
-------- TML Message #16 --------

Subject: Available Traveller software for Apple II series
Date: 10 Jul 87 20:42:59 CDT (Fri)
From: Michael Rossow <rossow@umn-cs.arpa>
Archive-Message-Number: 16

I purchased a program called 'Trader', distributed by Game 
Designers' Workshop.  It was designed and programmed by Marc 
Miller, the creator of Traveller.

Trader runs on the Apple II series of computers, running 
DOS 3.3.  The package includes a starship trade and commerce 
simulation game, a Book One style sector generator, an editor 
to manipulate the sectors, and datafiles for The Spinward 
Marches and the Solomani Rim sectors.

I have yet to find any use for the trade simulation game, but 
the purchase was worth-while for the sector datafiles.  GDW's 
sector generator lacks in usefulness in the fact that it makes 
no provisions for taking into account names for the systems 
you generate.

The whole thing is written in Applesoft Basic, and the code 
is listable, modifiable, and copyable.

GDW also makes available a program called 'Traveller Word 
Generator', and one called 'Beastiary'.  Word Generator 
randomly generates Aslan, Droyne, K'Kree, Vargr, Vilani, and 
Zhodani words using the language algorithms published in 
various GDW books.  Beastiary generates animal encounter
tables.  I haven't purchased either of these products, so I 
really can't comment on them.

All of these packages are available for the Apple II, and are 
available by mail from GDW for $17.50 and a buck for postage.  
Their address for information and ordering is:

	Game Designers' Workshop
	PO Box 1646
	Bloomington, IL  61702-1646

GDW also announced a product called 'System Survey', which the 
blurbs describe as a set of astrophysical programs for system 
and world generation.  It is a Book 6 - Scouts style system 
generator.

When I placed my order for this product, I received a notice 
back from GDW saying it's release had been 'indefinitely 
delayed'.  This doesn't sound like anything I would count on 
for the near future.

Another source of Apple II compatible software is the Traveller 
Program Exchange.  This is a non profit organization dedicated
to writing and distributing public domain software for Traveller.

Their contact address for comments, questions, requests, and
donations of software is:

	John C. Meyers
	526A Forney Loop
	Fort Belvior, VA  22060

	(703) 781-7310

They have an DOS 3.3 disk available, basically for the cost of 
the disk.  They will mail hardcopy listings of their code for
aproximatly a dollar or their current disk for three dollars.
If you mail them a blank disk with return postage, they will
fill it with their current collection of software.

As of the time when I received a copy of their collection, 
(January 1987) it contained the following stuff:

	o Sectordot - Plots a standard sector file to a 
		high resolution screen.

	o Date - A date conversion program.  It can 
		handle Imperial, Zhodani, Azlan, Solomani, 
		Vilani, and K'Kree dating systems.

	o Demog - A demographics program which analyzes a 
		standard sector datafile and organizes the 
		data based on various UPP stats and alligences.

	o Recruit - A program which implements Book 4 
		recruiting.

	o Gvurrdon - The datafile for the Gvurrdon sector, 
		just coreward of the Spinward marches.  This 
		was donated by GDW.

The collection also contains a set of basic functions for 
dice rolling and Pseudo-Hex to decimal conversions, and a 
nice menu program that provides on-line documentation for 
all the software.

Keep in mind that all of my information is about six months
out of date, and things may have changed.  I would suggest
you contact these organizations about current availability
and costs before you order something.

- -------
					
         ihnp4\			
               \			  Mike Rossow
           sun!umn-cs!rossow		  ---------------
               /			  rossow@umn-cs.arpa
rutgers!meccts/


-------- TML Message #17 --------

Date: Sat, 11 Jul 87 14:44:27-1000
From: uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU!nosc!humu!glenn@tektronix (Glenn Fernandez)
Subject: History update
Archive-Message-Number: 17


Aloha,

	At last someone to talk about traveller. I live in a small town
called Hilo (thats pronouced "he low") and no one carries any traveller 
books or magazines. So I am some what behind the times, the last date that
I am aware of is 1110. What year is it , 1113? I feel like I just got of
f a low passage ticket. To compensate I designed my own subsector and 
focused my attention on planet design using BOOK 6. Is there anyone
who can help a little lost "traveller"?


glenn fernandez
Univeristy of Hawaii at Hilo Computing Center


Have FGMP-15 will travel.


-------- TML Message #18 --------

From: "Brent L. Woods" <ihnp4!pur-ee!s.cc.purdue.edu!ahh@tektronix>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 87 12:15:48 EST
Subject: Response on many subjects (long)
Archive-Message-Number: 18



     Gee.  You go away for a weekend, and the mail just piles up...
Lots of stuff to talk about.  Specifically, this addresses points
raised in messages from Jim Baranski and Jonathan E. Davis (addresses
from headers and all that good stuff below with their respective
messages).

