Astrogation and "space chases"
- Thread starter jayouzts
- Start date
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
You could at best rule out certain vectors based on mass shadows (i.e. you can't plot a jump through a star or planet and jump space maps directly to real space). That would still in most cases leave a lot of possible destinations. I do think you should be able to get a reading of the jump number based on the hull size and the energy reading (sensor task) from the jump drive engaging.
I've always played it that it's fairly easy for an observing ship to predict the destination of a standard jump.
However, I allow the astrogator to increase the difficulty of his rolls to make his jump appear to point to a different destination than the true destination. I usually just wing it (doesn't come up much), but +5DC per hex difference between appearant and actual target sounds good. This creates the threshhold required to avoid misjump. The observer must then beat the astrogator's roll on a sensors check to determine the jump signature was faked, and then an astrogation check at dc=the same threshhold the jumping ship used to determine where the ship went.
If the first ship fails to beat his threshhold (misjump) and the observing ship passes its rolls, the observer will know the actual result of the misjump rather than the intended target.
However, I allow the astrogator to increase the difficulty of his rolls to make his jump appear to point to a different destination than the true destination. I usually just wing it (doesn't come up much), but +5DC per hex difference between appearant and actual target sounds good. This creates the threshhold required to avoid misjump. The observer must then beat the astrogator's roll on a sensors check to determine the jump signature was faked, and then an astrogation check at dc=the same threshhold the jumping ship used to determine where the ship went.
If the first ship fails to beat his threshhold (misjump) and the observing ship passes its rolls, the observer will know the actual result of the misjump rather than the intended target.
If the ship being pursued did some planning ahead of time, it could jump to an interstellar comet. Comets are typically 1 or 2 km in diameter and contain many hydrogen compounds. This should be sufficient to refuel a jump drive assuming it has a fuel processor. A Jump-1 Starship can travel many parsecs along a planned route by this method, it would just have to know where these comets are.
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
We had a situation like this in our second game session of ISS URSULA, ship A (us) and Ship B (them).
They were travelling in our sensor wake, tailgating us/ drafting in Nascar (fer thems that watch it). The skipper ordered their sensors blinded before we jumped out. We did just that.
As it was, the bad guys had to guess which of two possible destination we would choose, and split their forces accordingly.
Had they guessed correctly, all of our friends (them) would have eaten us for lunch when we arrived at our destination. (yes, their sensor operator made his roll, but lost exact location as blinded him and jumped out.) Our sensor jamming roll beat theirs by a few pips (less than five).
The rest played itself out.
They were travelling in our sensor wake, tailgating us/ drafting in Nascar (fer thems that watch it). The skipper ordered their sensors blinded before we jumped out. We did just that.
As it was, the bad guys had to guess which of two possible destination we would choose, and split their forces accordingly.
Had they guessed correctly, all of our friends (them) would have eaten us for lunch when we arrived at our destination. (yes, their sensor operator made his roll, but lost exact location as blinded him and jumped out.) Our sensor jamming roll beat theirs by a few pips (less than five).
The rest played itself out.
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