Traveller-digest     Sunday, September 5 1999     Volume 1999 : Number 1062



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big $$$
Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)
Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)
Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big$$$
Re: Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)
New GTL8 Moduals
New GTL8 Moduals
Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)
Re: Some From The Vaults
Re: GDW Sign for sale
Jump Horizons of stars
Re: Imperal military and PR
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1059
Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)
Re: request for URLs with Traveller pictures
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big$$$
Re: The big RED Button
re:  diseases and quarantine
Re: Request for URLs with Traveller pictures

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 11:16:30 +1000 
From: "Hughes, Michael" <Michael.Hughes@cbr.defence.gov.au>
Subject: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big $$$

Does anyone have any High Guard 800 ton Tech 12 Freighters out thar (with a
back up minimum (to support lifesupport/thrust) powerplant & Jump 3)?

It's just that I suck when designing ships and if someone has already put in
the hard yards then that's just fine and dandy. 
(I tried to go for a Leviathan but it was Tech 13).

Oh yeah, has anyone's Traveller friendly web pages got a bunch of workable
Robot designs (ala Book 8)?

Yours most obsequiously & hopefully,

PS If you do, I'll name the ship after you in the campaign - think about it,
lasting fame amongst 5-6 people. 


- - Michael 

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 10:10:21 +1000
From: "Alan Bradley" <alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au>
Subject: Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)

> From: "John Majer" 
> I would like to getting around to playing a 3I game:  its a whole new of
> moral morass for the players to conquer (no, you're not noble yet
> tarnished heroes working for a better tomorrow.  Your a buch of people
> with a ship, no money and big bank payments.  What do you do now?)

Who says that 3I characters aren't a bunch of "noble yet tarnished heroes
working for a better tomorrow"?

Sure, they've got to work for a living, but that doesn't mean what they do
is any less noble than what anyone else does.  After all, if the 3I
characters had 'succeeded', you wouldn't have had the Hard Times, or the
Collapse.  That, after all, is part of what the 3I setting is (or can be)
about - to stave off the forces of darkness, and to prevent the 'next Long
Night'.  The Flandry thing is part of the 3I setting.

The other 'great noble task' of the 3I setting is to change the Imperium
itself.  Let's face it - it's a 'not quite Good Empire', even if it's not
an 'Evil Empire'.  There are abuses and injustices in the 3I that it's
perfectly sane to oppose, whether it's world by world, or on a larger
scale.  The 'Liberation' of worlds is just as possible in the 3I setting as
it is in any other.  You don't have to play an Ine Givar campaign to do
this, either.  There's at least a tacit assumption in the Mercenary style
games that what the players are fighting for is better than what currently
exists, even though it may seem that the players are just 'thugs for hire'.

Yes, 3I games can be about selling comfortable shoes to the Aslan, but
those games aren't really very interesting.  Usually, I suspect, such
activities are the side issues to the real game - nobbling the Kforuzeng,
or saving Raschev from the Chamax.  One thing I'm seriously considering is
a scenario/mini-campaign set on Tarsus in the GT setting, opposing an Aslan
invasion.

Different settings tend to support different types of games.  To a great
degree, the setting you choose will depend on the kind of feel you want for
your game.  There is no real point to an argument about which is best, so I
will stop here.

Of course, in the end, home-brew settings are probably the best, since they
most precisely match what the individual referee wants...

Alan Bradley
alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 10:58:34 +1000
From: "Alan Bradley" <alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au>
Subject: Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)

> From: "John Palmer" 
> The weakness of a high population is huge infrastructure needs. Food,
> water, power, and sewage treatment make life possible on a high
> population world.
> Destroy those items, and the population will eventually implode on
> itself. A simple application of Manslow's hierarchy of needs.
> 
> A naval blockade coupled with targeted small unit commando assaults would
> grind down the ability for the population to sustain itself. Ideal
> targets are the highly distributed targets such as agriculture, power
> distribution, hydro facilities, food storage, and sewage. Even a
> coordinated defense would have problems getting enough firepower to
> defend a location before the damage was done.
> 
> Planetary assault is relatively easy, once you study it's applications.

Well, apart from the commando assaults, a lot of this is true.  The trouble
is, if you want to actually keep the world, the amount of damage you do is
the amount you have to repair afterwards.  If 10 billion of your newly-won
citizens are starving, you've got a bit of a problem.  Using terror is
militarily legitimate, but it tends to rebound on you.

