DARK HERESY
WARP TRAVEL
INTRODUCTION
The Imperium of mankind is massive on a
scale that cannot even be imagined. The
distances that can be measured between the
planets of the Imperium are such that even the
fastest sub-light spaceships, at the mind
boggling speeds they are capable of achieving,
would take generations to travel between even
the closest linked stars. The distances involved
are truly, awesomely huge, but the immaterium
provides travellers with a means to cover those
distances in practical times.
Travel through the immaterium, that
alternate reality which exists alongside the
physical one of the Imperium, is dangerous
and unpredictable, but is also necessary, as it
provides the only time-practical way to travel
between the stars and planets of the Imperium.
To enter the immaterium a ship uses a warp
engine, a huge machine that only the most
experienced and high ranking tech-priests even
begin to understand. The warp engine wraps
the ship in a Geller field, a protective energy
field that protects the ship from the touch of
the warp, and forces the vessel across the
barrier that separates the physical world from
the immaterium. Once in the immaterium, the
ship rides along the flows and eddies of energy
that writhe within the warp, being carried
along in the waves much like a sailing ship
being carried on a wild ocean.
Once the ship has travelled the required
distance, it falls back into realspace, and a few
days in the warp have translated into light
years of distance in realspace. By this method,
vast distances can be covered.
The immaterium is the home of Chaos, the
source of the corrupt, twisted, inhuman
abominations that plague the Imperium. Its
very essence is made up of the stuff of Chaos,
and to catch even a glimpse of the roiling
madness that makes up the warp can twist and
destroy the strongest of human minds, open
them to the taint of Chaos and give them over
to possession. When a ship is in the
immaterium its windows must be covered, so
that none on board may accidentally catch a
glimpse of the madness around them.
The chart on the last page of this article
shows all of the planets of the Calixis Sector.
The chart is divided into squares, each
measuring 2 light years across. The rules
presented here use this 2-light-year square as
the basic unit of measurement for space travel.
HOMOPOLAR GENERATORS
A ship that is to be capable of travelling
through the immaterium must be equipped
with a warp engine, a massive technological
wonder beyond the understanding of most
people.
The power that these engines consume is
staggering, and they cannot simply be turned
on with the flick of a switch when the ship’s
captain decides to enter the warp. They must
first be prepared, and their power cells charged
up ready for use.
The largest part of a warp engine is the
Homopolar Generator (HPG); this is where all
of the power for the jump is collected, stored
and prepared for use.
When a warp jump is imminent, the captain
signals for the charging of the HPGs to begin.
This process takes a few minutes to complete,
as power is drawn into the generator from all
over the ship.
Only once the HPG is fully charged is the
warp engine capable of summoning a Geller
field and folding the ship through the barrier
that separates the material world from that of
the immaterium.
In game terms, if it is ever required to
determine how long an HPG takes to charge,
simply roll 1d5, and that is how many minutes
it takes. The time is never constant or
predictable, due to variations in the levels of
power available on the ship at any given time,
and environmental factors – like temperature –
which affect the machine’s efficiency.
Once the HPG is fully charged and ready, it
must be used soon. The sheer amount of power
stored in the generator and coursing through its
coils and conduits, and the immense heat
generated while storing that power, starts to
damage the containment devices if the power
is held captive for too long; cables incinerate,
valves blow and seal melt as the energy
contained in the HPG strives for release.
For every full minute that passes following
the charging of the HPG, the GM should roll
1d10. If the number rolled is ever less than the
number of rolls that have been made, the
generator has lost the power necessary to
create a Geller field, the stored energy has
started to leak away and dissipate, and the
process must be started again.
 THE GELLER FIELD
Basically, what a warp engine does is
envelope the ship in a Geller field; a pulsating
sheath of energy which serves three functions.
First, the Geller field brings about the
folding, warping, twisting and reforming of
space around the ship which translates it from
the material world into the immaterium. The
Geller field’s natural disposition is to translate
to the immaterium, and the ship encased within
is simply dragged along with it.
Once in the immaterium, the Geller field’s
second role comes into play. It maintains the
stability of the protective aura around the ship,
fends off the corrupting touch of the stuff of
the warp, and allows the ship to exist – for a
short time – in the warp.
The third role of the Geller field is that of
sail and rudder. Just as sheets of canvas
billowing in the wind and wooden rods forced
against the waves power and steer a sailing
ship through the water, so does the Geller field
power a warp ship through the immaterium.
The waves and eddies of the warp push at the
Geller field, and the malleable surface of the
field catches the forces and directs them in
such a way that the energy created pushes the
ship through the stuff of the warp.
