Tracking ships

[Ottomancer]

I am five sessions into Pirates of Drinax, and one of my players asked a question that made me go "hmmmm".

They have word of mouth evidence of which system a ship has travelled to, but one of the players asked "is there any way to track a jump-drive signature, to confirm where they might be going?" I said given that a jump-drive takes you into a pocket universe, it's highly unlikely. BUT - am I wrong? Could calculations be made based on heading, or is that irrelevant given the number of possible destinations could be so huge as to be useless?

 

[GabrielGABFonseca]

There is actually specialist software, I believe in High Guard 2022, which allows ships to pinpoint where a ship has jumped to – I'm currently on my mobile phone but if you give me 15 to 30 minutes I can track down the page for you.

But generally, the answer 80% of the time is "no, not really". It's more guesswork than science, unless you have the aforementioned specialist software.

[Edit]: Interesting, it is NOT in High Guard 2022, though I am 100% sure it exists. @Technetium 98, do you remember which book it is from?

 

[RYXlord]

You may be thinking of Jump Filters, in the Exotics section. Page 84.

 

[Ottomancer]

You may be thinking of Jump Filters, in the Exotics section. Page 84.

Found that - P70 of High Guard. Thank you!

So i can tell my players, "it's possible, but not on your free trader it's not!"

 

[MasterGwydion]

You literally have to watch them jump and have the correct software/equipment in order to do it. There is no "following the warp trail" like in Star Trek.

They could jump to one system in plain sight of your ship, but by the time you get there, they may have jumped again and you have no way of finding them without actually going to talking to people.

 

[paltrysum]

I am five sessions into Pirates of Drinax, and one of my players asked a question that made me go "hmmmm".

They have word of mouth evidence of which system a ship has travelled to, but one of the players asked "is there any way to track a jump-drive signature, to confirm where they might be going?" I said given that a jump-drive takes you into a pocket universe, it's highly unlikely. BUT - am I wrong? Could calculations be made based on heading, or is that irrelevant given the number of possible destinations could be so huge as to be useless?

See Tracking Jali on p. 109 of Pirates of Drinax Book 1, in the adventure, The Demon's Eye.

 

[MasterGwydion]

See Tracking Jali on p. 109 of Pirates of Drinax Book 1, in the adventure, The Demon's Eye.

Seems to me that the rules in PoD1 p.109 and the rules for Jump Filters on page 84 of High Guard were written in seclusion of each other. They are similar, but different. PoD requires 2 checks 10 and 12 respectively. HG requires 1 check at 10 but requires buying extra equipment that uses no tonnage, but uses bandwidth and power.

 

[Arkathan]

Which means you can pay to eliminate the harder roll.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I am wondering if this means that every starport knows exactly where all departing ships are going to, not just where they said they were going to?

 

[Grognardia]

'Bounty Hunter' has this

 

[MasterGwydion]

'Bounty Hunter' has this

View attachment 5667

How do you "mask a jump"? Where are the rules for that?

 

[Sigtrygg]

Back in the good old days you could not track a ship's jump destination. Then TNE introduced it in exceptional circumstance.

Now anyone can do it.

Just remember that the cops, the government, the military, the megacorporations, and the mob can just as easily track the PCs ship...

what a much better game, now law enforcement can be one jump behind you, trouble is a jump takes almost a week, what if they follow you but arrive before you do...

 

[Condottiere]

Leaving aside game mechanics, outside a broad idea, probably not.

You know the volume of the starship, you could probably measure the energy surge from the jump drive, and you know which direction the nose is pointing at.

You have a direction, and energy divided by volume tells you how many parsecs.

You have a notion of which ten square light year area that the starship jumped, and could narrow down what's interesting enough in that system they might want to visit.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Back in the good old days you could not track a ship's jump destination. Then TNE introduced it in exceptional circumstance.

Now anyone can do it.

Just remember that the cops, the government, the military, the megacorporations, and the mob can just as easily track the PCs ship...

This basically means that every single ship is tracked everywhere they go in the major polities as well as the more security-conscious minor polities.

what a much better game, now law enforcement can be one jump behind you, trouble is a jump takes almost a week, what if they follow you but arrive before you do...

