Subj: Traveller-digest V1999 #1356
Date: 11/17/99 2:10:22 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com (Traveller-digest)
Sender: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Reply-to: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
To: traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Traveller-digest Wednesday, November 17 1999 Volume 1999 : Number 1356
(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.
The following topics are covered in this digest:
Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
[none]
Re: Arts and Culture in and around 3I
Re: Cultures
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1355
Lost Keith Supplements Arrives
Re: Traveller pronounciation guide
Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
Re: Re : Riot Control Agents (was : Anti-Violence groups in the 3I), longish
Re: Arts and Culture in and around 3I...
Re: Starship Disabling Weapons
Re: some thoughts about racing
Re: New BITS product hinted at
RE: Traveller pronounciation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:47:00 EST
From: GypsyComet@aol.com
Subject: Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
david.d.jaques-watson@centrelink.gov.au typed:
>>What iteration of Traveller do y'all want this thing in?
>
>Wow! MT with deckplans, please! (although I'm sure many will want a T4
version)
>
>Of course, you'll have to the get the TML to decide exaclt how big the thing
>really is. Current votes are:
> 400t
> 1500t
> 20000t
If it's much bigger than the second figure, it doesn't get deckplans...
Based on the size of the airlock, the bridge deck is NOT two decks high like
the windows suggest. The change in wedge angle amidships is all wing (see
the shape of the hull at the aft firewall). A raw measurement of the ship
length versus the airlock pit gives a length of 60m. A 60m Needle is 300
DTons; a 60m Wedge is 500 DTons. The hull is about four decks high at the
rear (again a raw measurement), and one deck or less at the nose.
Adding perspective to the picture doesn't really change the length, since
the base measurment is amidships. Perspective will lead to the nose being
deeper and the tail shallower than depicted, though. As mentioned before,
perspective and lighting oddities (follow the shadow line to the nose, then
compare the shadow on the tailfin to the lighting on the hull) make this
vessel hard to pin down completely. I'll do some sketching first...
GC
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 21:02:36 -0900
From: "William F. Hostman"
Subject: [none]
Sonics: Yes, I meant specifically subsonics. Ultrasonics are definitely
thermal effects, and make for lousy ranged weapons. (ever seen how much
draw a sonar-oven uses? Yikes!)
>> Another idea: Use a damper field to increase decay in the area of a group
>> of rioters.
>The most abundant radioactive isotope in a human is potassium-40 (which
>makes up 0.0118% of your body potassium or some 0.0157g in a 70kg male).
> This contributes about 30 millirem per year to the average annual
>radiation exposure of 100 millirems.
> Fizzing that off might do some damage.
>
Don't forget that I mentioned the Area. (Oh, BTW, thanx for the commentary,
Robert). That includes the ground... Take for example the Fairbanks, Alaska
area... Local backgroiund rads are about 3x surface norms, due to the
(non-commercially viable) low-grade uranium deposits, which include the
gravel pits from which fairbanks road-paving gravels are drawn; In juneau
they use Jade.... Add that and the potasium, plus certain more stable
elements beginning to come unglued, and you can probably get a considerable
ammount of low-rate rads.... probably a good siege weapon...
Hmm... a damper would be detectable with a geiger counter, wouldn't it? Use
it as a threat-effect weapon. Toss em a geiger counter with a transponder
and no controls. (Beeps it's coords based upon GPS)... then set the dampers
up to about 20% more decay rates.... And every so often, put a burst (from
a separate projector) near the tricked out geiger counter. Psych warfare...
and keep increasing the decay rates until they either go nuts from the
clicking, or realize the longer they wait the more dangeours the rad threat
will be.
Another thought... what does all that potassium 40 decay into, and is it
used in any neurotransmitters?
William F. Hostman | "Smith & Wesson: THe original Point and Click
interface!"
