beacons) is the near.
Going from Absolom station to, say, the neighboring solar system (let’s assume same distance from here to alpha Centauri) 4 light years away would be the vast because there are few to no drift beacons there.
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Though my theory is, there's a limit to how 'uncharted' a nearby system can be. A solar system just a handful of light-years away, where you can get good astrographical data on it even just from telescopes? Even if it has no drift beacons, its still not *that* hard to navigate towards.
Picture it like this. You can go to washington dc from the middle of the country in a day or so driving without much problem. Now picture trying to travel from the middle of the country on foot up a mountain only 10 miles away using only goat trails. It could wind up taking days to get to the top to get to your destination even though it is close enough to your starting point you could see it with binoculars.
The drift beacons are basically making highways through the drift well lit travel paths to guide you swiftly to your destination. Without the beasons and given the drift is infinite in size and every part of of the drift corresponds to a real universe location but things right next to each other in the real world can be on opposite sides of the drift navigation with minimal to no beacons would be a slow and painstaking journey.