Hyperspace for dummies

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

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

That works very well, and adds a little charm of Mythopoeia to TTU. I have often thought there wasn't enough and have put a bit IMTU.

[Werekoala]

I assumed the fuel was consumed pre-jump to charge capacitors that were then discharged to activate the jump drive in one energetic burst, so I come down on the "no fuel in jumpspace" side I guess. It would also (kinda) help explain the Jump Dimming tradition, if you go with the "we need all our energy output at the moment of jump" crowd.

Bear in mind that (in my experience), when an airliner preparing to leave the gate switches from the external generators to internal power, the lights in the cabin will dim or go off for a couple of seconds - this might be the real-world origin of the "tradition" in Traveller. At least, that's what it reminded me of in a small way.

Just a thought.

[Malenfant]

The only way that the jump bubble concept makes any kind of sense to me is if the jump grid on the ship's hull is pumping out hydrogen continually for the week that the ship is in jump to make the "bubble" (actually a very thin hydrogen atmosphere around the ship that needs to be continuously replenished because jumpspace is destroying the hydrogen).

Of course that also means that if the hull is damaged, then so too is the jump grid, and that means the ship shouldn't be able to jump without being destroyed in jumpspace because there will be patches on the hull that aren't covered by the jump grid.

[Werekoala]

I've never heard of this hydrogen bubble concept before - is that a MongTrav thing? (Played Traveller in one fashion or another since 1982 or thereabouts, but haven't picked up MongTrav yet).

[allens]

GURPS Traveller mentions this (venting during jump) use for part of the hydrogen.

[Werekoala]

Hm, well, guess I missed that part.

[rasimus]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Of course that also means that if the hull is damaged, then so too is the jump grid, and that means the ship shouldn't be able to jump without being destroyed in jumpspace because there will be patches on the hull that aren't covered by the jump grid.

It also means that jump shuttles for System Defense Boats without jump grids shouldn't work... and jump cutters with just any old cutter module can't be taken into jump space, and the illustration on pg23 of CT Suppliment 9 (Fighting Ships) just flies in the face of it.

If the jump grid is absolutely necessary, it almost has to be highly redundant and having some part of a vessel covered is sufficient... whatever the jump grid does is easily extended over a larger area without too much trouble. (Well, maybe it might require someone to make an jumpdrive engineering roll or something if the players are doing something highly unusual...)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by MrBackman

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

One explains drop tanks as things used only on pre-contragrav aircraft. The Gazelle is easily glossed over.

As for other explanations, one does not try and explain how a 100 dton ship uses 20 tons of hydrogen in a fusion reactor in either 20 minutes or 168 hours.

Now if it was _coal_ instead of hydrogen we could call Traveller _Steampunk_ and this would explain the very heavy computers too. :)

[MrBackman]

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

Great stuff! Please post it when you are finished writing. Or better yet, turn it into a e23 pdf I can buy.

I have another Traveller 'fact' I treat as a myth IMTU:
The myth: "The Vargr are genetically engineered dogs, produced by the Ancients at least 300 000 years ago"
The fact: Dogs didn't diverge from their wold ancestors until 15 000 - to 40 000 BC, with the absolute upper limit set at 140 000 years BC. Humans (Vilani but especially Solomani) have always used racial discrimination against the Vargr and one of the ways to justify this is by stating that they are 'merely' uplifted pets of the humans. Many Vargr consider comparisons and jokes about dogs to be highly offensive, in fact, there is a movement among richer Vargr in Glisten and District 268 to domesticate Chimpanzee and even Gorillas to turn the tables on the humans; "See, we have YOUR ancestors as pets on a leach"

[MrBackman]

Originally posted by Fred Brackin

One explains drop tanks as things used only on pre-contragrav aircraft. The Gazelle is easily glossed over.

High guard give a detailed description on how they work in the design sequence so the Gazelle is not the only case.