>Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1992 11:34:54 -0400 (EDT)
>From: [email removed]
>Subject: (4384) High Performance Jump Drive Power Plants
>
>If a Starship has a High Performance Power Plant to power the Jump Drive, this
>power plant should be able to be used for other uses as well.
>
>It makes no sense to me that in High Guard, Weapons Systems has to have
>corresponding Power Plant and Fuel, as if The Power Plant and Weapon System was
>going to to in operation continuously.
>
>There should be a general purpose allocation of power and fuel consumption as
>various drives/weapons systems are used.
>
>Jim.
I think there are several reasons why each separate drive system has its own
power plant:
1 - don't put all your eggs in one basket. A ship with one drive system could
have all its drives knocked out with one hit.
2 - energy production vs. fuel efficiency. The jump drive power plant needs to
produce massive quantities of energy fairly quickly. A half-hour is a common
time to charge energy sinks. On the other hand, large amounts of fuel are
required. You literally can't run most high-yield fusion power plants for more
than an hour or two, because you can't carry enough fuel to power them for a
longer time.
Keep in mind that in my suggested jump drive rules, I have never said that you
_coudn't_ divert power from your jump drive power plant to power weapons. In
fact, the diversion of power from your main power plant to charge energy sinks
("jump dimming") appears to have been a common practice in the 1st Imperium.
As regards whether these rules are suitable for TNE, let me make the following
observations:
o Classic Trav had a set of simple ship design rules, that allowed one to
design commercial vessels and small military vessels with a minimum of
effort.
o Later on, High Guard provided a more complicated design system, oriented
around the design of military vessels.
o Still Later, Striker provided a design system for Vehicles, though still
oriented around military vehicles.
o The triumph of MT was the integration of High Guard and Striker into one
compatible design system. This triump was also the failure of the game,
because the design process is now several orders of magnitude more
difficult then in Classic Trav. This is one of the reasons people have
tended to shun the game, opting to play RPG's that don't burden the Ref
with such a difficult design system (or often, with no design system
at all).
o similar things happened with planet generation, merchant rules, combat
rules, etcetera.
If TNE is to have the appeal that Classic Trav had, I would suggest a marketing
move that was first taken by TSR with DND: A Basic and Advanced Rules System.
Basic Trav would be a simplified version of the MegaTraveller Rules. A
simplified vehicle design system, in the spirit of the Classic Trav system.
An advanced designer's sourcebook would provided the remainder of the design
rules. Much the same with planet generation, merchant rules, combat rules, etc.
It is most important that the Basic and Advanced Rules be downward compatible:
the Basic Rules should not allow one to design a vessel that won't fly under the
Advanced Rules.
In principle of course, it should be possible to do this with the existing MT
rulebooks, but this move would make the entire game less intimidating to new
players, which is necessary if the game is to continue to grow in popularity.
As regards the question of character templates, I would point out that there is
a historical precedent for this move. In all of the Classic Trav Adventures,
there were provided at the front of the Adventure book a set of pre-generated
characters. No drawings or histories of course, but the idea is there. I would
not recommend leaving out altogether the character generation system, but the
templates would be provided for novice players.