In Message: (2822) Engaging Jumpdrives on a planet's surface,
[email removed] wrote
>just a short question. Can somebody tell me, what will happen, if a ship
>tries to enter Jumpspace on the surface of a planet. Err... I do not mean,
>what will happen to the ship! I'm interested in what happen to the planet?
>Any suggestions ?
I don't have the rules on me, but under the Old Traveller rules, you just had a
bad nasty DM if you were within 10 diameters. Something about gravity wells
messing up the Jump physics. Since they didn't say what would happen if you
were on the planets surface, some players logically argued that you could
engage Jump and live with the -DMs. If you pilot is good enough, this has a
high probablility of just being a mis-jump.
Since Jump is not a propulsion system like the manuver drives, you could infer
that the jump drives just effect the mass of the ship and would put it into
jump space. Where, and at what direction and jump velocity would be very
random due to the severe effects of gravity. There would be probably no damage
to the planet since it is not a hyperspace object.
Now it is possible that the ship would be destroyed since the mishap chance is
very high.
>Some of the players in my campaigne told me:
>We will make a program in the ship's computer, which will engage jumpdrive,
>if we are not back till... They think, the planet will be destroyed (or
>at least an area of 400 km^2.
Your call there. MegaTraveller may have a more definitive answer.
>P.S.: If the suggestion above is true, it should be a much easier way,
> to destruct a planet, than using high KE weapons. Simply use a small
> Scout/Seeker and engage his jumpdrives on a planet's surface.
A hand full of TL-15 Nukes are a lot cheaper than a 10Mcr scout. I would
suspect that ramming the planet would do more damage than jumping from it.
Rob