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From: owner-traveller-digest@mpgn.com (Traveller-digest)
To: traveller-digest@Phaser.ShowCase.MPGN.COM
Subject: Traveller-digest V1996 #751
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Traveller-digest      Friday, December 13 1996      Volume 1996 : Number 751



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

I'm not anti-Foss...I'm pro-Choice :-)
Suggestions for Imperium Games
Sabotaging walkers...
Re: Refueling from Cometary bodies (OPINION)
Re: T4 Review In Pyramid Magazine
RCA Names Required
Re: Re: Future look & feel of T4 products
Re: Fuel Shoveling
Starship Suggestion
RE: ThrustPlates and such
re: Imperium Games, Starships, future products
Re: Roller Coasters in the 57th Century
Re: Cost of Starship Passage
Re: Starship Suggestion
Re: Joe's List
Re: IG, Starships, future products

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 09:40:14 -0600
From: John Kovalic <muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com>
Subject: I'm not anti-Foss...I'm pro-Choice :-)

 e.gutierrez3@genie.com astutely noted...


>To all the Anti-foss crowd, you guys are
>missing the point..

I'm not exactly "anti-Foss." I loved his work when
they were on the cover of British paperback editions
of Asimov. I just didn't need to see them again in
Traveller.

>Think CHROME, Tailfins, Bluelight taillights
>V8's roaring with testosterone...
>
>Yes, Brothers and Sisters I'm talking the
>dream of Detroit Steel thundering with life!!!
>
>Well, at least somting on that vein. M0 has that
>post war 50's feel, optimism, work hard for a
>greater america (feel free to insert the country
>of your choice).

The problem is, we've seen those chrome tailfins before -
in 1950s science fiction. So instead of evoking the optimism
of the 50s for me, it evokes some of the cheesiest SF I can
 remember.

It may well come back into style in 2,000 years. Here and
now, however, it still looks retro to me.

Perhaps part of the problem in't just Foss's art, but the fact that
Foss is the only "vision" represented. And Foss's vision,
which worked well for Paperback covers, isn't to my taste
for Traveller. True, TNE had some awful art in the main book,
the majority was pretty decent. Some was even awfully good.
It was only later, when GDW could only afford one artist, that
it became really awful. But artists as different as the Keiths
and Blair Reynolds and Ken Frank capured a spirit that
seemed (to my mind, at any rate) to capture the spitit of
Traveller.

Foss isn't awful - good lord, he's one of the finest, most respected
SF artists out there, and his covers got me through Millfield High
School. But (I believe), he is mis-used here. And this is not
helped by the poor production standards of Imperium Games,
which cries out for a professional graphic artist to act at least
as a line consultant. It's not enough having good art, it's knowing
how to USE it, which neither T4 nor Starships has demonstrated.

John Kovalic



********************************************************
           "This must be Thursday. I never COULD get the hang of Thursdays"
                                                     - Arthur Dent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*                                 "Wild Life": a Web comic --
*
*              MUSKRAT CENTRAL: http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/muskrat/
*
********************************************************

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 09:45:04 -0600 (CST)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: Suggestions for Imperium Games

Hi,

Thank you for the great response to the outline of constructive criticism 
for IG! 

I've sent the result of our discussion to Courtney.  I'll let you know 
what comes of it.


- -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: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 08:16:32 -0500
From: rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca (Roderick Darroch Elliott)
Subject: Sabotaging walkers...

Micheal Barry wrote:

>
>     ...yet again. I think an 8-legged 'spider' walker could be an
>     effective war machine. Just rig 'em up so that they have loudspeakers
>     that cry "ULLA! ULLA! ULLA!", and a heat ray, then let them loose on
>     London.

:)


>
>     Seriously though, an 8-legged walker would be *less* vulnerable to a
>     mobility hit than an MBT. Mind you, I don't think I'd trust anything
>     less than a TL9 or 10 robot brain with moving those legs.


