Spacefarers

Anyone with a space-worthy ship can travel in space. There are no restrictions, flight plans or planetary rules on who can travel where, except in the local space surrounding inhabited planets, space stations and the like.

So if you've got a ship, you're good to go…. explore the stars! See the vast inky blackness! Discover what untold weirdness awaits on a newly terraformed planet! Well… until you find yourself 20 million miles from the nearest breathable atmosphere and your air recycler just broke down.

For these kind of reasons, the majority of regular legitimate spacefarers ¹⁾ join the Spacefarers Guild, a loosely-connected mututal aid organisation for all types of spacefarer. By joining the Guild, you commit to aiding other Guild ships in distress when needed - but you also gain a commitment in return that you will be helped when in need (so long as another ship is close enough to help, anyway. The Guild makes no promises if you head off into uncharted areas alone). You also gain access to a network of Guild repair shops which charge reasonable prices with no haggling, and an information network that tries to keep everyone up to date on the latest known pirate ship IDs, meteor paths and other assorted threats.

The Spacefarers Guild has so far managed to avoid being politically affiliated with any particular planet, political dynasty or other organisation of any type. As such, a Guild membership is currently recognised as a cheap and sensible form of insurance by the captains of both the meanest interplanetary skiffs and the most majestic intergalactic cruisers.