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XTML biweekly   Sun Jun 19 21:00:03 EDT 1994    Volume 1 : Issue 10

Today's topics:

BUN# =AMN= =DATE====== =FROM==========  =SUBJECT/BODY==========================
   3    68 16-Jun-1994 PPUGLIESE@pimac  Re: XTML nightly: Msgs 66-67 V2#2 << Fr
   3    69 16-Jun-1994 mgood@MIT.EDU    Imperium, the Game <<  Stefan Matthias 
   3    70 16-Jun-1994 mgood@MIT.EDU    Traveller 73 Review, Product Release Da
   4    72 16-Jun-1994 CHiggin@aol.com  IMP] Slavery (2nd try) << This question
   4    71 16-Jun-1994 gerald.s.willia  Re: Scenario Ideas Posted... << > <o Pl
   4    73 16-Jun-1994 CHiggin@aol.com  IMP,FFS] FF&S in the 3rd Imp. <<     St

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Bundle: 3
Archive-Message-Number: 68
Date: 16 Jun 1994 01:23:27 -0700
From: PPUGLIESE@pimacc.pima.edu
Subject: Re: XTML nightly: Msgs 66-67 V2#2

From:   IN%"xboat@engrg.uwo.ca" 15-JUN-1994 18:08:50.85
To:     IN%"xboat@engrg.uwo.ca"
CC:     
Subj:   XTML nightly: Msg 67 V2#2

Archive-Message-Number: 67
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 20:19:43 +0200
From: Stefan Matthias Aust <sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de>
Subject: Re: Imperium


[Capital battle ships can carry fighters]

This improves the usability of that ships. Otherwise, I personally
think they aren't worth their money. Perhaps for the Imperial player if
he loses that ships before maintenance and adds them to the recycling
stack. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I've always found the above to be true & have never found a way around
it. (I've never tried the reduction in maint. costs that has been sug-
gested previously, though.) Otherwise, the Imperials only get capitals
from Appeals & both *sometimes* get them when there's nothing else left
to build. 
=========================================

[Terra never win]

If you play the campaign, the Terran player has to try to lose his
first game, without losing many ships. Because the Terran has higher
production and he will profit better from peace time, he has better
chances to win the next two games. The Imperial of course must now not
only win but also destroy his enemy.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My experience is that Terra almost never loses a war until it gets wiped
out. The Imperial player can hold his PP's down by constantly appealing
to the Emperor & that means that he gets the peacetime building bonus.
I've experimented with various restrictions, such as only allowing appeals
every other turn or not counting appeals as reductions in PP's but have
yet to find a satisfactory solution. The 2nd ed. rules have doubled the
'cost' of appeals which reduces the number that the Imperial player can
make but it also allows the Imperium to 'lose' the war even faster so it
doesn't really cover all the bases.
====================================

[ground combat -- shielding]

Ah. Thanks. Now I understand the rule (I think ;-). That changes
ground combat. But the odds are still much too bad. 

Stefan Matthias Aust
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ye1ah, ground combat is still somewhat dissatisfying to me too. I pretty
much agree with the "flawed gem" <sic> statement that someone wlse made
earlier.

Phil
Pugliese

ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu
 

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Bundle: 3
Archive-Message-Number: 69
From: mgood@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 09:03:14 -0400
Subject: Imperium, the Game

 Stefan Matthias Aust says:

>Thank you for your answers. Either I can't read the rules carefully
>enough or they're baldy translated.

They aren't that crystal clear in English, either ;-)

>[Terra never win]

>If you play the campaign, the Terran player has to try to lose his
>first game, without losing many ships. Because the Terran has higher
>production and he will profit better from peace time, he has better
>chances to win the next two games. The Imperial of course must now not
>only win but also destroy his enemy.

But how?  How?  The Imperial player controls the tempo of the game
with his appeals to the emperor.  How do you make it inviting enough
for him to win?

Matt "Dying to Know" Goodman

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

Bundle: 3
Archive-Message-Number: 70
From: mgood@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 09:50:23 -0400
Subject: Traveller 73 Review, Product Release Dates

[Cross-post elided -- James]

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

Bundle: 4
Archive-Message-Number: 72
From: CHiggin@aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 10:19:10 EDT
Subject: IMP] Slavery (2nd try)

This question originally appeared on the TML, but I am posting the answer
here because it deals with 3rd Imperium background...

From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <sudet@well.sf.ca.us>

> I want to know about your views on regular sophont-as-chattel
>slavery in the CT Imperium (and other states, too, I suppose).

