			    TRAVELLER Digest 161

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) REAL Energy Weapons	by Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
  2) TRAVELLER digest 160	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  3) Striker II	by PEDRO <PTREVOR@delphi.com>
  4) "Shifting" Bases around	by Ted7@world.std.com (Mitchell K Schwartz)
  5) Re: Re: Non-combat RC Adventures	by Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
  6) Mapping mulitple time periods	by Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)

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Date: 13 Jan 1995 04:07:23 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: REAL Energy Weapons
Message-ID: <387903454.1698733@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca>

An interesting point to ponder if you're trying to increase 'realism' in your
Traveller game:

In any spaceship energy eventually gets converted to heat, which must be
disposed of by radiation.  (This was calculated in 2300 AD but basically left
out of Traveller).  If you run the calculations for your average warship,
even assuming really efficient weapons (99.99% efficient) and a solid ship,
you end up with a nice cherry-coloured glow.

You can also get some amusing effects with robots and the calculations are
even easier, because here all the energy ends up as heat.  The old
MegaTraveller robots doubled as nice space heaters. (Robot butler, sticking
finger in cup, "let me warm your coffee, sir.")

Similar effect from high-tech cities with really large power plants.  

Something for you FFS hot-shots to calculate (pun intended).

(Personally I don't bother with fixing these rules, because I don't have the
time/interest to redesign the design system.  Still, if you're playing around
with varient versions of FFS it's something you might want to consider.)

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Date: 13 Jan 95 04:47:10 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: TRAVELLER digest 160
Message-ID: <950113094709_100326.446_BHG94-1@CompuServe.COM>

>> "that's it? You wreck the Imperium for this?   Bye!<<

Yup! And I ain't come back yet...

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Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 08:52:29 -0500 (EST)
From: PEDRO <PTREVOR@delphi.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Striker II
Message-ID: <01HLSIU2MM4I8ZUSY5@delphi.com>


Just a note to say I just got Striker II, who noticed in the
index 'Plasma Suppositories' (wow!) ?  For the PCs that have
everything.  ;-)

Regards Pedro

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Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 13:55:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Ted7@world.std.com (Mitchell K Schwartz)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM (Traveller:TNE mailing list)
Subject: "Shifting" Bases around
Message-ID: <199501131855.AA16857@world.std.com>

I said:
>>usually in the same base. They sometimes built a
>>new camp nearby when a site became to worn to use. <<

Then Hugh Foster said:
>Good point, though the wear on a starbase might be more
>rapid. And we didn't suggest the base would have gone 'way
>away; "nearby" seems to fit the original suggestion. I
>mean, look at modern cities with Roman ruins nearby.

Consider: When the Romans set up base camp, there was usually nothing 
nearby - certainly no one owning all the nearby land. More modern bases 
(say US bases), refurbishing has been dome by tearing down and replacing 
older facilities with newer ones.

Space Navy bases will probably periodically need to rebuild landing pads. 
Buildings will need to be replaced every 1-7 centuries (certainly to be 
gutted and refurbished/wired for changing technology. For instance, say 
in  400 3i a building is created as offices. By 489, new buildings are 
needed (its easier to build a new office building than to rewire this 
one). Building 2 is built and moved into by 495. Building 1 is 
refurbished as officer's quarters. In 584, Building 2 is turned into 
classrooms for the new regional Imperial Naval Academy; Building 1 is 
changed slightly to be a dorm (other buildings are built elsehwere. In 
722, the academy is moved to a new orbital facility; building 2 is 
turned into a warehouse.; building 1 is torn down, and in its place a 
"temporary" landing pad is built (for use while the main pads are taken 
out of service for their 3rd rebuilding). By 744, all the pads are 
rebuilt, and the Building 1 site (an open pad still called Sanborne Hall 
by tradition) is covered over to be a small craft maintenance site (since 
the floor can still hold multi-hundred ton craft).

The face of the base will change; land will go from open to building and 
back depending on the needs of the time.

It is equally possible that while building the supports for the Maint 
building, archeologists will halt teh activity to investigate the hidden 
underground complex discovered (it has been built under the base as an 
emergency HQ back in 325, but no one has had to access teh records that 
discuss it for several centuries that the records are effectively lost).

Hmmm. Actually, this gives a number of adventures ideas....

					Ted7

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

Date: 13 Jan 1995 22:09:08 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Re: Non-combat RC Adventures
Message-ID: <327286782.5434945@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca>

Maybe I'm picky, but I don't count the seeds in "Path of Tears" as adventures.
Ideas, maybe, but I _have_ lots of those.  I just don't have the time to do
much with them.  

I want something that someone playtested and found works, that I don't have
to spend a lot of time preparing.  But then, I also want all necessary maps,
building plans, and personalities worked out.  I _hate_ the phrase "the
referee must create..." in an adventure (unless it's referring to some small
sidetrack).  I'm greedy, and I have very little spare time.  

I've mentioned all this to GDW, but the truth of the matter is that they can
only write so much stuff, so if combat adventures are the only ones that
people submit then that's all I'll get to see.

In fact, I'll throw out the following challenge:

Write a detective adventure set somewhere inside the Coalition.  The solution
should call for deducation and reasoning.  Local customs and tech should make
this more than a 'Dick Tracy in space' episode.  The player might be RC
personnel, local police, or civilians.  All local laws and procedures should
be followed (or legally skirted) - any resulting conviction should be because
of proof not firepower.  The players should be liable for their actions and
have to live with the results (possibly this is their homeworld: "don't piss
in your own pool").  Include a reasonable array of suspects; possibly even
leave the referee the choice of which one is guilty, with varient clues
depending on who the real criminal is.

I've done (more than) my fair share of trading adventures, but I'm not very
good at writing detective ones even though I _love_ to play them.  

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

Date: 14 Jan 1995 02:56:48 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM, xboat@MPGN.COM
Subject: Mapping mulitple time periods
Message-ID: <1078329310.6407533@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca>

OK, here's more questions concerning mapping software:

Would it be useful to be able to store multiple surveys in the same database
(with dates for each)?  You would then input the 'current date' and get the
most recent data.

Would it be useful to be able to combine different sectors into the same
sector-sized display?  (I noticed that PoT contains subsectors in two
sectors.)

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 161
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