What mechanic do you use for FTL travel in your game?

[C-Note]

In my game, the hyperdrive is the main method of FTL travel.  It is a clone of the Traveller jump drive, with a maximum of Jump-2 (2 parsecs, taking 1 week).  Ships carry enough proton fuel for anywhere from 1 to 4 jumps before needing to refuel.  Paired with fuel scoops, ships can refuel from gas giants or oceans.

Hyperdrive: Teleportation 62m, MegaRange (1m = 1 trillion km; +4) (310 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Fuel Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Conditional Power (Power does not work in Common Circumstances) (Non-Functional In A Gravity Well; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Dimensional Navigation; -1/2) [Notes: Jump-2]

Total Points: 33

 

Fuel Scoops/Purification Plant:  Minor Transform 4d6 (Liquid Hydrogen/Water into Proton Fuel) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, -3 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), Requires 6 Hours Per Fuel Charge (-1/4)

Total Points: 3

[dougmacd]

6 minutes ago, C-Note said:

Hyperdrive: Teleportation 62m, MegaRange (1m = 1 trillion km; +4) (310 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Fuel Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Conditional Power (Power does not work in Common Circumstances) (Non-Functional In A Gravity Well; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Dimensional Navigation; -1/2) [Notes: Jump-2]

Total Points: 33

 

I've never played Traveler, but I assume there's a navigation computer to offset the -31 to the skill roll?

 

 

Doug

(Eek!)

[C-Note]

12 minutes ago, dougmacd said:

I've never played Traveler, but I assume there's a navigation computer to offset the -31 to the skill roll?

 

LOL!  Yes, there is a nav computer.  The navigator can also take extra time calculating the jump in order to increase the offset.

[Steve]

45 minutes ago, C-Note said:

In my game, the hyperdrive is the main method of FTL travel.  It is a clone of the Traveller jump drive, with a maximum of Jump-2 (2 parsecs, taking 1 week).  Ships carry enough proton fuel for anywhere from 1 to 4 jumps before needing to refuel.  Paired with fuel scoops, ships can refuel from gas giants or oceans.

Hyperdrive: Teleportation 62m, MegaRange (1m = 1 trillion km; +4) (310 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Fuel Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Conditional Power (Power does not work in Common Circumstances) (Non-Functional In A Gravity Well; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Dimensional Navigation; -1/2) [Notes: Jump-2]

Total Points: 33

 

Fuel Scoops/Purification Plant:  Minor Transform 4d6 (Liquid Hydrogen/Water into Proton Fuel) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, -3 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), Requires 6 Hours Per Fuel Charge (-1/4)

Total Points: 3

You could build the drive cheaper on Active Points by lowering it to 6 or 7 meters and upping the Megascale multiplier. Unless that was a build choice?

 

Traveller Hero built their Jump Drives more like that.

[C-Note]

34 minutes ago, Steve said:

You could build the drive cheaper on Active Points by lowering it to 6 or 7 meters and upping the Megascale multiplier. Unless that was a build choice?

 

Traveller Hero built their Jump Drives more like that.

Thanks, Steve.  This was a build choice for several reasons.  I deliberately wanted to make FTL travel rare and expensive.  At the tech level of the campaign, hyperdrives are new, bulky, and finicky.

 

Also, 62 trillion kilometers is the closest approximation to 2 parsecs that you can get using Megascale.  Any other combination of Teleportation range with Megascale will significantly undershoot or overshoot the 2-parsec limit.  Since we're using 2D Traveller starmaps (1 parsec per hex), this means I won't have to calculate fractional parsecs.

 

Edit: If I wanted to sacrifice a little accuracy and save Active Points, I could use the +4 1/4 10-trillion kilometer Megascale Advantage.  I might use this as Tech Level increases in the campaign.

[Lord Liaden]

TBH I generally just use the FTL Travel Power, to get the PCs to the adventure location. More technologically advanced civilizations travel faster, which occasionally impacts the plot, and there may be some lip service paid to how the drive works, but that's rarely come into play in my games as other than an enabling device.

