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A question on Jump

We don't, as players, really need to understand how a drive works. IFM.

We just need to know the parameters for a safe jump: greater than 100 diameters out from worlds or stars, most of the grid present, and sufficient LHyd Fuel present, and a good course plot done recently.

It would be nice to have a canonical statement of whether the drive is on DURING jump, or if the drives non-grid components can be taken down for deep maintenance during the relative safety of jump.

I've always seen jump as a kind of "Kick it in and it falls back naturally"; once you finish translation, the drive shuts down, the grid is the only thing keeping you from being dematerialized, and in 12-5,000,000 hours, strongly centered around 168 hours, you return to N-space some parsecs distant.

I've always assumed that engineers know some of the Why, but not all. (If they knew the sum total, they'd be able to do a J36 drive, since it is possible to do J36 in a misjump.) But the players don't. It's occasionally nice to throw some details at serious grognards, for which I have SSOM...
 
Originally posted by TheDS:
Click to expand...
Not to nitpick or anything, but in the Navy, you are expected to know a LOT about how the ship works. Theoretically, someone who's been on board a ship for 3 years with a paygrade of E5 or higher should know how to operate just about any of it. Not saying they become experts at it, but even the CO knows how the steam cycle works and what the ship can and can't do.

This level of knowledge used to be something that a person could do on their own initiative and get basically extra credit come advancement time, but about the time I was getting out, they decided to make it mandatory for us to advance. I'm sure the intention was to allow us to be swapped around in case it became necessary, and to give us busy work learning all that crap (takes typically 18 months to learn it), but it wound up being a major discouragement, and those who'd done it on their own and actually knew their shit were now joined by people who basically got handed the qual for half the work. Devalued what was the sign of a good sailor who wanted to make the navy a career.

At any rate, any crewmember on a spacecraft should have fairly good information on how stuff works, because things can go really wrong in a hurry up there. [/QB][/QUOTE]

True for those who such an experience is greatly desired. But for the masses it is way off base. When space ships are as common as aircraft and autos I would guess that 80% of the people would only know the basics on how to operate the craft.

Not trying to make a fun RPG into reality but look around you for examples of everyday common people (NPCs). Most everyone can drive a car but very few know more than that and checking the fluids. Most will just call for repairs or read the operators manual. (Had a fun game where the PC's had to read an auto manual to learn how to operate a car (Stick shift 1949 pickup truck) because they were use to a joy stick and auto pilot. (we used the actual manual during the game.)

Back on point. Military experiences are great when taken in relation for what they are. But they don't always translate into everyday life. Same goes for everyday life, many people who have never had to kill someone for a living (or train to kill) can not understand what we do in the military.

Dave
 
Yeah, well, my point was that these are SHIPS, which operate in a hazarous environment. Sailing requires technology, and only recently has it gotten anything like safe. Same for aircraft, yet they're still not quite as safe as boats.

If your car breaks or catches fire, you can get out and walk. If your ship breaks or catches fire, where are you going to go? If you're lucky, the weather is not bad and you've got land in sight, but don't count on that. What happens if your spaceship breaks or catches fire? Until spacetravel is as simple as walking through a portal, it WILL be dangerous, and anyone who is responsible for the lives of other people will be trained in how to deal with emergencies.

So, if you're in a jump, and you get into a firefight, what are some things you DON'T want to risk damaging? What if there's a fire, what is so critical to keep away from the fire that you would stand your ground as the fire engulfs you, to keep the ship from blowing up? If the Ref wants to say your ship's damaged in a battle at THIS (points finger at ship diagram) location, what kind of damage and failures have we got?

PCs are very inventive about the things they blow up. While 90% of the time you can treat the ship as a black box, it's that other 10% of the time that you want to get more detail, so you don't just have to wave your hands and say "the widget is broke, you need a new one." "Can I repair it? (rolls boxcars) Critical success!" "uhhhhh... Lemme make up a number to roll against.... nope, you fail." "What's a widget, anyway?"
 
TheDS

You say 6, and I say half a dozen.


Pick your objects, start a poll and get others to support a set of rules/guidelines.

Then make a set of alternate rules. ;)

If they are good enough maybe you will get published.

I will be happy to participate

Dave
 
Dave, it is nice to know that once I have something worth doing that requires a little bit of help, that I will be able to count on you for it.
 
Question:

Do zuchai crystals function similarly to Star Trek dilithium crystals?

To my understanding, Star Trek dilithium crystals are consumed (or degraded) after the starships have used them for warp jumps. This is the reason why the worlds (in the Trek galaxy) where dilithium is mined will be considered very precious valuable worlds. So if the Federation ever ran out of dilithium, they basically run out of the ability to warp jump their vessels.

Please someone tell me if Traveller zuchai crystals work this way, or work differently.
 
Hi !

AFAIK zuchai crystals were described in CT as "focussing" elements of the jump drive (guess its in the Leviathan adventure).
JTAS issue 24 (Jumpspace article) tells us about "jump capacitors" but nothing is said about the crystals any more.
In MT those crystals are not noted too, but again jump capacitors are used, which serve as short term "ultra high performance" energy storage devices (used by jump drives or black globes) in a similar way as it was described in JTAS 24.

