Traveller-digest      Friday, November 29 1996      Volume 1996 : Number 703



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

What goes on at IG???
Re: G-Comp
Re: The Rebellion (kinda long)
Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #702
Re: G-Comp
RE: The Rebellion
Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #702
Re: G-Comp
re: Thanksgiving
Re: The Rebellion (kinda long)
RE: The Rebellion
re: Thanksgiving
Re: Alien Builder's Charts v1.1 (Long)
Bustard email busted - bastard! 
Re: Thanksgiving
Ine-Givar
Re: What goes on at IG???
Re: Thanksgiving
Re: Thanksgiving

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 18:48:12 -0600
From: Chuck Maddox <cmaddox@xnet.com>
Subject: What goes on at IG???

I just noted the following news update at IG's site:

_____________________________________

Nov 26,1996
Please note: Ken Whitman is no longer affiliated with TRAVELLER in any
capacity. He has moved on to a disign company. Please direct any and all
TRAVELLER inquries, requests, transactions, etc. to:

Imperium Games

Phone Number: 310-275-9934
Fax Number: 310-275-9322
Snail Mail: Imperium Games
9461 Charleville Blvd #307
P.O. Box 307
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

e-mail: sweetpea10@msn.com

_____________________________________

I guess that their spelling checker is broken as well (disign???).  Has
anyone heard anything about what's going on at IG lately?

Chuck

___________________________________________________________________________

    ___/         /  __  /   Chuck Maddox /// -- N9NON
   /      /  /  /  __  /   cmaddox@xnet.com
_____/ __/__/__/ _____/   http://www.xnet.com/~cmaddox/

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 16:30:46 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: G-Comp

In mail you write:

> Adding oil to the burning waters of the seemingly interminable
> horiz/vertical deck debate, it strikes me that all the discussion
> about Wile E Coyote-type plunging down the corridors assumes the ship
> is always accelerating along its' long axis.

Correct.

> But, in combat, ships presumably dance around like sozzled owls
> trying not to be hit, yeah?

Also correct.

> So the acceleration vectors, normally cancelled by the I-Comp, are
> all over the place. In the absence of comp, then, wherever you are,
> if you aren't strapped in you're bulkhead stroganoff.

And here's the mistake. You have to *turn the ship* to change vectors.
Thrust from the main drive will *always* be along the same axis.

> However, the I-Comp is a feature of modular grav plates, as I recall.
> So it must be damn hard to "knock it out". The only way I can see
> would be a power plant failure - at which point the ship stops
> changing vectors or accelerating, and the problem disappears anyway.

All you have to do is get a hit that cuts the power *to* the plates.
The power plant can still be working but if the wrong cable got cut,
you'll be without whatever that cable was powering.

Knocking out the drive that way doesn't work as well, because both the
drive and the power plant are in the engine room. So you'd have to hit
the engine room, and then it really doesn't matter what you hit in
there (except for determining how long until you can fix it, if you can
fix it).

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

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 20:33:53 -0500
From: Rob Beck <beck@mail.all-net.net>
Subject: Re: The Rebellion (kinda long)

At 05:18 PM 11/28/96 -0500, you wrote:
>I must say that I really disliked the whole Virus concept, I would have
>much rather seen the shattered Imperium united again (my personal
>favorite would have been Duke Norris...)

