Fast travel?

[AbuDhabi]

So, it came up in one of my earlier campaigns that the crew wanted to cross a fairly large distance, without engaging much with what they were passing along the way, because of reasons. Just straight going somewhere else, where somewhere else was three subsectors away.

Are there any official or fan rules for going far without stopping much? Rolling all the checks and doing all the accounting for every jump is tiresome. Could do with GM fiat, but that doesn't quite satisfy the simulationist in me.

Particularly, I'd like rules that make an approximation of travel time and money spent/earned. Anyone heard of such?

 

[Reynard]

State you planning a very boring run from point A to point B obeying all the rules of space travel and taking your time to make the best rolls to avoid mishaps. Calculate berthing, supply and maintenance fees for each stop needed including if gas giant refueling are possible to continue without a planetside stopover. Hopefully no cargo transactions are involve but otherwise make buy and sell very simple affairs. Essentially do a very safe road trip.

 

[Condottiere]

You could freeze dry the opted out characters, and have a second group of players act as a crew, whose mission is to deliver the pod people to their destination safely in tact; well, mostly.

 

[Hopeless]

They do realise that will either take quite a few centuries or they run the risk of jumping back in time say before their species even evolved perhaps not even as far as the stone age?

Do they possess a ship with the necessary facilities for such an extended voyage?

I think this is literal a generational ship unless they want to risk an experimental jump gate or alien artefact that opens a gate into either another galaxy or some unknown point elsewhere but what do they really want?

I'd ask them outright what they're planning and make sure they understand that trying to fast forward the game so they can reach that specific world in that sub-sector over there either takes a massive amount of time if they don't want to be awake for it and also runs the risk of being intercepted or they find another means of travel such as a luxury liner that's heading there and booking passage on it, so they don't have to worry about the ship's needs and just worry about what's going on aboard the liner...

Either way what kind of game are they looking for?

 

[AbuDhabi]

State you planning a very boring run from point A to point B obeying all the rules of space travel and taking your time to make the best rolls to avoid mishaps. Calculate berthing, supply and maintenance fees for each stop needed including if gas giant refueling are possible to continue without a planetside stopover. Hopefully no cargo transactions are involve but otherwise make buy and sell very simple affairs. Essentially do a very safe road trip.

Avoiding having to take an hour or two to go through all the hoops is the point of my inquiry. I know you can do all this manually.

You could freeze dry the opted out characters, and have a second group of players act as a crew, whose mission is to deliver the pod people to their destination safely in tact; well, mostly.

How is this an improvement? The players presumably don't want to make new characters to play for six IRL months while their main characters are frozen.

They do realise that will either take quite a few centuries or they run the risk of jumping back in time say before their species even evolved perhaps not even as far as the stone age?

Do they possess a ship with the necessary facilities for such an extended voyage?

I think this is literal a generational ship unless they want to risk an experimental jump gate or alien artefact that opens a gate into either another galaxy or some unknown point elsewhere but what do they really want?

I had to check that I posted this thread to the right forum, but I did. This is the Traveller section, where I had assumed the knowledge of the Jump Drive was assumed. Such a journey would take something like half a year to a year, depending on J-Drive rating.

In both the 1st and the 2nd edition, avoiding misjumps is trivial - more so in the 2nd, but in the 1st, you could just take more time with a power diversion in order to get your Int/Edu + Engi(Jump) modifier up to +5 (let's say +1 skill, +1 attribute, +1 expert software, +2 timesteps), in which case it's impossible to misjump by simple following of the rules.

I'd ask them outright what they're planning and make sure they understand that trying to fast forward the game so they can reach that specific world in that sub-sector over there either takes a massive amount of time if they don't want to be awake for it and also runs the risk of being intercepted or they find another means of travel such as a luxury liner that's heading there and booking passage on it, so they don't have to worry about the ship's needs and just worry about what's going on aboard the liner...

Either way what kind of game are they looking for?

