Subj:	TRAVELLER digest 363
Date:	95-07-30 17:02:25 EDT
From:	traveller@mpgn.com
To:	traveller@mpgn.com

From:	traveller@mpgn.com
Sender:	traveller@mpgn.com
Reply-to:	traveller@mpgn.com
To:	traveller@mpgn.com (Multiple recipients of list)
			    TRAVELLER Digest 363

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) the Olga adventure	by "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
  2) Rants and Raves and Stuff (Td#360)	by Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
  3) Request	by That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu>
  4) Re: Math/Science and Trav (Td#362)	by Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
  5) Keats-class Jumpfighter	by "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

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

Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 20:53:17 GMT
From: "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: the Olga adventure
Message-ID: <54@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

I know someone else was going to write this, and if they do it will probably be 
far superior to this, but here goes with....

             ***Olga and the Spambots!***

Olga Stokova is a free trader operating in the wilds. As well as operating 
standard trade she also operates a 'dating service' on the side. She offers 
passage to young women from the wilds, with their tickets paid for by citizens 
of the RCES, hoping for love and romance. Most often they are stood up as soon 
as their future partners reach Coalition space, but Olga has already collected 
the money for the passage, ensuring her a steady flow of work. To drum up
interest in her service, she has acquired an AI advertising probe, which, 
infected by virus, has acquired an even stranger personality than before.....

Somewhere at the edge of the Aubaine system a small jump capsule burst out of
jumpspace, tumbling over and over. A carefully executed corrective burst from a 
maneuver jet set it spinning even faster in another direction. Unfortunately the 
ships computer knew no words suitable for this situation, so it began to search 
its database for an expression.
'These are Damn fine opportunities' it printed. This didn't seem right, so it
thought for a moment and then tried again.
'Damn these fine opportunities'. It sat back smugly, and went back to solving
the navigation problem. After several more failed burns the ship's computer gave 
up and tried firing the main engines whenever the ship was pointing in the right 
direction. After a few hours the computer stopped the engines and shut down the 
main fusion plant, satisfied that it would probably hit the mainworld somewhere.

A few days later a meteor was seen to come down in the ocean near the shipyards 
on Aubaine. The probe opened up its cargo bay and dispatched two black shapes
before sinking slowly to the bottom of the ocean, where it sank into the mud.

Enter our heros:
The characters wake up one morning to find their mail terminal overloaded with 
junkmail, which should have been filtered out by the postal system. All the 
junkmail (which has cost each character Cr100 to download) are adverts for 
'Olga's dating services' Make sure the players know how much the junk mail cost 
them, and that postnet is responsible. Do whatever is necessary to get them into 
a righteous fury, have a message on the screen inform them that messages from
lovers/lottery offices/employers messages were returned to sender
due to the volume of junk mail held.

At postNET:
As the characters walk to the local postNET office to complain they will notice 
that projection billboards are also showing adverts like the ones in their 
postbox. Even innocent municipal garbagebots have begun sweeping the litter into 
words. At the postNET office a giant surging crowd blocks the doorway for the
players. If the players are to be able to make their
complaint before closing time, they need to find a way past the crowd. Bluffing, 
acting, and blowing alternative entrances with heavy ordinance are all 
acceptable methods of entry. Inside, the receptionist stares blankly into space. 
At the character's approach he looks up, stiffly, with an audible whirr and 
click. The players need to pass Easy:Observation tasks to realise that this is a 
robot, in appearance it looks human, but its mannerisms give it away. The robot 
will answer their questions in the most transparent way - 'What is wrong with
the mail? I did not alter the mail. It was not me who redirected subgrid filter 
two to enable this post. I did not enter this building and break into the 
secured areas of the computer cores to
send the mail.' The players should be about to take violent action when a human 
employee walks in, saying 'Oh, Stan, what do these people want then?' - 'They 
want to know about the junk mail, Dave'. Dave will try to assist the characters, 
but he has no idea what caused it. If the characters suggest that Stan did it, 
or that Stan is a robot, Dave will resolutely disbelieve them. Dave will not 
respond to logical arguments, only a physical attack on the robot will cause it 
to reveal it's true nature. If the players don't try this, and are getting very 
annoyed, eg. threatening you with violence, then the real Stan walks in and Dave 
will realise - 'Stan? But....if you're Stan......then who's?..........'
When attacked or found out in this way, the robot will stand up abruptly, its
eyes flashing red. 'Must terminate opposition - Must continue mission - Must 
advertise'. Dozens of little panels on its forearms open up and various sharp
pointy bits spring out. The robot's designer obviously intended this to be 
scary, but unfortunately it looks more like a Swiss army knife, it's case not
being helped by one of the spikes, which can be positively identified as the 
thing for getting stones out of horses hooves. (I've only just got Vampire 
Fleets, and it doesn't seem too good for anthropomorphic robots, so...) Use 
whatever template NPC seems most suitable, improve it's combat abilities a bit, 
let the players blow it up.

