Subspace Transmission Speeds

"Gamemaster's License" takes effect at some point. If it makes sense for the feel of the episode to have real-time communication, they will get it. If not, they don't get it. :)

I'll handle it simply the "drama"-way. If I need direct communications the characters are near enough a relay station have real-time communication, which I always assumed sugin some kind of wormwhole and therefore reaching that speed. If I want the characters not to rely on Starfleet Command backup they are simply out of range and it takes time for an answer.

I use it. In TOS, they didn't tend to talk to Starfleet; they tended to fire off a missive and got a response later.

TNG uses the immediate comms thing because having the characters wait 20 minutes for an answer didn't lend to the pacing of the show.

I think a lot of you guys look at it the same way. My take, if you're in the ass-end of space, the only ship in the sector (or in the case of our last season 5-6 sectors), you get comms in the form of letters from Starfleet or family or what have you. There's no help on the way -- it takes hours just to get a message home, and if one of the repeaters you've dropped fails or is attacked, you're on your own. It gives the series a more lonely, swashbuckling flavor -- your actions are more important, there's more tension, more danger...

As for players complaining about 'canon': don't have it. One of the main players is a hard-core trekkie, but he's been very pleased with my attempts to give the universe a bit more of a kick than the last few sereis have had.

My personal take on the subject was that a subspace transmission was actually a radio transmission carried by a subspace wave. So, to communicate over a long distance, one has to send a subspace signal to the receiver (which can be accelerated with relays), which then sends back another signal, thus establishing a sort of subspace wave carrier, on which the subsequent communication takes place (at almost instant speeds).
Therefore, the warp speed of the subspace signal is only needed to know how long it will take to establish the communication (to create the carrier wave), afterward the communication becomes instantaneous.

And anyway, I need such times only when such communications becomes primordial for the mission (which happens mainly if the players need to contact StarFleet instantly).