Jump 1 stupid question

[Samaritan]

Hi all

I'm new around here (*waves*) - been running a Traveller game for a little while - our group decided to try something different - I don't have a lot of experience of the game so please bear with me!

Question is (hopefully) quite simple - My players have a Free Trader (jump 1) and I need them to get to a system that requires a jump of two hexes (thru an empty hex).

I'm happy for them to have a fuel tank bladder to make the jump to the empty hex - but the big question is, is there anything stopping them from arriving in the empty hex, or making the second jump back out of it again?

I'd let them have a ship with a jump-2 drive, but I'm just plain mean!

 

[ElHombre]

nothing except the 1 week travel time for each jump and any time you decree they need to deal with performing jump calculations, cooling the grid, discovering a strange alien signal, etc...

 

[Gruffty]

<Gruffty waves back!> Hi Samaritan! Welcome to CotI!

Theoretically (and I know this is going to cause a debate ) there is nothing to stop your PCs from jumping into the empty hex, sorting out their ship and then make the next jump to their destination system. You can, as ElHombre has pointed out, loiter about in the empty hex for a while while the engineer sorts the jump drvie out.

However, I'm not sure which fuel the PCs ship would use for the jump into the empty hex. I was always under the impression it's the bladder that gets used first (for the jump into the empty hex) then the main tanks to jump back out of the empty hex to the destination system. Thoughts? Comments? Doritos and salsa dip? Mongoose?

 

[far-trader]

Well the only hard answer I'm fairly certain of is to the question of fuel tankage by Gruffty. The fuel used has to be in hard tankage*. Presumably something to do with feed. So the first jump (to the empty hex) is made using the fuel in the ship's regular tankage volume. Then at some point (even in jumpspace I'd allow) the fuel from the bladders can be pumped slowly into the now empty (more or less, depending on the rules set) fuel tankage of the ship. You can then collapse and store the bladders (5% of full volume iirc) and you're ready to jump as soon as you come out into normal space (if you don't mind skipping the usual safety checks ).

* collapsible tanks, as opposed to fuel bladders can I think support direct use, but storing them takes more time and work, as well as more space in the hold (20% of full volume I think)

 

[mike wightman]

Hi Samaritan

Jumping into empty hexes is prefectly acceptable, providing you are carrying the fuel to continue your journey there sholdn't be a problem.

Such empty hex jumps were mentioned in the CT Twilight's Peak adventure, and in one of the scenarios in The Traveller Adventure.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Samaritan:

I'd let them have a ship with a jump-2 drive, but I'm just plain mean!

You should eventually reward them with access to a jump-2 starship.... perhaps as a reward for doing a few missions for some corporation or government or patron.

In the end, the jump-2 range will let them jump directly to a lot more worlds.

 

[Samaritan]

Hi Guys

Thanks very much for all the replies! They are very appreciated!

As for giving them a Jump-2 ship at some point - do you think a new ship is more likely, or an upgraded jump drive to give their current ship jump 2 capability?

I'm trying to steer the game realistically (as in we are not all lottery winners, and big cash sums/free ships don't come along all that often) and I wonder if it were more appropriate for a patron to offer to upgrade a jump drive rather than handing over a new ship?

Thanks again!

Sam

 

[LordVan]

Have them do what any sensible person would do. Steal a Jump-2 drive from someone or take it off a pirate ship. After all if you cripple a pirate vessel and space its crew, there is no one left to object to you taking parts off their ship.

 

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Samaritan:
Hi Guys

Thanks very much for all the replies! They are very appreciated!

As for giving them a Jump-2 ship at some point - do you think a new ship is more likely, or an upgraded jump drive to give their current ship jump 2 capability?

I'm trying to steer the game realistically (as in we are not all lottery winners, and big cash sums/free ships don't come along all that often) and I wonder if it were more appropriate for a patron to offer to upgrade a jump drive rather than handing over a new ship?

Thanks again!

Sam

Maybe - I haven´t seen that approach elsewhere, but it could be worth a try - you should present them with a derelict or momentarily unspaceworthy J2 ship (maybe the ship of a pirate band they defeat or something, with heavy battle damage). Arrange it so that they could get this ship going again and use it, if they invest the money they´d get from selling their old ship.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Samaritan:
Hi Guys

Thanks very much for all the replies! They are very appreciated!

