Long Haul Jump Travel, Jump Stress and effects [FT campaign]

List-ites: (Like Dead-ites, only much more hygenic)

Me and Schoon worked this up, and now submit it for your perusal. It is
based (at least partly) on canon and words from St. Jon of Needham, and
the rest is our own bash-up. Fill yer boots, and hope you like it. To my
mind, it filled a need for getting some long-haul transit rates set
down, along with consequences for violating them.

Without further adieu....

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Long Haul Jump Travel in the FT Universe:

by Tomin8tor (Tom Barclay) and Schoon (Sean Bayan Schoonmaker)

==============================================================

Canon (and conversations with Jon T on the mailing list) seems to
indicate that a military ship may jump once per 6 hour
period at a maximum, and a civilian ship once per day, or at least these
were the starting points. The average jump works
out (counting the smaller jumps coming into a system and the larger
open-space jumps) to about 1 LY.

With a little thought, the following table is produced:

Ship Type      Normal Transit	 Hi-Rate Transit Max
Civilian       7 LY (2.1 Psc)	 14 LY (4.28 Psc)      (Max 2 jumps a
day with civ gear)
Military       20 LY (6.1 Psc)	 28 LY (7.7 Psc)       (Max 4 jumps a
day with military gear)

These are "typical" travels. For a freighter or passenger liner, a
normal day is one jump. For a military ship,
most commonly three jumps.

What we know also from canon is that the stresses of jump mess up humans
and machines in the FT universe so that it takes
a while for a ship to be "functional" when entering from jump. What that
does not do is account for how long the trip
prior to that was or how long the crew had been "short cycling" their
jumps.

In order to take this into account, and in order to allow a concept of
"pushing" in long distance travel, a ship captain
may choose to push his ship beyond his normal transit rate, towards the
maximum rate. In the case of civilian rigs, this
means two jumps a day... their gear just is not military standard. In
the case of military ships, this means making the
maximum 4 jumps each and every day. In either case, the regimen is no
joy for the ships or crew.

Minimal-Time Jump Cycling to Achieve Higher Transit Rates
-----------------------------------------------------------------

For each and every LY the ship chose to increase its speed by
short-cycling (in excess of the Normal Transit rate,
limited of
course by the Hi-Rate Transit Maximum), it will be possible to
accumulate a Transit Stress point. At the end of the week
(if still in jump), or at the end of the jump if it was less than a week
in duration), roll one d6 for each LY rate
increase excercised.

Military Vessels & Marine Contingents:
On a 5-6, accumulate a Transit Stress point.

Civilian Freighters (no passengers, only crew) & Other non-Marine
Troops:
On a 4-6, accumulate a Transit Stress point.

Civilian Passenger vessels:
On a 3-6, accumulate a Transit Stress point.

Cryosleep: When rolling for an accumulation of Transit stress, it takes
TWO sixes to accumulate a stress point. This
means a contingent of troops in jumpsleep can exist aboard a ship only
slightly pushing the envelope rather indefinitely
without noticing. They can also survive a Navy crew pushing hard to
reach a destination. But that doesn't spare the
ship's crew...

If you have troops (non-Marine) aboard a Military Vessel, therefore
they'd have different rates of Transit Stress
accumulation, don't bother to roll twice - just count two totals as you
roll and track the effects separately.

For effects, consult the following table. Note that only severe effects
(Jump Shock) will be relevant to ships
in-transit. Otherwise, the results only matter when you exit a jump.

Accumulated Stress Points	Stress Level
0				Normal, no Transit Stress effects.
1-2				Slight Transit Stress
3-5				Moderate Transit Stress
6-9				Serious Transit Stress
10+				Severe Transit Stress, Jump Shock

Effects of differing Transit Stress Levels:
------------------------------------------------------------------

Light Transit Stress

One die roll every turn (opponents choice) is modified by -1 for every
stress point (either 1 or 2). It only therefore
affects 1 or 2 dice. But the opponent can chose whatever roll he wants
to palsy representing the crew just not being in
top shape - these can be firing rolls, thresholds, push-the-engine type
rolls, PDS, you name it. But the choice to affect
a roll must be made before the roll is made. Note for things where
re-rolls might occur or certain die results have a
specific value, even though a modifier is applied the basic roll is
considered (for example, a beam rolling a 6, modified
to a five is still considered to have a reroll - unmodified - as a
result of the initial six).

Moderate Transit Stress

All die rolls every turn are modified by -1. This represents the crew
really just not being in top shape and even the
computers onboard the ship are a little off calibration - these modified
rolls include firing rolls, thresholds,
push-the-engine type rolls, PDS, you name it. Note for things where
re-rolls might occur or certain die results have a
specific value, even though a modifier is applied the basic roll is
considered (for example, a beam rolling a 6, modified
to a five is still considered to have a reroll - unmodified - as a
result of the initial six).