The other problem is that your targets will hate you.  One of the
'advantages' of the oligarchic structure of most of the TU's interstellar
states is that the loyalty of the common citizens of the worlds of any
state is likely to be relatively shallow at any level above the world
itself.  In other words, once you take out the government and military,
many of the citizens probably don't care all that much if the Emperor is
Dulinor or Lucan, or if they're members of the Imperium or the Solomani
Confederation (at least until SolSec gets to work).  They might prefer to
keep the planetary government they chose, but in many cases these
governments would be fairly expendable juntas or noble cliques.

If you start nuking them, however, you are likely to spark popular
opposition.  Think about Northern Ireland, or East Timor, spread over a
world with billions of inhabitants.  You may be able to prevent the
rebellion from succeeding, but you would never be able to crush it.  For
evidence of this, look at what happened on Terra when the Solomani rolled
over the border during the Rebellion.  Terra *had* been pacified after the
Solomani Rim War over a century before, but erupted into revolt at the
first opportunity.

You will often get better results in the long run if you pick your targets
more carefully in the short term, and take the resulting losses.  Even so,
I wouldn't like to be around during one of the assaults....

Of course I have made some pretty sweeping generalisations in the above
stuff, but the whole discussion tends to be a bit generalised, so I will
forgive myself.

Alan Bradley
alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 09:30:40 +1000
From: "Alan Bradley" <alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au>
Subject: Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)

> From: Bruce Johnson 
> Besides, since when did the 3I care about what the civilian masses
> thought, ever? So long as the nobles control the fleet, the masses don't
> get much say.

This would be true in general, but there are limits.

I suspect that the Rebellion could have been one of these limiting cases. 
After 10-15 years of apparently pointless and unsuccessful warfare, at
least some factions might have had problems recruiting.  That is,
volunteers would be getting thin on the ground, and conscripts would be
getting less willing.  Result:  your armed forces deteriorate in morale,
and possibly in numbers.  Eventually you end up in a situation where you
can't mount worthwhile offensives, and Hard Times result.

This can be used as one of the reasons why the Solomani switched to a proxy
war strategy in areas like Diaspora, and can continue into the early 1130s
if you want to extend the Hard Times.

Since I'm on this tangent, if you allow Dulinor's ship to misjump for
non-Virus reasons, and his death to occur at the 'official' time, you can
neutralise his victory, by splitting his faction between Admiral Hutara,
controlling the fleet, and eventually Capital, and Isis, who controls Dlan,
but sees going to Capital for her coronation as a suicidal risk, putting
her entirely in the power of the next in line to the Throne.  Lucan, of
course, would become a lame duck once Capital falls, and probably would get
his throat cut, leaving Tranian free to declare for Margaret.

You can easily continue the Hard Times up to 1135 or so by doing this.

Alan Bradley
alanb@elf.brisnet.org.au

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 20:49:15 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big$$$

"Hughes, Michael" wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have any High Guard 800 ton Tech 12 Freighters out thar (with a
> back up minimum (to support lifesupport/thrust) powerplant & Jump 3)?
> 
> It's just that I suck when designing ships and if someone has already put in
> the hard yards then that's just fine and dandy.
> (I tried to go for a Leviathan but it was Tech 13).

Let me send this design spec over to AuricTech's design bureau, and I'll
let you know what we can come up with.  (I should be able to have
something by midnight local time.)
> 
> Oh yeah, has anyone's Traveller friendly web pages got a bunch of workable
> Robot designs (ala Book 8)?

That's outside of AuricTech's realm....
> 
> PS If you do, I'll name the ship after you in the campaign - think about it,
> lasting fame amongst 5-6 people.

Just name the ship class whatever name I assign it, and mention that
it's an AuricTech design.  [Don't forget our slogan, as quoted in my sig
file.... ;-) ]
> 
> - Michael


- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 20:53:45 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)

"Douglas E. Berry" wrote:
> 
> At 12:56 PM 9/5/1999 -0700, you wrote:
> 
> >What would be the "acceptable losses" of a planetary population that you are
> >attempting to "liberate" and later rule?
> 
> It depends.
> 
> Are you trying to win their hearts and minds, or crushing them and their
> little dog Toto too?
> 
> If you hope to have some popular support, you make it very clear that you
> will only attack military targets.  This is a two-edged sword, because
> while it severely limits your options, it might help swing popular opinion
> your way, and you might get a ground-based resistance operation started.

