Subj:	#1(2) TRAVELLER digest 26
Date:	94-09-01 01:40:43 EDT
From:	traveller@mpgn.com
To:	Kagehira

Mail Split By AOL Gateway

------- cut here --------

       TRAVELLER Digest 26

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) re: traveller aid software by pabl@im.se
  2) Re: burst program update?  by James T Perkins <jamesp@sp-eug.com>
  3) Re: TRAVELLER digest 25 by MSAMUELS@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
  4) Re: burst program update?  by "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>
  5) Re: Syleans & Solomani by bonnevil@mermaid.micro.umn.edu (Steven M Bonneville)
  6) Out Of Print Digest Group Publications by rodge@cyberspace.com (Roger Sanger)
  7) Put it in your head? by 556N@delphi.com
  8) Replies and comments to Digest 25 by alvin plummera <plummera@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>
  9) Three RICE notes candidates... by alvin plummera <plummera@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>
 10) Melee Weapons in Space by eclipse@world.std.com (Mark Urbin)
 11)  by gdw.support@genie.geis.com
 12) Re: I think that... by James Kundert <james@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 13:22:27 EDT
From: pabl@im.se
To: traveller@MPGN.COM (traveller)
Subject: re: traveller aid software
Message-ID: <9408311722.AA41832@itgrs1.im.se>

the question was asked

Hi there,

I am intersted in information about how GDW handles software
copyright requests.  Is writing a utility to help design vehicles
using FF&S rules as a spreadsheet and then giving it away to whoever 
wishs to use that spreadsheet illegal?

I directly asked GDW this question and the reply was that you are not
allowed to distribute any GDW based materials without express
permission from GDW.  They have to take this stance in order to keep
their copyright.

Paul Blankenship
pabl@im.se


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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 10:27:22 PDT
From: James T Perkins <jamesp@sp-eug.com>
To: tek@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim)
Cc: traveller@MPGN.COM, traveller-request@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: burst program update? 
Message-ID: <9408311727.AA11488@sp-eug.com>


tek@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes:
> I use James Perkin's "burst" program to take apart digest messages. But
> since the new incarnation of TML started, it has been having problems. It
> divides some messages into two. Has anyone (James?) fixed it to behave
> properly on the new format?

Hmm. It is possible.  Let me mention an issue though...

The old TML carefully observed incoming mail messages for lines starting
with "--", and inserted a "- " in front of these lines so that messages
were always delimited by lines beginning with "--".  This was based on
the RFC-compliant mail forward program shipped in the MH mail package.

Example: if the following message:

 To: foobar
 From: baz

 Body
 --
 Signature

Were to be included in another message, it would look like:

 To: forward-recipient
 From: forwarded

 -- Forwarded message follows

 To: foobar
 From: baz

 Body
 - --
 Signature

 -- End of forwarded messages

Unfortunately, listproc doesn't mung lines beginning with "--". This
means that MH's burst command doesn't work, and neither does the "burst"
program I've written. I could make my "burst" program more clever, if I
decide to work on it (no promises, Ted :-).

Something you may consider is recieving each mail message as it gets
sent to the Traveller list (instant delivery), instead of in a daily
digest. This can be done by sending the message "set mail ack" to
listproc@mpgn.com. If you decide you don't like the frequent new mail,
you can go back to the default digest delivery by sending "set mail
digest".

James

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 13:47:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: MSAMUELS@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 25
Message-ID: <01HGK7N1WQLK9YEEKA@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>

From: IN%"traveller@MPGN.COM" 31-AUG-1994 13:21:21.96
To: IN%"traveller@MPGN.COM"  "Multiple recipients of list"
CC: 
Subj: TRAVELLER digest 25

Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 18:32:36 BST
From: Martin Fay <MFAY@fs2.cp.umist.ac.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Power armour strength
Message-ID: <40DE4CF50FB@fs2.cp.umist.ac.uk>

Do the rest of you guys reckon the power armour strength rules 
are a bit silly too? If you double the strength of a weedy 
character that only makes them average - how then can the 
support weapon business be justified? If a control system were 
designed correctly the suit would be adjusted/calibrated to the 
user and be able to exert it's own maximum strength. Would a 
fixed strength value or an addition to the users strength be a 
bit more sensible?

>>>>> I put my vote in for a fixed strength value.  For battlefield use
 this would be the optimal condition.  Now every soldier on the
 battlefield can jump, carry, move his/her maximum rate.  This also
 gives the battlefield commander a much easier time knowing his/her
 own troops capabilities.  Just ask Robert A. Heinlein !!