The specific case was that they initially misjumped into Zhodani territory, but had urgent, personal business in the Spinward Marches. The "my family is trapped on a planet besieged by rebels" sort of urgent, personal business.

A luxury liner won't transport their starship. Interstellar travel is actually pretty safe, depending on where your GM sits on the whole piracy issue.

 

[Condottiere]

What you want may be available in Tee Five, with drives that hop and skip across tens and hundreds of parsecs.

Possibly, a relic from a more gentler age that someone has figured out how to fire up.

 

[Reynard]

You say:
"In both the 1st and the 2nd edition, avoiding misjumps is trivial - more so in the 2nd, but in the 1st, you could just take more time with a power diversion in order to get your Int/Edu + Eng(Jump) modifier up to +5 (let's say +1 skill, +1 attribute, +1 expert software, +2 time steps), in which case it's impossible to misjump by simple following of the rules."

Followed by:
"The specific case was that they initially misjumped into Zhodani territory,..."

This sounds like you're the victim of the misjump that just impossible. The referee doesn't have to incur a major misjump when a misjump is called for. If it's such a hassle for everyone then call either a minor misjump or make the misjump the bare minimum. Referees are still the ultimate god.

The suggestion I made should not take hours! The ref traces a path back to where you want to restart then add up any fees necessary plus time lost. That is not hard math. Otherwise Handwave and say "You're back." and continue with the game. If it is absolutely time sensitive that such a journey make success impossible then I definitely say reset the misjump incident.

The game is about fun.

 

[Reynard]

"Possibly, a relic from a more gentler age that someone has figured out how to fire up."

Ah, Gateway from Marc Miller's Traveller adventure! Sounds a bit like Abudhabi's predicament and possible solution.

 

[AbuDhabi]

You say:
"In both the 1st and the 2nd edition, avoiding misjumps is trivial - more so in the 2nd, but in the 1st, you could just take more time with a power diversion in order to get your Int/Edu + Eng(Jump) modifier up to +5 (let's say +1 skill, +1 attribute, +1 expert software, +2 time steps), in which case it's impossible to misjump by simple following of the rules."

Followed by:
"The specific case was that they initially misjumped into Zhodani territory,..."

This sounds like you're the victim of the misjump that just impossible. The referee doesn't have to incur a major misjump when a misjump is called for. If it's such a hassle for everyone then call either a minor misjump or make the misjump the bare minimum. Referees are still the ultimate god.

I think you're being uncharitable. The misjump occurred because they were jumping from high orbit around a gas giant, fleeing certain doom in the form of an automated Ancient capital ship they just found and shot at. If you want to be immune to misjumps in those conditions, then you need roughly a +13 and that's without the option of timesteps. My figure of +5 assumed regular conditions - not being chased by pirates, using unrefined fuel, having a damaged J-Drive or jumping from within the 100-diameter limit of a gravwell.

The suggestion I made should not take hours! The ref traces a path back to where you want to restart then add up any fees necessary plus time lost. That is not hard math. Otherwise Handwave and say "You're back." and continue with the game. If it is absolutely time sensitive that such a journey make success impossible then I definitely say reset the misjump incident.

It should not take hours, but it definitely does take hours, IME. If I did it myself, it would take half an hour, but then you have to coordinate the astrogator, pilot and engineer to all roll their stuff.

 

[Reynard]

I'm beginning to not understand what you are looking for to 'Fast Travel'. At the same time I'm feeling dense. You insist you must follow all rules and all checks throughout the entire journey, which you don't want to do, yet dismiss any suggestions that would speed up the process and get on with the game. Could you better explain what you actually need.

 

[AbuDhabi]

I'm trying for the middle-ground between "GM Fiat" and "do everything manually". The are, for example, rules for volleys, which reduce the amount of rolling and steps needed to fire many beams/missiles. They don't lead to the same results as though you'd rolled for each individual shot, but they're quick, and they're close enough.