I would amend this to "military-owned" targets.  After all, power
generation and distribution facilities, transportation nexi (bridges,
rail junctions, airports, etc.), and communications nodes (radio and TV
stations, telephone exchanges, etc.) are all vital military targets. 
However, the destruction of these facilities will have far more direct
impact on the civilian population than, say, bombing the living tar out
of Pearl Harbor.
> 
> Going for the knock out punch, you make unrestricted war.  Look at the
> civilian deaths in Japan and Germany.  You attack with everything to
> totally destroy not just the military might, but the underlying support for
> that military.

Exactly.  One thing that people sometimes forget is that the military
does not exist in isolation.  In order efficiently to cripple a military
force, one must attack any vulnerable support structures for that
military.  As I noted above, that includes everything from power plants
to water treatment facilities.  Further, in the absence of precision
munitions to destroy war materiel factories, one way to reduce enemy war
materiel production is to kill or maim the civilian factory workers. 
Another way to do so is to prevent raw materials from reaching the
centers of enemy industry.  All of these methods have direct impact on
the civilian population.

This is part of what Clausewitz meant when he described war as a
continuation of politics.  One must first decide on the desired goal,
and then must tailor the use (if any) of armed force in such a way as to
achieve that goal.  

One problem in Vietnam is that the Johnson Administration failed to set
a specific goal, with a plan on how to achieve that goal; thus, with the
Tet Offensive, the public decided that the cost of getting nowhere was
too high.  Had there been a clearly-defined goal and strategy, the Tet
Offensive quite possibly would have been seen as a positive thing for
the US.

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:03:30 -0400
From: "Darryl Adams" <commodore_adams@unspacy.org>
Subject: New GTL8 Moduals

I have done some GTL8 Starship Moduals.

I would appreciate if people can have a look at them (so i can send them to www.downport.com if they work.

I have notice that GTL8 Thrusters are extreamly lame , and need CG to reach orbital velocity. I also have not made them Vectored thrust for the same reason.

All of the GTL8 moduals use Fission, making some moduals more bulkier than at higher tech (engineering and utility spring to mind).

The GTL8 sick bay is actuall 2 operating theaters with an expert system and emergency support systems. I have also added a bulkier, more expensive cryo tube, this could be experimental.

The URL is at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dome/4713/gtl8_mods.html

If you hate popups , please email and I will email it to you.


- -------------------------------------------------
Commodore Darryl Adams
United Nations Spacy

commodore_adams@unspacy
darryl_adams@parracity.nsw.gov.au


"Laser Beam, meet butter. Butter, Laser beam. Opps"
Miles Vorkostigan, A Civil Campaign by Lois McMasters Bujold

Get Free Email, Anime News, and The Best Prices at http://AnimeNation.com

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:03:43 -0400
From: "Darryl Adams" <commodore_adams@unspacy.org>
Subject: New GTL8 Moduals

I have done some GTL8 Starship Moduals.

I would appreciate if people can have a look at them (so i can send them to www.downport.com if they work.

I have notice that GTL8 Thrusters are extreamly lame , and need CG to reach orbital velocity. I also have not made them Vectored thrust for the same reason.

All of the GTL8 moduals use Fission, making some moduals more bulkier than at higher tech (engineering and utility spring to mind).

The GTL8 sick bay is actuall 2 operating theaters with an expert system and emergency support systems. I have also added a bulkier, more expensive cryo tube, this could be experimental.

The URL is at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dome/4713/gtl8_mods.html

If you hate popups , please email and I will email it to you.


- -------------------------------------------------
Commodore Darryl Adams
United Nations Spacy

commodore_adams@unspacy
darryl_adams@parracity.nsw.gov.au


"Laser Beam, meet butter. Butter, Laser beam. Opps"
Miles Vorkostigan, A Civil Campaign by Lois McMasters Bujold

Get Free Email, Anime News, and The Best Prices at http://AnimeNation.com

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 21:21:54 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Imperial military and PR (was: Safety of low berths...)

On 09/04/99 at 08:38 AM,  "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@mindspring.com> said:

>Also, the Imperium controls the news feeds through the X-boat system. 
>They can massage and spin the news to their liking, and give the
>"official story" time to grow before independent witnesses make it
>home.  Another example, we are 130 years "away" from the US Civil
>War.  The story we were all feed as children was that it was about
>slavery.  The truth was far more complex, but the "distance" and
>relevance to our daily lives made that simple story acceptable.

