Subject: TRAVELLER digest 241
Date: 95-04-01 15:56:05 EST
From: traveller@mpgn.com
Sender: traveller@mpgn.com
Reply-to: traveller@mpgn.com
To: traveller@mpgn.com (Multiple recipients of list)

			    TRAVELLER Digest 241

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: TRAVELLER digest 240	by muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com (John Kovalic)
  2) Re: Reply to the Reply to the Reply to Mr. Long.	by LONG2469@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu
  3) virus	by jmg141@email.psu.edu (john gardner)
  4) [T238] Whitening the Black Box	by jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
  5) Reply to H.D Hale	by "Bob Brown" <Robert.Brown@newcastle.ac.uk>
  6) Challenge 76	by E.Watters@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
  7) RCES uniforms	by eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)

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Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 15:19:58 -0600
From: muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com (John Kovalic)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 240
Message-ID: <199503312119.PAA03970@fullfeed.msn.fullfeed.com>


>Try the book "The New Dinosaurs", by Dougal Dixon.  Good artwork, and as the
>animals are based on familiar Terran niches you can get the stats from T2k
>(or guestimate easily).  See my earlier tirade on experts and believability
>to get my opinion on most published Traveller animals (low).  Now if a
>biologist was to write up an expansion to the animal rules...
>

Okay. Let's summarize: Biologists hate Traveller's biology rules;
Astronomers gripe that Traveller's maps are two-dimensional and therefor
have little or no known relevance to true astrography; Physicists can't
stand Traveller's FTL theories - they're impossible at best; And computer
scientists rip Traveller's computer rules - including and often in
particular Virus.

Geeez. You'd think Traveller was a *game* or something... :-)





           /\
****//\\**********************************************************
       // * \\                    ----------------------
     //        \\                  The Servants of Kovalic
   //______\\                ----------------------
   -------------
Hat Trick*Tornado*Read My Lips*Peace in Our Time*Market Manipulation*Bigger
Business*Murphy's Law*Rewriting History*Deasil Engine*Energy Crisis*Tax
Reform*France*Japan*Cable TV*Fraternal Orders*L-4 Society* Multinational
Oil Companies*Germany*Israel* Liquor Companies*.......Ours, alllllll OURS!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! (THWACK!) Sorry.
*******************************************************************



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Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 16:43:49 -0500 (EST)
From: LONG2469@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Reply to the Reply to the Reply to Mr. Long.
Message-ID: <01HOSJQO27S29JJUK4@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu>

Date sent:  31-MAR-1995 16:24:58 

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!! (Sound of Halon FIRE Suppression unit)

Whoa! a Flame war has been averted.  I was frustrated by what I have seen 
as a lack of cooperation, and pushiness on the list.  I just get frustrated 
when all the Phd's of today think they can predict with 100% accuracy what 
will be in the future.  This is why most SCI-FI shows are very vague about 
how there systems work.  Can you tell me exactly how the ODN conduits from 
star trek work?? No and that's because the exact technology is not on a 
blue print, otherwise we'd be able to manufacture the items postulated. ;)

When I get involved in a list like this, I see it as a chance to exchange 
Ideas about the possibilty of the technology, not the exact ways it works.  
I am not building these things, as long as I can give a creditable 
description of something, then that is all I need.  What I need to see from 
the list is more postulating of where the RCES is going, What the ASLAN's 
are up to, etctera, etcetera, etcetera. :)

Now that I have A different view point of you letter to me, I can 
Justifiably say "I'm Sorry to have Jumped on your case."  However I still 
think that I have made some valid points during our very-short heated 
exchange. 


Now on to some new Business.  What do you all have to say to this??  Lets 
assume that for a moment, there is a spatial rift, how would this affect 
jump travel??  Would the rift merely force you out of jump, or would it 
cause a severe Mis-Jump.  Perhaps sending you half-way across known space.  
(now that i've written that I've noticed how much it sounds like ST.Voyager.)