Aramis 0602 C55A364-C S kk+ as+ hi+ dr+ va++(--) so+ zh++ vi+ da++ sy- ge-
533
Mailto:aramis@gci.net http://home.gci.net/~aramis mailto:wilh@alaska.com
ICQ:14640742 AIM:AKAramis ARM 1.0: 3 R H++ P+
IMTU 1.0: tc tm++ tn- t4-- tt+ to- tg-- ru+ ge 3i+ c+ jt-() au+ st- ls
pi+() ta+ he+(-) kk+ as+ hi+ dr+ va++(--) so+ zh++ vi+ da++ sy- ge- pi+
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:25:39 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Arts and Culture in and around 3I
In mail you write:
> On Mon, 15 Nov 1999 18:13:07 PST
> shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) writes
>
>>> It strikes me that there is very little that would attract tourists
>>> to the Marches. There's the museum at Regina, but that is solitary
>>> entertainment and it's appeal could hardly be described as being
>>> "fun". Apart from that, there is nothing that I would consider a
>>> "draw" for tourists.
>>
>>Alas, you are projecting a rather recent cultural phenomenon into a
>>situation where it just plain *doesn't work*.
>>
>>Tourism, of the sort you are thinking of is a creation of the railroad,
>>the steamship, and most especially the *airplane*.
>
>
> I'll be more careful what I'm thinking of now I know you're Zhodani.
>
>
> I was only using my present day vacation to lead in to the topic and
> did not mean to imply that there were any parallels between that and
> tourism in Traveller. I too think that tourism works very differently
> in the Imperium. But just because it doesn't work the same way doesn't
> mean that it can't work at all.
Quite true. I just jumped in "hard" to nip the incipient "Traveller is
the current world with starships" idea in the bud.
>>You didn't get huge numbers of "average joe" tourists until
>>transportation was cheap AND IT WAS POSSIBLE TO MAKE THE TRIP IN NO
>>MORE THAN TWO WEEKS!
>
> I agree with you that 2 week vacations won't work that way in Traveller.
> That doesn't mean that tourism *doesn't work*. Just that the same kind of
> vacation we're familiar with here will not lead to space tourism in the
> Traveller Universe.
>
> However, tourism DOES happen. It's what luxury liners are built for.
> It's what safari ships are built for. It's what at least one of the
> megacorporations specialise in. It's in canon. There are published
> scenarios that have tourists and entertainers aboard cruise ships.
> The luxury liners aren't just there for business travellers or those
> who are migrating. They take tourists around the Imperium.
And as I noted, the folks taking those luxur cruises aren't "Joe
Average", they'll be sigificantly higher "class" economically.
> Heck, when you think about it, aren't all Travellers tourists?
True enough, but most are either on a working passage, or *retired*.
>>That last is the killer in Traveller. That means that you *can't* go
>>even *one* jump away for your vacation, because even with 2 weeks
>>vacation, it'd use up your entire vacation just getting there and back!
>
> Only if your vacation is for 2 weeks. In my country 4 week vacations are
> the norm (we have it good). That would give sophonts time for 2 weeks stay
> at their destination as well as 2 weeks in jump. It makes it possible.
> But only if there is something worth the time and expense one jump away.
> Space travel, while affordable to the masses, is still expensive. To my
> mind most sophonts would not holiday outsystem unless there was
> a real 'draw' to attract them. It certainly would not be a yearly event.
> Most "average joe" would find something closer to home to look at instead.
Yep. And frankly, I think space travel is more expensive in *time*
rather than money. Anybody who has been cooped up with the kids in a
car on a vacation trip is going to think two and even three times about
spending *two weeks* in jump with their kids. And there's gonna be that
thought "what if we don't like "? That'll make the
week in jump on the way back *really* bad.
ObTrav: The players ship gets a family as passengers. The husband
figured it'd be *so* much cheaper buying passage on a "tramp" than on a
luxury liner. The kids will, of course, be bored stiff about 3 hours
out of port. The wife will be bored about a day later. And the ship's
Steward will be going *nuts* trying to keep them happy. The rest of the
crew will have to deal with bored kids trying to investigate
*everything*.