Well, without getting in to the Virus thing, which was beaten to death many
moons ago, already, it's all a matter of personal opinion anyway. The
module, Arrival Vengeance, gave a pretty good idea of what Norris was up
against in regards to the various factions. Here's how I see the 1130's
looking without Virus. 
Short of Norris attempting a military solution, I don't see that any of the
factions were that interested in reforming the Imperium, and Dulinor was
quite on his way to rebuilding a fleet and crushing or seriously maiming
Lucan's remaining power base. Dulinor probably would have come out the
dominant military power, and then he has to secure his border with the
Solomani before trying to reincorporate the regions controlled by Margaret.
Then there was the restored Vilani Empire, Strephon, the Vargr, and Antares
to coreward. Who's going to quell all of them? And how does Dulinor, should
he get lucky enough to beat Lucan and all the other claimants to power,
convince Norris, who still controls a large part of the old Imperial Navy,
that he should accept him as his new ruler? That's a lot of work to rebuild
a government like the Dulinor was aiming for.
Norris would have similar problems. That's a serious amount of territory to
invade, even if he had the fleets and economic base to support such an
invasion. Plus, would he have tried a risky rift crossing for invasion, or
would he push against the Vargr and Vilani to get at Lucan and Dulinor? Was
he that foolish?
As far as the other claimants, Strephon had pretty much given up, Margaret
was comfortable with keeping her little piece of the Imperium running, even
at the cost of a few common-types, the Vilani appeared to be happy with
their little corner, Brzk was dead, if you accepted that event, so Antares
was a shambles, Lucan was destroying himself through his own incompetence,
and then there are the other governments. 
The Solomani, Aslan, K'kree, and Vargr all seemed to want a shot at or a
piece of what was left of the Imperium. 
Given all this, I'm not taking issue with the mechanism that caused the
final collapse, Virus, because that's an issue that IMHO should remain an
individual campaign point and not the whole argument to what should have
come after the Rebellion. I don't see any quick fix. I don't see the
Imperial calvary riding over the galactic horizon to save the day from
Norris' corner of the Imperium or Strephon's. 
It was going to take a long time to restore anything to anywhere near the
way things used to be. Maybe they never would be like they used to be. I
liked TNE because it gave the characters, maybe even relics left over from
the Third Imperium, the chance to make things right and to reform the
Imperium in some form or another. All the major players had to have time to
disappear or change their minds for their to be any real reconstruction.
Something had to wipe the slate clean, be it Virus, economic collapse, time,
whatever. 
Of course, that's just my opinion. :)

Rob.






                         Robert Beck
                         E-Mail: beck@mail.all-net.net
                         Send E-Mail For My Public PGP Key.

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 19:41:13 -0600
From: Chuck Maddox <cmaddox@xnet.com>
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #702

mb> Date: 29 Nov 96 11:19:20 +1100 From:
mb> Michael.Barry@FINANCE.ausgovfinance.telememo.au Subject: re:
mb> Thanksgiving
mb>
mb>      What the hell is a thanksgiving? Is it some kind of post-Election
mb>      ritual?

Certainly not this year...

Chuck

___________________________________________________________________________

    ___/         /  __  /   Chuck Maddox /// -- N9NON
   /      /  /  /  __  /   cmaddox@xnet.com
_____/ __/__/__/ _____/   http://www.xnet.com/~cmaddox/

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 20:38:03 -0600
From: sam thomas <sinbad@dfw.net>
Subject: Re: G-Comp

At 03:21 AM 11/28/96 EST, Hugh Foster <100326.446@CompuServe.COM> wrote:
>
>Adding oil to the burning waters of the seemingly interminable horiz/vertical
>deck debate, it strikes me that all the discussion about Wile E Coyote-type
>plunging down the corridors assumes the ship is always accelerating along its'
>long axis.
>
>But, in combat, ships presumably dance around like sozzled owls trying not
to be
>hit, yeah? So the acceleration vectors, normally cancelled by the I-Comp, are
>all over the place. In the absence of comp, then, wherever you are, if you
>aren't strapped in you're bulkhead stroganoff.
>
>However, the I-Comp is a feature of modular grav plates, as I recall. So it
must
>be damn hard to "knock it out". The only way I can see would be a power plant
>failure - at which point the ship stops changing vectors or accelerating, and
>the problem disappears anyway.
>

Well there are some interesting points I feel need to be made.

1. Gravitic Drives lose efficiency after 100 diameters.
2. Thruster Plates lose efficiency after 1000 diameters.
3. Heplar Drives never lose efficiency.

