Misjump Details

[Mike@GlisTen]

I've done searches and read several posts I've found, but wanted to get input from other refs.

Scenario: A Scout ship departs a planet and misjumps due to a jump drive malfunction (they were more than 100 diameters from any celestial bodies, so this isn't a gravity well induced misjump). Instead of J-2, they go J-17. The jump duration is only one week.

At what point does the crew know they've misjumped? Do they get a drive malfunction indication and know from the moment they enter jump that they're in trouble? And if they know immediately of the problem, can they figure out 1) WHERE they'll exit jump space, and 2) WHEN they'll exit jump space (the jump duration, which may be 1-6 weeks per LBB 2).

My inclination is to have the players enter jump, and they are alerted to the malfunction, but know not whether they have misjumped. I then roll for jump duration in hours (5d6+145 hours) and tell them that number. But then, since they misjumped, secretly roll a second jump duration and adhere to that. When they come out of jump early (or late) they realize something is wrong.

Also, how long do you think it would take a ship that comes out of jump in an “empty” hex to get its bearings and determine location? I can’t find any rules re this. I’m thinking of making it take the computer one turn (twenty minutes) per hex of misjump to accurately plot their new location. So, in the case of a misjump-17, it would take 17*20=340 minutes for the computer to figure out where the ship is. Or perhaps it would take one turn per hex, divided by the computer model. So a Model/4 computer would take only 85 minutes to plot the ship’s location.

Finally, all kidding aside, if you were on a ship that misjumped into an “empty” hex (i.e. no system) without fuel for another jump, and a busted jump drive to boot, what would you do with the three remaining weeks of power/food/water you had left?

Run a search pattern in the slim hope of finding another derelict that might have parts/fuel you need?
Party until the lights go out?
Walk out the airlock?
Write your will?
Self-destruct the ship?

 

[aramis]

I only give them 1d6x5 minutes warning on end of jump duration. If it happens too early, they know. If it's not happened by 175 hours, they know.

I also give a 1-in-6 chance they feel something odd if they are experienced spacers; as a ship, one roll. and a 1in6 that that's profound enough for even non-spacers.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Ooohh, Misjurrrgghhbllarggh...

Now this is just me possibly misremembering but I seem to recall there being a notation that Misjumps do have some odd effects on the persons on the starship and Jump sickness was one of the ways that (semi) experienced spacers knew they Misjumped. So once they transit into the higher level of Jumpspace from the standard J1-6 levels the weird stuff occurs.

If there are any Psionics aboard, even more interesting effects could occur. :devil:

Just my CrImps 2.

 

[Brian Smaller]

What I did when this happened to my group (jumping with a dodgey drive being tweaked by a guy with Engineering-1) was have them find, at teh edge of their life support duration, fuel and sensor range - a wandering planet in deep space. Ancient alien base, dead world etc etc. Use the opportunity to run a very cool series of adventures. Space can kill PCs any time you want after all.

 

[sabredog]

I did a similar thing once by using a misjump to get the players over a rift that otherwise is impassable. They also had some collapsible tanks in the hold so they could get back if they wanted to, but instead they decided to explore some unknown areas and see what wonders could be found.

One of those was the Chamax bugs...I just reversed the scenario and made the PC's be the ones to find the world instead of someone else. So when they eventually returned home they some good horror sotories as well as fantastic ones to tell of the things "over there".

A well-timed misjump is a handy thing for a referee.

 

[Peter Schutze]

>Also, how long do you think it would take a ship that comes out of jump in an “empty” hex to get its bearings and determine location?

>I’m thinking of making it take the computer one turn (twenty minutes) per hex of misjump to accurately plot their new location.

I would have them make several rolls until they know full details. give them the info to start plotting a jump after theyve had enough success levels to equal the number of hexes
*working out whether they are in a deep space hex or far out in a system
*then the direction of misjump eg towards regina instead of rhylandor (only names that come to mind immediately)
*then approximate distance so they can tell its either of 2 adjacent empty hexes for example
*finally enough data so they can start the normal jump plot tasks

one thing that we seem to forget is that a hex/parsec is about the distance from here to alpha C ..... being half way between 2 k or m series stars is probably not that different to being in a deep space hex

 

[Whipsnade]

Mike,

The few times I imposed misjumps I let the players sweat it out. They suspected they had misjumped but didn't really know until they ran over time and the ship still hadn't precipitated out. The earliest clues that a misjump had occurred were a rough "entry" in to jump space and nausea among the crew.

