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Traveller System

TKalbfus

SOC-14 1K
This is the hardest of the hard science fiction campaign. I think the Traveller combat system is fairly realistic, but what if you go one step further by substituting fusion rockets for manuever drives. There is no artificial gravity and no jump drives, but fusion rockets are just as good as the manuever drives for going places in the Solar System, the occupants in the spaceships would feel the full accelerations though. If they are accelerating at 6-G they would be pinned to an acceleration couch. If the cabin was filled with water during this acceleration they could move about with their increased weight thusly distributed. With 5/6th of their bodies immersed in water they would only feel their full body weight instead of 6 time that. There would need to be political divisions within the Solar System to make it interesting. Most people would live under domes or in free orbiting space colonies.
 
IMTU: I've always considered Maneuver and Jump Drive as embellishments of Power Plant technology, anyway.

Imagine that your fusion plant has couplings that could be attached to larger J-drive and M-drive reaction units.

The fusion plant would be what "primes" the M-drive, which in turn adds more deuterium/hydrogen to the initial plasma stream [1], thus making it more useful for propulsion. This idea could be carried further to construct a ship's spinal fusion weapon.

The J-drive actually is an extension of M-drive, although with a greater power yield, more durable controls, and the power distribution/conversion network required to power the J-drive grid.

So, technology starts with fusion reactors, then develops maneuver drives, then jump drives, in that order. Each development is based on the previous one, and each is a precursor to those that follow.

All this ignores the use of chemical rockets or ion engines as maneuver drives, of course.

This is how I've always played it.

Notes:
[1] No, I'm not going trekkie here, I just don't know what else to call it.
 
One idea is to add the volume, mass, and cost of the power plant and manuever drive together and whatever energy points does not get consumed by the manuever drive is available to the rest of the ship. The entire unit taken together is called a fusion rocket. A fusion rocket is also a power plant, but it generates less energy for the ships systems per unit volume than does a dedicated fusion power plant. That is because plasma is released out of the spaceship to push it forward. Now whatever energy points a manuever drive would consume to accelerate the ship a given amount is how much less energy the rocket would produce for the rest of the ship. The loss of plasma represents a loss of energy. Unlike a Traveller spaceship, these spaceships would release a fiery plume of glowing hot plasma whenever they accelerated. Whenever the ships landed they would scorch and area of ground underneath it. Rockets would be rated from 1-G to 6-G and each one would produce an amount of surplus energy for the rest of the ship, and consume a certain amount of fuel. The ship must total an exact amount of mass for a unit of 1-G fusion rocket to accelerate the ship at 1-G.
 
But in this case the passengers of the spaceship feel the acceleration of whatever number of n-G acceleration the ship goes. The floor plans of many of the space ships would have to be redesigned. Basically the flors would be a cross section of the spaceship rather than following the ships longitudinal axis. Most people can survive 1 to 6-Gs of acceleration. For 6-G the passengers would probably want G-suits to keep the blood flowing to the brain. Air/Rafts can still exist, but they'd require substantial atmospheres in which to operate and can't reach orbit. G-Carriers are more problematic. An Air?raft would have to be light weight like an airplane and rely on downward thrusting fans or air breathing jets in order to fly. Perhaps small scale fusion rockets would work as well and could also operate in a vacuum. In a Solar System campaign every planet is inhabited, because those 9 planets are all there is, besides moons, asteroids, and comets. Space Stations rotate to simulate gravity. Every device other than Jump drives, or things that rely on artificial gravity plates or contragrav thrusters works as advertized. Since their are not likely to be any interesting aliens, the focus shifts to conflicts between humans and space nations within the Solar System. Artifical intelligence could be added to the mix in the form of robots and computers, but they are not yet superior to humans and are a recent development, they are included to add an element of "otherness", partial compensation for the lack of inhabitable planets and aliens. Many different cultures exist within the Solar System. To give the Solar System a substantial history, the referee could choose to set the Campaign date in the distant future as in the 57th century. Faster than light travel is simply impossible in this universe, that is why it hasn't been developed. Civilization has had a number of declines in the past and perhaps Mars is terraformed by now and has a breathable atmosphere. Venus could be terraformed as well. The Referee has to decide what sort of planets they now are, and what sort of life now lives on them. The Solar System should also be littered with ruins of past human civilizations to keep the player characters busy.
 
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