 

[CosmicGamer]

My figure of +5 assumed regular conditions - not being chased by pirates, using unrefined fuel, having a damaged J-Drive or jumping from within the 100-diameter limit of a gravwell.

For such a long journey, being chased by pirates, using unrefined fuel, having a damaged J-Drive or jumping from within the 100-diameter limit are possibilities, no?

Back to your issue

Are there any official or fan rules for going far without stopping much?

Official, none that I know of.
Fan, I'd think is typically GM fiat in one form or another.

Note that I'm throwing the following together quickly on the fly to give some ideas - food for thought.

Perhaps create a single roll for each location, come up with a few DMs based on trade possibility, dangers, relevant crew skills, roll and use effect to reflect + or - profit for that leg of the trip.

Initial roll (once per location):
Max simplicity:
Profit/Loss is 2^Effect x 1000Cr.

Medium:
For effect -5 to +5 Profit/Loss is 2^Effect x 1000Cr.
Extremes, like natural 2 and 12 and rolls with effect -6 or 6+ could result in something special. (see tables below)

More complex:
Instead of one simple initial roll per location there could be one roll for profits based on broker skill and DMs that affect trade and profits then an additional roll for each location on a table for random events.

Let the good times roll
Table for Roll of 12 and Exceptional Success effect of 6+
You get 2^6 x 1000Cr (64,000Cr) from trade plus a roll on the following table
1) Pay Day! Get a side job while ship is loading and unloading. It pays 15,000Cr. Gain a contact.
2) I want what you got. Cargo is desperately needed. Earn an additional 50,000Cr.
3) The crews best gambler wins 10,000Cr
4) Help out another ship in need. This delays you a week but you are rewarded 20,000Cr. Gain an Ally.
5
6

Murphy's law
Table for Roll of 2 and Exceptional Failure effect -6
You lose 2^6 x 1000Cr (64,000Cr) from bad trades plus a roll on the following table
1) Ship breaks down. Repairs cost 20,000Cr.
2) Pirates! Time to roll play an encounter? Want it supper simple: push cargo worth 50,000Cr out and run for it? Create another table with several options?
3) Cargo damaged in shipping, lose 25,000Cr
Note that the next two are more detailed and have additional rolls. Fun? or want it quick and simple? Note that for the majority of stops you'll likely not be rolling on these tables.
4) It wasn't me!
One or more crew members get into trouble with the law.
Roll Advocate (Average) or Persuade (Difficult)
Exceptional Success, matter is quickly resolved and you even get a letter of apology and a contact.
Average success, found innocent but ships departure is delayed a week getting the matter settled.
Effect 0, not enough evidence, matter is dropped, pay court fees of 1000Cr and lose two weeks getting the matter settled.
Effect -1, charges reduced, pay court fees and fines of 1d6 x 2000Cr and lose one week getting the matter settled.
Average Failure, found guilty. Serve 2 x the negative effect months.
Exceptional Failure, found guilty. See Adventure 2 Prison Planet :evil:
5) Problems with ship, cargo, or crew paperwork.
Roll Admin or Diplomat. Success, the matter is resolved quickly.
Fail, it takes negative effect days and administrative fees of 200Cr x negative effect to finally cut through the red tape
6)

Folks could help with creating entries, maybe even make d66 tables.

 

[Condottiere]

The other possibility is getting shuttled there by the Imperium Navy, whose bureaucracy will ensure minimal Imperial entanglements, and whose Star Destroyers will dissuade casual encounters, random or otherwise.

 

[atpollard]

So, it came up in one of my earlier campaigns that the crew wanted to cross a fairly large distance, without engaging much with what they were passing along the way, because of reasons. Just straight going somewhere else, where somewhere else was three subsectors away.

Are there any official or fan rules for going far without stopping much? Rolling all the checks and doing all the accounting for every jump is tiresome. Could do with GM fiat, but that doesn't quite satisfy the simulationist in me.