        Ah... the sabotage possibilites are *ENDLESS*:  The Tapdance virus:
an entire squadron of spider walkers suddenly starts doing a tap routine.
The Swan Lake virus: As above, save lots of prancing on tiptoes and j=E9t=E9=
s.
The Moshpit virus...  The One Foot Nailed in Place virus...  The I Don't
Wanna Get My Toes Wet virus, where the walker balks at crossing bodies of
water.   The Homing Pigeon virus, where the walker will not stop walking in
a given direction, no matter what.  The Rutting Season Virus, where the
walker...  oh, nevermind.  It's too silly.

        Suffice it to say that it's a lot harder to do Really Silly
Armoured Combat Vehicle Tricks (tm) with treads.  Or a grav unit.

[snip]

*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| Roderick D. Elliott... rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca              |
|                        elliot_r@lsa.lan.mcgill.ca           |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| "...an imperfect plan implemented immediately and violently |
| will always succeed better than a perfect plan."            |
|                        -Gen. George S. Patton.              |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 08:16:36 -0500
From: rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca (Roderick Darroch Elliott)
Subject: Re: Refueling from Cometary bodies (OPINION)

William F. Hostman wrote:

>
>I have felt, and argued (ineffectively) that refueling from cometary bodies
>is not really much of a strategic issue except in very long term interests.
>Here's why I believe that the Kuiper and Oort belts are strategically of
>minimal importance compared to Gas Giants:
>
>1: Gas giants contain fluids (gasses and liquids) whic are easy to shove
>through scoops. Cometary bodies in the outer system do not; they are solid.
>Solids will require shovelling, or specially designed "Crusher Scoops"
>which can chop up the cometary mass into small, meltable pieces.
>
>2: They are beyond the jump vs thrust threshold; any refuelling that far
>out is likely to use micro-jumps to get in. Unless the Ref is AR enough to
>figure the 100 diameter limits of the star.
>
>3: they are HUGE ammounts of volume (even if you assume a roughly 0.1AU
>mean thickness, ~40 +-0.5 AU, you get 25 CUBIC AU! for the Kuiper belt.)
>You couldn't STOP someone from using them if you wanted to... but would
>they want to? (See #1, above)
>
>4: They may or may not exist in the same relative location in other systems.
>
>5: Gas Giants have many other exploitable resources besides fuel, and are
>thus more vital assets than cometary belts


        Let's add to the fact that #3 implies that you might have to do a
lot of needle-in-a haystack searching, disperse your fleet more thereby
making it vulnerable to forces suddenly jumping in and attacking.  What's
the average mass and distribution of icy bodies in the Kuiper & Oort?  If
you've gotta spend long & risky amounts of time finding & extracting, it
might make more military sense to charge in head first and go for the inner
system.

*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| Roderick D. Elliott... rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca              |
|                        elliot_r@lsa.lan.mcgill.ca           |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| "...an imperfect plan implemented immediately and violently |
| will always succeed better than a perfect plan."            |
|                        -Gen. George S. Patton.              |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 09:54:48 -0600
From: John Kovalic <muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com>
Subject: Re: T4 Review In Pyramid Magazine

"Rich Ostorero" <stormhvn@inreach.com>
>Ish 22 of Pyramid magazine (SJ Games) has selected T4 as a "Pyramid Pick"
>- -- that is, the mag reviews the game. Given that Pyramid does but a few
>reviews, this is quite an honor for Our Favorite game.
>
>The review was pretty much dead-on. He liked the Foss art and thought the
>system was okay. . . but he gave the book a big down-check on editing, etc.
>This reviewer is a Trav Fan(tm) from The Three Black Books Era, so I got
>the impression that this is as about as friendly a review as T4 is going to
>get.

Hey, Rich,

I do a lot of work for Pyramid ("Murphy's Rules, among other things), and
was originally assigned the review to write. It caused me a great deal of
pain, but I told my editor (Scott Haring) that I couldn't recommend T4 as a
Pyramid pick due to in small part to its typos, but mostly because of the
missing information (Tables, and so on, you know the story...) I said that
I thought we should wait for a second printing, to make sure most of the
obvious mistakes were corrected.

