Jump Canon and Ship Design

[CosmicGamer]

The material I have does not go much beyond the core rules for two versions of Traveller and I don't want to come up with ship design concepts that will get me tarred, feathered, and thrown out the airlock.

Is there a single source of canon information that details Jumping? Jump Grids, Lanthanum and Iridium, grid alignment and whatever else.

There are ship designs with modules, fuel drop pods, external shuttles: how does jumping work with these 'add ons' to the ship.

Reason I'm asking: I see cargo ships go by every day with shipping containers on the deck. I'm wondering about the possibility of having a Traveller ship designed with an external cargo area for numerous shipping containers.

 

[Major B]

Is there a single source of canon information that details Jumping? Jump Grids, Lanthanum and Iridium, grid alignment and whatever else.

The best description of jump drives I can recall at the moment is from the MT Starship Operator's Manual, Vol I.

 

[Border Reiver]

The best description of jump drives I can recall at the moment is from the MT Starship Operator's Manual, Vol I.

and that is considered apocrypha, at least until something is sorted out with Roger Sanger.

Still some of the best stuff ever written for Traveller though.

 

[far-trader]

Originally I'd say Marc Miller's own article in JTAS #24 but it's been a while since I read it so I'm not sure how applicable it is to your wants.

You're not the first to ponder such cargo ships, we've had a couple discussions here on CotI about it that might help if you can track them down. Search for "lighter" and "lash" should do the trick...

 

[coliver988]

there is the jump tug from CT Supplement 09/Fighting Ships:
"The jump ship is designed to provide maximum flexibility in interstellar transportation. As built, it is capable of jump-6 and 1-G. Special field cables attached to the rear of the ship extend the ship's jump field to include this additional cargo. Alterations in displacement will affect the size of the jump itself, but the amount of cargo carried can be varied to fit the needs. "

 

[sabredog]

In CT (Traders & Gunboats + JTAS plans) it almost always has something looking like nozzles or venting coming out the back of the ship connected with the jump drive. Dunno what exactly that would mean canon-wise, but I've always taken it to mean (reinforced by bits like the special jumper cables attached to the above mention tug from Fighting Ships that a field extrudes from the drive to surround the ship...or to propel the ship at higher speed through a hole torn in real space.

Also, in CT only damage to a jump drive effects the jump drive's performance, when you would think damage to anywhere on the hull might have a chance to damage a "jump gird" and therefor reduce jump performance.

I'd never heard of the jump grid thing until I read it on these forums, though I understand that's an MT thing.

 

[aramis]

The jump grid isn't exactly an MT thing.

JTAS 24, pp35-36:

Strong Hull: The hull of a starship must not only be constructed to withstand normal space; it also must withstand the rigors of jump space. Starship hulls contain as an integral part of their structure a network of wiring which maintains the jump field around the ship. Without this field, the natural physics of jump space would intrude into the ship interior. The alien physical principles would make life impossible; operation of equipment unpredictable; even the passage of time altered. Breaks in the protective network within a starship hull are a primary cause of the loss of ships in jump.
The need for this network in a ship hull also indicates what happens to matter ejected from a ship while in jump. Anything (personnel, small craft, missiles) becomes subject to the physics of the current jump space. People die; equipment malfunctions; small craft disappear. Some attempts have been made to launch starships into jump space from other starships; problems in properly matching drive fields, or even turning them on near other ships, has shown that the technique is impractical at best, and probably impossible.​

Note that the grid isn't said to be lanthanum (but 2¶ later, a lanthanum coil is required for jump as well).

 

[far-trader]

...Also, in CT only damage to a jump drive effects the jump drive's performance, when you would think damage to anywhere on the hull might have a chance to damage a "jump gird" and therefor reduce jump performance.

CT damage is too coarse to factor it imo, which is not the same as saying it doesn't happen.

The way I take it is that "Hull" damage is inconsequential (I don't even impose the silly imo decompression effect imtu). And "Jump Drive" damage may in fact be the grid instead of the actual drive itself, especially once you get down to the level of destroying the Jump Drive (reducing it off the table or below 1). I don't think grid damage would reduce effectiveness of the jump drive (range) but would impact other aspects.

And of course it's a great ref tool for setting up adventures. You don't roll for it, you just impose it. "That last hit tore up a big chunk of the hull, just before you jumped. Looking in the cargo hold you can see the undulating jump space field has intruded into the hold where the damage has destroyed some of the wiring. It looks like the overlap of fields is holding, for now. You can thank the stars for good old Vilani triple redundancy or you'd probably have been killed. Odds are good you've misjumped though... "

 

[sabredog]

The JTAS article describes the grid as more of a force field for helping to protect the hull by maintaining the field, but it doesn't indicate that the field is the jumping mechanism per se. The article describes the hole-tearing I referred to, in addition to propelling the ship into the hole and through jump space until it "precipitates" out of jump space either because it was within 100d of a planet or at the hoped-for location.

So it still seems like the grid isn't the mechanism, but instead a sort of jump-lubricant/protectant for getting through jump space intact, but the drive does some other thing to get you into jump space in the first place while propelling you through it.

Is it different in MT? It has been sounding like the drives work differently in those rules, and how does it work in the other rules sets, then?

 

[CosmicGamer]

Thanks

Thanks for the information provided so far.

Could someone tell me when JTAS 24 came out compared with when MT came out?

 

[sabredog]

Before MT, but I'm not sure how long before....maybe by a couple of years? They were publishing the Challenge Magazine before MegaTrav came out, and JTAS #24 was the last of JTAS.

 

[far-trader]

JTAS 24 was late summer '85, MT was spring(?) '86.

 

[robject]

Is there a single source of canon information that details Jumping? Jump Grids, Lanthanum and Iridium, grid alignment and whatever else.

Mongoose Traveller seems reasonably complete, at least for Mongoose Traveller games.

T5 (beta) has a chapter on jump, describing jump initiation, technologies, drop tanks, interference, mishaps, precipitation, breakout points, timing, jump flashes, performance and power considerations, and so on. It does not mention drive materials.