[SBRD] Prep: setting discussion

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by rancke

The Traveller Adventure takes place 900 years after the techniques for deep space jumps were worked out. The ability to do deep space jumps in 1105 is not contradictory with an inability to do deep space jumps before ca. 200.

Hans, I think we are going in circles here. I am pretty sure that either in this thread or another one, you already told me that the technique wasn't worked out until ca 200 Imperial, and I responded that such would then be a minor difference in my campaign. Or was that drop tanks we were talking about?


EDIT: Actually, I don't think we are in as much disagreement as it may appear, at least on the "jump to empty hex" issue. Obviously if it can be done after year 200 Imperial due to an advance in jump technique, then it must have been possible before that (as no particular advance in Jump technology or TL was required), but extremely difficult, until someone worked out the proper technique.

And that works just fine for me, having it be possible but extremely difficult, with positive modifiers if someone else has already blazed the trail, recorded necessary data to help plot the jump, and possibly left behind a gravitic beacon. I'd really prefer not to have ships easily ignoring gaps of three or four parsecs or more because they can do multiple jumps.

EDIT 2: Anyway, if you look back at the chain of this particular bit of conversation, it was Fritz saying that he did not allow jumps to empty hexes at all, to which I replied that would break OTU, to which you asked for example, to which I replied with TTA. Which is part of the OTU, and therefore would be broken if jumps to empty hexes were not allowed at all.

[rancke]

Originally Posted by whulorigan

I know that Jumping into Empty Hexes was impossible in the Interstellar Wars Era, but where is the year ~200 date found for the resolution of the problem?

I'm hazy on the details, but in the boardgame Dark Nebula, which is set around that time, the players can invent a way to move between the stars that Chris Thrash suggested was the equivalent of deep space jumps. You'll have to get the details from someone who has the game.

Incidentally, I don't think that the event has been mentioned anywhere in canon, so there may be some wiggle room there. Personally, I'd much prefer that the date were put somewhere before -1044, the date that the first Aslans crossed the Great Rift.


Hans

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by rancke

Personally, I'd much prefer that the date were put somewhere before -1044, the date that the first Aslans crossed the Great Rift.

Either some Aslan worked out the necessary technique 1244 years before it became common knowledge, or else they sent STL missions ahead to set up gravitic beacons to improve their chances, as we discussed earlier that the Vilani might have done.

[rancke]

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

Either some Aslan worked out the necessary technique 1244 years before it became common knowledge, or else they sent STL missions ahead to set up gravitic beacons to improve their chances, as we discussed earlier that the Vilani might have done.

Traveller timespans are notoriously implausibly long. It has been proposed that dividing them by 5 would be a lot more plausible. So assuming that things often go a lot slower than we would espect, I don't see any problem with a clan in Riftspan Reaches keeping a technique like that secret for as long as they possibly could. Then, when a neighboring clan found out, it likewise kept it secret as long as it could, and so on and so forth.

That way the technique remains a secret for a long long time and only becomes general knowledge many years later.


Hans

[samuelvss]

When we talk about jumping into "empty hexes," we are confusing things. We are looking at places without a star system; they are far from empty, with brown dwarves, rough planets, etc.

The challenge is, IMTU, to have a good survey of the other junk. One of the jobs of the IISS in the Classic era.

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by samuelvss

When we talk about jumping into "empty hexes," we are confusing things. We are looking at places without a star system; they are far from empty, with brown dwarves, rough planets, etc.

The challenge is, IMTU, to have a good survey of the other junk. One of the jobs of the IISS in the Classic era.

True - and with Very Large Arrays of telescopes or other sensors networked together, spotting that stuff should be possible without actually going out there to look around - but I think the OTU is already established to have a lot fewer brown dwarfs, rogues, etc, than we do in the Real World.

[SpaceBadger]

Many thanks to tjoneslo for the new Campaign/Referee functionality at the Traveller Wiki!

Here is the link to the Main Wiki Page for our [SBRD] Reavers' Deep campaign. So far I have only made a few test stubs as I familiarize myself w how it works, but I would appreciate any help in testing the stubs to make sure I have the player and referee parts separated correctly.

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally Posted by rancke

That way the technique remains a secret for a long long time and only becomes general knowledge many years later.

And, the same would be true of a lot of humans who work out the technique, too.

[Fritz_Brown]

I can get to the Referee's Index. It might be because I'm a moderator.

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by Fritz_Brown

I can get to the Referee's Index. It might be because I'm a moderator.

Hmm. Only tjoneslo and aramis are listed as Mods on the Wiki...

Dunno, I'll check with him and see if that could be it.

Can somebody else test it, who is not a Mod for either CotI or the Wiki?

Thanks for testing, Fritz!