Careful manipulation of the Geller field,
and controlling how it reacts to the touch of
the warp, is what provides control over a
ship’s direction of travel through the warp.
As soon as a Geller field is activated, it
pushes into warp space, tears apart the fabric
of reality and allows the materium and
immaterium to briefly touch. Once the field
has entered the immaterium – taking the ship
encased within with it – the wound in reality
closes. This translation can only happen as
smoothly and seamlessly as it must if the ship
is stationary. If the ship is moving when the
Geller field is activated, the field will open a
gash through reality that will be dragged along
with the momentum of the ship, tearing a long
rend into the immaterium through which
uncontrolled and untapped energy would rush
forth with dramatic and dangerous
consequences. To prevent this from happening,
a warp engine has safety cut-offs built in that
prevent a Geller field being created from
onboard a moving vessel.
Warp travel protocols, and electronic
failsafe systems, mean that warp travel can
only happen at a safe distance from a star, or
other massive gravitational body. The distance
from a star that warp travel becomes safe is
known as the warp zone.
Ships leaving a system must first travel a
safe distance under their plasma drives before
entering the warp, and incoming vessels must
likewise drop into real space a safe distance
away and trundle in under plasma power.
This stretch of space travel between the
inner system and the warp zone is often long
and boring. Depending on the size of the local
star and the power of a ship’s engines, the
warp zone journey can take anything from a
week to a few months.
Boredom and lost time are the least of a
captain’s worries though, as the warp zone is
the hunting ground of pirates. Fleets of
marauders and corsairs linger in the outer
planets, moons and asteroids of star systems,
watching and waiting for likely prey.
One of the common duties of the Imperial
Navy is to patrol the warp zones and ward
against such space bandits. Important planets
will have permanently stationed system patrol
craft, but less important and more isolated
systems will see only the occasional passing
patrol craft.
The Imperial authorities make use of the
warp zones themselves to accost other vessels.
Customs and security checks are made while
ships make the journey through the warp zone.
Similarly to the security vessels that ward
against pirates, the custom vessels are common
at important systems but pass through lesser
systems only infrequently.
The extent of any given warp zone is
determined by many different factors all acting
on each other, the most significant factor being
the size of the local star, and the extent of the
gravity well it therefore projects. The time that
will be consumed by a warp zone journey,
either inbound or outbound, is determined by
the size of the star, and the speed of the ship.
The table below summarises the time a
warp zone journey will take, is expressed as a
number of days, and depends on the size of the
local star, and the Very Fast combat speed of
the ship.

WARP ZONES WARP ZONE TRAVEL TIMES

Entering the warp is not a simple matter of Star Ship Speed
powering up a warp engine whenever you Size 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Tiny 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4
want. The massive energies created – and Small 40 36 32 28 24 20 16 12 8
released – can have a dramatic effect on Medium 60 54 48 42 36 30 24 18 12
nearby gravitational bodies, and forcing a rend Large 80 72 64 56 48 40 32 24 16
in the materium-immaterium barrier too close Huge 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20
Giant 120 108 96 84 72 60 48 36 24
to a star can have devastating consequences.
 WARP GATES
For some reason that human science has
never managed to explain, there exists the
occasional stable warp gate. These gates
provide easy pathways into the warp and
doorways to warp routes that can be accessed
from inside a warp zone.
For a system to have a stable warp gate in
close proximity means that vessels coming and
going from that system can do so without the
need to travel through the warp zone, and
wasting all the time and facing the extra
dangers which that entails.
The economical benefits of a nearby warp
gate are obviously tremendous, as merchants,
passengers and charter ships can visit without
the need for the warp zone journey. With the
benefits though, comes a risk: if any enemy
fleet were to attack a system via a warp gate,
they could do so suddenly and with far greater
surprise than would be possible if their ships
had to travel through a warp zone on the way.
WARP ROUTES & JUMP POINTS
Thankfully, the haphazard nature of the
warp can be tamed a little over time. But only
a little, and only over a long time.
Established routes become tamer, less wild
and unpredictable. The immaterium along
these routes gets trampled down so continually
and frequently that a path is worn through the
warp and there is less turbulence and crossing
flows along these routes. Like a field of long
grass blowing wildly in the wind, a path that
gets used often will become flattened and
easier to traverse.
It is worthy of note here that there is an
alternate branch of thought concerning
established warp routes. Some theorists
maintain that the established routes exist not
due to excessive use, but that they have in fact
seen heavy use because of their existence. The
analogy of a river being a convenient means of
transport is the obvious parallel to draw here.
