			    TRAVELLER Digest 172

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: YARS: Fixing anomalous stars	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

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Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 20:50:03 -0500
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: YARS: Fixing anomalous stars
Message-ID: <sf256784.048@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

Cynthia's comments:


>Will forward a copy via e-mail.  Ken's posting copies for me  to ghost
>and mpgn.com archive sites as well.

   I received it this afternoon.  Thanks.   What would be the best way
to get it to run from DOS (or Windows)?


>BTW, with all the people who have picked up OS/2 3.0 Warp out there,
>with the nifty Internet access kit (aka TCP/IP for OS/2 2.0 in disguise, for
>us old-time OS/2 users...), how many TMLers use OS/2 now?  Inquiring
>minds that write OS/2 programs would like to know.

   Sorry I'm still using impulse (aka Windows 3.1)  :-)


>Cool. I did not know that; the one college-level astronomy text I had
>around the house didn't even mention class VI stars, so I figured GDW
>had interpolated them into existence or something.  You learn something
>every day....

   BD+38 2285  is a G8 VI, and BD+31 1684 is a G2 VI--both are in the
"local" stellar neighborhood (within 25 parsecs).  There are others as
well.  I've learned a lot about Astronomy since I started doing research
on the "real" stars of the Solomani Rim--a lot more than I picked up in
my college Astronomy courses (all of two).  I figure I'll be a bonafide
expert in about another...oh, 50 years.  It's fun though, or I would find
some other mental gymnastics to busy myself.


>GURPS Space system roll-up rules had a good way to handle this --
>first  you generate a normal system of a main sequence star of the
>same spectral class.  Then you run it thru red giant and maybe
>supernova stages.  What's leftis the white dwarf's planetary system.

   The same could be done with the TNE system, but it seems like an
awful lot of trouble to go to just to blow something up (the same could
be said of many action/adventure movies).  Smells like a Challenge article
to me....


>Well, I used a very unscientific method to come up with that  percentage
>(33%) -- I ran it against the Spinward Marches and adjusted the
>percentages by trial & error until it averaged around 3-4 dwarfs
>remaining per subsector.  Like for VIRUS.CMD -- you have the source
>code, adjust 'til it suits you.  I liked the results I got with 33%, so
>I went with that number.  If you have some ideas for improving that
>while sticking with one pass thru the file, I would love to hear them.

   I figured to do it *accurately* you would have to first have to know
the age of the stellar region with which you were working (the
older the patch of stars, the more white dwarfs there would be).  That
kind of research is of course beyond the scope of this game.  The D6
method (converting all the DMs and then deciding on how many white
dwarfs there really are) is indeed a two step method, but I liked the
results it gave me (then again I tend to be more "hands on" with the
data, making any revisions personally).  Three per subsector is an
interesting number, because it is about the average with which I came
up for the Solomani Rim (actually 3.75--some of them because they
*really* were there waiting to be counted, not just rolled on some dice). 
   
   From what I've been able to determine, my number is pretty close
(white dwarf companion-wise) to the real figure for the stellar region
close to Sol.  Three as a universal average would work fairly well,
assuming the local area (50 light years or so) is reflective of the rest of
Known Space.


>Since the real universe is also 3-dimensional, for our campaign we
>decided that the 2-D hex map actually represents a map of jumpspace,
>not realspace....

   There are a number of ways to handle the situation.  One problem that
I can see is that your explanation relies on gravitational theories which
may or may not be accurate.  While I agree that gravity would tend to
distort jump space on an interstellar scale (making the fastest way to get
from point 'A' to 'B' not necessarily a straight line), I disagree with your
analysis of supernova effects.  A ship doesn't "climb a hill" when it goes
into jump, it tunnels through the hill and comes out the other side.  This is
why a ship disappears from normal space when jump is initiated.  This
is not to say that a supernova (which occurs only *very* rarely--none 
will have occurred for thousands of years in Known Space by the time
of TNE) wouldn't have some effects.  

   One potential problem for ships in jump space near the supernova
would be that the distortion waves created could "swat' a ship out of
jump space, leaving it helpless in deep space (unless it had extra jump
fuel).  The distortion waves would travel out like ripples in a pond,
and could affect an area of several parsecs.  Another possible effect
would be that some ships might get "carried off" by the distortion waves
and deposited in a system far from the intended destination (possibly
even back to the system they started from!)--and no, I wouldn't dare say
similar to Star Trek: Voyager (tm)...but if I did, you'd know what I mean....


>... (Now you know why you never find the damn things on the
>standard sector maps... You can't get there from here.) Again, the
>standard "In My Campaign" disclaimer....

   There are no black holes in "Known Space", and darn few neutron
stars (in fact, none come to mind right away).  They weren't included
in the Traveller rules for this reason.  It made little sense, I'm sure, to
the
folks at GDW (and I'm speculating here Loren, if you're listening) to do
the research required for rules to generate such phenomenon when
the characters would likely never encounter them.

   Perhaps your PCs run further afield, or your version of "Known
Space" is different from the "orthodox" version (which I believe is the
case here).  It's interesting to speculate about the nature of jump space,
and how it interacts with "real" or "normal" space.  It also generally true
that for every group that plays Traveller, there is a different theory
as to exactly how it works.  As with theories of God, someone could
be right, and possibly everyone is wrong....we'll probably never know
in our lifetimes.


Regards,
Harold D. Hale

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 172
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