Fantastic Space Travel

A campaign needn't limit itself to relativistic speeds and time dilation. You can jump right into the "high adventure" side of space travel.

Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Drives

Early in Progress Level 7, the development of artificial gravity technology spawns the induction engine, and scientists quickly learn to apply the technology to faster-than-light travel. The early "stardrives" are not truly capable of reaching light speed but offer a vast improvement over conventional engines.

Humanity can finally reach distant stars in mere weeks, advancing space exploration and colonisation, as well as reaching out to contact and trade with intelligent alien life.

Table: Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Drives shows the relativistic cruising speeds of various FTL engines.

Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Engines

Progress Level 6: Fusion Age

Engine	Minimum Ship Size	Starship's Cruising Speed
Fusion torch	Gargantuan	Light speed × 0.5
Ion engine	Huge	Light speed × 0.75
Photon sails	Gargantuan	Light speed × 1

Progress Level 7: Gravity Age

Engine	Minimum Ship Size	Starship's Cruising Speed
Induction engine	Huge	Light speed × 5
Particle impulse engine	Gargantuan	Light speed × 10

Progress Level 8: Energy Age

Engine	Minimum Ship Size	Starship's Cruising Speed
Gravitic redirector	Colossal	Light speed × 25
Inertial flux engine	Gargantuan	Light speed × 15

Progress Level 9: Matter Age

Engine	Minimum Ship Size	Starship's Cruising Speed
Spatial compressor	Colossal	Special

1 A spatial compressor allows a ship to travel from one star system to another instantaneously.

Fantastic Travel Times

Travel times at relativistic speeds are generally easy to calculate. Simply determine how long it takes to arrive at the destination while travelling at the speed of light, then divide the result by the light speed multiplier of the drive being used. Some sample travel times appear in Table: Fantastic Travel Times.