[Phantasm]

For my space opera setting:

Faster-than-Light Drives and Communications
Faster-than-light travel consists of shunting the craft into a sidereal aspect of the universe commonly known as hyperspace. Hyperspace exists alongside "RealSpace" in a manner that is best modeled using the analogy of an onion. RealSpace is the "skin" of the onion, with hyperspace existing in layers "beneath" the "skin." The "deeper" into hyperspace one travels, the shorter the distance between two points in RealSpace becomes. This happens because space, according to Einsteinian physics, is curved; by cutting through hyperspace, the curve becomes closer to a straight line.

There is a drawback. In theory hyperspace should permit instantaneous travel between two points; in practice, however, the most common speed for a hyperdrive is 6 lightyears per week. The effective maximum speed at which organic life can survive is five lightyears per day (35 lightyears per week). This is because the physical nature of hyperspace puts a strain on one's body and mind; the strain gets worse the deeper into hyperspace one goes. Those who travel through hyperspace report nausea, dizziness, headaches, vomiting, and an inability to concentrate – and those are the milder side effects from short trips at slow speeds. A number of travelers have fallen unconscious, and a few, notably the elderly and severely ill, have fallen into comas or died.

The physical nature of hyperspace is also unsettling to biological minds when viewed directly while in transit. Information dating back to the Human-Pondrur Wars and as recently as the Glrrü War have reported people going insane when visually exposed to hyperspace. Because those who have viewed recordings of hyperspace do not exhibit any tendency towards insanity, even when making the transit at the time, it can be inferred there are elements of hyperspace which cannot be recorded and yet are picked up by one's subconscious when viewed directly.

Travel through hyperspace is best performed along one of the well-mapped trade routes that cover the Sol Sector. Outside the Sol Sector sit a number of regions that are not that well charted. Gravitational anomalies, particularly unmapped brown dwarfs and rogue planets, have been known to drop a ship out of hyperspace without warning. A Navigation (Hyperspace) roll is required to successfully plot a course, with the Sol Sector gaining a +4 to the skill due to being well-charted.

While faster-than-light transportation has become commonplace, the secret to efficient faster-than-light communications remains elusive. At present, real-time hyperspace communications are limited to a range of 500 A.U.s, and even this requires massive relay stations on both ends.

Communications
Radio communications is still in use on the frontier. In the Sol Sector, however, gravity-ripple comlinks have become standard. Like the cell phone networks of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, comlink networks can operate worldwide, providing real-time holographic communications. A comlink usually has to "link up" to a larger computer network, usually one of the worldwide or space station computer networks, although larger ships such as cruisers, carriers, and battleships can host comlink networks as well. Only the military or the most affluent can afford holographic communications; most comlinks are still voice-only.

Most comlinks come with a translation program to translate conversations between the user's native language and Trade Pidgin, with both languages at Accented or better proficiency. In essence, this means that two or more people speaking different languages can communicate almost in real-time, as all comlinks involved will be translating to a common language.

Augmented and Virtual Reality
Many HUDs, helmet visors, goggles, and vid-glasses have a link to the public identification systems, providing "augmented reality" to anyone who can afford the monthly fees (which is nearly everyone; PCs can count it as part of their monthly Cost of Living). Because of a lack of FTL communications, the public databases – which include "mug shots" of all identified people, weapons, and vehicles – must regularly be updated through sharing information with interstellar ships. Due to regular traffic, it is very hard to live "off the grid" in the Sol Sector, but much easier out in the frontier where updates are less regular; a newly-settled colony from a recently-awakened sleeper ship would probably have information that is 100-200 years out of date.

Virtual reality, however, has been the subject of much debate. Because it has shown to be psychologically addictive – many people in the past have wasted away living virtual lives that, to them, were more 'real' than their real lives – virtual reality is banned on nearly every world and station in the Sol Sector. This makes VR equipment, particularly VR suits, neural interface cyberware, and virtual environment software, hot commodities on the black market.

Ranged Weapons
The most common personal weapons encountered are blasters, weapons that fire charged particle beams. Lasers in the IR to UV bands are still popular on the frontier. All ranged weapons come standard with laser sights and a HUD link which ties into the HUD display of most standard combat helmets. Outside military circles, however, the ability to outshoot an opponent without relying on these systems is held in high regard.

Melee Weapons
Superfine blades (UT163), monowire blades and whips (UT163), vibroblades (UT164), hyperdense blades (UT164), and force swords (UT166) are quite common; vibro-knives are especially common among the criminal element, and Kronaks love hyperdense axes. It should be noted that hyperdense blades are able to parry force swords without taking damage themselves. Force swords have the innate ability to deflect blaster and ion fire (lasers are generally too fast to parry, and sonic weapons project a cone the force sword cannot parry), although a character should have Enhanced Time Sense or Precognitive Parry in order to parry blaster fire.

In addition to the above, any metal sword or polearm can be made into a "blastsword". This replaces any thrusting impaling damage with a thrusting crushing attack linked to a 2d (5) burn attack. This modification is an additional +$600 to the price of the weapon (double if a HT-2 (3) stun setting is added), applied after any modifiers such as superfine, vibroblade, or hyperdense, but before any ornamentation modifiers. Most blastswords are also equipped with a basket hilt for no additional charge; treat a hit from the basket hilt as a loaded fist (thr cr).