    I've been following the "standard Imperial background", in which 
slavery and slave trafficking were highly illegal (i.e., capital 
crimes) Imperial-level crimes in which the Imperial government gets 
involved.  OTOH, extra-Imperial states are a whole 'nother story.  The
Solomani Confederation lets its member states decide such issues on an
individual basis; there are Solomani nations that forbid slavery, and 
nations that practice it the basis of their culture (The Wu 
Technocracy, with its genegineered castes comes to mind).  Vargr 
nations vary similiarly.  The Zhodani abhor the very idea of slavery. 
I'm not sure about Aslan and K'Kree.  Strike that.  The K'Kree have 
whole "slave races".
    As a specific example, in my campaign the Society of Equals in 
Gvurrdon (Vargr nation) permits slavery, but is very particular about 
who may be legally enslaved.  Their neighbor, the Thirz Empire, does 
not tolerate slavery per se, but does have a system of farming out 
prisoners-of-war to Thirz clanlords as temporary slave labor 
("thralls").  Thralls must be freed if ransomed or repatriated, and 
have some minimal legal rights; they can't be arbitrarily killed or 
mistreated.  (The assumption is that thralls are temporary slaves, 
providing labor in return for the trouble of keeping them captive 
(food & board, guards), and should be returned intact when ransomed or
repatriated after the war).
    Society of Equals slaves are slaves in the classical sense; 
property of their owner, who can dispose of them as he/she/it wills.  
Economics affect this; you don't kill an expensive technician-slave 
out-of-hand, but extremely rich Equals have been known to commit some 
appalling cruelties.  An Equal may not be enslaved; lesser citizens 
can be enslaved as punishment for a crime.  The pups of a slave are 
allowed one chance to take the Test of Equals; if they make it, they 
are Equals, if not, they are slaves for the rest of their lives. 
Foriegn slaves may be registered as Society slaves by their owners. 
Otherwise, foriegners have most of the legal rights of free lesser 
citizens.
    Corsairs based on independent worlds between the two nations raid
Thirz worlds for captives who are enslaved and sold in the Society of 
Equals.  Recently (1112), the Thirz have used this slave trade as a
reason to annex the independent worlds.  In addition, the Thirz are 
using the pretext that the slave-raiding corsairs were backed by 
Society business interests to start a war with the Society of Equals.

    Okay, how's that?

                            -- Cynthia





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

Bundle: 4
Archive-Message-Number: 71
From: gsw@aloft.att.com (gerald.s.williams)
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 10:07:51 EDT
Subject: Re: Scenario Ideas Posted...

> <o Playing a displaced barbarian king (ala Conan) aboard a marauding
> <  pirate ship.  This was good "light" Traveller.
> 
> Any example exploits you'd care to recount as possible scenario 
> inspiration, or NPC descriptions?

This was quite a while ago.  The barbarian king had an AMAZING skill
with swords and was very strong (I think his Strength and Endurance
were both max'ed out at F).  He also had some small latent psionic
skill (probably something common to nobles on his planet--he used to
be king of his entire planet.  After being displaced from his home
world by a corporation that wanted his planet's resources, he got
sick of the empire that could let this come about and what was left
of his people for buckling under to the greed of the corporation.
Eventually he joined up with a bunch of pirates.

I remember that the pirates had just acquired a decent-sized corsair,
but they were a bit more subtle.  I remember one episode where we
captured a free trader by putting my character in a lifepod along
with a few others.  When the trader picked us up, the others gained
their trust then my character took on the (small) crew in hand-to-hand
combat while they got to the secret cache of weapons.  About this time
the corsair appeared and they surrendered easily.  I told you it was
"light" Traveller.

Anyway, the group eventually found an asteroid field in which they
wanted to set up a base.  They discovered what was obviously (to the
players at least) an Ancient base.  Somehow we managed to get in (I
think my player did something entirely non-obvious to most people
used to high-tech stuff) and the others learned how to control the
defenses.  "Great, now we're invincible, let's go out marauding!"
we all said.  "But, but..." the Ref said.  C'est la vie.

> <o Running a "first contact" scenario, where a group of Terrans in
> <  orbit around the moon in the near future detect neutrino emissions
> <  coming from the wrong direction.
> 
> If you can remember the details I wouldn't mind a rough outline of how you 
> ran this one. I'd like to run a 'first contact' scenario one day, and can 
> always use inspiration.

I ran this one for a convention, and the players loved it (although
it is a bit difficult to finish in 4 hours).  In this scenario, the
world had united under a common government after a short-lived brush
war which had left the Far East decimated.  This government was still
on shaky ground, but someone discovered a key to viable fusion
technology, an element called "aiuconium" (the convention was named
AU Con).  It was also discovered that the element occurred naturally,
though it was rare, and that it was likely that the element could be
found on the moon.