The above is take from the "canon" interpretations. If the above three are
"Canon" then Artificial Gravity and Inertial Compensation are derived from
gravitic technology do they lose efficiency at 100 or 1000 diameters, I feel
that they would lose at 100 diameters. So how much uncompensated G force can
a crew take before suffering permanent injury, maybe 2 G's. So at 1000
diameters or greater ships can not maneuver much at all.
So just shot at ships that are outside the effective range of their I-Comp
and they are toast.


Sinbad Sam
sinbad@dfw.net
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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 18:33:47 -0800
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: RE: The Rebellion

>So since the two settings are essentially identical, why did they bother
>coming up with a new setting? If Mark Miller really wanted to get back to
>Classic Traveller, why didn't he set things back in 1115, or whenever.

Now here is a statement that I totally agree with, it was a major
disappointment when I realized that going back to "Classic" Traveller had
nothing to do with the familiar and much loved setting!  I have a strange
feeling that the Starships book could be what ends up making up my mind on
the new Traveller!

Is there any kind of word as to what the next books after the first six are
going to be?  I for one would really like to see the true "classic" setting
come back!

				Zane

| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh@ix.netcom.com (primary)  | Linux Enthusiast          |
| healyzh@holonet.net (alternate)  | Mac Programmer            |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne, and Traveller Role Playing   |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/                      |

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

Date: 29 Nov 1996 01:45:18 GMT
From: ajpursell@babylon.montreal.qc.ca (Alan Pursell)
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #702

Hey there,

gone south to get some sun and recover from the snow that just keeps on
coming... back next tuesday. 

see ya...

alan j

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 96 21:17:03 -0500
From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Subject: Re: G-Comp

On 11/28/96 at 04:30 PM,  shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) said:

>> So the acceleration vectors, normally cancelled by the I-Comp, are
>> all over the place. In the absence of comp, then, wherever you are,
>> if you aren't strapped in you're bulkhead stroganoff.

>And here's the mistake. You have to *turn the ship* to change vectors.
>Thrust from the main drive will *always* be along the same axis.

Probably, but not necessarily.  If the main drive is a reaction rocket it
could be gimbled so as to vary the direction of thrust, at least a little,
and there are certainly maneuvering thrusters to jink the ship.  For
non-reaction drives we don't *know* that the thrust *has* to be "*always*
along the same axis."  

OTOH, I'd agree to *almost* always. <g>

>> However, the I-Comp is a feature of modular grav plates, as I recall.
>> So it must be damn hard to "knock it out". The only way I can see
>> would be a power plant failure - at which point the ship stops
>> changing vectors or accelerating, and the problem disappears anyway.

>All you have to do is get a hit that cuts the power *to* the plates. The
>power plant can still be working but if the wrong cable got cut, you'll be
>without whatever that cable was powering.

One cable?  To *all* the Grav-plates?  Nah!  <g> A military ship (actually
almost any ship) will be heavily redundant.  They will have redundant power
conduits powering redundant Grav-plates. 

>Knocking out the drive that way doesn't work as well, because both the
>drive and the power plant are in the engine room. So you'd have to hit the
>engine room, and then it really doesn't matter what you hit in there
>(except for determining how long until you can fix it, if you can fix it).

You know, I've thought about this aspect too.  On military ships, I can't
see putting everything into one room.  I'd want several smaller power
plants scattered around the ship, at least have a main and auxiliary engine
room.  The drives should be as spread out as much as possible too...that's
harder of course.  <g>  

Compare a Traveller ship to a major ship from the WWI/WWII era. Ships had
multiple boilers driving multiple screws.  You could knock out one and the
ship could keep limping along.  As long as a ship could keep one boiler
running it had a *chance* to stay afloat and make repairs.

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 96 21:25:46 -0500
From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Subject: re: Thanksgiving

On 11/29/96 at 11:19 AM,  Michael.Barry@FINANCE.ausgovfinance.telememo.au
said:

>     What the hell is a thanksgiving? Is it some kind of post-Election 
>     ritual? 

