MT2 FIRING THE JUMP DRIVE--needs interpretation pls

[Beachboy2017]

FIRING THE JUMP rule says: "EASY (+4) Engineer (Jump Dirve) Check = (1D x 10 minutes, EDU modified by effect of ASTROGATION CHECK...plus applicatable modifiers there...

Could couple of you please supply interpretation for a newbie and a simple example outlining what that formula would look like....(purpose of the 1D x 10 minutes) and meaning of "effect" of the Astrogation Check???
I get the EASY (+4) and assume I need an Engineer with (J Drive) capability....

 

[AnotherDilbert]

An Easy task means roll 4 or higher to succeed (4+), so roll 2D + Modifiers ≥ 4 to succeed. How much higher than 4 you rolled is the Effect of the task roll. If you rolled less than 4 the Effect will be negative, see "EFFECT" p59. In this case the task is Easy so the Effect is 2D + Modifiers - 4[Easy] = Effect.

First the Astrogator plots a jump route, that is the first Astrogation check. The Effect is the result of the Astrogation task roll.

Then the Engineer slowly and carefully checks the state of the jump drive and fuel and powers it up to perform the jump exactly as the Astrogator has plotted in space and time. The whole process takes 1D × 10 minutes. Any Engineer will do, but if he does not have Eng(J-Drive) speciality his skill modifier is 0.

You can speed up the process by skipping the safety checks and just feeding the astrogation plot to the drives, increasing the chance of a misjump, see "Going Faster or Slower" p60.

I hope this answers at least part of your question.

 

[Beachboy2017]

Your reply is most helpful....
Especially the part about "skipping" fuel/maintenance checks and risking misjump...
Out of interest...the bit about time it takes... 1D x 10 minutes...
If you could also explain significance of keeping time? Then I will go and re-read the rules....
But what is difference to my side as to whether a process has taken 10 minutes or 40 minutes?????

 

[Reynard]

You track time during those tasks if there's a possibility of *something bad happening*. If the referee has nothing planned as an encounter and you're not in a chase or combat, there's no real need to track time as you make successive attempts. If it takes several attempts to astrogate at 10-60 minutes each and another 10-60 minutes to actually jump and there's someone trying to close while firing at you, it makes things a bit more hair raising. Check Timeframes on pages 59 to 60 for increasing or decreasing time intervals. You may want to take more time to jump if you did miss a maintenance check and didn't have time to process the raw fuel you just finished skimming OR take less time for astrogation and/or jump when you're seriously running out of time.

 

[Beachboy2017]

Thanks Reynard...
It's all coming together....your explanation helps....
I was beginning to figure that time was important for that reason...but I think until one actually experiences ship-to-ship combat...they might not get true sense of the importance of clock watching.
I get it now.

 

[Condottiere]

It's a process, that under normal circumstances shouldn't lead to a misjump, due to a lovesick astrogator who pirated a copy of the jump programme, a drunk engineer nursing along a second hand jump drive and an unstable power plant, and a pilot more interested in the latest celebrity gossip show, that he doesn't notice that the ship isn't at the exact coordinates precalculated for the hop into hyperspace.

See if the dungeon master is doing any unnecessary dicing.

 

[Reynard]

There's also those unlucky die rolls by players and the ref making the jump roll. I know this has happen to a couple engineers characters I ran. Easy doesn't mean a sure bet. For us, it just meant a few more days getting to the gas giants for refueling.

 

[ochd]

First the Astrogator plots a jump route, that is the first Astrogation check. The Effect is the result of the Astrogation task roll.

I have been playing this as written, but I do wonder if this process should follow the task chain rules instead and therefore the jump drive check is subject to a DM according to the table on page 60 (ie, DM -3 to +2), rather than straight DM = effect?

Dan.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I tend to not house rule without a clear picture of what I want to change in the game.

You would make it more likely to misjump. A misjump is better as a threat than an occurrence. On the other hand it is rather difficult to achieve a misjump with the rules as written.

 

[ochd]

If it takes several attempts to astrogate at 10-60 minutes each and another 10-60 minutes to actually jump and there's someone trying to close while firing at you, it makes things a bit more hair raising. Check Timeframes on pages 59 to 60 for increasing or decreasing time intervals. You may want to take more time to jump if you did miss a maintenance check and didn't have time to process the raw fuel you just finished skimming OR take less time for astrogation and/or jump when you're seriously running out of time.

This is a bit off-topic, but when it comes to enacting ship repairs, I've noticed a bit of inconsistency here. On page 161, it says that a temporary ship repair can be jury rigged, taking 1 round. However, in the example text for going faster or slower on page 60, trying to repair an engine mid-battle is said to take 1D hours. And while 1D hours is the standard time given for repairing a critical hit on page 150, the Timeframes table on page 60 lists repairing a damaged ship as an example task for 1D x 10 hours.

No big deal, of course, and easy to decide on one or the other. Just thought I'd point it out.

Dan.

 

[ochd]

A misjump is better as a threat than an occurrence. On the other hand it is rather difficult to achieve a misjump with the rules as written.

Agreed. Don't want to make misjumping more than a rare occurrence, but then it would be good if it was more of a threat than it is at the moment.

 

[Reynard]

It is a Task Chain event so the standard should be as a task chain but always remember Rule Zero: "Many roleplaying games have a ‘rule zero’ which marks out a referee’s fiat, the notion that the referee is free to ignore or change any rule to fit in with his campaign.". I can say from experienced the games I played in were played by the book and not Rule Zero yet we made it through if inconvenienced by the misjumps and we had tales to tell for it.

 

[ochd]

It is a Task Chain event so the standard should be as a task chain

I just went to the rulebook again and you're right. I didn't notice before the sentence that says "... must be performed as a task chain" on page 148. I have just been going on the description under "Jump!" where it says "modified by the Effect of the original Astrogation check". Thanks for making me look again at that.

Dan.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I had missed that too, thanks!