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Traveller-digest            Monday, 15 July 1996        Volume 1996 : Number 253

(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. Re: Southern Living
         2. Re: Jump space theory
         3. Re: Pop Culture in Trav (was Corn Dogs)
         4. Re: Pop Culture in Trav (was Corn Dogs)
         5. Re: Starship Construction
         6. Re: ID4  ****SPOILER WARNING****
         7. Re: Fighters in Space
         8. Re: More IG praise
         9. Another fall theory...
        10. Re: ID4 ****SPOILER WARNING****
        11. Poor Humour, the Energy Standard
        12. Re: Review: Traveller Chronicle 10

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

From: "Jonas Karlsson" <Jonas.Karlsson@Mail.Bostaden.Umea.SE>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:07:06 +1
Subject: Re: Southern Living

> From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
> Pop off the bottle top on
> the side of the cooler, tear open the bag of roasted peanuts, and pour
> 'em in...Ahhhh!

Ewww. And I thought annelids dipped in batter sounded gross. ;-)

/Jonas

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 11:28:50 PST
Subject: Re: Jump space theory

In somewhere mysterious you write:

> FF&S, having just looked at the page tells you how much fuel is required 
> but doesn't say how the fuel is consumed.  TNE doesn't say much more, 
> p224, "Starships tned to have large fuel capacities due to the need for 
> coolant and jump discharge mass..."  Which doesn't tell us anything 
> really.  Brilliant Lances, Technical Booklet p4 says, "Jump Drives 
> require fuel, dispacement mass, and coolant, all of which are 
> collectively called jump fuel (liquid hydrogen being used for all three 
> functions)."  
>
> None of these sources really tell us how much fuel is consumed during the 
> initial formation of the jump-field.  However, two of them refer to 
> coolant, if the jump-drive is simply turned off after the establishment 
> of the jump-field why on earth would you need coolent? 

Canon in CT was that you burned up the jump fuel "charging" the drive
for the jump. And if you are "burning"(fusing) that much hydrogen in
that short a time you *will* need coolant!

Remember the Annic Nova? It used solar power to charge its drive for
jump. It took it a good long while, but it did it. (and yes, I know it
is no longer considered canon).

So the way I see it is the drive burns all that fuel quickly, and then
pushes the ship into jumpspace with the right vector. A week or so
later you drop out as the "charge" dissipates.

This goes with the rules I remember regarding having only a limited
period of time when you could be ready to jump instantly. You could
charge up the drive, but it could only sit there charged for so long
before you either had to jump or had to dump the power somehow.

And this *doesn't* leave the engineers twiddling their thumbs while in
jump. Jumping is a strain on the drive, especially the modified power
plant that burns all that hydrogen. So they'll need to go over it
carefully, to make sure it came through ok. If it didn't, they'll still
come out of jump ok, but they'd be stuck. Most engineers and ship
owners would rather have the drive available when they come out
*especially* if they have the fuel to make a second jump.

> If this is not so the most economically viable thing to do with a 
> Far-Trader would be to move all the jump-fuel to collapsable external 
> bladders and convert the fuel tanks, 420 cubic meters, into cargo hold.  
> Thus the ship would displace 230 tons upon activation of the drive and by 
> the time the field was formed, because the collapsable tanks would be 
> drawn back into the ships hull, it would only dispace the original 200.  
> This way you maintain your original volume during transit in J-space but 
> you gain an extra 420 cubic meters of cargo space.

You can't do that, because you can't make collapsible bladders for
liquid hydrogen. At liquid hydrogen temps, not a lot of things are
flexible. Plus, you have to insulate the LH2 against sunlight or most
of it will boil off. Finally, accelerating at only *one* gee will put
some pretty severe stress on the bladder. In case you haven't noticed,
bladders are always laid out on a *horizontal* surface, not just
because they need the support, but because the *pressure* exerted by
the liquid inside depends on how *deep* it is. Something streching from
the nose to the tail is going to have *real* troubles with the
pressure at the bottom end.

Bladders can be used to convert cargo space to tankage, because they
have the walls and floor for support.

But for carrying fuel externally you need *rigid* containers, these are
known as "drop tanks". You can charge the drive from the fuel in them,
drop them, and jump.

