Misjumps - Non-Canon Options?

[Mako]

I didn't see a header for non-canon rules options, e.g. home-brew rules, so am asking this here, and am interested in if others have come up with other Misjump events, other than jumping away randomly, one parsec, or 1 - 6 parsecs away, as in Classic Traveller?

Some options I'm considering are:

1. no jump at all - navigation system, and/or FTL drive prevents the jump for some reason, or another, especially if it is a hurried process;

2. as above, but FTL system is also damaged, and must be repaired before another jump attempt is made;

3. micro-jump - in-system transit faster than STL speed, but less than one light year, or parsec away;

4. other?

Still trying to come up with some other ideas, preferably related to hurried jump FTL spooling, which will usually result in the vessel staying in the current star system, to be pursued by enemy vessels, or left at the mercy of others, and/or navigational hazards.

Any other ideas?

I'm considering using the above, along with a graduated chance of misjumps for attempts at entering FTL at less than 1,000 planetary diameters. At 100 diameters or less, misjumps still automatically occur. At 101 - 200 diameters, that chance drops down to 81% (9 squared); at 501 - 600 diameters there's a 25% chance of a misjump (5 squared); and, at 901 - 999 diameters, there's a 1% chance of a misjump (1 squared).

This will give those blockade running pilots a chance to get away from pursuers, in some cases, and complicate system defense a bit more for the patrol vessels.

 

[Patron Zero]

You might consider a misjump mishap of the ship finding itself in a yet-discovered 'fringe' boundary that separates real space from j-space.

Said zone could be defined as a region where physical laws are 'bent' or outright dismissed or perhaps such is an 'off-ramp' to parallel realities.

 

[McPerth]

I didn't see a header for non-canon rules options, e.g. home-brew rules, so am asking this here, and am interested in if others have come up with other Misjump events, other than jumping away randomly, one parsec, or 1 - 6 parsecs away, as in Classic Traveller?

Some options I'm considering are:

1. no jump at all - navigation system, and/or FTL drive prevents the jump for some reason, or another, especially if it is a hurried process;

2. as above, but FTL system is also damaged, and must be repaired before another jump attempt is made;

3. micro-jump - in-system transit faster than STL speed, but less than one light year, or parsec away;

4. other?

Still trying to come up with some other ideas, preferably related to hurried jump FTL spooling, which will usually result in the vessel staying in the current star system, to be pursued by enemy vessels, or left at the mercy of others, and/or navigational hazards.

Any other ideas?

I'm considering using the above, along with a graduated chance of misjumps for attempts at entering FTL at less than 1,000 planetary diameters. At 100 diameters or less, misjumps still automatically occur. At 101 - 200 diameters, that chance drops down to 81% (9 squared); at 501 - 600 diameters there's a 25% chance of a misjump (5 squared); and, at 901 - 999 diameters, there's a 1% chance of a misjump (1 squared).

This will give those blockade running pilots a chance to get away from pursuers, in some cases, and complicate system defense a bit more for the patrol vessels.

MT had a gradation of jump events in between safe jump and missjump, going from jump lasting moe or less time, to appearing far from your objective (but in distance to reach it with MDs).

EDIT: Found it. It's shown in MT:SOM, page 65, sidebar named Jump Mishaps. In page 64 it also tells about the possibility of the ship being damaged in jump exit.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

ship spends a full week in jump space, as per normal....but re-appears in the same spot it jumped form, having travelled nowhere.

ship spends a week in jump space, and arrives at the destination......but arrives 1-6 weeks after it jumped.

ship spends a week in jump space, and arrives at the destination.....but the whole crew spend the trip hallucinating.....something that they see in the corner of their eyes.

 

[Hemdian]

I didn't see a header for non-canon rules options, e.g. home-brew rules, so am asking this here, and am interested in if others have come up with other Misjump events, other than jumping away randomly, one parsec, or 1 - 6 parsecs away, as in Classic Traveller?

IIRC, CT jump failures were either "destroyed" or "misjump" ... which was 1-36 parsecs in a random direction AND taking 1-6 weeks.

I've always read "destroyed" to mean "assumed destroyed". I have occasionally changed a "destroyed" result into misjumping so far, the ship never made it back (such as all the way to the galactic core).

I've also had, for NPC ships, "permanently trapped in jumpspace" ... and tied that in to "Treasure Ships of the Abyss" (an article in JTAS/Challenge magazine). In other words, it becomes a 'Flying Dutchman' ghost ship, only reachable from other ships in jump.

I'm considering using the above, along with a graduated chance of misjumps for attempts at entering FTL at less than 1,000 planetary diameters. At 100 diameters or less, misjumps still automatically occur. At 101 - 200 diameters, that chance drops down to 81% (9 squared); at 501 - 600 diameters there's a 25% chance of a misjump (5 squared); and, at 901 - 999 diameters, there's a 1% chance of a misjump (1 squared).

This will give those blockade running pilots a chance to get away from pursuers, in some cases, and complicate system defense a bit more for the patrol vessels.

I figured out some graduated risk probabilities (expressed in MT terms) a while back and posted it to my website. You can find it here: http://sol.trisen.com/default.asp?topic=10&page=29

 

[rancke]

I've always read "destroyed" to mean "assumed destroyed". I have occasionally changed a "destroyed" result into misjumping so far, the ship never made it back (such as all the way to the galactic core).

I've also had, for NPC ships, "permanently trapped in jumpspace" ... and tied that in to "Treasure Ships of the Abyss" (an article in JTAS/Challenge magazine). In other words, it becomes a 'Flying Dutchman' ghost ship, only reachable from other ships in jump.

