Time (frame) to power up to emergency jump

[Lautenschlaeger]

Hello hive-mind, a situation came up in the MegaTraveller campaign I GM, and I haven't found any information on it.

My group have just jumped into empty space (jump-1 from a system), where they found a rendezvous point for the baddies, as expected. The baddies are in a souped-up Fat Trader, that is currently running the converter at minimum level, to reduce emissions and detectability. Since my group is part of a Merc Cruiser crew, the baddies are outgunned, and would like to make a run for it.
My question being: how long would it take to power up the converter to operational levels, and spool up the jump drive for an emergency jump?
I.e. is running a real option, or will they need to try and bluff their way out?

 

[Spinward Flow]

My group have just jumped into empty space (jump-1 from a system), where they found a rendezvous point for the baddies, as expected. The baddies are in a souped-up Fat Trader, that is currently running the converter at minimum level, to reduce emissions and detectability. Since my group is part of a Merc Cruiser crew, the baddies are outgunned, and would like to make a run for it.
My question being: how long would it take to power up the converter to operational levels, and spool up the jump drive for an emergency jump?
I.e. is running a real option, or will they need to try and bluff their way out?

Did your PCs surprise the baddies?

If the baddies were "not expecting company" then the response time to the PCs showing up is going to be longer (quite possibly, too long).

If however the baddies were "on alert" and prepared to jump out (just in case) then the response time could be quite rapid, because the baddies were prepared.

I'll defer to those who know MT better than I do for how long it takes the engineering to spool up for an emergency jump. However, from a Referee perspective, the deciding factor is probably going to be the "readiness" factor of the baddies in this situation ... hence why I ask my question, did your PCs surprise the baddies?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

MT has tasks with time intervals for this, in the Imperial Encyclopedia.

Warm start about 5 minutes, cold start about 50 minutes.

Prepare about 20 minutes, concurrently.

Jump, about 20 minutes.


In short, unless you jump in right on top of the baddies, they should be able to escape. At least if they are outside any 100D limit.

 

[whartung]

Well, in High Guard, a ship can jump in 20 minutes (1 turn). Jump drives are "self powered", so the status of the main power plant isn't necessarily a constraint. In CT a Jump drive needs a "compatible" power plant, one that's at least as big as the Jump drive.

MT has a note about "SURPRISE: POWERING UP VEHICLES" (Pg 85 MT Players Handbook), and it gives a Time Increment of 5m for a "cold" fusion plant, and 30s for a "warm" plant. That means for a cold plant, 5m * 3D, so 15 to 90m. For Warm, that's at most 9m.

So, if you consider the plant "cold", in CT Book 2, combat is in, roughly, 20m turns. In Mayday, they're 100m turns.

MT uses 20m turns. (So a 90m warm up is going to be 5 turns, average will be 3 turns).

Also, MT has Surprise mechanics. An MT task on pg 91 of the referees manual to raise alarm (Difficult, Leader, Sensor Ops).

Ideally, that's enough rules and rules of thumb to give you some guidance.

 

[whartung]

In short, unless you jump in right on top of the baddies, they should be able to escape. At least if they are outside any 100D limit.

Not necessarily.

What matters is how far apart they are.

It looks like, depending on how they play it, there's a solid chance of 3 rounds of combat happening here. Depending on the combat system, that's a solid chance of something important getting hit if they're in range (and "in range" can be rather far away).

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Well, in High Guard, a ship can jump in 20 minutes (1 turn). Jump drives are "self powered", so the status of the main power plant isn't necessarily a constraint. In CT a Jump drive needs a "compatible" power plant, one that's at least as big as the Jump drive.

CT High Guard: Can normally jump in 2 turns, or 1 turn with an overpowered power plant. The jump drive is powered by the power plant, as detailed in JTAS#24, so the power plant must be powered up first.
MT: Jump drive produces its own power, yet interestingly the tasks specify the power plant must be fully operational before jump prep can begin.

CT JTAS#14, p25 specifies the time to power up the power plant:

If a ship is caught by an enemy in a powered down state, the crew may attempt to bring the power plant up to full blast. One turn is required for each level of power plant to be restored. No energy-using weapons or shields may be operated during this "stoking-up" period, and agility is reduced to one.

So, if you consider the plant "cold", in CT Book 2, combat is in, roughly, 20m turns.

The OP specified power plant operating at low power, so a cold start isn't necessary, I believe.

 

[Spinward Flow]

The OP specified power plant operating at low power, so a cold start isn't necessary, I believe.

Agree.
Low power yes ... no power no.

 

[whartung]

So, if the Power Plant is warm, then it looks to me that the ship can jump "the next turn".

This basically means there's no way the intruder can stop them unless they land right on top of them, but even then I doubt they would get a shot off in time.

And that's all that really matters.

The next question is what do you WANT to happen.

 

[Lautenschlaeger]

Wow, this is excellent. Thanks all around, that will give me enough of a handrail to GM this. To answer the questions:
Yes, the baddies are surprised. They were waiting for a smuggler to jump in for a cargo transfer, and weren't expecting any enemies, really.
What I want to happen is: the Fat Trader gets away. While the SCs investigate the dump at the rendezvous, a patrol corvette (the other ship of the baddies) jumps in, and gets overwhelmed.

 

[Spinward Flow]

a patrol corvette (the other ship of the baddies) jumps in, and gets overwhelmed.

That patrol corvette would have needed to enter jump a week ago for this to be the time it does a breakout from jump ...

 

[Spinward Scout]

With the MgT2e rules, you can only go up or down one Timeframe. Which puts both your Engineer (J-Drive) and Astrogate Timeframe at 1D Minutes and makes both rolls Routine (6+). Unless I'm misunderstanding.

 

[Lautenschlaeger]

That patrol corvette would have needed to enter jump a week ago for this to be the time it does a breakout from jump ...

Yes, that's consistent: the rendezvous was planned as a three-way gig. My PCs intercepted the smuggler (1) before it could jump;
they will (ideally) chase off the Fat Trader (2), so I have a hook for another story;
and they should catch the corvette (3) with its pants down when it exits jump.
Which is nice, because I would like my group to take over the corvette, after lots of legal wrangling.

 

[BlackBat242]

MT: Jump drive produces its own power, yet interestingly the tasks specify the power plant must be fully operational before jump prep can begin.

Perhaps something about needing the computer, bridge controls, sensors, etc to be powered up, and running stable before trying to calculate your jump?

 

[aramis]

Perhaps something about needing the computer, bridge controls, sensors, etc to be powered up, and running stable before trying to calculate your jump?

Plus the initiation energy to kickstart that puppy....

 

[Lautenschlaeger]

So we finally got around to playing this, what with contact restrictions, holidays and all...
Anyways, the dice said "nope", when the baddie fat trader's engineer completely botched their roll to bring the converter up to operating power. So they got overwhelmed while still trying to override all sorts of "Do you really want to ignore this safety protocol and void your warranty?" warnings.
Now my group has repaired and secured the fat trader, camo'ed their merc cruiser among the cargo cache, and are waiting for the baddie corvette to walk into their trap.
Gotta love unexpected dice results, they keep me on my narrative toes.