BTW, even if you could use external bladders, there's the matter of
what they weigh, what the gear to stow them weighs, and finally, their
extreme vulnerability to everything from micrometeorites to weapons
fire. Would *you* want to have your jump fuel be the first thing to go
in a fight?

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 02:51:38 PST
Subject: Re: Pop Culture in Trav (was Corn Dogs)

In somewhere mysterious you write:

> How many pop-cultural references do we have lying around from 1600 BC?
> What's left is mostly in the form of Myth and Legend, not people quoting
> Euripides (which isn't even 3,600 years away)....

Remember, back then myths and legends *were* "pop culture". This was
true right up until the Renaisance. 

So the fact that we know the epic of Gilgamesh and similarly old
stories (the Iliad and the Odessy refer to *events* OLDER than 1600 BC
as I recall).

Hell, those bits of "pop culture" have been re-worked over and over
again in the myths, legends and ballads that have followed. 

> Corn dogs and Python? Love 'em both. But I don't think they'll survive
> 4,000 years. The latter Traveller publications did. And a lot of other 20th
> century Anglo-American institutions. It just broke down my suspension of
> disbelief.

Hey, you'd be *amazed* at what bits survive. We owe beer to the
Babylonians, for example. Or for a *weirder* example of how things
carry over in unexpected ways, take the width of "standard" gauge
railroads. 

Why are the rails spaced the way they are? Because back when the
railroads started in England, the wagon wrights built the first
railroad cars. They already had jigs and tooling set up to produce
wagons with that wheel spacing.

So why were the wagon wheels spaced that way? To fit the ruts in all
the roads (if you made them a different width, you were likely to break
axles a lot more often due to the mismatch).

So why were the ruts spaced like that? Well, they dated back to the
"built in" ruts in Roman roads. They were built to match the wheel
spacing of the standard Roman chariot. 

It may be possible to trace it farther, but that much is certain. And
that makes standard rail guage based on a "milspec" over 2000 years
old!

"Car" is a term that goes *well* back into the middle ages if not
farther. Refers to a sort of wagon/chariot. That one has survived
multiple *language* shifts!

What was neede was the sort of thing that even *Star Trek* did halfway
decently. You refer to a few things that people recognize from ancient
history and contemporary history. Then you tack on some extra
references to events in *their* past, but our future. Like mentioning
the a list of important legal documents... the Magna Carta, The
Declaration of Independence, the Mish'nim of Sylea...

Or "evil" conquerors: Gengis Khan, Hitler, Kahless, ...

You get the idea.

Frankly I think Star Trek goes too far in the *other* direction, they
have too *little* pop culture surviving. Babylon 5 does better, with
references to things like some cartoons that will probably survive
until the culture becomes unrecognizable, and references to things like
"rock" and "heavy metal" music the way we would refere to baroque or
Renaisance music. 

Also, do recall that one reason we *don't* have large amounts of "old"
pop culture is that it didn't survive. The Greek plays that survive are
still watchable. The tales like the Odysey, Iliad, and epic of
Gilgamesh are still good stories. 

Likewise, while there's no way of knowing *which* will survive the
"test of time", there *will* be contemporary music that is still played
in the 47th century. Ditto for other forms of entertainment. Monty
python? Maybe. (Me, I'd put my bet on Warner Bros and Disney cartoons
as being the most likely to survive. Heck, many folks don't get half
the jokes and cultural references in them *now*, yet they still enjoy
the humor when Bug nails someone)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 03:23:14 PST
Subject: Re: Pop Culture in Trav (was Corn Dogs)

In somewhere mysterious you write:

> Along the same lines just 150 years ago chewing the fat from a cow or pig
> was a popular snack... 

Gee, I bet I know where the expression "chewing the fat" (colliquialism
for "gossiping") came from. :-)

> The only reason I even know about it is in the process of my mother tracing
> our geneology she stumbled upon a diary from one of our ancestors ( her name
> I forget as well.)   She describes the men of the family eating this stuff
> for breakfast along with their morning porrige. 
>
> Today with our health concious culture nobody would even think about eating
> that stuff...

Given the diet at that time, it might not have been all that unhealthy.
Remember, it is possible to *die* if your diet is too *lean*. An all
too common (and unpleasant) way to die among people surviving by
hunting game. Especially folks in "survival" situations who are having
to live off things like rabbits).

Meat was not as frequent an item in the diet, neither was milk or
butter unless you were well off. So your fat intake was way down.