All is quiet for a few days, then Olga herself jumps insystem. Once she has 
landed at the starport there are plenty of opportunities for players to get involved:
-Security work, protecting her ship from angry crowds. Why should they? Double 
wages maybe?
-If the players can't be bought then maybe they could try to sneak into the 
starport to graffiti their feelings on the side of Olga's ship, or reprogram 
maintenance robots to do it for them.
Or if they're desperate
-Paying for Olga's services.

Next day, on another free trader, a young farmer from the wilds arrives, 
claiming that his fiance was kidnapped by Olga. This could develop in several ways
-She was kidnapped, Olga is involved in slavery and needs to be investigated.

Perhaps characters could get work aboard her ship to gather evidence, if some of 
her crew accidentally were told to go to the wrong launch bay in the
starport. 
The girl also needs to be rescued from some evil business type in a fortress.
-As above, but the girl actually prefers her new life
-As the first, but although the girl is unhappy, she was also unhappy in the 
wilds, and she disliked her future husband, so she agreed to go with Olga 
willingly at first.

Olga will manage to getaway from Aubaine, although she is fined Cr1000 for 
misuse of public messaging systems. If the players feel this injust, then they 
can track her into the wilds and try to apprehend her for slavery, drugs or some 
other questionable trade.

And what happened to the second Spambot?

Congratulations in advance to anyone who actually manages to make an
adventure of this.
-- 
Brendan 


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

Date: Sat, 29 Jul 95 19:14:30 -0400
From: Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Rants and Raves and Stuff (Td#360)
Message-ID: <9507292314.AA24445@qrc.com>

[First, the Stuff ...]

Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk> writes:
Subject: Cymbeline lifeforms
> Agreed. The only question would be wether they ever found them - which I
> would agree is _very_ propable. Not 100%, but I'd assume it unless I had
> some super scenario idea that depended on the Ancients not knowing about
> Cymbeline.

Exactly, and I suppose I should have been more clear in the beginning.  We
know he was in the area (he found humans, after all), and was interested
in the subject.

> No, but if they existed 300,000 years ago then any present-day descendant
> in Ancient hands would have as much relationship to their present-day
> naturally-evolved Cymbeline cousins as something bred from a trilobite
> would have with humans (And, yes, I know that trilobites are hundreds of
> millions years ago, not 300,000 - electronic "generations" would IMO be a 
> lot shorter than biological (especially in a breeding program)).

Yes.  It would be very interesting to compare and contrast, unfortuanately
other than the "One of Our Star Systems is Missing" plotline, I can't think
of a good reason to insert it into a Traveller campaign.


[... and now the rants and raves.]

That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu> writes:
> Okay, so now my fire is stoked, and I feel like ranting and raving. 

Good.  We haven't had this rant and rave in ... oh, it must be a year.  ;-)

> Well, painting the miniatures, c'mon, a page or two ...