The fact that the reviewer didn't even mention the missing info, didn't
mention gameplay, and just mentioned on "a few" typos, led me to suspect
that he hadn't actually played the game. (A phenomenon quite common in
Gaming reviews, I'm afraid).

John "Another Trav Fan(tm) from The Three Black Books Era" Kovalic

PS. For those of you who get "Shadis," I just started a new monthly comic
strip - "Dorl Tower" - this month.



********************************************************
           "This must be Thursday. I never COULD get the hang of Thursdays"
                                                     - Arthur Dent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*                                 "Wild Life": a Web comic --
*
*              MUSKRAT CENTRAL: http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/muskrat/
*
********************************************************

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

Date: 13 Dec 1996 15:58:35 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Subject: RCA Names Required

My imagination is flagging, and I need a whole pile of names and characters. 
Thus, I throw out the following for your consideration:

I'll be running a Reformation Coalition game in Toronto over the Christmas
vacation.  Part of this game will involve political maneuverings in the
Assembly.  To make this realistic, I need to have LOTS of politicians, aids,
and so forth.  While many can be little more than a name and description, the
more influencial ones will need to be detailed.  I don't have the time to do
a good job of this, and besides I don't have the imaginaion to do a good job
quickly (ie. after a few most will end up being similar - this has happened
before).

I plan on writing this up as an adventure (probably for TTC).  If you send me
a character, you will receive full credit.  

What I need are name, description (physical and personality), important
assets, goals, motivations, personal history, catch-phrases, and the like.  

To avoid clogging the list (and ruining the surprise of my players), please
post these to me (rob_prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca).  I will upload them
after the game, along with a _short_ account of what happened (written like
one of the old DGP adventures).

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

Date: 13 Dec 1996 16:05:08 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Subject: Re: Re: Future look & feel of T4 products

>I thought the SOM was an incredible game aid.

Me too.  Of the two books (both of which I contributed to), I much prefer
SOM.  Mind you, Given the choice of only one of SOM and, say, Traders &
Gunboats, I think that a T&G-style supplement should have higher priority.

Which is to say, Starships was the right choice of product, however much I
don't like the way it was done.  

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 09:35:17 -0600 (CST)
From: Bolie Williams IV <bolie@io.com>
Subject: Re: Fuel Shoveling

On Fri, 13 Dec 1996, William F. Hostman wrote:
> Moons with rocky bodies, rings with some rocky material, Sulfur, wildly
> variable magnetic fields (which can generate power...) possibly some
> life-bearing moons (Chemosynthetics come to mind, also the possible
> magnetosynthesys?)

All true, though you can find many of these things in various planets.

> As for hull friction "Igniting" the gasses... Fire needs OXYGEN.. Something
> notably lacking as a free element in what little we know of GG's. Magnetic
> scooping into physical ramscoops should work.

Combustion does need oxygen or some oxidizer.  However, a ship coming
through an atmosphere at orbital velocities will quickly be surrounded
by superheated gasses which will probably form a nice plasma shell around
it, much like the Shuttle or a meteor.

> Also, I normally describe "Normal" scooping as flying rather slow (if not
> just wafting down) into the methan and amonia layers, opening the scoops,
> and slowly flying through the clouds, and letting the pumps compress the
> materials into the tanks.

I guess you could do this with contragravity, though the atmosphere of a
gas giant is going to have incredibly high winds, nasty storms, high
pressures if you go down very far, and high gravity.  I'm sure you could
do it, but it's going to be somewhat dangerous.

> Cometary bodies need to be bronken into chunks, put where they can be
> melted into a liquid state, and fed to the fuel scooping system, or at
> least the purifiers. Have fun with pick, shovel, and micro-gravity.

You could use a scoop to scoop these up, too.  Or just pull up next to
it.  As far as melting them, just use heat from the powerplant or drive
to melt them down.

I don't necessarily think that scooping up bits of comets, etc... is
better than scooping from a gas giant, I just am not convinced that
it's worse...

