elt@astrovax.UUCP (10/27/83)
In response to allegra!mac's query about how to pass the weeks in jump
space (in Traveller):
This can indeed be a problem particularly when playing a senario which
calls for frequent intersystem travel. I have seen games in which well
over half of the elapsed game time is likely to be spent in jump space or
in transit to and from jump points. I certainly agree that a GM who allows
extensive cross-training will soon end up with parties of skill-wise
indistinguishable players; sounds like a rather poor idea.
Listed below are some ideas for use of this built in "dead time" which I
have allowed or encouraged as a GM. They are ordered from more or less
ordinary and routine things to more exotic (and frequently dangerous) and
thus rarer possibilities. Several of the latter are based on the idea that
a ship in mid-jump is very effectively isolated from any form of outside
help and is impossible to escape or abandon (i.e., the players will be
forced to face any problems which arise and to rely on their own
resources).
1) Jump space is an excellent place to eat, rest, and recuperate both
generally and from particular wounds or injuries. FRP adventurers (and for
all I know real ones) tend to miss meals, work very long hours, neglect (or
ignore) injuries, et cetera. I think a GM should impose negative DM's on a
player who could reasonably be supposed to be fatigued or otherwise run
down.
2) It is also a good place for the players to lay plans, digest
information, and do library research (the computers in my universe are
*much* more powerful than those in standard Traveller so the shipboard
machine has a database sufficient to most purposes).
3) Routine maintenance of equipment both personal and shipboard will need
to be performed. This can either just be assumed to occupy a lot of
otherwise unaccounted for time or, if one is aiming at a more exacting
game, the GM can require PC's to state their activities. If someone
forgets to clean their weapons or refill their vacc suit air tanks, it can
come back to haunt them (I'm not that sticky about details but some people
are.).
4) The enforced close living quarters of a ship in jump space make it an
excellent place to develop the interpersonal relationships among the
characters (PC-PC or PC-NPC). Friendships, love affairs, feuds,
jealousies, clics, pecking orders and so on all take on a particular
importance and vividness in such an environment (You will have noticed this
if you have ever been effectively isolated and confined with a small group
of people for even a few days.) A subtle GM can use minor events and NPC's
to encourage this sort of interactions between the PC's.
Now for some of the *problems* which can more directly challenge the PC's
in jump space:
5) Someone (with a vital skill!) can fall ill (usually an exotic illness)
or be injured.
6) NPC passengers can cause problems for a PC crew or vice versa which can
vary in severity from a persistent insurance salesman (ever sat next to one
on a plane?) through domestic squabbles or love triangles all the way to
hijacking attempts. Even ships without passengers can have stowaways.
7) Ships can be infested with various sorts of exotic pests or vermin (see
JTAS Bestiary feature for some good ideas on this).
8) The cargo can act up particularly if it is living, volatile, explosive,
very valuable, fragile, intoxicating, or something.
9) Some important component of the ship can malfunction or be sabotaged.
Similarly some important consumable (food, air, water) can be lost,
contaminated, etc.
10) Someone, an NPC or a cooperative PC, can get jump space madness (the
"jumps") from spending too much time in jump space without enough to do.
This makes their behavior very erratic, unpredictable, and potentially
dangerous. This turns the problem into a solution!
If anyone has any other ideas, I (and probably my players) would welcome
them.