			    TRAVELLER Digest 181

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: Gas Giant Refueling	by bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
  2) Re: TRAVELLER digest 179	by aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton)
  3) Striker	by "Post, D L (Dan)" <PostD%HOST2@WLV.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>
  4) Ship Combat	by "Post, D L (Dan)" <PostD%HOST2@WLV.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>
  5) Re: Ship Combat	by merrick@RT66.com (Merrick Burkhardt)
  6) Re: Ship Combat	by Derek Smith <Derek_Smith.LOTUS@crd.lotus.com>
  7) Reply to Adventure Seed 2	by lewis@chara.gsu.edu
  8) Goeran Damberg, what's your address?	by Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
  9) Re: Adventure Seed 2, possibility 11	by Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
 10) Recommenation for Those Who Surf	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
 11) Re: Recommenation for Those Who Surf	by E.D.Quibell@bton.ac.uk (Ewan D Quibell)
 12) Adventure Seed 3	by Mark Clark <markc@strauss.udel.edu>

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Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 12:14:58 +0600
From: bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Gas Giant Refueling
Message-ID: <9502021814.AA28460@bambam.itlabs.umn.edu>

Alvin Plummer <plummera@SHERIDANC.ON.CA> wrote:

>Just a reminder about my space force question.  Just for repition's sake:
>    Why do high-population systems have much fewer men - and therefore  
>    starship's - in their navy?  This seems very conter-intuitive to me!
>    (Re: Space Force Generation: _Path of Tears_, pg. 96)

I'm not Loren, but I'll take a swing.  Starships are expensive.  They're
so expensive that a HiPop world can't afford to have that many.  But a
lower population world may have a higher percentage in the navy since
they need to have more ships proportionally than the HiPop worlds.  In
a sense, the HiPop worlds can economize a bit here because of the 
economies of scale involved.

>Can anyone here come up with the *real* reason why starship's like to 
>jump to & from gas giant's?  Perhaps jump astrogating is easier from 
>their vicinity? 

A system with a truly lousy planet and starport might have no source
of fuel available, requiring use of the gas giant.  Yes, this would
make it a *serious* backwater.

Long-range trade route merchant shipping might use gas giant refueling
if they aren't going to stop in a system.  Then it might be cheaper 
than maneuvering down and buying unrefined fuel, even with the bigger
jump limit involved.  Heck, not dealing with Imperial Starport
Authority paperwork may make it faster on the route. :)  This sort
of operation gets expensive, of course, so the profit has to be pretty
good.  I can see Tukera Lines trying this.

Of course, if you want real fast transport, you have to cut out the
gas giant altogether and go to the xboat system's tender approach,
where you bring the fuel out to the ship.  Since the tender would
have to know the transport's exit point, I can see some problems
with pirates possible here.  The xboat system is actually even faster
than that, since they transport electronic information and can
shift the "cargo" from the arriving ship to a fully refueled ship
faster than they could refuel the arriving ship and send it off
again.  This, of course, is even more expensive, since it involves
keeping a few extra ships around, but it's better in a large-scale
continuous operation like the xboat network. 

Besides the other military operations mentioned, it would be useful 
in a case where an invading fleet doesn't want to take the mainworld
of the Podunk system, but it's in a strategic position on the way to
Rhylanor, so the mainworld is bypassed, the fleet refuels, and jumps
on.  The benefit is that you don't get your fleet whittled away by
attacking a bunch of less consequential planets.  Of course, then
you run the risk of having your supply line cut off, or worse things
happening behind you, but it's a calculated risk.  

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>
 

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

Date: Thu, 2 Feb 95 18:52 GMT
From: aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Cc: aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 179
Message-ID: <memo.250022@cix.compulink.co.uk>

In-Reply-To: <199502011731.MAA22175@Ambassador.MPGN.COM>


In message <199502011731.MAA22175@Ambassador.MPGN.COM>, traveller@mpgn.com
said:
  > First of all, are there any guidelines for the max weight or ground
  > pressure of ground vehicles?  The current rules make no mention of
  > this, but ignoring it gives essentially free reign to have 150 ton
  > tanks.  
  
Yeah, this is a *major* omission, I spotted it straight away, (this may
have been due to the fact that I'd just been to a lecture on AFV design).
ISTR that Striker and MT had rules for this, I'll have to dig them out and
see if they can be converted.

  > Even worse, there are no rules for how heavy I can make my
  > hovertanks.  I assume that at some point the hoverfans cannot produce
  > sufficient pressure to keep the vehicle aloft. 