Bolie IV


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bolie Williams IV
bolie@io.com
http://www.io.com/~bolie/

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

Date: 13 Dec 1996 16:16:47 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Subject: Starship Suggestion

What with all the whinging about Starships (myself included), I would like to
suggest a positive course of action:

A good starship needs several things:

1) the statistics
2) a deckplan
3) a description
4) a crew roster
5) an exterior drawing
6) a Brilliant Lances counter* (optional)
7) some adventure hooks or suggested uses

* Even if you don't use Brilliant Lances, having a counter of some sort for
when you want to game a battle involving several ships is nice.

There are people here who like designing ships.  There are people who are
good at writing.  There are people who are good at art and drawing.  And
there are people with web sites.

By now you've guessed where I'm heading.  If we can link up and produce some
really good detailed ships, the game will be better for all of us.

To avoid problems with rule editions, I'd like to suggest that _all_ rules
sets and eras be supported.  Thus, if I design a TNE ship for the Reformation
Coalition, I also include T4 stats so someone who uses T4 rules in the
Coalition can use it.  (If I can't convert to T4, I'm certain someone on the
list could do it for me.)  

As to deck plans, I've decided that the missing grid in Starships wasn't so
bad.  Judging by my email, you lot are pretty evenly split between scales
(1.5m or 2m squares) and how to mark them (full gridlines, corners dots,
centre dots...), so having at least one copy with _no_ markings ensures that
the individual referee can use the plans (by drawing on the marking of their
choice).

Thoughts?

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 08:34:31 -0800
From: Jeff Cornish <jcornish@appiantech.com>
Subject: RE: ThrustPlates and such

This sounds much like the electric field and magnetic field which
Maxwell united with his theory of Electromagnetism.  

I'd recommend the book Michio Kaku's Hyperspace - "A Scientific Odyssey
Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps and the Tenth Dimension."  It has
some excellent insights into 'how it all fits together.'

I actually corresponded with Dr. Kaku about the subject of 'ZPF/Inertial
suppression' -- one theory that has been proposed says that inertia is
caused by the vaccuum fluctuations around matter--that the ZPF 'resists'
the motion of an object in the local frame of reference.  Dr. Kaku
pointed out some flaws with that theory.

I also got to confound a 'Starship Design' panel at NorWesCon (NW
SciFi/Fantasy Convention here in Washington) last year.  Actually there
was one member of the Panel who knew what the heck I was talking about.
Dr. Robert Forward said 'I think I know what this gentleman is refering
to.'  

It turns out that he'd recently completed some consulting for the US Air
Force on this very subject.  He found from some research that was done
(at Stanford(?) where a beam of  electrons were fired out of an
accelerator through a high intensity magnetic field and a high power
laser beam) that the reduction in mass was on the order of 10^-6, or in
the range of experimental error-- i.e. little or no effect.

Jeffrey


>----------
>From: 	Craig Berry[SMTP:cberry@cinenet.net]
>Sent: 	Thursday, December 12, 1996 5:54 PM
>To: 	traveller@MPGN.COM
>Subject: 	Re: ThrustPlates and such
>
>> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 15:24:57 -0800
>> From: Glenn Hoppe <starcity@eagle.wbm.ca>
>> 
>> So then, if inertia is a property of mass, and dampeners *don't* reduce
>> the mass of an object, then what the heck do they do? How do you dampen
>> inertia without affecting mass? I'm having trouble handwaving that one.
>
>That's one of the Big Questions.  When you come right down to it, "mass"
>is defined by two properties:
>
>1) Resists acceleration ("inertial mass")
>2) Creates gravity ("gravitational mass")
>
>The cool/weird thing is, while the two correlate exactly in every known
>experiment, nobody has produced a theoretical basis for their always being
>the same.
>
>In other words, if you decrease both the gravitation and the inertia of an
>object, you've de facto reduced its mass.  If you reduce just one of the
>above, you break the (current) definition of mass; we'd need new technical
>vocabulary to talk about what had happened.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
> --*--    Home Page: http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
>   |      Member of The HTML Writers Guild: http://www.hwg.org/   
>       "Every man and every woman is a star."
>
>

