On 6/19/2020 1:37 PM, Rupert Boleyn wrote:
> When it comes down to it, in CT a jump drive is a black box into which
> you pour power and hydrogen when you want to jump. They are consumed,
> and you (hopefully) jump. Also in CT, as long as you aren't jumping too
> close to a world, and are using refined fuel, you don't misjump. It's a
> simple and safe system from the operator's point of view.
On 6/19/2020 2:50 PM, Thomas RUX wrote:
> The game designers wrote the back story that way for purposes of the
> game they wanted.
Hence the problem, because gamers and science fiction fans - groups
which have a substantial amount of overlap, especially here - are NEVER
going to just let it go at that. They're going to keep picking and
poking at it, finding holes and demanding explanations, or making up
their own. Which is exactly what we have been doing for the last 40+ years.
"It's ****ing magic, okay?" just doesn't work when we're talking about a
piece of /technology/ that's essential to the game setting. (It's right
there in the name; jump drive is the primary method by which travellers
travel.)
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The first way I used to handle this, as a GM, was to assume the persona of a professor of very, very advanced applied hyperspatial physics & recite, in a appropriately condescending manner, that they didn't possess the necessary foundation of knowledge necessary to understand the answer!
Later, I just went with a different persona, maybe a JoaT?, & said;
"Listen Mac, all I know is how to operate the damn thing. You wanna' know about the 'guts' inside, go over to the nearest Uni!"
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