	Here's another thought, what would a society be like, if they were 
considering the abolishment of the Anti-Psionic laws.  What would the 
people talk about in there discussions, and how would the underground 
Psionic institutes react to this news.  Would it have taken a civil 
disobedience tactic, sort of like the lunch counter sit-ins to bring these 
ideas about, or something else like the good deeds performed by a large 
number of Psionicists in that culture??

Just some new ideas to get the ball rolling in a more productive (IMHO) 
direction :)

  
Stay Frosty,



_______________________________________________________________________________
Jamison J. Long (AKA Neuromancer, Flag Admiral, Jamie)  [{Founder T.E.R.R.A}]
LONG2469@SPLAVA.CC.PLATTSBURGH.EDU or LONG2469@SNYPLAVA.bitnet
 
Alea Iacta est.  (The Die is Cast.)  -Iulius Caesar, upon crossing the
Rubicon.
   {Also the Motto of T.E.R.R.A. [The Embry-Riddle Roleplaying Assoc.]}

=============================================================================

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

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 17:01:15 -0500
From: jmg141@email.psu.edu (john gardner)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: virus
Message-ID: <199503312211.RAA24970@genesis.ait.psu.edu>

I admit that the virus has its ups and downs as a plot device, but the
darned thing can be such a fun thing if it is used properly.  For example:

upon starting a new campaign with new players in RCES lancer roles . . .
I allowed my players in their newly (caugh, choke) refurbished far trader to
encounter a limping nearly destroyed free trader in a decaying orbit.  In
the interest of possibly recovering something useful, they went aboard to
see a bunch of bodies, useless equipment, and a single (virus
infected)police robot.  
        i should note that the player who discovered the robot is the type
who normaly befriends children, little lost dogs, and every other warm and
fuzzy thing that comes along.  when he saw the robot, it was "crying" over
the death of its comrades.  needless to say, they brought it aboard and left
the system.  
        playing an insane, but appearantly friendly police robot was a
unique experience.  having it make the coffee (saying it was in its
programing), and then ask if anybody wanted donuts was a riot.  
        but, it was all a ruse, that made the party let down their guard
long enough for the little bugger to get access to a computer terminal.
        virus is as virus does. . .

the other big mistake that my players did, was to plug every system onboard
into a computer, and plug all of the computers together.  i warned them, but
they don't listen to me.
        I can say without a doubt that it was most gratifying to watch my
players run around the ship smashing their own equipment in order to stop
this darned thing.  every time they thought they had finished it off, it
croped up somewhere else.
        needless to say, the darned thing placed eggs everywhere onboard in
everything the computer had access to . . . and i had much in the  way of
plot thickener for many sessions to come.

Now i understand the gripe about the virus not being logical, but even
illogical things can be used for fun. 

its just a thought.

john.

"Any society which is willing to surrender liberty for security . . . shall
have neither."
                                                           - Benjamin Franklin.
"A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his
steps."
                                                           - Proverbs 14:15
"No matter where you go, there you are . . ."
                                                           - Albert Eienstien
"A chicken is nothing but an egg's way of producing more eggs"
                                                           - unknown



  


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

Date: Thu, 30 Mar 95 20:45:00 -0500
From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
To: TRAVELLER@MPGN.COM
Subject: [T238] Whitening the Black Box
Message-ID: <8A674DD.0100046D6C.uuout@execnet.com>


T::>>Only if you also manage to steal the "top secret" research notes on the
 ::>>project.  Otherwise, yes you will save some time, but I wouldn't think
 ::>>you would save *most* of it.  But, then again, I'm not a research
 ::>>scientist, so I could be wrong.

T::>   My thinking in this case is that it is a heck of a lot easier to
fabricate
 ::>something if you have a copy of whatever it is you want to duplicate
 ::>sitting in front of you.  It leads you down paths you otherwise would not
 ::>of thought of, and keeps you from turning down a blind alley.  As a
 ::>librarian (my day job), I can tell you from experience that being able
 ::>to adapt a previous search strategy to a bit of research gives you a
 ::>considerable time savings over having to come up with a search
 ::>strategy from scratch.