>  
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> -=-=-
> Peter L. Berghold -- Sr Unix Specialist, TCG, Staten Island NY
> http://mars.superlink.net/~peterb               peterb@superlink.net 
> VOX: (718) 355-2722                              -or- berghold@tcg.com
> FAX: (718) 355-4282   "... once more into the breach..."
>
- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 03:42:33 PST
Subject: Re: Starship Construction

In somewhere mysterious you write:

> On Sat, 13 Jul 1996, Charles Pratt wrote:
>> And a self-help book entitled _How to Suspend Your Disbelief_.
>
> Yup.  :)  I'm running into the same problem many others have...something 
> you know and care about not being treated with the utmost realism, so you 
> want to see it fixed.  It's the disease du jour of the Traveller mailing 
> lists. :)
>
> If we made Traveller as realistic as possible - meaning that there were 
> no obvious holes in the setting, technology, etc. - would it still be fun?

If we did it *right* it would be.

That means that we get all the phsyics, economics etc worked out so we
can stick in "reasonable" costs and performance figures, but we don't
have to beat the players over the head with the details. It's like the
multi-level design system, as long as the simplified stuff is
*compatible* with the complex stuff, the only problem is that you lose
some "subtle" possibilities.


- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 04:05:48 PST
Subject: Re: ID4  ****SPOILER WARNING****

In somewhere mysterious you write:

> OK, I finally went to see ID4, so you can talk about it and it wont upset me!
>
> **SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER 
> WARNING**
>
> I have a question for the physics types in our midst.  Would that plane
> really have done that to the ship like in the end of the movie?  Is the
> laser focal array that good of a target?

Whatever it is, it *isn't* a laser. 

But I'd say that wrecking the output end of anything sending out
nuclear level amounts of energy is going to result in the energy being
deposited in the ship, rather than the target. 

Me, I'm surprised that there was that much *left* of the ship,
considering what they did to the cities.

ps. Assuming we can recover enough data from the wreckage to build our
own, one would hope that all involved have the brains to make our
vessels look as *little* like theirs as is practical. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 11:12:01 PST
Subject: Re: Fighters in Space

In somewhere mysterious you write:

>  Modern warships are another story, but that's simply because most ships
> today aren't even armored(Rember, modern waships are built with the
> expectation of nuclear cruise missiles. Not enoufgh armor can be carried
> to stop those...), and the ones that are armored can't be armoured enoufgh
> to stop modern air-to-surface missiles or surface-to-surface missiles(they
> would sink, duh<grin>)

Not quite true. Modern anti-ship missiles are designed to go after
modern ships. The Exocet that badly damaged the HMS Sheffield wouldn't
do much of anything to the New Jersey or the Iowa.

It *is* possible to carry enough armor, simply because air-to surface
missiles have a restricted payload.  Ditto for surface to surface. They
trade payload for *range*. There aren't any anti-ship missiles with the
penetration of an 18-inch shell! But we built ships that were expected
to survive multiple hits from such. 

At some point it's going to sink in that we are far more likely to be
fighting people with Exocets than with nuclear weapons. And thus, we
should go back to armoring at least *some* ships well enough to survive
such.

>> That has not always been a requirement, but it has been the case for a
>> while.  Fighters and other aircraft are hard to hit because they usually
>> move so much faster.  Traveller's problem is just like Wes said, the
>> Capital Ships can often move just as fast as the fighters.  Oh well.

>  That's not true. In real life water ships, the drag goes up squared whiel
> the volume goes up cubed. Hence, a larger ship can have a bigger engine
> porportionatley to the drag produced on thie ship while still using less %
> of the displacement then a smaller ship. The same is true for traveller
> ships, as the larger ships can get the same armount of armour for less
> displacement % of the ship.

But fighters (aircraft) are *much* faster than capital ships. For that
matter, PT boats are faster than capital ships! They trade speed for
range, and agility for armor.

The really big problem in Traveller is that there's nothing to hide
behind. No horizon, no clouds, and it never gets dark. It's one *hell*
of a lot harder to "sneak up" on someone to make that quick dash into
firing range.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: Jeffery.M.Miller@Dartmouth.EDU (Jeffery M. Miller)
Date: 15 Jul 96 08:36:01 EDT
Subject: Re: More IG praise

- --- RapMaster Broussard effused:
 Printed in big letters
was August 1, 1996 on the top, so I guess that means 18 days to go!!!
- --- end of quoted material ---
My dear boy, are you familar with the 3 Big Lies?

