			    TRAVELLER Digest 117

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: More hassles on the Alliance	by George Herbert <gherbert@crl.com>
  2) Re: Space Viking	by Glenn Myers <gem188@swanson.com>
  3) Size of bang!	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  4) The Journal of Kyatifa Ahroun a Malek	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  5) Guns, missiles, grenades	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  6) Re: Casual encounters	by rancke@diku.dk
  7) Re:  LOOOOONG POSTS	by Glenn Myers <gem188@swanson.com>
  8) -No Subject-	by Derek Smith <Derek_Smith.LOTUS@crd.lotus.com>
  9) Changing Physical Laws as basis for New Long Night
	by Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
 10) menson guns	by bc80076@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu
 11) SORRY	by john.bogan@asb.com
 12) Re: TRAVELLER digest 116	by KenHagler@aol.com
 13) Planetfall	by Muskrat500@aol.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 10:51:08 -0800
From: George Herbert <gherbert@crl.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Cc: gherbert@crl.com
Subject: Re: More hassles on the Alliance
Message-ID: <199411291850.AA16109@mail.crl.com>


From: Mark Fletcher <mf1@st-andrews.ac.uk>
>Ken, A few more questions:

I'm not Ken, but I was involved a little in the Alliance too 8-)

>(2) The Alliance was founded by.. the Solomani? Yes? If so, when? If the 
>society is broadly Solomani in origin, that is, originated from pre-Long 
>Night era, then would they be free of the bigotry towards other races 
>that was so prevalent in contemporary Solomani before the collapse?

>From before the Solomani discovered jump Drive.  The Alliance's inhabitants
came off three sublight asteroid ships which spent a very long time cruising
in normal space...

Some of the Islands worlds were somewhat xenophobic in the game, but not
that bad...

>(3) Does the Alliance have a full name?

It started out the Old Islands Alliance.  I believe that it dropped
the Old when several members from the other side of the cluster joined.

>(4) Is the Alliance a uniform TL 17 culture, or did the Alliance manage 
>to obtain TL17 due to the threat of the Imperium, that is, Alliance TL is 
>TL15 (to bring it inline with the rest of charted space) and the Alliance 
>has TL17 military equipment?

It is in no way uniform.  Some of the worlds (example: mine, Colchis)
were considerably "behind the times".  I started at a considerable
disadvantage (TL 10), though.

I wish we'd gamed out the full endgame (and that I'd kept active towards
the end, unfortunately I dropped out a bit early).  I want to see how
the Imperial Navy would have done trying to occupy Colchis in the face
of 30,000 missile batteries with TL 15 and hopefully 16 fire control ;-)

Oh, note to anyone who was in the game... do you still have the charges
I brought against Sansterre around?  I may have lost my copy 8-(

-george william herbert
aka Adm. Ronald Paskin, CNO Colchis.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 14:10:29 EST
From: Glenn Myers <gem188@swanson.com>
To: traveller%mpgn.com@swanson.com
Subject: Re: Space Viking
Message-ID: <9411291906.AA01520@fea1.swanson.com>

Hello all,

I collect the future histories of Piper and Anderson.
It has been a while since I posted this list of my 
Traveller related science fiction want-list. If there are 
others out there who are looking to unload duplicate titles
let me know. I've been looking for these for a long time.

Thanks.... List follows


Glenn Myers     Science Fiction Want List
Daytime phone   (412) 873-2913   Please leave voicemail

I will buy or trade for the following titles.  
Earlier printings preferred, but the titles will be reading copies. 
Any leads on used bookstores or collectors is appreciated.


Author
 Year  Title

Anderson, Poul
   65  Agent of the Terran Empire 
   70  A Circus of Hell

Piper, H. Beam
   63  Space Viking
   81  Empire 

I have duplicates of several van Rijn and Fuzzy Novels if anyone
is interested.

------------------------------

Date: 29 Nov 94 15:34:16 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:traveller@mpgn.com" <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Size of bang!
Message-ID: <941129203416_100326.446_BHG74-1@CompuServe.COM>

>>That rather depends on how much AM you use.  The common definition of "a lot
of anti-matter" is anything approaching a gram.  The Alliance ships posted on
xboat were carrying multiple hundred of tonnes as a fuel source. Even then, 1000 km
is NOT very far in space. <<

Accepted. 1000km is hand-to-hand in space! As an interesting side issue, have
you ever tried designing a ship using MT ship sequences and the AM power plants
therein ? The Ancients battlecruiser I played with recently had 236,000
displacement tons of fuel pods (to last 362 days at cruise). That, I think,
counts as a lot...