Unless you're prepared to abandon everything you and your players have found out about the region where the campaign was originally set, there's not really much practical difference. "Your characters are still alive, but you'll never get to play them again." A fate just as bad as death, IMO.


Hans

 

[McPerth]

I guess being non-canon, in my gamming groups missjumps have always been calculated by rolling 1d6 for direction and 1d6 for distance 1d6 times, so not being always in straight hex row, and being posible even to return to the original system, if dice so dictated.

 

[rancke]

I guess being non-canon, in my gamming groups missjumps have always been calculated by rolling 1d6 for direction and 1d6 for distance 1d6 times, so not being always in straight hex row, and being posible even to return to the original system, if dice so dictated.

I don't recall ever having had to referee a misjump, but I was always clear that if I ever did, I would roll for distance first and then generate a suitable random number to potentially hit every hex in the indicated "circle". E.g., if the distance was 7, I would generate a number between 1 and 42 and select the hex that way.


Hans

 

[Enoki]

I always add lots of non-jump system damage to the ship from the mis-jump. Hatches stuck, leaky pipes, valves, electrical circuits blown / damaged, etc. That makes repairs necessary and that costs money. It is an inducement not to try doing it unless you are desperate.

The added time is great too. The crew runs short of food, the air processors and what not start having issues, that sort of thing. Fuel runs short or threatens to run out... 6 weeks is more than a month, which typically is what the ship carries for fuel...

 

[SanDragon]

Aaaand nobody caught that the distances are 10 times greater than they should be?

:O

 

[aramis]

Aaaand nobody caught that the distances are 10 times greater than they should be?

:O

So it's a hop universe

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

For catastrophic misjumps, like from within the atmosphere or a world surface, I say that the ship explodes with an energy release of (E=MCsquare) multiplied by the jump number squared.

This has lead to the development of jumpspace weaponry......


These are the results of a Scout/Courier engaging a jump-1 on the ground:

Yield (megatons) = 3005247
Calculated Values

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) 9630.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (widespread destruction) 1608.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) 609.3 kilometers, Ionizing radiation radius (500 rem) 70.2 kilometers, Fireball duration 7154.3 seconds, Fireball radius (minimum) 303 kilometers, Fireball radius (airburst) 370.3 kilometers, Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst) 488.1 kilometers,

 

[salochin999]

I like to have jump space somehow connected to psionics (in some handwavy way) so misjumps can include all kinds of weirdness as ships intersect various Cthulhu infested dimensions - so ghosts, voices, haunted house stuff up to tentacles coming through the hull.

 

[aramis]

I guess being non-canon, in my gamming groups missjumps have always been calculated by rolling 1d6 for direction and 1d6 for distance 1d6 times, so not being always in straight hex row, and being posible even to return to the original system, if dice so dictated.

I used (1d6)d6 distance, with the first direction being rolled on a d6, then a d3 (1-2 = left-out, 3-4=straight-out, 5-6 = right-out) per hex to wiggle the line.

 

[Redcap]

For catastrophic misjumps, like from within the atmosphere or a world surface, I say that the ship explodes with an energy release of (E=MCsquare) multiplied by the jump number squared.

This has lead to the development of jumpspace weaponry......


These are the results of a Scout/Courier engaging a jump-1 on the ground:

Yield (megatons) = 3005247
Calculated Values

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) 9630.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (widespread destruction) 1608.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) 609.3 kilometers, Ionizing radiation radius (500 rem) 70.2 kilometers, Fireball duration 7154.3 seconds, Fireball radius (minimum) 303 kilometers, Fireball radius (airburst) 370.3 kilometers, Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst) 488.1 kilometers,

Wow. Those are pretty specific figures. Where did you find the formulae for them?

 

[flykiller]

jumps can go from anywhere to anywhere.

jumps originating within a gravitic field have a chance of inaccuracy (from 12+ to 2+ on 2d6, modified by depth in grav field, navigation skill, jump magnitude) ranging in magnitude from 6d6 au to d6d parsecs (modified similarly).

jumps terminating within a gravitic field have similar chances of blowing out the jump drives to varying levels of destruction. similar modifications.

 

[Condottiere]

If that were the case, most planets wouldn't permit starships anywhere close to their planets, let alone major population centres.

Intersetllar travel might be restricted to the military and megacorporations operating heighliners.

 

[DonM]

In my own campaigns, I treat misjumps as having three potential components:

1) time: coming out in d6 x d6 weeks instead of normal
2) space: staying in jump space or not
3) distance: going out for d6 x d6 distance
4) damage: the jump drive, and d6 nearby components

or a combination of the three.

For example, I've had ships misjump and not go anywhere, but come out 4 months later...

 

[flykiller]

If that were the case, most planets wouldn't permit starships anywhere close to their planets, let alone major population centres.

seems that 200 dtons of m2 augering in from 100d might be a much bigger threat - but games allow this all the time.

whether the threat is from jump or maneuver, seems a good case for high ports at gas giants or moons.

"and don't exceed port speed."

"or what?"

"or they revoke your flight clearance. and mine."

"your career is in my hands."

and it gives navigation skill a larger preeminence. "I have navigation skill level 1, learned it ojt!" "well, we were hoping for someone a bit more seasoned ...."

 

[sabredog]

Generally I have the drive burn out and require repairs at the port the ship just left. The problem with the canon rule is that you can end up in empty space all too often and then the campaign ends.

The alternate is they end up where they wanted to go but not in the position they expected - they can end up pulled out of jumpspace by the greater gravity of the system's gas giant and find themselves 'sinking' into its atmosphere. Or diving towards the sun.

Very occasionally it has been a chance to see how far they can stretch their provisions and air when the misjump results in a longer time in jumpspace than intended.