Traveller-digest    Tuesday, September 14 1999    Volume 1999 : Number 1097



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: OT: Moon Blasted Out of Orbit.
Re: A Vargr question...
Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry etc.
THUDDD and GURPS/Traveller TLs
Re: Handling a new technology in a game
Re: Handling a new technology in a game
Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry
Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry
Re: THUDDD and GURPS/Traveller TLs
Re: A Vargr question
Re: WotC & Hasbro
Re: MT Deckplan Queries
Re: A Vargr question

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 16:53:05
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: OT: Moon Blasted Out of Orbit.

>    Today the moon was blasted out of Earth's orbit, apparently due to a
>mammoth explosion on the Lunar surface.

Accompanied by a funky guitar line and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 23:53:30 GMT
From: j_pete@bellsouth.net (Pete)
Subject: Re: A Vargr question...

On Mon, 13 Sep 1999 14:24:14 -0700, "Thing"
<gduke@orca.esd114.wednet.edu> wrote:

>On Monday, September 13, 1999 1:44 PM
>David P. Summers said,
>
>> I don't see any reason why the reaction would be any different than
>> a human would react to a Vargr with a monkey as a pet (or maybe
>> a lemur).
>
>the only difference I could see, is during estruses.  The scent markers are
>close enough across most modern canines that a bitch in heat of one variety
>will drive most mail canines wild regardless of if dingo, wolf, etc.
>
Is that what you get when a postal carrier bites a dog?


================================================================================
- - Pete                                                      j_pete@bellsouth.net

"If a country is worth living in, it is worth fighting for."   -Manning Coles

Pete 0609 D258A85-3 S kk- hi++ as+ va++ dr++ so zh- vi+ da++ A833

- -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d- s:+: a- C+++ UH++$ P-- L+ E-- W++ N++ o-- K- w++++(---)$
!O M-- V- PS-- PE++ Y+ PGP t+ 5++ X+ R+ tv+ b+++ DI++ D++
G e+ h--- r+++ y+++
- ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

NOG #74   Nova 700

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 22:42:27 -0700
From: "Jason T. Barnabas" <cybernaut@netzero.net>
Subject: Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry etc.

On the TML, Black ICE <wombat@premier.net> wrote:

>"Jason T. Barnabas" wrote:
>> ISBA Registry:
>> If you would like to submit a THUDDD design, you will need to register
your
>> design company with the ISBA.  (Say VROOM  can be registered as an
>> associated firm).  When you register, you will receive a key code.  You
>> cannot enter without a key code.
>
>To whom do I send a request to register, and what information is
>required? ...

The following is quoted from an earlier post:
>>>>>>

If you plan to submit designs to the THUDDD
competitions, I would like to get some background
information on the company that will be doing the
designing.  I will put these on the new ISBA
homepage.  I would be kind of nice to be able to link
your designs to your company page.

While looking for the old ISBA homepage, which
seems to be defunct, I ran across a page detailing
one of the past contributors:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/5776/ssclic.html

You might want to look at it for some idea of what I'm
looking for.

If you cannot do the HTML mark up, just send it to
me as an attachment in "Rich Text Format"
(*.RTF) or a word processor document file if you
use one of the following:
        Word 6.0/95 (2.x for Windows)
        WordPerfect 5.0 (3.x-6.0 for DOS; 5.x for
                Windows; 5.0-5.2 Secondary File)
        Windows Write 3.0
If you use another word processor, check to see
if it will save documents in rich text format (a lot
of them do).

Or send the information in a plain-text or HTML
format e-mail.

If you are sending an attachment or an HTML
e-mail, please send that directly to me
<cybernaut@netzero.net> as the list serve
software will probably mangle it and it might
mess up the digest make-up.
<<<<<<
If you have a description of your company on the web
already, you can just send me the URL.  I will mirror
your page on the new ISBA homepage.

>... Once I have registered, how do I use my key code?

When you are ready to submit a design for entry in
THUDDD, you will go to the submission page
probably to be located at
http://thuddd.homepage.com/submit.html.  The first
line will be where you enter your key-code.  The
robots I am developing will search the data base for
the key-code and use the information contained in it
in writing the voting page for each THUDDD.

