Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
It's range and endurance that makes it break with Traveller convention, so essentially you'd have to build a new setting around it.
Alternative Jump Drive
- Thread starter alex_greene
- Start date
The technicalities are all very well, but I'm not seeing anyone give any reasons why a change like this would be desirable. What is broken about the current system that this fixes?
The standard J-Drive has the following consequences for settings:
* Ships are confined to chains of worlds within the ship's jump range of each other and cannot cross wider voids. Most notable, J-1 ships being confined to mains. That goes away, range is as much down to patience as technology.
* As a practical level in the game, the current system means the GM knows exactly which couple or handful of systems a PC ship can get to in their next jump. In the new system the number of systems the GM might have to anticipate they might go to would be several orders of magnitude greater.
* in the current system, even small unimportant worlds on a route between important systems are pretty much guaranteed to get regular traffic. Only worlds both unimportant themselves and also off significant trade routes get little traffic. In the new system all minor worlds would become 'flyover zones'.
* Strategically, ships can't just bypass defensive formations along the border of a rival interstellar government. E.g. a J-4 force can only launch an initial strike against worlds within J-4 of the system they stage their attack from. In this new system an attack force could just cruise on deeper into enemy territory without challenge.
* Historically, J-Drive limitations explain why interstellar empires such as the Villani were confined to limited regions of space and didn't know much or anything about regions of space fairly close to their borders. In this new system, even way back to the first few decades of J-travel explorers could have ventured to destinations hundreds of parsecs from their home worlds. Alternate settings would have to take this into account.
So which of these changes are benefits and why? What can you do and what stories can you tell with this alternate system that you couldn't with the current one?
Simon Hibbs
The standard J-Drive has the following consequences for settings:
* Ships are confined to chains of worlds within the ship's jump range of each other and cannot cross wider voids. Most notable, J-1 ships being confined to mains. That goes away, range is as much down to patience as technology.
* As a practical level in the game, the current system means the GM knows exactly which couple or handful of systems a PC ship can get to in their next jump. In the new system the number of systems the GM might have to anticipate they might go to would be several orders of magnitude greater.
* in the current system, even small unimportant worlds on a route between important systems are pretty much guaranteed to get regular traffic. Only worlds both unimportant themselves and also off significant trade routes get little traffic. In the new system all minor worlds would become 'flyover zones'.
* Strategically, ships can't just bypass defensive formations along the border of a rival interstellar government. E.g. a J-4 force can only launch an initial strike against worlds within J-4 of the system they stage their attack from. In this new system an attack force could just cruise on deeper into enemy territory without challenge.
* Historically, J-Drive limitations explain why interstellar empires such as the Villani were confined to limited regions of space and didn't know much or anything about regions of space fairly close to their borders. In this new system, even way back to the first few decades of J-travel explorers could have ventured to destinations hundreds of parsecs from their home worlds. Alternate settings would have to take this into account.
So which of these changes are benefits and why? What can you do and what stories can you tell with this alternate system that you couldn't with the current one?
Simon Hibbs
alex_greene
Guest
The number one benefit - travel. Your guys can explore any setting. Just handwave the fact that you would still potentially take many long jumps and several years, and by the time you get to each new sector you'd have to start gathering Contacts and Allies all over again, but you could have your characters Jump from Capital to the Marches in only a few Jumps instead of taking absolutely forever.
The number two benefit - no more isolation. Your Free Trader can visit some planet six parsecs away in a single Jump. It just takes them six weeks. No more mains, islands or Rifts to think about. The big merchant fleets can establish trade routes between sectors easily, with Jump-4 to Jump-6 ships, and hire out space for smaller, shorter-range ships like Free Traders wishing to explore the potential for trade in different subsectors and sectors. Merchant Riders, rather than Battle Riders.
The third benefit - increased cargo space. Your ships have so much more space for cargo or passengers, which means trade can become more profitable.
The fourth benefit - decreased piracy. Economic isolation breeds poverty, which breeds desperation, and where there is desperation and poverty, the criminal element will arise like mosquitos from stagnant water.
The number five benefit - because the governments know that their military ships aren't restricted to Jumps the way they are designed in standard Traveller, they won't focus on warfare quite so much. I know, it makes the setting boring ... but only for people who like to set their games in a time of war.
The number six benefit - exploration. Your guys can be part of a government that builds a fleet of Scout vessels that will take them to the furthest reaches of their space, and to the supposedly empty worlds beyond. New markets, new civilisations - if you want to throw in an evil alien empire, that's your choice.
You could open up Traveller to games with settings like The Stainless Steel Rat, if you want, where war is a pointless exercise and all that matters is money, diplomacy and skulduggery.
