			    TRAVELLER Digest 152

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: TRAVELLER digest 151	by Michael Llaneza <mllaneza@mercury.sfsu.edu>
  2) Re: Re: Laser Penetration	by "Upton, Django" <DUpton@VTRNNTOV.TELECOM.com.au>
  3) Re: Glisten adventure.	by "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>
  4) 	by alvin plummera <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
  5) Re: TRAVELLER digest 151	by "Tariq M. Rashid" <spstmr@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
  6) Re: TRAVELLER digest 151	by Rob Miracle <rwm@MPGN.COM>
  7) TRAVELLER digest 151	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  8) Imperial Navy	by bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
  9) Re: Striker II in UK	by Stuart Dobson <sdobson@sniffle.demon.co.uk>
 10) New Era Terran subsector info wanted	by Ramjet <HAYDENDJ@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu>

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

Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 22:18:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Llaneza <mllaneza@mercury.sfsu.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Cc: Multiple recipients of list <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 151
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950103221658.9045B-100000@mercury>

Silly me, still haven't figured out how to read a MIME encoded message. 
And I'm not the only one. So can we have the Glisten adventure on an ftp 
site for general reading?

Oh, Alvin the Death Star is a "technological terror" not a monstrosity

Michael Carter Llaneza
Conceptual Design Services             The Worse it gets,
Pi Kappa Phi                           The more I get used to it.
"I am the NRA"			       Duty Now For The Future


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

Date: Wed, 04 Jan 95 16:52:00 AES
From: "Upton, Django" <DUpton@VTRNNTOV.TELECOM.com.au>
To: tml <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Re: Re: Laser Penetration
Message-ID: <2F0ADF9B@msmail.trl.oz.au>


Liam_McCauley@qsp.co.uk writes:

 ----------------------
     Django Upton provides some feedback to my rantings about laser
     penetration :-)
     Unfortunately, I don't agree with his first point :-(

     He writes:
     "... a laser ... with an intensity less than 0.390625 Mj/cm^2 ... will
     have a PR > 1 and a Damage Value of 1 or less"

     A laser with an intensity of 0.25Mj/cm^2 (figure off the top of my
     head) will have a damage value of 25, and an official Penetration
     Rating of Nil.  Allowing an IPR < 1 (using my, unofficial rule) would
     give a penetration of 3.

     Sorry to be negative, especially when you took the time to reply to my
     query, but I still haven't heard anything to discount my IPR < 1
     ruling.

     I'm happier with your second point, though.  The idea of trading range
     for penetration feels right, although I'll need to examine FF&S again
     tonight to see exactly what definitions are used for the relationships
     between damage, penetration, power, intensity (now, where did I put my
     Optics text books?).
 -------------------------------------

You are confusing Damage VALUE ( used to determine armour penetration ) with 
Damage DICE ( used to determine the effect on unarmoured personnel only ).
If you actually read the rules in FF&S you may be surprised to find that 
lasers that can't penetrate tinfoil can still fry an unprotected human! 
Silly that rule may be but there you are.

FYI:
Damage VALUE = 2.5*I^(1/2) If > 1 then round to nearest integer
1/PR = IPR = 0.8*I^(1/2) If >or= 0.5 then round to nearest integer; else 
=nil
Damage DICE = (Damage Value - [armour*PR] )*25
If PR=nil then Damage DICE against unprotected targets may be precalculated 
using:
Damage DICE = (Damage Value * 25) rounded to nearest integer

e.g.
I=0.390625 MJ/cm^2
DV=1.5625 rounded to 2
IPR=0.5 rounded to 1
Damage Dice
AV=0 : 50
AV=1 : 25
AV>=2 :0

I=0.25 MJ/cm^2
DV=1.25 rounded to 1
IPR=0.4 rounded to nil
Damage Dice =25

I=0.1024 MJ/cm^2
DV=0.8
IPR=0.256 rounded to nil
Damage Dice= 20


The two things that I think GDW have missed are:
 - It is assumed that lasers cannot be focussed on an area less than 1 cm^2
(solution? "R" in the intensity formula may be <1 for IPR ONLY)
 - If damage is not rounded then a fractional amount may be left after 
penetration which would be sufficient to cause 1 or more personnel damage 
dice. This is important at the intensities common for small arms lasers. 
This is particularly evident if the IPR is not rounded and the above 
focussing rule is used.

