How do you prevent ships from jumping away during a boarding action

[Stingray_tm]

My players sometimes found themselves in a situation where they are more than willing to take the risk of a misjump when in fact I want to have a boarding encounter (especially when I want to catch them for playing the Prison Planet module... ahem...)

What are your thoughts on that?

 

[Arkathan]

Ion cannons, jump breaker missiles, prototype gravity well generators (normally TL 16), Forced linkage apparatus (they might bring the bad guys with them to the middle of nowhere). You might rule that tractor beams are directed gravity based tech, and thus interfere with jumps.

The easiest way to avoid them jumping out before the encounter is to have the intercept occur before they can refuel from the last jump.

 

[ottarrus]

Simple answer, you can't prevent a ship from jumping while it's being boarded.

This is why military boarding parties are divided into to three teams: two teams to go after the bridge and auxiliary bridge and one to go after the engineering spaces [preferably the power plant, but the j-drive plant will do].

But all is not doom and gloom. In order to approach a ship close enough to make a boarding action possible, you have to repeatedly hit the engineering spaces and point defense weapons in order to make the boarding as safe a possible for your boarders. Odds are that some of those engineering hits will damage or disable the jump drive, power plant, or fuel tanks [no gas no jump].

 

[Condottiere]

Depends on how it's boarded.

If you're using a large enough shuttle to throw off the astrogation algorithm, assuming the spacecraft is within the potential jump bubble diameter, the starship either can't jump, the jump drive will overload and shutdown, or both will boldly go, but unlikely where expected.

But essentially, control the jump drive, and/or, unless there's a secondary power source, control the power plant.

 

[cunningrat]

My players sometimes found themselves in a situation where they are more than willing to take the risk of a misjump when in fact I want to have a boarding encounter (especially when I want to catch them for playing the Prison Planet module... ahem...)

What are your thoughts on that?

Jump Filters (High Guard, p. 70).
"Hooray, we got away!" ... and the pursuing ship drops out of jump space a few hours behind them. Or, if you're willing to fudge a roll, is waiting for them when they come out of jump.

 

[fireyphoenix22]

in the adventure "lilly moraine" in the Traveller new era, the adventure deals with a vampire starship, and the way to prevent the starship from taking off by itself, the maintenence bay employed a nuclear damper projector focused on the engineering section to prevent the fusion reaction on the plant from starting. this could be a way to prevent a starship from jumping during boarding actions.

 

[DickTurpin]

Arkathan hit most of the ways to prevent a ship from jumping out in the first reply. Another big one is hitting the target while it is deep inside a jump shadow, either from a gas giant if they are skimming or the destination/origin world. The hazards of a misjump should convince the target to accept the loss of some cargo. But if the attacker has a reputation for inflicting excessive carnage on his victims, the pilot might prefer to take the boarding party with him into oblivion.