Astral Travel

Skill: Astral Travel (IQ/Hard).
By concentrating for a certain activation time (see table)
and making a skill roll, you can send your mind onto the outer
astral plane, forming an “astral body” there that follows the
rules under The Astral Plane (p. 27). This leaves your physical
body unconscious and helpless until you return. You do not
bring any equipment with you. You may “clothe” yourself as
you wish, but it offers no protection.
some helpful, some vengeful. The inner plane should be
depicted as a strange, unnerving place, where answers to
many questions can be found, but not without risk.
Unlike the outer plane, the inner plane is too far
removed from our world for projectors to snap back. Leav-
ing requires successful use of the Astral Crossing psi tech-
nique. Failure means waiting or using the repeated attempt
rules (p. 6), for a total of 3 FP per repeated attempt! If the
projector’s duration (see Astral Travel, pp. 28-29) runs out,
he takes 1d of injury immediately, and a further 1d every
five minutes until he escapes or dies.
Distance and movement on the inner astral plane are
completely subjective. The GM should set any destinations
and ranges as being a certain number of “effective yards”
or “effective miles” away, even if the distances traveled
seem to be light years or inches. Consider how long the trip
would take for an average person, who moves 180 yards
per minute if jogging or about 3 miles per hour if hiking.
Remember the time dilation – if a trip should take an hour
of real time, it should be about 30 effective miles away.
Skilled projectors, and those with Astral Celerity (pp. 26-
27), will make the trip in a shorter time, of course.
You may stay on the astral plane for a given
duration (see table) before you automatically
snap back into your body. (Exception: If you are
on the inner astral plane or otherwise cannot
snap back, you take 1d injury immediately and
again every five minutes instead.) This duration
is always measured in real time – every 10 min-
utes spent on the inner astral plane counts as
one minute of actual use. Once you come back,
your body must adjust to the change – you can-
not project again for at least five minutes.
At level 6, you can remain astral indefi-
nitely, though you must still sleep and your
physical body requires food and drink. (See
Additional Astral Projection Abilities, p. 30, for
ways around this.) You may also jump right
back into the astral plane without the five-
minute wait.
Level
Act. Time
Duration
1
10 minutes
30 minutes
2
1 minute
30 minutes
3
1 minute
1 hour
4
4 seconds
1 hour
5
2 seconds
12 hours
6
1 second
Indefinitely
Statistics: Insubstantiality (Astral Projec-
tion, -10%; Ghost Air, +10%; Immediate Prepa-
ration Required, 10 minutes, -45%; Maximum
Duration, 30 min, -25%; Nuisance Effect, Especially suscepti-
ble to psi static and mental fields, -5%; Projection, -50%;
Substantial Communication, +40%) [16] + Invisibility (Acces-
sibility, Only on the astral plane, -30%; Astral Projection, -10%;
Substantial Only, -10%; Temporary Disadvantage, Mute with
Substantial Only, -22%) [12]. Features: Ground Move is equal
to skill/2 and appearance is fuzzy and translucent while insub-
stantial. Further levels only alter Insubstantiality, reducing
Immediate Preparation Required to 1 minute [24 + 12], then
reducing Maximum Duration to 1 hour [36 + 12], then replace
Immediate Preparation Required with Takes Extra Time 2 [44
+ 12], then reduce Takes Extra Time to 1 and Maximum Dura-
tion to 12 hours [56 + 12], and then remove Takes Extra Time
and Maximum Duration [68 + 12].
Everyone perceives the inner
astral plane differently.