Also it seems that the rating of armour is too coarse for personnel armour. 
You either stop 25 dice of damage per step or none at all!

Django.

Remember: RTFM before you post! ;-)

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

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 09:25:11 -0500 (EST)
From: "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Glisten adventure.
Message-ID:
<Pine.ULT.3.90.950104091752.26834A-100000@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>

On Tue, 3 Jan 1995, Shalom Zaidfeld wrote:

> Hi there,
>         Alvin, you message was unreadable by my mail reader (Pine).  Was 
> it a Mime formated message?  If it was, Pine can not handle mime so if 
> you could post your adventure again (or send it to me), It would be great.

I'll jump in here and say that the configuration on the mailing list
software has been tweaked to handle MIME messages better.  Further
messages should be fine.

-- Dave, who is more than happy with the new plasma/fusion weapons

--
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, 04 Jan 1995 13:45:36 -0500
From: alvin plummera <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Message-ID: <9501041845.AA28332@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>

Howdy!

This is a new attempt to mail this file, using straightforward 'mail' 
rather than my fancy Pine email program {that can't seem to get rid of MINE}.

If you want me to finish this story, please say so.

Alvin Plummer

* * * * * * 

Prelude - (to referees) don't be afraid to let your PC's fail
        - can cut and paste ideas into other adventures
        - this is an attempt at a "tough" adventure; in order for the PC's to
          earn this much money, a lot of legwork is needed.  The firepower 
          will be needed, but more towards the end of the game.

Glisten  027-1202

The PC's discover a news article regarding an Aslan Female, Hlausau' 
Ktyakuhois, who was last seen over a year ago in the Glisten system.  
Considered a major political figure in her homespace of Ranib subsector 
(Trojan Rift - M), she was exploring business opportunities for
the Oikhoiseaha clan when she vanished.  The article also noted that the 
reward for her safe return has been increased from 30 to 42 MCr.

The wisest course for the PC's is to head for Glisten and contact the local 
representative of the Oikhoiseaha clan, E'ae Kouwoureal.  There will be a 
brief discussion; before the meeting, make an Average roll of Liaison 
(using the highest Liaison rating among the PC's) to see if the PC's
remember the formalities and preparations needed to signal their respect 
towards the clan leader.

During the discussion - which will last only two minutes - make a Difficult 
roll of Liaison. Difficulty should be altered according to the amount of 
preparation the PC's make for their audience.

Outstanding Success = hired indefinitely.  All known information regarding
Kty
is later given to the PC's by one of Kty's aides.  All expenses are paid, 
up to a limit of 100,000 Cr per month for a year.  Afterwards a retainer 
of 10,000 Cr is paid per month to the party.

["Kty" : short form for Ktyakouhois.  DON'T use in her presence!]

Success = hired for a year. Basic living expenses are paid for, and a fee of 
1500 Cr per PC is paid out every month.  Basic information about Kty is 
provided to the PC's.

Failure = not hired.  The PC's must somehow foot the cost of looking for Kty,
as well as worry about basic living expenses - Glisten is an expensive 
system to live in. 

Outstanding Failure = not hired.  Moreover, they have challanged the pride of
the clan, and find themselves facing a formal duel.  Even if the PC's 
back down correctly, the clan will work to discourage them in their 
search.  If they manage to find Kty, they may be forced to accept less
than a tenth of the reward money due.