     First, Mr. Baranski's message (lots of good stuff there):

>From: "Words should echo Truth; Words do not define Truth."
>      <baranski%yoda.DEC%decwrl.dec.com%tektronix.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
>      Jim Baranski, DEC, Tewksbury MA.
>Subject: Everything
>Date: 09-Jul-1987 1629
>
>RE:  Space generation Programs
>
>In the new (first/second) GDW Challenge magazine, there is a BASIC program for
>generating Star Systems according to the guidelines of BOOK 6 SCOUTS.  I have
>yet to type it in, but some day... 

     Yup.  Got it here right in front of me (if it's the first issue of
Challenge, how come it says number 25?).  The first thing that I notice
is that it's printed on just one page.  It also just does the basic
style of world generation, no Book 6 stuff.  More than that, I can't
tell quickly.  Looks reasonable, though.  More later...

>RE: Advanced Character Generation Procedure:
>
>I myself, like them very much.  They give more detail to the character so that

     I'm rather fond of them myself.  So are my players (I usually
referee; it's been quite a while since I actually played).  As a matter
of fact, the only time we use the Book 1 character generation is for
short intro games to help new players get used to the system.  The new
ones usually move up to the more advanced systems fairly quickly.

>you can get a handle on it easier.  Then you have to explain all the twists the
>dice have but into your character!

     You do?  I've met players that like to make up personalities and
idiosyncracies for their characters, but I've never seen much point in
it.  Seems enough just to take the character as rolled and play it,
without worrying about how "he came to be the way he is."  Anybody else
have an opinion?

>                                    There is no such thing as an over specified
>character.

     I disagree.  I request that my players give me a copy of their
characters so that I can keep it going for them if they can't make it
to a playing session for some reason.  One time I got *five* pages of
character data from a player for only *one* character.  132 columns,
too.  As far as my buried-in-bookkeeping-enough-already referee's
viewpoint is concerned, a UPP and a (simple) list of skill levels is
plenty.  If your character can't fit on a 3x5 card, then there's too
much there.

>I'm also in favor of a larger number of 'smaller' scope skills.  In my private

     Yes, this can be good at times, but, again, it adds to the
bookkeeping.

>RE: Skills in general:
>
>I don't like the idea of a maximum number of skill levels attainable.

     I'm not certain, but I believe that the maximum skill levels rule
is there in an effort to maintain game balance.  For example, there's
little comparison between a Book 1 Army character, and one from Book
4.  The Mercenary will stomp all over the Book 1 "weenie" (at least, in
terms of skills).

>Traveller, as in the books, has the drawback that there is little or no skill
>advancement.  What's your ideas on skill advancement?  I let characters have a
>chance of increasing a skill every once in a while, and give them bonuses if
>they've used that skill. 

     To maintain balance, you can't let characters get too powerful.  In
Traveller, the basis of a character's power is his store of skills.  If
you let skill improvement go on too far, pretty soon a character will be
so skillful and experienced that, in practical terms, they can't fail.
One of my players calls this type of character a "deus ex machina"
(we've run into several of these before, in my campaign; so far, they've
been more trouble than they're worth).

>RE: emphasis on combat:
>
>The problem I have with combat is that I ***like*** combat, slugging it out,

     You aren't alone.  My group has a deep and enduring love of
killing anything that moves.  Maybe the fact that most of them are
in the military (Army Rangers and Mech. Infantry) has something to
do with it...

>etc...  But Morally I have a problem with it.  I try to make the right and

     Moral?  Hoo, boy, the stories I could tell...  A character called
"RatMan" and his favorite weapon, "The Amazing Ginsu Chainsaw" (it
slices, it dices, it juliennes sentients).  I have another player who
suffers from a serious case of gamer's paranoia.  He sees bombs
everywhere.  One time I plopped a young mother pushing her infant in a
baby carriage in front of him.  He then proceeded to pump about 200
M-60 rounds into the carriage (I think the mother got away) and run it
down with an ATV.  He said he couldn't afford to take any chances...
Fun times, and never boring.

>RE: supplementary books:

     What opinions does anyone have of Book 8: Robots?  I kind of
like it, since the idea of making machines do a lot of the heavy work
appeals to me.  Also, Robots would have an important place in any high
technology area, like a StarPort.  Even if the local tech level is low,
some of the jobs at a Port are dangerous enough that you wouldn't want
to risk a human (or whatever).  Also, seems the reduction in human
personnel insurance rates and payroll would more than make up for the
high cost of robotics.

>RE: Fuel:
>
>Can anyone recouncil the fact that suposedly the Jump drives burn all the Jump
>fuel at the start of the jump,

     Sure.  Well, maybe not.  Why does the Jump drive have to burn all
its fuel at the start?  Maybe a large portion of the fuel goes to power
the drive during Jump.  Rationalizaion 1A:  The way that a Starship
travels through Jump space is by maintaining a field around the ship
that interacts with the fabric of Jump space (fundamentally different
from our own, remember) in such a way that the ship is propelled
through Jump space from its insertion point to its emergence point.

>                               with the fact that the Jump drives are not *the*
>limiting factor of the powerplant? I.E. the rest of the equipment is just as
>important in deciding how big you want your power plant.