(FWIW, I differentiated between a misjump and a failure to jump IMTU. Failures to jump occurred with for more frequency and were usually the result of damaged and/or poorly maintained drives, fuel problems, and other physical problems. If everything wasn't right physically, you simply didn't jump at all. Actual misjumps happened very rarely and were more a result of operational and control problems like poor navigational plots, wonky computers, and 100D limit issues. IMTU, a misjump meant you were good enough to enter jump space but not quite good enough to enter jump space in the precisely controlled manner you should.)

The other posters have made fine suggestions regarding exit in an "empty" hex, so let me describe a type of misjump that I used to scare the bejabbers out of my players: The No Displacement Jump.

Jumps involve time and distance, you "drop out" for a given period of time and move a certain amount of distance. Misjumps can effect both of those attributes or just one of them. I once inflicted a misjump on a set of players that had them in jump space for slightly over 200 hours. They suspected they'd misjumped right off thanks to a very rough entry and immediate nausea, so they began rationing power and food at once. They made all sorts of preparations to quickly identify their location once they exited jump too. Then, when they finally did exit jump...

... they found themselves at the exact point where they entered jump space 200+ hours ago!

The various bodies in the system were 200 hours further along their various vectors, but the players' ship was right where it had initiated jump all those days before.

So, remember, a jump is composed of both time and distance. A misjump can either effect both or one and not the other. Mix 'em up and keep 'em guessing. You're players will love it.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[stealth]

I use mis-jumps for side scenarios.

I ran a game once where the players encountered a space hulk crawling with aliens that was stuck in jump space with them - impossible normally. Also, a cool thing to use is "relativity errors". Normally, these are only a few hours, but have the party arrive safely a few days before they left. Because jump always takes one week, causality is maintained: I mean, if they jumped straight back to try to meet themselves, they would still be a few days too late. But it would get the science bonus, and some press.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

"Relativity Errors" IMTU include arrivals in unexpected places, times, and probabilities.

Space: Apply the usual 36-parsec limit on distance, and include the possibility of arriving at the departure point. Transit time is in 168 hours ±10%, and there is no probablistic change.

Time: Subjective (ship-board) time is in 168 hours ±10%, and objective (N-space) time is a separate in 168 hours ±10%, under normal circumstances. Under mis-jump conditions, subjective and objective times receive a DM of (1D-1) times the subjective roll, for a range of 0 to 5 times the subjective roll. Destination is correct, and no probablistic errors are noted. It is possible for a ship to undergo a misjump that takes them instantly to their destination in both ship time and normal time -- but if that does occur, certain critical portions of the jump drive will most certainly vaporise, leaving nothing behind for the scientists to determine the cause...

Probability: The ship arrives in an alternate universe where history is slightly different than what they already know. Of course, those same critical jump drive components have vaporised, and no one can figure out what really happened. (This is how we got around the "Was Strephon really assassinated?" question. The ship entered jump soon after the crew had learned of Strephon's death. A mis-jump occured. When they arrived, they learned that not only was Strephon alive, but that an investigation of Dulinor's unfortunate and fatal accident was inconclusive. However, several officials were concerned that the crew was surprised that Strephon was still alive...) Arrival location is as expected, and transit time is normal.

Of course, anyone trying to purposely cause a mis-jump is likely to end up destroying the ship and everything in it.

 

[Brian Smaller]

Actually, this reminds me of another session way back in the early 80s. The player's ship was damaged in a running fight while they were gettign away from some planet. They jumped and thought that the engineer had held things together and that they were away. a week later the pop out of Jump space to find themselves in the same system. Hilarity ensued.

 

[JAFARR]

Whipsnade's comments about time & distance are right. We once went through a Ref imposed misjump (took a hit in our J drive just as we jumped) that took us from somewhere in the vicinity of Regina to the coreward side of Solomanti Rim as well as 5 years into the future. (Ref was doing his own version of the Shattered Imperium just before MT was released). On top of that, we crashed into an ocean and were able to just jettison a life raft and get into it befor our ship sank with everything we were not carrying on our persons.

 

[Mike@GlisTen]

Thank you all for the imput. I've learned some good points, and am presently drafting some house rules to include some of you suggestions. I'd like to post these--for consideration and if you wish, adoption--as I get them worked out.

 

[FreeTrav]

Thank you all for the imput. I've learned some good points, and am presently drafting some house rules to include some of you suggestions. I'd like to post these--for consideration and if you wish, adoption--as I get them worked out.

If you like, send them on to Freelance Traveller, as well, and perhaps we can make a magazine article out of them.