[Steve]

1 hour ago, C-Note said:

Thanks, Steve.  This was a build choice for several reasons.  I deliberately wanted to make FTL travel rare and expensive.  At the tech level of the campaign, hyperdrives are new, bulky, and finicky.

 

Also, 62 trillion kilometers is the closest approximation to 2 parsecs that you can get using Megascale.  Any other combination of Teleportation range with Megascale will significantly undershoot or overshoot the 2-parsec limit.  Since we're using 2D Traveller starmaps (1 parsec per hex), this means I won't have to calculate fractional parsecs.

 

Edit: If I wanted to sacrifice a little accuracy and save Active Points, I could use the +4 1/4 10-trillion kilometer Megascale Advantage.  I might use this as Tech Level increases in the campaign.

 

This is what I meant by how I built them. This is from Hero Designer.

 

Jump-2 Hyperdrive:  Teleportation 7m, MegaScale (1m = 1 lightyear; can be scaled down to 100 km/m; +4 1/4) (37 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Week, for full journey; -4 1/2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), 4 Charges (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Requires A Roll (Dimensional Navigation roll; -1/2), Cannot Be Safely Used Inside A Gravity Well (-1/2). Real Cost: 4 points.

 

A human pilot could run it with a -4 to their roll. Taking extra time to calculate the jump pretty much eliminates the penalty.

[tkdguy]

I originally planned to use the Alcubierre Drive for my campaign, but I never got around to the write-up. I also looked at the Stutterwarp from the 2300 AD game. Either way, I probably would have used whatever mechanic is in Star HERO.

 

I abandoned the idea after deciding my campaign would be limited to our solar system.

[Duke Bushido]

In the Traveller HERO campaign, I use FTL (the Power) for simplicity, with a few modifiers here and there, but to be honest, in two decades, the build has never come,up as a game thing.

 

In other Star-faring games, I dont bother writing it up at all (the FTL drive, I mean.  Sub-C movement gets simple write-ups of necessity: who is how much faster than who, etc, but I have found that typically,nothing happens outside of character interaction during "fast travel," it has never been necessary to do more than say "it is going to take four days to get there; how do you spend your time?"

 

Sure, travel,by map is fun, and lots of people on both sides of the screen like to map it our leap by leap, but you can still do that without actually,building the drive:

 

Your ship has Drive B, and it can go X-far in Y time at a fuel cost of Dollars per X.

 

Then just map out leap by leap or insert and exit or gate to gate or whatever the enabling device is for the particular game.

 

Of course, I dont bother statring up vehicles fully with the HERO vehicle system, since there is nothing in that system that defines parameters: going strictly,from,the vehicle build rules, I can put nine people on a skateboard and travel at mach 4 just because I bought some powers that say I can; there is no real explanation or justification needed beyond "I spent the points."

 

I still use the homebrew system we put together back when we were playing 1e on the rare occasion I need to stat up  a vehicle, but other than those times,when the players need to shoot at or not be shot by one, it is not particularly,necessary.  Vehicles in most of the games I have been,in on either side of the screen were primarily enabling devices that did little more than move the characters from scene to scene in an acceptable fashion.

 

The notable exception is our Traveller HERO game, but to be honest, I use FFS from TNE to build the ship, then convert _that_ to HERO terms (because FFS wont let you put nine people on a skateboard and run around at mach 4).

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

FFS? For F___s Sake?:

[Duke Bushido]

Sorry-

 

Fire, Fusion, and Steel.  The "how to build,everything in Traveller" Book published during The New Era ...  Era?

 

It was availabke as a stand-alone and came packed-in with the deluxe box.  There are some,errors here and there, but firtunately they are _glaring_ and easy to spot, and even easier to work around.

 

It remains one od the more expensive TNE books on the used market.