To everyone except native Southerners.  We either have to grapple
with the more complex issues or with the immorality of our
great-great grandparents...or both.  Turns out, mine didn't own
slaves, but would have if they could have afforded them...talk about
moral ambiguity.

Your basic point is correct, though.  It's unlikely that events on
one end of the 3I would be more than simple propaganda points on the
other ends, separated as they are in space and time.

Eris
AKU GM
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 21:31:55 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Some From The Vaults

On 09/03/99 at 11:50 PM,  shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) said:

>In mail you write:

>>> Just another reason I hate AOL.
>>
>>>I love AOL, they send me free drink coasters every week. ;)
>>
>>
>> I'd like them even more if you could actually re-burn those 'coasters'.  :)

>What, you don't use them for laser rifle targets? :-)

Hum, I must be about  TL 1. I string them up on poles in the garden to scare
off the birds.

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:33:32 -0400
From: "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net>
Subject: Re: GDW Sign for sale

Jay, if you don't get that thing ASAP I'll be very disappointed! ;-)  Of
course, if you do get it I'll be very jealous, but that goes without saying,
eh?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TRAVELLER Domain
http://www.downport.com
Colin Michael, WebDev

- ----- Original Message -----
From: <JLAROSEE@aol.com>
> So... how big is the sign; can it be reached by ladder?

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:38:39 EDT
From: GypsyComet@aol.com
Subject: Jump Horizons of stars

"Hey You" Berry <gridlore@mindspring.com> typed thusly:

>>        100d from the star makes sense.   It makes for a serious problem
>>trying to hike in as a blocade runner, and exposes outgoing vessels to
>>privateers, et al as they try and get to the 100d. 
>
>In doing up the systems of Lunion using _First In_, I'm finding most worlds
>are well inside the star's 100d limit.  Makes life a little more
>interesting.

 I ran that set of numbers using Book 6 (for the Stellar Radii table) and 
found *in general* that K and M stars' jump horizon is beyond the habitable 
orbit, G stars are a tossup, and the younger stars (O,B,A & F) rarely if ever 
reach the habitable orbit. This generalization applies best to Type V stars, 
but can be used for nearly any of them in a pinch...

GC

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:45:27 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: Imperal military and PR

>Because, as you wrote earlier, the media can turn something otherwise that
>the public will overlook into a topic.  Is the X-B the entirety of the
>media?  Certainly they have certain...advantages so to speak, but is there
>not some 'zine out there with a deceant distrubution?  Where are the
>Mulders?  There are so many right and left wingers that believe in
>government conspiracy in our world, and if the Imperium was intentional
>holding back the truth it wouldn't be much of a theory.  What role for
>muckrackers?  Or does the Imperium keep them down?

Potentially there is no other Imperium wide communication system. I can
conceive of a local system of couriers that might serve a subsector.
MegaCorps almost certainly use a message transport system of their own to
carry vital company traffic. Only the X-Boats go to every Sector in the
Imperium. Any magazine, news vid, or editorials not sent by this method will
be of local distribution only and not likely to effect Imperium policy.

Every rule has an exception (including this one). Capital and Core subsector
specifically, will be more susceptible to muckraker / yellow journalism /
rumor
tabloids. But be careful what you say. The Emperor is above reproach, and
slandering certain members of the Moot might be unwise. Of course a
judiciously placed editorial might convince a highly placed official in MOC
or MOD to change that policy in your favor, or even declare that handy
little war you'd like to see happen.

Local media at the Domain capitals might exercise similar influence.

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:10:53 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1059

> Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 12:06:38 -0400
> From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
> Subject: Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)
>
> >Oh, every gamer in the whole world knows that feeling.  Imagine being a
> >"Gamma World" player.  Or, even worse, the hot potato of the gaming
> >industry, "Ars Magica."  And AD&D third editon.  Why, why, why?  Does
> anyone
> >but some confounded WOTC exec think this is a good idea?  Wait a minitue,
> >don't answer that, I already know the answer.
>
> Hey I'm a Gamma World player!  I resemble that remark!  :)
Guess what?  I play it too.  Or did rather, as I don't get the chance to
game really anymore (for some reason the Chicago-city proper seems to be
rather desert-like that way, or they've all been hiding from me.)  In fact,
I consider myself a coinsure of dead games: TNE, Gamma World, and
Cybergeneration.  And you have to agree that four editions of something
tends to put people throught the ringer.
- -J.S.