     Well, sure.  You only use one at a time.  It'd be kind of stupid to
fire up the Manuever drive during Jump, eh?  Besides, I look at it as
part of the Jump drive is the drive's own personal power plant (*this*
piece of equipment is what burns all that fuel).  The reason that the
Jump drive has anything to do with the ship's main Power Plant (which
runs everything else) is that the main Plant is needed to "jump-start"
(excuse the pun) the secondary Power Plant that powers the Jump drive.

>RE: Varying Technologies:
>
>Has anyone ever run a campaign where different people had widely different
>technologies (Jump Drive vs. Black Hole Drive), not just varying Tech Levels?

     Sure.  Sometimes, I just let the players design tech systems,
cultures, non-human sentients, etc., and then file them away.  You never
know when they're going to pop up...





>From: DAVIS JONATHAN E
       <DAVISJE%csbvax%steinmetz%uunet%seismo%gatech%tektronix%dadla.tek.com@
        RELAY.CS.NET>
>Subject: RE: Everything (Regarding Everything, hmm.... :-) 
>Posted-Date: 10 Jul 87 16:02 EST
>Date: 10 Jul 87 16:02 EST
>
>
>BTW, it is possible to generate a world with a class A starport with 
>any population UPP.  I guess those 10 to 99 guys have a lot of work
>to do at (Overworked SubSector 0205 Busy A-567100-A).  I guess it 

     Isn't automation wonderful?  Seriously, Maybe those 10 to 99
non-gender-specific-organo-sentients (whew; much more of this equality-
for-all stuff, and I'll need another vacation) are just the administrative
and supervisory (both technical and admin) staff for the StarPort.  Maybe
just a few of them are, and everything else is done by automated systems.

>will take a little longer than 24 months for that freighter you 
>wanted to build there.  A legit modification to any system generation
>is to bump up the population of a class A port to 3 or 4.

     If you're willing to wait, the population will bump itself up...  :-)

>>RE: Traveller Chronicles:
>>
>>If there is any interest, I have several tales of Traveller adventures which
>>I could post, if you think it would be appropriate.  What do you think?
>
>You should probably consult James Perkins regarding the length of the 
>messages.  (If he doesn't contact you first.) If they offer some 
>interesting ideas for our own campaigns and subplots, I would 
>certainly like to see them posted, or you could directly e-mail them 
>to me.  I enjoy a good tale.

     Me, too.  I have a couple good stories, too.  It turns out that
Zero-G combat can be quite amusing at times...

>>I don't like the idea of a maximum number of skill levels attainable.
>>Traveller, as in the books, has the drawback that there is little or no skill
>>advancement.  What's your ideas on skill advancement?  I let characters have a
>>chance of increasing a skill every once in a while, and give them bonuses if
>>they've used that skill. 
>
>I have no problem with a character developing any of his or her
>personal attributes, such as STR, DEX, and INT, or skills within
>reason.  But I think it is unreasonable to have a low INT and EDU
>character who has high expertise in highly technical skills such as
>Computer, Pilot, Engineering, etc. (Probably not so unreasonable for
>Admin though :-) ) Expertise in the less technical skills (some may
>debate me) of Streetwise and Brawling could be possible but adding
>rules to account for that would be a waste of paper and simply
>complicate the game. 

     It should depend on the skill.  Some skills (streetwise, brawling,
carousing, etc.) would be relatively easy to improve (not really easy,
but relatively so).  Others, like the tech skills, would be more
difficult.  Unfortunately, providing for this increases the amount of
bookkeeping required (I do go on about that, don't I?).  It would also
slow the game action down (not much, but I get little enough done in one
night as it is).  Everything's a tradeoff...

- --
Brent Woods                                                             
                                                                        
USENET:  {seismo, decvax, ucbvax, ihnp4}!pur-ee!s.cc.purdue.edu!ahh
         {seismo, decvax, ucbvax, ihnp4}!pur-ee!el.ecn.purdue.edu!woodsb
BITNET:  PODUM@PURCCVM                    PHONE:  (317) 743-8421
USNAIL:  Brent Woods
         320 Brown St., Apt. 406     "I don't wanna play, I just wanna
         West Lafayette, IN  47906    bang on these keys all day..."


-------- TML Message #19 --------

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 87 15:14:27 PDT
From: ihnp4!ucbvax!zooey.berkeley.edu!c160s-af@tektronix (Zig)
Archive-Message-Number: 19

Jeez!  Look at that message length!  Well, I might as well throw my two
credit in, too.  FIrst off, here are the other speakers so you can tell
who's putting who's foot in who's mouth...

>Brent Woods                                                             
>USENET:  {seismo, decvax, ucbvax, ihnp4}!pur-ee!s.cc.purdue.edu!ahh
>         {seismo, decvax, ucbvax, ihnp4}!pur-ee!el.ecn.purdue.edu!woodsb
>BITNET:  PODUM@PURCCVM                    PHONE:  (317) 743-8421
>USNAIL:  Brent Woods
>         320 Brown St., Apt. 406     "I don't wanna play, I just wanna
>         West Lafayette, IN  47906    bang on these keys all day..."
 
