			    TRAVELLER Digest 458

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Steven Gott's contact by cabr85 <cabr85@ccsun.strath.ac.uk>
  2) TML/XBoat/Time Machine by aswfh@orion.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
  3) Re: Tuneable Lasers by "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
  4) Re: Power plants by "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
  5) TNE is NOT "Dark Traveller by "Glenn M. Goffin" <ggoffin@igc.apc.org>
  6) Re: Nobles by "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 18:53:54 +0100 (BST)
From: cabr85 <cabr85@ccsun.strath.ac.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Steven Gott's contact
Message-ID: <9510211753.AA04086@lochy.cc.strath.ac.uk>



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pedro A.C. Tavares

Superconducting Devices Group           Email: p.tavares@ccsun.strath.ac.uk
                                               cabr85@ccsun.strath.ac.uk
Dept of Physics & Applied Physics
University of Strathclyde               Tel No: +44-141-552 4400 (ext. 3151)
Glasgow, UK                             Fax No: +44-141-552 7143
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 12:25:44 -0800
From: aswfh@orion.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: TML/XBoat/Time Machine
Message-ID: <v01530501acaf03984273@[137.229.100.68]>

>>>Maybe a time machine would be more appropriate.  I just get the feeling
>that if it's not one of the little black books, you're not happy with
>it. <<
>
>You too, eh?  I thought the Xboat list was for the dissidents. <g>
>Basically, I think we have a case here of a person who wasn't going to like
>the RSB no matter what he found inside.  One of the things he neglected to
>observe was that there was a disclaimer in the front that said character
>generation tables could not be accommodated in the RSB, but would appear at
>a later date, or somesuch.
>
>The black books are still great reference, but we've moved on now.  TNE
>isn't as bad as so many of the bellyachers make it out to be.  I don't
>speak from an uninformed stance, either.  I've played every incarnation of
>this game since 1980.  I've done the CT black books, and they really
>couldn't hold a candle to the current game in many respects, other than
>simplicity.
>
>--Chris

Having recently showed several newbies the TNE Rulebook, I was asked the
question "So where's the award winning background and history of the
Imperium?" TNE is the BEST system of rules yet done by GDW. It relies far
too much, IMMNSHO, upon converting players from previous editions. It
refers to things which happened before, in both the rules and the support
materials. So much so that one person (who'd never played traveller at all)
looked through the background and asked where "TNE Book 2" was so he could
actually get a grip on the setting.

As for the XBoat list, I havent seen more than 1 item per week since I got
on it. It's slow, and doesn't have the discussion of the TNE Rules which I
use.

As for RSB being the best supplement for any game, I would suggest looking
at some of the supplements for RuneQuest, Ars Magica,and Star Wars: They
all have at least one of Equal or better quality. It's nice, but not
enough. In fact, Chris, what I wanted was for GDW to have included the 1
page needed for the Continuity Fix. A little more detail on the XWeb would
have been nice.

GDW is gouging their customers (Myself included) with their pricing.
Compare  Task Force Games and GDW: TFG $19.95 buys 150-200 pages. $14.95 to
TFG gets you about 100 pages. GDW charges $19.95 MSRP for 96 pages.


-Wil

William F. Hostman

EMail:          ASWFH@Orion.Alaska.EDU
HomePage:      down due to access problems.

"History is the story of the life of societies; geography is the study of
what they evolved in."



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

Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 09:24:47 GMT
From: "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@mpgn.com
Subject: Re: Tuneable Lasers
Message-ID: <109@odonovan.demon.co.uk>


> I think what you're forgetting is that ultimately, no matter how much
> power you put behind a laser, their maximum range is still limited by
> the beam pointer.  Thus, even if your X-Ray laser goes 1 bijillion kms,
> it can still only be pointed out to 80 hexes max.