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 15:07:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: burst program update? 
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9408311411.B18310-0100000@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>

On Wed, 31 Aug 1994, James T Perkins wrote:

> tek@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes:
> > I use James Perkin's "burst" program to take apart digest messages. But
> > since the new incarnation of TML started, it has been having problems. It
> > divides some messages into two. Has anyone (James?) fixed it to behave
> > properly on the new format?
> 
> Hmm. It is possible.  Let me mention an issue though...
> 
> The old TML carefully observed incoming mail messages for lines starting
> with "--", and inserted a "- " in front of these lines so that messages
> were always delimited by lines beginning with "--".  This was based on
> the RFC-compliant mail forward program shipped in the MH mail package.
> 
> James

Listproc follows RFC1153, "Digest Message Format".  I won't go into
the format here, since it's outside the scope of this list.  It's a
simple format and wouldn't be hard to write an exploder for it.

Internet RFC's can be found at many places, including ftp.uu.net:/info/rfc
and the Regina Museum of Ancient Computing Technology.

-- Dave

--
David E. Brooks Jr                                    Phone: (305) 293-8100
Tantalus Incorporated/Multi-Player Games Network        Fax: (305) 292-7835
P.O. Box 2310                                        E-Mail: dbj@mpgn.com
Key West, FL 33045                                    Quote: print chr$(34);


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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 14:30:37 -0500
From: bonnevil@mermaid.micro.umn.edu (Steven M Bonneville)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Syleans & Solomani
Message-ID: <199408311930.OAA12655@conch.micro.umn.edu>

Steve Charlton writes:

>In his long list of alien and nonalien races, Ted7@world.stc.com states:
>
>> Syleans                 Sylea / Core
>> 
>> Human minor race responsible for the Sylean Federation, which became the
>> 3rd Imperium.
>
>While it was never explicity stated, various accounts of Imperial history
(like
>the overview in the old Library Data book and comments in GDW's Solomani 
>sourcebook) led me to think that the Syleans were just a cultural group,
which 
>was heavilty Solomani in background.  This was supposed to be why the 3rd 
>Imperium had such a pro-Solomani bias until the Imperial family married into

>Vilani megacorp money and influence, shortly before the Solomani Rim War.  

No, Syleans are a human "minor race".  But there are only two pieces of 
evidence in print.  The clearest one is the world detail sheet for Capital 
in Traveller's Digest #9 which states that Capital (Sylea) has a human 
minor race.  There also was an _Azhanti_ intruder named "Sylean High 
Lightning", and the initial adjective seems to mostly be for separate human 
"races" (except the Solomani, since they were the enemy when the ships were 
built in the 990s).  Some features in the Imperial Park on Capital in TD #9 
seem to have names that don't follow any Vilani or Solomani pattern, and 
are possibly High Sylean in origin.

Except on a handful of worlds near Capital, the Syleans show up little.  I
figure that they were one of the worlds that got jump-1 from the Vilani 
before absorption, and then after they were absorbed, they had a brief 
pre-Night rebirth when the Solomani ran over the area.  So the two "majors" 
dominate pretty heavily.  Since the Solomani had their capital at Kaggushus, 
it makes sense that Sylea had strong Solomani-influenced cultural components,
and a population of "ethnic Solomani" (maybe more like "ethnic Second 
Imperials").

David Reed <556N@delphi.com> writes:

>Where did the plethora of races from Terra go? 

They're still there.  Many of the worlds in the Solomani Rim were originally
Julian May-style "ethnic worlds" -- check out the names on some of them.
Zhongguo.  Thorwald.  Oudh.  (Of course, who knows who settled Arisia and
Boskone -- "Doc" Smith fans?) :) Magyar sector has a knot of Slavic worlds 
which all went out and settled in the same spot.  The member governments
of the Solomani Confederation are often single or multi-world groupings
that may have an ethnic or colonial relationship.  Perfect for the sorts
of things you may want to do.

Terra itself settled down a lot because of the immediate lethal threat that
the Vilani Ziru Sirka presented in the 22nd century.  But when things got a
bit more relaxed, the people who couldn't stand the new united Terra left,
for the most part.  Also, 3500 years of history is between Traveller and
our era -- enough to tangle and add many new kinks into the relations of
the Terran inhabitants and the colonies she influenced.  To illustrate the
distance in time, 3500 years before today is 1500 BC.

Yeah, the RC and Old Expanses/Diaspora regions are very Solomani/Western
in culture so far.  I expect them to have troubles with even some of the
local Solomani-descended cultures, and when they start hitting other non
Solomani humans, or non-humans, the real tricky stuff starts....  Anyone 
here seen _Lawrence of Arabia_?  Pride goeth before a fall.
  
  Steve Bonneville
  <bonnevil@mermaid.micro.umn.edu>


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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 15:53:46 -0700
From: rodge@cyberspace.com (Roger Sanger)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Out Of Print Digest Group Publications
Message-ID: <199408312253.PAA19980@cyberspace.com>

 
Attention Traveller Collectors!
 
