The following question arose during a recent Traveller campaign. If jump
drives in MegaTraveller use a lanthanum hull grid to carry the ship into
jump, how do non-Starships use a jump shuttle. In Supplement 7, Traders &
Gunboats (pp. 36-37), there is a Jump Shuttle that attaches to the rear of
a System Defense Boat. It does not fully enclose the SDB, so the lanthanum
hull grid of the jump shuttle will not suffice to carry the SDB into jump.
Further research revealed the depiction of the World Class Battle Tender with
Battle Riders in Supplement 8, Library Data (p. 16). Once again, the battle
riders are not fully enclosed by the tender. It is my contention that any
non-Starship that is to be carried into jump by another vessel must be fully
enclosed by that vessel, unless the non-Starship has at least a Lanthanum grid
of its own. Then, the assisting vessel provides the jump fuel, jump power
plant, jump governor, jump hull radiators, and jump energy sinks (this
breakdown of the jump drive into component parts is based of DGP's Starship
Operations Manual, vol. 1, p. 9).
Using Book 5: High Guard (p. 31), it is possible to contruct the following
information:
Energy Sinks displace 0.5% of hull volume X Jump #.
The Jump Governor displaces 1% of hull volume.
The Jump Power Plant displaces 0.5% of hull volume X Jump #.
The Lanthanum Hull Grid and Jump Hull Radiators have no effective displacement.
Energy Sinks cost MCr4 per ton of energy sink.
The Jump Governor costs MCr1 per ton of governor.
The Lanthanum Hull Grid costs MCr0.02 X hull volume in tons.
The Jump Power Plant and Jump Radiators costs MCr2 per ton of Jump Power Plant.
e.g. 1. a 100-ton Starship has a Jump-2 drive. This can be broken down into:
1.0 ton of energy sink
1.0 ton of jump governor.
+ 1.0 ton of high-yield power plant.
= 3.0 tons of total jump drive
The price can be broken down into:
MCr4 for the energy sinks.
MCr1 for the jump governor.
MCr2 for the lanthanum hull grid.
+ MCr2 for the high-yield power plant & hull radiators
= MCr9 total for the jump drive.
In other words, exactly the same total displacement and cost as stated in the
Referee's Manual! (No accident, of course).
e.g. 2. a 400-ton non-Starship has a Lanthanum Hull Grid installed. This will
add MCr8 to the total cost foo the vessel. Compare this to the cost of the SDB
on p. 85 of the Imperial Encyclopedia. This will add 2.1% to the cost of the
vessel (factoring in the 20% discount for a standard design). Note that the
vessel is still considered a non-Starship, because it is still dependent on its
jump shuttle to enter jump.
I therefore conclude that this design change will not alter the price or
performance of Starships, and will only slightly alter the price of non-
Starships. Speaking as a fan of the Battle Rider concept, I'm releived to say
that.
Perhaps the more important change is that in Space Combat. Since the effect
Jump -n on the damage tables can be attributed to damage to the Lanthanum hull
grid (albeit damage so extensive that this result is located on the Interior
Explosion chart), the above mentioned SDB can now suffer this damage in combat.
This effect is difficult to attain, so that the Battle Rider concept still
makes sense. See Traveller's Digest #16, pp. 42-43 for a more extensive
discussion of this.
e.g. 3. The above mentioned 400-ton SDB is normally capable of Jump-1 when
mated with its Jump Shuttle. In combat, the SDB suffers the result Jump -1.
The SDB/Shuttle Combination can no longer jump together. Of course, the
Jump Shuttle can still mate with another, undamaged, SDB, or jump by itself.
Damage to the SDB results in no reduction in performance for the jump
shuttle.
As an interesting side note, it is possible to determine that the energy
required to enter jump is 351 MW X Jump # per displacement ton of vessel
(see DGP's Starship Operations Manual, vol. 1, p. 13, and the Referee's
Manual, p. 95).