For extra fun, after they deliver the family, have them encounter the
family coming *back* (father's budget wouldn't allow the to take the
liner back). Even if the players have a cargo going back to the world
they started from (funny how easy that cargo was to get :-) I bet
they'll lift without *any* passengers before they'll let *that* bunch
back on the ship!
It may help to consider these well known families as the passengers in
question:
The Bundie Family (Al, Peg and the kids)
The Simpson Family (Homer, Marges, Bart....)
The Addams Family (Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday)
Any other suggestions?
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:43:24 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Cultures
In mail you write:
> At 02:58 PM 11/15/1999 PST, you wrote:
>
>>Just keep two things in mind. The Earthship Ark main body is *wider*
>>than the Red Dwarf is *long*. Going with the Ellison figures of 30
>>mile diameter biospheres (the 3 mile figure is a bad joke), that makes
>>the main body around 25 miles on a side and hundreds of miles long.
>
> Yes, but RD has Ace Rimmer. Game, Set, Match. Red Dwarf
Fine, Doug. *You* get to tell Harlan that "his" starship was taken out
by Red Dwarf. I wanna watch.
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:44:41 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
In mail you write:
> At 08:45 PM 1999 11 15 -0500, you wrote:
>>True. It's all to easy to have them told. "You must be thinking of some
>>*other* planet. We've always had the toy company there..."
>>
>>For the "ultimate" in paranoia, have them go to a system they've been
>>to several (or better yet *many*) times before. And have the system be
>>different. Different star, different orbit and UPP for the mainworld.
>>To really rub it in, keep the name. And have all their library records
>>etc match the *new* system.
>>
>>For extra points, make the "missing" system their home base. With the
>>"new" system having no records of them...
>
> Interesting idea, but how would you replace one system with another?
> In my Supers game, the toy company building was a bit larger than the
> old Omnitech HQ building, so that the old building would fit inside
> the new one. The toy company building was, in fact, a shell that was
> placed overtop the old building.
>
> Actually, I've thought of one way to pull it off, but it's a bit of
> a stretch: change the star maps in the computer system of the PCs. If
> they rely exclusively on the maps to find their way around, switching
> the old system and new on the map just might throw them for a curve...
You aren't thinking "big" enough. Maybe they fell into an alternate
universe. Maybe they've annoyed Powers Man was Not Meant To Know. Maybe
they are the victims of a botched mindwipe.
The second is sort of what I was thinking. We are talking *literally*
Cosmic Conspiracy here.
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:49:14 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
In mail you write:
> Sometimes, all one needs to induce paranoia in the players is a previous
> rep for that sort of thing. The last game I ran before my current GURPS
> Traveller was the paranoid Supers campaign I had run last year, with
> the same group of players.
> A way to use this in a game: have things happen in the background of=20
> wherever the players are, to make them suspect that maybe someone *is*
> out to get them. They take train from point A to point B on planet X;
> later that day, there's a big train wreck on planet X. The PCs visit a
> space station; after they leave, the station's reactor core goes critical
> and blows up, taking half the station with it.... Keep doing this, and
> it will have an effect on the players...
Something *I* discovered is that in a long running campaign, it pays to
let the players brief new players on the "background" and "history" of
the campaign. You'll find that they'll have invented all sorts of
details that you never gave them, and linked things you never thought
of connecting.
An example was this *elliptical* crater, partly filled with water in
the area the D&D players were campaigning in. They had visted it
*once*, in *daylight*. Yet I heard them tell new players about how the
pool glowed in the dark. Thus are myths created and legends born.
Players are *always* "unconsciously" filling in details. And by letting
them brief newbies, you find out about these "fill ins". Then you can
either adopt them, or you can not them down and wait for a chance to
use them to trip up the players by having these assumptions prove
*wrong*.