Another example of an entry is the one submitted by 
Andrew Moffatt-Vallance.  It looked like:
>>>>>>
Phoenix Corporation
Founded in -372 as Phoenix Chandlers and Providors, Phoenix is has
interests in many aspects of the aeronautics and astrospace industry.
Intially Phoenix concentrated on the provision of consumables for
commercial starship, but in -215 it purchased Matsui Electronics and
won a contract to supply the Sylean Navy with digital personal
organisers. In -127 Phoenix aquired a bankrupt shipyard (Jergen
Craftwerke AG) and moved into the luctrative ship maintainance and
refit market. In -24 Phoenix launched their first original design (the
P-600AK, a 600Td merchant). Not really a commercial success, Phoenix
designs did not sell well until it acquired the services of Capt. Sir
Jerami Danjo (formerly of the Sylean Navy Bureau of Construction and
Repair) in -8. Sir Jerami had been widely picked as a possible
candidate for Director General of the BuConRep, before his premature
retirement after a scandal involving one of the future Emperor Cleon I's
(married) cousins. Under Sir Jerami's direction, Phoenix's shipbuilding
interests have moved from strength to strength and now constitute the
corporation's major focus. In -5 Sir Jerami was appointed CEO of Phoenix.

Phoenix is currently organised into the following divisons:
  Ship Construction and Maintaince
  Engineering & Power (the wholly owned sub. Simmens Fusionwerke AG)
  Electronics (the wholly owned subsiduary Matsui Electronics)
  Chandler and Providor
  Research and Development

Recently R&D has been focused on Sir Jerami's highly controversial and
unproven theories regarding stutterwarp drives. This has lead to
considerable disquite amongst the board, however Sir Jerami's succeses
in other areas have kept his position secure.

Current ownership: Noble Families 28%, Hortalez et Cie 23%,
                   Zirunkariish 21%, GSbAG 6%, Other 23%
<<<<<<
If you want to see what I did with this information, point 
your browser to http://isba.homepage.com/registry.html .

P.S.  I have fixed my mail filters to capture anything
        from TML that has THUDDD in the Subject line.
        I don't read anything else from the TML because
        I just don't have the time to spend on it.

As long as I have your attention, please check out the 
proposed format block 
(http://thuddd.homepage.com/format.html) and let me 
know what you think.
- --
Sincerely,

Jason Barnabas





________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 03:07:16 -0500
From: "Slack, Andy" <andy.slack@gb.unisys.com>
Subject: THUDDD and GURPS/Traveller TLs

The conversion table is found on p. 107 of GT, and it goes:

Trav TL     GURPS TL
0           1-3
1           4
2-4         5
5-6         6
7           7
8           8
9-11        9
12-13       10
14          11
15          12
16          13

As you can see, GT blurs TTLs 9-11 and 12-13 into two, which is
why it's harder to go from GT to CT/MT/TNE than the other way.

Note that the GT book itself only has design specs for GT TL 10 and
12, effectively TTL 12 and 15 [based on available jump numbers].

Andy

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 01:20:40 EDT
From: Clifford N Linehan <cnl.rubicon@juno.com>
Subject: Re: Handling a new technology in a game

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 17:41:50 +0100 From: SD Mooney
<dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
>Clifford N Linehan <cnl.rubicon@juno.com> amusingly writes:
>>GM to Party Leader: Your aim is good and you hit directly into the
>>airlock. However, the hit area from the FGMP widens to cover the enitre
>>Merc Cruser. When it is gone, so is the Merc Cruser.
>>Party Leader: OH SHIT! the Kidnapped PC is in there!
>>Player 2: Its a disintegrator! (dumbfounded look of awe and horror)
>>Player 3: (dumbfounded look of awe and horror)
>>Player 4: (dumbfounded look of awe and horror)
>
>If you know Iain M Bank's material _Against a Dark Background_ you could
>further wind them up by making the supposed disintegrators examples of
the
>'Lazy Gun'. ;-)
>
>That would make things 'interesting' for them...
>
>Dom

Never heard of it, do tell.