How would they know if they arrived before you or after you had already jumped away?

How does Stealth Jump affect this? Anyone know?

 

[Sigtrygg]

This basically means that every single ship is tracked everywhere they go in the major polities as well as the more security-conscious minor polities.

Yup, what a great change to the game.

How would they know if they arrived before you or after you had already jumped away?

They would contact local starport trafic control to find out if the PC ship has arrived before they did, if it didn;t then they call in help and wait for the PCs to arrive...
what a great change to the game

How does Stealth Jump affect this? Anyone know?

Makes it more difficult to track your jump is a guess, will have to go look it up I think.

 

[Arkathan]

How do you "mask a jump"? Where are the rules for that?

Stealth Jump mod.
14+ to detect the jump. Then you can see if you can track it.

 

[Tforbes]

While not impossible, I think tracking a ship in jump, even with the tools mentioned above, is hardly routine or setting breaking.

- In the description of Jump filters it states that "a ship must be previously detected and its jump witnessed"
- In both the description of jump Filters AND the above description of Bounty hunter Jump Analyser software, it states that it is tracking the direction of a ships jump in conjunction with a database of jump drive signatures.
- In addition to the very difficult sensors check, the Jump Filters take 1D rounds (I'm assuming this is 6-minute space combat rounds not 6 seconds)

All of these factors together make me suspect that:
1. It's resource intensive, requires line of sight, and has to be initiated in advance.
2. All it gives you is the hex direction the ship is headed in, with jump distance being an estimate based on standard capabilities of that class ship.
3. BEST outcome is that you know a ship is in a particular system. Not where in that system it is.

If a pursuiter follows a ship to the correct system, they have to hope they happen to arrive close enough to the ship to either incapacitate them or witness their next jump before the trail goes cold again.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

How do you "mask a jump"? Where are the rules for that?

One way is to be on the other side of a body big enough to block the jump flash from would be pursuers.

You don't always need to track some ones jump. Just knowing things like their J-Drive rating and what stars are within that range may well narrow it down. Knowing their cargo so you can tell which system in range is the best place to sell it or the most likely place for a known cargo to be shipped will tell you where they are going (unless they are stealing the cargo).

Depends a lot on how far in advance you knew that you wanted to know the destination. Even knowing past history of their travels (likely if they are a recurring competitor) can narrow things down. Investigation might reveal their plans, everything from bribing their broker to getting a crewman drunk can tell you. If you know just in advance of your launch you can leave an investigator behind while you are in pursuit and they can radio you the information they find out (or hire a detective paid in advance).

Lots of ways to gather information and then deduction can reveal it.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

If I were a player trying to mask my jump and unable to use a larger body to do so I might try firing sandcasters (if available) in the direction I wanted to mask from and hope to at least give the opposition a bane on their attempt. Setting a mine to explode at the same time as you jump might distort things as well.

 

[Anstett]

While not impossible, I think tracking a ship in jump, even with the tools mentioned above, is hardly routine or setting breaking.

- In the description of Jump filters it states that "a ship must be previously detected and its jump witnessed"
- In both the description of jump Filters AND the above description of Bounty hunter Jump Analyser software, it states that it is tracking the direction of a ships jump in conjunction with a database of jump drive signatures.
- In addition to the very difficult sensors check, the Jump Filters take 1D rounds (I'm assuming this is 6-minute space combat rounds not 6 seconds)

All of these factors together make me suspect that:
1. It's resource intensive, requires line of sight, and has to be initiated in advance.
2. All it gives you is the hex direction the ship is headed in, with jump distance being an estimate based on standard capabilities of that class ship.
3. BEST outcome is that you know a ship is in a particular system. Not where in that system it is.

If a pursuiter follows a ship to the correct system, they have to hope they happen to arrive close enough to the ship to either incapacitate them or witness their next jump before the trail goes cold again.

Remembering to include the hex/parsec that they start from. Jumping from one side of the system to the other still takes one week but adds to the potential destinations.