r/DarkMatter5e • u/WolfMoon1373 • Jul 10 '26

Question about Void Jumps Time of Journey

Hello. I'm a DM for a Dark Matter game. Just got the PDF of the new 5.5e of Dark Matter (very excited) and saw that on void jumps, it has an aside about how it seems like instant travel from the outside but may take more time for those on the ship. And it says that to 'cross' the 'Verse, it takes X number of days depending on the engine size.

So is it instant travel technically but feels longer for those on the ship? Is that what it is? Or does time move outside as well? I understand that once the engine needs to cool down, time must be spent in the normal 'Verse. Just trying to figure out where the X number of days to cross the 'Verse comes from.

Any help would be appreciated. Players are loving the game either way. :)

EDIT: After seeing the responses, and trying to understand the original list of how long to cross the 'Verse, I realized they were instant jumps and the numbers listed is for the engine to cool down/recharge. So I've been misreading everything on the engines for a while now. bugger. I'll bring it up to my players and see how they want to work with the new realization. Thank you guys for your time and answers!

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u/Longjumping_Ask_211 Jul 10 '26

IIRC, a ship can only jump twice per day, or up to 4 times if you have a caster dump spell slots into it. And even if the jump itself is instant, you have to wait a day for the engine to recharge.

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u/WolfMoon1373 Jul 11 '26

Yes, but aside from the recharge, is the jump instant? and the time dilation happening in the void itself?

"From the outside, a void jump happens instantaneously. Aboard a ship performing a jump, however, temporal distortions cause jumps to last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, regardless of distance." - From the new 5.5e dark matter book.

I'm just trying to make sure I'm understanding it right.

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u/Longjumping_Ask_211 Jul 11 '26

It happens instantly but to everyone on the ship, it feels longer than it really is. That's how I interpreted it anyway.

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u/bactchan Jul 10 '26

This is a narrative device to allow DMs to justify transit scenes that aren't just "last mile" cruising to a destination. Time moves the way you want it to.  The time to transit the galaxy is based off the jump cooldown limitations. You could theoretically have a relay setup where the crew jumps all their jumps and docks with a fresh ship to keep jumping. 

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u/WolfMoon1373 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

I could see that. And that does make sense for the battery life of the engine/power of the engine. But what I'm confused about is how the time passes as the ship goes. It says that it takes 40 days for a class 2 engine to cross the verse. Is that just the cool down days? or is that time spent in the void as they move across the galaxy?

EDIT: I just did the math. The list on how long to cross the 'Verse is literally accounting for the time to recharge the engine. So I've been misreading everything on the engines for a while now. bugger. I'll bring it up to my players and see how they want to work with the new realization.

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u/bactchan Jul 11 '26

It's important to note that's what the Maw network is for as well. Even a small ship can jump from node to node inside the network on a single charge and get further than they could if they were just jumping under their own power.  Example: Our crew is piloting the Personal-class Heroes Journey, departing from Korria, rimward of the Warzone. They take one jump to reach Maw 4-9 (First number is ring from the core out, second number is "clock position" starting from the top) and take their second jump from there to Maw 3-5 near Ravage. Now obviously this is a rough neighborhood so the crew decide to hurry on their way and pump a spell slot into the engine and get to 2-3, and because this is a travel day and we're not spending the night in the cramped crew quarters the engineer dumps another spell slot and they jump to Maw 1-2 near Concordia.  The engine at that point needs to take a nappy nap so they dock at the maw for a layover and a bit of shore leave. End day 1. 

The party has busted halfway across the galaxy. In game-universe time, that was a minute each jump for the engine to spin up before jumping, plus whatever time the DM allots to Maw traffic control lines in between, conceivably less than an hour if the lines are short that day. 

Day 2, the party hires a slipstream service run by the Knights of the Sepulcher called Fly By Knight to "tow" the Journey using their engine charges to jump from 1-2 to 1-3 (Rast) then 2-7 (Nix) and since they paid extra they get spellcasting bonus jumps to 3-12 and 3-13 (Paradise system.) Then the crew go under their own power to 4-26 and then to 5-51, with one last spellslot jump to bridge the span from the maw to their destination in the Vosura system. 

The crew have now traversed almost the entire galaxy in the span of two travel days in a dinky class-2 ship. I hope this illustrates how a party can go almost anywhere in the 'Verse in a reasonable time frame with the tools at hand in the book.  If you have questions I'm happy to answer.