Amber Zone - Misjumps and Time-Travel

Bruce's post about a misjump to the centre of the Solomani Rim got me thinking - is there any precedent in Traveller for a misjump taking a ship back in time? I think that some ships have reappeared in the distant future after a misjump, but I'm not sure whether the crew had died of life support failure/age or not. If it fits with the Traveller background, then it could have some interesting adventure possibilities.

RC exploration reveals a comparitively high tech world where a massive proportion of the population are in low berths in deep bunkers, along with some valuable manufacturing plants. Local mythology talks of 'gods' who came to warn the people of the danger of Virus. RC experts are unable to explain the warning, as other worlds before and after it along a jump main were infected by a battleship which passed through all of the systems, and no other worlds received a warning.

While jumping back out of the system, the RC ship malfunctions and a misjump occurs. When the players come out of jump, they find themselves exactly where they started, but about 70 years too early, and with their jump drive in ruins. The players will have a few days before the Virus infected battleship arrives in the system to convince the public of the danger and organise protection. After sleep in a low berth, the characters wake up, back in the New Era again.

Or more subtle - the players are investigating the world mentioned above, in the New Era, and in a deep hangar they discover what appears to be a Coalition Clipper, although its registration indicates it has not yet been constructed...

Brendan

There is (sort of) a precedent for misjumps through time. In one of the White Dwarf magazines from pre-86, there was a CT adventure called Alien Werewolf in London in which the players follow a Vargr to 19th (18th?) century London via a hand portable time machine that I think was based on jump technology. If any body is interested, I can dig it out (or further details).

As to the story line suggested, I think that finding a 70 year old, yet to be built Clipper would make for a very interesting find (especially if it is of a higher TL (13+)).

Bill

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|Bill Currie   | "Watch that first step..."        |
|Christchurch  | Jump trooper motto.               |
|New Zealand   |                                   |
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Bill sez:
>There is (sort of) a precedent for misjumps through time. In one of >the White Dwarf magazines from pre-86, there was a CT adventure >called Alien Werewolf in London...

I remember that adventure, it was great! Trouble is, I don't have a copy of it. If you do, could you photocopy it and mail me a copy?

I used a misjump through time to drop one of Steve's Traveller PCs onto early 20th C. Earth, into a Call of Cthulhu adventure. Said character eventually shipped out with the ESA slowboats that founded the Island Cluster civilization. Alliance players, THAT'S where Admiral Isaac Conner came from. In that case, a Scout Ship whose jump drive was sabotaged to misjumped was forced to jump by an induced power surge in the jump grid. I decided that the massive double-shaft misjump should be spectacular, weird, and provide a whole new insight into why some misjumps cause complete disappearance of the ship...

-- Cynthia
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Lurker@The.Threshold, Daemon-Daughter of Yog-Sothoth, Incarnate Daughter of Chaos, Fatebreaker, Unmaker of Dooms, Unweaver of Destinies, Derailer of Linearly Choreographed Scenarios, and General PITA, aka CyHiggin@aol.com

From: "Brendan O'Donovan"
>Bruce's post about a misjump to the centre of the Solomani Rim got
>me thinking - is there any precedent in Traveller for a misjump taking
>a ship back in time?

Yes (sort of): there was an article in Challenge (during the MegaT era) where an ancient Solomani hero from the Nth Interstellar Wars showed up in the middle of the Rebllion. Can't remember the exact issue, sorry.

Alvin Plummer

"Brendan O'Donovan" asked:
>is there any precedent in Traveller for a misjump taking a ship back in time?

I used the 1980 (1981 maybe?) film "The Final Countdown" [the one with Kirk Douglas as captain of the Nimitz] as the source for a time-travel adventure some years ago now. Basically, the PCs were heading for Rhylanor during the Fifth Frontier War and due to a jump-space anomaly (translation: they rolled a misjump and I wanted to keep them in the area they were in), they travelled back in time to the Zhodani assault during the Third Frontier War (I think - I don't have my notes to hand and it was a few years ago). They enjoyed it anyway.

>Or more subtle - the players are investigating the world mentioned
>above, in the New Era, and in a deep hangar they discover what
>appears to be a Coalition Clipper, although its registration indicates
>it has not yet been constructed...

Try reading "Sphere" by Michael Chrichton for some ideas of how this might go.

Kind Regards

Dave Elrick