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

From: Stewart Eyres <spe@astro.keele.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:20:27 +0100
Subject: Another fall theory...

Hi there

Well, as someone posted his theory, I'll try mine.  If you haven't
seen Survivial Margin, I'll try and make sense of this without that.

All references to the existence of the Virus prior to Dulinor
releasing it were in secret documents.  Thus, I keep much of the
public information as is.  My idea goes like this:


Dulinor's Victory Fleet, instead of being wasted by the Virus, reach
Capital, and beats Lucan.  I think this is plausible, as Dulinor was
always the better leader and politician than Lucan.  To assist in
this, I assume that Lucan's forces are so riddled with people who look
out for themselves that not only is Dulinor able to beat Lucan and
take the Imperial Palace, but Lucan is actually captured and executed
personally by Dulinor on a world-wide hololink.  Unfortunately for
Dulinor at this point, a group of Aslan assasins, assisted by remnants
of the (disbanded) Aslan Guard, gain entry to the Throne room (where
Lucan was executed), and while the Guard hold off Dulinor's troops,
the Emperor is killed in an Aslan challenge, which is broadcast
world-wide, and carried out-system by Lucan-loyal escapees.

I had this chain of events because Dulinor and Lucan, whom I consider
the villains of the Rebellion get their just desserts, but their
importance as the leaders of what are still the two strongest factions
meant that their deaths would also prevent the reemergence of the
Imperium - I think pocket empires without the Virus are a far more
fitting end to the Third Imperium.  Lucan's realm would shatter, as
all the ruthless members of his armed forces attempt to survive,
escape, or remain in control.  Dulinor's Domain would collapse more
slowly, as his government try to conceal the fact of his death, but
ultimately are unable to hold things together without his charismatic
leadership.  Perhaps his daughter would rule a large pocket in
Illelish.  I think by this point, Antares is already in chaos after
the death of Brzk.  Thus, there is a band of chaos across the Imperium
from Illelish to Antares.  The only real problems with this are what
would the other factions do?  However, by this point everyone is so
commited to their faction that it would be difficult to attempt
reunification.  The Solomani are bogged down in internal politics.
The possibility that trade with the Imperium was important to the
Confederation may result in its further decline.  Indeed, for many of
its more independent member-states, the demise of the Imperium means
that the reason for the Confederation has gone.  Daibei would look on
the chaos with alarm, and perhaps be able to act to stop some of it,
but it will always be wary of opportunists from the Confederation, the
Hierate, or the Reaver's Deep.  Margaret will probably develop her
links with the Hiver, habouring hopes of expanding her "domain" to
something akin to the Imperium, but then she is not a "great leader"
in the mold of say Cleon I.  The Vilani suffer from internal problems
which preclude them expanding.  Strephon is too weak to counter the
encroaching chaos, although his worlds may from the nucleus of a
Scout-led resurgence at a much later date.  Norris has major worries
with his neighbours, and is "keeping the flame" - a decision made
before the emergence of the Virus, he had already decieded the
Imperium was dead.  Perhaps some minor war with the Sword Worlds will
keep Deneb off-balance.  Essentially, as of 1150, I see numerous small
states, independent worlds, and barren areas across the core of the
Imperium; the Ziru Sirkaa battling on, but becoming increasingly
insular (damned unstable Solomani, destroying our empire!), Margaret
expanding into Spica via trade with the Hiver, Daibei and Deneb
holding their own against their respective neighbours, and the
Solomani Confederation falling apart.  Vargr roam freely as far
rimward as Core Sector, contributing to the ongoing chaos, and
Strephon despairs as never before.  In fact, I may even postulate that
the "real Strephon" really, really was an imposter, who believed the
lies of his "advisors" (puppet masters); the only evidence we have of
his authenticity are in his own diaries, which may be the product of a
mis-informed clone.  The clone, for various reasons, hasn't the
ability to lead as Strephon would have done.  One reason for this is
that I realy don't believe that the loving father and husband Strephon
is portrayed as would have kept the existence of his clones secret
from his wife - Iolanthe would have known where the real Strephon was.
Finally, the real Strephon wouldn't have fled to Gushemege, and
wouldn't have advisors who were that stupid.  The Strephon portrayed
in Survival Margin should not have been on the throne - whether this
lead to his failure to forsee the assasination, or this was because
the "real" Strephon was an imposter isn't clear.