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 09:08:13 -0800
From: bmac@astro.ucla.edu (Bruce Alan Macintosh)
Subject: re: Imperium Games, Starships, future products

A couple more comments:

- -inconsistencies throughout the books. Are T-plates TL-12 or TL-11, for
example? (This is a pretty fundamental one - there's a 50/50 chance that
any TL-11 starship a player/ref designs will be completely wrong.) 
One gets the feeling that there's no one putting much effort into 
going through the books to make sure that they *do* agree with each other, and
produce the results that Milleu 0 wants. (Maybe that's wrong - how much
input does Marc have into each project?) Still, fundamental technology 
decisions get made by the authors of each individual product. (For example:
Greg Porter set the minimum size for thruster plates at 10 m3. (I bet
"Starships" doesn't reflect this, btw.) That number affects how practical it
is to design vehicles with Greg's system...but it also affects how practical
it is to design ultra-high-velocity thruster-powered kinetic kill missiles
that can destroy large starships in a single hit. Personally I think it
should have been 14m3, which makes it much harder to design KKM death-missiles.
It's not a big deal, and it's ultimately Greg's call, and I don't think we 
should worry about changing it, but *somebody* at a higher level - presumably
Marc - should be thinking at least a little about how these technology 
issues fit together.

- -insufficient Milleu 0 information to run a campaign in the main rulebook

- -starship combat system in T4 main rulebook doesn't work well (see the
Role Playing Combat System put together by people on this list for a better
alternative, even for non-gearheads.) (Gearheads want Brilliant Lances
back.)


- -Find out how much the Foss art added to the cost of (say) Starships.
If it only added a dollar, it's a nuisance. If it added (say) $5, it wasn't
worth it.

Bruce

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 12:09:17 -0500
From: TPeterAZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: Roller Coasters in the 57th Century

In a message dated 96-12-13 02:37:14 EST, Marc Miller wrote:

> I'll cast my bet for "Eight Flags over Sylea":
>  
>  > 	Pre-Contact "United Nations" -type flag  (Assuming the Sylean race,
like
>  the Solomani, tended towards balkanization in their early, pre-starflight
>  history)
>  >    Sylean multi-world government (After jump drive acquired from Vilani
>  traders)
>  >  	Vilani Ziru Sirka
>  >  	Solomani Rule of Man            (-2204 to -1776 or so)
>  >  	Independent world in Long Night (-1776 to - 650 or so)
>  >  	Sylean Federation                (-650 thru   0)
>  >  	Third Imperium                      (0 and on)
>  
>        Ancient Banner... Syleans are a minor race, presumably put there by 
> the
>  Ancients.
>  
>  
>  Marc Miller
>  
>  

I think we have a winner.


Tim Peter
<TPeterAZ@aol.com>
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, Ignorance."--- Socrates

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 12:09:22 -0500
From: TPeterAZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: Cost of Starship Passage

In a message dated 96-12-13 08:42:39 EST, David Jaques-Watson wrote:

> BTW, *you* are the DM! You say what goes. If you don't like something,
>  change it! For example, with passage costs:
>  1.	Use the exchange rates to change the price.
>  2.	Roll on the brokerage tables (or some local version specifically for
>  passages) to increase/decrease the price. The PC's get DM's for Broker, or
>  Liaison, or Carousing (whatever seems appropriate at the time!)
>  3.	Heck, make up your own rules, such as have different ratings for 
> starships:

I do it all the time.  I used to use a ship, the "Aulimpia Nuun," (cheesy
sounding name, I know;  I was fifteen when I created it) a whomping luxury
liner that charged Cr 25,000 for High Passage, in several adventures I wrote.
 And the very rich traveled on it frequently, for the status it implied.