Sounds reasonable to me.

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

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 95 11:17:00 PST
From: "Post, D L (Dan)" <PostD%HOST2@WLV.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>
To: Traveller <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Striker
Message-ID: <2F313008@MX.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>


1. .   Has anyone tried the new striker rules?
       They look very impressive....
2.    Fire fusion and steel seems very difficult to follow . I tried designing
       a  TL10 vehicle laser- WoW!  Even with a spreadsheet it was a nightmare!

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

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 95 13:07:00 PST
From: "Post, D L (Dan)" <PostD%HOST2@WLV.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>
To: Traveller <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Ship Combat
Message-ID: <2F314987@MX.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>


   Does someone understand the 1/3 or 1/6 penetration of lasers in ship combat
The example in the book doesn't make sense. The book states that with a 1/6
and 20 damage points it would take 12 damage point to penetrate and you
would have 18 damage points left over. Is this saying that for each damage
point I get 6 armor points of penetration??
               Thanks in advance
                         Retief
  *Striking from space is for wimps*

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

Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 14:20:06 -0700 (MST)
From: merrick@RT66.com (Merrick Burkhardt)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Ship Combat
Message-ID: <9502022120.AA01146@RT66.com>

Hi,

> 
>   Does someone understand the 1/3 or 1/6 penetration of lasers in ship combat
> The example in the book doesn't make sense. The book states that with a 1/6
> and 20 damage points it would take 12 damage point to penetrate and you
> would have 18 damage points left over. Is this saying that for each damage
> point I get 6 armor points of penetration??

Yup, that's it.  Divide the target's armor by 6, and that is how many points
you subtract from the damage value (the amount of "damage" used up burning a
hole through the armor).

>                Thanks in advance
>                          Retief

-Merrick

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

Date:  2 Feb 95 16:37:32 EDT
From: Derek Smith <Derek_Smith.LOTUS@crd.lotus.com>
To: "Post  D L (Dan)" <PostD%HOST2@WLV.IIPO.GTEGSC.COM>
Cc: traveller <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Re: Ship Combat
Message-ID: <9502022137.AA10404@internet1.lotus.com>

Dan Post wrote:
>Does someone understand the 1/3 or 1/6 penetration of lasers in ship 
>combat The example in the book doesn't make sense. The book states that
>with a 1/6 and 20 damage points it would take 12 damage point to
>penetrate and you would have 18 damage points left over. Is this saying
>that for each damage point I get 6 armor points of penetration??

I have it on good authority that you're much better off using the
combat rules in Brilliant Lances, but...

The 1/6 (say) is the Penetration Rating (PR), the 20 Damage Points is
the Damage Value (DV)

What you do is, you multiply the Armor Value of the TARGET by the
Penetration RATING of the Laser, and that is how many Points of
Damage Value that you lose penetrating the Armor.

So, take a ship with an Armor Value of 60.

60 * 1/6 = 10.  10 Damage Points are used up penetrating the Armor.

20 - 10 = 10, so 10 Damage Points get through to mess with things
inside.  Note also that the Critical Table is erroneously labeled.
It's Damage Value which Penetrates vs. Target Size Class (rather
than Penetration Value which Penetrates, as the table says) that
determines the number of criticals done.  Lasers would be even
more powerful than they already are otherwise.

Hopeth this helpeth.

--Derek

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

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 95 17:12:25 -0500
From: lewis@chara.gsu.edu
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Reply to Adventure Seed 2
Message-ID: <9502022212.AA07728@chara.gsu.edu>

Mark Clark wrote yesterday in his adventure idea.

>10) As 8, but the asteroid's inhabitants are violently xenophobic, and 
>will fight to destroy the player's group.  They are technologically less 
>sophisticated than players, however, so the Captain's father can be 
>rescued if things are done right.

If they were xenophobic, why would they keep the Captain's father
alive. I would assume they shot him right off the bat.  The Captain
would want revenge and want to destroy the entire ship, probably an
easy job for the players and their hi-tech ship.  the Players would
have to decide if they would help him or stop him.  If they stopped
him, they probably won't get paid....

Lewis Roberts

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

Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 17:32:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Goeran Damberg, what's your address?
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950202172711.3286G-100000@brahms.udel.edu>

Sorry to bomb both lists with this, but when I tried to reply privately 
my mailer didn't like this address:

To: Goeran Damberg <goeran@enterprise>

Goeran, do you have an alternate or corrected address?  my reply to you 
very kind message follows.


