I just got around to reading TML from last week and noticed Stewarts
discussion of jump point determination. I never though about it before
but now that I do it does make sense for Jump point to be related more to
an objects mass, mass distribution than diameter. As you stated,
diameter bades computation produces huge numbers for giant stars and gas
giants. If gravity is indeed the thing that makes a jump into a bad day
then the mass, density should certainly be more important. For example a
gas giant like say Jupiter while much more massive than terra (300x ?)
has about 2/6 the average density. As such grav gradient at similiar
distances relative to the planet size will be lower with the gas giant.
Therefore to get a similiar gradient (as 100 diameter on Terra) with Jupiter
you would have to be closer than 100 diameter. I havent sat down to
check these intuitive statements and as such might be dead wrong.
Hopefully I will have confirmed the statements before this message is posted.
In closing I must bring myself back to the point that it is sometimes
dangerous to get into this sort of discussion in the context of an RPG
and to remember what Stewart said, This is to make worlds orbiting large
stars accesible. I am sure that most people will always use the 100
diameter rule and are perfectly correct in doing so, after all it is a
game. People like me forget that every now and then but afterall TML is
for all types.
Tariq