>>From: "Words should echo Truth; Words do not define Truth."
>>      <baranski%yoda.DEC%decwrl.dec.com%tektronix.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
>>      Jim Baranski, DEC, Tewksbury MA.

And now, my Cr 2...

>                                ....        (if it's the first issue of
>Challenge, how come it says number 25?). 

It's Challenge #25 because it is the replacemsnt for Journal of the TAS, which
died at issue #24.  A great loss of a good Trav Mag.  I have all of them from
#6-#24, and Best of JTAS #1-4.  It has the beginnings of robot creation!  Over
7 years old!  It's got some neat stuff on using Dolphins as sentients.  I used
an ex-adventuring Dolphin as a patron for a group I used to GM.  They loved it.
How's Challenge compare with JTAS?  I figured it was going a bit downhill, just
like all the gaming mags (the Dragon (now just Dragon) being the BIG example
of how low a mag can drop).  JTAS was always good reading, and the Amber Zones
often prompted some fantastic campaigns when the spark was fading from both
the player's and the GM's eyes...

>>         There is no such thing as an over specified character.
>
>     I disagree.  I request that my players give me a copy of their
>characters so that I can keep it going for them if they can't make it
>to a playing session for some reason.  

     I disagree with the disagree-ing.  Since we played for long-term
campaigns, it was really important for the players to have well-defined
characters.  Since we had a large group (12 players), there was an interseting
amount of player politics going on, the group constantly forming factions
and playing little jokes on each other during the less intense (and sometimes
very intense) situations.  I avidly encouraged strong characterization, and 
they loved it.  It makes the campaign much fuller, and more fun.  When a
player couldn't make it, his character was adopted by a fellow player and
close friend.  The players played the "X doesn't know what Y's doing"
idea very well, and we never had any problems.  (Most problems were
complaints about how they're supposed to jump planet without a working
jump drive... :)



>                         One time I got *five* pages of
>character data from a player for only *one* character.  132 columns,
>too.   As far as my buried-in-bookkeeping-enough-already referee's
>viewpoint is concerned, a UPP and a (simple) list of skill levels is
>plenty.  If your character can't fit on a 3x5 card, then there's too
>much there.

I agree with the 3x5 card idea.  I used 3x5 cards for all the players.  It's
all you need to GM.  Let the players deal with the role-playing, and let them
speak in words.  You should be the only person who has to use numbers,
tables, and dice.  That way, it's more like they're in another world instead
of another game...It also allows you to say "you feel like you've been hit 
by a truck.  You see a stream of blood flow out of your flak jacket where
you've been hit.  You crumple to your knees as the blood loss and impact
send the world reeling as gravity starts to act in unpleasantly familiar ways."
Instead of "You've taken 14 points of damage.  Where do you want it off?"
I know the players well enough to know where they want the hits, and they
prefer to be left in mystery as to how close they really are to the other
side of consciousness.  

>>I'm also in favor of a larger number of 'smaller' scope skills.  In my private
>
>     Yes, this can be good at times, but, again, it adds to the
>bookkeeping.

Write smaller or switch to 5x8 cards... :)

>>RE: Skills in general:
>>
>>I don't like the idea of a maximum number of skill levels attainable.
>
>     I'm not certain, but I believe that the maximum skill levels rule
>is there in an effort to maintain game balance.  

I really despise arbitrary rules to "maintain game balance."  I acknowledge
the need for them, but a good group tries to avoid having to deal with 
them openly.  A max skill level is definitely important, since each skill
level really juices up the character.  But If all your players are from
Books 4-6/"Merchant Prince" Supplement, then they all are on the same level,
basically.  I make it almost impossible for anyone to pick up any skills
after the initial generation.  A skill level is supposed to be a big
level of proficiency.  Most GDW NPCs are lucky to get a few Skill-Zeroes,
so appreciate your Vacc-Suit-4!

>One of my players calls this type of character a "deus ex machina"
>(we've run into several of these before, in my campaign; so far, they've
>been more trouble than they're worth).

I agree.  Usually the type of player who carries a player with a million
skill levels is also the kind of player who loves to bring the game down
from a playing out of characters and scenarios to a squabbling over the
exact wording of an obscure rule on page 14 of book 1.  We just don't play
with dweebs like that.  "Deus ex machina" is a good word for them.  Certainly
more eloquent than "idiot," which we use.  Them kinda players usually DO
expect their levels to act like deus ex machina.  "But I don't care if
you have Combat Rifleman-50, you STILL can't shoot around a corner.  Now
sit down and get your character sheet out of my face."

>>RE: emphasis on combat:
>>
>>The problem I have with combat is that I ***like*** combat, slugging it out,
>
>     You aren't alone.  My group has a deep and enduring love of
>killing anything that moves. 