Clifford Linehan
cnl.rubicon@juno.com
One man's magic is another man's engineering.
IMTU tc+ tm+ ?tn- ?t4- tg++ ?tt to ru+ ge 3i+ c+ jt au st+ ls pi+ ta he+
kk hi as va dr so zh+ vi da sy

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 01:20:40 EDT
From: Clifford N Linehan <cnl.rubicon@juno.com>
Subject: Re: Handling a new technology in a game

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 13:31:50 -0400 From: "Keven R. Pittsinger"
<jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
>> Players did find the Kidnapped PC later. They also found, after
careful
>> searching, that the Far Trader has jump-6 and maneuver-6 at no
additional
>> cost to tonnage space over a standard Far Trader and is able to jump
up
>> to a total of jump-12 without refueling. The Far Trader has a number
of
>> Tech upgrades that will need for another adventure. The players are
>> speculating on what sort of hell I am going to put them through now
that
>> they have the disintegrators and the Far Trader.
>
>Oy, vey.
>
>I'm gonna assume that the culture that built such a monstrosity is gonna
put the PCs rily high on their 'Get These Clowns' list...
>
>Keven

Not really, they are just being monitored to see how they handle the
higher tech, and a ship with a phased cloaking device is standing by to
render it useless if needed.
My players know that if I give them high tech, they are going to need it
soon enough. <Evil Grin>


Clifford Linehan
cnl.rubicon@juno.com
One man's magic is another man's engineering.
IMTU tc+ tm+ ?tn- ?t4- tg++ ?tt to ru+ ge 3i+ c+ jt au st+ ls pi+ ta he+
kk hi as va dr so zh+ vi da sy

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 01:13:13 -0700
From: "Jason T. Barnabas" <cybernaut@netzero.net>
Subject: Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry

On the TML, Black ICE <wombat@premier.net> wrote:

>"Jason T. Barnabas" wrote:
>> ISBA Registry:
>> If you would like to submit a THUDDD design, you will need to
>> register your
>> design company with the ISBA.  (Say VROOM  can be registered as an
>> associated firm).  When you register, you will receive a key code.  You
>> cannot enter without a key code.
>
>To whom do I send a request to register, and what information is
>required? ...

The following is quoted from an earlier post:
>>>>>>

If you plan to submit designs to the THUDDD
competitions, I would like to get some background
information on the company that will be doing the
designing.  I will put these on the new ISBA
homepage.  I would be kind of nice to be able to link
your designs to your company page.

While looking for the old ISBA homepage, which
seems to be defunct, I ran across a page detailing
one of the past contributors:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/5776/ssclic.html

You might want to look at it for some idea of what I'm
looking for.

If you cannot do the HTML mark up, just send it to
me as an attachment in "Rich Text Format"
(*.RTF) or a word processor document file if you
use one of the following:
        Word 6.0/95 (2.x for Windows)
        WordPerfect 5.0 (3.x-6.0 for DOS; 5.x for
                Windows; 5.0-5.2 Secondary File)
        Windows Write 3.0
If you use another word processor, check to see
if it will save documents in rich text format (a lot
of them do).

Or send the information in a plain-text or HTML
format e-mail.

If you are sending an attachment or an HTML
e-mail, please send that directly to me
<cybernaut@netzero.net> as the list serve
software will probably mangle it and it might
mess up the digest make-up.
<<<<<<
If you have a description of your company on the web
already, you can just send me the URL.  I will mirror
your page on the new ISBA homepage.

>... Once I have registered, how do I use my key code?

When you are ready to submit a design for entry in
THUDDD, you will go to the submission page
probably to be located at
http://thuddd.homepage.com/submit.html.  The first
line will be where you enter your key-code.  The
robots I am developing will search the data base for
the key-code and use the information contained in it
in writing the voting page for each THUDDD.