As for giving them a Jump-2 ship at some point - do you think a new ship is more likely, or an upgraded jump drive to give their current ship jump 2 capability?

I'm trying to steer the game realistically (as in we are not all lottery winners, and big cash sums/free ships don't come along all that often) and I wonder if it were more appropriate for a patron to offer to upgrade a jump drive rather than handing over a new ship?

Thanks again!

Sam

You could always take the "Twilight's Peak" approach and give them a J2 ship that has a bad drive and can only perform a J1. Then they need to raise about 1MCr to fix it, which should keep them at J1 for a while.

PS - and Welcome!!

 

[Hemdian]

Originally posted by Samaritan:
Question is (hopefully) quite simple - My players have a Free Trader (jump 1) and I need them to get to a system that requires a jump of two hexes (thru an empty hex).

Another possibility, albeit slightly unusual, is to hitch a ride with a larger ship.

For example (according to CT canon) the Empress Troyhune is a planetoid monitor (armed rock) that used to be in Mora/Mora. It was later sold to Rorise/Mora and had to be moved. Now the Empress Troyhune is big (50K dtons) so opportunities were rare but after 3 years one was found.

How plausable this will be in your case depends on many factors, but as you specified a Free Trader and they're quite small opportunities should be more frequent. If there is sufficient traffic there should be an occasional large bulk transport that could do the job. Or even a commercial AHL cruiser could take the PCs ship in place of one of its fuel shuttles.

Regards PLST

 

[archhealer]

Nobody said you had to give them a NICE jump-2 ship... a rusty hulk of a wreck with a working j2 rated drive would do the trick.

As for the fuel... I made an alteration to some laws of the Imperium: All ships must carry enough fuel for two jumps, whatever their rating. Which is easy, since I also use the optional trade ruling wherein jump drives only use half the normal fuel rating, so all the ship designs can still be standard. Works really well for me.

P.S. I don't know which version of Traveller you're running, but I know in T20 there's a significant penalty for calculating a jump course out of/into an empty hex. Nothing to use as a landmark, I suppose. That could be fun all by itself.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Samaritan:
Hi Guys

Thanks very much for all the replies! They are very appreciated!

As for giving them a Jump-2 ship at some point - do you think a new ship is more likely, or an upgraded jump drive to give their current ship jump 2 capability?

I'm trying to steer the game realistically (as in we are not all lottery winners, and big cash sums/free ships don't come along all that often) and I wonder if it were more appropriate for a patron to offer to upgrade a jump drive rather than handing over a new ship?

For one thing, you the GM should never "give" them a free ship that is worth millions of credits.

A more realistic approach would be to have a Patron, someone who is their "boss", an NPC that guides them and hands them out occasional missions. The Patron could give them *access* to use the starship, but the characters are NOT THE OWNERS of the ship.

So it goes like this:

Rich Patron Boss contracts them:

a) they now have use of a decent jump-2 starship

b) they do not legally own the ship, it's only leased to them

c) they are still responsible for paying for the fuel costs

d) they are responsible for paying for repairs, maintenance fees

e) Patron has the right to give them an assignment or mission every now and then, whatever those might be. And they know that if they refuse the Patron, that would not be a wise thing. After all, the Patron is the owner of the ship that they are flying.

f) like the others said, you don't have to provide them with a brand-new jump-2 starship. It could be some junky 35-year old ship, it barely works. And then they have to deal with occasional malfunctions and repairs. Make sure you put the Engineer to work!!

But before the Patron will even consider trusting them with a jump-2 starship, they need to prove themselves! They should complete a few successful missions or assignments for the Patron.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
You could always take the "Twilight's Peak" approach and give them a J2 ship that has a bad drive and can only perform a J1. Then they need to raise about 1MCr to fix it, which should keep them at J1 for a while.

This is also a good idea. Let them get a hold of an old (or salvaged) Jump-2 starship, but it needs to be repaired before they can make use of the Jump-2. So now your playergroup needs to save up money to repair that expensive J2 drive! Make them work for it!