My gamers also *loved* combat.  The problem with that attitude in Trav, of
course, is that in combat, *PEOPLE DIE*.  Moral questions aside, the
good chance that you may not survive if you stab that guard is a good 
deterrent to starting a fight on a whim.  My players are very fond of
a good scrap, but my philosophy in Trav is that "If you're fighting, there's
a good chance you did something stupid in the last 10 minutes."  Most people
on the worlds prefer their normal, boring lives.  Some people on the worlds
are walking around itching for a fight.  There's always a couple scenarios
where violence is the best idea, but in my group are about 5 to 7 "Slippery
Jim diGriz" readers, who prefer the good con to the good scrap.   Maybe
that's why half the group is always pulling fast ones on the other half, and
the other half can only respond with "I punch his lights out..."
 
>>etc...  But Morally I have a problem with it.  I try to make the right and
>
>     Moral?  Hoo, boy, the stories I could tell...  A character called
>"RatMan" and his favorite weapon, "The Amazing Ginsu Chainsaw" ...

Morals, in Trav? Where players once opened up an airlock to space, with unsuited
NPCs still in them?  Where they sold an advanced tank to a rich guy, only
to have it's remote program turn the tank over to sneaky-mode and have it
sneak back to the soon-to-jump-the-hell-outta-there corsair.  Not a bad trick,
if you don't mind having another  guy after you.  The kind of guy who buys 
tanks.

>RE: supplementary books:
>
>     What opinions does anyone have of Book 8: Robots?  

BOOK EIGHT?!?!?  I thought book 6 was the latest!  Is book 7 the book version
of the Supplement in JTAS 13 (Merchant Prince)?  I guess book 8 is the
refined version of the stuff in the first JTASs.  I hope they made robots
a little more limited.  Those old rules allowed you to have a robot with
Vehicle-22 if you wanted to shell out the dough.  He'd make one hell of
a chauffeur!
   
>>RE: Fuel:
>>
>>Can anyone recouncil the fact that suposedly the Jump drives burn all the Jump
>>fuel at the start of the jump,

Sure! :)  A jump is really a big bend in timespace.  It has to use all the
fuel up in order to produce the giant quantum jump in energy up to the
bending energy.  After the bend, you go almost instantaneously through, which
is one reason why you can't have combat in Jumpspace.  But because of the
enormous amount of energy involved, there is a time distortion much like
almost-lightspeed travel induces.  This distortion means it takes 2 weeks for
the bend in timespace to finish, and since you're in the bend, you're stuck.
Break out the ping-pong table guys, we just discovered we misjumped...

>>                     with the fact that the Jump drives are not *the*
>>limiting factor of the powerplant? 

I like Brent's idea (Jump does it own hydrogen->power conversion).

>>RE: Varying Technologies:
>>
>>Has anyone ever run a campaign where different people had widely different
>>technologies (Jump Drive vs. Black Hole Drive), not just varying Tech Levels?
>
>     Sure.  Sometimes, I just let the players design tech systems, ...

Oh my...I bet this could be done quite well.  I fixed up Secret of the Ancients
to be less of a ride and more of a mystery, and thus did allow a little mixing
of technologies.  But I had been in a game with a Monty Haul GM who gave
us all sorts of Niven-Miracle-Stuff.  We got a variable sword, a statis field
generator for our ship, shadow-square wire, tasps, a GP hull, and all
sorts of other stuff.  We had to erase the game from our character's
histories, otherwise we'd have to retire the characters.  There's a big danger
in allowing powerful artifacts to fall into the hands of an immature player.
The only time man-portable fusion weapons, combat armor, or (shudder) Battle
Dress appears in the hands of a player in our games is when we just play a
one-night-stand kinda game.  Nothing counts, except death.  One guy got
a PGMP-13 and Battle-Dress (He *did* have the skill from Merc, why not
put it to some use?).  He was looking for a kidnap victim in a 3-story
palacial manor.  He refused to open or go through a door.  Instead, he blasted 
a hole in the direction he wanted to go.  We had a fun night, but we knew
we couldn't keep it up for long before the challenge left the game.


One question:  does anybody use the "First Blood" rule?  Especially if
they are a combat-oriented group?  It makes combat ridiculous.  The group
with the most combatants always wins, because everyone else is out for 10
minutes.

Another poser:  How many people are bugged by a 60,000 frontier cruiser with
so much space that it easily can fit a man-6 drive in it, and a scout/courier
with a wimpy man-2 (man-4 if you're the Han-Solo type :).  According to all
the rules, the Juggernaut of a frontier cruiser can zip around the tiny
scout courier, with a faster speed, acceleration, and tighter turn radius
(for the folks who remember book 2).  But this is silly!  The big ships are
supposed to be sluggish leviathans compared to the spritely little ships!
I can see it now...a frustrated pilot of a Man-2 S/C looking around in dismay
as a refitted Azhanti-class zips around him like a fly, pumping out warning
shots from her spinal mount... 

					 --Zig

...ucbvax!zooey!c160s-af    or c160s-af@zooey.berkeley.edu

"You just killed a Hiver!  You fiend!"

"Yeah, but we needed something to go with the K'Kree we're cooking up on
 deck 5..."