I've recently aquired multiple copies of the following
out-of-print items by Digest Group Publications, and am offering
them for sale:
 
 
Travellers' Digest #19      8 1/2" x 11"    48 pages       DGP  $15
 
    TD19 contains an exciting adventure called "The Possession
    Ball" set in Deneb Sector.  Here is an excerpt:  "At the time
    the Kalavatos Institute was destroyed, researchers there were
    experimenting with the psionic transfer of a subject's
    thought-force into inanimate objects..."
 
    For convenience, also printed in the mag is a map of Deneb
    Sector, Deneb library data, and world UWP for Deneb.  Plus
    the mag's regular features.
 
Travellers' Digest #20      8 1/2" x 11"    48 pages       DGP  $15
 
    TD20 has the adventure "An Act of Conscience", which deals
    with a robot that has attained true sentience.  The adventure
    takes place in the Trojan Reaches (one sector Rimward of the
    Spinward Marches), and the issue includes a history, a map,
    and library data and library data on that sector.  This issue
    also contains another adventure, a covert operation called
    "The Hiawatha Gambit" set in the Spinward Marches, plus the
    usual potpouri of support articles.
 
Travellers' Digest #21      8 1/2" x 11"    48 pages       DGP  $15
 
    TD21 contains the adventures "One Last Stop" and "The Pirates
    of Tetrini".  The former takes place at an ancient site in
    Regina Subsector of the Spinward Marches, while the latter
    sends the PCs on a mission to investigate a likely pirate
    base.  The issue also includes equipment write-ups, an
    in-depth article on suspended animation, and more.
 
Megatraveller Journal #3    8 1/2" x 11"   96 pages      M DGP  $20
 
    MTJ3 is a collasal sourcebook crammed with useful gaming
    material.  The main adventure, "Rapid Repo", by Greg Videll,
    "propels a team of Domain Scout commandos into the
    Vargr-occupied Imperial Navy Depot in Corridor Sector".  The
    adventure comes complete with a map of the Depot (essentially
    a huge starport), floorplans, and special equipment.
 
    This issue also includes an IN-DEPTH write-up of a
    highly populated tech-level 16 world in Deneb Sector,
    articles on races to be found in the Domain of Deneb, an
    article on MegaCorporations in the Rebellion Era, equipment,
    news items, an NPC dossier, a ship write-up, lots of artwork
    (including a cool mock-ad for a military equipment supplier),
    and an interview with the popular Traveller writers/brothers
    J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith, Jr.
 
Megatraveller Journal #4    8 1/2" x 11"   96 pages      M DGP  $30
 
    MTJ4 is actually a campaign sourcebook desguised as a
    magazine.  Nearly the entire issue is devoted to William H.
    Keith Jr's "Lords of Thunder" campaign set in Gateway Sector
    (which lies between the Imperium and the Two Thousand Worlds
    (K'kree space).  The campaign includes a central adventure,
    and loads of loads of background and support material.  The
    front cover displays a painting by WHK himself, depicting
    Gateway Prime, the artificial world for which the sector is
    named.  This work was by far, IMHO, WHK's greatest
    contribution to the Traveller universe.
 
    William H. Keith, Jr. says it best, in the interview from
    MTJ3:
 
        "Seeker games had commissioned me to do a campaign
        module, `Lords of Thunder', and they just gave me an
        entire sector to play with.  It's the Gateway sector and
        it's out between the Imperium and K'kree space."
 
        "It's far enough from the Imperium that I was able to set
        up seven or eight different mini empires, each one with
        maybe twenty or thirty stars.  K'kree space is right next
        door, in the next sector over.  One off-shoot of the Two
        Thousand Worlds has kind of broken off from the parent
        group and formed their own Empire.  They've started to
        leak across into this sector.  They've just now absorbed
        a human-dominated subsector.  Also mixed in with this are
        rumors that the G'naak, the thought to be extinct ancient
        enemy of the K'kree, are about, somewhere, and the K'kree
        have agents out looking for them."
 
        "I wrote this entire campaign, where the adventurers come
        in and they can be hired by any number of different
        patrons.  One way or another, they'll find themselves
        going out and getting involved in any of the following.
        There's an archeological party that's tracking down this
        mysterious presumably extinct civilization.  There are
        pirates that are orgainzing raids against ships, there's
        a war brewing between all of these human empires, the
        K'kree are coming through, and there are refugees fleeing
        the K'kree -- you can really get caught up in the
        politics of this sector."
 
        "But this project really does represent one of my main
        goals.  That was, to take a whole sector and work it up
        with enough detail in the planets and in the conflicting
        cultures and the history so that you could just draw
        dozens of adventures from it."
 
        [RS -- Joe Fugate liked the sound of the campaign so much
        that he contacted Seeker Publications and secured the
        rights to print the campaign in MTJ4!  I've found the
        campaign to be suitable for Classic or MegaTraveller
        settings.]
 
I've got more than a dozen of each of the above items, but I
don't expect them to last long, so contact me ASAP.
 
