Starfinder Tell me about the Drift Crisis

[GreyLord]

So, seeing the APs Drift Crashers and Drift Hackers I was trying to get a fuller picture of what exactly was the Drift Crisis, what happened in the Drift Crisis, what caused the Drift Crisis and ultimately how it was resolved.

I have heard that it changed how space travel and space combat work now?

What actually happened in the two APs? It wasn't really resolved with Starfinder Society and was told it was resolved with the APs instead?

Does the book, Drift Crisis, actually tell you what happened and the Canon resolution, or is it just a bunch of rules for playing during the crisis?

Thanks for any info if you have it.

 

[FionaSmythe]

The canon explanation for what happened and how it resolved is in the Drift Hackers adventure path.

Spoiler: Brief rundown:

Some priests of Triune thought it'd be a good idea to update the underlying code of the Drift at 4:55 on a Friday, and the entire network infrastructure collapsed. The party have to enter the Matrix and one of them (or a friendly NPC) has to become a being of pure data so that they can be designated as the primary sysadmin and restore privileges to Triune, so that she can patch herself and then the Drift. As a result of this, some of the planar material that was previously sucked into the Drift has been ejected (in the best-case scenario, back where it came from). There are now also channels known as "Drift Lanes" that allow direct travel between two points in space, sometimes allowing access to an area that was formerly difficult to reach via Drift travel due to lack of beacons.

The Drift Crisis book goes into some of the post-resolution state of the galaxy and how the crisis plays out on various worlds, but the details of the cause and resolution are left vague in the sourcebook.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The Drift Crisis book goes into some of the post-resolution state of the galaxy and how the crisis plays out on various worlds, but the details of the cause and resolution are left vague in the sourcebook.

So (spoiler questions, I guess)...

Spoiler: Spoiler questions

...brief disruption of most FTL travel followed by full restoration, some more-or-less wormholes appearing, and chunks of other realties popping into existence, not always where they were pulled out of in the first place?

That seems fairly unimpactful to the overall canon. Are drift drives still randomly yanking patches of other planes into the drift, ie was that a feature rather than a bug?

 

[FionaSmythe]

So (spoiler questions, I guess)...

Spoiler: Spoiler questions

...brief disruption of most FTL travel followed by full restoration, some more-or-less wormholes appearing, and chunks of other realties popping into existence, not always where they were pulled out of in the first place?

That seems fairly unimpactful to the overall canon. Are drift drives still randomly yanking patches of other planes into the drift, ie was that a feature rather than a bug?

Spoiler

Full-ish restoration, though a lot of people are opting for different modes of FTL travel now, since the Drift is no longer considered the default option. This is having some knock-on effects in manufacturing and economic concerns.

Triune resolutely refuses to comment her code, so it's unclear whether the patch-yanking is a feature or a bug. I believe it's still happening, but I can't find a specific quote about it in my quick skimming of the books.

The funny thing about Drift Lanes is that you can enter or leave them at any point along their length. It's not a one-to-one correlation between Location In Real Space and Location In Drift Space, but it's a lot less random than the association between zones normally is. (I just looked it up in Ports of Call and this part isn't true; you can leave at any point along the length but you'll end up in a random point in the Drift. You can park your ship inside the Drift Lane and stay in the same spot, so it is a lot easier to navigate and for other ships in the same lane to find you.) So not only are the political and trade relationships of every faction being shaken up due to unprecedented transport logistics, it's now super easy to ambush specific vessels in the Drift if you know they're travelling on a particular lane. The Drift Crisis book describes it as "a new golden age of piracy".