The players were astronauts who took a hybrid chemical/fusion ship
into orbit around the moon.  They went to the dark side of the moon
when the moon was the most sheltered from radiation from the Sun and
the Earth and turned off all of their systems so they could use some
new ultra-sensitive sensors.  While cataloging the moon, they
something appeared OVERHEAD, which turned out to be an imperial
destroyer/frigate which misjumped into the Terran system (the empire
had not known about Earth, yet).  The characters' ship was small and
unarmed/unarmored, and they were using only passive sensors and
hand-operated pressurized cannister-type thruster, so they were able
to find out something about the Imperials (who were listening to the
Earth's radio) before they made their presence known.  The Imperials
would have tried to convince the astronauts that they were friendly
and would have wanted to return to get "diplomatic support", but the
astronauts were WAY too far ahead of them, and launched an attack on
the unsuspecting Imperial honor guard (not the way I expected it to
go, but they were able to get past them--I think they killed most of
the command staff).  By the way, none of the players had even known
what Traveller was, so they deduced the Imperials' motives on their
own (they were supposed to eventually).

The characters had some advantages, of course.  They were hand-picked
"best-of-the-best" astronauts who were not only in top physical
condition, but also very resourceful, and scientific geniuses, while
the Imperials were a bit bungling while at the same time hoping to
gain some status by doing a great deal on their own before returning
for an occupation force.  They also understood most of the Imperial
technology (not jump drives), in particular being experts on nuclear
physics.

First contact scenarios always had a certain intrigue for me.  One
other time I tried to run a post-nuclear first-contact campaign.
That was short-lived, although I did get to make up some really
interesting creatures (ala Gamma World).

I also ran a first contact scenario in the old Star Frontiers game
many years ago.  This had a human-looking race with advanced
technology acting like benefactors.  Meanwhile, a race that looked
closer to the Sathar (the villians in that game) would lead raids
on the "benefactors".  It turned out that the "benefactors" were
closer to reptilian than human and the others were more mammalian
than reptile, and the "benefactors" were the evil ones.  This was
before I saw "V".  Honest.

> <I never much cared for the "Adventurers for hire" type campaigns.
>  
> So how did you run your campaign? Who were the PCs? How did they get 
> involved in the adventures? 

I preferred pulling characters out of "normal" lives.  One campaign
had an extremist environmentalist (practically an eco-terrorist),
an ex-thug on the run from his old mob, a Retief-style spy, and a
few others (all player characters) working together to stop a
particularly nasty mob chief.  The spy was given the assignment,
the rest simply ended up getting involved.

As I said earlier however, I do not like militaristic campaigns at
all.  I think it would have been better if the "expanded" character
generation method of Books 4-6 (well at least 4-5) were never added.

If you want a more episodic feel to your adventures, consider
setting up the characters as explorers or spies/private eyes.
If you're willing (or forced) to split up the characters, then
you have more options (think "Deep Space 9", "Babylon 5", or
other TV shows).

    ,-----------------.
    |Gerald S Williams|
    |gsw@aloft.att.com|
    |  (610)712-7237  |
    `-----------------'

      _  |     ____/    _  |
     /   /    /        /   /
    /   /  ____ |     ____/
   /   /        /    /
______/  ______/  __/

 AT&T DSP tools development


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

Bundle: 4
Archive-Message-Number: 73
From: CHiggin@aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 10:19:25 EDT
Subject: IMP,FFS] FF&S in the 3rd Imp.


    Steve and I have been working out how we want to integrate FF&S 
ship designs (which we like) into our Classic 3rd Imperium Trav 
campaign, (which we also like).  Technologies we have decided on:  
Thruster plates, cost and weight as stated in FF&S; ContraGrav, ditto; 
HePLar, ditto; Fusion Rockets, ditto; and more primitive rockets, cost 
and weight DIVIDED BY 10.  

    Not-so-arbitrary rules we have decided on:  HePLar and Fusion
Rockets are really, really dangerous to be in back of.  Imperial Law 
forbids using either in the atmosphere of an inhabited world -- 
violation falls under the Mass Murder/Genocide laws.  Worlds with no 
atmosphere usually forbid their use within X hundreds of kilometers of
major inhabited areas.  Extra-Imperial worlds may follow Imperial 
practice or they may allow HePLar-powered landings at special 
starports equipped with "blast pits" far from inhabited areas.

    Campaign implications: here I'll use a player character as an 
example. We briefly take Captain Alexander Plankwell back to his prep
school days...

