Jump Sickness?

[Sifu Blackirish]

IMTU i have an analog variant of jump drives. I have various characters experiencing feelings of dislocation or dizziness during transitions, but can't remember what canon is about that. Can anyone elaborate?

Also, i have a nuked world where a couple of brothers have a psionic affinity to jump space. any ideas about how i could use them in a campaign to best effect?

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Hey DLO,
How goes, man? Ok, first things first. Jump Sickness has appeared in several adventures (most noteably being FFE's 'Gateway'), though most commonly in the 'Approved For Use With' books. In the Traveller campaign I play in, jump sickness manifests itself in several ways. For relatively minor cases, a patient might exhibit nausea, diarrhea, migranes, and/or balance disorders. More severe cases might result in major psychosis, delusions, and anxiety disorders in addition to the physical symptoms above.

Insofar as your 'Wing Commander' twins,

I would probably suggest one of two things... one is a nearly supernatural ability to navigate anything anywhere with pinpoint accuracy despite any variables. Another idea is that each twin would be able to precisely know where the other's location within [x] distance (I suggest no more than 6 parsecs or 1 maximum jump IYTU).

Helpful?

 

[Arthur Denger]

I recommend reading Cascade Point, by Timothy Zahn. It deals with a psychological phenomenon (parallel dimensions might be an over-simplification), induced in individuals during jump under certain circumstances. Great background material. The novella first appeared in Analog back in the '80s, and has been subsequently reprinted in at least one story collection.

Light by M. John Harrison is also highly recommended, if you can stomach cyberpunk; it borders on the surreal, and might give you some ideas about how to handle those gifted siblings of yours. And yes, the title does refer to C (and beyond C ) travel.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

IMTU psionics are worsely affected by jump sickness (especially clairvoyants - their brains keep subconsciously peeking at jumpspace).

 

[stofsk]

So... who uses the Jump sickness variant of 'those affected go on a murderous, psychotic induced rampage'? You'll be wishing they just vomited and had dizzy spells along with everybody else.

Ironically, probably the safest place to be in that situation would be as a low berth passenger. During the ruckus the auto-wake on your berth triggers unexpectedly. You wake up, look around - curious that the steward isn't around. Where's the medic to administer aid should the process fall into complication?

With all the curiosity of a cat but with less sense, you begin your exploration of the cavernous ship you're in, thus beginning a long WEEK OF TERROR!!! (Coming soon to a holotheatre near you)

 

[Andrew Boulton]

With most PCs, who'd notice any difference?

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

ROFL!
In the TU that FatherFletch has designed and that I play in, each individual makes a mental-oriented saving throw to resist the effects of jump sickness. A Critical Failure result is where the Crazy Psycho With A RAM Grenade shows up. We had it happen on our 400 dton Vilani Flying Brick misjumped and one of our passengers decided to murder his newlywed wife in somewhat spectacular fashion. Fortunately, our Acheronian security specialist had things well in hand. GO WAR DWARF!

 

[epicenter00]

There's actually a pretty fun adventure regarding Jump Sickness in one of the old issues of Challenge magazine. It details a story about a malfunctioning jump bubble and how the bubble is decaying so everyone on the ship slowly goes crazy in the course of the adventure. It's set in the TNE Reformation Coalition, though with a few changes to the NPCs, it could be set anywhere. If you have friends with large collections of that magazine, I'd suggest looking into it - it's tremendous fun.

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As for the brothers, you could go for mild or wild. Wild would be something like: If one brother is in 'real space' and the other is Jump Space, the one in Jump Space can make a psionic check to change the course of the ship in jumpspace to arrive to where his brother is, including doing things like exceeding the J6 barrier without ill effect, but only to where the brother is.