Serious Transit Stress

All die rolls every turn are modified by -2. This represents the crew
being totally shagged out and the computers in a
pretty questionable state, badly off calibration - these affected rolls
include firing rolls, thresholds, push-the-engine
type rolls, PDS, you name it. Note for things where re-rolls might occur
or certain die results have a specific value,
even though a modifier is applied the basic roll is considered (for
example, a beam rolling a 6, modified to a five is
still considered to have a reroll - unmodified - as a result of the
initial six). At this stress level, fighter and deck
crews are in too rough of shape to perform - fighters and other small
craft may not be launched or recovered. A Captain
that takes his ship to this level of jump stress had better have a
compelling reason, because a Board of Inquiry may well
be convened. Any Admiralty looks askance at manouvres that so seriously
endanger the safety of the ship and crew.
Civilians caught pushing this hard can have their license to operate
suspended for up to a year.

Severe Transit Stress (Jump-Shock)

This is very, very bad. The crew has been pushed to their limits and
beyond. The computers are as likely to tell them the
blip on the screen is a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater
as it is to reveal its true nature. The hardware
needs recalibrated, and the software may need reloaded from offline
backups. For the crew, the effects are to the point
where their headaches, nausea, and general de-habilitation become life
threatening. Needless to say, crew can't fight.
Automated defences can't work, and the ship will automatically
decelerate to zero when it comes out of jump. It cannot
move. The crew cannot fight a boarding action. Every crew unit must roll
d6. For every point of Transit Stress over 10,
add 1 to the roll. Any roll that meets or exceeds a result of 6 kills
that crew unit. This should be applied to
passengers or troop units too (obviously). A Captain that gets his ship
to this state without some pressing emergency is
likely to be stockaded for several years, have his or her watch-standing
ticket suspended, be blacklisted by the
Admiralty (bad for getting a subsequent civilian job), be stripped of
rank, then be dishonourably discharged. Civilian
Captains can expect to have their license to operate suspended, their
ship impounded, face civil suits from injured
parties or their relatives, and expect to have their space-qualification
tickets and Ship's Master's tickets withdrawn.
They can expect to be blacklisted with their professional guilds and
whatever company they may work for, if any.

Ghost ships have resulted from very bad transit shock. Ships arriving
with all their crew dead and their computers a
smoking heap. This is the stuff space legends are made of.

Jumps executed inside a system's Jump Frontier are very stressful.
Whatever this Jump Frontier is, for every 10% inside
of this Jump Frontier (see the bottom to determine how long it takes to
get from primary habitable area to Jump Frontier
- or use your own PSB, math and distance), roll 2d6 for jump stress just
from ENTERING Jump. A separate roll will be made
for any intersystem distances covered. If the Jump is executed from
inside the Habitable area, EVERYONE aboard dies. In
fact, it is quite likely the ship never exits Jump space and is either
lost in Jump space or destroyed.

Recovery from Transit Stress
----------------------------------------------

You can't recover from being dead. But, for those that are alive,
recovery will be a slow process. A Transit Stress point
is recovered for every 6 hours spent resting. This means either the ship
is gliding on a ballistic path with no enemies
nearby to watch for, or that it is stationary in space on low power. In
either case, the ships company takes time to come
back from protracted jump stresses, and it takes them a while to
recalibrate all the hardware and sensors and to reload
and verify the integrity of all the various software nodes.

Rumor has it that the Kra-Vak may recover from Transit Stress faster,
perhaps 1 point every 3-4 hours. This is an
unconfirmed rumor. Rumors also persist of secret drugs from black labs
that will cut the recovery time for humans or
allow them to ignore Light Stress. But these drugs no doubt come with
risks, if they exist at all. Certainly none have
been sanctioned or acknowledged by any civilian body or military service
as of yet.

Another Tidbit on Travel:
=========================

In System Transit

To get from the Jump Frontier of a system to the primary population area
(500 mu for simplicity or use your own math and
PSB),
use the formula FT turns = 2 * sqrt ((250/ship thrust)) which produces
numbers as follows:
Thrust 2: 23 turns
Thrust 4: 16 turns
Thrust 6: 13 turns
Thrust 8: 12 turns
If you use standard FB 1 hour turns, that's about a day for a freighter
to get in to the habitable area. For a military
courier, about half of that. If you use the suggested 15-20 minute turn,
then you are looking at about 6-8 hours and 3-4
hours respectively. These assume a zero velocity arrival at the
habitable area. If you just want to get there and rocket
by (drop a pod or do a quick scan run), you can use these times:
Thrust 2: 16 turns (arrival v: 32)
Thrust 4: 12 turns (arrival v: 48)
Thrust 6: 10 turns (arrival v: 60)
Thrust 8: 8 turns  (arrival v: 64)