Post harvest, actually.

It's a day we Americans give thanks that we live in a land of
bounty, liberty, and freedom.  Here's hoping the place *you* live is
the same.

Now to bring this back to Traveller...
What kind of holidays would the Imperium have?  What about the Sylean
Federation?

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 23:17:08 -0500
From: sturm <sturm@tiac.net>
Subject: Re: The Rebellion (kinda long)

I like Norris's chances better than any other faction for a few reasons.
He had already made a sort of peace with the Zhodani and had come to an
understanding with the Aslan.  In fact, he seemed to be doing a good job
of assimilating Aslan colonists and such into the regency.  One would
assume that they would be a tremendous asset if they served in the
Regency's military.

The Vargr are a big question mark though, but I think through a
judiciious use of military force and diplomacy (making agreements with
particular Vargr groups) Norris could keep the Vargr feuding amongst
themselves and neutralize them.

Thusly we can safely see that Norris didn't have to worry about a
multi-front war at this time, the bulk of his forces would have been
spared the vicious fighting going on between the other factions.  I
would also think that being as isloated as the Spinward Marches are,
Norris might have an easier time uniting his people (example: "we all
have to work together if we are to survive" stuff).  Historically, there
are certain sociological currents that run through the Marches that
could work to Norris's benefit.

Norris also had an excellent Intelligence apparatus, so when the Regency
learned that the other factions were significantly weakened, Norris
could have led a spear head right to the core systems and with any luck
sweep aside the other weakened factions.  I also believe that the Moot
would look favorably at Norris, although the real power of the moot
should not be overestimated.

In my own humble opinion.

sturm@tiac.net
http://www.tiac.net/users/sturm










Rob Beck wrote:
> 
> At 05:18 PM 11/28/96 -0500, you wrote:
> >I must say that I really disliked the whole Virus concept, I would have
> >much rather seen the shattered Imperium united again (my personal
> >favorite would have been Duke Norris...)
> 
> Well, without getting in to the Virus thing, which was beaten to death many
> moons ago, already, it's all a matter of personal opinion anyway. The
> module, Arrival Vengeance, gave a pretty good idea of what Norris was up
> against in regards to the various factions. Here's how I see the 1130's
> looking without Virus.
> Short of Norris attempting a military solution, I don't see that any of the
> factions were that interested in reforming the Imperium, and Dulinor was
> quite on his way to rebuilding a fleet and crushing or seriously maiming
> Lucan's remaining power base. Dulinor probably would have come out the
> dominant military power, and then he has to secure his border with the
> Solomani before trying to reincorporate the regions controlled by Margaret.
> Then there was the restored Vilani Empire, Strephon, the Vargr, and Antares
> to coreward. Who's going to quell all of them? And how does Dulinor, should
> he get lucky enough to beat Lucan and all the other claimants to power,
> convince Norris, who still controls a large part of the old Imperial Navy,
> that he should accept him as his new ruler? That's a lot of work to rebuild
> a government like the Dulinor was aiming for.
> Norris would have similar problems. That's a serious amount of territory to
> invade, even if he had the fleets and economic base to support such an
> invasion. Plus, would he have tried a risky rift crossing for invasion, or
> would he push against the Vargr and Vilani to get at Lucan and Dulinor? Was
> he that foolish?
> As far as the other claimants, Strephon had pretty much given up, Margaret
> was comfortable with keeping her little piece of the Imperium running, even
> at the cost of a few common-types, the Vilani appeared to be happy with
> their little corner, Brzk was dead, if you accepted that event, so Antares
> was a shambles, Lucan was destroying himself through his own incompetence,
> and then there are the other governments.
> The Solomani, Aslan, K'kree, and Vargr all seemed to want a shot at or a
> piece of what was left of the Imperium.
> Given all this, I'm not taking issue with the mechanism that caused the
> final collapse, Virus, because that's an issue that IMHO should remain an
> individual campaign point and not the whole argument to what should have
> come after the Rebellion. I don't see any quick fix. I don't see the
> Imperial calvary riding over the galactic horizon to save the day from
> Norris' corner of the Imperium or Strephon's.
> It was going to take a long time to restore anything to anywhere near the
> way things used to be. Maybe they never would be like they used to be. I
> liked TNE because it gave the characters, maybe even relics left over from
> the Third Imperium, the chance to make things right and to reform the
> Imperium in some form or another. All the major players had to have time to
> disappear or change their minds for their to be any real reconstruction.
> Something had to wipe the slate clean, be it Virus, economic collapse, time,
> whatever.
> Of course, that's just my opinion. :)
> 
> Rob.
> 
>                          Robert Beck
>                          E-Mail: beck@mail.all-net.net
>                          Send E-Mail For My Public PGP Key.

