Controlled Misjump

[Blue Ghost]

I recall an adventure published in either JTAS or Challenger about a Type-S that had an elongated frame that accommodated an experimental jump drive that allowed "controlled" mis-jumps. Does anybody remember what I'm talking about? Do you remember the issue or article?

 

[Hemdian]

That sounds like "Project Farstar" (Challenge 33). A number of modified ships were mentioned (no stats), such as a Far Trader and so on. I think the modified Type-S just had enhanced sensors ... but there was a neat picture of some scientists looking at a hologram of some strange ship with a Type-S stuck on the front.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yeah, that was the one. No stats for the ships? Darn.

 

[FreeTrav]

Maybe it's just me, but 'controlled misjump' sounds self-contradictory - if it's controllable, how can it be a misjump?

 

[DeltaX15]

I've not seen the original adventure, but when I saw "controlled" mis-jump, I thought of J-Drive development.
One of the features of a mis-jump is a change in in the parsecs travelled. So, you take a jump-1 craft, force it to mis-jump by changing a specific (hand wavy hardware/software) parameter, and carefully monitor the jump systems. You end up an extra X parsecs away from where you expected to be, and after examining the collected data, you've got an insight into how to build a J2 drive. Rinse and repeat.
So, 'Controlled' refers to conditions that cause the mis-jump, rather than the outcome.

 

[christopher.boote]

Direction or Distance

There's mention* of an Imperial Research Station who can induce a misjump, but they can control either direction OR partially control distance but not both

In game terms, they can control one of the 3D6 rolled for a misjump (1D for direction, 1Dx1D for distance)

Not enough control to base a drive on ... yet

*Traveller Adventure maybe?

 

[Blue Ghost]

There's mention* of an Imperial Research Station who can induce a misjump, but they can control either direction OR partially control distance but not both

In game terms, they can control one of the 3D6 rolled for a misjump (1D for direction, 1Dx1D for distance)

Not enough control to base a drive on ... yet

*Traveller Adventure maybe?

I think that was in the Challenger article I was looking for.

 

[jshiggin]

There's mention* of an Imperial Research Station who can induce a misjump, but they can control either direction OR partially control distance but not both

In game terms, they can control one of the 3D6 rolled for a misjump (1D for direction, 1Dx1D for distance)

Not enough control to base a drive on ... yet

*Traveller Adventure maybe?

Of course that's enough control to base a drive. If you can specify direction, and jump from 1-36 parsecs on a J-1 drive, all you have to do is load up on enough fuel for four jumps, jump, see how far you are from where you want to be, hop to nearest world to refuel, repeat till you're close enough to target to use normal jumps to get there.

Just think of the possibilities inherent in a starship that can average better then 10 parsecs per jump - makes getting messages back to Capitol much quicker than J-4 Xboats, or even J-6 fast couriers....

 

[far-trader]

Of course that's enough control to base a drive. If you can specify direction, and jump from 1-36 parsecs on a J-1 drive, all you have to do is load up on enough fuel for four jumps, jump, see how far you are from where you want to be, hop to nearest world to refuel, repeat till you're close enough to target to use normal jumps to get there.

Just think of the possibilities inherent in a starship that can average better then 10 parsecs per jump - makes getting messages back to Capitol much quicker than J-4 Xboats, or even J-6 fast couriers....

Sure as long as there isn't the inherent danger of simply being destroyed by the misjump. Which I think should still be there. So if a large percentage of your ships and crews are being asked to commit to a Russian roulette mission just to get out the latest last minute invitations for the Imperial Ball on Capital...

And (not having seen the article) it seems to have missed a step. The 1D6 weeks spent in that misjump. That can add considerably to not only your trip time but also you mission requirements. That alone will change your average to about the same as a J3 EXCEPT you may end up somewhere you don't have ready access to fuel and supplies which is going to slow you down. I think J4 X-Boats are still about as fast and far far more reliable.

Nobody is going to be building a commo or other network around such tech in such a state imo.

 

[dean]

Robot ships with self destruct if they do not recieve the proper codes within x minutes of arrival at a system.

Costly, but since when did any government care about cost?

Send out enough of these and have enough drones stationed at intervening stations and messages from the Marches to the Core takes a coupke weeks.

 

[Carlobrand]

This would of course be for the extreme urgency Code Ultra messages. I mean, even if we're throwing away money, we're not necessarily going to throw it away on messages asking for more Charmin.

Unless of course the Emperor is in the toilet at the time.

 

[Whipsnade]

Every time I read one of these "controlled misjump"(1) threads I'm reminded of some of the historical "solutions" seriously proposed to solve the longitude problem.

One had a series of anchored ships firing different numbers of cannons hourly. If a mariner would heard X number of reports they'd know they were near Y longitude; i.e. "Five blasts? We're at 10 degrees west me hearties..."

Another relied on an alleged sympathetic relationship between wounded animals. In a rather sadistic attempt to utilize the then unknown QED aspect "spooky action at a distance", an injured dog would be hurt again thus sparking a reaction from the dog a mariner had on their ship; i.e. "Must be noon in Greenwich, the poodle is screaming..."

Of course those two solutions have far greater plausibility than the suggestions made in this thread.

1 - Controlled misjump, now there's an oxymoron for you.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I heard that anecdote from a doctor I'm trying to sue and put behind bars.

*EDIT*
You're not him, are you Whipsnade?

 

[aramis]

1 - Controlled misjump, now there's an oxymoron for you.

I ran an entire campaign on the premise of seeking a controlled misjump.

I was using MT, and the research rules therein.

They got to theory 13.2.5 or so; around theory 7, I let them nominate a direction that they wouldn't go, and theory 11, I let them pick a replacement direction for that initial one. At 15.5 I was going to let them pick another "no go" direction... thus giving a 50% chance of going in the vaguely desired direction. Campaign ended for other reasons.