Wouldn't it have made at least as much sense included in Striker II?
I wouldn't mind the miniatures rules, except that there were other things
(like starship fuel consumption) that would have been a better use of the
space.

> Starship creation rules.  Well, it would have been nice.  They could
> have used the version in Brilliant Lances which takes up only 8 or so
> pages ...

More like 18; I counted.  It would have cost about the space devoted to
one of the sample adventures (IMHO, it would have been space well spent).

> I don't see anything wrong with FFS.

Please don't get me wrong on this point - for all of it's flaws, FF&S is
probably the best product in the whole T:TNE lineup.  It does deliver on
what was promised of it, and the omissions (there are some) don't harm
it's utility.

> For the money I think it's worth it.  Also,
> I'm trying to think if anything like this really exists for any of the
> other space RPG's that I play.  No, not really.

GURPS has rough equivalents, but not a direct equivalent.
3G3 has better small arms design sequences, but that's all 3G3 covers.

> However, did I really need to have to buy Vampire Fleets for four-six
> pages worth of information on how to build robots?

No, you shouldn't have - that, like a few rule updates that were in the RCES
Equipment Guide, should have been included in FF&S.  On the other hand, if
they had included it in FF&S, you wouldn't have a reason to have to buy
Vampire Fleets.

> And finally, The Regency Sourcebook.  Probably most players gripe with
> TNE.  Like where the hell is it?  Why wasn't it released two years ago?

Perhaps GDW is hoping that if they delay producing it long enough, the
demand for it will go away?

> Star Wars for example, develops products for varying timelines
> in parallel (one month may be for a product between the movie eras,
> another might be for after Dark Empire, etc).

The folks who are doing the Star Wars RPG have the staffing, the time, and
the money to do the work right - high production values, frequent releases,
and generally good, tight material.  Part of it is that Lucasfilm insists on
high-quality material from their liscencees, and part of it is that the
product quality does directly affect the bottom line.  GDW seems unwilling
or unable to achieve, let alone maintain, those kind of standards.

> If GDW didn't cover it, someone else did.
> But now no one puts out anything for TNE and the absence is really felt. 

That is aparrently the way that GDW wants it.

> But then again, people aren't exactly knocking down the doors to get TNE
> stuff at my local hobby store.  I wonder why?

Exactly.  By looking at shelf space allocations in my hobby store, I can see
that GDW's products aren't moving well.  While it may be a bit more
expensive to Do Things Right, it's even more expensive to do a poor job.
Not only does that cut sales of current products, but it chips away at the
sales of future products as well.

> Granted it's now Traveller:2000 8)

As opposed to Traveller:2300?  ;-)

wildstar@quark.qrc.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          "It's Science Fiction, if, presuming technical 
                           competence on the part of the writer, he genuinely
                           believes it could happen." --- John W. Campell,
Jr.

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

Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 22:37:19 -0400
From: That Computer Guy <darkstar@chopin.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Request
Message-ID: <199507300237.WAA22864@chopin.udel.edu>


Okay, this may sound dumb, but could somebody out there please send me
a worksheet for any starship that they've created.

I'm looking to create a starship or two and I'm running into a few
problems.  I've cheated by using the examples in FFS to help me out 
when I'm creating weapons, but no such luck with starships.

Likewise, any tips and tricks are greatly appreciated.  For example,
what are the best systems to knock out of the way first?  What should I
definitely save for last?  What should I pay close attention to? 
Etc...

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: Sat, 29 Jul 95 23:54:12 -0400
From: Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Math/Science and Trav (Td#362)
Message-ID: <9507300354.AA24886@qrc.com>

As many of you probably know, I'm one of the people interested in "numbers"
and science in Traveller, and I thought I'd weigh in with a few opinions
on this debate.

First and foremost, there's no reason you have to use FF&S or any other
set of Traveller rules.  Like any other RPG, and any other set of rules,
they're just suggestions, to be used or ignored as you see fit.  I've found
that the most enjoyable role-playing sessions are the ones in which the
rules get used the least.

