Communication - the 2 edged sword

[Shadowblayde99]

Hello everyone.

Let's start with the standard rule that communication requires a ship to jump from one system to another and it takes about a week. We can assume that the xboat ( J 4 drive) doesn't go to every system so communication needs to also rely on other ships that may only have J1 or J2 drives.

How do you handle the issue where something happens in a system but it takes the players 4 weeks to get the information and 2 weeks to get there. By that time things could have changed such that any evidence would just lead to a dead end.

An example would be the following:

A crime happens on Hilfer in the Trojan Reach. Information goes to Bob on Drinax who then sends a message to the players who are on Byrni. They then need to travel to Hilfer. It would take 1 week for information to go from Hilfer to Drinax. 3 weeks for a message to go from Drinax to Byrni then 2 weeks for the players to travel from Byrni to Hilfer. That's a total of 6 weeks which is way too long for them to do anything about the crime.

An actual example would be where the players finish at the end of First Prize in the Drinax companion and where they need to go to start Honour among Thieves from the Drinax campaign but I don't want to give any spoilers.

This type of thing could happen anywhere that there is a consequence that occurs due to the time delay caused by slow communication and or the time required for jumps.

Has anyone encountered this effect and how did you deal with it as a GM?

 

[Vormaerin]

What I do is one of three things:
1) have the news be something that will remain actionable: "An event happened here. You can get more info at the source"
2) string something unrelated between the two points that brings the players close enough to get actionable information
3) just save that adventure prompt until sometime they actually go there in the normal course of play

 

[Vormaerin]

Personally, I think that the "Age of Sail" effect of slow communications is one of the most interesting effects of how Traveller tech works.

 

[MonkeyX]

I tend to save adventures hanging until the PCs visit that system or give them an open ended ”you need to visit this system soon” to get them in the right direction.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Insystem communications is at the speed of light.

2. Outsystem at jump drive factor potential; adding more ponii power doesn't change that.

3. If the point of the plotline is for the player characters to react in time to rectify some issue, then you have to allow enough slack so that they can, even if they have to drop everything they're doing, and go there.

 

[Arkathan]

I look at how long it will take characters to get the information. I calculate where the perps are heading and how long they will spend on other projects while getting there.
I look at the tech level and law level of the planet.
A decent law level and modern TL means someone has video and other proof against the perps. A low law level but modern tech means an information broker type has access to the evidence needed to identify the perp and get an initial logged jump path of the ship carrying the perps, again filtered by law level. Streetwise, Electronics (Computer) and investigation being the relevant skillsets.
Rinse and repeat until the trail goes cold, they get bored or they get within striking range.

 

[Fulcs]

Hello everyone.

Let's start with the standard rule that communication requires a ship to jump from one system to another and it takes about a week. We can assume that the xboat ( J 4 drive) doesn't go to every system so communication needs to also rely on other ships that may only have J1 or J2 drives.

How do you handle the issue where something happens in a system but it takes the players 4 weeks to get the information and 2 weeks to get there. By that time things could have changed such that any evidence would just lead to a dead end.

An example would be the following:

A crime happens on Hilfer in the Trojan Reach. Information goes to Bob on Drinax who then sends a message to the players who are on Byrni. They then need to travel to Hilfer. It would take 1 week for information to go from Hilfer to Drinax. 3 weeks for a message to go from Drinax to Byrni then 2 weeks for the players to travel from Byrni to Hilfer. That's a total of 6 weeks which is way too long for them to do anything about the crime.

An actual example would be where the players finish at the end of First Prize in the Drinax companion and where they need to go to start Honour among Thieves from the Drinax campaign but I don't want to give any spoilers.

This type of thing could happen anywhere that there is a consequence that occurs due to the time delay caused by slow communication and or the time required for jumps.

Has anyone encountered this effect and how did you deal with it as a GM?

I'd probably wait until they're within maybe 1 jump before they become aware of the news.

Or, they become aware of the news while several weeks out but the situation has changed when they get there, and that new situation is the actual adventure.

Or, just be ready for them to do something completely different, ignore my carefully constructed hook and totally miss the starting point of an epic 2-year campaign (players are wont to do this on the odd occasion)

 

[alex_greene]

I have been in business too long, because I was thinking "Communication requires rapport, and room and time for the recipient to understand the message and provide feedback to the sender."
At least my old business studies lecturer would be proud.
Jump-4 is generally faster than an average Free Trader or Type S Scout can manage. That means that, in general, the X-Boat Network is sufficient to allow the Imperium to communicate more quickly than the Travellers in their little Free Trader, or even a Subby.

Things get interesting when the Travellers get a hold of a ship that is at least Jump-4, which would allow them to match the speed of X-Boats, or Jump-5 or 6, which would allow them to get ahead of the X-Boats.
But if your Travellers do get one of those sleek, fast ships, they'd be set for life, because the local Scouts would be desperate to hire them to take the most important messages to key systems in the sector, to get there ahead of their standard X-Boats.
Even a Jump-3 ship would be in high demand, because they could hire those vessels to take mail to worlds near the X-Boat stations, and to islands and clusters inaccessible to Type-As and Type-Rs.

 

[Anstett]

An actual example would be where the players finish at the end of First Prize in the Drinax companion and where they need to go to start Honour among Thieves from the Drinax campaign but I don't want to give any spoilers.

This type of thing could happen anywhere that there is a consequence that occurs due to the time delay caused by slow communication and or the time required for jumps.

Has anyone encountered this effect and how did you deal with it as a GM?

I attached a nice map for all of the various adventures that take place in the Reach (I did not create, found through Reddit) that I use.

The group wanders through Marduk? Here are four hooks to toss out that involve them in some sort of story arc. It takes them past Exocet? Here is another hook to something else. Let the Travellers pick which trails to follow.

 

[alex_greene]

When something is urgent (time sensitive), best if it happens in the system while the Travellers are in flight. Inbound, outbound, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that the ship is there to respond, where other ships in the area such as Naval patrol vessels are not.

When something is not urgent, make sure it is still actionable, and that there is a connection to the Travellers - for instance, a ship ten parsecs away crashes; the Traveller Captain of her ship finds out about it some six months down the line; she knows her sister is the Engineer aboard that ship; she sets course to get there. Even if she takes another twenty weeks, ten jumps with one week between Jumps, she'll still get there to find that her sister is somehow still alive - she's cannibalised parts of the wreck to fabricate a weak distress pulse and repaired life support, or she's stranded on a habitable planet with food and water supplies to last her another year, if need be.