Cluster Truck - Here in Time for the Holidays!

[Vormaerin]

So, basically, the rules essentially say "The outer system planets are gonna be effectively in the same spot for the lifespan of the campaign so just put them somewhere and don't worry about it. (Neptune will take 40 years to go 1/4 the way around its orbit, for example). The inner planets are the ones that are gonna be moving. Here's a couple ways to abstract their location if you don't want to have an orrery for each system."

And then some stuff on how "flight paths" between planets work, things the PCs can do if they want to ignore the computer's optimal safe flight path and roll dice, guidelines on errors that can happen like not decelerating enough to actually stop at the planet you wanted to go to. With corrective options like "The loop of shame" or atmosperic braking (if that won't get you arrested ), and other such things. Plus some considerations like how you might account for gravity slingshots, what if the players change course in the middle of their flight plan with a lot of momentum built up on the original plan, so on.

So, yes, you can use it anywhere you want. It's "What do I do if my players and I aren't into orbital mechanics maths, but we need to do something besides the straight formula?"

 

[Michael S]

So, basically, the rules essentially say "The outer system planets are gonna be effectively in the same spot for the lifespan of the campaign so just put them somewhere and don't worry about it. (Neptune will take 40 years to go 1/4 the way around its orbit, for example). The inner planets are the ones that are gonna be moving. Here's a couple ways to abstract their location if you don't want to have an orrery for each system."

And then some stuff on how "flight paths" between planets work, things the PCs can do if they want to ignore the computer's optimal safe flight path and roll dice, guidelines on errors that can happen like not decelerating enough to actually stop at the planet you wanted to go to. With corrective options like "The loop of shame" or atmosperic braking (if that won't get you arrested ), and other such things. Plus some considerations like how you might account for gravity slingshots, what if the players change course in the middle of their flight plan with a lot of momentum built up on the original plan, so on.

So, yes, you can use it anywhere you want. It's "What do I do if my players and I aren't into orbital mechanics maths, but we need to do something besides the straight formula?"

That covers the difference between Traveller (this) and Pioneer out in the Spring. Just explainging the difference between the transfers and why going through a Solar Mass might have an adverse effect on the campaign length.

 

[rinku]

Are the rules for in-system travel times transferable to any solar system, if you have the orbital distance for each planet worked out?

Yes. The chapter is a good rough and ready discussion of the subject and is not setting specific at all. It's six pages, so may well turn up in future products that have in-system travel as a focus.

 

[Rel Fexive]

That does sound interesting and useful, especially since I'll be running a game in the new year that involves some travel in a single solar system.

 

[rinku]

Any game which is going to involve belters, salvage crew, or Pre-Stellar star systems will also benefit from the product.

 

[Vormaerin]

They absolutely need to fold this or some equivalent into the rules compendium, because it is a long overdue element of the game.

 

[SuperPheemy]

On the dark side of a moon
It was the Sixth of June
I'm flyin' a Kenworth
Pullin' logs
Cabover Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy
Haulin' hogs

We was burning for bear
On the Khavle Main
One jump out of Shakeytown

I says "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck
And I'm about to put the hammer down!"

'Cause we got a little convoy
Flyin' through the night
Yeah we got a little ol' convoy
Ain't she a beautiful sight!
C'mon and join or convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way
And we're gonna take this convoy
All the way down the Khavle Main

Convoy........!

(I apologize for NOTHING! NOTHING I say!!!!!)

 

[SuperPheemy]

This is Jack Burton at the Pork-Chop Express and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin'. It's like I told my last wife.I says "Honey,I never drive faster than I can see." "Besides that, it's all in the reflexes."
You just listen to the Pork-Chop Express and take his advice on a dark and stormy night. When some wild-eyed maniac grabs your neck,taps the back of your favorite head up against a barroom wall, he looks you crooked in the eye and asks you if you've paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker back in the eye and remember what Jack Burton always says at a time like this. "Have you paid your dues, Jack?"
"Yes, sir, the check is in the mail!"
Well, you see, I'm not sayin' that I've been everywhere and I've done everything.But I do know it's a pretty amazing planet we live on here,and a man would have to be some kinda fool to think we're all alone in this universe!

Inspirational words, my friends, inspirational words!

 

[rinku]

I did once run a scenario loosely based on the song. Start of the FFW in Glisten subsector, players were advised that due to the outbreak of war all civilian ships would form up in convoys with some kind of escort.
I didn't tick off all of the song elements, but they did have:

A cargo of data logs
A converted Liner transporting low berth prisoners
A Safari ship transporting mega-hogs
A green painted seeker flown by space nuns
A 1000 ton freighter carrying munitions
A pilot named Ken Worth

Now, admittedly, the song does not proceed to have the freighter lure the escort ship close after jump and then detonate itself (Ine Givar suicide jockey), at which point the Zho raider that jumped in just ahead of the convoy attacks... but you can't have everything!

 

[Major Bonkers]

Surely Ace Garp was an inspiration?

 

[CordwainerFish]

Surely Ace Garp was an inspiration?

The Estuary Cluster According to Garp.

 

[rinku]

Funnily enough, I don't think so much. It's more that the root sources of 70's CB/Trucker movies and TV, and that Deep Purple song inspired both. But I can't totally exclude Ace Trucking Co.

 

[Cdr Vimes]

Loving this and working up a campaign for after the introductory adventure. One question - The deck plan for the Brewer 2 appears to have 2 bridges, am I missing something.

 

[rinku]

I think it might be a two deck bridge. The deckplan shows two 20 ton areas and the worksheet shows a 40 ton bridge.

Possibly what might be missing is some way to move directly between the two areas, unless it's meant to be one large room with lots of walkways and stuff?

But keep in mind the deckplan is only a sample. "...it is rare for two examples to be exactly alike"

On the other hand, Bridge tonnage includes more than the control room and is usually distributed through the ship. Maybe the lower part is mostly avionics and such. It might also have something to do with the trailer - Normally a 400 ton ship only needs a 20 ton bridge, but a 1400 ton one needs a 40 ton one. Perhaps the design is such that the upper bridge controls the Prime Mover and the lower one deals with the trailer?

 

[Condottiere]

That might have been the case with two percent, but I think it's more of a case for wiring up the rest of the hull, with fixed tonnage more or less concentrated in one spot.

 

[rinku]

This is a special case though, since two hulls are involved. What it LOOKS like is that the upper bridge is for flight use, with possible clear forward and side views, but the lower bridge is fully enclosed. Since the prime mover only needs a 20 ton bridge, my guess is that the lower bridge is only required for the combined rig. For reasons. The trailers themselves don't have bridges.

Yeah, the more I think about it, it has to be what would be the trailer's bridge, were it to be an actual multihull.