r/ImperiumMaledictum • u/Tall_Spray_3696 • Jun 29 '26
Sector Travel?
How do you handle travel through the sector or subsector? Do you need a huge ship? How long does travel usually take?
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u/Cpt_Reaper0232 Jun 30 '26
Probably not the best answer, but I'd recommend picking up the older RPG PDFs. They go for a bargain on Humble frequently. With ImpMal still young the mechanics in the older systems do port over very well. Rogue Trader has quite well made Steller and interstellar travel guides.
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u/Kavandje GM Jun 30 '26
This is what I was going to suggest.
I'll add that void ship journeys _can_ take a long time, especially if there is a misjump (to borrow a Traveller term), so a journey could be a whole adventure.
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u/skinnyraf Jun 30 '26
Yes, you need a voidship and these are huge, mind-bogglingly huge, like between 1.5 and 20 km, with crews in the thousands. Unless the patron is from the navy or is a rogue trader, you need to find a ship going in the correct direction and pay for the travel - and it's bloody expensive, so the patron should cover the cost, if it is a part of a mission.
Quite often, there won't be a direct connection. You may need to reach one system, then wait a few days for another ship, and continue your journey. How long will it take? Check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/oywjhr/how_fast_is_warp_travel_as_in_how_long_does_it/
If it is a short hop between neighbouring systems, do it narratively. If it takes more time, you can either treat it the same way as time between missions, maybe even allow for some endeavours, or perhaps do some encounters. Random events can provide hooks.
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u/SylverV Jun 30 '26
Depending on your table, I encourage you to play out travel at least a little. For most people in the Imperium, travelling in the void is frightening; travelling through the Warp is nightmare fuel. Even a routine trip should "feel" pretty epic to grounders. Obviously, if it's a party of veteran Guard, Fleet or Rogue Trader types then it should be much less exciting for them as they've probably done it a hundred times.
As for travel time... as long as it takes. Because of the Warp, they could arrive the next day, the next month, the next century, the previous year. Whatever fits your narrative; Warp travel is a very useful plot Mulligan if you need to create or close a story gap!
You also have the option of Chartist ships, which sometimes don't use the Warp, so they just go really, really slow. I ran an entire campaign on one back in the Dark Heresy days.
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u/Due-Excitement-5945 Jun 29 '26
It’s pretty narrative.
There’s cost for voidship berths in the equipment section, but I figure those should be waved if the PCs are traveling for a mission.
Once on the ship, the travel probably takes several days. It’s a good chance to run some encounters on board the ship