My aims here were:

1) to minimise changes to published material (which reduces the work
needed)

2) generate the death of the Imperium without some bizarre mechanism
(ie. the Virus.)

3) set up numerous minor empires.

Gushemege: The Imperium (what else could Strephon's realm be?), a
functional government with a view to helping the surrounding chaos to
abate, and ultimately form a new government - handicapped by a lack of
power, and Strephon's lack of faith in his own abilities.

Vland: The Ziru Sirkaa, an insular government, trading internally, but
avoiding external trade which has been "proven" to be unprofitable
(after being burned in trade with the Vargr, and being unable to find
stable trade in the chaotic Imperial Core).

Deneb: A stable government, which is spends its time trying to ensure
stable Vargr governments at its borders, staving off Aslan clans, and
keeping a woried eye on its traditional enemies, the Zhodani.

Daibei: Another stable government, but much more damaged by the
collapse in the Imperial Core.  I see this small federation growing
culturally by the influx of refugees, especially many aliens
(eg. Vegans), and perhaps Aslan as a result of hiring mercenaries to
assist in protection.

Margaret: The self-styled Empress rules her Empire (Maggie's Empire -
sorry, UK reference there) as a trading nation based on slavery and
external trade with the Hiver.  On the core/spinward edge, raids into
the surrounding chaos provide slaves which allow the citizens of the
Empire to live a life of leisure.  On the trailing/rimward edge, trade
with the Hiver brings prosperity.  Ultimately, these two aspects come
into conflict, and Tukera and Hiver "advisors" compete to control the
Empire.

Solomani Confederation: Still exists around Terra, and the coreward
Solomani Rim, where most worlds have never belonged to other
nation-states.  However, beyond the Solomani Rim, few worlds retain
allegiance to the Confederation.


Bit long this, hope you like it

Stewart Eyres <spe@astro.keele.ac.uk> 


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

From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 08:34:28 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: ID4 ****SPOILER WARNING****

On Sun, 14 Jul 1996, Paul Walker wrote:

> >**SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER WARNING*****SPOILER WARNING**
> >
> >Can we talk about the use of a computer virus to whack out the aliens'
> >shields now?  :)
> 
> I support the TNE Virus (yes, it does require a suspension of disbelief) but
> this I found a bit weird.  I mean how did he know that the mother ship (and
> a mother of a ship it was) was going to execute that stuff he uploaded?  And
> how did he know what their programming language was?  I'd've bought it
> except for the line by Data...um, I mean the Area 51 chief scientist about
> how none of the systems had been operable until the aliens arrived!!  BTW,
> Joe, if Macs are really that powerful, then maybe you ought to give up your
> Atari, and I'll give up my IBM...NOT!!!

Right.  If they'd said, "Yeah, we've been studying the alien's systems 
for the last 30 years, so we know how to create a virus that will affect 
them," I would've believed it.  But they made a point of saying the 
fighter hadn't been in operation until the aliens arrived.  That's a plot 
hole so big I could toss a cow through it.


> Will Smith had the best part IMNSHO!!!  And the interaction between Steve
> and David (Smith and Goldblum) was incredible!  A great movie, but compared

Yup.  I'm not a fan of Will Smith (didn't like his TV show, didn't like 
his music), but I thought he stole the show in ID4.  When he started 
kicking the alien because he was tired of dragging the alien across the 
desert, I thought, "That's exactly how I'd feel." :)

> to what we all know and believe (from Trav), I found it very difficult to
> believe.

Right.  It was a great movie, and I want to see it again.  That virus 
thing, though...


- -Joe
______________________________________________________________________________
Joseph E. Walsh      |  Atari 8-Bit User and Programmer Since 1982
ransom@iconnect.net  |  Classic Traveller Referee Since 1983
Stuck in the '80s    |  Microsoft-Free and Loving It! :)



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

From: David Jaques-Watson <davidjw@pcug.org.au>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 23:55:30 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Poor Humour, the Energy Standard

Dear Folks -

1.	Plague

Cynthia replied to my poor humour:

>>Do you mean a mnemonic plague (causing loss of literacy - see that
>>thread), or a pneumatic plague (where people keep blowing up)? 

