Cars, trains, planes and jump ships

In a present-day or science-fiction world, a journey is timed by the way you take it, and the engine takes the fare from your purse before the scene is written. A 200 km drive is an afternoon, not a week of camps. Engine

A fantasy world that hasn't set its own ways travels as it always has: on foot, riding, or by ship between harbours. See Travel and time.

A bus, train, plane, maglev, shuttle or jump ship has a fare: a flat part plus a part per 100 km, in the world's own money and at the price level of the town you leave from. A car of your own costs nothing. Engine

The storyteller never charges the fare itself. If a ticket was already paid in the scene, it counts, so nothing is charged twice. A fare you can't pay means the trip goes by the fastest free way instead.

• Roads: both ends within 10 km of a road or a town.
• A train only runs between towns with a station, the ends of a railway on the atlas, and a plane only between capitals with an airport. A trip by train to a town without a station is refused, so you drive or take the bus.
• A jump ship flies between the world and its planets, moons and stations. A shuttle also hops up to a station or moon in orbit. Neither goes through a gate.

A trip's time is its distance at the way's speed, plus boarding: half an hour at a station, two hours at an airport. For example, by the defaults:

• 200 km by car: about 3 hours.
• 200 km by train: about 3 hours, boarding included.
• 3,000 km by plane: about 6 hours.
• Any jump: 8 hours.

Short trips inside a city are told in minutes, not hours.

A trip longer than a travel day stops for the night: in hotels or inns when it goes by road, rail or air, camping only when the route really is wild, and aboard on a jump.

• On the map: pick a town and "How to go" lists every way that can make the trip, with its time and fare, or why it can't. Walking is still the map's own march.
• In the story: say how you go ("I take the train to Harmah"). The storyteller picks the way and the engine checks it against the map. The line under the scene says how far, how long and what you paid. Storyteller

Party members ride along by the leader's way. Each pays their own fare if they're online and can; otherwise the leader covers them while the leader's money lasts; otherwise they stay behind. The party chat says who paid for whom. Engine

A world has a line on how its people travel ("Most people drive or take the bus…"), and the storyteller reads it, along with where trains and planes go from your town and what they cost.