Enjoy,
 
Roger Sanger
rodge@cyberspace.com

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 19:53:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: 556N@delphi.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Put it in your head?
Message-ID: <01HGKKKSKW2A938OHC@delphi.com>

Fellow TMLites!

Joni M Virolainen <jonimv@evitech.fi> writes:

& I finally got FF&S and I noticed that Direct Neural Interface is possible at
& TL9. DNI is also much faster than normal command typing so I think that
& kind of cyberspace would be possible, even propable at TL 9+. That would
& also give possibilities of cyberspace adventures like in cyberpunk genre,
& that would be much more interesting and thrilling than normal "okay it's
& Difficult Computers check"-kind of data hunting, IMHO.

& I'm sure some of you have already thought about that. I'd like to hear what
& you have planned or maybe even used. Items of interest would be decks, ICE
& ICEbreaking programs, nets etc.

Uh, we THOUGHT about it...  as part of an entirely different universe...
just using the House Rules (tm), and creating our own cyberpunk campaign,
just because we like twenty-sided dice...

& I admit that this stuff could be obselete when adventuring in the Wilds but
& don't you think it could give an edge to PCs when they hit a place where is
& relic data nets or Virus infested machinery. There could be even combat
& deckers who are responsible for EW in planetary raids, take your pick and
& let your imagination fly with Jump Drives burning.

[...]

OBSOLETE is not the word.  SUICIDE is.  Could be neat to have Virus living
inside the chips attached to your brain, or even in your brain...  See the
post by White Dwarf <edq@unix.brighton.ac.uk> in TML 25.  My PCs already
have enough holes in their heads without overloaded, suicidal/homocidal
all-gone-wrong chips in there, too.

& Sensors
& -------
& I saw the Patriot Games again on video, and it occured to me that radar
& surveillance like that would be great benefit to Star Vikings when combatting
& low TL planets (for a reason or other). For those who haven't seen the film
& there is an episode in which Jack Ryan and (other) people in CIA watch via
& satellite as special forces men eliminate terrorist camp. So I'd like to
& know what kind of sensors are needed and from what distanse they can be used
& to watch human sized beings. Primarily I thought to use this kind of sensors
& aboard starships where officers could surveillance and direct planetside
& troopers.

Great, in theory, if you're running a campaign from a strategic standpoint,
but my players usually prefer to be right in the middle of it.  You can
keep that in mind when determining what sort of intel your analyst(s) feed
your drop troops (if you're a battledress freak), but analysts generally
are very dull to play.  It was a great scene in Patriot Games, though, for
the juxtaposition of cold-blooded murder by the SAS to the clinical, calc-
ulating analysis/amusement of the CIA spooks.

Right now, I'm running a campaign on Keipes (0132/Aubaine/Old Expanses) from
Path of Tears (c).  No spaceships in orbit or drop troops due to that nasty,
nasty deep-site meson gun...  Bummer.  At least they think so...


On another note, does anybody have any theories on how Grandfather has coped
with Virus?  Was he affected at all (already having true AI of his own)?
Last I heard he was holed up in pocket universe somewhere waiting for some
PCs to stumble over...  Just as texture for sheer GM pleasure...


David Reed
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
"What do you mean, 'Standby to be boarded.'?  They're just ZIPS!  Cover,
 smuvver.  I'll not be boarded by zips!"
       -"Uh oh", RCES Scout (pc)
     

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 21:11:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: alvin plummera <plummera@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Replies and comments to Digest 25
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.1.9408312103.A23597-e101000@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>

--0-1333060139-778381917:#23597
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

--0-1333060139-778381917:#23597
Content-Type: APPLICATION/octet-stream; name=travel25
Content-ID: <Pine.3.05.1.9408312157.B23597@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>
Content-Description: 

> From: "Tariq M. Rashid" <spstmr@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>

>Why the Techie survey?

It ain't a _real_ survey, just a 'look-see' to determine for myself the
people on the TML

(Incidentally: 
1)  I predit that most of the people here are either
'scientists/technologists' or 'historian/polisci' folks.
2)  I have been both: I studied History for two years at McMaster U.
                   and Computer Science for the last two years.

This is for you, David Reed...

3)  A CNA = Certified Novell Administrator. (a network supervisor)
This certification is rather difficult to get: a good grip of computers
and a VERY good understanding of NetWare 3.1x is needed.)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

> From: Mark Watson

<snip>
>Alvin Plummer on Character and Animal Generation:

>>   A) Life Paths for PC's and NPC's?
> [...] On the other hand I do understand, and am beginning to come to terms 
> with, the reasons they were designed that way. 

Could you tell me?  I understand why GDW included the two adventures in TNE
Basic book, but I would have been MUCH happier if some of the space was
used for my life path generation...

> How about a supplement which provided a structure based on classic
traveller
> character generation to generate d20 based characters? 