 Sometimes, having the example isn't necessary; all you may need is 
 the knowledge that something is possible.  And once you start 
 using a technology in commerce, or demonstrate a weapon, it 
 becomes public knowledge that it's possible.  I've seen it 
 asserted several times that the Soviets didn't _need_ the 
 Rosenbergs to steal the A-Bomb for them; it saved them a couple of
 years at most, that's all...
==========================================================================
Jeff Zeitlin                                      jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com
---
  OLXWin 1.00  Press any key to dis-continue! %^&$^$@#

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

Date:          Sat, 1 Apr 1995 00:42:17 +0000
From: "Bob Brown" <Robert.Brown@newcastle.ac.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Reply to H.D Hale
Message-ID: <199503312341.AAA29480@cheviot.ncl.ac.uk>

WHAT?

GDW preaches the gospel and Mr Hale doth quote chapter and verse.
So the primordials never happened and GDP were talking out of their 
"Gary Glitters." IT'S A GAME! We can do what ever we choose and I 
choose to have the primordials have a fun old time in the Zhodani 
territories. 
If they didn't exist, well explain "Knightfall" to me then?
I await your reply with indifference

Bob.

"I'm a twentieth century asthetic which means I appreciate the way 
napalm burns." Andrew Eldritch 1984. 

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

Date: Sat, 01 Apr 1995 02:45:38 EST
From: E.Watters@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Challenge 76
Message-ID: <0098E363.227E7500.35@v2.qub.ac.uk>

Hello,
Challenge 76 finally hit the shelves in my part of the UK last Friday
It seemed much delayed, at least three months after 75. A great read,
especially the Suffren article, but my question to the North American
recipients of this list is, when was it out in your neck of the woods?
Our local roleplaying store, Virgin, doesn't even have Aliens of the
Rim on their lists (odd considering the report a few digests ago of
its imminent release), they say that Vampire Fleets is out this 
month. I am getting frustrated! So someone put me out of my misery,
Is it the same over the Atlantic, or does the UK just have [expletive
deleted]..poor roleplaying support. 
Read the Death of Wisdom, a nice read, and welcome as it brings the
reader through parts of the RC, fleshing it out. Ashtabula (?) seemed
to recover Coeur before the rescue missions detailed in PoT, but I'm
sure it was active in the sector before the rescue missions.
P.s. Anyone got any info on the planet Welch, nr Xezor, for a planet
on the border of the RC, there's little info on it in PoT.
Looking forward to my next TNE acquisition, when it reaches these
shores...
E. Watters.

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

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 22:40:07 -0500
From: eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: RCES uniforms
Message-ID: <9504010340.AA24963@remus.ultranet.com>


Shalom Zaidfeld writes:
>	A while back, Rob Prior and others on the list were asking about 
>the colours and rank designs that are used by the RC.  Well, These 
>designs are available via the Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide.  On 
>pages 78-84, there are several colour Plates.  If you take a look at 
>plates C, E and F you can find the rank and uniform designs.

   Those show the body sleeves and battle dress used by the RCES.  Various
publications that cover the RCES state that the Body Sleeve is pretty much a
"standard" uniform for RCES in the field.  They come in various colors,
including different camo patterns, but black is what is usally worn.  
   What I think Rob and others were asking for were downport, back in the
RC, duty uniforms.  Given the informal natures of the RCES, it's probably a
simple setup.  Trousers and tunic (or jumpsuit, depending on current
fashions).  The RCES insigna somewhere with name tag.  Rank tabs would be
downplayed, if worn at all.  Engineers on the job would be in coveralls, of
course. :-)  insigna wouldn't be visable under the grease anyway.

   RC and planetary marines are a different matter.  Rank and Unit insigna
would be present.  Uniforms would be more formal.   Hmmm...I don't remember,
do RC Marines wear Body Suits or do they have a simular kind of Combat
Environment Suit?



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
eclipse@ultranet.com -- These opinions are mine, no one else wants `em.
"[Clinton's] Administration is easily the most reckless in interfering with 
the integrity of Federal investigative agencies since that of Richard Nixon."
   -- NY Times editorial, "White House Ethics Meltdown", 3/4/94
              http://www.ultranet.com/~eclipse/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


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End of TRAVELLER Digest 241
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