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:57:47 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
In mail you write:
> Leonard Erickson wrote:
>>
> <>
>>
>> For a *slightly* less extreme problem, read Heinlein's "Puppet
>> Massters". Then transpose it to an out of the way world. Not only do
>> you have to stop this, you have to try to keep them from infecting any
>> one going offworld.
>>
>> In this case, the threat isn't enough to get the world nuked from
>> orbit. But it *is* enough to get a *strict* quarantine established.
>
> Of course, if you want to get _deeply_ unpleasant, try combining the
> "flying fried eggs" from ST:TOS's "Operation: Annihilate" with
> Heinlein's _The Puppet Masters_. Imagine a parasite that combines the
> slugs' total control of its victims with the Denevan parasites' lack of
> visually obvious signs of infection. Don't forget to make sure that the
> parasites are immune to the agents used against them in the
> above-mentioned stories. A kind-hearted referee will provide a way
> (that the PCs might be able to find) to kill the parasites, without
> killing the host. OTOH, killing the host is the only way to be
> _sure_....
>
> If _that_ doesn't get your players paranoid, they'll _never_ see the
> fnords, and you may as well give up on the project....
And after their run-in with whatever variety of parasites, have them
run into a *good* symbiont. Say the cave critter from the F.Paul Wilson
story I can't recall the title of or the ones from Hal Clement's
"Needle" and "Through the Eye of a Needle".
Now the "infected" player has to first, keep from panicking, and
second, once he understands what's going on, keep his buddies from
killing him!
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 22:01:31 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
In mail you write:
> Glenn St-Germain wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
> A way to use this in a game: have things happen in the background of
> wherever the players are, to make them suspect that maybe someone *is*
> out to get them. They take train from point A to point B on planet X;
> later that day, there's a big train wreck on planet X. The PCs visit a
> space station; after they leave, the station's reactor core goes critical
> and blows up, taking half the station with it.... Keep doing this, and
> it will have an effect on the players...
>>>>>>>>>>>
> PC's aren't the only ones who correlate data. As my players learned in
> my old superhero RPG, otherwise normal people can have unsettlingly
> good detective work skills. The players aren't the only ones who are going
> to notice the chain of disasters that are always one step behind the
> player characters. The PC's might be the always-missed target, but the
> first idea our NPC detective may come up with is that they are the
> cause.
>
> It's hard to be a moving target while sitting in jail. Those prison guards
> won't be much protection against something that cracks space
> stations.
Then there's always the "Dirty Pair" scenario. Kei & Yuri are a pair of
top notch law enforcement types. There's just this one *little*
problem. Whenever they get involved, disasters happen. It's 100%
demostrable that it simply is *not* their fault. Their actions don't
cause the disasters, and there's nothing they could have done to
prevent them. Nonetheless, disasters occur.
A *minor* example was when they were *passing thru* a space station. A
robbery went bad and one of the crooks accidentaly activated a bomb that
not merely blew a hole in the hull, it ble it right at an airtight
bulkhead, thus compromising *two* sections of the station.
This gives the "Lovely Angels" (their code name) the unofficial tag of
"the Dirty Pair" and means that *nobody* wants to work with them.
Have someone like that following the PCs. Possibly for benign reasons
(maybe they are shadowing the characters waiting for an old enemy to
attack them).
The players will go nuts. And just think of the fun if/when they
determine the *cause*.
Player1: "I'm gonna *kill* those jinxes!"
Player2: "You can't do that! They work for Imperial Security"
Player3: "And besides, just imagine what could go wrong if you were
*trying* to commit violence in that 'jinx field' of theirs!"
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 01:19:23 EST
From: DanOwsen@aol.com
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1355
remove danowsen@aol.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:25:54 -0600
From: "Eris Reddoch"
Subject: Lost Keith Supplements Arrives
Hi!
Just wanted to report that my copy of the Keith Supplements was
awaiting me with I got home tonight. Everything looks wonderful.
