[YankeeGamer]

The Game-friendly/writer-friendly Teleporter

Teleportation technology is incredible attractive to science fiction fans, yet also disruptive to plot for both games and fiction, requiring one contrivance after another to prevent main characters from being whisked out of harm’s way at any point, or teleporting bombs to the enemy.

Accordingly, I’m developing a self-consistent, useful, teleporter that hopefully won’t have plot holes in it. This is a system neutral set of guidelines, not hard and fast game rules.

Transport between two locations requires a mechanism on both ends. The main power input can come from either or both machines, but a sensor/coordinating platform is required at the other end. These are bulky, and moderately heavy. The people or items to be transported stand within a ring, so the bigger the platform, the more people that can beam at once. They can be broken down for carrying, or mounted in a vehicle. However, they need to be stationary or in a precisely calculated course to be integrated with another transporter. Thus, no beaming into or out of an evading vehicle, or even a moving ground, air, or water vehicle, just moving spacecraft, planets, asteroids, etc, so long as they’re moving in a nice, predictable manner. Integrating the platform takes a certain amount of time; vary to taste depending on the power of the technology and the flavor desired. (One minute should be a decent amount of time, using the best machines available) In some settings, it may be possible to speed up the process with a success on the operations roll.

They might well be environmentally sensitive; no use during thunderstorms/hyperspace storms/what have you. Significant earthquakes also make transport impossible, as the ground is moving in an erratic manner.

Beaming is not instant—a lock-on takes a variable amount of time, even with a platform in place.

A small, self-deploying platform can be sent down to a planet by automated probe—selection of landing site comes into play now. The platform will need a few moments to stabilize.

There is a distinct difference between a coordinating platform and a full Teleport mechanism. The coordinating platform uses minimal power, and can not initiate transportation.

The Teleport mechanism provides the power and does the majority of the work, including dematerializing and rematerializing whatever is being transported. All mechanisms include the coordinating hardware as well.


A Beam Up may always choose to include the platform, if the receiving station is large enough to accept the platform. The platform being transported can not provide the needed power.

For transport to occur, there must be a stable data link between the two mechanisms. This precludes stealth in a high tech environment. It also provides a limit to safe range, from a low orbit might be a practical limit.

Any force screen that affects energy will block transport, as will a jamming field for either communication or whatever technobabble radiation the transporter uses


Another complication with teleportation: Atmosphere pressure and composition. Anyone planning on transporting must be transporting to and from similar pressures, or such problems as the bends will show up. Standard procedure would be to pressurize a ship to the pressure expected at beam-down. (Creates complications in a situation where a team might have to beam down to different locations with short notice.) Pressure suits would solve this problem, and suits may well be designed to allow for slow acclimatization. This also means that, when arriving at an unknown planet, it’s some time before beaming down without a pressure suit is safe.

Ships’ crews must be able to withstand routine shifts in the working pressure of the ship, which could make medical care a challenge. It will also disqualify some otherwise-promising candidates.

Now, Teleporting is a useful technology that can enhance the plots instead of making them vanish into thin air.

What think you all?