A complex system like a jump drive is going to have all sorts of crucial components. If I were you, I'd make the failed component something important-sounding but not part of a known game mechanic, just to avoid setting any unnecessary precedents around things that might become important in a later scenario. So make the attacker and target ships be from the same manufacturer, or known to use the same model family of J-drives, and then have the attacker's jump coil heterodyne modulator fail. Make the JCHM small enough to be carried by one or two people, but also expensive and reliable enough that economically or logistically challenged ships don't usually have a spare on board.

The Firefly episode "Out of Gas" might provide some inspiration for the sort of plot you're contemplating.

On Sun, Oct 6, 2019 at 6:38 PM Bill Rutherford <xxxxxx@comcast.net> wrote:

Brain Trust,

My question is going to fumble around a bit so bear with me.

The players' ship has had its M-drive disabled and been boarded by
the hostiles. But they're not trying to take the ship. THEIR ship
has a J-drive problem and they're stuck in this system until they fix
it. They boarded the players' ship in order to take something from
the players' ship's J-drive, to fix the hostile's j-drive (preferably
somewhere on the other side of the system).

My first thought would be they want some or all of the players'
ship's Zuchai crystals - the jump capacitors - because theirs cracked
or decomposed or something.

But how big is - on a 200 ton ship - the jump capacitor? The most
detail I've seen about them is in the MGT Starship Operator's Manual
(pg 12) and it suggests the crystals are in an array. But is this an
array in a box in the engine room, is it distributed around the hull
for discharge, or what?

Or maybe the jump governor. That would seem to be another likely
target for such a boarding.

Or something else?

The key is the bad guy's ship's XXXXXXXXXX blew up, went bad, broke,
or wore out and they need a new one. And the players showed up at
the wrong place at the wrong time - and got boarded.

It needs to be small - something a couple of people could manhandle
or carry on a stretcher - or the notion of boarding, taking and
leaving wouldn't work.

Thoughts?

Tx!

Bill Rutherford
xxxxxx@comcast.net

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