Best route from the Old Expanses to the Spinward Marches?

[Gallowglacht]

My players are thinking of returning their remnant Noble to the Spinward Marches in the hope that something of his home still stands and can render aid to the Coalition.

So which is the best way home? Toward the Aslan and across the rift, or through the Wilds of the Empire and around the claw?

"Best way" for the purposes of this question can mean safest, quickest of most exciting/fun/dangerous.

 

[Jame]

I would suggest around The Claw through the Wilds, but I am not a TNE expert.

If you go up around Core sector, you can find the Hubworlds, and from there you can deal with stuff coming out of the Black Curtain...

 

[aramis]

Depends a lot on ruleset, and cash available.

If budget permits, and using MT, a 2j4 design is expensive but can cross the rift. (And can't be done with most other rulesets; it's doable in TNE/T4, and doable above 5000Td in HG/T20 but only with robot crews who don't need staterooms.)

If you have the shizzle budget, a 2j4 design can be done in most rulesets...

Otherwise, a J6 route through the neck and then diagonally through the body of the 3I.

 

[epicenter00]

The most dramatic way, I think would be to take the route that goes through the most systems - probably skirting around the Black Curtain, as far as possible, forging towards Reference, then probably up towards Vland, then around through Corridor.

My personal opinion is that RC part of TNE puts a big emphasis on human ingenuity overcoming the limitations of technology. The impression I've gotten, and it's something I've communicated to my players, who've embraced it.

While their reasons are different, my players are similarly on an epic forlorn hope to reach the Spinward Marches ahead of what is basically a very, very nasty Vampire fleet. I have a variant campaign where the RC has been devastated by a Vampire fleet, but even then, what remains of the RC leadership feel that if there is civilization in the Spinward Marches (as the Vampire Fleet seems to believe - in my campaign there has been no contact yet) then they feel obliged under the principles of universal "humanism" to warn the Marches.

The players feel the Vampires will move like a hurricane - through previously inhabited space to infect further ships to grow in strength before hitting the Marches, so feel the fleet will probably be going through the former Corridor. Because of this players plan to forge "Across the Claw". Since their ship is only a J2 vessel, their current plan is to strip their vessel down once they get near Strephon's former enclave at the edge of the rift, then fit enormous fuel bladders to their ship to make three successive jumps to cross the rift to a planet, refuel there, then do successive jumps to cross the rest of it.

The player's route, of course is designed to be the route of least likely to result in resistance, and targets a world that has no gas giants, so fuel at the midpoint will be an issue, but they believe that they can come up with something (I plan to have water they can refine on a world).

After two years of games off and on, the players have finally reached the "shores" of the Rift, I'm pretty excited. They are poking around Strephon's old fast on Ushdiiki.

 

[Gallowglacht]

Sounds cool Epicentre00.

Thanks for the opinions guys. The players ship is an old Victrix class (400dT) and has Jump 4 drives. The problem being a previous owner increased the cargo at the cost of fuel so it can currently only fuel a j3. It would be easy enough to reverse that and take cargo for fuel.

I'm leaning towards Wilds-Core-Vland-Spinward. Unless someone thinks the Aslan are awesome....

 

[shield]

The best route would be towards strephon's enclave (4I) and then across the rift via the Islands Subsector (see TCS). It can be done with J6 or multiple deep space jumps

Cheers
Richard

 

[Gallowglacht]

TCS?
Sorry, don't recognise the acronym.

 

[aramis]

TCS?
Sorry, don't recognise the acronym.

Trillion Credit Squadron (CT Adv 5)

 

[Gallowglacht]

Thanks you aramis.

 

[aramis]

De nada.

 

[Gallowglacht]

Another way of looking at the question.
Way 1; leads through Solomani Remnants, inhabitants of Ghost, Virus/Aslan fleets and some Joe Dannys fleeing the wave and setting up Rimward.
Way 2; leads along the Vampire highway, through remnants of the factions, scirts the Core and the Black curtain, possability of hearing about the "other" Strephon, Vargr and Vland.

Which has more meat/cool/adventure.

 

[epicenter00]

Another way of looking at the question.
Way 1; leads through Solomani Remnants, inhabitants of Ghost, Virus/Aslan fleets and some Joe Dannys fleeing the wave and setting up Rimward.
Way 2; leads along the Vampire highway, through remnants of the factions, scirts the Core and the Black curtain, possability of hearing about the "other" Strephon, Vargr and Vland.

Which has more meat/cool/adventure.

I usually let the players plan the routes themselves and give them potential ups/downs on the situation.

As a GM I personally think Reference then to either forge across the Claw or up through Vland and Corridor is more interesting - there's more stuff players typically want to see. I find players are usually pretty sensible (often overly sensible) and will stay away from the Black Curtain as much as possible. Most players plot a course with the fewest planets and spending their required visits in systems that were considered the Wilds even before 1130, reasoning that since there was less there so less appeal for Vampire Ships (I own Hard Times and Survival Margin, so they were able to plot their courses out that way).

From a practical viewpoint of "realistically" trying to survive a voyage like that, the longer Solomani-Aslan route actually has some things going for it.

* They're in a Victrix-class ship, going through Solomani space has an added appeal: Since Victrix were Solomani ships, if stuff needs repairs, you're more likely to find Victrix-class ships and parts built to Solomani-specifications in their space.

* Both Aslan and Solomani space were lower TL than the old 3I. This that the best Vampire warships they'd meet are TL14, while most likely encounters with Vampires would be TL13, which are TLs more easily handled by the TL12 RC tech.

The disadvantages are hefty, too:

* The trip is just plain longer. More systems to visit, more 1-week jumps, which means more opportunities to encounter Vampires. Lower TL or not, every encounter with a Vampire ship is fraught with mortal danger. Even if their ship survives the fight, it might render their ship incapable of making the trip (my own players have had their original ship shot out from under them and are flying a ship they cobbled together).

* The Aslan and to a lesser extent, the Solomani, were not as devastated as the former 3I in the Rebellion. While the Solomani fought, much of their space wasn't devastated. This means there would have been a lot more intact ships that could possibly become Vampires.