It'll take me time to work my way through all this material, but I'm
going to enjoy doing it.
Eris
- --
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 22:56:55 -0800
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella"
Subject: Re: Traveller pronounciation guide
Via electronic medium on 11/16/99 7:27 AM, efritz@GLJA.com wrote:
> JDoch226@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> How do you say Efate? Boughene? Pscias? Is there a guide to the
>> pronounciation of system names?
>
> The pronounciation of names varies by Traveller universe, and IMTU, varies
> from
> person to person. Some species have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds, so
> there is no standard rule.
>
> For me, I say "eefayt", "bogeen" (with a hard G), and "syas". But that's me.
I agree on variation across different regions, and according to species, and
even have a few alternate pronunciations depending on which character (of
five *main ones* so far) I'm playing.
Efate: eh-fit, ee-feh-tay
Boughene: bow-thayn, boo-geen (hard g)
Psias: si-es (long i, short e)
Of course some worlds vary little in pronunciation, unless the species can't
make the sounds, like Bronze, Iron, Regina, etc.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 22:58:55 -0800
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
>From: Steven Bonneville
>Subject: Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
...
>> If the open airlock shows a 2m high hatch then the ship must be about
>> 50m across at the mid-point, and 100-130+ long; depending on the overall
>> shape it should be at least 1500+ Dt; but still too small for a 20KT rider.
>
>Hm. I don't have the picture handy, but the ship is a flattened cone with
>the tip of the cone at the nose, right? If the beam is about 90 meters at
>the tail, and the height at the tail is 65 meters, and it's 145 meters long,
>then I can get just over 280000 cubic meters (20000 dtons).
I estimate a tail height less than one-fifth the maximum width, which itself
may be no more than 75m :(
OTOH, if it were a rider then where the are the weapons?
>From: "Rupert Boleyn"
>Subject: Re: That vessel on the SMC cover
...
>> If the open airlock shows a 2m high hatch then the ship must be about
>> 50m across at the mid-point, and 100-130+ long; depending on the overall
...
>What if it's not an airlock, but instead a boat bay door or a lock for
>large pieces of equipment?
Then the deck crew had best have rocket packs to get over the door sill :>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 22:26:30 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Re : Riot Control Agents (was : Anti-Violence groups in the 3I), longish
In mail you write:
> Leonard Erickson wrote :-
>> Spasm[1] loads are going to get
>> folks *really* upset. Though not as upset as lethal loads.
>>
>> [1] for those of you who haven't read the series, they cause a
>> virtually instant "lock" of all voluntary muscles. It won't kill you,
>> but it hurts like hell and you need medical care until the effects wear
>> off (it's a sort of viral effect). It takes about 6 *months* to wear
>> off.
>
> Therefore 'Spasm' is a cute drug, but makes very little pharmacological
> or physiological sense. Consider me one of the upset.
>
> i. Drugs have to get to their site of action. Usually this is via the
> circulation, unless the agent is delivered directly.
> Combine this with uptake time and you have a delay of at least 30
> seconds (arm-brain circulation time, with optimised IV medications).
> Heck, cyanide will take at least five minutes to kill you (though
> you're unconscious and fitting within 60 seconds, usually).
Ok, so it isn't "instantly".
> ii. There is no functional difference down to a receptor level between
> various beds of skeletal (striated) muscle. If the limb muscles are
> paralysed, then the chest wall and diaphragm will go too.
> If these muscles are 'locked', it will become impossible to
> artificially ventilate the victim with any degree of safety.
> (I've been at resucitations like this, folks. They are *scary*).
> If you can't breathe or have someone breathe for you, you will almost
> certainly die. Access to cardiopulmonary bypass (or, in Trav, low
> berths) isn't guaranteed. Irreparable damage may occur before the
> subject is ready to go on the pump/in the cooler (though this is less
> likely with higher TLs).