Whatever their origin, whether they were
created through use, or used because of their
existence, these established routes through the
warp link the most important planets with each
other, and journey times along these routes are
quicker and safer than travel through the warp
outside of common routes.
There are 3 degrees of established routes,
each providing a quicker and easier path
through the warp. Minor routes are those
which have been travelled only recently and
infrequently; they are not yet widely known or
used, and are perhaps used only by local
military patrol craft. Common routes are used
more often, and have been established for
longer, maybe even for centuries; chartist
vessels and military craft use common routes
on their cycle of journeys through the years.
Major routes are those that link the largest and
most important planets of the Imperium, and
take centuries of heavy traffic to establish; the
capital of a sector will have major routes
radiating from it to the other most important
planets of the sector.
The use of common routes also means that
there are well established points of space
where warp journeys will be started and ended.
When a ship travels through a warp zone on
the way to make a jump, it does not head
towards a completely arbitrary point in space;
it heads for a jump point, the starting point of
an established route. Likewise, when the ship
leaves the warp at the end of its voyage, it will
emerge at a jump point.
Imperial security and custom forces can
make use of these warp routes and jump
points, as there will be well recognised areas
of space around a system where ships
commonly come and go. Unfortunately, pirates
have the same knowledge.
WARP TRAVEL TIMES
The table below can be used to determine
how long a journey will take under normal
circumstances, outside of the effects of time
distortion or poor calculation.
Cross reference the number of squares that
are to be travelled with the type of route being
used, and the number given is how many days
(d) and hours (h) it takes for each square of the
route on the Calixis Sector Navigation Chart.
Simply multiply the given time by the number
of squares being travelled to find the total time
the journey will take.
The time given for a journey is always the
time that will be experienced by the ship, no
matter what time distortion affects the
immaterium around the ship and alters the
ship’s relation to time in realspace. Seven days
in the warp is seven days in the warp, even if
only one day or fourteen days have passed in
realspace when the ship leaves the warp.
A peculiar effect of warp travel is that the
longer a ship travels through it, the faster that
ship will move. A lengthy jump not only saves
time because there is less time spent back in
realspace recalculating the next jump, but also
because the ship increases warp speed while in
the immaterium and covers each subsequent
section of a certain length quicker than the
previous. Every 10 light years of travel made
through the immaterium in a single jump
results in an increase in speed.
 WARP TRAVEL TIMES PER SQUARE (2 LIGHT YEARS)
Length of Jump Route Type
Squares Light Years No Route Minor Route Common Route Major Route
1-5 2-10 10d, 4h 8d, 4h 6d, 4h 4d, 4h
6-10 11-20 10d 8d 6d 4d
11-15 21-30 9d, 20h 7d, 20h 5d, 20h 3d, 20h
16-20 31-40 9d, 16h 7d, 16h 5d, 16h 3d, 16h
21-25 41-50 9d, 12h 7d, 12h 5d, 12h 3d, 12h
26-30 51-60 9d, 8h 7d, 8h 5d, 8h 3d, 8h
31-35 61-70 9d, 4h 7d, 4h 5d, 4h 3d, 4h
36-40 71-80 9d 7d 5d 3d
41-45 81-90 8d, 20h 6d, 20h 4d, 20h 2d, 20h
46-50 91-100 8d, 16h 6d, 16h 4d, 16h 2d, 16h
51-55 101-110 8d, 12h 6d, 12h 4d, 12h 2d, 12h
56-60 111-120 8d, 8h 6d, 8h 4d, 8h 2d, 8h
61-65 121-130 8d, 4h 6d, 4h 4d, 4h 2d, 4h
66-70 131-140 8d 6d 4d 2d
71-75 141-150 7d, 20h 5d, 20h 3d, 20h 1d, 20h
76-80 151-160 7d, 16h 5d, 16h 3d, 16h 1d, 16h
81-85 161-170 7d, 12h 5d, 12h 3d, 12h 1d, 12h
86-90 171-180 7d, 8h 5d, 8h 3d, 8h 1d, 8h
91-95 181-190 7d, 4h 5d, 4h 3d, 4h 1d, 4h
96-100 191-200 7d 5d 3d 1d

CALCULATED NAVIGATION
The flows of the warp are unsteady and
unpredictable. No reference charts can be
made of them, and no record kept of their
direction or speed, as they are forever
changing. Navigation through the warp must
be done on the spot immediately prior to the
journey being started, and to get exactly where
you wish to be, and in a predicted time, is
almost impossible. It is a fact of warp travel
that the captains of warp ships must accept that
they are at the mercy of the warp, and they will
be delivered to their destination with an
accuracy and time outside of their control.