Tim Peter
<TPeterAZ@aol.com>
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, Ignorance."--- Socrates

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 12:09:25 -0500
From: TPeterAZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: Starship Suggestion

In a message dated 96-12-13 11:31:36 EST, you write:

> There are people here who like designing ships.  There are people who are
>  good at writing.  There are people who are good at art and drawing.  And
>  there are people with web sites.
>  
>  By now you've guessed where I'm heading.  If we can link up and produce
some
>  really good detailed ships, the game will be better for all of us.
>  
>  To avoid problems with rule editions, I'd like to suggest that _all_ rules
>  sets and eras be supported.  Thus, if I design a TNE ship for the 
> Reformation
>  Coalition, I also include T4 stats so someone who uses T4 rules in the
>  Coalition can use it.  (If I can't convert to T4, I'm certain someone on
the
>  list could do it for me.)  
>  
>  As to deck plans, I've decided that the missing grid in Starships wasn't
so
>  bad.  Judging by my email, you lot are pretty evenly split between scales
>  (1.5m or 2m squares) and how to mark them (full gridlines, corners dots,
>  centre dots...), so having at least one copy with _no_ markings ensures
that
>  the individual referee can use the plans (by drawing on the marking of
their
>  choice).
>  
>  Thoughts?
>  

I love this idea.  (Hell, I thought this was the main purpose of this list
when I joined).  I will be happy to post my designs, and would be more than
happy to write, or edit, backstory for anyone else designs, if they feel they
are unable.  Alas, I am not so great at drawing deckplans (probably why I
love others so much), and have no software to produce them on my computer
anyway, so I would gladly let someone else (who IS good at that sort of
thing) do it.  Sign me up, Rob.  I'm in.

Tim Peter
<TPeterAZ@aol.com>
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, Ignorance."--- Socrates

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 12:09:26 -0500
From: TPeterAZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: Joe's List

In a message dated 96-12-13 06:00:49 EST, William F. Hostman wrote:

> Having a sense of hard SciFi, without preventing the epics storyline
>          and being above all, believable, distant but reconizeable, and
>          humanocentric, but not to the point of xenophobia. Gadgets and
Ships
>          form a backdrop, and people are at the heart; but forethought and 
> good
>          tech will win out over just forethought or just tech.
>          People trying to make a buck, a difficult climb to attain any
>          worthwile goals. SLOW growth of characters, but steady growth.
>          Aliens are people too, *different* people, but people none the
less.
>          Exploration of both the universe and the soul!
>  
>  And that's Traveller to me!
>  
>  William F. Hostman


Amen, Brother William.  (I hate these "Me too, man" posts, so now I have to
think of something else to say...hm).

Oh, I got one!  What would happen if you accelerated a small meteorite to say
0.1C... ;-)

Tim Peter
<TPeterAZ@aol.com>
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, Ignorance."--- Socrates

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

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 12:32:34 -0500
From: Michael Nutt <misha@crossrds.com>
Subject: Re: IG, Starships, future products

>Anyway, here's my outline.  Feel free to add items to it.  I'll compile 
>all the *reasonable* suggestions, and send it along to Courtney (again, 
>with explanatory text).

<grin> Well, here's *my* two cents worth....

>I)  T4 Main Rulebook
>
>    A)  Editing
>        1) Grammar
>        2) Typographical errors
>        3) Errata - missing tables, incorrect values given, etc.

These are *essential*. Nothing ticks me off so much as having to go through
and fix a bunch of mistakes in a product. OK, nobody's perfect, I'll
admit... but more time needs to be spent on editing. I also don't mind, and
even rather *like*, well-done sidebars.

>    B)  Task System
>        1)  Number of dice rolled at each level (esp. upper end)
>        2)  Figuring target numbers (overemphasis on attributes)

I like the "KB v. 1.1" fix, myself. It's simple, and easy to add in. I'm
using it already.
  
>    C)  Art
>        1)  Use original art.  It doesn't have to conform to previous
>            editions of Traveller, but it should be original and 
>            recognizably "Travelleresque."

