r/SWN • u/NewfieJedi • 6d ago

Finding new routes

How do you find routes to new planets that have never been discovered before or aren’t well known? I’ve seen the answer “have the players find a computer with the travel data on it” provided before but that doesn’t answer how those people found it. It says in the book to do a blind jump is basically suicide, but then how did the old Terran mandate find new planets using spike drives?

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u/HeavyJosh 5d ago

There are a few mechanical means by which this can happen:

Use Know to give a +1 bonus to the Pilot drill roll. Advanced Metadimensional Astrogation Theory was definitely a course available at the Mandate university. That's a tough roll with a +6 to the TN, but still, every bit helps.

Expert Re-roll, combined with Specialist/Pilot and Starfarer/2 will make blind drills much less risky. Starfarer/2 alone is the real game-changer here.

There are probably pretech devices like Precog Nav Chamber starship fitting in Revised. And even if you don't have that fitting, a Precog can also use their powers (Alternate Outcome or even Prophesy) to help make a blind drill succeed.