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:09:32 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)

>IMHO, Maybe the acceptable losses of armed forces could be high in combat
>and wartime. In a planetary assault of the dimensions discussed here would
>cause horrendous losses to the planet its ecology and its population.  If
>that same population has to be ruled by the same people/government that
>killed so many of them, wouldn't it cause numerous problems (eg. riots,
>sabotage, guerillas, etc...) ?

I believe that this is one of the problems that the 3I is still facing
(circa 1115) on Earth. A population ready to revolt. I would expect that
should they successfully throw off the 3I and be absorbed into the Solomani
Confederation, then a series of actions against that government would result
(both from Imperium loyalists and from Terra First self-rulists.)

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:15:20 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: request for URLs with Traveller pictures

>It doesn't sound like anything I've seen, and that is a nice size. Go ahead
>and send me a copy please. If I recognize it, I'll get back to you.
>
>I was wondering; it seems that some folks are concerned with size on Web
>sites, and yet many images are quite large. I would have thought that of
all
>gaming genres, Traveller would have the highest percentage of "high end"
>computer owners. Large monitors and all. Does anyone know the demographics
>on this?

It's not a matter of computer power or monitor size. It's a bandwidth issue.
Someone who is paying for download time by the minute (as many of our fellow
TML members outside the US do) and/or downloading through a 14k 0r 32k pipe
are much more sensitive to file size and number of images than someone who
is lucky enough to connect to the net through a cable modem or T-1 line.

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 22:26:55 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Wanted 800 ton Tech 12 frieghter - will pay big$$$

FROM:  Chief Executive Officer, AuricTech Shipyards

TO:  Michael Hughes

SUBJECT:  Request for Design

1.  Here is our proposal for your specification of a 800 ton freighter,
jump-3, with backup power plant:

CLASS NAME: D'Anconia         Type: Medium Freighter
Tonnage: 800                  Cost: 425.2 MCr
Jump Drive: 3                 Manuever Drive: 2
Hull[Armor]: 6[0]             Power Plant: 3.3
Computer: 3                   Fuel Tankage: 266.4 Tons
Energy Points: 24             Crew: 13 (plus 12 High passengers)
Agility:  2

WEAPONS SYSTEMS:
3 Triple Turrets (1 Triple Beam Laser, 2 Triple Sandcaster)

SMALL CRAFT:
None


OTHER NOTES:
231.4 Tons Cargo
FPP Installed
23 Staterooms Installed
10 Low Berths Installed
6 Emergency Low Berths Installed

Crew Breakdown:  1 Pilot, 1 Astrogator, 1 Medical Officer, 5 Engineers,
2 Stewards, 3 Gunners

2.  Since this ship is based on a standard AuricTech design, we can
begin refit of ships on the construction ways, and begin delivery within
30 days of your signing a contract.

3.  Please note that our quoted price is for a single vessel.  Observe
also that, as a courtesy, we have waived the usual naval architect's
fees.  Orders for multiple examples will, of course, receive a 10%
discount.

Thank you for considering AuricTech Shipyards.  We hope that we can fill
all your future starship needs.

//original signed//

Jenifer C. Rearden-Taggart
Chief Executive Officer
AuricTech Shipyards

**Designer's Notes**

This is a quick-and-dirty HG2 design, based on one I had on file.  I
haven't crunched the economic numbers for it; however, I suspect that
this ship would require subsidy.  The D'ANCONIA-class, at just under
twice the price of a standard CT Type M Subsidized Merchant, carries
just under twice the cargo.  Passenger capacity is less (12 high/medium
passengers, as opposed to 21 in the Type M), and low passenger capacity
is far lower (10, as compared with 80 in the Type M).  However, note
that the D'ANCONIA-class has greater maneuverability than the Type M. 
Further, the design cost includes armament required for most subsidy
routes.  Third, the D'ANCONIA-class is fully streamlined, and includes a
fuel purification plant (both of these features should make the
D'ANCONIAs less costly to operate than the Type M).  Finally, the
addition of .3 extra power plant (simulating the specification for
backup power) added nearly MCr 22 to the ship's price, and absorbed
nearly 10 dtons of additional cargo space.

