			    TRAVELLER Digest 345

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Olga in the Third Imperium
	by scharlto@RTD.COM (Steve Charlton)
  2) RICE papers
	by Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
  3) High-powered melee weapons
	by Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
  4) So just how nasty is a nuke?
	by lhowie@dilbert.lrmi.com (Les Howie)
  5) RE: High-powered melee weapons 
	by That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu>
  6) Combat Walkers In Traveller
	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
  7) KU hyperzine
	by myhre@oslonett.no

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

Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 18:46:24 -0700
From: scharlto@RTD.COM (Steve Charlton)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Olga in the Third Imperium
Message-ID: <199507120146.SAA25277@seagull.rtd.com>

 -- Some annoyed feedback that was far too charitable, IMHO --
>SNIP<
>--Harold

>(who has vented his spleen and feels much better now....anybody
>want to be Olga at this point, with your name and home address posted
>to God knows how many sites around the world?  Maybe she should
>have her boyfriend open all her mail for a while....)

Things have been a bit slow at work this week.  In a fit of
silliness, I began trying to sketch out a Traveller adventure based
on this mailing.  If I can get it anywhere near useable, I will
post a summary of it later this week.

How the H*ll did this twit David get the mailing list address anyway?

Steven T. Charlton
I don't recall installing this 
"General Protection Fault" Screen Saver
scharlto@avalon.com (work)  scharlto@rtd.com (home)


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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 08:25:29 -0700
From: Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: RICE papers
Message-ID: <003e9990@MailXFER.DMCWAVE.COM>

     Answering Jeff Zeitlin's post:
     
     >>This looks like it came from the RICE Paper on Trin.  If you want to 
     build descriptors like them, I strongly recommend you get the intro to 
     RICE Papers, which explains what they are and how the profiles are 
     generated.  Briefly, most of the extended information is generated 
     using the procedures outlined in DGP's World Builder's Handbook for 
     MegaTraveller.  It works equally well, IMO, for Traveller, The New 
     Era.<<
     
     Yeah, but if only I _had_ a copy of WBH.  Used to have one.  Sold it 
     like a fool when I thought I was getting out of Traveller.  Now I'm 
     back and I want to buy another copy!  I don't suppose you, Jeff, could 
     send me a few photocopies of just the pages that outline the enhanced 
     planetary statistics?  I'd be much obliged.
     
     >>If you do, RICE Papers would be appreciated.  If you can't find the 
     RICE Intro at any of the standard locations, email me and I'll email 
     it back.<<
     
     I fully intend to.  My current campaign is moving from Deneb Sector to 
     The Spinward Marches and I plan to write up several worlds, including 
     Rhylanor, Porozlo, Efate and perhaps Jae Tellona.  Using old TNS clips 
     and information from Classic Trav adventures, I'm hoping I can put 
     together some pretty good stuff.

     --Chris

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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 08:28:27 -0700
From: Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: High-powered melee weapons
Message-ID: <003ea5c0@MailXFER.DMCWAVE.COM>

     >>Well, here's another question that I hope someone can help me with. 
     What do I do if I want to create powered melee weapons?  I want to 
     create batons that pack an electrical `punch' for some characters I'm 
     working on, but I have no idea where to start off.  Unless I am 
     missing something, there aren't any such weapons in any of the TNE 
     materials so I don't have anything to base my designs on.  Any 
     pointers from anyone?<<

     I recommend obtaining or borrowing a copy of SHADOWRUN, 2nd Edition.  
     I used to play the game and I recall several very lethal melee weapons 
     that might inspire you.  In fact, their damage ratings might not be 
     too numerically far off for use with Traveller.  As I recall there 
     were knives, swords and whips made of some sort of fantastic material 
     that made them quite deadly.  Some of the players in my campaign 
     wanted to design some.
     