Honestly I do not know where the official connection between zuchai crytals and capacitors is made...

So if "zuchai crystals"="capacitors" then those do not degrade or decompose (except they were loaded with more energy they can deal with, or if they are not decharged in a couple of hours).
Beside that, capacitors are fabulous SF stuff, able to store about 780 MJ/l (thats around 170 times the energy density of TNT)


regards,

Mert
 
Originally posted by TheDS:
Not to nitpick or anything, but in the Navy, you are expected to know a LOT about how the ship works. Theoretically, someone who's been on board a ship for 3 years with a paygrade of E5 or higher should know how to operate just about any of it. Not saying they become experts at it, but even the CO knows how the steam cycle works and what the ship can and can't do.

[/QB]
Click to expand...
I spent 8 years in the Navy, Naval Nuclear Power to be precise.
1. I did not learn how most of the rest on the ship worked.
2. Most of the other 4500+ other sailors on an aircraft carier powered by nuclear power do not learn how to operate the reactor related equipment.

Why? Because a lot of naval equipment operations procedures are classified and only those with need to know are allowed to even be in the spaces in which a given item in located. Also you are often just too busy mastering the operations & procedures on your own equipment.

As far as the CO (and XO too) go; yes they have to know a lot of things. The CO of an aircraft carrier has to be a qualified pilot. The CO of any nuclear ship has to be qualified on the power plant. Therefore: the CO of a nuclear powered carrier has to be both pilot and nukie, but most of them are pilots first, then they are qualified as nukes before they take command of a carrier. BTW, most of them never again actually take part of reactor plant operations again, but they still have to fly every so often to mantain pilot status.

Yes, on subs, there is a bit of cross training on some things, but in a lot of ways it's like driving a car. You know how to gas it up. You should know how to check fluid levels (including tire pressure), when to get your oil and sparkplugs changed, etc. but you don't need to understand how a 4 stroke cycle engine works. If you do or have someone do the routine maintaince, all you really need to know is how to crank it up in order to drive it.

So much for real life. For the purposes of Traveller, only worry about the technical stuff if you need it for the game. If your players need to know the details for actual playing, you are running a much higher detailed game than I want to play in, and I'm a technical junkie. If they want to know for personal reasons, tell them to feel free to research as much as they like - non game time - and just accept it during play.

Just my opinion, but hey isn't that what this thread really is about? peoples opinions.
 
Originally posted by TheEngineer:
Hi !

AFAIK zuchai crystals were described in CT as "focussing" elements of the jump drive (guess its in the Leviathan adventure).
JTAS issue 24 (Jumpspace article) tells us about "jump capacitors" but nothing is said about the crystals any more.
In MT those crystals are not noted too, but again jump capacitors are used, which serve as short term "ultra high performance" energy storage devices (used by jump drives or black globes) in a similar way as it was described in JTAS 24.

Honestly I do not know where the official connection between zuchai crytals and capacitors is made...

So if "zuchai crystals"="capacitors" then those do not degrade or decompose (except they were loaded with more energy they can deal with, or if they are not decharged in a couple of hours).
Beside that, capacitors are fabulous SF stuff, able to store about 780 MJ/l (thats around 170 times the energy density of TNT)


regards,

Mert
Click to expand...
Can we just say that zuchai crytals are used for the construction of the capacitors and be done with it?
 
Originally posted by Andy Fralix:
Can we just say that zuchai crystals are used for the construction of the capacitors and be done with it?
Click to expand...
Sure, guess most Travellers do that anyway.
But I still would be interested, if there is any further hint on capacitor/crystal relationship in other Traveller sources...
Is that a T20 thing ?
 
Andy, if you want your Surface Warfare pin, you have to learn a bit about the rest of ship operations. But, yeah, its only a cursory knowledge for the most part.
 
Fritz88, I was discharged in 1977. Then nuclear power was an option for 4 ratings; Machinest mate (MM), Electrician's mate (EM), Interior communiations (IC), and electronics technician (ET). By the time you learned everything your rating had to know and cross trained on the basics for the other 2 types (EM & IC types both did electricial type work) plus the water chemistry control that was open to all 4 ratings, there wasn't a whole lot left either of time or energy to mess with stuff outside your division. I also was on a damage control party as my GQ station assignment. What little time I had left, I tried to save for me! To heck with surface warfare.

The navy was OK as long as we were involved in the Vietnam Conflict. In peace time there was just too much politics going on and I did the rest of my time and left.
 
Fritz,

Cutlasses? The surface warfare pin?

I qualified for one and it wasn't worth a damn.

I'm an ex-nuc like Andy. I did more training, reading, and qualifying to stand 'messenger of the watch' than I did to get my 'cutlasses'.

All you really need is 24 months sea time and be an E-5. The rest is gedunk.


Have fun,
Bill
 
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