The flows of the warp can be examined by
a ship’s sensors while the ship is still in
realspace. The route can be plotted according
to what can be seen of the warp, and the time
that will be required for the warp to carry the
ship the required distance calculated based on
the speed of the warp’s waves. The ship then
enters the immaterium, and gives itself up to
the uncertainty of the warp. Once in the
immaterium, a ship’s sensors are blind, can
detect nothing of the flows of the warp, and it
must simply be hoped that the waves are
continuing in the same direction, and at the
same speed, as they were when the warp was
entered. Once the predetermined time has
elapsed the ship drops back into realspace; the
captain must then calculate the exact location
of the ship and work out how far off course it
has drifted while in the warp.
Due to this uncertainty, ships cannot safely
travel great distances by this means of
navigation. Going a distance of 4 light years at
a time is generally considered to be the limit of
acceptable safety. Due to this limit, it is
necessary to make long voyages is short steps,
dropping back to realspace to take a bearing
and make necessary adjustments to the ship’s
heading before making the next jump.
When a warp jump is being calculated the
person responsible for doing so must make a
Navigation (Stellar) skill check. An accurately
calculated jump brings the ship out of the warp
right where it was intended, but a bad
calculation can result in the ship being off
course quite dramatically.
The Navigation (Stellar) check to calculate
a jump has a difficulty assigned to it based on
how long the jump being calculated is, as
shown on the Calculated Navigation table.
CALCULATED NAVIGATION
Length of Jump Difficulty
1 Square (2 LY) Easy (+30)
2 Squares (4 LY) Ordinary (+10)
3 Squares (6 LY) Difficult (-10)
4 Squares (8 LY) Very Difficult (-30)
5+ Squares Ridiculous (-50)
If the check is passed, the warp jump is
calculated successfully and the ship re-enters
the materium at the correct point.
A failed calculation will result in the ship
being off target. The extent of the error
depends on how much the Navigation (Stellar)
skill check was failed by, and the length of the
jump that was being made; a longer jump has a
larger margin for going farther off course than
does a smaller jump. The various effects are
summarised on the Failed Calculation table,
and are expressed as a number of ‘hours’ or
‘squares’.
If a result of ‘hours’ is given, then this time
must simply be added to the length of the next
jump to bring the ship back in line. In the case
of the final jump to reach a system, the ‘hours’
should be added to the length of the warp zone
journey to make up for the fact that the ship
has come into realspace farther away than
planned.
A result of ‘squares’ means that the ship
has made a drastic error in its jump, and has
actually come into realspace a number of light
years away from its intended destination. Roll
1d10 on the Off Target Direction table to
determine in what direction the ship is off
target. A result of ‘1d5-2’ squares has a
minimum result of 1 square.
FAILED CALCULATION
1 Square Jump:
Fail: 1d5 hours.
Fail by 3 Degrees: 1d10 hours.
Fail by 5 Degrees: 2d10 hours.
2 Square Jump:
Fail: 1d10 hours.
Fail by 3 Degrees: 2d10 hours
Fail by 5 Degrees: 1 square.
3 Square Jump:
Fail: 2d10 hours.
Fail by 3 Degrees: 1 square.
Fail by 5 Degrees: 1d5-2 squares.
4 Square Jump:
Fail: 1 square.
Fail by 3 Degrees: 1d5-2 squares.
Fail by 5 Degrees: 1d5 squares.
5+ Square Jump:
Fail: 1d5-2 squares.
Fail by 3 Degrees: 1d5 squares.
Fail by 5 Degrees: 1d5+1 squares.
OFF TARGET DIRECTION
d10 Direction
1-2 Spinward
3 Diagonal Spinward/Rimward
4 Rimward
5 Diagonal Rimward/Trailing
6-7 Trailing
8 Diagonal Trailing/Coreward
9 Coreward
0 Diagonal Coreward/Spinward
GUIDED NAVIGATION
Voyages much longer than the calculated
jumps are practical thanks to the Navis
Nobilite; the Navigators.
The Navigators are a breed apart from
normal humankind, vast noble houses tracing
their lineage back through the years for as long
as the Imperium has existed. The houses are all
interlocked with each other through marriage,
to keep the Navigator gene alive and
unpolluted.
That Navigator gene is what makes them so
valuable and necessary to the Imperium. The
Navis Nobilite may be called mutants by some
people, but their particular mutation is stable,
and passed on from parent to child. They have,
in the centre of their forehead, a third eye, an
eye that is capable of looking upon the warp
and reading its flows. As long as they use their
third eye, the Navigators are immune to the
detrimental visual effects of the warp. They
can sit on their observation decks, watch the
flow of the warp around the ship and feed
information back to the captain and pilot of the
ship so that adjustments can be made to keep
the ship on course. This alone though is not
enough to reliably steer a ship through the
warp for long distances; the Astronomican
must also be used.