Many referees are quite successful with the "TLAR" method of creating
technical details: "That Looks About Right".  Anything from star maps to
world creation, to starships and technical gadgets are fair game for
the referee's imagination.  Create what stats you think are appropriate
for it, and just go.

If this is how you prefer to work, and can keep the details straight from
session to session (either in your memory, or written down in a campaign
notebook) then there's no problem with it!  This is, in fact, the way that
many SF writers work, and how most SF television scripts get written.  The
major thing to watch out for is inconsistency.  Players will expect that
their gizmos and gadgets will perform as advertised, unless there's a good
reason to think otherwise, and may give you a hard time about inexplicable
changes.

Another approach which works is to draft your players into doing much of
the work.  Most groups contain at least one person who think FF&S is "neat"
and will (if you let them) happily spend time between gaming sessions
designing all sorts of gadgets for you.  Cultivate this person, and give
him or her ideas on the sort of thing you'd like to see written up for
your game universe.  Building a whole universe is a big job for one person,
and it's a lot more managable when you have help.  It can also have
role-playing benefits: if the player who designed your Imperial Star Navy is
playing a character who used to be a Navy drive engineer, it's quite
reasonable that he should know Navy ships "like the back of his hand".

Finally, I'd like to talk about the role of the TML in these sorts of
discussions.  I see the TML as a forum for discussing just about anything
Traveller-related.  We've already split the list once, to have the TML which
is for T:TNE and other "New Era" topics, while XBOAT is devoted to the
"Classic" era.  I don't see a need for further divisions - TML and XBOAT
are both small enough that skipping uninteresting articles isn't an
onerous chore, and the balance of articles seems reasonable.  I don't see a
preponderance of technical versus non-technical articles (of course, this
means that people who are only interested in one type of article are going
to report that they see "too many" of the other type).


-In a sense, there already is a list for mind-numbing number-crunching
posts and detailed design sequence examinations.  The GDW-Beta list exists
for just this sort of thing, and has been very UNDER-utilized in recent
months.  There's virtually no traffic on it.


wildstar@quark.qrc.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      "I've been to hundreds of new worlds ...
                               ... what could be so different about this
one?"

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

Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 17:10:24 GMT
From: "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Keats-class Jumpfighter
Message-ID: <55@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

Keats-Class Jumpfighter

General Data
Displacement	:50 tons
Length		:33.6m
Price		:MCr46.7
Configuration	:Needle SL
Mass(L/E)	:748.1/726.6
Target Size	:VS
Tech Level	:15
Volume		:700m^3
Hull Armour	:94

Engineering data
Power plant	:240MW Fusion Plant (240MW/hit), 6 month duration
Jump perf.	:2 (105m^3 fuel)
G-Rating	:8G (25MW/G), ContraGrav lifters (5MW)
G-Turns		:60 (93 using jump fuel) 3.125m^3 each
Maint		:31

Electronics
Computer	:2xTL-15 Mod St Computers (0.55MW ea) 1x TL-15 Mod Fb Computer 	
		 (1.1MW)
Commo		:1000AU maser (inf, 0.6MW), 1000AU laser (inf. 0.3MW)
Avionics	:TL-10+ Avionics, TL-15 Terrain following
Sensors		:TL-15 PassEMS 90,000km (3 hexes; 0.06MW), TL-15 ActEMS 	
		 300,000km (10 hexes; 15MW)
Controls	:Flight deck w. 3 workstations, 1 engineering workstation.
ECM/ECCM	:EM masking (0.7MW), decoy dispenser (600 ea. vs 		
		 Active/Passive, 300 vs ladar)

Armament
Offensive	:2x TL-15 700MJ laser lance (Loc 2,3,4;  Arcs:1; 4.575MW ea; 	
		 uncrewed)
MFDs		:1x TL-15 beam MFD (6 diff mods; no msl.; 10 hexes; 1.56MW; 
		 1 crew)