One interesting feature of this design under HG2 is that a 2-G maneuver
drive was actually cheaper (by MCr 4) than a 1-G drive.


- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:25:57 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: The big RED Button

> Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 10:30:27 +1200
> From: rboleyn@paradise.net.nz
> Subject: Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)
>
> On 5 Sep 99, at 8:31, Douglas E. Berry wrote:
>
> > At 12:05 AM 9/5/1999 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> > >Oh, every gamer in the whole world knows that feeling.  Imagine being a
> > >"Gamma World" player.  Or, even worse, the hot potato of the gaming
> > >industry, "Ars Magica."  And AD&D third editon.  Why, why, why?  Does
anyone
> > >but some confounded WOTC exec think this is a good idea?  Wait a
minitue,
> > >don't answer that, I already know the answer.
> >
> > I feel compelled to answer that :)
> >
> > DnD3 is likely going to get me back into FRPG after a near fifteen year
> > absence.  I really like what I've seen of the concepts and changes.
>
> So do I. From what I've seen in local rpg stores (or rather what hasn't
> been there) DnD has been steadily fading in the last few years, and
> with it the rest of the hobby. IMO it's about time for a new edition of
> DnD - 10 years after ADnD2, and I'm really pleased they've bitten the
> bullet and done a proper job of revising it. Now if only they get rid of
> exceptional strength.

(memo to self - just because you think a question is rhetorical doesn't mean
it is)I've avoided closing the window of judgment just yet, and it only will
fall when I have actual paper in my hands.  I've heard both good and bad
things.  My hesitiaions lie to a general priniciple of fear when WOTC gets
involved in something.  IMHO they were doing a fine job with the "re-second
edition" books and adventures they were putting out, largely.
It's interesting to see it in the light of the differences between AD&D and
T, where as one made an instution out of a setting and the other out of a
rules base.
- -J.S.

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:41:16 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: re:  diseases and quarantine

>>    From: "Doug wilder" <doug_wilder@hotmail.com>

>> With all this talk of diseases parasites and vermin of all sorts. I got
to
>> wondering about what sorts of quarentine proceedures would be needed at a
>> starport. It seems to me that in every game i ever played nobody ever
>> instituted quarenteen proceedures. I mean even here on good old earth
>> countries dont allow plants or animals to travel from one country to the
>> other with out them.

>You're right; Traveller just doesn't address this issue (so far as I
>know), not even with a handwave.  I did read an article in I think
>Challenge Magazine dealing with quarantine and decontamination
>procedures experienced by interstellar travellers in the 2300 AD
>universe.  I'd expect that the procedures would be less invasive and
>delaying at Imperial tech levels.  On the other hand, many worlds are at
>very low tech levels and have only rudimentary starports.  Those worlds
>are at great risk of all sorts of disease and ecological problems if
>they don't institute appropriate procedures.

>- --Glenn

I'm breaking one of my own rules (Don't cite material when you can't get to
it to verify). But it's late (almost midnight here) and my G:FT is in my
sleeping son's room. (I just can't seem to keep my 14 year old away from my
RPG source books. :^) )

I believe that G:FT covers these subjects in passing, with a reference to a
more detailed description of the subject promised in GT:Starports.


Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:42:33 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Request for URLs with Traveller pictures

> Traveller is, at heart, a paper-and-pencil game. In fact, other than
> Jesse's artwork there's little out for Traveller that would require a
> high-end computer.

OTOH, I never ran Traveller without a calculator handy. *grin*

So, to answer your question, if you propse that Traveller is a game that is
predisposed to some degree of mathmatical talent, and correlate that with
the fact that there are a lot of Gearheads out there who throw themselves
throughougly into the mathmatics, and then refrence that with the sterotype
that the kind of people who have good at and with computers are the kind
that are also good at math, and the kind of people that are good at and with
computers will strive to have good ones.  Traveller players have good
computers.  Q.E.D.
Or at least one way of looking at it.  I cannot attest to its truth as I am
neither good at math nor terribly proficent at computers, and only own a
deceant one (notebook, 366 Pent Cele, 64 ram, 800X600) because it had been a
good seven years and the last one had gone "solid-state" (the disk and cd
rom drives no longer worked) and you had to hit it on occassion when the
hard drive slipped (no, I don't know why this worked.  Computer
professionals had no idea why it worked, and were vaguly aghast.)
- -J.S.
- -J.S.

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1062
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