About starships, airliners, and fighter planes:
Northrop claims that an F-20 can go from sitting on the runway with the pilot
drinking coffee to 20,000 feet and firing missiles at incoming enemy bombers in
less than a minute. We can reasonably assume it takes about twice that long.
The MegaTraveller rules state that it takes 3d6 X 30 seconds to warm-start the
fusion plant on a parked starship or small craft, which works out to about 5
minutes. If you add in safety checks like you're supposed to, you have to make
a Cautious task attempt, which means it takes twice as long, or 10 minutes.
Once we add in taxi and takeoff times, it appears that spacecraft in Traveller
take about as long to take off if they're following traffic control rules as
our airliners do.
Let's examine a typical Traveller case of a PC group in a hurry to take off.
Scout Susan Blaire is surveying a Tech Level 0 world. She leaves her Type/S
Scout/Courier in "low fuel consumption park" mode as she plans to move on to
another continent the next day. While outside her ship, she encounters natives
of the Ooga-Booga tribe (a minor race of humaniti). While conversing with their
Grand High Poobah by use of her CLT, she rolls a fumble and manages to offend
His High Grumpiness. Her attempt to patch things up (a hazardous, fateful
Liason test) results in a Destroyed mishap. She decides to run for her life.
She manages to get back to her ship 2 1/2 minutes ahead of the pursuing savages.
Crash-starting her scout ship requires a Routine, Pilot, Dex, 30 sec. Letting
TL 0 savages see a TL 15 scout ship is against Scout Service regulations, so
she decides to rush things a bit. Her dexterity of 10 and her Pilot skill of 2
combine to give her a +4 DM on the task attempt. Normally she would need a 7+
since this is a routine task, but since she's making a hasty attempt the
difficulty goes up one level, to an 11+. She rolls a 7 (which converts to an
11 by her +4 DM), indicating success. She rolls an 12 for her time roll, which
would normally mean a time of six minutes. But because of the hasty task
attempt, she subtracts twice her DM's from the roll, for a total of 4, meaning
it takes her two minutes to get her scout off the ground. Thirty seconds later,
the Ooga-Boogas rush into the clearing where she had been parked, only to find
her mysteriously gone. Such are the ways of the gods...
Notice that in the above example, it took about as long to get the scout ship
off the ground as it does to scramble a typical fighter plane. However, in her
rush to get off the ground to avoid a code break, Sue forgot her safety checks,
making her task attempt uncertain. Unless the referee also rolls a 7 or better,
Sue might just find herself stranded on this TL 0 planet... such are the risks
you take in lifting in a big hurry.
- -- Palmer Davis --
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