Traveller and ion storms

[Baldo]

https://www.drivethrufiction.com/address_book.php

This year, one of the Halloween treats/free PDFs you find in DrivethruFiction is Star Trek Adventures: Remnants (follow the pumpkin icon in the Link above, you still have a few days), a little scenario where a ion storm plays a prominent role (in *many* ways ... ).
Unfortunately, I'm not sure WHAT a 'ion storm' is, exactly, does Traveller have something similar?

[Linwood]

There are rules for solar flare damage and some discussion of EM radiation with respect to gas giants and the like. Otherwise - ???

[M J Dougherty]

I recall a mention of an Ion Storm in one of the very early Star Trek novelisations (dating from the 1970s maybe?), but as usual with Star Trek it was a made-up thing used as a plot device.

I don't know what the Star Trek universe says about such phenomena, but it sounds like a cloud of charged particles drifting through space. I'd have thought something like that would disperse itself due to repulsion, so there would have to be some source of ionisation and something to ionise like a gas cloud.

Up until Right Now I'd say Traveller didn't have anything similar. But I am having an idealet. Not a fully-grown idea yet, but something to process over the next few days.....

[ShawnDriscoll]

Ion storms in Star Trek are typically magnetic storms that interrupt power and can allow access to alternate dimensions and universes. Mirror, Mirror is a more famous example.

I'd say that Grandfather could have used Ion Storms for his own purposes.

[Linwood]

Gases are easier to ionize as pressure drops, lowering the amount of energy required - but the cloud will be more diffuse (fewer ions per given volume) and thus less reactive. An ion “storm” might require a strong magnetic or gravitic attractor to collect enough ions to affect a spacecraft. Although even a very diffuse cloud could induce a charge that might create some EMI issues.

[Baldo]

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/what-ex ... ms.298957/

Thanks for the replies , I've done more Google-fu, and apparently even the Trekkies themselves aren't sure , therefore I'm not converting this adventure to Traveller yet, need more data...

But I am having an idealet. Not a fully-grown idea yet, but something to process over the next few days.....

Yes, please , but if ion storms become Traveller-canon, all the various Ion weapons in High Guard too are possible... Right?

[phavoc]

I'm not sure about free-floating ion stores that are referenced in Star Trek lore. However I could see storms of sorts that are in a nebula.

Question would be how often you would encounter such things in a star system? I would expect that for the most part the space between planets is boringly empty. However once you get around a planet you could encounter odd things, like radiation belts or some sort of interference.

[Moppy]

Just shove the storm in there and if anyone asks why, tell them it’s something left over from grandfather. And have a giggle while they waste time combing the system for lost precursor relics.

[GamingGlen]

Just shove the storm in there and if anyone asks why, tell them it’s something left over from grandfather. And have a giggle while they waste time combing the system for lost precursor relics.

And that would waste my time as referee, no thanks. Unless, you want them to actually find something, say an old belter still plying a depleted asteroid field ("bah, ion storms, those are old bar tales, but back in my day... say, you have something harder to drink than jump water?"), or a scientist with a small research lab ("Moon of Dr. Moreau" ).

[Moppy]

so what do you do if your players decide to spend time looking? do you go with it - or tell them there is nothing there and please get on with the plot?

[GamingGlen]

so what do you do if your players decide to spend time looking? do you go with it - or tell them there is nothing there and please get on with the plot?

Pretty much. If they insist, after 1D6 weeks of searching have someone roll an Electronics (sensors) check, they find nothing (but then Ancient tech doesn't register on low tech sensors that most likely have, right?), ask if they want to continue. I suppose you could have them roll another 1 or 2 checks for that time frame, but not sure what skill(s) to use. Investigation? Recon? Old man's trick knee?

[Reynard]

I'd say use the effects of New Weapon Trait: Ion and have the effects last as long as the referee needs. Uses will involve whatever the Ref wants from making combat more interesting in an encounter to forcing a ship to enter a planet's atmosphere and maybe ground to escape the effect leading to another adventure. Just don't make it Star Trek common plot device.

[Moppy]

I’m not trying to be funny but I would estimate about half of the traveller scenarios use a star trek type plot device to negate the technological items that would trivialise the scenario. For example, your air/raft rarely works, or is somehow unavailable on a low tech world, resulting in many days of camel-riding, or you end up exploring some derelict space station and getting attacked by monsters because you can’t send a camera-bot ahead and don’t have a suit with sensors.

[Reynard]

I remember everyone thought a lot of plot devices were moot when cellphones make contact with civilization guaranteed. Notice how cellphones fail at alarming rates in movies possibly more than the famous stalling car.

[Condottiere]

[Linwood]

I remember everyone thought a lot of plot devices were moot when cellphones make contact with civilization guaranteed. Notice how cellphones fail at alarming rates in movies possibly more than the famous stalling car.

Or cars falling off cliffs and bursting into flames, sometimes before they even hit....

How about something - an unusual asteroid, a malfunctioning jump drive, or the ever-popular alien artifact - actually generating the “ion storm” itself? A character with the right Science skill might realize “hey, that can’t be a natural phenomenon”, which could drive them to investigate. Or they might be hired to investigate by the local authorities who don’t know just what is going on but have declared whatever-it-is as a Hazard to Astrogation.

[Condottiere]

https://youtu.be/RcEHM8GFSwM?t=103