Here is another example of what you might want to 
include in a registry (this one was submitted by 
Andrew Moffatt-Vallance as a plain text email):
>>>>>>
Phoenix Corporation
Founded in -372 as Phoenix Chandlers and Providors, Phoenix is has
interests in many aspects of the aeronautics and astrospace industry.
Intially Phoenix concentrated on the provision of consumables for
commercial starship, but in -215 it purchased Matsui Electronics and
won a contract to supply the Sylean Navy with digital personal
organisers. In -127 Phoenix aquired a bankrupt shipyard (Jergen
Craftwerke AG) and moved into the luctrative ship maintainance and
refit market. In -24 Phoenix launched their first original design (the
P-600AK, a 600Td merchant). Not really a commercial success, Phoenix
designs did not sell well until it acquired the services of Capt. Sir
Jerami Danjo (formerly of the Sylean Navy Bureau of Construction and
Repair) in -8. Sir Jerami had been widely picked as a possible
candidate for Director General of the BuConRep, before his premature
retirement after a scandal involving one of the future Emperor Cleon I's
(married) cousins. Under Sir Jerami's direction, Phoenix's shipbuilding
interests have moved from strength to strength and now constitute the
corporation's major focus. In -5 Sir Jerami was appointed CEO of Phoenix.

Phoenix is currently organised into the following divisons:
  Ship Construction and Maintaince
  Engineering & Power (the wholly owned sub. Simmens Fusionwerke AG)
  Electronics (the wholly owned subsiduary Matsui Electronics)
  Chandler and Providor
  Research and Development

Recently R&D has been focused on Sir Jerami's highly controversial and
unproven theories regarding stutterwarp drives. This has lead to
considerable disquite amongst the board, however Sir Jerami's succeses
in other areas have kept his position secure.

Current ownership: Noble Families 28%, Hortalez et Cie 23%,
                   Zirunkariish 21%, GSbAG 6%, Other 23%
<<<<<<

If you point your browser to 
http://isba.homepage.com/registry.html , you can see 
what I did with what he sent.

The absolute minimums that will be needed are 
company name, your name and your email address.  
The more flavor you give, the better it will taste.

P.S.  I have fixed my mail filters to capture anything
        from TML that has THUDDD in the Subject line.
        I don't read anything else from the TML because
        I just don't have the time to spend on it.
- --
Sincerely,

Jason Barnabas





________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 01:13:13 -0700
From: "Jason T. Barnabas" <cybernaut@netzero.net>
Subject: Re: THUDDD stuff - ISBA Registry

On the TML, Black ICE <wombat@premier.net> wrote:

>"Jason T. Barnabas" wrote:
>> ISBA Registry:
>> If you would like to submit a THUDDD design, you will need to
>> register your
>> design company with the ISBA.  (Say VROOM  can be registered as an
>> associated firm).  When you register, you will receive a key code.  You
>> cannot enter without a key code.
>
>To whom do I send a request to register, and what information is
>required? ...

The following is quoted from an earlier post:
>>>>>>

If you plan to submit designs to the THUDDD
competitions, I would like to get some background
information on the company that will be doing the
designing.  I will put these on the new ISBA
homepage.  I would be kind of nice to be able to link
your designs to your company page.

While looking for the old ISBA homepage, which
seems to be defunct, I ran across a page detailing
one of the past contributors:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/5776/ssclic.html

You might want to look at it for some idea of what I'm
looking for.

If you cannot do the HTML mark up, just send it to
me as an attachment in "Rich Text Format"
(*.RTF) or a word processor document file if you
use one of the following:
        Word 6.0/95 (2.x for Windows)
        WordPerfect 5.0 (3.x-6.0 for DOS; 5.x for
                Windows; 5.0-5.2 Secondary File)
        Windows Write 3.0
If you use another word processor, check to see
if it will save documents in rich text format (a lot
of them do).

Or send the information in a plain-text or HTML
format e-mail.

If you are sending an attachment or an HTML
e-mail, please send that directly to me
<cybernaut@netzero.net> as the list serve
software will probably mangle it and it might
mess up the digest make-up.
<<<<<<
If you have a description of your company on the web
already, you can just send me the URL.  I will mirror
your page on the new ISBA homepage.

>... Once I have registered, how do I use my key code?

When you are ready to submit a design for entry in
THUDDD, you will go to the submission page
probably to be located at
http://thuddd.homepage.com/submit.html.  The first
line will be where you enter your key-code.  The
robots I am developing will search the data base for
the key-code and use the information contained in it
in writing the voting page for each THUDDD.

