Hyperspace for dummies

[MrBackman]

Hello
I have just posted an article about my take on the various issues regarding hyperspace travel. I have tried to explain/rationalise/handwave things said about hyperspace and hyperjumping in the traveller canon and elsewhere.

Take a look, there might be something you can use for your own campaign but be warned; it contradicts some GURPS Traveller notions such as jump masking when a star is merely blocking the path.

Anyhow, you can find the post here.

[ak_aramis]

Several of your decisions contradict prior and present canon; namely, the T5 playtest explicitly states all fuel for jump is consumed by the drive plant itself at jump, as did MT sources; CT and TNE sources merely imply strongly. (while many TNE fans came up with the hydrogen bubble thing...)

Further, CT, MT, and T5 state that the jump drive is in fact a form of fusion reactor; albeit it's more a module attached to the main plant than an actual plant itself, if one goes by the CT mechanics and T5 mechanics. In MT, the Jump Drive takes no external power source, but the rest of the ship does need power, and the Jump drive operates for mere minutes. JTAS 24 notes that the hydrogen is NOT required for jump, and other similar power sources can be utilized instead. DA1 Annic Nova also has a fuel-less jump drive.

Jump Dimming in CT and MT was explained: The initiation energy for jump engine function was at the very limits of the PP to produce, and all energy was needed for jump transition.

Jumpspace has been repeatedly described in canon as an undulating gray wall, 1m from the hull of the ship.

GT didn't add the blocking rules, Marc Miller did. Back in the 1980's. In a magazine article.

[MrBackman]

Well, I should have mentioned that I tried to reconsile the things said about hyperspace and jumpdrives in canon in a way that made sense to me, real world or gameplay wise. Most, if not all, of my 'explanations' differ from canon, that was the reason for posting; to make sense out of the many disparate, contradictory and sometimes silly remarks from canon.

I should also have stated that canon to me stopped when Megatraveller was published. Old testament Traveller if you like.

Well, you have been doubly warned now ;)

[MrBackman]

Jump Dimming in CT and MT was explained: The initiation energy for jump engine function was at the very limits of the PP to produce, and all energy was needed for jump transition.

Am I the only one to find the above explanation silly in the extreme?

My 'explanation' tried to, in a similar vein as my 'explanation' to the 100 diameters rule, pretend that the canon explanations were in fact the layman versions told in school books and popular science articles. Along the lines of 'atoms are like miniature solar systems where the electrons orbit the nucleus like planets around a sun'.

This way I could keep the canon explanations for nonscientific players and have a more believable (to me at least) explanation for the scientifically inclined I usually have as players (ie my kids and my girlfriend).

Have the cake yet eat it too.

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Jump Dimming in CT and MT was explained: The initiation energy for jump engine function was at the very limits of the PP to produce, and all energy was needed for jump transition.

Mind you, the "explanation" requires us to believe that every single one of those old-time Vilani ship designers were absolute morons.

I've always gone with the idea that the explanation is folk mythology. The true reason? I've no idea.

Jump Dimming: The practice, followed by some starship pilots, of dimming the ship's interior and exterior lights before going into jump. Lights on a ship are typically dimmed for a period of about two minutes; the lights are brought back up to full strength as soon as the ship is in jumpspace.

According to an old Vilani superstition, this custom arose out of the need for most of the ship's power to be diverted into the computer and jump-drive systems, so that the jump drive could be guided into creating the jump field properly, something that has never actually been necessary and would have taken more than two minutes if it had. Non-Vilani pilots do not follow this tradition.

The above is from an article about various myths and legends of the 3rd Imperium that I'm working on.


Hans

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

GT didn't add the blocking rules, Marc Miller did. Back in the 1980's. In a magazine article.

Not quite. Marc Miller says that that's what he had in mind all along, but the article doesn't actually say so. It mentions jump shadowing all right, but jump masking is not even implied, much less explicit.


Hans

[Apache]

And according to the latest version of Traveller (Mongoose...is this the T5 you were referring to, Hans?) the jump fuel is used as an ablative shield of sorts, to protect the ship while it is in Jumpspace.

Also specified in MongTrav, is Jump masking (details are given) and the fact that you need a power plant of the same rating (or higher) to power the Jump drive.

[MrBackman]

Originally Posted by Apache

And according to the latest version of Traveller (Mongoose...is this the T5 you were referring to, Hans?) the jump fuel is used as an ablative shield of sorts, to protect the ship while it is in Jumpspace.

Also specified in MongTrav, is Jump masking (details are given) and the fact that you need a power plant of the same rating (or higher) to power the Jump drive.

If jumpfuel is really consumed during the entire jump, how can one explain drop tanks?

[Apache]

Go read the rules and find out.

Altho drop tanks are in Book 2: High Guard.

They also don't tend to survive Jump, in MongTrav.

[Boxer01]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Jump Dimming in CT and MT was explained: The initiation energy for jump engine function was at the very limits of the PP to produce, and all energy was needed for jump transition.

Note: Jump dimming was invented by DGP so that the lights could go out at the appropriate moment during a shipboard murder plot. The effect drove the explanation.