Twenty Things That Can Happen During Hyperspace (Saga Edition)

One of the unfortunate things about hyperspace travel in Star Wars role-playing games is that it’s kinda boring: not a lot can happen, because the ship is travelling through an extra-dimensional wormhole. There’s no opportunity for random encounters because literally nothing external to the ship can affect it besides a massive gravity well in realspace. Near the end of my Clone Wars campaign, I decided to try to think up some ways to spice up hyperspace travel and thus was born the "Twenty Things That Can Happen in Hyperspace" table. I only had occasion to roll on it a couple of times, and the PCs had a lot of fun dealing with # 10. I tried to inflict # 5 on them, but their Fortitude Defenses were too high . . .

Twenty Things That Can Happen in Hyperspace

(roll a d20+d6 once during the trip)

2. Some of the food supply has been contaminated. Have each PC roll a DC 20 Fortitude check; success indicates they go down one step on the Condition Track while failure indicates they go down two steps on the Condition Track. The effects are Persistent conditions for 1d3 days.

3. One of the PCs notices a loose floor panel. Underneath, he or she finds something hidden there by a previous passenger or shipbuilder (roll a d6): 1) a 1000xd4 credit chip; 2) a body frozen in Carbonite; 3) a datapad journal containing clues to a hidden treasure; 4) highly-illegal contraband (Spice, disruptors, etc.); 5) a stowaway who has been surviving for weeks or months off of stolen food; 6) a bomb set to explode when the ship drops out of hyperspace or comes within range of a particular planet or ship.

4. The ship develops a radiation leak in the engine room; unless properly suited-up, anyone trying to fix the problem (which takes 1d6 rounds and a DC 20 Mechanics check) suffers Moderate radiation as per the back of the Core rulebook. If the radiation leak is not fixed, the ship drops out of hyperspace at a random location in 1d3 days.

5. One of the PCs (Patient Zero) is a carrier for a rare communicable disease. Although Patient Zero remains unaffected, any PC he or she comes into contact with must roll a DC 25 Fortitude check or go down one step on the condition track each day until falling into a coma. A DC 25 Treat Injury check (which can only be tried once per day) will move the patient a step up the condition track. Only an expensive medicine (1000xd10 credits) will completely cure the disease.

6. The ship suffers a glitch: roll percentile dice on the “Unreliable Results” table (Scum & Villainy p. 55) until a number between 01 and 50 is reached. The glitch takes a full-round action and a DC 15 Mechanics check to repair.

7. The ship suffers a failure: roll percentile dice on the “Unreliable Results” table (Scum & Villainy p. 55) until a number between 51 and 80 is reached. The failure takes a DC 20 Mechanics check and 1 minute to repair.

8. The ship suffers a disabling result: roll percentile dice on the “Unreliable Results” table (Scum & Villainy p. 55) until a number between 81 and 100 is reached. The disabled system takes a DC 25 Mechanics check and 1 hour to repair.

9. From a viewport, ghostly images of strange ships can be seen. Static will appear on the communications system, but faint voices can be discerned carrying cryptic messages about the future.

10. A computer glitch affects all doors with electric locks, jamming them closed, partially open, or slamming them shut at inopportune times. The glitch is deep in the bowels of the computer system, and requires a DC 30 Computer Use check to fix.

11. Alarms blare and investigation in the cockpit shows that, according to the Navicomputer, the ship will crash into a massive object once it reaches its hyperspace destination. The “massive object” is a glitch in the computer system and no actual harm will come to the ship unless the PCs try to have the ship drop out of hyperspace early.

12. Inorganic objects on board the ship begin to crumble into pieces; investigation and successful Knowledge: Physical Sciences will allow PCs to determine that the ship is infected with a carbon-based organism that feeds off of metal and other hard substances. A chemical spray can be developed, but it is highly volatile.

13. A routine systems check shows a small power drain coming from the ship’s outer hull. Once the ship drops out of hyperspace and an EVA search is possible, the PCs realize that a tracking device has been affixed to the ship and is transmitting their present location to person or persons unknown.

14. Pirates have used tractor beams to drag a massive asteroid onto a hyperspace lane, causing ships to suddenly drop out of hyperspace. The pirates may still be present (if the GM can flip to Threats of the Galaxy or has them written up) or there may only be the burned-out husk of a destroyed vessel present.

15. The ship’s intruder alert system (a factory-installed prototype, unknown to the PCs) malfunctions and targets the PCs with a variety of counter-measures, including turning off life support, high-G maneuvers, fire-suppression systems, etc.

16. The ship’s navi-computer indicates that the vessel has reached its destination, but the ship does not drop out of hyperspace and just keeps going and going until a DC 30 Computer Use check fixes the problem.

17. The ship has fallen into a strange hyperspace anomaly. Sometimes ghostly figures will be seen walking around on the PCs ship, and sometimes the PCs will find themselves walking around an unfamiliar ship. Only communication between the two ships will allow for normality to be restored to each.

18. When the ship drops out of hyperspace, an anomaly has altered the normal flow of time. It is 1d12 months later in the normal world than the PCs expected.

19. One or more air leaks have sprung up, and the ship is venting atmosphere. Unless the PCs find the leaks with DC 30 Search checks and plug them up, they will begin to suffocate in 3d20 hours.

20. A problem has developed with the ship’s water supply (either microbes have made it undrinkable for a computer glitch has vented it into space). After three days without water, a DC 20 Endurance check (increasing by 2 each additional day) must be made or the PC goes down a step on the condition track (Persistent)

21-26: Nothing Unusual Takes Place

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