------------------------------

Date: 29 Nov 94 15:34:23 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:traveller@mpgn.com" <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: The Journal of Kyatifa Ahroun a Malek
Message-ID: <941129203422_100326.446_BHG74-3@CompuServe.COM>

>>The Journal of Kyatifa Ahroun a Malek<<

Like it! Shades of Asimov's Foundation series, with tech lost to the presentbut
remembered in myth - and tucked away in a corner someehere for the intrepid to
find...


------------------------------

Date: 29 Nov 94 15:34:29 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:traveller@mpgn.com" <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Guns, missiles, grenades
Message-ID: <941129203428_100326.446_BHG74-5@CompuServe.COM>

>> You don't need to have a bullpup to get a faceful of hot brass when shooting
a rifle offhand. <<

Takes me back. I remember getting a case in the mush while firing a P08
Parabellum American Eagle one day - damn, it hurt! In those days there wasn't
nearly the fuss about safety glasses on the range and I was quite unnerved by
it. Happy days!

>>A magazine hit on nuclear missiles probably won't cause a nuclear explosion.
A magazine hit on AM missiles means you can kiss your ass goodbye. <<

Bang on (pun not intended). However, in either case you can kiss your trousers
goodbye - and probably your missile hoists and therefore your capability of
using 'em.

>>There's nothing wrong with the Plasma Grenade, because:
You don't *throw* grenades.  You *launch* grenades. <<

Very true. But if you're going to go to the effort of carrying the launch
mechanism as well, you might just as well go back to good ol' FGMP. Which is
what we did.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 21:47:21 +0100 (MET)
From: rancke@diku.dk
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Casual encounters
Message-ID: <199411292047.AA01951@embla.diku.dk>

Alvin Plummer writes:
> Background:   A rather bland, stout woman, Mrs. Stanely is infamous 
>               subsector-wide as the sole survivor of the doomed shuttle 
>               Wayrith. 
> 
> [...]
>               When the rescuers finally arrived, only Mrs. Stanely and 
>               her newborn infant lived.  When they spotted her - in a 
>               haze of bones, split for their marrow - her first words were 
>               "Look, darling!  Food!  Food!"

Ah. it's nice to see that there are still some people who reads science
fiction...

> P.S. at the time of the Civil War...
>     - there were no Aslan's this side of the Great Rift

Except for the descendents of those that had crossed in a steady stream
since -1044, including those that were taking service with the Darrians 
at the time.



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 15:48:34 EST
From: Glenn Myers <gem188@swanson.com>
To: traveller%mpgn.com@swanson.com
Subject: Re:  LOOOOONG POSTS
Message-ID: <9411292045.AA01812@fea1.swanson.com>



Hi All, 

I would like to emphatically concur with A.S.Lilly wrt LOOOOONG POSTS.
Although the new TML and XBOAT lists are generating more volume than
the old TML, the quality posts seem down. Items like craft/vehicle
designs, arguments, discussions, and useful campaign ideas are masked
by multiple posts, archived posts, and other bandwidth wasters.

TML and XBOAT remain my favorite lists. The best way to check 
the credibility of a plot or rules alteration is to post it and 
let everyone take potshots. It is just that I have been leaning
on the page down key in my mailer and awful lot lately.

Now, a question...

If I had a lot of campaign info to publicly post where should I
send it? Any ftp sites out there taking submissions?


Glenn

---------------------------------------
| Glenn E. Myers   gmyers@swanson.com |
| Numerical Verification Group        |
| ANSYS, Inc.  (412) 873-2913         | 
---------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 29 Nov 94 16:20:23 ES
From: Derek Smith <Derek_Smith.LOTUS@crd.lotus.com>
To: traveller <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: -No Subject-
Message-ID: <9411292114.AA10040@internet1.lotus.com>

I said:
>>There's nothing wrong with the Plasma Grenade, because:
You don't *throw* grenades.  You *launch* grenades. <<

100326.446 @ compuserve.com (Hugh Foster) responded:

>Very true. But if you're going to go to the effort of carrying the
>launch mechanism as well, you might just as well go back to good ol'
>FGMP. Which is what we did.

Ever notice how easy it is to fire a FGMP *indirectly* ???

Neither did anyone else.  8^)

Seriously, you can't do indirect fire with a FGMP, and I've yet to
play with a GM who would even let us *have* Fusion Guns.
(We occasionally got our hands on illegally acquired ones, but
most of the time we had to make do with the next best thing)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Derek Smith - Lotus Development Corporation - Release Engineering

"Internet is not a right.

Internet is a right, a left, a jab, and a sharp uppercut to the
jaw. The postman hits!  You have new mail."