The number two benefit - no more isolation. Your Free Trader can visit some planet six parsecs away in a single Jump. It just takes them six weeks. No more mains, islands or Rifts to think about. The big merchant fleets can establish trade routes between sectors easily, with Jump-4 to Jump-6 ships, and hire out space for smaller, shorter-range ships like Free Traders wishing to explore the potential for trade in different subsectors and sectors. Merchant Riders, rather than Battle Riders.
The third benefit - increased cargo space. Your ships have so much more space for cargo or passengers, which means trade can become more profitable.
The fourth benefit - decreased piracy. Economic isolation breeds poverty, which breeds desperation, and where there is desperation and poverty, the criminal element will arise like mosquitos from stagnant water.
The number five benefit - because the governments know that their military ships aren't restricted to Jumps the way they are designed in standard Traveller, they won't focus on warfare quite so much. I know, it makes the setting boring ... but only for people who like to set their games in a time of war.
The number six benefit - exploration. Your guys can be part of a government that builds a fleet of Scout vessels that will take them to the furthest reaches of their space, and to the supposedly empty worlds beyond. New markets, new civilisations - if you want to throw in an evil alien empire, that's your choice.
You could open up Traveller to games with settings like The Stainless Steel Rat, if you want, where war is a pointless exercise and all that matters is money, diplomacy and skulduggery.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
simonh said:
Your First point is incorrect. There is nothing in MGT that prevents a Jump-1 ship from storing 30% fuel and making 3 consecutive J-1 to reach a world 3 parsecs away. It would take 3 weeks, but it perfectly "legal" within the rules. The idea that J1 restricts you to a main is incorrect. In the Interstellar Wars Era, the idea that ships could not make open-hex jumps was used, but only in that setting and then it was used incorrectly (apparently the Vilani discovered it then forgot about it later on...).
Your Second point is very good and quite accurate.
Your Third point is very valid - in this new Jump Drive era, unattractive worlds would get bypassed quite often - BUT the current world creation rules don't account for this point either - Two high Pop worlds connected through 3 minor worlds do NOT see any changes to population or starport due to being on a Main...
Your Fourth point is incorrect for the same reasons as #1.
Your Fifth point is incorrect for the same reason as #1. There is no rules based reason that the Vilani couldn't have equipped ships with a J-1 engine and 30% fuel and gone 3 parsecs in any direction from the first drive invented. Terrans did it. There are no stars within 1 parsec of Earth, but with a TL9 drive, humans visited Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star (where they met the Vilani). The "reason" given in the canonical history is flat out wrong. Humans should have been contacted by the Vilani long before Terrans invented the Jump Drive. They HAD to know Terrans were there - our radio waves have already passed Vega - how did they miss them on all those worlds? It was a convenient story to keep the plot they way they wanted it, but like many such plot devices within the 3I setting, falls apart when you really look at it.
There is a contradiction in the description of the Vilani culture. On the one hand, yes, they were ultraconservative, but on the other hand they explored a huge area of the galaxy and made it a part of their Imperium. It is hard to believe that they stopped their exploration and expansion just off Terra, but perhaps the Ancients are once more to blame for this. 8)Reynard said:
-Daniel-
Emperor Mongoose
I have been reading your idea and my gut reaction is, I like it. But I am also aware of the issues others have raised regarding the ability to reach "anywhere" with military ships. So I was thinking, what if your system contained some sort of total time restriction in it. It would open the door, just not as wide. For example, what if the max a ship can stay in "jump space" is three or four weeks? This would still give a jump 1 or jump 2 ship a greatly expanded range without giving them unlimited range.alex_greene said:
Just a thought, no hard answers.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Instability in the jump drive, the longer it's in use without a shutting it down and recalibrating it.
alex_greene
Guest
Probably cover that with extended maintenance: 1 week of downtime after each Jump, +1 week for each increment beyond the first. Misjump chances, otherwise, as usual, including the possibility (natural 2) of the Jump window not forming at all if the engine is restarted without the necessary maintenance.
One month on - one month off; one year on - one year off.
Though in the setting I'm using, the drives are designed to require no more than one week of maintenance for routine operations anyway. It's custom to spend more than one week in downtime, because each surplus week adds a +1 DM to rolls involving activation of the Jump drive next time it is activated.
One month on - one month off; one year on - one year off.
Though in the setting I'm using, the drives are designed to require no more than one week of maintenance for routine operations anyway. It's custom to spend more than one week in downtime, because each surplus week adds a +1 DM to rolls involving activation of the Jump drive next time it is activated.