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 22:43:10 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: RE: The Rebellion

On Thu, 28 Nov 1996, Zane H. Healy wrote:

> Is there any kind of word as to what the next books after the first six are
> going to be?  I for one would really like to see the true "classic" setting
> come back!

Regarding getting the "classic" setting back - and the Rebellion, and the 
Virus Era - all we know is that Marc plans to have a variety of Milieu 
books - all the previous ones, plus many more.

As for when....who knows? :)


- -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! :)
       .....Official Reporter of Imperium Games Product Info.....

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 22:45:09 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: re: Thanksgiving

On Thu, 28 Nov 1996, Eris Reddoch wrote:

> Now to bring this back to Traveller...
> What kind of holidays would the Imperium have?  What about the Sylean
> Federation?

For the Imperium, I'd say it's just Holiday.  Each world is going to have 
its own set of holidays, of course.  Adding a bunch of Imperial holidays 
on top of that would probably result in no work days left at all. [grin]

Sylean Federation - good question.  They might have held over all the 
Sylean holidays, or might have gone with no "federal" holidays...


- -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! :)
       .....Official Reporter of Imperium Games Product Info.....

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 23:45:41 -0500
From: BrianMays@aol.com
Subject: Re: Alien Builder's Charts v1.1 (Long)

In a message dated 96-11-28 09:55:18 EST, you write:

<< "Hive" refers to eusocial societies where a a single breeding female
   controls all activity within a large group of creatures.  All males are 
   fertile and permitted to breed with the "queen", and all females except
 the
   queen are sterile.  Competition for breeding among hive females may be 
   either high or low, depending on the age and strength of the queen (and 
   designer choice).
     Examples:  bees, naked mole rats, (no Traveller equivalent) >>

Wouldn't this describe the lovely Chamax?  (Anyone remember them?)

Also, in Dragon magazine #59, there were cool critters known as "Mist Wasps"
which were intelligent (at least, the queen was).  They were featured in a
Traveller short story called "Skitterbugging" by Gene O'Neill.

Brian ("A Maternal a Day . . .") Mays

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

Date: 29 Nov 96 16:01:44 +1100
From: Michael.Barry@FINANCE.ausgovfinance.telememo.au
Subject: Bustard email busted - bastard! 

     Bustard One - your message entertainment content large, information 
     content minimal. Please respond ASAP regarding "Complete Blah" 
     operation - resources available, projected involvement flexible. 
     
     New comms means in operation within days. If not, provider will find 
     conventional seating uncomfortable if not impossible. Advise large 
     purchase of shares in companies that manufacture medical supplies of 
     donut shaped pillows. 

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

Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:10:00 -0500
From: BrianMays@aol.com
Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

In a message dated 96-11-28 23:50:19 EST, you write:

<< For the Imperium, I'd say it's just Holiday. >>


The Traveller Adventure, P.31 : "The first day of the group's stay in Leedor
is New year's Day [ed. - also known as Holiday], one of two holidays common
to most worlds of the Imperium (the other is the Emperor's Birthday)."