-------- TML Message #20 --------

Subject: GDW to release MegaTraveller late summer
Date: 15 Jul 87 01:38:16 CDT (Wed)
From: Michael Rossow <rossow@umn-cs.arpa>
Archive-Message-Number: 20

This summer, Game Designers' Workshop is scheduled to release 
MegaTraveller, according to material published in issue nine 
of the Travellers' Digest.  This will be a three book set of 
revised and enhanced Traveller rules.

The first book, which will consist of Player's information, is
scheduled to be released at the end of the summer.  The second
book, which will be for the referee, will be released in the
fall.  The third book will be background information and will
be released before the end of the year.  A boxed set of all
three book will be available after that.

Supposedly, the Traveller universe is going to take some 
dramatic twists and expansions.  They say nothing in the past
will be changed, but that the timeline will be bumped ahead
a few years, to allow room for all this.

GDW has commissioned the staff of Group Digest Publications
(the makers of Travellers' Digest) to develop and edit 
MegaTraveller.

- -Mike

-------- TML Message #21 --------

Subject: History/Government of the Imperium
Date: 22 Jul 87 10:25:45 PDT (Wed)
From: James T. Perkins <jamesp>
Archive-Message-Number: 21


Hello!

Could someone out there publish a description of the governmental structure of
the Imperium, and a history?  All I know is that the structure is feudal and
maybe republican too, and that the current Imperium is the "Third Imperium",
which was collected out of pre-colonized worlds that collapsed during the
"Long Night", whatever that was.

I'm sure there must be many other listeners interested in this topic.

 _	___
| |    / _ \   James T. Perkins, jamesp@dadla.TEK.COM, 629-1149
| |__ | |_| |  Tektronix Logic Analyzers, DAS System Software, Display
|____||_| |_|  MS 92-725, PO Box 4600, Beaverton OR 97075

Killed processes never die... They just go to the big Bit Bicket in the sky.


-------- TML Message #22 --------

Date: Thu, 23 Jul 87 15:38:50 PDT
From: michaels@tekgvs.TEK.COM (Michael D. Smith)
Archive-Message-Number: 22


Greetings,	     

My group has just started gaming with Traveller.
We had been playing a home-brewed AD&D system.
I hope that some people can answer my questions and 
save my group time in evading the pitfalls inherent
in most games.

1. What are the effects on psionics on game play?
   Does it take some of the role-playing aspects out of the
   game by making things to easy (too powerful PCs)?

2. Is it best to stick to Traveller's character generation system?
   What are playable alternatives used?

3. Do you actually keep PCs from gaining skills, and if not
   how do PCs get more skillful?

4. How many PCs get out of the service in under seven terms, 
   and why?

5. We have picked up many books.  How many books are there?


Thanks for the help,

The Best
michaels@tekgvs@tektronix


-------- TML Message #23 --------

Subject: Who are we?
Date: 23 Jul 87 17:42:47 PDT (Thu)
From: James T. Perkins <jamesp>
Archive-Message-Number: 23


Since I've recieved no dissent to the contrary, here is the promised list of
all the Travellers who have asked to be on the mailing list:

	Address		Who
	---------------	-----------------------------------------------
	Beaverton OR	jamesp@dadla.Tek.COM (James T. Perkins)
	Univ of MD	tewok@mimsy.UMD.EDU (Uncle Wayne)
	Vienna VA	ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
	El Cajon CA	crash.CTS.COM!doc@seismo.UUCP (Mitch Evans)
	Beaverton OR	michaels@tekgvs.Tek.COM (Michael D. Smith)
	Rutgers Univ	carroll@aim.Rutgers.EDU (Mark Carroll)
	Waterloo Ont	twmalaher@watale.Waterloo.EDU (Tom Malaher)
	San Jose CA	beatnix!matt@elxsi.UUCP (Matthew D. Shaver)
	Portland OR	leonard%bucket.UUCP@percival.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
	Paoli PA	wpl@burdvax.UUCP (William P Loftus)
	Connecticut?	martin@yale.UUCP (Charles Martin)
	Naperville IL	ihlpm!elron@ihnp4.UUCP (Gary F. York)
	Schenectady NY	davisje@ge-crd.ARPA (Jon Davis)
	-		ihlpf!zonker@ihnp4.UUCP (Tom H.)
	-		phoenix!elturner@princeton.UUCP (Ed Turner)
	-		poe@hpfcla.UUCP (Daryl Poe)
	-		wdr@faron.UUCP (Bill Ricker)
	Las Vegas NV	otto!rex@ihnp4.UUCP (Rex Jolliff)
	-		robert@weitek.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
	Albuquerque NM	jeff@deimos.UNM.EDU (Jeff Moehn)
	Berkeley CA	chris@ic.Berkeley.EDU (Chris Guthrie)
	Portland OR	doctor@reed.UUCP (Jonathon "Peter" Gunn)
	Wilmington MA	cg-d!hunt@decvax.UUCP (Walter H. Hunt)
	-		staiger@ncrcae.UUCP (Kurt Staiger)
	Waterloo Ont	cbbrowne@watmath.Waterloo.EDU (Christopher Browne)
	C-M Univ NY	jr+@andrew.CMU.EDU (Jonathan Rosenburg)
	-		jonab%cam.unisys.com@sdcjove.UUCP (Jon Biggar)
	-		dah@hpda.UUCP (Dave Holt)
	Cupertino CA	dragon@olivej.UUCP (Dean Brunette)
	-		mas@panda.UUCP (Mark A. Swanson)
	E Lansing MI	carterc@msudoc.egr.msu.edu (Chris Carter)
	Purdue Univ	aaz@i.cc.purdue.edu (Pete Apple)
	Purdue Univ	sjc@gwen.cs.purdue.edu (Steve Chapin)
	Indiana		jec@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (James E. Conley)
	Lowell MA?	lkeber@hawk.cs.ulowell.edu (Larry Keber)
	Ohio State U?	root@osupyr.UUCP (mark)
	Tewksbury MA	baranski%yoda.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (James Baranski)
	-		sheppard@convex.UUCP (Andy Sheppard)
	-		gt6431b@gtfelix.UUCP (Alan Fleming)
	Brown Univ	rpg@cs.brown.edu (Robert Goldman)
	-		mccarthy@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (D. J. McCarthy)
	-		anything!holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway, Newsaholic)
	-		rossow@umn-cs.ARPA (Michael Rossow)
	Berkeley CA	hirohama@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (Michael M. Hirohama)
	C-M Univ	jsp@n.sp.cs.cmu.EDU (John Pieper)
	-		ddsw1!karl@gryphon.UUCP (Karl Denninger)
	Buffalo NY	ugachan@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Alvin M. Chan)
	Rutgers Univ	mcgrew@topaz.rutgers.EDU (Charles McGrew?)
	-		tomwest@gpu.utcs.toronto.EDU (Tom West)
	-		lhoward@esunix.UUCP (Larry Howard)
	-		kstevens%vino.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Ken Stevens)
	Hudson MA	ferguson%ogre.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (Larry Ferguson)
	Portland OR	shigeta@reed.UUCP (Ron Shigeta)
	Purdue Univ	ahh@s.cc.purdue.edu (Brent Woods)
	Ft Collins CO	jason%hpcndm@hplabs.HP.COM (Jason Zions)
	Berkeley CA	philip@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (Philip Chang)
	Honolulu HI	glenn@uhccux.UUCP (Glenn Fernandez)
	Sausalito CA	sof@well.UUCP (Donna Hall)
	Berkeley CA	c160s-af@zooey.Berkeley.EDU (Zig)

There you are, folks.  	Please look at your address and make sure it looks
reasonable.  If you didn't get this message, I must have the wrong address for
you :-)

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
James T. Perkins		Traveller Mailing List Administrator
Tektronix Logic Analyzers	"Load Auto/Evade, Beowulf!"
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
UUCP:	  {decvax,gatech,hplabs,ihnp4}!tektronix!dadla!traveller-request
INTERNET: traveller-request@dadla.TEK.COM
CSNET:	  traveller-request%dadla.TEK.COM@csnet-relay.CSNET


-------- TML Message #24 --------

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 87 18:47:37 PDT
From: ihnp4!ihlpf!zonker@tektronix
Archive-Message-Number: 24

(I have been trouble submitting to the list, so forgive me if this
is a bit dated).


I thought I'd expand on your comments about more information for
Traveller.  The other way to get information is direct contact.
The members of GDW go to all of the major conventions and many
of the smaller ones.  For the most part they are receptive to the
general populace.  Frank Chadwick, I know, has been pushing Command
Decision (GDW's new WWII miniatures rules) and has gone to many
conventions as a game judge.  If you need more details or need to get
something in writing, you can always drop the company a letter. 
The address is:
			GDW
			(brief description of request)
			Box 1646
			Bloomington, IL
				61702-1646

By brief description of request I mean Catalogue Request, Errata Request
or Rules Clarification (Game Name).
Errata Requests and Rules Clarifications should include a Self Addressed
Stamped Envelope.  GDW has mail order service for its products and you can
get on the mailing list so you get periodic bulletins from them.
Another source of Traveller information is Challenge Magazine which
is published by the company.

My interest in Traveller started with a RPG run by Frank Chadwick game
that was set on a planet that had been plagued back to the middle
ages from about 1890 by the crash of a Aslan Spaceship.  We had
managed to pull ourselves back to about 1650 when the game started.
Nobody in the game ever met an Aslan, but Frank had a great picture
of one wearing 1905 style Japanese gear.  The game sort of was the
inspiration for Traveller and vica versa i.e. the rules and character
generation were similar and Traveller development was started at about
the same time).  This was a great campaign and is still talked about by
the participants after 10 years.  Concurrently with all this I became a
play tester for many of GDW's new games (including Striker i.e. Traveller
the miniatures game).  I have been in numerous Traveller campaigns since
then, including Don "the Major by God" Rapp's infamous Narapoia Play By
Mail Campaign.

