Faster than light travel or "jumping"

If this has been posted before I give you a thousand apologizes in advance.

I have been curious about what people that play in a generic Si-Fi setting, that spans multiple star systems, prefer. When you have to travel from system to system do you do it in a starship that travels at faster than light speeds, or do you like it where you jump from system to system? I have been thinking about starting a new d20 future type setting and haven't decided myself. Have there been any weird problems that have occured by selecting one type of movement over the other that you have discovered? If you have a preference is there a reason, or did you just think it was cooler this way?

Or, do you do something different entirely?

Since I have played Traveller almost as long as D&D I prefer the "jump" concept. Besides, misjumping is a great GM tool for "unexpected" adventures.

Oh, I use both. Warpdrives, hyperdrives, and when you want something really unpredictable, wormholes too.

D-rock said:

I have been curious about what people that play in a generic Si-Fi setting, that spans multiple star systems, prefer. When you have to travel from system to system do you do it in a starship that travels at faster than light speeds, or do you like it where you jump from system to system?

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I generally prefer jump-type methods, including variations like a Star Wars or Babylon 5 style hyperspace. Main reason is that physics geeks (there's usually at least one in the group) have an easier time suspending their disbelief, since such travel is merely highly implausible given present knowledge of physics instead of pretty much impossible.

I have been thinking about starting a new d20 future type setting and haven't decided myself. Have there been any weird problems that have occured by selecting one type of movement over the other that you have discovered?

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With FTL travel through real space, you run into all the old problems outlined by Einstein - time dilates, mass and energy required both become infinite, it's possible to create paradoxes, and so on - a little googling on the subject should fill you in. With jump setups the problem you run into is you have to define how jumps work from whole cloth, since there's no real world examples to fall back on. How many problems you have with either one is dependent on how closely your players examine the mechanics of interstellar travel, and how much they try to stretch the envelope.

Or, do you do something different entirely?

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A third approach I kind of like is what 2300 AD uses - their handwave is that somebody figured out a way to use quantum tunneling (a phenomenon where subatomic particles have been observed to for all intents and purposes teleport from one location to another) on a macro scale, and move a ship up to 100 m or so at a time. By doing that hundreds of times a second, the ship can get from one place to another at FTL speeds without actually moving in the Newtonian sense, bypassing a lot of Einstein's objections. This has a variety of slightly weird effects that 2300 AD handles pretty well, and the name of the method is cool - "stutterjumping".

But really, you only have to worry about the different methods if you're running some brand of hard science fiction, IMHO. Otherwise, the Star Trek method of just saying "increase speed to Warp 5" without worrying about the physics works fine, so long as everybody agrees not to think too hard about it.

I use a "jumping" type system also. Most gamers know that light speed is the fastest we can physically go. But jumping breaks those laws without freaking out us gamers.

D-rock said:

If this has been posted before I give you a thousand apologizes in advance.

I have been curious about what people that play in a generic Si-Fi setting, that spans multiple star systems, prefer. When you have to travel from system to system do you do it in a starship that travels at faster than light speeds, or do you like it where you jump from system to system?

Click to expand...

I've been giving some thought to what system I want to use. I have a vague idea of running a space game once I'm done with the current campaign.

I've thought of several:
Aliens-like star travel, where you have a kind of FTL drive but it's still slow. Thus, people go into hibernation over the months or years-long voyages.

The jump drive, with variations. The Traveller jump drive pushes you through another dimension. The duration of a jump, regardless of it's length, is around about one week.

I like the Babylon-5 idea, where you have to have a ship of a certain size to handle generating it's own jump point. Otherwise, you have to use the jump gates.

Wormholes. Good idea. Static areas that lead to other static areas. The Honor Harrington books use that idea, along with a hyperspace drive. The hyperdrive is fast, but the wormhole is instantaneous. I like the idea in the books that a wormhole has to 'heal' after each passage through it, based on mass. A small merchant vessel causes a ripple that takes only a few minutes to heal. Push a large battlefleet through at once at it might take half a day to heal, with attendent problems.

I love love love the stutterwarp idea. I think that that's one of the top 10 best gaming ideas I've seen.

D-rock said:

If this has been posted before I give you a thousand apologizes in advance.

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A hundred will suffice.

D-rock said:

When you have to travel from system to system do you do it in a starship that travels at faster than light speeds, or do you like it where you jump from system to system? <...> Have there been any weird problems that have occured by selecting one type of movement over the other that you have discovered? If you have a preference is there a reason, or did you just think it was cooler this way?

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My preference goes for Space Jump.

The reason is extremely simple: that way I don't have to bother about travel times from one star to the other in relation to speed of a starship compared to one another etc. I mean, you want to be coherent with FTL drive. You have a dozen colonized star systems plus innumerable uncharted systems. How do you calculate the time to travel from A to B with the corellian Corvette, but then to B to F with a Cruiser or E to F with a Corvette, then back to A from C or F with either a cruiser that must... Ooooh the headache!! :\

Jump drive on the other hand is much easier to roll-play.

Not only do jumps, jump-gates, and hyper-space dimensions make suspension of disbelief a little easier, they are also generally more internesting from a plotbuilding perspective.

It also makes the fast travel something to be used strategically rather than tactically.

In my Sci-Fi universe, its pretty much all spacially-fixed jumpoints (so far) or long-term cryofreeze. Because of this, there are specific trade routes, and unexplored regions of space can turn up almost anywhere.

It depends. Bascially, what you have are two options: FTL/hyperspace/etc, where the party can go pretty much directly from point A to point B, and jump drives/gates/wormholes, where the routes are circumscribed.

For space opera type games, I've traditionally used the first method. The games being more episodic in nature, travel is usually just an impediment to getting to the good stuff, although it can be used as a plot hook (I *know* I fixed the hyperdrive).

For harder sci-fi, like Traveller, usually the latter. The tighter restrictions fit the genre better, I think. They feel more scientific and consistent.

My favorite is Bettletech-style select "jump points" because of the dramatic limitations - makes it easy for me. However, I also don't mind the Star-Wars-Style "hyperspace, but watch that debris!" form of FTL travel.