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

Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:13:56 -0500
From: BrianMays@aol.com
Subject: Ine-Givar

Can anyone tell me more about the Ine Givar?  All I have are vague references
to them via Traveller's Aid Society News Flashes from old Challenge/JTAS
magazines.  My campaign is taking place in 1110 in the Glisten subsector, and
the Ine Givar sound like just the terrorists I was looking for . . .

Brian

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 23:27:40 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: Re: What goes on at IG???

On Thu, 28 Nov 1996, Chuck Maddox wrote:

> I guess that their spelling checker is broken as well (disign???).  Has
> anyone heard anything about what's going on at IG lately?

Hi Chuck,

I can tell you something about it, but to avoid confusion (especially in 
terms - talking about "IG" gets confusing when the recent changes are 
forgotten) I'll start from the beginning.  

Disclaimer: This is told from the limited information I have - I'm just 
an observer, and I didn't observe everything, I'm sure.  But, I'll give 
you what I do know. (BTW, this is all information given in my various IG 
News postings, postings by Marc Miller, etc. - it's just never been 
presented together in one post before.)

At the beginning of this year, Game Designers' Workshop closed its 
doors.  At that point, the rights to the Traveller product line produced 
by GDW reverted to Marc Miller, as per GDW's articles of incorporation.  
Marc formed Far Future Enterprises to take care of this property known as 
"Traveller."

Soon thereafter, Marc Miller looked around for a publisher for his 
property.  Eventually, he found Sweet Pea Entertainment, which had no 
experience in the RPG industry, but which was willing to finance the 
venture.  So, Marc and Sweet Pea came to an agreement.  But, they still 
needed someone to do the game design, production, and sales.

So, Marc got in touch with some of the heavy-hitters of the RPG 
industry- Ken Whitman, Tim Brown, Greg Porter, and the rest of the 
people we associated with Imperium Games - and asked them to do the 
design and whatnot for Traveller's fourth edition.

Ken became president of Imperium Games, the other people were given their 
various tasks (Tim doing Aliens, Greg Porter handling equipment, Don 
Perrin doing starships, and so on).  They got to work, and eventually 
produced T4. 

In the final stages of the process, it became apparent that game 
designers do not necessarily make the best business people.  We all know 
the problems with the main rulebook's launch, the credit charges, and so 
on, so I won't go into that.  Suffice it to say that things didn't go as 
planned, for various reasons.

By October, Sweet Pea decided to take over the business end of things - 
taking orders, shipping product, etc. - and let the group already in 
place do the design work.  

The agreement they all eventually reached was this:  Sweet Pea's 
employees would run Imperium Games; the people formerly associated with 
Imperium Games would become an independent company, Authority Publishing 
& Design.  AP&D would not only do the design work for Traveller, they 
would also pursue other projects.  These changes went into effect on 
November 15, 1996.

With things divided that way, it was no longer necessary for Ken to be 
president of Imperium Games - the folks at Sweet Pea were taking care of 
the business end, and "president" is a business function, not a game 
design function.

Ken was then free to pursue other projects.  In a phone conversation we 
had on this subject, Ken said, "I'm the type who likes to create and 
move on."  Ken is very creative, and has a lot of great ideas, there is 
no doubt.  I've heard him in action, and I am greatly impressed by his 
ability to come up with innovative gaming concepts on the spur of the 
moment.  He's also a great one to bounce ideas off of - he's good at 
spotting holes in a concept, and coming up with new ideas that improve 
upon the original idea.  Okay, sorry to blather on so much about his 
ability as a game designer. :)  Suffice it to say, he's good at what he 
does. 

Anyway, since Ken was now free to pursue other projects, that's just what 
he is doing.  He's working on Groo, and he's hinted about some future 
collaboration with Marc Miller on a fantasy RPG.  That's where Ken is now 
- - he's exited the Traveller picture.  That's what the news item on IG's 
web site means by "Ken Whitman is no longer associated with the Traveller 
product line."

