impact of Drift Crisis on travel time, Navigate DC and random encounters

[Zor D'Lan]

My group is jumping back into Starfinder (1e) after a 2 year break. We are on book 2 of the Fly Free or Die AP and just introduced the Drift Crisis!

Literally, on their last jump ... "it happened" and now all drift travel is "in chaos".

(As GM) I've decided to leave it "broken" since the players are not focused on being heroes and fixing things ... instead, they plan to try to capitalize on the situation.

(i.e. The Drift crashed and now, its going to be chaotic for days/weeks/months as it slowly "re-stabilizes" into Drift 2.0 ... which I want to be near the end of the campaign, not happen over night)

This raises a lot of questions, that didn't come up when playing previous APs.

DESTINATION DCs (for pilot check to navigate)

Piloting skill descriptions have a vague listing ...
DC 10 home base (very familiar)
DC 15 seldom visited
DC 25 unfamiliar

There is no DC for "visited once" or "someone described it to me" ...
>> DC 20 visited once <<

HOW DO WE TRACK THIS?
Does the PILOT PC need to track every "drift navigation" they have ever done? Since it ignores your starting location, at least a list of every "drift port destination" they have navigated to seems relevant.

DC during CRISIS ?
The pilot skill mentions GM can "increase DC by 5 or 10" (based on circumstances)

INITIAL (impact of) DRIFT CRISIS
So, its seems fair to say "all traffic" is now slow ... using the default 10d6 "slow drift travel" assumption. maybe 7d6 for high traffic routes?
Maybe even the hard coded Harbors remain as 3d6 travel time (such as Absalom station)

Does it starts out as +10 DC to navigate anywhere? is that even "possible to navigate" for level 3 players?? if not, is the +5 DC a more appropriate DC to use to represent the chaotic nature of the drift ??

if its +5 for Pact Worlds / Near Space and +10 for the Vast .. it would greatly impact the SELL PRICE of cargo.

SELL PRICE (impact to)
Seems like the sell price (per lot) should go up; as all shipping has been impacted and supply is low while demand is high?

The rules only show adjustments from (-2 to +1 bp/lot) based on destination. Since all routes are now going from 5d6 to 10d6 average flight time ... seems like a +1 or +2 BP boost could be relevant.

Especially to make up for fact they can only complete 1/2 as many deliveries in the same time "during the crisis".

DRIFT CRISIS RANDOM ENCOUNTERS
lastly .. what about Random encounters?

Is it simply a flat increase in chance like +25% or (x2 normal chance) of a single encounter ?
or is it per day traveling in the drift, there is a chance for one to occur?
or just a single encounter per drift travel ??

[John Mangrum]

1. Destination DCs

I'd slot "visited once" at "seldom visited" and "only have coordinates" as "unfamiliar" but adding the DC 20 option is fine. I wouldn't allow navigation based on just someone's "description" though.

2. How Do We Track Tbis?

I read the navigation rules as meaning the character who makes the Piloting check, aka the pilot. And yes, you'd need a basic mental map of where the pilot has been to before.

3. Initial Impact of the Drift Crisis

Initially, the Drift beacon network is entirely offline, so Drift engines just don't function. This seems to last a few weeks at most before the Drift comes back online in malfunctioning fashion.

4. Sell Price

Yes, all setting lore suggests that selling (and purchase) prices should go up. Interstellar economic chains all but collapse during the early days of the Crisis. (The book even suggests that interplanetary commerce nigh-on collapses as well, despite only being delayed by 2 days in mechanical terms.)

[Metaphysician]

John Mangrum wrote:

4. Sell Price

Yes, all setting lore suggests that selling (and purchase) prices should go up. Interstellar economic chains all but collapse during the early days of the Crisis. (The book even suggests that interplanetary commerce nigh-on collapses as well, despite only being delayed by 2 days in mechanical terms.)

Supply chains and economic networks don't exist in a vacuum, is the thing. If suddenly *everything* people were shipping from planet to planet gained a surprise added ~2 day transit time, that would cause the whole system to seize up for quite a while. If a component/ingredient is delayed, then whatever you were going to make from it is also delayed, even if you have everything else ready. Its not just components, though; its also shipping and warehousing capacity. If a ship is delayed, then finished saleable goods that were supposed to go on that ship have to sit and wait. And those goods sitting and waiting fill up warehouse space, so even deliveries or manufacturing that *does* happen may be stuck, because there's no room to store it. Its all friction, that makes more friction; thus it makes perfect sense that in-system economics would also more or less collapse for a few weeks.

And that is only looking at purely in-system trade. Which isn't the case in the Starfinder setting, since drift drives make interstellar travel convenient and fairly quick. This means that a sizable chunk of the trade network includes nodes and spokes that *aren't* just delayed by +2 days, but are just *gone* for the foreseeable future. That cargo ship full of raw materials, or that transport of finished goods, or hell that *ship* period? MIA, and has to be outright replaced before things can get functioning again. In a well-developed economy like the Pact Worlds, this may be a solvable crisis since there is plenty of alternative sources and economic activity that can be repurposed. For a more outlying world? Full on emergency, because they might not have *any* viable local sources, or spare ships. . .

[Zor D'Lan]

from drift crisis wrote:

In the weeks that followed, the drift began to right itself ...

Re-reading it again, does seem to suggest that initially its completely "down" as the crisis triggers. So simply no drift travel for the first few days (or weeks).

crisis, in progress

Ending the crisis wrote:

consider whether you even want the Drift crisis to end. The galaxy could remain fractured, with Drift travel slower than before and especially dangerous

(above) is what I am attempting to "flesh out", rather than simply jump to "Drift 2.0" and move on ... which requires some mechanics or rules to address.

Planning to just describe it as "chaotic and dangerous" plus "slow" (10d6 by default) ... and let the players experience the crisis for awhile to establish a "new norm" of sorts.

Their starship has an "experimental drive adapter" that will allow them to utilize alternate FTL travel, with all the risks and adventure it might bring.

buy/sell cargo
As I'm no economics major, I'm still at a loss how to handle FIND CARGO or FIND BUYER skill checks ... as well as balancing BP earned from their cargo hauling.

Rather than building complex spreadsheets of supply/demand and so on ... hoping to find a simpler (random) approach to "simulate" the same effect.