Here is another example of what you might want to 
include in a registry (this one was submitted by 
Andrew Moffatt-Vallance as a plain text email):
>>>>>>
Phoenix Corporation
Founded in -372 as Phoenix Chandlers and Providors, Phoenix is has
interests in many aspects of the aeronautics and astrospace industry.
Intially Phoenix concentrated on the provision of consumables for
commercial starship, but in -215 it purchased Matsui Electronics and
won a contract to supply the Sylean Navy with digital personal
organisers. In -127 Phoenix aquired a bankrupt shipyard (Jergen
Craftwerke AG) and moved into the luctrative ship maintainance and
refit market. In -24 Phoenix launched their first original design (the
P-600AK, a 600Td merchant). Not really a commercial success, Phoenix
designs did not sell well until it acquired the services of Capt. Sir
Jerami Danjo (formerly of the Sylean Navy Bureau of Construction and
Repair) in -8. Sir Jerami had been widely picked as a possible
candidate for Director General of the BuConRep, before his premature
retirement after a scandal involving one of the future Emperor Cleon I's
(married) cousins. Under Sir Jerami's direction, Phoenix's shipbuilding
interests have moved from strength to strength and now constitute the
corporation's major focus. In -5 Sir Jerami was appointed CEO of Phoenix.

Phoenix is currently organised into the following divisons:
  Ship Construction and Maintaince
  Engineering & Power (the wholly owned sub. Simmens Fusionwerke AG)
  Electronics (the wholly owned subsiduary Matsui Electronics)
  Chandler and Providor
  Research and Development

Recently R&D has been focused on Sir Jerami's highly controversial and
unproven theories regarding stutterwarp drives. This has lead to
considerable disquite amongst the board, however Sir Jerami's succeses
in other areas have kept his position secure.

Current ownership: Noble Families 28%, Hortalez et Cie 23%,
                   Zirunkariish 21%, GSbAG 6%, Other 23%
<<<<<<

If you point your browser to 
http://isba.homepage.com/registry.html , you can see 
what I did with what he sent.

The absolute minimums that will be needed are 
company name, your name and your email address.  
The more flavor you give, the better it will taste.

P.S.  I have fixed my mail filters to capture anything
        from TML that has THUDDD in the Subject line.
        I don't read anything else from the TML because
        I just don't have the time to spend on it.
- --
Sincerely,

Jason Barnabas





________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html

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

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 01:35:46 -0700
From: "Jason T. Barnabas" <cybernaut@netzero.net>
Subject: Re: THUDDD and GURPS/Traveller TLs

Slack, Andy <andy.slack@gb.unisys.com> wrote:

>The conversion table is found on p. 107 of GT, and it goes:
>
>Trav TL     GURPS TL
>0           1-3
>1           4
>2-4         5
>5-6         6
>7           7
>8           8
>9-11        9
>12-13       10
>14          11
>15          12
>16          13
>
>As you can see, GT blurs TTLs 9-11 and 12-13 into two, which is
>why it's harder to go from GT to CT/MT/TNE than the other way.
>
>Note that the GT book itself only has design specs for GT TL 10 and
>12, effectively TTL 12 and 15 [based on available jump numbers].


Thanks for the info.  I have it ready to post and I'll get to it later.
Until further notice, all Tech Level maximums will be given in standard
Traveller TLs.
- --
Sincerely,

Jason Barnabas





________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 23:13:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Prior <robert_prior@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Re: A Vargr question

>First of all, thank you to everyone who offered a comment...your views
>were very
>helpful.
>
>Just an observation - I'm not necessarily disagreeing with people, just
>something I
>noted - comparing Vargr to Dogs and Humans to Monkeys is not _exactly_ the
>same. We did
>not (correct me if I'm wrong) evolve from chimps or orangatangs (sp) - we
>evolved from
>a separate branch of primates. So while we are related to the apes, we are
>not their
>direct evolutionary descendants.
>
>Vargr, however, are directly evolved from the canine lines - forced
>evolution, to be
>sure, and certainly some genetic tinkering.
>
>I look at it this way - apes are our cousins. Dogs and wolves are a
>Vargr's great-great-
>great-great-......-great grandparents. Is this wrong?

Depends. How close do you feel to other hominids?