Well, I _would_ appreciate the additional detail for my characters.  It's
not as important to me, though, as a way to generate a history
and a family (even a clone group...)

>>   B) A way to generate quirks, neurosises and insanities, to 'flesh 
>>out' characters?

>Um, not so sure. You end up so that *everyone* is neurotic.

I hear you.  How about if we make quirks common (both good and bad),
neurosis rare, and insanities for NPC's only (and infected toasters) ?
 
>The worst part of the TNE generation system is that bloody playing card
>system  which makes everyone monomaniacal. Far better to have a series of 
>vector based characteristics along the lines proposed way back in White 
>Dwarf, so that you have scalar values for loyalty, ambition, etc. 
<snip>

Never heard of it, but it sure sounds interesting...
Got a copy that can be posted for TML consumption?


>>   C) A _good_ animal generator: i.e animals with shapes, forms, habits
>>      and interesting behaviour patterns?  How about a way to generate an 
>>      ecosystem, in some detail?

> I like the classic trav animal generation system, but this would be 
> nice. What I would really like is a system for generating alien minor 
> races. At the moment if I need it I use GURPS Uplift, but this isn't 
> complete and only generates protosentients.

O.K., let's add alien generation & civilisations to our wish list...

>>   D) Expanding the animal-size table, so I can generate wales,
>Would that be all of wales or just the area round Cardiff? :-)

Sorry: that's WHALES...

>>     or - if I want -  Sea- or Ocean-sized life forms?   Or even the 
>>     VERY LARGE creatures that becomes possible in low-G worlds?

>Another good idea.

<snip>

> Cheers
> Mark Watson

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(from David Reed...)

> Where did the plethora of races from Terra go? 

  Good question. 

   The basic answer is 

1) The product should appeal to your target audience
   (Which so far, is still thought to be WASP....)

2) GDW wisely wishes to avoid controversy, and nothing will stir up a 
   Hornet's nest like Race or Religion (topics usually avoided in SF, too)

However...

<snip>

> The Solomani achieved jump-1 at about 2087 A.D., and given that we (humans)
> haven't homogenized within the last couple thousand years, and some minor
> things like the "laws" of genetics, the probability that it would happen in
> the next century alone are slim-to-none.

Actually, genetic drift would insure the continued existance of races,
unless it was Imperial Policy to promote a single, homogenised race.

(A (beep) Interesting "Imperial Policy"!  Unlikely, since the Third Imp.
didn't interfere in the affairs of individual worlds...  They DID promote
a single Imperial Language (Anglic) , though.)

Be careful about "...haven't homogenized within the last couple thousand
years", though.  IF humans were truly colourblind - our current fixation
on race may just be a local (i.e. Earth-bound, provincial) phenomonun (sp!) -
we may become a single race within say two centuries.  Thanks to the advent
of easy, worldwide travel, of course.

I will, however, grant you the enduring nature of racial pride/divisions.  
Bets are, the following would happen instead...

> The most like chain of events following the discovery of jump drive tech.
> would be that each and every "minority"/splinter-group could run off and
> form their own "utopia" where nobody else could bother/molest/"descr-
> iminate against" them...  That would make up for a large number of
> worlds that are very disparate in culture, religion, language, etc.  Hmmm.
> It would seem, however, that every human in the Traveller universe is
> caucasian, 

Well, the vast majority (There were a few tokens to be found in MegaT).

In Real Life (tm), the racial composition of the Third Imp. would look
something like...

     20% Chinese         13% other Solomani (Blacks and Whites, together
     20% East Indian                         at last!)
     20% Vilani           2% Minor race, human + non-human   
     20% New Races        5% Major non-human (mainly Vargr)
         (genetic drift, 
          designer races, etc...)

....

And the religious composition? (A subject I'll get to shortly...) 

    30% New Religion A  (The main Imperial religion, supported by the
                         nobility...)
    10% New Religion B  (In all likelihood, the old Vilani faith)
    10% Solomani Religion A   (Buddism?  It's a missionary faith, of a 
                               part of the world dominant in 2057 AD
                               - when jump drive is discovered...)
    10% Solomani Religion B   (Christianity? Islam?  Certainly, one of the
                               Solomani monotheistic faiths (or both of
                               the major ones) can be fit into this
                               slot...) 
    10% Solonami Religion C   (Islam? Hinduism? or a new faith?)
    10% New Religion C        (Probably, at least one totally new religion
                               would have resulted from the union of Vilani
                               and Solomani cultures...)
    5% Agnostic/Atheist       (Militant ones, i.e. Communists?)
    5% Vargr Religions        (A whole _ton_ of them.  
                               Includes human converts, excude's Vargr
                               who follow a human faith)
    8% Other human            (Single, world-bound faiths.  
                               This is the only religion recognized by 
                               the standard Traveller universe, which I 
                               doubt very much would reflect reality ...)
    2% Other non-human

........