     --Chris

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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 13:59:24 -0300
From: lhowie@dilbert.lrmi.com (Les Howie)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: So just how nasty is a nuke?
Message-ID: <9507121706.AA11924@lrmi.com>

Inspired by the recent re-discussion of contact nuclear weapons, I did a
brief calculation of the damage value of nuclear weapons.

I took a 1 MT weapon, which according to the sci.astro FAQ is 4.2*10^9 MJ,
and assumed that all of that energy would be available in an attack.

I calculated that flux in MJ/cm^2 at various ranges, and took that as the
intensity in the formula for laser DV.

My results

Range  (m)       DV
  1              457
 10               45
 50                9
100                4

It is clear from this that a nuke can really only be effective in a true
"contact" situation.  

To complete a sequence for nuke warheads, you would have to (1) decide on
some more resonable efficiency (2) find out or decide the proportion of the
explosion resulting in a thermal/emp pulse (a "laser" attack) and the
proportion dedicated to accelerating the remaining matter of the missile (a
particle accelerator attack) and (3) work out penetration and additional
damage rules from there.

Whatever rules are used for space combat, this should at least provide some
damage guidelines for a sabotage or suicide bomber situation (isn't that
shuttle getting a little bit close?)
 
Les Howie
Senior Software Developer
Atlantic LRMI


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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 11:48:05 -0400
From: That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: RE: High-powered melee weapons 
Message-ID: <199507121548.LAA00201@chopin.udel.edu>

In Reply to Your Message of Wed, 12 Jul 1995 11: 24:37 EDT
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 11:48:05 -0400
From: That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu>

:      >>Well, here's another question that I hope someone can help me with. 
:      What do I do if I want to create powered melee weapons?  I want to 
:      create batons that pack an electrical `punch' for some characters I'm 
:      working on, but I have no idea where to start off.  Unless I am 
:      missing something, there aren't any such weapons in any of the TNE 
:      materials so I don't have anything to base my designs on.  Any 
:      pointers from anyone?<<
:      
:      I recommend obtaining or borrowing a copy of SHADOWRUN, 2nd Edition.  
:      I used to play the game and I recall several very lethal melee weapons 
:      that might inspire you.  In fact, their damage ratings might not be 
:      too numerically far off for use with Traveller.  As I recall there 
:      were knives, swords and whips made of some sort of fantastic material 
:      that made them quite deadly.  Some of the players in my campaign 
:      wanted to design some.

This is one of the sources of inspiration.  However, I just can't find
any sort of rule for what to do.  I can't believe that over the past 17
years, no one at GDW has thought of making local law enforcement
officials with stun batons (or criminals for that matter).  It seems as
though the combat rules are either `shoot it with a bullet and let it
bleed' or `hit it with fusion/plasma weapons and watch the blunt trauma
add up.'  Not that I don't like these forms of combat, I'm just
wondering what I should do for electrical weapons, etc.

Anyway, since my original post, I've been mulling some ideas over in my
head, and I was wondering if anyone could give me an opinion on them.

I figured that I would treat charged melee weapons as energy weapons
for terms of damage.  So, a character would make a successful melee
hit, and then the hit character would suffer the damage from the
weapon, plus the energy damage.'

And then, as for designing the weapons, all I could think of was using
the rules for handheld laser weapons and batteries.  You know, design a
battery with a certain amount of power output.  Make sure it's not too
big (for a hand-held weapon without a backpack).  Use the laser rules
to determine damage (with no beam pointer, or muzzle, etc, I think all
that it leaves is converting raw Mj's to physical damage).

So, one could probably design a crowd control melee weapon that causes
+1-2 points in damage for electrical damage using something like 125
hits (for a scaled TL15 battery), or more damage for less hits in a
hard-core combat/life or death situation.

Now, since I'm anything but a good scientist, could anyone out there
with a really good understand of this stuff please tell me if I'm
anywhere on the right track?