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

Common knowledge: If this isn't given to the PC's, basic data on Kty can be 
found in a variety of government and clan databases.  To obtain 
unauthorized access to the database of either the local Ministry of 
Commerce and Trade (which handles the main starport, located at Seraiian
Asteroid) or the Police Datachannel (a system-wide Missing Person's report 
exists throughout the system), the following procedure must be followed: 


A) Finding out the physical spec's needed to imitate an authorized 
   terminal & user ID.
   Formidable: Research
B) Altering a regular terminal to fit the electronic signature of a
legitimate
   terminal.
   Difficult: Electronics or Communications
C) Forging a low-level security clearance code for the user.
   Average: Forgery
D) Accessing the database.
   Easy: Computer 

The above tasks assume that a sufficent amount of time and tools is used. 
Moreover, all actions are assummed to be at TL F.  Increase Research 
difficulity by one level for every tech era the PC's homeworld is below 
High Stellar: increase the difficulity of all other
tasks by one level for every Tech level below F the PC is operating at.

The PC's may choose to contact the local criminal underground to do the work.
The Referee is advised to negotiate hard for every 'service' required, 
and demand exorbant compensation for these services.  Moreover, the 
Referee should factor in the possibility of scams and double-crossing.  
Finally, there's always the possibility that the criminal didn't do
the job properly, putting the PC's continued stay in Glisten - even their 
freedom - in jeopardy.

If the PC's target the clan's database, they will have to obtain physical 
access to a networked terminal in the clan's holding on Sarodon 
Asteroid.  The clan compound here houses the entire Oikhoiseaha clan, and 
is also the site of the gravitics factory they are constructing.  Once the
PC's have somehow sneaked onto the site, they need to imitate - or 'borrow' -

an retnial pattern and the voice of an Aslan with the security clearances 
needed.

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

Detailed knowledge: the PC's will only be able to have this level of
knowledge
about Kty only by A) having it given to them by the clan leadership B) 
conducting interviews with the *right* Aslans (knowing who to interview is 
a task in it's own right!) C) successfully logging on to the clan
database, getting meaningful data from the right databases, and making the 
right connections with this pile of vaguely related mass of information.

There is another way.  Both researching Kty's background and making the 
connections are definitely easier if they choose to make the trip to 
Kty's homeworld, Lysewekh (Ranib: Trojan Reach/0640 A6205LA-E).  Going on 
regular jump4 Aslan liners (Regency ships are quarrentined
for 6 months before being permitted to travel deep into Aslan space), the
trip
covers 14 jumps (about 45 parsecs), takes 28 weeks and costs 14,000 Cr 
per passenger in low berth.  To compare: the typical Regency citizen 
earns about 12,000 Cr a year.

The wise PC will be on his guard, this deep in Aslan space.  Few humans 
routinely travel this far into Aslan territory; thus, only a few 
professional Aslans have tolerance skill. 

The system itself is essentially a trade and military station.  Humans will
be
tolerated, but watched carefully.  

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

Alvin Plummer
  

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

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 14:41:05 -0500 (EST)
From: "Tariq M. Rashid" <spstmr@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 151
Message-ID: <Pine.3.87.9501041404.B25371-0100000@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>

> 
> To get firepower of sufficent magnitude, what you need is probably a 
> disintergrater gun of legendary dimensions.  However, I lack hard data on 
> the force needed to blow up a planet ("how many hit's can a planet 
> take?"), or the neccessary info to build this gun.  Any takers? 
> 


If you put energy into a planet at a rate sufficient to cause the total 
energy (input energy - radiated heat) to equal gravitational binding 
energy it will come apart.  However for earth size planets this number is 
huge.  Someone actually posted this info way back when.  It would 
probably much more effiecient to smash the planet repeatedly with metal 
plugs/rocks moving at .001c or .01c.  Clearly not as glamourous.  

