Accidents *in* jump sapce?

[bardbear]

Reading the T:NE rules (and MegaTraveller as well) - it looks like miss jumps happen when jump is initiated. My initial adventure for a new group will be them all on the same vessel, but for different reason (two are doing working passage, one is a criminal in cold sleep, one is a wealthy traveler in high passage, the other is in middle passage). To jump start the action, I want "something bad" ™ to happen while they're in J-space.

If i understand J-space correctly, it does not interact with real space except near gravity wells (the 100 diameter distance). I don't want to kill the players on the first adventure, so I want to ship to be pre-maturely forced out of J-space (and the J drive trashed) and have them work together to save themselves (and hopefully the ship).

In canon, what, if anything, can happen in J-space to affect the ship?

 

[Gray Pennell]

I dont know how canon this is but what about a hydrogen leak. At point X there isnt enough fuel to maintain the jump bubble and the ship comes out of jump. This assumes the fuel isnt all used up at once. Canon and others will tell.

 

[Strummist]

4 ideas

________________________

Not canon, just my opinion, but given the importance of navigation to a sucessful jump, perhaps an unexpected mass en route could force the ship out of jumpspace? And given relativistic effects on mass, something which is already large and is travelling very fast with respect to the origin of the jump would do the trick nicely.

Something like a STL colony ship?

So the players are forced out of jump - and worse, are now travelling at a large fraction of c next to or even within a very large unknown vessel - which is probably very old.

_________________________

Also not canon, but (from Vinge's A Deepness In The Sky series) - some kind of "storm" in J-space makes FTL impossible in a region for a while? And what caused the storm?

_________________________

From Larry Niven - a small black hole "eats" the J-drive?
And why was the hole there?
_________________________

A confederate of the criminal botches a rescue by trying to destroy the J-drive before jump, but sets the fuse too long, or mechanism is affected by J-drive, or a 3rd party interferes for their own reasons. Either way, bomb goes off while in jump.

 

[samuelvss]

My idea would be a rogue planet (big, turbulent gas giant) that is, for whatever reason, improperly mapped, precipitates their "early" drop from jump space.

 

[77topaz]

4 ideas

________________________

Not canon, just my opinion, but given the importance of navigation to a sucessful jump, perhaps an unexpected mass en route could force the ship out of jumpspace? And given relativistic effects on mass, something which is already large and is travelling very fast with respect to the origin of the jump would do the trick nicely.

Something like a STL colony ship?

So the players are forced out of jump - and worse, are now travelling at a large fraction of c next to or even within a very large unknown vessel - which is probably very old.

_________________________

Also not canon, but (from Vinge's A Deepness In The Sky series) - some kind of "storm" in J-space makes FTL impossible in a region for a while? And what caused the storm?

_________________________

From Larry Niven - a small black hole "eats" the J-drive?
And why was the hole there?
_________________________

A confederate of the criminal botches a rescue by trying to destroy the J-drive before jump, but sets the fuse too long, or mechanism is affected by J-drive, or a 3rd party interferes for their own reasons. Either way, bomb goes off while in jump.

The problem is a (possible, I may be wrong) lack of information on the physics of jumpspace. For one thing, is there "one" jumpspace, or does each ship exist in a separate jumpspace. If the latter is correct, the black hole idea would probably not be possible. Possibly the same for the storm idea.
For the STL ship idea, I don't see how the ship would be forced out of jumpspace - the STL ship isn't in jumpspace, and would just have "passed" in a very short time, owing to the speed jump ships move at.
For the bomb idea, I don't think the ship would have much chance of ever being seen again... maybe the "jump bubble" would collapse, and the ship directly exposed to the "interior" of jumpspace, which, AFAIK, is highly destructive to basically anything...

 

[mike wightman]

There is a canonical adventure where ships crash into each other in jump space and merge sort of, and another jump accident caused by a ship in jump having a path that intersects an ancient jump portal network.

Yup, T4 adventures at their best

 

[Whipsnade]

Reading the T:NE rules (and MegaTraveller as well) - it looks like miss jumps happen when jump is initiated.

In nearly all versions, "misjumps" are most often failures to enter jump. Those misjumps which do occur with a successful jump entry are a bewildering variety of mishaps involving, but not limited to, variations in time, direction, and distance.

Jump space is repeatedly described as "not well understood" so you cannot go wrong if you go weird.

If i understand J-space correctly, it does not interact with real space except near gravity wells (the 100 diameter distance).

The 100D limit has nothing to do with gravity and Mr. Miller has spent over 25 years consistently and strenuously stating this. There is plenty of "fanon", and good "fanon", linking the 100D limit to gravity in a variety of ways, but Mr. Miller's steadfast explanation is that the limit as everything to do with dimensions and nothing to do with gravity.

All that being said, the 100D limit is your best bet for the type of misjump you need.

In the past several years, astronomers have realized that bodies variously called Trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids, Kuiper Belt objects, plutinos, and dwarf planets litter the outer fringes of our Solar system and are even present in "interstellar" space. Having your players' ship leave jump at the 100D limit of one of those objects neatly fits your requirements.