That wasn't my point - although it does show clearly that GF X-Ray lasers have 
the best range in space. What is also shows is that the effective range of a 
non GF X-Ray laser is more than half that of an equivalent GF tuneable. As the 
X-Ray laser would be able to muster four times the discharge energy of the 
tuneable, HPGs being equal, the X-Ray would have better damage at short range, 
and equal at long range

> 
> As for tunable vs x-ray.  The only reason that you would make lasers
> tunable is because they are more effective than x-ray laser in
> atmospheres.

This was my point - Even in atmospheres the X-Ray lasers are much more effectve 
than tuneables.
Compare:
Visible light: Range factor 20       RangeMod in atmosphere 7 = 0.1
Extreme X-Ray: Range factor 100,000  RangeMod in atmosphere 7 = 0.01

The visible light is ten times better in terms of the modifier to effective 
range, but this comes nowhere near to overcoming the natural advantage of the 
X-Ray range factor, which is 5000 times that of visible light.

> 
> And I don't think that grav focusing is something that can be turned
> on/off.  I think that it's an integral part of the laser design.  Think
> of it as the trade-off for having it.  At least that's what the feeling
> FFS imparts on me.
> 
Probably right. Anyway, GF focal arrays for X-Rays can be made really small so 
you could install one easily.
> 
> : I wonder if Challenge would publish a 'Ships of the TML' article.....
> 
> If they don't, I'm sure TTC probably would.
> 
>        --Jerry

-- 
Brendan

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

Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 09:00:02 GMT
From: "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Power plants
Message-ID: <108@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

>  
> * engineering crew - it's ridiculous that the engineering crew is
>   proportional to the size of powerplant etc, in a ship. Just because
>   a powerplant is double the size doesn't mean that you need twice as
>   many people pushing buttons. We used a logarithmic function after
>   engineering crew reached a certain size.
 
I agree the crew requirements are too high. Mind you, all that energy has to go 
somewhere, if you have a powerplant which is twice the size, then you probably 
have systems hanging off it which need a significant number of engineers too. 
It might be best to think of one or two engineers being responsible for the 
actual powerplant, and having the others overseeing more complicated systems 
which draw heavily on the powerplant, like PA spinal mounts (how many engineers 
does CERN need to operate?).

-- 
Brendan 

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

Date:          Sat, 21 Oct 1995 16:20:42 +0000
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <ggoffin@igc.apc.org>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: TNE is NOT "Dark Traveller
Message-ID: <199510220049.RAA20689@igc3.igc.apc.org>


> From: 34zbtxq@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu (Susan M. Shock)

>   I'm having a hard time understanding where people are
> getting this idea that Traveller: The New Era is so dark!
> It reminds me a lot more of classic Sf such as Asimov's
> Foundation trilogy. In the TNE universe, the darkness is
> LIFTING. Man is going back to the stars. People are
> crawling out from the rubble and reestablishing
> interstellar civilization again. Yes, there are problems,
> but that's called ADVENTURE OPPURTUNITIES! 

I agree -- but that's not based on ever playing TNE, just
skimming some of the materials and this list.  I just read
H. Beam Piper's _Space Vikings_ for the first time, and
recommend it to anyone running a TNE game (good luck
finding a copy, though).  Space Vikings is set after the
collapse of a large Terran political entity, and concerns
forays by people from the Sword Worlds, who had seceded
from that entity, into the ruins.

--Glenn

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 08:46:36 GMT
From: "Brendan O'Donovan" <Brendan@odonovan.demon.co.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Nobles
Message-ID: <107@odonovan.demon.co.uk>

Django wrote:

> Ahem! Look in Citizens of the Imperium (CT supplement 4 I think), and you 
> will find Noble as a career! I think this may have carried over to MT but 
> I'm not sure...
> 
> Django.
> 
> 

It did carry over to Megatraveller. I think the point is that any interesting 
Noble would actually have a career, and this is recognised in TNE. After all, 
if he's not a naval officer, he isn't a rich interstellar tourist and he isn't 
a diplomat, then what exactly does he do? - Not very much, so he's hardly 
likely to get involved in anything more adventurous than organising a social 
function.
-- 
Brendan

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 458
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