 Of course, the human 'races' are mainly cultural/historical,
with the genetics used, to divide the Ingroup from the Outgroup. 
(And occassionally to justify Supremacy doctrines....)

The real problem with this is that the logical language of the Third Imp.
would be some mongrel Mandarin/Vilani tongue, not English.  Ah, well.... 

<snip>

> In the thirty-five or so centuries that pass after the Solomani enter the
> interstellar club, I still find it difficult to presume homogeneity... 
> With all the "space" out there (no pun intended), it would merely allow a
> greater latitude for diversity and cultural/racial isolationism,
> particularly on worlds "relatively" close to Terra, in a relative backwater
> (such as Old Expanses Sector)...  

                        ABSOOLUTELY!!!

> Generally, genetic/cultural populations homogenize only under pressure,
> i.e. nowhere else to go.  Asking all my in-laws about whether they'd
> prefer their own independent colony-world to pursue their culture on
> (after I got past the language barrier) produced a resounding YES! answer. 
> By the way, all my in-laws are Pakistani, but all my Arab friends agreed
> with them, in principle.  (FYI, I'm Scotch-Irish.)


And I'd bet you would get the same answer from everyone who doesn't
like the status-quo - from Moonies to Homosexuals to the KKK....
(i.e. 90% of the human population)

> I plan to "inflict" on my players, a world or two with cultures descended
> from fundamentalist Islamic societies... 

Isn't Traveller fun?  ;->

Imagine a religious, high-pop society who are out to convert 
YOU, an ignorant TL 4 chap who only got annexed by the local pocket empire
8 years ago... 

I believe that there are a fair number of these worlds in _Path of Tears_... 

>                                       Imagine the fits it would give
> "caucasian" PCs (not politically correct, necessarily, but Player Char-
> acters) trying to accomplish a deep cover "Moonshadow" mission on
> a world populated by the descendents of an Ethiopian muslim colony!
> (Hint:  carotene supplements and tanning beds won't do it!)  Plus, my
> players and I feel it adds a certain amount of "plausability" to the game.

> I can understand the rationale behind GDW leaving something of this
> nature entirely out of their mainstream products, due to the STUPID
> Politically Correct (tm) society we live in.

Never mind the fury religious/racial folks can cause (ask TSR for a
case history.)... There are GOOD REASONS why religion and race is to be
avoided, or rendered as innocous as possible.

>                                             But dare to stand up to the
> nonsense!  It's okay to be wierd, like ME!

Fortunately, you can design your universe in any way you want...for now.

>David Reed
>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>"Dulinor was RIGHT!"
>    -Guild bumpersticker

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alvin Plummer
("Help!  My battlesuit got infected!  HHEEEEEEELLLPPP!")

--0-1333060139-778381917:#23597--


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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 21:12:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: alvin plummera <plummera@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Three RICE notes candidates...
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.1.9408312136.C23597-b100000@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>


My three RICE candidates.... 
 1) Regina/Spinward Marches

I just want to know what's going on at 'home')

 2) Deneb/Deneb

This TL D, Religious Autocracy is quite interesting.

I believe - correct me if I'm wrong - that this was the Sector capital of
Deneb, during the era of the Third Imperium ("pre-Rebellion", for us
Regency citizens).

During the Rebellion period it was lost for a time to the Vargr Hordes,
but the Archduke managed to recapture it for the Domain.

Now, it stands in the Quarrentine Zone of the Regency, as a major base of
operations for the Qarrentine Service and the Regency Navy.
 
 3) Trin/Spinward Marches

What, exactly, happened here when the AI Virus hit?
How many people still live here?
And how does the Regency plan to rebuild (or at least disenfect) Trin?

(Incidentally: RICE notes is a detailed 'paper' for systems within the
Regency's purview.  Ask around if further info is needed, or grab the new
TNE archives - the details are in there, somewhere...)

..Also, what happened to the *Shall Not Perish* Regency sourcebook for TML?

Thanks to all,

Alvin Plummer
(" Domain of Deneb goes off the air immediately.  We keep the flame.
   Good Luck " - final transmission of Domain of Deneb TNS, 1130   ")


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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 21:28:04 -0400
From: eclipse@world.std.com (Mark Urbin)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Melee Weapons in Space
Message-ID: <199409010128.AA28253@world.std.com>


Steve writes:
>2.  Melee weapons made out of super-strong alloys.  The
   Ah...the E.E. "Doc" Smith approach.  He called it the "Space Axe".  It was

used by Space Marines from Heavy Grav worlds.  Pick a battle axe or
cutlass from the melee weapons table and then use the materials table
in FF&S to extrapolate the weight if made out of a denser material.
The material should be at least as dense as what you are trying to
crack open.
  From a rules point of view, aimed shots (at one difficultly level
higher) would be more valuable.  This would indicate that the strike
is aimed toward a joint or other weak point (such as the face shield).
In a Vacumn or CBW enviroment, just breeching the suit would 
be enough to take out the opponent.

