Cosmic Peril Fantasy: Survival & Travel

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While every game of CPF is different, this page contains an overview of how CPF evokes a sense of gritty, yet simple-to-play survival and travel.

Water:

While unprotected in water, the following rules apply:

1. Disadvantage on all skills involving the use of hands or talking
2. At athletics 1, swimming speed is half your normal speed, and may require athletics checks depending on currents
3. Player characters can hold their breath for 30 seconds. Speaking, or losing consciousness counts as loss of breath.
4. One full round past losing breath = death by suffocation
5. Add 1d6 pressure damage per round to non-native creatures and vehicles starting at 200m depth
6. Every additional 100m past 200m depth, add another +1d6 pressure damage per round. So, 1km depth is (1d6+8d6)=9d6 damage per round.
7. Special suits and vehicles will have safe dive ratings that will modify the original 200m threshhold.

Radiation:

Radiation can have widely varying intensity and particle types. Some are more dangerous than others. Generally we are speaking of ionizing radiation.

1. Special suits and vehicles have specific levels of tolerance for different types of ionizing radiation. These may be measured units of "rems".
2. Light amounts of radiation might cause a Physical saving throw after an hour of exposure, and then apply radiation sickness or a level of exhaustion.
3. Signifiant radiation in an area might demand physical saves every 5 minutes.
4. Extreme radiation will likely forgo the save and provide continuos direct damage and/or exhaustion levels.
5. Some more exotic types of radiation might cause harmful mutations.
6. Other types might specifically damage the brain, causing statistic damage to intelligence, wisdom, charisma etc.

Other Hazards:

Here is a sample though not an exhaustive list of dangers that might challenge players:

1. Falling damage. 1d6 per 3 meters fallen in standard gravity.
2. Low/high gravity. Low gravity causes muscle atrophy over time while high gravity causes exhaustion over time.
3. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, mundane, nanite, and psionic
4. Extreme temperatures and equipment which protects against certain levels of it
5. Pools of acid, magma, toxic waste, paralytic brine, liquid nitrogen, nanite sludge, electric arcs, poison gas
6. Oceans of exotic liquids such as fuels, acids, gelatin, etc

Overland Travel

• For overland travel, generally someone skilled in animals or vehicle piloting will be in charge of the minute-to-minute driving, while another player will be electec as the navigator.
• The pilot skill or animals skill (depending on if a vehicle or animal is used for travel) is used for immediate problems such as chases, bad weather, broken roads, etc., while the result of the navigation roll will determine if the party gets lost.
• On a failed navigation roll, generally this will leave the party in a bad situation such as:
  • Realize too late you are in a hazardous and/or hostile area
  • The party may be led into an ambush
  • Realize that you have not only gone the wrong way, but bad weather has come up
  • The party may find themselves in a desolate place, with a key resource drained to 0 such as food, water, fuel, oxygen

Normal Space Travel

• Normal space travel uses something called an impulse engine or ion pulse engine, fueled by power cells. One power cell generally gives 1 day of in-system travel for a small space ship of the size that the party usually uses.
• Similar to overland travel, generally you select one player as the pilot and one as the navigator.
• The pilot skill is used for immediate challenges such as blockade runs, stealth runs, debris field navigation, entering turbulent atmospheres and unstable wormholes, etc
• To travel from the innermost to the outermost planet in a given star system will generally take from 3 to 14 days. It depends on the size (and gravitation) of the star, the size of the system, and the tech level of your impulse engine.
• A smaller trip, for example from a rocky planet to its moon, might take 1-2 hours. A trip from one gas giant moon to another could take up to 8 hours.
• The pilot skill or animals skill (depending on if a vehicle or animal is used for travel) is used for immediate problems such as chases, bad weather, broken roads, etc., while the result of the navigation roll will determine if the party gets lost.

