So here’s a questions about jump points, not the adventures, but the points in system that ships use to travel from one star to another.
As per the rules, the ship has to be at the jump point to make the jump. As far as I can tell, this is an automatic success. No navigation checks, no jump rolls, just arrive, push the button, and Bob’s your Uncle, you’re at the other end. Is this correct?
There’s only one jump point from Star A to Star B. Is there a chance for a ship to be at the point the same time another ship is coming out of it?
How big is this “point”? It is more like a Lagrange point and it’s more of a region of space than an actual physical point?
Do ships retain velocity and vector heading when they transit? That is, if the ship is pointed in a direction in relation to the galactic disc, does it retain that alignment when it jumps?
When you Wild Jump, I assume the you exit from a jump point, but you do not necessarily enter one. I think you would have to make a reverse trip to find the other end of the jump point at the original system.
There, that should keep folks busy for a while. 🙂
I believe the answers to most of your questions boil down to “whatever the table decides is appropriate”. So long as you handle your answers as consistently as your particular group desires, you’re fine.
As for the question about jumps…no, no die roll required. IF you’re taking an fixed jump route, because those are ‘safe and controlled’ routes. Routine. Boring. Predictable. The obvious caveat here is that while there is no specific mechanic required for those (beyond the fact that they take a lot of time), there’s always the possibility of a GM Move or the like to spice things up.
Also waiting for an official answer. I don’t imagine jump space is as analytical as other games.
Correct, you just jump as long as there’s nothing else getting in the way. If there is, that’s Facing Adversity like normal. If you’re under attack, that’s a shame, because jumping requires shunting all of your power to the jump briefly before you vanish.
I treat (unless something different is needed) jump points as slipknots from Diaspora. They’re points of weird space physics, and higher-quality ships can jump through them from further away while rubbish ships have to get super close to them. Also stealing from Diaspora, as long as nothing is rushing the characters then I let their facing and velocity be whatever they want… if they’re in a rush and they FA to make the jump, then there’s a chance they’ll come out the other side disoriented.
Awesome questions, I’m looking forward to seeing the answers!
>_>
<_ <
Seriously though, for a lot of those questions any answer you come up with is as good as mine. My personal answers (take ’em or leave ’em):
1- A fixed Jump Point has been charted, mapped, and mathematically calculated to send a ship through Jump Space to an equivalent area elsewhere in the galaxy. No roll or anything unless you’re in a hurry (it takes time to align with a Jump Point, angle is important)
2/3- I’m inclined to say that a Jump Point is fairly large, enough for a small fleet to jump at once. Plus there’s always a small amount of scatter on exit, it’s never 100% precise. Gravity distorts Jump Space (which is why Wild Jumps within the gravity of a planet or star is so dangerous), so it’s possible that you can’t exit from Jump Space into any space occupied by physical matter (so you couldn’t exit very close to a planet or inside another ship). That said, it’s likely there are a bunch of safety protocols to get you out of the Jump arrival zone as soon as you come out of Jump Space, in case someone is on your heels.
4- I’d say velocity is lost while in Jump Space, especially after a routine Jump Point (which normally requires killing velocity beforehand and using micro-thrusts to angle yourself). As for vector facing, keeping your vector seems fine, especially since you have to throttle up after exiting the Jump.
5- Wild Jumps tend to be very unreliable because the Jump Space one travels through might not be stable or predictable. A return trip might not take you back to the same system. That said, every stable Jump Point was once a Wild Jump that enterprising Starfarers and Jump-Mathemeticians discovered, plotted and ran hundreds of times (often with accidents, miscalculations and mishaps) until the Jump Lane stabilized and became predictable.
Thanks Sean Gomes for your reply. Good answers all around, though…
Number 4 is a bit problematic: you can’t lose all velocity, as everything is moving, including the jump point. So if your ship loses all velocity, you’ll shoot out of the system at fair percentage of the speed of light. 🙂
I’m of the opinion that you don’t lose all velocity, and trying to come to “complete stop” in space is wasteful of propellant and next to impossible. Since a jump point is a large volume of space, most navigators will line up with the entry vector and when they are ready, will fire up the jump drive. They are moving all the time. Now, they are not under acceleration at that time, and they will have to figure out which way they are pointing when they exit.
Hmm, that brings up “civilized” systems. In the Real World™, we have traffic control, navigation beacons, and GPS satellites. So I imagine that most systems have Navigation Buoys in the system keeping track of, well, everything.
You pop in system and you immediately will pick up the Nav broadcast from at least two Nav Buoys and at that point you can orient yourself in system and figure out which way you’ll have to go.
That’s fair, I guess “relative stop” rather than absolute would be fitting. And Jump Space would “match” you with the relative velocity of the space you were exiting to.
The book already says that civilized Jump Points are pretty much all monitored by more-or-less the equivalent of naval fortresses. That’s probably more than enough to get your bearings.
Bleeep! “Sir or madam get out of the damn way we’ve got a mining barge the size of a city block coming through the Jump Point”
Sean Gomes And now I’m remembering that old saw about the US Carrier trying to argue who should adjust whose course with a Canadian lighthouse…
UPDATE! Found it
https://youtu.be/sYsdUgEgJrY
(Someone’s navigator is in trouble after that one!)
Bleep: “Just a city block? We’re the City of Han’s Landing. We’re 2 kilometers long and full of cargo containers mate. We’ll see who’s getting out of the way of who…”