I know for a *fact* that there are surgical muscle relaxants that *do*
only effect the "voluntary" muscles. They leave the heart and lungs
alone. Mind you, I seem to recall that they do this by blocking nerve
impulses from the spine, rather than by directly affecting the muscles...
>> This makes it an *ideal* military weapon, in that it ties up a maximal
>> amount of enemy resources in caring for the victim. Yet it's not even
>> lethal, so you can play things down if you accidentally shoot a few
>> "innocent bystanders".
>
> The polio epidemic of the 1950's springs to mind. There were *wards*
> full of people on 'iron lungs' and pedal powered ventilators all over
> the developed world.
>
> Nightmarish stuff. It would only take one riot to overload the critical
> care facilities of a good sized (pop 3 million+) city at current tech
> levels.
> In a combat situation, a lot of people would die, either from inability
> to get to them in time, or on the basis of triage (save the 'Spasm'
> victims or the multi trauma casualties - I assume bombs and
> bullets/beams would still be used?).
>
> I don't think 'Spasm' makes a good riot control agent, for the reasons I
> have touched on above, unless you are uninterested in the survival of
> the rioters (and part of the plausibility of your narrative).
> Perhaps the mere threat of its use would prevent riots.
Spasm *wasn't* a riot control agent. It was a load for a very
specialized weapon. It was *targeted*, not sprayed indiscriminately.
You seem to have rolled the comments on spetsdods (an odd "hand
weapon") and anti-riot measures into one. They were seperate subjects.
> ii. Incapacitating agents
> - an aerosol sedative ;
> - an agent to interrupt the motor pathways in such a fashion as to cause
> transient Parkinsonian motor signs (you can't riot much faster than a
> slow shuffle and you can't change direction or stop without assistance)
> i.e. a *very selective* dopamine receptor blocker ;
> - 'soma', from Huxley's 'Brave New World' ;
> - descendants of modern agents (e.g. CS) with shorter onset and offset
> times and fewer spillover side effects.
> - immobilising foam and slipping agents (which have already been
> mentioned).
Real world items:
A derivative of one of the high blood pressure meds. It slowly lowers
your blood pressure. After a while, you get faint if you are standing.
So you sit down (or fall down) after more time, you are faint even
sitting up, so you lie down or fall down. Now, you are flat on your
back, and getting over excited will tend to make you pass out. Now the
riot police can collect you.
A derivative of that surgical muscle relaxant I mentioned. The effects
start at the base of the spine and work up. So you lose control of your
feet and ankles, then of the knees, etc, until you are effectively a
(temporary) quadraplegic. Again, at this point the police wander over
and pick you up.
Supposedly both of these are hard to administer overdoses of, and have
limited effects (ie the blood pressure won't drop too low, and the
"nerve block" stops before it gets too high up the spine).
- --
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
shadow@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 23:23:51 -0800
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Arts and Culture in and around 3I...
>From: david.d.jaques-watson@centrelink.gov.au
>Subject: Re: Arts and Culture in and around 3I AND X-Files scenarios in Trav
...
>Also see "The Circus" from E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Family d'Alembert" series:
...
>In terms of the nobility and empire background, the series is very
>Traveller-esque - or maybe Trav was influenced by this series? The nobility
Trav predates that series, AFAIK (which was also very heavily contributed
to by a co-author whose names escapes me - Goldin?).
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 23:24:52 -0800
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Starship Disabling Weapons
>From: "Legate Legion"
>Subject: Starship Disabling Weapons
...
> Would you use an Ionic Weapon? Or a Mazer?
Isn't the former a PAW to the non-SW crew?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:31:48 -0800
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: some thoughts about racing
>From: "Thomas Vickers"
>Subject: Re: some thoughts about racing
...
>Any such technical problems for traveller? Precise jump exiting? Exiting
>closer to way points?
If one wants to follow Triplanetary (and of course, one does :> ), then
real racers would use ion drives - low thrust, high-fuel efficiency for
those _long_ races. And then you could simulate Triplanetary one turn of
double thrust to represent a long burn over the drives safe on-line duration,
to be followed by maintenance before being allowed again.