>No, I imagine he means "pneumonic plague", the extremely >contagious
respiratory-infecting variant of The Plague (the

Thanks for the info. I never realised there were 3 versions. Yuck!

2.	Trav Background

Loren replied:

>partially inspired by Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. 
>We had all read the trilogy, of course... 

I thought that was one of those series that everyone agreed was a great
reference work, but no-one ever actually *read*. ;-)

>People wrote us letters asking if there had been global warming, or
>nuclear accidents, or meteor strikes... 

...or rock-dropping...

3.	Humour

>My own beef with the Corn Dogs...
        ^^^^
Clever, John. Intentional? ...maybe...

4.	The Energy Standard

Stewart, it is never stated, but I always thought this was how the Star
Trek universe works. The crew can play with the holodecks, create
replicated food, access the computer and so on, all paid for out of an
allocation of energy. The thing is, the anti-matter PP allows each
person's allocation to be very high...  let's say each is equivalent of a
20th C millionare. 

- - Hyphen
(David Jaques-Watson)
"I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity".


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

From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpgate.read.tasc.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 10:24:19 -0400
Subject: Re: Review: Traveller Chronicle 10

Mark Clark writes:

>  As others have noted, the primary focus of Issue 10 is the Solomani
>Rim  in the New era.  16 subsector maps with data for systems for
>both 1117  and 1202 occupy 16 pages, with another 10 pages of text
>describing  significant features of the sector, are very well done -
>certainly as  good as any of the sector supplements produced by GDW
>and others.  With  an index and other information, the Solomani Rim
>section makes up 36  pages out of 56.

   I tried to pattern the stats as closely as possible after the work done
in The Regency Sourcebook (with one notable exception, see below),
the gold standard IMHO (if only they hadn't tried to cram 112 pages of
material into 96....eeech!), and previous classic GDW Traveller
publications.

>According to the editorial, future issues will detail the major polical 
>entities of the Solomani Rim and provide equipment and ship designs
>for  Classic, MT, and New Era settings - it looks like this will be Sword
>of  the Knight's pocket empire for the near future.  

   The concept here is that we'll give you enough stuff up front to get you
started, then continue to present material down the road.  The
concentration initially will be on the New Era setting, but other additional
material for the Second Solomani Rim War, Year Zero, etc. will also be
included as time/space/Kevin Knight's budget permits.

   Mechanics-wise, the vehicles and equipment will be FF&S based.
As Imperium Games publishes modified design sequences for T4, I'll
endeavor to convert everything to the new standard, and present new
T4-based designs as well.

>The Terran Republic, a  pocket empire centered on Earth, seems
>especially interesting, as a  non-fanatical religious empire.  I've always
>thought that religion was  one of the most neglected aspect of Traveller
>- I'm looking forward to  the next issue.

   It was a concept I felt strongly enough about to continue developing,
even as GDW slid into oblivion.

>One interesting piece of information is in the writeup for Arcturus 
>Subsector on the planet Cymbeline (the source of the Deyo chips used
>in  Imperial Transponder circuits and Virus).  This mentions that
>Vampire  ships make "pilgramages" to Cymbeline (to visit their
>ancestors?) and  come away with altered programing, <snip>

   This explanation is the one presented in the Vampire Fleets
sourcebook.  I of course expanded upon it somewhat in creating the
description for the remainder of the subsector.

   I'm glad you enjoyed TTC #10.

   For those of you who are interested in meeting the author of Children
of Earth, I'll be at Gen Con this year checking out the Imperium Games
booth and participating at many of the Traveller events.  I hope to see
you there, even if the whole convention is controlled by the Evil Empire
(tm)  (aka TSR).

   Also, someone has pointed out that the 1202 world UWP stats appear
above the 1117 stats, and that in other GDW publications (most notably
the Regency Sourcebook), when dual stat listings were used, that the
1117 stats appeared above the 1201 stats.

   While I apologize if there was confusion on anyone's part, this was
an area where I departed from the RSB standard.  IMHO, ergonomically
having the 1202 stat on the same line as the rest of the UWP information
makes it easier to read, particularly if you are interested in what the stats
are *now*, and the 1117 stats are of secondary interest/importance.

Regards,

Harold
 


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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #253
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