And I guess that no one has any idea what the penalties are for not
having enough crew members on a ship?  Damn, and I thought I was the
only one not getting it.

Thanks in advance...

       --Jerry

8) Jerry Alexandratos                %  "Nothing inhabits my    (8 
8) darkstar@strauss.udel.edu         %   thoughts, and oblivion (8
8) darkstar@canary.pearson.udel.edu  %   drives my desires."    (8

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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 14:17:40 -0400
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Combat Walkers In Traveller
Message-ID: <s003d99f.074@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

   Something on topic this time, I promise....
                                                                                                                     
   The general consensus is that the appearance of contragrav at TL 9,
and HEPlaR at TL 10 renders most forms of ground transportation
obsolete--so much so that a TL 12 ground car is almost unheard of
(unless you're a nostalgia buff who wonders what it would be like to
cruise a highway and have to parallel park).  Development of walker
type vehicles also comes to a grinding halt.  Though there is some
development in this field after TL 10, the results are specialty vehicles
which operate on worlds where contragrav units have difficulty
safely maneuvering because of weather patterns (high winds would
undoubtedly wreak serious havoc on a slow moving contragrav
transport, not to mention what it would do to the passengers stomachs)
or other factors.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                    
   But what if contragrav weren't available on a world until later on, say
TL 14 or 15 (or was never developed)?  After all, we Terrans aren't
even close yet and we have achieved TL 8 in many areas.  Wouldn't
there be some worlds that chose to develop walker vehicles to their
technological conclusion (whatever that may be)?  And what about
worlds where walkers were developed, and later contragrav was
introduced?  Would they abandon their walker vehicles immediately, or
would there be a transitionary period where walkers were retrofitted
with contragrav?
                                                                                                                    
   With this background in mind, I pose some questions that I've been
pondering lately....                                                                                       
                                                                                                                     
1)  Would improved walker suspensions and transmissions be 
developed beyond those currently available in FF&S?                               
                                                                                                                     
2)  What would the effects of installing a contragrav unit into a walker
be?  Would this enable the walker to leap into the air?  If so, how
high?  What if the contragrav unit fails during a leap?  How much
damage would be done to the vehicle?  What would be the maximum
height a vehicle can leap into the air?  What would be the maximum rate
of ascent and descent?                                                                              
                                                                                                                     
3)  Would installing contragrav improve the speed of the vehicle
(after all, with contragrav on, it doesn't weigh nearly as much)?  If so,
what kind of penalties would have to paid by a vehicle that was running
a maximum speed and tried to stop too fast?                                              
                                                                                                                     
3)  Given that contragrav would make walkers "lighter on their feet",
could a walker now perform martial arts type moves (even something
as simple as a good old front kick)?  If so, how much damage would
this cause (both to the target and the walker)?                                          
                                                                                                                    
4)  How much would walker vehicles benefit from advances in
the field of Cybernetics?  Would including cybernetic devices allow a
walker to move more naturally and efficiently?                                           
                                                                                                                     
   I have my opinions on what the answers to these questions are, but
I am looking for feedback from others.  I hope that a consensus can be
built and the whole thing turned into a Challenge article.  What do you
say folks?                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                    
--Harold                                                                                                       


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

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 21:14:58 +0200
From: myhre@oslonett.no
To: hiwg-list@fwe.com, traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: KU hyperzine
Message-ID: <199507121914.VAA24551@hasle.oslonett.no>


I have finally gotten permission to publish an electronic newsletter for 
Traveller which will be readable  on the W3. I expect to have the first 
hyperzine ready this saturday. I'll come back later to give an announcement 
of the proper URL to this site. 


--------------+-------------------+-----------------------------------
Roger Myhre   | myhre@oslonett.no | http://www.oslonett.no/home/myhre/
HIWGmember 142| Some people have one of those days, I got one of 
              | those lifes.
--------------+-------------------------------------------------------


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End of TRAVELLER Digest 345
***************************
