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New features I may have missed in basic Mongoose rules?

My own take on pirates in the Traveller universe is that they would be located on the main world of the system in question and like pirates today they just have a hidden base of operations in a seedy area somewhere where they would carry out maintenance.

Even here on our world where we can watch conflicts using satellites overhead and bring down automated weapons using operators completely distant, we can still not find the pirate bases around Madagascar. It would be the same on planets in Traveller.

Makes no sense for pirates to be located way from the main source of business and most pirates would have to attack ships close to the planet anyway (because its the only time ships are vulnerable when they are going slowly) and then dart off before the police can arrive. Of course it would go without saying they would have sensor jammers....
 
Makes no sense for pirates to be located way from the main source of business and most pirates would have to attack ships close to the planet anyway (because its the only time ships are vulnerable when they are going slowly) and then dart off before the police can arrive. Of course it would go without saying they would have sensor jammers....

I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

Is that true or am I suffering from delusions again?

If it is the case that a ship would have to be stopped then wouldnt a point of vulnerability be the jump radii?
 
I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

Is that true or am I suffering from delusions again?

If it is the case that a ship would have to be stopped then wouldnt a point of vulnerability be the jump radii?

i believe it is semi-cannon.

a lot of people say ships arrive with zero relitive velocity to the destination ( the mainworld), so are moving slowly at the jump limit and in LEO. A lot of people are also lazy and use the same set of sums for outbound as inbound, which implies that a ship breaks to a halt before jumping.

the most common explanation i've seen for this is that a ship will conserve momentum though a jump, and since it can't see what will be around it when it exits jump, pilots try to enter with a very low velocity so they don't run into things. (or are not spending a lot of time at the other end burning off thier excess velocity which is taking them away form thier desitnation).

I'm not aware of a hard rule saying you must break to a halt relitive to your mainworld before jumping, though.
 
I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

Is that true or am I suffering from delusions again?

Nope, you jump with whatever velocity/vector you have. There is no requirement to reduce it to zero.

A requirement? Well, perhaps not. A strongly implied practice though yes, at least in basic CT, imo. The travel formula and tables of travel times are all for a mid-point flip to arrive at the "destination" with a "zeroed" vector. And there is no special mention of jumps under acceleration, with velocity, or a retained vector. I'm not sure where that was introduced but it created more problems than the idea was worth, like most "detailing" add-ons, again imo.

I don't recall offhand what MgT says specifically on the subject but suspect they went with the retained vector mess ;)

If it is the case that a ship would have to be stopped then wouldn't a point of vulnerability be the jump radii?

Yes. No. Maybe... ;)

In reverse order:

Inbound, maybe. IF the pirate is at the same place as the arriving ship, which is no easy feat considering the size of space and the unknowns.

Outbound, no. Once the merchant reaches 100D they are gone. Jump! And if under threat anywhere past 10D they will probably risk the small misjump chance over the certain damage or loss of combat.

Generally, yes. IF the ship is properly set up for the pirate. The successful pirate will have a confederate aboard, ready to act at the vulnerable point:
Outbound the confederate will have disabled the jump in some fashion and the pirate ship will arrive to "help" by transferring some cargo and jumping immediately out itself. Convenient that they are at a safe jump distance and far from help.

Inbound the confederate will have passed on the ship's schedule including arrival details before departing. The pirate ship will have jumped ahead, refueled, and be waiting for the merchant to arrive with empty tanks. Again they will relieve the merchant of some cargo before allowing it on it's way, and again it is convenient the pirate is at a safe jump distance and far from help.
I'll stress again though, this is imo the way it works.
 
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I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

Is that true or am I suffering from delusions again?

If it is the case that a ship would have to be stopped then wouldnt a point of vulnerability be the jump radii?

Nope, not required. They often do, but there is no need to do so. They often set their velocity to 0 with relation to the destination star; tey have to cancel that relative vector at one end or the other.
 
I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

As others have said, it is implied - at least for civilian ships, which have an emphasis on safety. This does create something of a vulnerable target space, but remember that the 100-diameter limit creates a BIG area. ("You thought it was a long way to your loacl corner store; well, that's peanuts comparded to space!") However, if you are Bk 2 constrained to jump tapes, you can argue for pre-planned and well-known jump emergence points.

By the exact same token, you can argue that these points would be patrolled, so it's up to you and what fits your current scenario... (do you want to run a pirate attack? Would it be FUN? Then throw one in and relax on the "rules"!)

I think I remember something from MT that says military ships (with an emphasis on surprise and tactical movement) generally jump with a vector in order to surprise any potential hostiles.
 
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Mustering out rule changes in Mongoose Traveller

A significant one - no (obvious) voluntary mustering out rule.

A minor one - any character purchases over Cr 2,000 must be sought out in play ("Cash benefits" paragraph).

Anything else I may have missed?

Thanks.
 
As others have said, it is implied ...
Only by the lack of a table and formula to calculate otherwise, and possibly example use in some table referencing 100D limits - conversely there also has been mention of explicit canon use of jumps with 'non-zero' relative velocity.

IIRC, there have also has been a statement about retaining a vector during jump - not just facing... (something I thought I saw 'officially' published, though maybe just from an email or copied posting from MM?)

If one just uses the world to world interplanetary table (or formula) with the sum of the 100D distances - that works just fine and is actually easier to calculate. :D

As for being safer entering a system with velocity - well that's just wonky figuring. ;) Things in a system are moving - in orbits and other trajectories - so it could just as likely be safer to be moving, actually more in some respect, as one is either moving with or against other objects in orbit and a system's general non-retograde orbit direction is unlikely to change or be unknown. But there is definitely no general benefit to being 'stopped' relative to some orbit 100D away in two systems - that's akin to not going the posted speed on a freeway before being picked up and dropped on another! :eek:o:

Regardless, Mongoose RAW doesn't address this issue at all, to my knowledge - even indirectly. It just states 100D limit and Gs.
 
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A significant one - no (obvious) voluntary mustering out rule.
Its definitely not overly obvious - but is addressed on your other thread. ;)

As to 2,000 Cr purchase limit - that is for chargen and rather arbitrary, but would really only have an effect if your Ref wanted it to. Otherwise the Ref would simply allow more pre-game purchases. I think it is mainly there for conventions and pickup games and the like.
 
I could have sworn I read somwhere that ships have to reduce their velocity to zero prior to engaging the jump drives.

IIRC there was an adventure in MT (in a Challenge, I think) where one of the clues was that the pirates accelerated to great speeds before jumping, so I guess the 0 vector is not a requisite for jumping in MT.
 
IIRC there was an adventure in MT (in a Challenge, I think) where one of the clues was that the pirates accelerated to great speeds before jumping, so I guess the 0 vector is not a requisite for jumping in MT.

It's not a requisite in any edition I've read (excludes GTIW).
 
I really appreciate the replies on my cracked up mind that cant remember very well. Mention of Challenge makes me think there was an article either there or in JTAS called Travelling from port to jump or somthing like that? I can not recall but I consider you guys to be the equivalent of Stevie Hawking withouth the wheelchair so if you are sure then I can live with that.
 
I really appreciate the replies on my cracked up mind that cant remember very well. Mention of Challenge makes me think there was an article either there or in JTAS called Travelling from port to jump or somthing like that? I can not recall but I consider you guys to be the equivalent of Stevie Hawking withouth the wheelchair so if you are sure then I can live with that.

JTAS 22, p.24: From Port to Jump-Point
 
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