The Adeptus Astronomica on Holy Terra,
assembled in a vast choir and guided by the
Emperor himself, send out the Astronomican, a
pulsing psychic beacon that radiates out from
Terra and extends to the outer limits of the
Imperium. In fact, it is the limit of the
Astronomica which defines the extent of the
Imperium; beyond the beacon are the Halo
Stars, the outside edge of the Imperium of
Mankind.
All Navigators are Psykers, and can pick
up on the Astronomican. They use the beacon
as a reference point, a directional indicator so
that they always know in what direction Holy
Terra lies.
By combining the guidance of the
Astronomican with their ability to look upon
the warp, Navigators can reliably guide ships
through the immaterium. Without the
Astronomican and the Navigators, the Imperial
Navy would simply not be able to reach as far
as it does, or to travel quickly enough to
maintain the authority of the Emperor.
Most Navigators serve in the Imperial
Navy, being bound to the aristocratic officer
ranks through long traditions of honour and
patronage.
When a Navigator is guiding a ship through
the warp, he or she must make regular
Navigation (Stellar) skill checks to keep the
ship on course. Monitoring of the flows of the
warp and listening to the Astronomican are TIME DISTORTION
also being done constantly, but these tasks are A disturbing effect of travel in the warp is
so intuitive and natural to a Navigator that no time distortion. Those on board the ship feel
skill checks are required to do so; the no difference; they experience a warp journey
Navigation (Stellar) skill check is made in of normal duration, but when they return to
order to relate the information thus gathered to realspace they find that more or less time has
realspace charts and guide the ship through the actually passed than they themselves
Immaterium to the required destination. experienced while in the warp. Sometimes the
For the sake of simplicity and speed, no journey has been made days, weeks, months or
matter how long a warp journey is, the even years quicker than expected. It is even
Navigator must make only a single Navigation possible to arrive at a destination days before
(Stellar) skill check to determine how the journey was begun. At the other end
successfully they steer the ship through the though, a journey can last longer, even to the
voyage. rare extent of centuries having passed since the
The difficulty of the check is determined ship entered the warp.
by how long the journey is, as shown on the When a jump is made, roll d100 on the
Guided Navigation table. table below to randomly determine if any time
The result of this check provides a jump distortion transpires. Those on the ship
time which is expressed, on the Navigation experience no relative difference in their
Results table, as a percentage of the time the journey time though; they must determine by
journey should take as defined by the Warp themselves how much time has passed in
Travel Times table. A good result means the realspace while they were in the warp. The
Navigator has spied a shortcut or beneficial effect given is a modifier that you apply to the
flow and steered the ship into it to take journey time to determine what time has
advantage, but a bad roll indicates a passed in realspace (for example, if a jump of
miscalculation or mistake by the Navigator 6 days duration was made, and an effect of –
which results in the ship’s progress being d10 days was rolled which resulted in –8, the
slowed or veered off course and requiring ship would actually arrive at its destination 2
subsequent correction. days before it departed!)
Effects far more extreme than this do
GUIDED NAVIGATION happen sometimes, but for the purpose of
Length of Jump Difficulty game play this is a manageable limit. Longer
1-5 Square (2-10 LY) Easy (+30) distortion times can of course be used by the
6-10 Squares (12-20 LY) Routine (+20) GM as plot tools.
11-20 Squares (22-40 LY) Ordinary (+10)
21-30 Squares (42-60 LY) Chall’ing (+0) TIME DISTORTION
31-40 Squares (62-80 LY) Difficult (-10) d100 Effect
41-50 (82-100 LY) Hard (-20) 01 -2d10 days
51+ Squares (102+ LY) V Diff. (-30) 02 -1d10 days
03 -1d5 days
NAVIGATION RESULTS 04-92 No Effect
Skill Test Jump Time 93 +1d5 days
Fail (5 degrees) 150% 94 +1d10 days
Fail (4 degrees) 140% 95 +2d10 days
Fail (3 degrees) 130% 96 +3d10 days
Fail (2 degrees) 120% 97 +1d5 months
Fail 110% 98 +1d10 months
Pass 100% 99 +1d5 years
Pass (2 degrees) 90% 100 +1d10 years
Pass (3 degrees) 80%
Pass (4 degrees) 70%
Pass (5 degrees) 60%