HD# 142.11 v1.1: Stutterwarp in Traveller
Roger Myhre
Ammerudgrenda 168
0960 Oslo 9
Norway
In this document I will discuss how the Stutterwarp drive from 2300AD will
affect the gaming universe of Traveller and Traveller the New Era. And
how it will be used, as I see it.
GENCON 1992.
The GDW staff informed us that participated at the seminars about
Traveller that they planned to introduce the Stutterwarp drive into
Traveller. At the moment this is not for certain when the vote held at
the seminar was a close tie. (Personally I think the Nay side won by a
small margin, but that might be due to that Scott Olson and I voted
heavily against.) The drive might not be taken up in the official gaming
campaign, but the players may use it if they want to. It also ties in
with a probable new support of the 2300AD.
MY OPINION OF STUTTERWARP IN TRAVELLER.
As mentioned earlier I oppose to Stutterwarp in Traveller. Not that I don't
like the drive, it is certainly a beautiful piece of FTL technology. The
reason is that I feel it is not Traveller. It's something else... The
purpose of this document is not to make you write a letter to GDW and say
"Do not use stutterwarp in Traveller or else...", but a way to make me and
others used to the thought that we may see a new type of drive to travel
between the stars.
STUTTERWARP THE BASICS.
For those of you (like me) that don't have 2300AD (I borrowed it from a
friend) I will explain the basics about the drive.
The drive itself is not a FTL drive that propels the craft into C+ speeds
(C = 300,000Km/s), but it somehow teleports the craft an distance average
of 100 metres. The distance teleported varies with warp efficiency and
weight of craft. This teleporting is repeated several hundred thousand
times a second making the craft move between stars in matter of days.
The down side with the drive is that it start to radiate lethal radiation
when a certain distance is reached. For most ships this is considered to
be at a distance of 7.7 light years or about 2 parsecs. To prevent this
the craft must shed charge residue by manoeuvring into a field of gravity
at least 0.1G, primarily planets. At this gravity the stutterwarp won't
function so some other types of drives is needed to maneuver here. At
0.0001 the effect of stutterwarp is affected so much that it drops below C+
speeds.
AT WHAT TL SHOULD STUTTERWARP APPEAR?
At the seminar there was not mentioned at which TL it should appear. The
GDW staff said that the stutterwarp technology could always have been
there, but no one never found out or put any effort into developing and
using it. If I don't remember wrong someone in the audience said
something about TL 12 or thirteen.
I find it strange to believe that the Stutterwarp was never developed if it
was available at TL 12 or fifteen. The Traveller universe is filled with
inhabited systems. Many with their own science programs in many fields.
There is also lots of different aliens.
My best suggestion is to introduce the stutterwarp at TL 16 as prototype
thing that is used in system mainly. At TL 17 it becomes more developed
and understood. The first uses for interstellar travel both commercial
and military.
Some of you may think it contradicts the 2300AD universe. The universe of
2300AD isn't so advanced as Traveller's universe. Why should then the
stutterwarp appear later in Traveller than in 2300AD? The reason is that
they are two different game universes. In Traveller there is developed
grav technology, and TL 9 is less advanced than 2300AD, and 2300AD do not
have grav technology. That's why.
stutterwarpS IN DESIGNS.
From what I see from the design rules the stutterwarp is the component in
the craft that takes the most power in most designs. The drive is rather
small. Even smaller than a jump - 2 drive. If the stutterwarp was to be
introduced into Traveller the size and power output would have to be
increased drastically.
With a new set of rules this will have to change one way or the other. In
Traveller even the smallest ship uses several hundred MW of power. In
2300AD the power usage figures looks somewhat more down to earth. Even a
cruiser uses less power than a MT fighter.
HOW TO BEAT THE 7.7 BARRIER EASILY.
