			    TRAVELLER Digest 97

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: Chirpers	by ehenry@Newbridge.COM (Ethan Henry)
  2) Re: Pluto	by Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
  3) Re: Pluto?	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
  4) Re: TRAVELLER digest 96	by CyHiggin@aol.com
  5) Government codes	by "Glenn M. Goffin" <sudet@well.sf.ca.us>
  6) Power Packs	by Joni M Virolainen <jonimv@evitech.fi>

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Date: Wed, 9 Nov 94 16:54:57 EST
From: ehenry@Newbridge.COM (Ethan Henry)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Chirpers
Message-ID: <9411092154.AA17010@Newbridge.COM>


>Their main use in a game plot is a victims, I'm afraid. Imperial megacorps
love
>to perscute the little buggers (see Research Station something-or-other) and
>they make a splendid downtrodden group for moral PCs to fight for.
>Unfortunately, my bunch treat them as "space hobbits" and laugh at them.
Heigh
>ho!

Trouble is, you can never be sure whether that's a useless chirper, or
Grandfather taking a vacation in the real universe... well, except
for the disintegrator GrandFather carries around. :)

Are there still 'Ancients' in TNE? If so, someone should go dig 
up Grandfather and get him to get rid of the Virus. Should be a piece
of cake for the old guy.

Ethan

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Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 17:12:33 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Pluto
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9411091620.A26175-0100000@brahms.udel.edu>

I have no idea what GDW plans to do with Pluto, but in our campaign it was
the home of the Mi-Go, the Fungi from Yuggoth, from the Call of Cthulhu
game.  Pluto is Yuggoth, after all, according to H. P. Lovecraft.

The real reason for the Solomani Rim War was that the Imperium had 
learned that the local Solomani authorities had discovered the Mi-Go base 
and were planning to use occult powers to bring back the Great Old 
Ones and enslave the universe.  That's why Pluto is a security zone.

Makes sense when you think about it - the Solomani Party is the nearest 
thing Traveller has to a bunch of cultists.


Mark "I got your multi-genre game right here, buddy" Clark 

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Date: Wed, 09 Nov 1994 19:01:20 -0500
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Pluto?
Message-ID: <sec11c67.003@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>


Leigh O'Neil says:


>Howdy folks 

   Howdy, Leigh.


>I have a couple of quick questions. First does GDW have any future plans
>to develop the solomani space? 

   Yes, but not until at least sometime next year.  I am
working on the Solomani Rim and Magyar Sectors, the first on a 
semi-formal basis for GDW, the later sort of on my own.  Other
individuals that I am aware of are working on Aldebaran and Alpha Crucis
Sectors through HIWG (the History of the Imperium Working Group).


>Second question was that there was some sort of research station in pluto
>in the terra system that was top secret. Does anyone know what that was
>and its conditon after the virus? 

   The description in Solomani and Aslan of Pluto is as follows:
   "...a major Imperial Navy base and research lab stood in orbit above
Pluto.
Traffic to and from these facilities was heavy, even though civilian travel
was prohibited within a 1 AU radius.  No explanation for this restriction
was ever given..." The Solomani Navy continued the restriction after they
retook the system in 1117.

   From the description (and the narrative from which it is drawn), we can
conclude a few things.  Whatever was/is there it was discovered/invented
after 1002 (the date of the Imperial occupation of the system) and before
1117, otherwise the existence of a previous Solomani outpost was have
been mentioned in the narrative.  The main facility is in orbit.  This does
not preclude the existence of sites on the surface, though maintaining
such facilities would be very problematic, given the surface temperature of
Pluto, and the basic composition of its surface, which is covered mostly
with methane ice.  Could be that there is an Ancient site there (given
that the Solomani have taken such an interest in a place that could have 
been picked clean before the Imperials left).  Maybe the Imperial
government was interested in doing experiments in an extreme low
temperature environment and the Solomani decided to take over their
research.  The facility could also be a high tech prison for *really*
nasty prisoners (war criminals, mass murderers, people convicted of
treason, those who have made one too many successful escape attempts
from other facilities, those responsible for Galactica 1980)--escape is
impossible, and even if you manage to steal a ship, the Navy will kill you
long before you reach the jump point.

   I know more than I can say at this point, except that the current
Terran government has the same restrictions and prohibitions in place that
the Imperials and Solomani did....


>Last if someone was on a ship with the virus pulled out the
>transponder,sensors and communications gear just before coming out of
>jump space would that prevent the virus from spreading or is there some
>other way I'm not thinking of ?

   As long as the ship were completely isolated and took on no additional
hardware that could potentially infect the ship (hardware capable of
harboring Virus eggs or the Virus itself), then there would be no way for the
ship to become infected.

   On the other hand, try showing up in orbit around a planet without
identifying yourself with at least a communication signal.  If you don't
get blasted out of the sky, it's because they don't know that you are there
and/or are incapable of shooting at you.


Regards,

Harold D. Hale


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

Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 23:15:43 -0500
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 96
Message-ID: <941109231222_4451006@aol.com>

From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)

>I remember this ("this" being that the government code represents the style
>of government that the players will encounter rather than the formal
>structure of the government) from an _early_ publication (or possibly a
>letter from someone at GDW).

This explanation of government codes can be found in an article by Mark
Miller in an old issue of High Passage (FASA's CT magazine).  Can't tell you
the issue number as I don't have it handy, but there are only 5 or so to
check.

                               -- Cynthia


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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 00:08:26 -0800
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <sudet@well.sf.ca.us>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Government codes
Message-ID: <199411100808.AAA01946@well.sf.ca.us>

Rob Prior wrote:

>I remember this ("this" being that the government code represents the style of
>government that the players will encounter rather than the formal
>structure of the government) from an _early_ publication (or possibly a letter
>from someone at GDW).  Unfortunately most of my Traveller material is still
>packed (after 28 moves I'm getting slower at unpacking), and because I've
>been playing since the beginning that's a _lot_ of material to search. 
>Does anyone remember anything like this?

Sure, it's in Supp 3:  The Spinward Marches, at 37-38:  

"Government:  The government type for
a world indicates the general nature of the
ruling system in a general sense.  It may
be interpreted in a variety of ways.  For
example, while ancient China is
considered to be an empire, its
government could be considered to be
type8, civil service bureaucracy....  

"In effect, government types express the
level of government which the average
traveller encounters.  The upper level
mechanizations (sic) of government are
less important to an individual than the
actual conditions which will be
encountered at the personal level."
Yours for preseravation of the canon

--Glenn

P.S. My sympathies on moving.  I long
for the day when I'll have lived in one
place as long as the national average (4
years, I read somewhere).  


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

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 10:38:26 +0200 (EET)
From: Joni M Virolainen <jonimv@evitech.fi>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Power Packs
Message-ID: <199411100835.DAA16846@Mithril.MPGN.COM>

Thanks to Hugh for telling me about Chirpers ( 8sp).

Now I have this problem with generating power packs to my TL-9 DEI 'laser
launcher'. The FF&S rules about that thing are a bit fuzzy for me at least.

My laser's EI is 0.1 MJ per shot and I intend to have 50 shot power pack
(with
rof 2). So, what should I do?

Thanks,

Joni Virolainen
jonimv@evitech.fi


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End of TRAVELLER Digest 97
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