Nebulae

A nebula is a vast cloud of interstellar dust, many of which form stellar nurseries inside which new stars are born. The size of a nebula may vary, but they are often many light years across. Some nebulae are created by supernova explosions. Nebulae are often extremely beautiful in appearance, composed of bright colors in exotic shapes.

Most nebulae are so diffuse that you cannot actually see them from within. Others, like the ones dealt with here, are much denser and can actually obscure vision.

The main issue with nebulae is the way they interfere with sensors. Starship sensors can suffer penalties from -1d6 to -3d6, or be rendered inoperable, depending on the density of the nebula, and FTL travel speeds are reduced to half normal. In terms of navigation, nebulae can cover many parsecs of space, and each parsec should be counted as two parsecs within the nebula’s area of effect.