>combination of the Marine's enhanced strength and the 
>strength of the weapon would give the weapon a decent 
>penetration rating, but the combatants would need to 
>close before fighting.  
    Does the term "Repel Borders!" sound familar? :-) 

>This would lead to tactics similar 
>to those seen in the late Middle Ages; the armies would 
>approach each other, attempting to weaken each other's
>ranks with heavy weapons (missile and energy weapons) 
>until the two forces bumped and became embrioled in a 
>melee. 
 Yup.  Hiding from those heavy weapons would be important too.  Start
thinking 
about how stealthy you can make those suits.

> The problem here would be low-tech (TL7 - 
>TL10) forces would have to be fought in the same fashion, 
>and closing with them would give a higher potential for 
>Marine casualties than would be worthwhile for such a 
>low-tech objective.  
   Imperial TL E & F Marines enjoy a certain level of stealth and EW measures

such as jamming and man-portable and support level HARM missles.

>Of course, once the Marines closed 
>in, the low-tech troops would be annihilated.
   Gauss rifles cut through those troops like butta!
>  Very cost 
>effective, but somewhat silly.  I have trouble with using a
>with using a
saber in a TL15 battle.
  Not even a TL 15 sabre?  How about fitting SuperDense Bayonets?  You do
have 
the advantage of low ammo expenditure though.  For a real life example, go to

present day Africa.  Troops encountering fleeing civilans in large numbers, 
don't open fire.  They draw their machettes and wade in.  CNN showed
film clips of those who survived and escaped.  It is a bloody mess though.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Urbin  eclipse@world.std.com  Opinions are are Mine!  All Mine!
Sen. Ted Kennedy: "And when the Reagan administration was selling arms to
     Iran, WHERE WAS GEORGE?"
Answer: Dry, sober, and at home with his wife.
     Paraphrased from "A Parliament of Whores" by P.J. O'Rourke

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



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

Date: Thu,  1 Sep 94 02:44:00 UTC
From: gdw.support@genie.geis.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Message-ID: <199409010329.AA187190161@relay2.geis.com>

 
 traveller@mpgn.com
 
 Alvin Plummer:
 
 > I sent the following message to GDW@aol.com.
 > If anyone wishes to comment, please feel free...
 
 Our address on AOL is GDW.GAMES@aol.com, _not_ GDW@aol.com so I
 suspect that the message bounced. It had not arrived as of 2000
 hours Tuesday night (30 August ) which was the last time I
 checked Email on AOL before I wrote this (which is being done at
 0840 Wednesday, 31 August).
 
 > Dear GDW:
 > Could you consider adding the following items to the basic
 > Traveller game...
 > A) Life Paths for PC's and NPC's?
 
 Bearing in mind that we will not be making any major revisions
 until the present print run (Mk1 Mod 1) runs out: Maybe. What do
 you mean by "life paths," and how do they differ from the current
 career sequence in TNE?
 
 > B) A way to generate quirks, neurosises and insanities, to
 > 'flesh out' characters?
 
 Probably not. We feel that the player should be able to choose
 any quirks or idiosyncrasies present in his/her PC, rather than
 having them forced by a random die roll. If you want something
 like this in your games,you could make up a table yourself, or use
 the NPC motivations table.
 
 > C) A _good_ animal generator: i.e animals with shapes,
 > forms, habits and intersting behaviour patterns?
 
 You could do 100+ pages on something like this, and still not
 cover everything. We think the current animal generator does a
 very good job in the space we had available for it.
 
 > D) Expanding the animal-size table, so I can generate wales
 
 44 tons _is_ a little small for a whale. I'll put this
 (expanded table results) on the list of things to cover in a
 Challenge article.
 
 > or [...] Sea- or Ocean-sized life forms? Or even the VERY
 > LARGE creatures that becomes possible in low-G worlds?
 
 My personal opinion is that there can be no meaningful role-
 playing interaction between a human and an animal the size of an
 ocean. A creature that big could eat a spaceship (probably
 without noticing it) and there wouldn't be squat you could do
 about it (assuming such a creature were biologically
 feasible...there are certain limitations to how big an animal can
 get (plants are another matter, however: anybody remember the
 news clip about the county-sized fungus they found in Minnesota a
 couple of years ago? Of course, it could be debated that that
 wasn't really a single organism...)).
 
 > Also, how about adding a new skill for Traveller -
 > Apprasial(EDU)?
 > This skill would come into play whenever characters need to
 > estimate the worth of an item or service.
 > (Especially good in barter situations)
 
 We consider this to be subsumed in the Bargaining Skill.
 
 Re: Ship designs:
 > Sleep Tubes
 
 I don't remember these from the design sequence...must be a
 house rule. However, the notion of restricting Life support to a
 part of the ship is not forbidden...indeed, I have used it in the
 design of the Wildbat fighter.
 
