Jump Drives
- Thread starter Joebeast
- Start date
cerebrolator
Banded Mongoose
I'm new to this so my answer might be wrong.
From my understanding, the jump drive creates a bubble of alternate universe around the ship. This bubble lasts roughly 7 days regardless of the distance being traveled. I would assume that each jump number represents a slightly different dimension and that is what accounts for the distance traveled in the real universe.
It's a handy mechanic for standardizing things in the game. It also prevents time being spent doing lengthy calculations to determine how long it takes to travel from star A to star B.
From my understanding, the jump drive creates a bubble of alternate universe around the ship. This bubble lasts roughly 7 days regardless of the distance being traveled. I would assume that each jump number represents a slightly different dimension and that is what accounts for the distance traveled in the real universe.
It's a handy mechanic for standardizing things in the game. It also prevents time being spent doing lengthy calculations to determine how long it takes to travel from star A to star B.
Core pg 141 contains the basic information under the Jump Travel and ..er.. Jump Travel titles, starting with 'Jump travel is...'
There you will find information about 'bubble of hyperspace', 'injecting high-energy exotic particles', 'into the little pocket universe' and such like.
It also presents the mechanics, but those are pretty simple (and can likely be found in the SRD).
No reason Jump 2 can't take 3 1/2 days for a J-1 in your Traveller Universe (TU) - the 'roughly one week' thing is really setting specific (the Official TU). The original idea being, IIRC, that Traveller would have an 'old west' feel in an interstellar universe - thus communications and travel would be delayed between systems.
There you will find information about 'bubble of hyperspace', 'injecting high-energy exotic particles', 'into the little pocket universe' and such like.
It also presents the mechanics, but those are pretty simple (and can likely be found in the SRD).
No reason Jump 2 can't take 3 1/2 days for a J-1 in your Traveller Universe (TU) - the 'roughly one week' thing is really setting specific (the Official TU). The original idea being, IIRC, that Traveller would have an 'old west' feel in an interstellar universe - thus communications and travel would be delayed between systems.
RandyT0001
Mongoose
If you decide to make jump have varible time in jumpspace dependent on the installed jump drive number versus the actual jump made then there will be certain changes in travel. For instances if you decide that a jump 6 drive can make a one parsec (jump 1) distance in about a day (28 hours if it's a direct relationship jump time in hours / jump drive number or 168hrs/6=28hrs) the economics will change because those that can afford it will build ships with high jump capable ships that just make one or two parsecs jumps at high speed to deliver passengers and cargo at a higher speed than slower (smaller jump drive) ships. Since it puts the lower jump drive ships at such a disadvantage just about every ship will need jump 6 drives to be economically viable. Of course these ships are more expensive to build so cargo rates and passenger ticket prices go up significantly.
YMMV
YMMV
Actually the players are going to dig out an ancient artifact in a stasis field. (from a modified Beltstrike) The sector government will confiscate it and the players will never see it again. :roll:
Months later (real time) when doing the Epic adventure The Forgotten War and The Gabriel Enigma they will find a anti matter power device. Again the sector government will confiscate it, but this time they will make a contact with the dukes daughter.
Again months later they will be contacted and asked to investigate an ancient site. After proving successful
they will be shown what was in the stasis field and how the anti matter power source was needed to power it and the final acquisition was an operating "computer program" to make it work. In the stasis field will be a jump gate that is now connected to the other one in Auitawry system. Once there they will be meet by top government ancient experts and explained about the Florians.
Not sure where it will go from there.
Months later (real time) when doing the Epic adventure The Forgotten War and The Gabriel Enigma they will find a anti matter power device. Again the sector government will confiscate it, but this time they will make a contact with the dukes daughter.
Again months later they will be contacted and asked to investigate an ancient site. After proving successful
they will be shown what was in the stasis field and how the anti matter power source was needed to power it and the final acquisition was an operating "computer program" to make it work. In the stasis field will be a jump gate that is now connected to the other one in Auitawry system. Once there they will be meet by top government ancient experts and explained about the Florians. Not sure where it will go from there.
There was an old Challenge magazine article years ago that suggested a pseudophysics explanation for the "every jump takes one week" rule. I can't recall the full details, but in effect each jump rating was a different energy state, somewhat like electron shells. The actual process of raising the ship to the required level, moving it, then bringing it down was explained as pretty much invariant.
However the real reason IMHO was to make it so that in-system use of the M-Drive would occur. If you could jump in-system for a proportional fraction of the stellar jump, you get almost instant travel between planets (interstellar distances are a LOOONG way compared to in-system ones. 1au is about 1/200,000th of a parsec.). Setting all jumps to take a week means that you will normally M-Drive to any destination you can get to in less time (and much less fuel)... which means more chance for encounters and other roleplaying moments, as well as another reason to desire a ship with thrust better than 1G.
However the real reason IMHO was to make it so that in-system use of the M-Drive would occur. If you could jump in-system for a proportional fraction of the stellar jump, you get almost instant travel between planets (interstellar distances are a LOOONG way compared to in-system ones. 1au is about 1/200,000th of a parsec.). Setting all jumps to take a week means that you will normally M-Drive to any destination you can get to in less time (and much less fuel)... which means more chance for encounters and other roleplaying moments, as well as another reason to desire a ship with thrust better than 1G.