As for the rest of the folks associated with Traveller, they're still 
there.  They're designing the Traveller products, and Imperium Games is 
printing and selling them.  If I recall correctly, Tony Lee is now doing 
the typsetting and editing functions that Ken used to perform.

It's a much more logical and effective division of labor.  IG is a 
business organization.  AP&D is a creative organization.  Each is doing 
what it does best, and is not hampered by attempting to do everything at 
once.

I hope this clears up any confusion about the subject.


- -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! :)
       .....Official Reporter of Imperium Games Product Info.....

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 23:30:39 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

On Fri, 29 Nov 1996 BrianMays@aol.com wrote:

> The Traveller Adventure, P.31 : "The first day of the group's stay in Leedor
> is New year's Day [ed. - also known as Holiday], one of two holidays common
> to most worlds of the Imperium (the other is the Emperor's Birthday)."

Ah, yes.  Leave it to those Imperial swine to take a day off of work just 
because their precious Emperor is a year older.  It is little wonder our 
superior Solomani culture is dominant, and gaining power day by day.  We 
defeated the first Imperium, and we'll defeat this one.  Long live the 
[bzzzt..static]

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

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 20:59:34 -0800
From: "Rich Ostorero" <stormhvn@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

- ----------
> From: Eris Reddoch <eris@pen.net>
> To: traveller@MPGN.COM
> Subject: re: Thanksgiving
>
> 
> It's a day we Americans give thanks that we live in a land of
> bounty, liberty, and freedom.  Here's hoping the place *you* live is
> the same.

Roger that, Eris. ;)

> 
> Now to bring this back to Traveller...
> What kind of holidays would the Imperium have?  What about the Sylean
> Federation?

Hmm . . . tasty food for thought to chase down the holiday feast, Eris.

Religious Holidays: Given that the Imperium is socially diverse and
tolerant, it won't have a single religious holiday quite like Christmas. I
imagine that the 14 days around  Day 001 of the Imperial calender  _might_
coincide with a solstice on Sylea (a holiday for earth-religion types)
and/or an ancient cultural tradition like the Roman Saturnalia . . . or the
holiday schedule might well be divorced from ancient influences of
planetary motion. 

In my game, it's the latter.

IMHO, virtually any or every day on the Imperial calender could be a
holiday for one or more religious minorities, but as far as "National
Holidays" are concerned, they would be pretty much like our own --
celebrations marking important dates in national history.

Two holidays are canonical in CT/MT/T4, one in TNE . . . .

Holiday: Day 001 is celebrated as both New Year's Day and as Imperial Day,
marking the founding of the Third Imperium. Federation Day, celebrating the
foundation of the Sylean Federation, does not coincide with Holiday.

The Emperor's Birthday: Lucan's, according to the _Rebellion Sourcebook_,
is Day 302. Within a noble's domain, the  birthday of that particular noble
is a good day for a celebration long on fun and short on symbolism.

In the Reformation Coalition, Holiday is replaced with Reformation Day.

Conjectual Holidays: I would imagine that many Imperial holidays are
extentions of those of the Sylean Federation.

I can think of but one holiday everyone can accept:  a holiday to remember
those who gave their lives.   

Rememberance Day: Celebrated to honor those who gave their lives in
Imperial service. I know Canada has one of these, and by the same name . .
. I'm just trying to avoid applying too many damned Americanisms to the
Imperium (Happy, Michael Berry? :)).

I'm also sure that the Imperial holiday calender has days added by Imperial
proclaimation, much like the way holidays are added to the modern American
calender by Presidential proclaimation or Act of Congress. An example of
the latter might be Empress' Arbetrella (sp) Day, a day made a Holiday in
the 640s to mark the end of the Imperial Civil War and the establishment of
the Akhalaoli (sp again, damnit!) dynasty. You can bet that even 40+ years
after Archduke Norris' death, his birthday is still celebrated as a
holiday.

My Cr0.02 for today --

- --Rich Ostorero
stormhvn@inreach.com

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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #703
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