Currently I am not involved in any Traveller Campaigns, but I do still
do alot of Striker games.  My primary unit the 122nd Heavy Air
Cavalry, has just inspired a rules change which will remove the use
of Grav Generators from Rapp's 10 Million Credit Striker rules.  Bigger is
better in Striker and my Grav APCs tend to be awe inspiring (they're not
as good on paper yet, but don't tell anyone else that).  What I like
best about Striker is the ability to fix any problems you find in
the field.  For example the last time out I discovered that the 122nd
HAC's APC had front turret armor which was way too thin.  The
APC's have been redesigned and that should no longer be a problem.
I expect other flaws to show up as the unit gains experience and
I will correct those, too.  My arch rival the 801st Mercenary Legion,
had similar problems with bottom armor and until it landed on
several figures with RAM grenades.  At its next outing the bottom
armor was 4 times thicker (and the Major's girlfriend wasn't the
first one out of the APC either).  About the rules change (which
won't allow me to use any of the 122nd's vehicles anymore) I'm not
getting mad I'm getting even.  Wait till he sees my new Air Cushion
APC.

				Non Cuniculus Est,
				    Tom H.


-------- TML Message #25 --------

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 87 18:47:50 PDT
From: ihnp4!ihlpf!zonker@tektronix
Archive-Message-Number: 25

(I have been trouble submitting to the list, so forgive me if this
is a bit dated).

I'd like to take the other side of Charles Martin's article.  Before
I do that I think that I would like to expound on how I run my own
Traveller.  First of all most of the people I run with are wargamers.
This means that in most given situations the military solution is the
first one tried by my players.  Therefore, I seek mostly to place 
the characters in situations were that is appropriate i.e. the majority
of my characters are Mercenaries working in Mercenary units.  At the same
time I try to make the situations more challenging that just straight
shoot'em ups.  Second all characters were generated using the expanded
skill books High Guard, Mercenary, Scouts and Assassins (Paranoia Press)
and Merchants and Merchandise (Paranoia Press) (the other service is hand
generated).  Note: GDW now has out Scout and Merchant books and since the
Paranoia Press books are out of print you can substatute those.  So no
character ended up with a huge advantage over another character.  Finally
I never take the rules so seriously that I don't modify them to suit how I
want to run my game i.e. I modify the piss out of them if need be.  Also I
let players roll their own characters (and told them to choose the die
numbers if they wished), since I'd match the situation they were placed
in to their skills.  I tend to run one-on-one often through the
mail so this works best.  If I do run groups then they would most
likely have to justify why they generated the way they did i.e. if
there were Mercs in the group then they would have to expect to
end up in combat situations (otherwise why would you associate
with Mercs?).

In Traveller skills can easily equal survival and the more skills
the more likely the character is to survive.  In the original
books you end up with wimpy little characters who kick off at the
first critical point.  Characters with more skills are likely to
have a critical skill which will save their lives.  As for Mercenary it
was designed to generate professional soldiers, and yes if you hang around
with that type, you're gonna see some action.  Yet in a Merc situation
characters without those skills are the first blown away.  If you use
Mercenary then you should place the characters in a Mercenary unit
situation or at least in some situation where combat is expected.

As for the emphasis on weapons in GDW's games, find a system that
doesn't have that emphasis.  In D&D they describe every medieval
weapon that exists.  Why is this?  Because that is were the money is.
The majority of people who play these games are looking for a hack
and slash release.  If that information is not there then the game
will be useless for portraying any military situations and won't sell to
the majority of the market.  How much effect the weapons have on a
given campaign is up to the referee.

Personally I have never really liked the Traveller generation system,
because a character can die while being generated.  Any character that
you generate should be assumed to survive.  Also much of what you
say I actually agree with i.e. you don't get the diversity of character's
backgrounds that you would like.  As an interesting sidelight the designers
at GDW sort of feel the same way about the Morrow Project that you do
about Traveller.  Frank Chadwick used describe the MP as follows:
	Farmer: What you doing?
	Morrow Team Member (MTM): We're here to restore civilization!
	Farmer: Great what you got in the truck?
	MTM: Explosives.
In my campaigns characters who worked on their background were given skill
bonuses to match their efforts.  For these reasons I actually prefer
the new Traveller 2300 system where you take skill points and buy the
skills you want.  (Note: I haven't got around to buying it yet, but I
have the Twilight 2000 game on which it is based.  In Twilight 2000 your
skill points are divided into three pools background, education and
military and skills are divided into what types of points can be used
to buy them.  For example something like swimming can be bought from any
point pool, but heavy weapons skills are only available from the military
pool.  Players then buy skills to suit the character they want).

As for breaking down skills or creating new skills why not?  In my
campaigns and in some of the campaigns I have played in we did
this freely.  Some of the skills we created at need were Self Discipline
and Equestrian.  As for the Computer skill why not break it down into
hardware design, maintenance, operations and programming skills? 
I don't know about AI and VLSI (hey, but what ever turns you on).
There is surely a common base of knowledge for the two, so you
could always let VLSI count as half AI skill or something.
You obviously have the knowledge to make it work.  If you do break
it down then suddenly more skills become really attractive.  Oh well,
enough rambling for now.

				Hi Ho,
				Tom H.


-------- End of TML Messages --------