As mentioned earlier the max range of the stutterwarp was 7.7ly. Longer
range is possible, but that depends on components, technology etc. In
Traveller the stutterwarp has to be gravity shielded or else the drive
won't work. remember that it can't activate at 0.1g or more. Most ships
in Traveller is under gravity, either through grav plates or through
acceleration from the drives. And here is the key to success or rather
the key for longer trips. A ship could have two stutterwarps installed. One
put in a gravitic field, the other running free. When the active drive is
closing to its 7.7ly limit the other drive is put online by removing the
gravity it is put under, and the other drive is put into the gravitic
field. This way the craft can run in excess of 6 parsecs if the ships
supplies allows it. And that faster than a jump - 6 craft.
WHAT WILL THIS DO TO THE KNOWN SPACE IN TRAVELLER?
If stutterwarps had been introduced earlier than TL 16 or seventeen the
Imperium would have been totally different. Hell, maybe we wouldn't have
had any Imperium. Warships able to move 6+ parsecs faster than jumpdrives
would beat the living daylight out of the enemy. Why is it so?
Because:
Faster communication, which leads to
Faster mobilization of forces, and
Faster reinforcements.
Faster in system travel which is at C+ speeds, until the crafts
reach a gravity field of 0.0001G, which is just a spitting
distance away compared to the scales in space. 0.0001G field
reaches out to 600,000Km on Earth. The remaining distance will be
crossed in matter of minutes if not seconds anyway. Protecting a
planet from massive bombardment from enemies at these speeds is
nearly impossible.
There is also other things that come into play. A navigator that botch
his navigation roll might fly the craft right into a sun or a planet. No
one will notice before it is too late. How so? Doesn't stutterwarps stop at
0.1G? It won't when it is grav shielded. Thus the warp efficiency won't
be affected when the craft approach a planet or a star. When the craft
can keep C+ speeds at any time space combat will disappear. How do you
track a target that moves faster than your radar beam? Even passive
detection is futile. When you receive the electromagnetic signature from
the craft it has passed you several minutes ago.
How do we then get space combat into Traveller, when all the ships use
grav shielded stutterwarps? The answer is we can't. Unless we make
stutterwarps more inefficient in Traveller than in 2300AD. My proposal is
then that stutterwarps can only be placed in ships of 100ton or less,
making them excellent courier crafts. The power and space consumption
should be too large to allow for weapons.
An interstellar empire that uses stutterwarps will manage to grow larger
than the defunct Third Imperium. Just because of the communication
speeds.
For TNE this can lead to lots of different things depending on who
develops the stutterwarp first. If DoD develops it first, which is most
likely, when they haven't been so badly pounded as rest of the Imperium.
Neither have they been bothered too much by the Virus, could then expand
into the power vacuum that is left in the shattered Empire. Neither do
they need to cross corridor, but go right through the "claw". Militarily
they can keep Vargr corsairs at bay.
If Vargr develops it first, no one is safe when the most aggressive vargr
factions start to use it. Then there is no one to stop them when they
first come rolling. K'kree would likely use it to hunt down all the meat
eaters in the universe. So being a Vargr or Aslan would be very unsafe.
The Hivers would put up galaxy wide trade routes. Zhodani would go
through the galaxy core and travel to some other remote point in the
universe. Solomani would lock it up as an military secret and never show
it to anyone, and executing anyone that even mentions it. and so on. No
matter who discovers it first, that faction will have a lot of power to
play with.
Ultimately I feel that stutterwarps should not be a part of the official
Traveller universe. It should introduced as an variation for those who
want to play outside the official Traveller campaign. By introducing it,
I think many old timers among the Traveller players will feel that GDW is
putting too much into the food blender without regard for taste. When
something starts to taste wrong people will start to talk, and that won't
be nice words. The worst thing that can happen is not old timers leaving
the game, but old timers who tells other that want to give the game a
shot, that the game stinks, and that the developers of the game has made
a terrible mess of an old and beautiful game by importing too much
foreign seasoning. That will hurt sales.
SOURCES:
Challenge 30
2300AD Director's Guide
