Hyperspace and our understanding of it has changed over the decades since Star Wars first hit movie theaters in 1977. Only as we began to play roleplaying games dedicated to Star Wars did we start to see mechanical rules developed regarding the dos and don’ts of hyperspace travel and those have stayed consistent across multiple sets of rules. Comics set in the millennia prior to the films began giving more history to faster-than-light exploration of the galaxy, but none of that upset what was generally thought to be the rules of using hyperspace. Novels and videogames maintained consistency as well, but that was expected as they were also part of what was then Star Wars canon at the time. Then the most recent Star Wars trilogy of films set a lot of what we knew about hyperspace on its ear as we watched our heroes do things that were thought to be impossible by those of us who were steeped in the lore of the universe. It seemed as if nothing we knew about hyperspace travel was correct. How would this affect our roleplaying campaigns? How would GMs handle it?
With this article, I am going to start a deep dive into hyperspace and discuss the history and lore of it from an RPG and historical perspective. I want to discuss the RPG mechanics about hyperspace travel, delve into the history we have gotten through various media sources about hyperspace technology, and close with a discussion about new game mechanics to reflect what we have seen in the most recent Star Wars movies. My goal is to evolve your gamemastering to handle this changing environment we now find ourselves in!
Hyperspace 101 – The Basics
A ship that can travel at light speed is a frequent staple of sci-fi stories and movies, but there are real challenges associated with getting ships to travel that fast. It is mostly a matter of energy and mass; as an object accelerates towards 185,000 miles per second its mass becomes infinite and the energy required to move it becomes infinite as well. Another issue is that distances in space are so great that even at light speed it would take humans years to reach our nearest celestial neighbor. Hyperspace is the way Star Wars gets around these sticky scientific roadblocks.
In Star Wars, starships travel at faster-than-light speeds by use of hyperdrive engines. At speeds less than the speed of light, or sub-light speeds, ships use sublight drives to move about what is considered realspace. When a ship needs to travel at faster-than-light speed it engages its hyperdrive which propels it into another dimension called hyperspace. An observer watching another ship transition into hyperspace will see the ship rapidly accelerate and vanish as it reaches light speed and beyond. Meanwhile, occupants of the ship jumping to hyperspace will see elongating starlines as they rapidly accelerate and their relative time slows to nothing for a brief moment. Once in hyperspace, the ship appears to be travelling in a tunnel of mottled light as it speeds to its destination.
It is important to understand, though, that while hyperspace is a dimension unto itself it is also coterminous with realspace. Everything that exists in realspace has a shadow equivalent in hyperspace. Colliding with a shadow of a planet or star in hyperspace would be equivalent to having the ship collide with that celestial body in realspace. That is why precise calculations are necessary to have safe travels through hyperspace. Even so, accidents can happen and a rogue planetoid or other uncharted object can become a fatal unforeseen hazard at anytime.
A navigation computer, navicomputer, or nav computer, is the navigational brain of a starship that plots the ship’s course through hyperspace. These dedicated computers are responsible for providing the precise calculations necessary to get to your desired destination safely. On larger ships, these are permanently installed components much like life support systems and they provide astrogation data to the command crew or pilot. On smaller craft, such as starfighters, the function of the navicomputer may be served by an astromech droid or by pre-loading coordinates into the hyperdrive system.
If a hyperdrive engine fails, most ships have a backup hyperdrive that can get the ship moving at faster-than-light speeds again though oftentimes at a substantially reduced speed. Still, it is better than limping along on sublight engines for weeks or years to reach the nearest space station or starport. The wise starship captain does not neglect regular preventive maintenance on his hyperdrive.
Not all ships have their own hyperdrive engines. If a vessel’s purpose does not require it to travel interstellar distances than why waste the cost or space of installing a hyperdrive? System patrol ships, short-range starfighters, tugs, and space barges are some of the common ships that lack permanent hyperdrives. Even so, some fighter craft can add hyperspace capability through accessory devices such as hyperdrive docking rings which were used by the Jedi Order on both the Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor and the Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor during the waning days of the Republic. The older CloakShape fighter had an optional hyperdrive sled that could be purchased to make it hyperspace-capable.
Finally, most ships equipped with a hyperdrive also have a hyperdrive inhibitor or hyperdrive cut-out that will keep the ship from having a collision with stars and planets. Once the gravity mass-shadow of a sun or other substantial body is detected by the inhibitor, the hyperdrive will be disengaged and the ship will be suddenly dropped out of hyperspace to avoid collision. Conversely, this safety device will often prevent ships from jumping into hyperspace when too close to a gravity well. This mechanism can be exploited to purposely pull ships from hyperspace and/or prevent their escape in some cases.
Methods and equipment of effecting this forced reversion to realspace will be discussed in greater detail as we continue this discussion on hyperspace and its evolving nature in Part 2.
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