You could also have crew aboard to perform that maintenance to allow
multiple long burns during a single leg of a race; a crit failure on
the relevant skill roll might mean that the drive may remain off-line
totally for one turn.
If other crew have roles (no/minimal computers means that you want a
navigator, or all skills are penalized if performing multiple roles),
then the designer also needs to decide between having lots of crew, or
getting more reaction mass into the tanks.
Given that a very small crew may be highly over-worked - making the
race a matter of skill, design, and the endurance of both the ship and
its complement - we can only await FS chemical amplification programs,
or the Sayat's ever so loosely-interpreted definition of "design/ship/
abominations-of-genetic-engineering".
Steven Hudson
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 08:46:11 +0000
From: Timothy.Collinson@solent.ac.uk
Subject: Re: New BITS product hinted at
>> Sources close to the BITS Director suggest that the Penguin throwing
>> supplement may well be ready for press very soon.
>_101 Ballistic Flightless Birds_, actually, which will feature thrown
>penguins along with catapulted ostriches, dropped emus, hurled dodos, and
>so forth.
>> Along with a list of books and magazines (okay tc!) and some Patrons.
>Patron 102:
>A nervous-looking man approaches the party in a quiet section of the
>starport. He is leading a 70cm tall penguin on a thin leash. After
>glancing around to be sure he's not overheard, he offers the party Cr 100
>to throw the penguin. Before anyone has time to answer, his eyes widen in
>panic; he hands the leash to one of the party (dropping it if they refuse
>to take it) and departs at a run. The penguin stands calmly.
Stop, please stop. My colleague is in the office with me and I'm
desperately trying to split my sides quietly. I mean, how would *you*
explain the above!
I look forward to adding 101 BFB to any further editions of the
bibliography. ;-)
tc
PS regarding another thread entirely: I've just been told about a friend
who is taking 6 months unpaid leave to visit New Zealand. That'd be a fair
few jumps worth from home.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 02:46:14 -0800
From: "Glenn M. Goffin"
Subject: RE: Traveller pronounciation
> From: Ian Ferguson
> Jed Docherty writes:
> >How do you say Efate? Boughene? Pscias?
Efate is an island in the South Pacific, where it is pronounced eff ART
ee
Boughene I haven't figured out. I usually say boog hwen ("e" like the
"a" in tame).
I say p'shias -- the p is just touched.
- --Glenn
------------------------------
End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1356
***********************************
To unsubscribe to Traveller-Digest, send the command:
unsubscribe traveller-digest
in the body of a message to "traveller-request@lists.imagiconline.com".
If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is
coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that
address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe
"local-traveller":
subscribe traveller-digest local-traveller@your.domain.net
A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to
subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "traveller-digest"
in the commands above with "traveller".
Multi-Player Games Network http://www.mpgn.com
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path:
Received: from rly-yh03.mx.aol.com (rly-yh03.mail.aol.com [172.18.147.35]) by air-yh02.mail.aol.com (v65.3) with ESMTP; Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:10:22 -0500
Received: from lists.imagiconline.com (lists.imagiconline.com [204.85.32.11]) by rly-yh03.mx.aol.com (v63.6) with ESMTP; Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:10:00 -0500
Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost)
by lists.imagiconline.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) with SMTP id FAA80825;
Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:09:34 -0500 (EST)
(envelope-from owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com)
Received: by lists.imagiconline.com (bulk_mailer v1.12); Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:09:17 -0500
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
by lists.imagiconline.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) id FAA80727
for traveller-digest-outgoing; Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:09:17 -0500 (EST)
(envelope-from owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com)
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 05:09:17 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199911171009.FAA80727@lists.imagiconline.com>
From: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com (Traveller-digest)
To: traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Traveller-digest V1999 #1356
Reply-To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Sender: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com