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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SWBaxter" data-source="post: 2263610" data-attributes="member: 27926">I generally prefer jump-type methods, including variations like a Star Wars or Babylon 5 style hyperspace. Main reason is that physics geeks (there's usually at least one in the group) have an easier time suspending their disbelief, since such travel is merely highly implausible given present knowledge of physics instead of pretty much impossible.   With FTL travel through real space, you run into all the old problems outlined by Einstein - time dilates, mass and energy required both become infinite, it's possible to create paradoxes, and so on - a little googling on the subject should fill you in. With jump setups the problem you run into is you have to define how jumps work from whole cloth, since there's no real world examples to fall back on. How many problems you have with either one is dependent on how closely your players examine the mechanics of interstellar travel, and how much they try to stretch the envelope.  A third approach I kind of like is what 2300 AD uses - their handwave is that somebody figured out a way to use quantum tunneling (a phenomenon where subatomic particles have been observed to for all intents and purposes teleport from one location to another) on a macro scale, and move a ship up to 100 m or so at a time. By doing that hundreds of times a second, the ship can get from one place to another at FTL speeds without actually moving in the Newtonian sense, bypassing a lot of Einstein's objections. This has a variety of slightly weird effects that 2300 AD handles pretty well, and the name of the method is cool - "stutterjumping". But really, you only have to worry about the different methods if you're running some brand of hard science fiction, IMHO. Otherwise, the Star Trek method of just saying "increase speed to Warp 5" without worrying about the physics works fine, so long as everybody agrees not to think too hard about it.</blockquote>

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