    "...Ahem.  Cadet Plankwell, are you paying attention?  Very good.  
Please review for the class the standard ground-to-jump launch profile 
for an interface-capable starship."  

    "From the ground, the ship engages ContraGrav to neutralize the 
pull of gravity; it probably uses Scramjets to accelerate to the jet's 
ceiling, and then switches them to rocket mode until clear of the 
atmosphere."  

    "`Probably', Cadet Plankwell?"  

    "Yes, ma'am.  For a small starship like a free trader, scramjets 
[1] are the most economical of fuel.  A dedicated lander might use a 
high-performance rocket to get to orbit fast, but a starship would be 
concerned with minimizing fuel load it has to carry for landing and 
takeoffs."  

    "So you accelerate at full blast, to orbital velocity?  That 
doesn't seem very economical to me."  

    "No, ma'am, it wouldn't be.  A small starship probably couldn't 
even carry that much fuel and still have space for jump fuel.  It 
cruises at low acceleration, taking advantage of the ContraGrav to get 
above the atmosphere without ever actually achieving orbital velocity.  
This phase of the launch might take two or three hours."  

    "Continue."  

    "Once it's above atmosphere, the ship can engage its main maneuver 
drive and vector out to the jump point, or accelerate to escape 
velocity if travelling in-system."  You paused, and hastily added, 
"getting clearance from Traffic Control, of course.  You wouldn't want 
to fry someone in your drive flame."  

    "What if you ship is equipped with Thrusters?"  

    "Well, in that case-- just engage the ContraGrav and accelerate 
under thrusters from the ground to jump point.  I just assumed that we 
were talking about civilian ships--[3]" 

    "Never `assume', Cadet Plankwell.  You know what `assume' makes of 
`u' and `me'..."  [4]

- ----------------------------------------
Notes:

[1] Scramjets are what FF&S calls "AZHRAE" -- combination turbojet/
ramjet/ rockets.

[3] Thrusters (standard MT drive) are too expensive to be
profitable for civilian use, but mandatory on military vessels -- they 
give your ship virtually unlimited Delta-V and unlimited 
landing/take-off capability.  

[4] I hated this stupid Navy proverb the first time I heard it, let 
alone the fifteenth...

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

Reasoning behind rules mods: 
    We lowered the price of the older rockets to something reasonable 
because I wanted them to be affordable in their intended niche:  
landers, and landable starships.  After 10,000 years of space flight, 
it is reasonable to assume that industry can mass-produce H2-O rockets
for commercial customers rather more cheaply than U.S. aerospace 
companies can hand-tool one a year for government contracts.  I wanted
merchant ships (which are concerned with costs, first, last and 
always) to choose rockets over thrusters as a means of getting off the
ground.  That way, merchants use HePLar and rockets, and the military 
uses thrusters, and THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MILITARY & CIVILIAN 
SHIPS besides the number of guns.  Piracy is now possible; to make a 
pirate, take a free trader, rip out the HePLar, and put in thrusters. 
Add guns, and extra bunks for the prize crew.  There you go.
Other ships not concerned with costs will probably have thrusters; 
they're just too convenient.  Scout Service ships, other government 
owned vessels, and private yachts all fit in this category.

    Second, I cut the weight on "conventional" rockets after doing 
some research and finding out that the FF&S figures made rockets that 
had about 1/10 the thrust to weight ratio of the Saturn V and Saturn 
1C rocket engines.  They were much too heavy (about 10x) for the
volume taken up and thrust produced.


A couple of notes about starships and vacc suit ops:

    Radio doesn't penetrate bulkheads; hence Imp. standard ships have 
a system of "repeaters" that pick up transmissions on standard freqs.  
and relay them thru the ship's internal communications net to local 
transmitters in the destination compartment.  This way communications 
capability is retained during vacuum operations.  To cripple 
communications by enemy forces (e.g., a boarding party), the repeater 
system can be set to acknowledge only authorized users, or transmit a 
scrambled signal, much like the regular (voice/data) network 
communications.  

    Military vessels have a network of life support connections 
running thruout the ship, such that anyone in a vacc suit is, at the 
very worst, no more than 2 minutes from an ELS (Emergency Life 
Support) connection that he can plug his vacc suit into, and not have 
to rely on a PLSS.  (Idea stolen from submarines).

    Last, mindless nit-picking:  metric tonnes are NOT UNITS OF
THRUST (FORCE)!  A metric tonne is a unit of MASS!  An English ton IS
a unit of force, however ... Which is to say that a tonne doesn't
always weigh the same, but a ton does. :-) (Weight being a measure of
gravitational FORCE).

                                -- Cynthia


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

End of XTML Biweekly
******************
