There is only any point in rolling if the result actually makes a difference.
If the task role introduces tension or drama;
you're jumping away from a pirate attack ...
you're starting up the engines to get off the ground before the police arrest you for smuggling ...
you're plotting a course to beat the bad guys to the derelict ship ...
you're skimming a gas giant for jump fuel before the SBD can heave you to and board ...
you're piloting thought a dense asteroid field with fighters after you ...

Going through the procedures once in a normal session so your players understand what's the normal day in day out of space travel, fine. Otherwise my advice is don’t bother it just introduces tedium into play.

--
For the fallen in the cause of the free:
 "When I go home I will tell of them and say,
 For our tomorrow, They gave their today."

 My spelling is entirerly due to dyslexia, typos, and poetic license

-----Original Message-----
From: Rupert Boleyn - rupert.boleyn at gmail.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2024 10:19 PM
To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
Subject: Jump rules (was Re: [TML] Jump Fluctuator)

On 11Jun2024 0421, greg nokes - greg at nokes.name (via tml list) wrote:
> In the MT SOH, Page 64 (I thnk? For some reason they dropped the page
> numbers after page 59)
>
> Hours in Jump: 124 + (2D X 6)
>
> Now, I love that book for the transfer orbit calcs, but tbh I almost
> never use the expanded jump rules. It just adds to much time to the
> game. Now, if this was early TL-9 and jump drives were new, heck yes,
> or lf you are rushing because an Imperial Cruiser has some questions
> about your cargo of space wizards…

I find it interesting how the rules for jump have changed over the years.

In the LBB jumps were safe unless you did dumb stuff, like using dodgy fuel, jumping too close to a world, or not maintaining your drives. A misjump was always the 'real deal' - 1d6x1d6 parsecs in a random direction, taking 1d6 weeks. From the 1981 version on really dumb behaviour and bad rolls could get your ship destroyed. Also, dodgy fuel could kill your powerplant and/or manoeuvre drive as well as your jump drive. Time in jump is a week.

MegaTraveller adds a whole lot of rolls just to get from the ground to
100 diameters, most of them 'simple', which smells of fishing for fumbles by the referee to me (and also, because they happen on 1-in-36 rolls, makes space travel breakdown and mishap prone). Then to jump there are three routine rolls, only one of which really matters unless you're in a screaming hurry (but in that case the other two should've been started on lift-off and repeated until they succeeded), and which apparently can 'fail' without listed consequences, but can't result in a mishap unless you're doing something dumb. Time in jump is variable, at
6-8 days. Mishaps usually result in more variable jump time (5-10 days) or emerging in the wrong place within the target system, with only major mishaps resulting in 'true' misjumps (which do not have a non-standard duration). Destruction of your ship was possible.

SOM changes the time to 124 + 2d6 x 6 hours, making it more variable, and adds much more detail to things going wrong.

TNE used the same checks for flight to 100D as MT, but as there was no auto-fumble rule, it was much less likely to result in annoying minor breakdowns, etc. (the normal breakdown rules did that anyway...). Jump prep is only one roll, and a poorly maintained ship makes it harder (and therefore likely to take longer). Jump failures are much like MT's, with true misjumps only possible with fumbles when doing dumb shit. Time is as for MT.

T4 - as for CT, so far as I can see.

GURPS Traveller requires three rolls, but generally only fumbles are bad
- other failures juts require rerolls (but at increasing penalties, so a run of bad luck can get messy). It's possible to be able to jump way inside the limit, but the penalty (-12) is sufficient that even very skilled crews will want to avoid it. Misjumps are highly variable in range, and direction is random, but tends to be largely 'forward'. Time taken is given as 168 hours +-10%, but no dice rolls to generate that are given.

GT: Interstellar Wars requires *four* rolls, but aside from fumbles they can be retried, and it allows for crews with reasonable skill to automatically succeed if it's a routine jump. What a fumble causes depends on which roll failed.

T20 notes that jumps have slight variations in time, exact emergence location, and vector. Time is normally 147+6d6 hours. Mishaps are highly variable in effect, ranging from a bit of jump sickness on emergence to never being seen again, and highly variable jump durations are common.
The odds of a misjump are highly dependent on operator skill, as failed Astrogation checks to set the course result in them (so do all the usual things, at about the usual odds).

MgT2 (can't be bothered checking 1e) requires an Astrogation check (but it can be repeated until it succeeds), then an Engineering check. Both are normally easy (but longer jumps are harder for the Astrogator). A really talented Engineer can reasonably safely jump under 100 diameters, and there's only one penalty for that, no matter how far under. Time is normally 148+6d hours. A fail by one results in spending extra time in jump, by 2 and emergence is elsewhere, but in the same system, by more and you get the traditional 1dx1d range misjump - if the referee is being nice.

I don't grok T5 at all, and don't have Hero Traveller, so not looking at them.

So, over time there's a tendency towards more skill-dependant checks.
Whether a ship can be destroyed or lost forever in jump is highly variable.

I swing between thinking on one hand that more skill checks is just annoying rolling and possibly the system/referee fishing for failures, and on the other that more checks mean more characters' skills actually matter. However, as the number of decisions made doesn't really change (what system, and where in that system is about it), I think fewer rolls are better, because they're not attached to anything interesting - there's only one real check being made - Was the jump successful or not, and if not, in what way?

So I'm leaning towards one roll against the worst of Astrogation or Ship's Engineering, with a (minor but meaningful) penalty if it's one person having to do both, and relevant penalties for dumb stuff, etc. If the roll is failed slighty, jump is delayed for recalculations (only important if the ship's in a hurry to leave). Major failures mean a roll on a misjump table (probably with the margin of failure as a 'bonus') for results ranging from more variable time to multi-parsec misjumps. No ship destruction or 'lost forever' - those should only be by referee choice. Details of the checks and tables would depend on the system used.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
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