The ancients were operating about 300,000 BC when they to humaniti to the
stars. That's just at the timeframe of homo sapiens. About 150,000 BC you
get homo sapiens neanderthalensis in Europe, then in 75,000 BC homo sapiens
sapiens (ie, us).

This is proof that the "races of humaniti" are actually
different-but-closely-related species (to some) or one of the
inconsistencies in Traveller canon (to others).

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 23:29:37 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: WotC & Hasbro

In mail you write:

> One publisher recently contacted me wondering why I wasn't carrying
> his books. He sent me a catalog and the contact info for the Canadian
> distributor of his books.

> Turns out the minimum ordering requirements set by the Canadian
> distributor of this US publisher's books are such that I really can't
> afford to carry them -- low discount compared to other suppliers, and
> a high minimum order requirement, especially when you consider that
> they aren't one of the big players in the market. And my US
> distributor (who carries just about everybody) doesn't carry their
> stuff. So, I'm not going to be carrying this publisher's books in our
> online store.  Sad, because they have a good product, perfect for
> schools and colleges...

I trust you sent the publisher a note explaining this? It might
encourage them to get a different distributor. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 23:44:20 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: MT Deckplan Queries

In mail you write:

> Craig Berry wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
> If you end up trying to rig a brute-force fusion-based cracker, you'd best
> know what you're doing.  My guess is that the single most likely design
> flaw in a jury-rigged cracker would result in significant amounts of CO
> (carbon monoxide) being emitted along with the O2.  Not a good thing, and
> one good reason the ship's engineer might be strenuously reluctant to even
> try it.
>>>>>>>>>>
> I'll see you the CO and raise you a heat problem:
>
> All the air you breathe now has to be run through a fusion plant and have
> lots of energy blasted at it. Won't it come out of the "brute-force"
> cracker as a superheated gas?

Actually, if you are running CO2 up to fusion temps to "crack" it,
it'll be by converting it to a plasma and using EM fields to seperate
the different mass ions. So the CO problem won't exist (at the temps
involved there are no radicals, just free ions. 

> How do you cool it down to breatheableness? Can the radiators on the
> ship handle that kind of heat load in addition to that of the power plant,
> solar heating, etc?

Well, since it's a stream of charged iuons you are dealing with, you
can just slow it with EM fields. That deals with the temperature. I
doubt it'b that significant an addition to the heat load of the reactor
anyway.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 23:54:37 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: A Vargr question

In mail, traveller@lists.imagiconline.com writes:

> Just an observation - I'm not necessarily disagreeing with people,
> just something I noted - comparing Vargr to Dogs and Humans to
> Monkeys is not _exactly_ the same. We did not (correct me if I'm
> wrong) evolve from chimps or orangatangs (sp) - we evolved from a
> separate branch of primates. So while we are related to the apes, we
> are not their direct evolutionary descendants.

To be exact, humans, chimps, and gorillas share a common ancestor 2-3
million years back. And we share a *lot* of DNA. So much so that
cross-fertilization between humans and chimps may be possible, though
not likely.

"Monkeys" and "apes" split from "primates" a *lot* farther back. 

> Vargr, however, are directly evolved from the canine lines - forced
> evolution, to be sure, and certainly some genetic tinkering.

For all we know humans were tinkered with too. After all, 200-300
thousand years ago (when Grandfather was doing this), homo-sapiens
didn't exist. Neither did homo neanderthal. It's not as far back as
Lucy, but it *is* a ways back. 

> I look at it this way - apes are our cousins. Dogs and wolves are a Vargr's 
> great-great-great-great-......-great grandparents. Is this wrong?

Yes and no. Dogs & wolves are *also* too recent for them to be what
Grandfather grabbed. 

So in both cases it's "cousins". 

I have to wonder if vargr are as close to dogs/wolves as humans are to
chimps/gorillas. This has many consequences. Picture a vargr "mad
scientist" trying to breed "super soldier" vargr by crossing vargr and
wolf genes. 

> The dogs in my campaign have been tinkered with themselves - nothing
> radical,

Just by being "dogs" they are *much* modified from the base form. After
all, selective breeding for the last 20-30 thousand years is going to
have *quite* an effect.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1097
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