Particularly, I'd like rules that make an approximation of travel time and money spent/earned. Anyone heard of such?

Let statistical averages be your friend ... calculate in detail the cost, time and distance from jump to jump for one segment of your journey (you haven't even said if this is a J1, J3 or J5 ship, so using real numbers in the example is sort of hard) ... then just use your one statistical 'typical' jump to calculate the time and cost for the journey.

Over a trip of many jumps, the results should approach 'average' anyway, so this quick calculation should give you results close to those if you rolled everything out.

 

[phavoc]

So, it came up in one of my earlier campaigns that the crew wanted to cross a fairly large distance, without engaging much with what they were passing along the way, because of reasons. Just straight going somewhere else, where somewhere else was three subsectors away.

Are there any official or fan rules for going far without stopping much? Rolling all the checks and doing all the accounting for every jump is tiresome. Could do with GM fiat, but that doesn't quite satisfy the simulationist in me.

Particularly, I'd like rules that make an approximation of travel time and money spent/earned. Anyone heard of such?

No, I haven't seen anything out there for this specifically. It should be doable with just a little work.

From a cost perspective, determine distance, and then figure 3 jumps per month on average, calculate your fuel consumption (at this point you may want actually plot out the route to determine where free fuel is available, or you could just SWAG it and go with 50% frontier fueling, 50% purchased fuel).

The life support costs include food, so that's just X weeks X the number of persons = total life support costs.

A couple of things may throw a wrench into their plans. First you mention an approximation on money spent/earned. If they are coming from the Imperium and misjump into Zhodania space (and after the inevitable mind scans to verify truth), they will be flat broke because they have no way to access their Imperial bank accounts. That's a problem that should be role-played out to start off the adventure. You can then assume they are able to get money going forward. Could be as easy as selling a laser or missile launcher to raise Zho credits.

If you aren't looking to do any piracy or combat along the way, you can safely assume that any maintenance work can be put off till they get back to Imperial space. Since they are in a hurry you could potentially have their ship arrive at their destination in dire need of maintenance and repairs (and maybe smelling bad, etc).

One thing to keep in mind is that depending on the ship's jump capabilities, it may not be able to travel on a direct route because it's jump drive can't make it across the gaps and there are no capabilities to take on fuel internally. Which means you have to look at the map and plot jump-by-jump, which can add weeks to your travel time. So that won't fit into any formula.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Just make it up. I would say "treat trading as a wash" costs balance profit, so no money gained or lost (they wanted it fast, this is part of the 'price').

I would throw 2D for every system they pass through. On a 12, there is an encounter that must be played out, if not, let it all go by in a blur of quick die rolls.

Alternately, just say "six months have passed and you are now in the XXX system" let's start playing.

 

[atpollard]

This:

Just make it up. I would say "treat trading as a wash" costs balance profit, so no money gained or lost (they wanted it fast, this is part of the 'price').
Alternately, just say "six months have passed and you are now in the XXX system" let's start playing.

You have a year of adventures ahead of you that neither the players nor the Ref have any interest in, so you just want to get back to where you started with a minimum of wasted GAMING TIME.
The more I think about it and read the responses, this sounds like a situation where Referee fiat is EXACTLY what you want.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The other possibility is getting shuttled there by the Imperium Navy, whose bureaucracy will ensure minimal Imperial entanglements, and whose Star Destroyers will dissuade casual encounters, random or otherwise.

Better look at the date before you do this. What if the Emperor gets assassinated and their is a rebellion?

It might be more dangerous to take a ride with the Navy and become involved in a major military engagement!

 

[CosmicGamer]

It is an odd situation because I think the trip through Zoe space and the wild "neutral" area to get to Imperial space is where the adventure is.

 

[Rick]

Sounds like you need to do a combination of GM fiat and player 'bluebooking' to cover the travel time. Give the players a framework of the planets/times of travel and let them make up what they did. If they come up with something innovative, you might want to roleplay it out, otherwise treat it as background.