I think when the info was posted way back when the meson gun needed to 
bust an earthsize planet had a crew of 1.2 million.  Clearly you could 
wreck everything on the surface with a weapon orders of magnitude 
smaller.  Difference between Star Wars and Traveller is that Traveller 
attempts to explain and rationalize the functioning of the technology and 
to base it upon scientific principles.  Star Wars does not even make the 
slightest attempt to do that...it is Sci Fantasy and not Sci Fi.  
Therefore a traveller weapon will NEVER replicate the effects of a Star 
Wars weapon given similiar size/power reqs etc.

This is not to say that there can be no new scientific understanding that 
would allow such weapons.  But you know what....
It is a game and if youre just playing to PCs make something up and have 
a really good explanation that you give with an utterly straight face.

 Tariq Rashid

Will someone please tell me what the hell a blaster is anyway. 



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

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 15:14:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Rob Miracle <rwm@MPGN.COM>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 151
Message-ID: <199501042014.PAA02342@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>

Tariq Rashid wrote:
> Will someone please tell me what the hell a blaster is anyway. 

Blaster is a Star Wars term like Speeder.  We saw at least 3 different
things called speeders in the movies (Luke's Speeder on Tantooine, The
Small fighters that Luke used to engage the Imperial Walkers in Empire
Strikes Back, and the grav-bikes from the third movie).  So I think 
blaster was a generic term for a "Pulse Laser".  They did that (I think)
because people assosciate "Laser" with long beam of energy and the "Blasters"
used short beams of energy.

In at least one case, the blaster was probably the equiv of a fusion or
plasma gun (the scene in the first movie where Luke rushes home to the ruins
of his uncle's farm and the charred skeletal remains of his uncle and aunt
are laying on the ground.)  Obviouslly, none of the normal blasters left
that kind of distruction.

Rob

-- 
Rob Miracle              = Email:  rwm@mpgn.com
Tantalus Inc.            = Alt:    Lewellian@aol.com
Key West, Florida        = 
"You have a problem?  I have a plan!" -- Anton Devious

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

Date: 04 Jan 95 15:30:58 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: TRAVELLER digest 151
Message-ID: <950104203058_100326.446_BHG33-1@CompuServe.COM>

 
>> As for the Death Star... well, remarkably enough, the Third Imperium
*can* build it (THAT's how big the Third Imperium is!).  Not only that, but
it could do so without touching the Imperial Navy! (you can kiss goodbye to
the Planetary (non-jump) warships and IISS, however.) You need 2668 TCr to
build one; that is, 533.6 Hi-Pop systems. <<
 
Which makes it a real bugger when some dumb-ass farmboy PC in a 5-ton
fighter drops a bomb through the tailpipe and blows it all up...<g>
 
 
 
 
 



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

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 15:26:16 +0600
From: bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Imperial Navy
Message-ID: <9501042126.AA02703@rocky.itlabs.umn.edu>

A Clarification:

Alvin Plummer writes:

>monstrosity.  The entire Imperial Navy, with it's roughly 42,000 major
>ships, 126,000 minor ships and 20 Naval Depots is worth about 3000 TCr.  
>But 'the _other_ Imperial Navy', the Planetary squadrons and the 
>Imperial Scouts,  are also worth 3000 TCr.

These were both rough estimates of mine from this fall.  They only
included the roughly 640 numbered fleets of Imperial regulars and
Subsector Reserves.  I figured each had 5 squadrons, each squadron 
worth about TCr 1.  This *doesn't* include the infrastructure costs
of the hundreds of Imperial naval bases or the nineteen depots.  I'm
not even sure that the TankRons are covered in that cost.

The second TCr 3000 for the planetary navies and the IISS was not
even that far thought out.  However, just for each HiPop and near
HiPop world, at 1000 worlds, they could spend just TCr 1 on local
defense and pay a total of TCr 1000 easily.  The IISS has to pay
for operation of the huge xboat service and for the government's
Imperial Courier Service, and the costs there depend partly on
how good the services are.  Those also could easily run up into
the hundreds of trillions of credits.  The lesser worlds will 
operate a small number of ships for planetary defense and customs
duties, and the rest of the IISS will need some ships, too.  Some
of that cost could be considered to be the *really* old IN ships
mothballed in the Depots and Inactive Ships Facilities.  Then there
are the infrastructure costs not in that figure, for about a
hundred or so Xboat Way Stations, a few hundred IISS bases, the
local planetary naval facilities, and so on.  