 

[cheepicus]

Are jump drives precise enough to jump to a pretty exact location in an empty hex? If so they can set up a depot and perhaps even pay some other jump-1 to deliver the fuel there for them, thus allowing more room for cargo.

If not (how I would probably rule with the idea that gravity wells are landmarks for jump navigation) you could let them find a dead brown dwarf by chance sometime as a setup. Whether they think about using it as a depot is up to them. In this imprecise jump universe, jumpable destinations in 'empty' hexes would be good places to know of and not tell anyone else about... and of course the PCs might not be the only people to know of this one.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Samaritan:
I'm trying to steer the game realistically...

Bravo for that

Well, I'm not sure how realistic it would be but you could turn the little empty hex jump into an adventure itself that may eventually give the players a J2 ship.

Have them pick up a faint distress call once they come out in the empty hex. A simple repeating Signal GK (or SOS if they're Solomani). After thrusting for a while (an hour?) they triangulate it as coming from about 3.5 billion kilometers. The trip will take about 2 weeks at 1G, leaving them only a week of power (just enough to safely jump out), though life support may run out sooner (it's good for 2 weeks, unless they brought extra). So they may have to come back to investigate at a later date, or maybe just report it to the authorities.

If they investigate they find a J2 ship, victim of a misjump, with empty tanks and a (obviously) damaged jump drive.

Make the adventure what you will. There's the chance of mystery about the ship. How it got there, how it was damaged. There's a chance for valuable cargo (to go towards repairing the ship). They can claim salvage and ownership. Maybe they have a hard time keeping the secret and someone else tries to beat them to the salvage of the wreck, or the valuable cargo. It can be played any number of ways.

Anyway, this brings up a point the players and yourself hopefully haven't overlooked in this jump into the void. The powerplant fuel duration and life support issue for making mulitple jumps between ports. Powerplant fuel is good for 4 weeks so there should be no problem, they will come out with less fuel remaining but still about 2 weeks worth. The bigger issue it the life support since that comes in 2 week blocks. It could be getting dicey if they don't have a little extra on such a trip.

As for new ship or upgrade, I'd say neither. Unless the ship was originally designed with such an upgrade in mind it'd be pretty hard to do. A new J2 ship in PC scale range is also not likely as they can't easily pay for themselves. The best idea is a well used ship (say 40years old, second mortgage, 50% off the new price) with all kinds of quirks, or a like well aged ship found and salvaged with repairs eating up the characters time and cash.

 

[Malenfant]

I wrote a couple of articles for SJG's online JTAS magazine about Brown Dwarfs and interstellar planets that you could use to populate the empty hexes. There's probably so many BDs out there that every empty hex would have one in them.

You won't be able to read those unless you're a JTAS subscriber, but if you are then check them out. They should be at:
http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?549
http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?586

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by Genjuro:
Are jump drives precise enough to jump to a pretty exact location in an empty hex?

Yes.

They are accurate to 3000km per parsec jumped.

If so they can set up a depot and perhaps even pay some other jump-1 to deliver the fuel there for them, thus allowing more room for cargo.

Not a bad idea.

I think it may be worthwhile building such stations to connect jump 1 mains.

If not (how I would probably rule with the idea that gravity wells are landmarks for jump navigation) you could let them find a dead brown dwarf by chance sometime as a setup. Whether they think about using it as a depot is up to them. In this imprecise jump universe, jumpable destinations in 'empty' hexes would be good places to know of and not tell anyone else about... and of course the PCs might not be the only people to know of this one.

A good place to hide pirate bases too

 

[Fritz_Brown]

The biggest problem with upgrading your engine (besides no room for the larger drive in the engineering section of a standard hull) is adding in the extra fuel requirements. LBB2 will require you to almost double your fuel (for a J2, plus an upgraded powerplant). If you only carry J1 worth of fuel, the J2 engine doesn't make much sense.

Lots of good ideas, though on how to provide a J2 ship to them. One other (that I'm surprised FT didn't mention ) way is to have them make money running cargo and upgrade to the longer range ship by buying it.

 

[Stainless]

All I want to know is where the Mongoose fits in to this.