Thanks to either a poorly plotted jump or in a poorly chartered system, the players' ship leaves jump after the designated time and they realize they are 50 or more AU out from the star. They've little fuel and, depending on how you want to handle "ramming" a 100D limit, their engineering plant may damaged in some way or another. If fuel could be found, jumping to safety could be out thanks to jump drive damage. Using the m-drive could be dangerous again thanks to damage or due to relativistic speeds the ship isn't designed for. Calling for help is a problem thanks to the distance involved; i.e. the time it would take radio to reach the inner system, the strength of the signal once it reached the inner system, and the time it would take rescuers to reach them.

Just how the players solve their problem will depend on the details you place in your adventure.

 

[rancke]

In the past several years, astronomers have realized that bodies variously called Trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids, Kuiper Belt objects, plutinos, and dwarf planets litter the outer fringes of our Solar system and are even present in "interstellar" space. Having your players' ship leave jump at the 100D limit of one of those objects neatly fits your requirements.

Though you shouild probably lampshade how utterly unlikely such an event is. The odds against passing within 100D of any such object are literally astronomical.


Hans

 

[bardbear]

Though you shouild probably lampshade how utterly unlikely such an event is. The odds against passing within 100D of any such object are literally astronomical.


Hans

All:

Thanks for the info and ideas.

Hans, this is meant to be the start of "something interesting" ™. However, since this is a new group of players (with characters that haven't been rolled yet), I can't count on player or party interest in the event beyond extracting themselves alive. Hopefully, they will be curious and i can continue with my sketched out plot-line, but if they aren't interested in the oddity, so be it.

 

[rancke]

Hans, this is meant to be the start of "something interesting" ™. However, since this is a new group of players (with characters that haven't been rolled yet), I can't count on player or party interest in the event beyond extracting themselves alive. Hopefully, they will be curious and i can continue with my sketched out plot-line, but if they aren't interested in the oddity, so be it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm saying that, depending on your players, you may not want to do it without acknowledging that the PCs are having the very blackest of bad luck.

(Also, you may not want to do it more than once. )


Hans

 

[Burocrate]

In-Jump problems

I seem to recall two other scenarios:

1. a Mid Passage Scientist has brought along his 'prototype' device that interacts with Jump space (unexpectantly) causing the ship to exit Jump early, mis-jump whatever you choose

2. astronomical inprobable parcipitation from Jump caused by presence of uncharted rouge planetoid along Jump path. The adventure called for finding fuel to Jump out of that supposedly empty hex...what else or who else the PCs find is up to you.

Happy Travelling

 

[mike wightman]

Wow, bet you don't get many pink asteroids in a jump path

 

[CosmicGamer]

To jump start the action, I want "something bad" ™ to happen while they're in J-space.

I don't want to kill the players on the first adventure, so I want to ship to be pre-maturely forced out of J-space (and the J drive trashed) and have them work together to save themselves (and hopefully the ship).

In canon, what, if anything, can happen in J-space to affect the ship?

Does your game premise really need for some circumstance to force the ship out of jump?

If there was a miscalculation via human error or computer error causing the ship to precipitate out of jump in an unplanned location; wouldn't this work for what you are trying to do?

Perhaps it isn't a miscalculation; someone did it on purpose! They want the ship and crew to disappear or maybe somebody wants to arrive at this location, but why, what is here?

Additional survival issues can be as simple as needing to find fuel. Or you can throw any number of problems at them from pirates to ship malfunctions (random or sabotage?) to aliens and the list goes on.

 

[Uxi]

Power plant (or jump drive itself) failing during jump would be a cause. Whether you use the DGP "grid" or not J-space would intrude on the N-space "bubble" around the ship.

 

[rancke]

Power plant (or jump drive itself) failing during jump would be a cause. Whether you use the DGP "grid" or not J-space would intrude on the N-space "bubble" around the ship.

A power plant failure would result in the destruction of the ship. But the jump drive has done its job the moment it has thrust the ship into jump space. From that point it isn't doing anything and thus can't fail.


Hans

 

[LeperColony]

A power plant failure would result in the destruction of the ship. But the jump drive has done its job the moment it has thrust the ship into jump space. From that point it isn't doing anything and thus can't fail.


Hans

What gets a ship out of jump space then? Or does jump space simply "reject" the ship after the duration?

 

[mike wightman]

Here we go again...

According to MWM's jumpspace article the ship naturally precipitates out of jump space after a week. The exact moment of emergence is usually predicted by the ship's computer (which opens another can of worms - see 5 page discussion that will follow ) so the bridge is manned ready for the breakout into normal space.

 

[Uxi]

There's more than a couple references in MT and TNE to monitoring/maintenance of jump fields during jump. Usually not as specific over what was precisely doing it, but the jump drive makes the most sense.

The vector/trajectory and success/misjump IS determined at jump, though.

 

[BytePro]

"Accidents *in* jump sapce?"

Hehe - all I can think of is get a mop! And, I ain't cleaning that up - wear a diaper next time! :devil:

 

[rancke]

There's more than a couple references in MT and TNE to monitoring/maintenance of jump fields during jump. Usually not as specific over what was precisely doing it, but the jump drive makes the most sense.

Unless it refers to the field that surrounds the ship and maintains the bubble of realspace around it, in which case the power plant makes excellent sense.


Hans