As theory, it sounds fun. I do agree with you on how it works for a
game. Now, my original version of Jeff's idea (having it be a straight
multiplier of m-drive in parsecs/week) can be used, especially if
increased restrictions are put on gaining those higher order jump
drives (it's expensive as hell to go 36 parsecs a week, the few trade
routes that stretch that far are totally sewn up by megacorps, what
makes you think you can use your 500,000 ton J6 craft as an
adventuring ship? - size figure pulled out of my ass for the size of
the sort of jump carriers required to turn a profit on a J6 in this
supposed universe-).
Giving that much player choice only works if the players railroad
themselves - if they don't have a clear goal that they pursue
aggressively, the game will die from GM overload.

On 8/5/17, C. Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> That would make for a fun novel background, but a lousy game. Again, it's
> just too big a field of possibilities for a GM to handle -- unless the
> campaign involves railroading to the point it's no fun for the players. The
> extreme restrictions on travel in Traveller are a feature, not a bug. The
> GM can confidently enumerate on the fingers of one hand the places the
> players can go during a reasonable chunk of gaming time, and be prepared
> for all of them. With a hundred billion star systems potentially within a
> few weeks' travel, there's just no way to do the background justice if the
> players turn in an unexpected direction.
>
> Similarly, the restrictions on travel are essential to providing wiggle
> room for players to escape constant attention from the authorities, for
> wars to start and end without massive reinforcements from both sides
> pouring into the disputed area, and so forth. The Spinward Marches need to
> be months of travel from Capital to feel like a true frontier.
>
> On Fri, Aug 4, 2017 at 4:12 PM, Kurt Feltenberger <xxxxxx@thepaw.org> wrote:
>
>> On 8/4/2017 3:51 PM, Amber Witherspoon wrote:
>>
>> The solution is simple: make the higher order jump drives even more
>> expensive and space consuming. Or, change it from the M-Drive doing
>> the pushing to a secondary part of the jump drive, allowing a matrix
>> of Order^Exponent. So a 1^1 is the cheapest, while a 6^6 is the most
>> expensive one possible, and has the highest minimum tonnage
>> requirements (say, 100,000 tons).
>> We still won't hit Andromeda though, even with the 6^6 drive making it
>> only 18 jumps away - Jump 2 or 3 is the maximum that allows deep space
>> fuel depots that don't require a local hydrogen source (any higher
>> jumps require 100% or more of the ship's tonnage to carry two jumps
>> and a decent fuel load, unless you have huge J4 fuel freighters).
>>
>>
>> Another option is where traditional J-drive requires 100dtons, the longer
>> ranged drives require progressively higher and higher tonnage.  While
>> this
>> would make the long distance liners extremely lucrative operations, it
>> also
>> limits the reach that a smaller ship would have unless it was carried as
>> cargo to a hub destination.
>>
>> --
>> Kurt xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
>> “Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not
>> living enough." - Me
>>
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