Hyper Space

• Hyper space is a parallel plane or dimension to normal space. It is more compressed and thus used as a shortcut when traveling between star systems, a trip which would otherwise take many thousands of years.
• Hyper drives are a type of technology which allows switching between these parallel dimensions to take advantage of the short cut. Any starship larger than a small tug, miner or interceptor will have these.
  • In the default setting, hyper drives can only be manufactured with the careful advice and assistance of master psychics skilled in teleportation, telekinetics and metaphysics, as well as master scientists and engineers.
  • Since many civilizations do not posess such rare talents, they rely on ancient relic engines that they cannot reproduce, or slavishly pay tribute to a civilization that does.
• Hyper drives use hyperion fuel rods, a very rare mineral of which no stable long-term supply has yet been found.
• Generally, 1 hyperion rod is burned per 1 day of hyperspace travel which corresponds to 1 light year of normal space travel. However, some hyperlanes are nonlinear and may cost more fuel.
• The average distance between stars can range from 1 light-year to 20, but is usually around 5.
• Hyper space is a chaotic, dark, greyish, stormy, cloudy dimension of inchoate things. Some theorize that it is another universe in its infancy, hence the compression.
  • Experts recommend that everyone keep the windows on the starship closed while traveling in hyperspace. Otherwise, mental health has been known to suffer.
• Hyper space is not empty, but rather quite dense. Generally, only small, shifting, nonlinear tunnel-like routes through the stormy black clouds are safe to travel in. These are called 'hyperlanes'.
• Hyper lanes can be entered or exited at a certain point known as the 'rim' of a star system, usually the orbit of the furthest planet.
• There are not always hyperlanes between every star system, and sometimes new lanes form or old lanes fade away. Sometimes whole areas of the galaxy may be isolated by lack of viable lanes.

Hyper Space Travel Procedure

1. First, select a pilot and navigator, and backups if available.
2. They work together, in shifts, for the trip. Particularly long trips may cause exhaustion from the constant focus. Players who are not assigned to these roles may work on downtime projects or rest and heal.
3. The navigator makes a roll first, versus a TN set by the GM based on the turbulence of this area and the stability of the lane. TNs can range from 6 to 30 and higher.
4. Navigation roll outcomes:
   • Critical Success: Half fuel cost and half travel time, or better. Anomalies on the way can be investigated or bypassed.
   • Success: The trip is uneventful. Anomalies on the way can be investigated or bypassed, but there is a risk of unsafe approach or extended detour.
   • Failure: A problem occurs. Examples:
     • Fuel rods suddenly spark, pilot must choose to jettison fuel or risk fuel explosion.
     • Fuel leaks or burns out, you arrive safely but with no fuel left.
     • Arrived not at the destination but at a nearer or further interstellar object.
     • Dropped out of hyperspace in a nebula, position unknown.
     • Arrived near target but dangerously close to an object.
   • Critical Failure: You won't all die immediately, but something very bad happens. A wide variety of things are possible.
     • Generally on all critical failures, the first thing to occur is a fuel explosion and ship systems damage.
     • After that, any number of dimensional-shifting complications must be dealt with, such as phasing, time travel, size shifting, alternate universes, one-way wormwholes to other galaxies, etc,
5. Anomalies: Anomalies are hazards or points of interest encountered along a trip down a given hyperlane. Generally the party will need to decide whether to try to investigate or avoid them. Either way they will likely prompt a piloting check and a drop out of hyperspace. Examples:
   • Hyperspace storms. These are a simple question of either making an active piloting check to try to pass through them undamaged at great risk, or take extra time and fuel to go around them (which may lead to more anomalies).
   • Hyperspace exclusion zones. Some rare minerals, psionic entities, and strange creatures project a hyperspace exclusion zone as they travel. All hyperdrives fail to function in this zone. Options include negotiating with the projector, requesting permission to travel across, or going around.
   • Uncharted black hole or rogue planet. These very dark objects are often hard for navigators to see in the dark between stars. If encountered on your way, you may investigate them or avoid them at the cost of some time.
   • Hyperbergs. Solid matter floating through hyperspace. Extremely dangerous hazard given high speed and narrow lanes, but also of great scientific value.
   • Hyperbeings. They may migrate across lanes, temporarily blocking them or presenting collision/combat hazards. They may bar passage with important information, offers or demands.