Remember too, those figures are for the *assets*, not the budgets.  
They represent the ship acquisition costs for the various Imperial
space forces over a normal twenty to forty year replacement cycle.
During wartime, yearly costs would go up as the replacement cycle
shortens to replace ships lost to battle damage.

The rough estimates of the Imperium using the colony model I did
suggest that all the Imperial navies should have 42,000 major ships,
126,000 minor ships, and 126 million personnel.  What leads from
this?  Well,

  * For 21 sector fleets, each sector gets 2000 major ships, 
    6300 minor ships, and 6.3 million naval personel.  There
    are actually 28 sector fleets, but there are quite a few
    sectors with less than sixteen subsectors.  I think that
    _Rebellion Sourcebook_ claimed that the regular IN had
    about 1000 major combatants per sector, so this looks 
    pretty good. 

  * At 1000 major combatants per sector, the regular IN would
    have squadrons of 12 to 13 major combatants.  I think that
    "major combatant" covers everything down to the 10,000 d-ton
    escort destroyers, or even smaller, so this checks too.  

  * Each squadron gets about 20,000 personnel.  This may be a
    little short for TNE -- thirty or forty thousand would make
    more sense.  However, this figure includes the IISS and
    planetary "squadrons", which may need fewer crew than the
    IN and colonials.  In any case, some fiddling could 
    be done to fix this if necessary.  If the definition of
    "major combatant" goes down to destroyers and 1000 d-ton
    destroyer escorts, there shouldn't be a problem here as
    it is. 

  * 126 million personnel are only about 0.08% of all the people
    in uniform in the military, by _WTH_.  At a total Imperial
    population of 15.77 trillion, most people in the Imperium
    will never be in the space forces.  Less than one person
    in one hundred thousand.  However, there are quite a few
    more people that get into space by working for the shipping
    lines, which have more people in them than the space forces. 

  * The navy can't be much bigger -- it's too expensive.  It
    looks like the HiPop worlds would be paying on the order
    of half a trillion credits a year just maintaining and
    replacing the fleet at it's current size.  Each.  And the
    IN builds at TL15; more navy ships tie up the high tech
    starport yards, making for less-efficient merchants. 
 
  Steve Bonneville
  <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>


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

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 21:12:17 +0000
From: Stuart Dobson <sdobson@sniffle.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Striker II in UK
Message-ID: <392.sdobson@sniffle.demon.co.uk>

I've just order it from Lesuire Games (0181-346 2327) who are usually 
very good at getting things in early. They will also tell you if they 
are out of stock and send orders out very quickly (I think its same 
day if ordered before 3pm). 

*********************************************************
Stuart Dobson
Preston
Lancashire
UK


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

Date: Wed, 04 Jan 1995 20:11:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ramjet <HAYDENDJ@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: New Era Terran subsector info wanted
Message-ID: <01HLGLS6PMZQ005GA4@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu>

Does anyone know where I can find the pre-Collapse and New Era data for
the Terran subsector?  I'm interested in starting a campaign on Terra
and possibly starting a pocket empire from good ol' mother Earth. :)

	Thaniks,
	 Sablemane

----------
Sablemane, the Wild Elf with the lousy communications software :/
a.ki.a. Ramjet, Mikhail, Furball
"It was fun."  -- Starship Captain, James T. Kirk

NOTE: I have no backspace and I have no DEL key operationg with this 
software!  All typos cannot be corrected!  Sorry!  Bear with me, pleas3e! :)

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

End of TRAVELLER Digest 152
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