Planing

All modern spaceships that are designed to go in-between systems using the odd, white-space known as Zip Space have either a Zip Drives or a far rarer Utopia Drive. Each ship will use their Planing Skill to determine the success or failure of that jump.

Mechanics of Planing

Preparation Stage

Determine Distance

The pilot needs to determine the Distance between the system they are in to the system they intend to arrive in. The total number of Hexes involved in the journey (including the current and target system) are the total Distance (which will be added to the ship's Scale for the base Target Difficulty).

Travel Time

The time that it will take to travel between the systems is 2+(2x Hexes Between Target & Current System's Hexes) Days. The Pilot can choose to increase their Planing Difficulty by the number of Days they wish to shave off their time prior to jumping.
That calculation changes in a system-to-system jump, where the scale shifts to hours instead of minutes.

Create Aspect (Optional)

Though it is possible to make a Planing Jump without first Preparing for it by determining distances, angles, and calculating the parameters of the jump, it is never recommended. Some ships use AI or dedicated Planing Calculators to provide this calculations rapidly, but otherwise it will take a Pilot or Navigator's efforts. When a Zip or Utopia Drive is turned on (ie; when intent to jump is declared), a Pilot or Navigator may use their action to Create an Aspect called "Jump Calculation" using their Piloting skill. As normal, if out of any stressful or time-constraining situations, a free Invoke will be gained on 2 with an additional one on 5. However, if the situation is stressful, the free Invoke is gained on 3/6.
Point to Point Calculations: The Calculations are determined from the ship's current point of origin to the designated system, so if the Ship moves any Zones prior to making its Planing Jump, it will remove the created Aspect.

Planing Jump

The Pilot may initiate the Planing Jump (with or without preparation). The Difficulty of the jump is calculated based on Distance + Ship's Scale. Other factors such as being in a dangerous environment, under active attack, or in a Situational Aspect/Obstacle may affect the difficulty.

Calculating Success

• Critical Success: The Ship jumps into Z-Space as planned. Due to the extreme success, either the jump will not count towards the Jump Maximum, Lower the Time Taken during the Jump, or emerge with a Boost (Speed/Direction/in a non-Outer System Zone).
• Success: The Ship jumps into Z-Space and will emerge at the time-scale planned.
• Failure: The Ship either:
• Jump Anyways, Internal Damage - The ship still jumps into Z-Space, however the ship immediately takes a Consequence equal to the shifts missed by (1-2: Mild; 3-4: Moderate; etc).
• Jump Anyways, Misjump - The ship still jumps into Z-Space, however the ship will miscalculate the jump. This will result in either emerging in a different system (GM rolls randomly, adding the Shifts failed by to the variable distance) or resulting in a Time Dialation (drastically altering the time taken to arrive).
• Fail to Jump - The ship takes Stress equal to the failed Shifts and creates a Z-Drive Discharge Consquence on the Zone and surrounding Zones equal to the ship's Scale (ie: Scale 2 has the wave explode 2 zones in each direction). The Discharge is a Radiation Wave Obstacle with an Intensity equal to the Planing Jump's DC (Distance+Scale). This Situational Aspect will increase the Z-Drive and Manueverability checks within its affected zones by its Intensity and may cause Systems damage when traveled through or into. It disperses at Intensity 1 per Solar Day if unaffected.
• Critical Failure: In addition to the standard Failure consequence, the Z-Drive uses an additional slot of its Maximum Jump.

Emerging from Z-Space

Location

Should the planing jump have been a success, all planing jumps are calculated to the Outer Zone of any Solar or Star System. A Critical Success may land within the Interior Zone.

Jump Wake

Emerging from Z-Space always leaves behind a tachyon distortion field typically called a "Jump Wake". This wake is a Situational Aspect on the Zone landed in equal to the Planing Skill of the Ship that emerged from Z-Space. A Sensor/Scan check equal to the Planing Skill detects its presence, however the field typically dissipates in a number of hours equal to the ship's Planing Skill. Detection of this field grows harder for every Orbital Zone between the two entities.
Example: A ship with a Planing Skill of 2 emerges in the Outer Zone of a System. Its emergence creates a Jump Wake with an Intensity of 2 for 2 hours. A ship emerging in the Outer Zone would only need an Active or Passive success of 2 to detect it. However, a ship sitting in the Orbit of a planet in the Interior Zone would need a Scan5 (1(Planets Orbit)+1(Interior Orbit)+1(Outer Orbit) + 2) to detect that a ship had jumped into the system.

Drive Cooldown

Zip Drives require a cooldown period, 10 minutes - Planing Rating, between re-engaging to avoid any potential damage to their engines. A Zip-Drive trying to jump again without that cooldown must resist a Systems attack with intensity equal to the minutes remaining. Any shifts must be soaked by a Consequence named "Z-Drive (Malfunctioning > Damaged > Broken)". Utopia Drives do not require that same Cooldown, but instead require Utopian Cells equal to their Planing Rating per jump. Each Cell consumes 1 Utopian Shard.

Maximum Jumps per Refitting

Zip Drives can jump a maximum number of times equal to their Planing Skill before they need time to cool down. They will then need to wait Days equal to their Planing skill without using the Z-Drive, though this time can be reduced upon a successful Technical check over the course of 3 hours equal to Days Remaining+Planing. Success reduces the cooldown time by 1 Day (2 with Critical Success). However, failure upon this check will overload the engines and immediately damage the engine, making it a risk few pilots enjoy taking without create reasons.