 > Just out of curiosity's sake, I'd like to know if the
 > majority of this group are techies of one sort or another...
 
 Depends on what you call a techie...
 
 Re: The Battledress question:
 
 I think too much emphasis is being placed on
 penetration...remember that you don't need to drill the can to KO
 the soft squishy parts inside. Head (aimed) shots from a weapon
 with a large enough damage can stun a character even if it
 doesn't perforate the armor. Blunt trauma adds up...and
 plasma/fusion weapons do blunt trauma.
 
 Hugh Foster:
 
 > these matters are what makes the game challenging,
 > interesting and occasionally deadly....<heh heh>
 
 Hear, hear...!
 
 Django:
 
 > Errata from GDW?
 
 > Tariq:
 > > Has anyone else noticed that 0.04*(Pi)*r/`2 gives
 > > exceptionally light masses for Gauss Rounds.
 >
 > Yes. That's why we changed it to 0.02*(Pi)*r/`3.
 >
 > --------------------
 > Lets get this straight. Someone at GDW discovered
 > that they had stuffed up their gauss round ammo
 > formula and came up with a fix. Then they proceeded
 > to NOT tell anybody about it!
 
 Nope. As Paul James notes later on, the correction was put into
 the 2nd printing, and was posted to a number of electronic
 locations (for people who have the first printing), TML included,
 I am quite certain (although it didn't go into the Upgrade
 Booklet). All of the people who submitted designs for the RCEG
 certainly knew about it.
 
 For those who are interested, the long-promised FF&S 1st
 Printing to 2nd Printing Upgrade will appear in Challenge #75
 (the special _all_ Traveller issue). This issue goes to press
 this week, and should be available in about three weeks.
 
       Loren K. Wiseman
         for GDW,Inc.
 
 

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

Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 21:57:36 PDT
From: James Kundert <james@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: I think that...
Message-ID: <9409010457.AA10170@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>

 In TML #25, David Reed <556N@delphi.com> asks:

 >Where did the plethora of races from Terra go?

 If you can get a hold of the Solomani/Aslan book, read pages 17-21.
Basically, many peoples emigrated off-earth due to the perceived
attitude of the growing Confederation government on Earth during the
Interstellar War period and into the Rule of Man.  These people went
in all directions, to a rough maximum of 4 sectors distant.


>The most like chain of events following the discovery of jump drive tech.
>would be that each and every "minority"/splinter-group could run off and
>form their own "utopia" where nobody else could bother/molest/"descr-
>iminate against" them...  That would make up for a large number of
>worlds that are very disparate in culture, religion, language, etc.

 At the Terran end of Imperial space, this is indeed the case.  Terra
was left in the hands of the "non-minority" groups, who are predominantly
caucasian.  The various member-states of the Confederation are generally
dominated by some other ethnic group.  Solomani/Aslan states that some
80% of the Solomani Sphere speaks Galanglic as a _second_ language, with
one of the various Old Earth tongues being the first.


>It would seem, however, that every human in the Traveller universe is
>caucasian, and cultural spice is added by the use of alien cultures.  Why?
>We have so much spice available here within our own "sphere".

 The rest of Imperial space is different.  Those Terrans who went out
to carry the Rule of Man to the Vilani were largely drowned out ethnically
by the vast majority of Vilani they lived among, especially after the
Long Night fell.  Aside from isolated pockets (the Sword Worlds, for
example), the majority of the Imperium is "just people," with a bit
more local variation in appearance than the Vilani would normally have.
The cultural variation in most of the Imperium is due more to the
isolation of the Long Night than to any pre-existing ethnic mix.

 Then again, we have the Spinward Marches.  Colonized by Rule of Man
expatriots, the Darrians, Zhodani and the Sword Worlders first, then by
Third Imperial expansion later, the Marches are extremely diverse on
a world-by-world basis.  Their apparent sameness is due to two factors:
Referee imagination (or the lack of it), and Artistic imagination (or
the lack of it).  GDW _has_ shown a variety of human cultures in their
products, but when your artists are doing line-art (the easiest to print)
everybody looks white...


>I plan to "inflict" on my players, a world or two with cultures descended
>from fundamentalist Islamic societies...

 Jokes aside, you seem to be perfect for this task, with your greater
than average (especially among American gamers) knowledge of the subject.


>I guess it's possible that the Traveller universe is one in which there
>were never any races on Terra besides the "white" ones...

 Possible, but not so. Admittedly, Solomani/Aslan is harder to get a
copy of these days than Azhanti High Lightning, but I recommend the
search.


James Kundert <j.kundert@genie.geis.com>
              <james@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>

There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was much faster, much faster than Light.
She departed one day in a relative way,
And returned on the previous Night.
   --Albert & the Heart of Gold

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

End of TRAVELLER Digest 26
**************************