I'll join the crowd here, and say that the DGP stuff was an excellent
example. I *do* like the way the T4 rulebook gives the art a full page,
rather than interspersing pictures all through it. I *don't* really want to
pay more for color plates in my RPG books, though.

>II)  Starships
>
>     A)  Editing
>         1)  Grammar and sentence structure
>         2)  Typos

As above... and go through *checking* all your cross-references! Make sure
that you don't have to on a quest to find a reference in some other book...
put all pertinent data together! I ought to be able to find all the rules
about a starship in the book called "Starships". If that means you have to
skip the deck plans for a light fighter in order to have room, well, we'll
just have to suck it up and deal with it, won't we?   :)

>     B)  Deck Plans
>         1)  Blank space - all interior hull space should be used
>         2)  Interior structures should be drawn according to the design
>             system's specifications
>         3)  Use grid lines

Yes!!! These deck plans are *awful*, and they *sure* aren't worth all the
space given over to them. Also, do we really *need* a deck plan for light
fighter, or a rescue ball? And if all I'm going to get for the deck plans on
a "luxury liner" is something that tells me roughly what deck things are on,
I'd rather have the space used for something else.

>     C)  Ship Designs
>         1)  Include a listing of the crew positions

Heartfelt agreement. Actually, enough data should be given about the ship to
go through and "reverse-engineer" it from the SSDS.

Frankly, I think a lot of the worthless pages of deckplans should have been
taken out, and a complete example of designing a ship should have been put
in, just so that new players, and folks who aren't familiar with the FF&S
design sequence, could go through it more comfortably.

>     D)  Art
>         1)  Use original art
>         2)  Use less of it, or use smaller pictures

The B&W art is, IMHO, not too terrible, but it wouldn't have hurt it to be
compressed somewhat to fit in the extra ship data mentioned above. And,
folks, I know this may get me flamed, but some of the Foss stuff, even the
color plates, is damned good... see p. 82 of Starships for my favorite
piece. Yes, other pieces remind me more of Judge Dredd than Traveller,
but... Also, as I said above, I don't want to pay extra for color plates in
the rulebook, *especially* ones inserted in the middle of the design tables,
so I have to flip past them every damn time I'm designing a ship, over and
over...

>     E)  Background
>         1)  Include more on the operation of starships

I *love* background. If it strikes me as "incongruent", I'll drop it, but
the "Starship Operator's Manual" by DGP was, IMNSHO, the best damn Traveller
supplement ever made. 'Nuff said.

>     F)  Personalities 
>         1)  Include a small sketch of each individual
>         2)  Write them at a higher level of education

Leave 'em *out* of a book like this. Put them in a supplement focusing on
NPCs, or as an appendix to the main rulebook. I want all my prospective NPCs
in the same place, so I don't have to go digging through eleventeen
different books looking for that Marine Captain....

>     G)  Ship Design
>         1)  Include provisions for ship hulls above 5,000 tons.
>             A) Perhaps go by thousands between 1,000 and 10,000.
>             B) Then go by ten thousands between 10,000 and 100,000.

I'd only add to this specs for 15K, 25K, 35K, and 45K... above that, 10K
increments are fine with me.

Shipping and charges stuff snipped because, as a result of all the past
errors, I just won't buy it until it comes to my FLGS. Too many folks have
been burned ordering direct from IG. (Plus my FLGS knocks 15% off the cover
price for new stuff... <g>)

>V)   Future Products
>
>     A)  Just show a little fore-thought.
>         1)  Examine previous Traveller products that offer similar 
>             design elements as the product you're designing.
>         2)  Use original art.
>         3)  Keep the useful content (i.e., not the art) high, sacrificing
>             art if necessary.
>         4)  Make absolutely certain to find as many typos, grammatical 
>             errors, and rules errors as possible before printing the 
>             product.

I'd like to emphasize point 3) here... frankly, IMO, Starships could have
been cut down to a 64 page book selling for $8.95 for what we actually
*got*. More editing, and just more *stuff* will make me a lot more likely to
spend more money on IG products in the future.

Michael

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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #751
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