			Short        Medium       Long         Extreme
700MJ laser lance	10:1/21-66   20:1/21-66   40:1/11-33   80:1/5-17

Accommodation	
Life support	:Extended (0.08MW; not fuel tanks), Grav Compensators (6G, 	
		 1.86MW)
Crew		:4 (2 maneuver, 1 gunner, 1 engineer)
Crew accomm.	:2 x bunk (hot bunking)
Cargo		:0m^3
Air locks	:1

Notes:
Fuel purification plant (1MW; 9 hours to refine 306m^), fuel scoops
(280kl/hour)

Surface hits
1	1-6 Ant 7-8 AL
7-10	1 EMMR

Internal Explosion
1	Elec.
2	LasL1
3	LasL2
4	1-10 LasL1, 11-20 LasL2
5	1-10 Elec, 11-19 Qtrs., 20 Hold
6-8	1-9 Elec, 10-13 Qtrs., 14-20 Hold
9-12	1-2 Eng, 3-4 Qtrs., 5-20 Hold
13-16	Hold
17	1-14 Eng, 15-20 Hold
18-20	Eng

Damage:JD 1H, MD 1H, Decoy 4h, PP 1H, LS 2H/1H, MFD 2h, LL 1H, FPP 1H, CG 3h,

all others 1h

History

The Keats Class fighter was developed in 1117 in the Spinward Marches for 
shipping escort, to counter the growing threat from Vargr corsairs. Due to its 
low cost it was soon produced in great numbers, and larger Keats squadrons were 
employed in discouraging Aslan colonisation. As the design began to see service 
outside the Marches, it was even employed against smaller cruisers, the sheer
number of Keats overwhelming the MFDs and sandcaster batteries of their 
opponents, and removing any critical target for a cruisers spinal weapon to be 
used efficiently against. The high maneuverability, reasonable armour and small 
size of the Keats improved its survivability, but nonetheless the Keats size 
made it fairly fragile, and casualties were high. However, the casualties were 
little higher than those suffered by squadrons with larger ships, as forces of 
Keats fighters lost far fewer crew per ship destroyed.
The design is employed widely in the New Era by Regency Quarantine, as its 
armament is sufficient to tackle most vessels up to 1000 tons if used in 
sufficient numbers, and force sizes can be scaled easily by redeploying more 
fighters to systems where they are needed. The high acceleration means that the 
fighters can outrun, or intercept, almost all pre-collapse designs, and a 
fighter squadron covers a system's jump points far better than a smaller number 
of patrol cruisers or SDBs.

Design notes

The life support does not include the fuel tankage. 
8G acceleration was actually the result of a slight miscalculation in the thrust 
needed, but when I found out, I decided to keep it, just to break through the 6G 
barrier which has hung on from Megatraveller days.
The laser lances are not gravitically focused. At TL-13+ X-Ray lasers make it
possible to produce effective non grav lasers. The advantage of this is the 
energy efficiency of the system - the non grav lance needs an input energy of
around 820MJ, compared to the 3500MJ input energy for a grav focused laser of
the same energy. The non grav laser does have a poorer range, and requires a 
much larger focal array, bringing the cost up significantly, but requires a much 
smaller HPG, saving space, and uses less power. 20 hexes is about the maximum
range practical before the cost of the focal array becomes ridiculous. The use 
of non grav focused lasers makes it possible for the Keats to carry lasers with 
a total discharge energy greater than the Gazelle close escort. Although the 
cost of the weapon is greater, the ship needed to mount it is smaller, so 
overall, there are significant reductions in cost.

For those who want to use the laser lance in their own designs:
SA = 28.3m^2, power = 4.575MW, mass = 80.45, volume = 51.62, Cost =  MCr6.855
(gunner's workstation not included)

-- 
Brendan - signing off for a holiday


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

End of TRAVELLER Digest 363
***************************