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 16:48:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Changing Physical Laws as basis for New Long Night
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9411291647.A20493-0100000@brahms.udel.edu>

I enjoyed the description of the alternative explanation of the collapse
of the 3rd Imperium that was based on changes in the fundamental laws of
jump physics and gravatics.  After some thought, I was reminded of the
fears of a number of scientists involved with the Manhatten Project, who
feared that the detonation of an atomic bomb would trigger a fusion
reaction in the Earth's atmosphere, essentially setting it on fire and
destroying Life As We Know It. 

Seems like a good reason for the change in physical laws would be various
Black Weapons from Lucan's faction, designed to temporarily change local
physical laws.  There are examples of this in previous Traveller
Adventures, most notably the "Relativity Pistol" in the DGP adventure
Knightfall.  If one of these weapons were just a bit too big, perhaps the 
catalytic effect of the newly created physical constants would propagate 
throughout known space.  I'm thinking of "Ice-9" from the novel Cat's 
Cradle here, of course.

I'm not sure why I like this idea better than the Supernova concept - 
perhaps it's just more dramatic if we can blame things on human agency 
rather than blind chance.  Plus, it's fun to get to blame Lucan for yet 
another crime against Humaniti.


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 18:28:17 -0500 (EST)
From: bc80076@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: menson guns
Message-ID: <9411292328.AA25571@bingsun1>

Hi peoples
	I am running a campaign that takes place on a pocket empire
that is center on earth. They have a deep menson gun and they have one
on one of the moons of jupiter and another on satern. These are
"secret" sites as much as a menson gun can be secret. They provide
earth with the ability to deprive fuel to anyone jumping in. They have
self destrucuting mechanisms in them if they should be needed.
	I had never seen a reason why a second "back up deep menson
sight could not be created, besides the cost. 
		Leigh O'Neil
		bc80076@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 21:31:00 
From: john.bogan@asb.com
To: uunet!mpgn.com!traveller@uunet.uu.net
Subject: SORRY
Message-ID: <9411292131.A5814wk@asb.com>


Apologies for bouncing that private message through the TML by mistake.

John Bogan

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 02:23:03 -0500
From: KenHagler@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 116
Message-ID: <941130020441_1860051@aol.com>

Mark Fletcher asks:

> (1) Could you post to me personally the MT stats for your alliance ships;

Sorry, there's no such critter. The only stats that exist at present are High
Guard. I'd be happy to send those, if they'll do...

> (2) The Alliance was founded by.. the Solomani? Yes? If so, when?

Yes. Three Cluster worlds were colonized about 1100 years ago by three
sublight ships that had left Terra during the first half of the 21st century
(I don't have the exact dates here). The other Cluster worlds were then
colonized from those three. Most of the Alliance worlds in the Trojan Reach
were colonized by the Solomani sometime before the Long Night (I gather) at
the same time all the other Solomani worlds there were colonized.

> then would they be free of the bigotry towards other races 
> that was so prevalent in contemporary Solomani before the collapse?

Well, I agree with Steve's ideas about the "bigotry" being a figment of an
Imperial propoganda writer's imagination. That said, the Alliance itself
isn't especially bigoted. One of the worlds (Esperanza, I think) tried to
exterminate the native Droyne population long ago in their history, but as
far as I know the locals look on that as an embarassing mistake. The people
(or at least the leaders) of the Serendip Belt were extremely bigoted, as
evidenced by their genocidal attack on the primitive Orpheides, but they're
pretty much all dead now. Neubayern (and the worlds settled by it) regards
bigotry as a particularly loathsome form of mental illness.

Beyond those examples, the subject hasn't been addressed, but I would say
generally the Alliance populace is free of bigotry, and government policy
certainly is.

> (3) Does the Alliance have a full name?

It started out as the "Old Islands Alliance." As it expanded, that became
"Islands Alliance." In 5650 it would be the "Rift Alliance," or maybe the
"Trans-Rift Alliance."

> (4) Is the Alliance a uniform TL 17 culture,

Not at all. The military capability is uniform--that is, any shipyard could
build an AM powered ship using all the most advanced technology (which gets
as high as TL18 in power generation). The culture as a whole is rather more
variable, and lower. Browne, which was TL9 9 years ago, is probably only up
to TL11 or so in its overall standard of living, whereas New Home, which
started at TL13 19 years ago, is probably up to TL15 by now. Most of the
other Alliance worlds are probably around a TL12-14 standard of living.

Ken

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 03:51:15 -0500
From: Muskrat500@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Planetfall
Message-ID: <941129191628_1528627@aol.com>

    Has anybody tried playing "Planetfall" (in the latest issue of
"Challenge") yet? How well does it work? Does it "feel" like Traveller? Will
it be worth expanding? The idea of skirmish-level rules is appealing. I would
have tried it already, but the paint is still drying on my Aslan Mercenaries.
And they HATE it when that happens...
    John K

------------------------------

End of TRAVELLER Digest 117
***************************
