Matrix "Time Travel" map for Traveller

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is a Time Travel Map for Traveller, a bit of explanation is in order.
The maps are treated just like maps of space, this one shows two subsectors of time, the number at the top of each hex is the date, the red number at the bottom of the hex is the address, as you can see the address is a 6-digit number, which means there is 1 million addresses. The addresses are cells to a giant solar powered computer in the shape of a ring around the Sun. The only hexes which can be reached reached by the time drive are those that have circles with blue fill in the center, that means a whole planet Earth and Solar System at that date is being simulated by that particular cell in the computer, our own date, 2015 AD is included in this map. The Time Drive works just like a jump drive but with the following exceptions. The Time Drive only works when the Time Ship is resting on the surface of a large massive body in the Solar System, that is a Size 1 World or larger. The surface rested on must be solid in order to maintain a fixed position, otherwise a misjump occurs. A Time Jump can't be initiated when the ship is in orbit, it needs to stay with the worldline of a large body such as a moon, or a planet. Gas Giants are disqualified since they have no accessible solid surface to land on. Now a Jump 1 can jump 1 hex on this map, and Jump 2 can jump 2 hexes and so on, the standard fuel requirements per hex jumped applies as usual, the only difference is there is no time spent in jump space, the jump is instantaneous.

Now to explain what is beyond the edges of this map:
Below the bottom edge of this map are the continuation of the dates, each collumn in this map represents a century of dates with only about a third of them accessible by the time jump drive, the other hexes without circles in them can't be reached, The Time Jump Drive just fails to go their, and hexes that are available need to be within range of that particular time jump drive.

Beyond the right edge is another subsector of dates but around 1,000,000 years before present, more precisely it is the years 9,997,300 BC and later, by continuing to move right on this map, you enter more recent days until you get back to the absolute present which is in the years 2700 to 2799 AD.

Beyond the left edge is another pair of subsectors covering the years from 1 AD to 1100 AD.
Above the top edge, is another megayear approximately 2,000,000 BC to 1,000,000 BC. Each megayear band is 100 hexes wide, The years back to 1,000,000,000 BC are simulated in this Matrix. this isn't "real history" and the time travel mechanics is bogus, the Time Drive simply activates a back door in the simulation that allows the Time Ship to move from one simulated time period to another. All time in every address moves at the same rate forward in time. Who built the Matrix and the giant computer simulating it is a mystery, but the ringworld shaped Computer is orbiting a red giant at a radius of 40 AU, it is not known whether this red giant is the Future some or some other star.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I can see you put some thought into this. The first thing that jumped, pun intended, at me was

The surface rested on must be solid in order to maintcain a fixed position, otherwise a misjump ocurs.

"fixed position" is a very relative thing. In relationship to the universe I'd thing a "fixed position" is much easier in space instead of riding around on a world orbiting around one sun (which is also in motion) while trying to navigate, through time, to a totally different world orbiting around a different sun while somehow utilizing a computer going around a third sun.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I can see you put some thought into this. The first thing that jumped, pun intended, at me was

The surface rested on must be solid in order to maintcain a fixed position, otherwise a misjump ocurs.

"fixed position" is a very relative thing. In relationship to the universe I'd thing a "fixed position" is much easier in space instead of riding around on a world orbiting around one sun (which is also in motion) while trying to navigate, through time, to a totally different world orbiting around a different sun while somehow utilizing a computer going around a third sun.

Well as Bill and Ted once said, its totally Bogus, the only system involved is our Solar System, and it is only a simulation of that as well, a simulation taken at 333,333,333 billion times in its history, the other unused cells might simulate something else besides our Solar System's history. The Future extends out to the 26th century, at that time, humanity is building its first starship, getting ready to explore the nearest star, totally unaware that their whole Universe, well actually just the Solar System they inhabit is nothing but a computer simulation on a giant computer. All this has happened before in the real Universe, the timeline ends here because once humans venture to the stars, the system becomes too complex to simulate. The starship being build is a Slower than Light Starship, there is no FTL drive, and it would take decades to arrive at its destination as it approaches 10% of the speed of light, but of course its all a Simulation, this is future history, though the inhabitants are unaware of that, it has already happened in reality and their reality is just a historical simulation of that event.

Easier if its just one Sun, the Sun is approaching the end of its life, but relative to the human lifespan, this red giant still has many more years to shine. One of its useful properties is the star is very bright compared to its mass, and it blows off its outer layers, thus providing construction materials for the ring or sphere. Remember a normal Dyson Sphere around a sunlike star has the surface area of 1 billion Earths at a radius of just 1 AU, this ring around a red giant, which is much brighter, has a radius of 40 AU, yet is has a mass similar to the Sun, the radiation pressure helps to compensate for the feeble gravity at this distance, and the star could be in its helium burning phase, if pulsates, and its red lightis not constant, but it serves the purpose of being an energy source for this ring. The ring is 2 AU wide by the way, a setting in the ship's "Time Drive" will bring a ship to the surface of this ring, in this reality.

This is the star

Gamma Crux: a red giant 88 light years from Sol.
This article has information about this star.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_Crucis.
The ring doesn't block all the light of this star, so its still easily visible from the real Earth, the article says it has 1.3 solar masses. This kind of star will eventually produce a planetary nebula and shrink down to a white dwarf., but this process still has millions of years to go.
This article has more information:
http://www.solstation.com/stars2/gacrux2.htm

 

[CosmicGamer]

Another thing is that time is not a real thing. Ok, did not mean to blow your mind. What I mean is that time is a very man made construct for measuring things. A "year" is based on one single planets notion that time is based on a single world revolving around a single sun. When Aslan and others were first encountered did they somehow coincidentally use the same time measurement of days and years as Earthlings?

Next, an AU is also a man construct. Based on approximately the average distance of the earth to the sun.

It just doesn't feel right to me that traveling through space and time somehow coincidentally functions using a Earth centric system. I suggest you mix it up a bit. Unless you intend for this to be an indicator of it's origin? - and even then, the universe was not made by man and just like the earths distance to the sun varies and is rarely exactly one AU from the sun, things may not function exactly on a human conceived time scale.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Another thing is that time is not a real thing. Ok, did not mean to blow your mind. What I mean is that time is a very man made construct for measuring things. A "year" is based on one single planets notion that time is based on a single world revolving around a single sun. When Aslan and others were first encountered did they somehow coincidentally use the same time measurement of days and years as Earthlings?

Next, an AU is also a man construct. Based on approximately the average distance of the earth to the sun.

It just doesn't feel right to me that traveling through space and time somehow coincidentally functions using a Earth centric system. I suggest you mix it up a bit. Unless you intend for this to be an indicator of it's origin? - and even then, the universe was not made by man and just like the earths distance to the sun varies and is rarely exactly one AU from the sun, things may not function exactly on a human conceived time scale.

Well the secret is that descendents of the humans in this simulation actually built this ring around Gamma Crux to simulate their own history, so actually the entire thing is a construct, this is not a random natural object after all.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

There are two methods for traveling in time:
1) is the Time Drive
2) is the psionic ability to teleport, and teleporting across time is easier than teleporting across distance, once one learns the talent.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The level of difficulty is affected by the distance of the available date in hexes on the map, thus one doesn't have to be from a high tech time period in order to travel in time. One can forget the big picture for a moment and treat it as a time travel campaign.