On Thu, 2 Feb 1995, Goeran Damberg wrote:

> I really like the two adventure seeds you have posted to the traveller 
> and xboat mailing lists. 

Thanks.  I was hoping I would encourage others to do the same - seems to 
be working.  Anything to cut down on those @#$% rock postings!

> As you might know I have a Traveller WWW page, and I wonder if its ok by 
> you that I htmlize the two adventure's and put them there?

You most certainly may.  Could you send me the address of the page (if
there is such a thing)?  I haven't bothered to learn about WWW yet - a
Traveller page would give me the incentive to make the effort. 

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

Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 17:44:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Adventure Seed 2, possibility 11
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950202173934.3286I-100000@brahms.udel.edu>

Thanks Eric, that was a great add-on.  I'd encourage all of you to come 
up with add-ons.  After all, I started these posting these seeds to 
encourage others to do the same (glad it's working), and to take my minds 
off those rocks (I feel like a character in a Call of Cthulhu game: "The 
stars are right, and they're going to smack into your planet if you don't 
watch out!"). :-)

Mark 

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

Date: Fri, 03 Feb 1995 09:55:43 -0500
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Recommenation for Those Who Surf
Message-ID: <sf31fd2c.076@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

   For those of you with Internet and World Wide Web access, I highly
recommend you check out Goran Damberg's WWW page devoted to
Traveller.

*  From Mosaic, go to http://akebono.stanford.edu, then enter the Yahoo
   heirarchical hotlist, then Entertainment, then Games, then Role-Playing
   Games and look for Traveller.

*  From Netscape, you pretty much follow the same route, except that
   Yahoo is already in the Internet Directory under Subject Directories.

   Any questions? let me know....

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

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 15:06:22 +0000 (GMT)
From: E.D.Quibell@bton.ac.uk (Ewan D Quibell)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Recommenation for Those Who Surf
Message-ID: <9502031506.AA17735@diamond.bton.ac.uk>

Or you could just go to his page direct ....

	http://enterprise.shv.hb.se/~goeran/Traveller/

also give access to other Traveller Pages ...

Ewan


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- E.D.Quibell ------------------------------------ Thought is just about----
-- Data Communications Technician ----------------- the hardest thing a----
-- University of Brighton ------------------------- human can do - which----
--------------------------------------------------- probably explains why----
-- Email  e.d.quibell@bton.ac.uk ------------------ so few seem to do it.----
--        quibez@essex.ac.uk -------------------------------- Henry Ford-----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Who me ? Na, I didn't say that. My Employers ? They don't say anything---
----- My spelling is entirely due to dyslexia, typos, and poetic licence-----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 11:00:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@strauss.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Adventure Seed 3
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950203104524.7358B-100000@strauss.udel.edu>

Adventure Seed: Biomoney

Setting: Planet with Pop 8+, Gov 3+, Tech 9+

Player Information: Arriving on planet, the players find the local
government has instituted a unique form of currency: biomoney.  In order
to encourage spending and increase the velocity of money (the number of
times a unit of currency changes hands per unit of time), all currency is
alive.  To keep it alive, it must be kept next to the skin .  However, the
money gradually becomes allergic to the person who is carrying it, so it
must be spent within 7 days or it dies and is no longer legal tender. 

All transactions of 1000 credits or less must be paid for in biomoney, and
the first 1000 credits of all salaries and compensation is paid in
biomoney.  This means the players will have no choice about using biomoney
if they visit the planet (as a good GM will insure happens). 

What the currency looks and feels like is up to the GM, though it is
suggested that it should be rather disgusting (that encourages people
to spend it as quickly as possible). 

Complications: 
1) One of the characters turns out to be allergic to the
biomoney and becomes deathly ill with a nasty rash.  However, money kept
next to his skin does not die, even after seven days.  Complications 
include cruel fellow players, criminals who want to exploit the player to 
hide their money, the planet's currency police, etc. 

2) A local underground group contacts the players and asks them to take a
sample of the biomoney off-world for analysis.  They are convinced the
money is poisoning people, but the government is covering it up.  The
truth of the matter is up to the GM.


Note: This is really more of an encounter than a true adventure seed.  It 
was inspired by a description of a Traveller gaming session I read years 
ago, where one of the things the players encountered was, I swear, an 
alien animal that looked like an "inside-out rat."  My immediate thought 
was, "What if the players were forced to handle inside-out rats on a 
regular basis?"  I know, I'm sick, but then again, most GMs are...

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 181
***************************
