No Jump Drive Traveller

[Mithras]

For years I've been tinkering with a solar system modification where grav drives did not exist and the human race flew around the solar system in fusion-drive rockets with spin habitats.

But I was thinking yesterday of flipping that. What would our solar system look like with Traveller grav-drive ships ... but no jump drive. It would essentially be a very constrained, compact ... almost resembling modern day Earth with (almost) instantaneous communications, and most places reachable within a week or so of travelling.

To create variety, it might be necessary to have some terraforming ongoing or even completed. Colonization would be very advanced, although I would not use the 5000 AD dateline, something a little bit closer to the 21st century I think.

Benefits? Like the old D&D modules where you get a base location/castle/city and an surrounding sandbox area suitable for exploration and adventure. The GM, even the players, can get a real grip on the small-scale setting, recurrent NPCs, recurrent ships, they can 'master' the setting as it were.

Drawbacks? My only reservation is the redundancy of free-traders and trade speculation. Its DHL in space, not buy low try to sell high....
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[HG_B]

For years I've been tinkering with a solar system modification where grav drives did not exist and the human race flew around the solar system in fusion-drive rockets with spin habitats.

There's no advantage to spin habitats on a ship that uses constant acceleration/deceleration with no internal artificial gravity. Not sure what you're trying to get at here.

 

[Mithras]

I wrote a rules-set for Traveller where the ships used nuclear-thermal rockets, accelerating towards their destination, then coasting, due to the huge demands of reaction mass expenditure. Crew required spin habitats to maintain health during the weeks or months of the inter-planetary voyages.

Although that's all a bit of a digression, I know, from the rest of my post. Sorry!

There's no advantage to spin habitats on a ship that uses constant acceleration/deceleration with no internal artificial gravity. Not sure what you're trying to get at here.

 

[by_the_sword]

Two settings you might want to consider looking at are Jovian Chronicles by Dream Pod 9 and the setting of Joss Wheedon's Firefly TV show. Both have no FTL transportation.

I offer these suggestions so you may raid them for ideas.

http://www.dp9.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=108

 

[Mithras]

Thanks! That makes interesting reading.

Two settings you might want to consider looking at are Jovian Chronicles by Dream Pod 9 and the setting of Joss Wheedon's Firefly TV show. Both have no FTL transportation.

I offer these suggestions so you may raid them for ideas.

http://www.dp9.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=108

 

[iron warrior]

At the risk of drawing flames, a good SF setting with no FTL but an inhabited solar system was seen in the anime "Cowboy Bebop".

I know a lot of travelllr fhen go antimatter when anyone brings up anime in relation to Traveller, but when I'm right I say what I believe and if that makes people get bent out of shape, they can get bent.

BTW, Cowboy bebop lacked FTL but had some sort of gate system for in system travel, never quite explained.

 

[mike wightman]

If you can find it I would highly recommend taking a look at GURPS Space: Terradyne.

You could even file some of the transhuman elements off GURPS: Transhuman Space to have a pretty good solar system based game.

 

[far-trader]

At the risk of drawing flames, a good SF setting with no FTL but an inhabited solar system was seen in the anime "Cowboy Bebop".

I know a lot of travelllr fhen go antimatter when anyone brings up anime in relation to Traveller, but when I'm right I say what I believe and if that makes people get bent out of shape, they can get bent.

Heh, I wouldn't say a lot of Travellers, a couple very vocal ones maybe, but more have remarked how Cowboy Bebop especially and some other anime can work with Traveller and serve as rich sources for mining ideas. I think you're ok without the asbestos suit on this board for this subject

 

[beowulf2044]

Love the BeBop, especially the music. I think the 'gate' system was actually an accelerator at one end and a decelerator at the other to cut travel time.

More interesting was the terraforming of Mars, with the main city within high walls (to hold atmosphere?) and some of the enviroments on the various moons in the Solar System.

But hey, shotguns, SMG's, pistols, blades and Martial Arts and Bounty Hunters. Lots of Traveller-esque stuff involved.

 

[Antony]

The computer game Freelancer used some sort of in-system 'gate' accelerator as well as wormholes and stargates to get to other starsystems.

It did gloss over how the in-system 'trade-link' network managed to remain aligned when everything should technically be in motion. Of course in the game none of the worlds, space stations or the gates themselves moved.